History always favours liberals

[LiberteToujours]

I can't think of one event since the beginning of recorded history that casts conservatives in a positive light. So no matter how bad things seems, remember, we will come out of it, and history will vindicate us.

[fujiyama]

1. Yeah but I don't care about history

I want the present and the future.

As the nutcase himself said, "History? We'll all be dead"

[ladjf]

2. The Catholic Inquisition lasted for about 800 years.

I don't think that the liberals were too highly regarded during that period.

[St. Jarvitude]

3. I think LT's point is that we always win out

No matter what struggles we have faced, the liberals have always won it out in the end. Change (what we want) is inevitable - the conservatives just try to hold on to the status quo for as long as possible.

[ladjf]

4. I don't disagree with that. My point was that it may take a

loooooong time but, not 800 years.

[regnaD kciN]

8. The OFFICE of the Inquisition lasted for a long time...

...and is still around, but with a new title like "Congregation of the Faith," but that's little more than a practically-unused Vatican administrative department to investigate charges of heresy, should any crop up, or to say nasty things about professors at Catholic-run universities who call for acceptance of birth control (and whose usual response is to call a press conference and announce that they are being persecuted by what used to be known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition ;-) ).

The real "Inquisition" (as in Spain, autos-da-fe, and "nobody expects the...") took place in a relatively short time.

[ladjf]

9. You are correct that the Spanish Inquisition lasted for a much

shorter period. That's why I used the generic term "Inquisition". The tactics seems to have become fully in place maybe as early as the 11th Century. From that time up until the beginning of the Age of Reason, their was no Western political entity to effectively challenge the Church. However, the Protestant Reformation and the rise of several important secular states put a stop to the widespread Inquisitional tactics.

What worries me is that society seems to be attempting to voluntarily allow religious leaders to once again assume control of their lives. This phenomenon needs to be analyzed. Perhaps there are things that could be done to reverse this unwholesome trend.

[jacksonian]

5. perhaps

You know what I feel like?

Like I live in, say, Greece in about the 4-5th century. The flowering of classical thought is bearing fruit, the Platonic and Aristotelian tradition is starting to move toward the establishment of real science.

And then it disappears. In its fight against the paganism of the masses, the new Christianity wins over the political powers with tales of a revived Rome, and the pagans are absorbed or crushed all across the western civilized world. For many in the world, Christianity is probably an improvement over the myriad and fickle deity cults and warlords that were before, it will bring a cultural unity the ancient world never knew.

But that zeal to conquer everything non-Christian also destroyed the intellectual tradition. The threat was clear to the new order, the Hellenistic traditions were wiped out along with the deity cults, libraries burned taking with them much of the learning of the ages. Heresy was to be feared more than rationality was to be embraced. It would be a thousand years before people could discuss Aristotle again, but much of the writings were just lost forever.

I feel like a Neoplatonic philosopher from back then watching it all disappear. History may redeem me, but the present world has gone by. The new Church brings a social cohesion, but after some inter-faith struggles the new social cohesion is distilled into dogma which negates all outside influence, and intellectual thought suffers. A thousand years later Dante is nearly excommunicated for even daring to think about classicism, and another two hundred years after that Galileo was forced to recant his science by a Church still locked in that same battle against paganism.

[ladjf]

10. Good post!

[Bullshot]

6. I'll say it again: The Great Depression was brought on by Republicans.

Three straight Republican adminsitrations--Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, who each had a Republican House and Senate every year of their presidencies.

They all favored a laissez-faire approach to government and business. Coolidge restructured the tax rates to favor the wealthy. Harding's administration was marred by scandal involving oil companies. Hoover was just Hoover.

I think the Great Depression is the biggest reason why the elderly, at least the ones I know, are leary of Republicans. They like their Social Security. They remember what it's like to wonder where your next paycheck will come from.

[ladjf]

11. But, according to the 2004 election stats, the 60+ folks favored

Bush. I don't get it.

[Gin]

7. I predict............By 2008....EVERYONE will want to be a Democrat....

the road will be rough...but in the end..who always comes in for the cleanup? democrats.....even the fundies will need us....so buckle up...its gonna get ugly...but we will survive...and then thrive!

[ladjf]

12. I believe you are predicting that the situations are going to get

much worse, so much so, that the predominance of the Republicans will fold as a result. I agree. The biggest problem about that is that there are certain forms of deterioration that might slide beyond the point of being correctable.