Democracy or socialism?
One of the things that I have always wondered about Liberal Left Wingers, is do they really support Democracy and individuals right to express whatever they want so long as its not defamatory? In Adelaide, and Australia in general, the leading Left Wing Liberal youth group is called Resistance.
http://www.resistance.org.au/
They will claim to support and back democracy and freedom of expression to the hilt. But at the same time they wish to curb freedom of speech of the centre, conservative-right and radical right. They also wish to outlaw just about every one of these parties.
They are also the same group of people who come down to meetings of the Young Liberals, Young Nationals and Family First Society at uni and throw eggs at us as we exit the building and break into the lecture theatres when we have guest speakers. They when we retaliate by writing negatively about them in the Liberal newsletter, The Reporter, they complain that we're slandering and it shouldnt be allowed.
When, as a coalition of conservative students at university emailed the Resistance team, we recieved a half page reply to the Liberal president, Pat Giam full of expletives and calling conservative students f**ksticks and calling former president Xavier Wintersfield a "Rude son of a bitch".
There is no way of proving all of this to any of you, whether we're right or wrong. Nor do I expect any of you to judge (or even comment on) the behaviour of Resistance based on my probably biased version of events.
But what is definately the case is that the views of Resistance and the general Australian public (which in general is centrist with very slight left leanings) are so far apart that Resistance's ideas will never be implemented in a democractic Australia.
They frequently cite that Australians would love free education back, free healthcare, more police, no foreign debt and for nobody to be unemployed and therefore they would be the most popular group the country has ever seen. However, they do not cite that to do so would a massive tax rise, probably even imposing a 100% tax rate which would make them widely hated, and nationalising property (which they actively support), which is expressly forbidden under British Commonwealth Law as well as Australian Law.
They commonly cite Cuba as a bastion of their ideals. We all know that Cuba has no socialism, and that its current regime founders, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro were both tyranical murderers who support the destruction of their opponents by violent force but they supported most of Resistance's Ideals.
So that brings me to my question to each and all of you.
Which is more important, the democratic will of society and free speech from all political spectrums on any topic no matter how taboo, or the implementation of unpopular policies which are progressive and good for society as a whole?
My thoughts
Without Democracy and Free Speech a society has nothing and Free Speech should be encouraged, no matter how unpopular or controversial it is.
People should never be gagged on any topic as long as it is not causing defamatory damages. For that reason, we should never ban any political party. Even wacko groups and individuals like Satanists, Ann Coulter or the alarmingly racist Australia First Party should not be barred from giving thier spiels, they should just be bashed with a weapon called rebuttal from their political opposites, or conservative moderates.
Againm if the majority of a country want water fluoridation, we should give them water fluoridation. If the majority of the country wants nuclear technology, we should start researching nuclear technology. Hell, if they want to sing der Horst Wessel Lied while using Blitzkrieg to acquire Aryan Lebensraum across the Russian Steppe then we should start preparing the Wehrmacht for Barbarossa 2006.
Just my thoughts, I look forward to hearing yours.
http://www.resistance.org.au/
They will claim to support and back democracy and freedom of expression to the hilt. But at the same time they wish to curb freedom of speech of the centre, conservative-right and radical right. They also wish to outlaw just about every one of these parties.
They are also the same group of people who come down to meetings of the Young Liberals, Young Nationals and Family First Society at uni and throw eggs at us as we exit the building and break into the lecture theatres when we have guest speakers. They when we retaliate by writing negatively about them in the Liberal newsletter, The Reporter, they complain that we're slandering and it shouldnt be allowed.
When, as a coalition of conservative students at university emailed the Resistance team, we recieved a half page reply to the Liberal president, Pat Giam full of expletives and calling conservative students f**ksticks and calling former president Xavier Wintersfield a "Rude son of a bitch".
There is no way of proving all of this to any of you, whether we're right or wrong. Nor do I expect any of you to judge (or even comment on) the behaviour of Resistance based on my probably biased version of events.
But what is definately the case is that the views of Resistance and the general Australian public (which in general is centrist with very slight left leanings) are so far apart that Resistance's ideas will never be implemented in a democractic Australia.
They frequently cite that Australians would love free education back, free healthcare, more police, no foreign debt and for nobody to be unemployed and therefore they would be the most popular group the country has ever seen. However, they do not cite that to do so would a massive tax rise, probably even imposing a 100% tax rate which would make them widely hated, and nationalising property (which they actively support), which is expressly forbidden under British Commonwealth Law as well as Australian Law.
They commonly cite Cuba as a bastion of their ideals. We all know that Cuba has no socialism, and that its current regime founders, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro were both tyranical murderers who support the destruction of their opponents by violent force but they supported most of Resistance's Ideals.
So that brings me to my question to each and all of you.
Which is more important, the democratic will of society and free speech from all political spectrums on any topic no matter how taboo, or the implementation of unpopular policies which are progressive and good for society as a whole?
My thoughts
Without Democracy and Free Speech a society has nothing and Free Speech should be encouraged, no matter how unpopular or controversial it is.
People should never be gagged on any topic as long as it is not causing defamatory damages. For that reason, we should never ban any political party. Even wacko groups and individuals like Satanists, Ann Coulter or the alarmingly racist Australia First Party should not be barred from giving thier spiels, they should just be bashed with a weapon called rebuttal from their political opposites, or conservative moderates.
Againm if the majority of a country want water fluoridation, we should give them water fluoridation. If the majority of the country wants nuclear technology, we should start researching nuclear technology. Hell, if they want to sing der Horst Wessel Lied while using Blitzkrieg to acquire Aryan Lebensraum across the Russian Steppe then we should start preparing the Wehrmacht for Barbarossa 2006.
Just my thoughts, I look forward to hearing yours.