Hasbeen you understand don't you, that quite a lot of your post do what you charge me with?
Now Trump do not be naive mate
Millions, even in his own country think just like I do about him
And please! my last post was self defense, it aimed at your side branding my side of the debate EXACTLY in the style you charged me with
YOU HAVE BEEN CONNED Trump will fall,he almost surely will face courts over his business dealings and crimes in office, once he no longer holds the job
We owe him this *he enforced the view relying on America PTY LTD for our defense is unwise*

Dear o sung wu,

We have different opinions but consider this. A person’s religion, political attitudes, country, occupation and other attributes that define them are most likely the same as that of their parents or family. Cops generally have a relation who is a cop. Professors generally have a relation who is a professor. We can’t determine who our parents are. We can’t determine much of anything, but we can be aware that our identity is largely a matter of chance. I honestly think Donald Trump is the worst president the United States has had and have given reasons for that opinion. Earlier this month my two sons visited me, and I found that they had the same opinion of Trump that I have.

However, if my sons, instead of being the sons of their mother and me, were the sons of someone who supported Trump they very likely would have supported Trump and found good reasons for doing so.

This is where philosophy comes in. What happens to us is largely beyond our control. What is under our control? What is under our control is our attitude to the things that happen to us. That is the essence of the philosophy called Stoicism. To me it makes more sense than any religion. One thing not under our control is death. We know we are all going to die. We can face it rather than believing in nonsense like life after death. We can know that other human beings are in the same boat as us. We can feel sympathy for humans with other opinions from ours. Their identity and the opinions derived from that identity are also a matter of chance.

Anyhow that is what I was thinking when I wrote the post to runner. We have very different opinions, but our opinions are formed by a lot of things which are not under our control. There is no virtue in any political opinion.

Hi there DAVID F...Thank you for persevering with my lack of scholarly opinion. You're right, most of us undoubtedly follow the politics of our parents, irrespective of what our own beliefs might be?

I'm not altogether sure about philosophy though. Coming from very much a lower middle-class family, philosophy itself was rarely even spoken of, little known nor understood. I guess our western upbringing may have had elements of philosophy contained in it, in terms of our belief system, not religious beliefs specifically. Such as obeying our order of law, and the way our political structures are made up, and the many things that denote our form of Aussie culture.

Interestingly DAVID F. I studied one semester of a BA degree, at the Uni. of New England, back 1979. And the first topic was Philosophy, and one of the most important texts that need studying was Bertrand RUSSELL'S 'A History of Western Philosophy'. I found the book utterly fascinating until I found out you didn't just read it, but you had to provide commentary on one or two select chapters even a section or two. That's when I found out University was not for someone with my stunted brain!

Thank's again DAVID F. for once again, taking the time and energy to explain in plain language the essence of your many arguments. I do appreciate it.

David F said- Their identity and the opinions derived from that identity are also a matter of chance.

Answer- Ayn Rand said that our material environment is created by human thought- this is not chance. Opinions can be a matter of choice- but it requires investigating the underlying influences on these opinions. It is a painful self reflective process.

As the environment becomes more complex it involves more randomness- human thought can reduce or increase it- it's our great and terrible power to destroy... or create.

There is value and wisdom in the communities of our ancestors- though some seek to deny it for their own individual power. Every culture needs their own nation.

Like the destruction of the cultivated Chinese by the Mongols the West stands to be destroyed by similar hordes. The stabilizing principles of the West and our families subsumed for a thousand years to be reborn- as something less than the unbroken links of our ancestors.
This "chance" represents a thousand years of blood.

Just some thoughts

"Like the destruction of the cultivated Chinese by the Mongols the West stands to be destroyed by similar hordes. The stabilizing principles of the West and our families subsumed for a thousand years to be reborn- as something less than the unbroken links of our ancestors."

It's a matter of chance whether one was born a cultivated Chinese or a Mongol.

I don't see it that way. But it does provoke some thought.