sorry, socialism is not part of my vocabulary. you will never see that word in anything I write. it is merely a word some people choose to use.

as for having an opinion, I still cannot see how you have one if you do not interact with the world around you, including listening to other people. you have to get ideas from somewhere.

I appreciate the thoughts offered on the environment by 2050 as some have given me food for thought

Dear Chris Lewis,

You wrote; "sorry, socialism is not part of my vocabulary. you will never see that word in anything I write. it is merely a word some people choose to use."

Too late, you just used it.

Not only that you have used it before.

"I do not believe that socialism can work to deliver the optimal society."
Posted by Chris Lewis, Wednesday, 26 February 2014 11:18:54 PM

Do the terms social democracy or social democrat offend you too? If you do then how do you make the distinctions between the political values of the political parties of Costa Rica and the US and how they impact on the environmental sustainability of each?

yes, but I never support the word. don't believe in socialism or social democracy.

liberal democracy all the way for me, albeit there are a range of obvious differences between them.

whether Aust or the US move to the left or not, they are still liberal democracies

here is an article on cost rica's liberal democracy

https://northcarolina.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5149/9781469616193_Peeler/upso-9780807841532-chapter-3

Dear Chris,

«as for having an opinion, I still cannot see how you have one if you do not interact with the world around you, including listening to other people. you have to get ideas from somewhere.»

While in theory exceptions are possible (such as God opining "creating a new world would be nice", but we need not dwell on that), I generally agree with your statement.

However, even if you interact with the world around you, you do not need to interact with other people's opinions (and technically you cannot do so anyway because you can only listen to what they say, not to what they think). There is so much more to reality from which one can draw ideas, other than from second-hand opinions.

Had everyone based their opinions on other people's opinion (except Eve who based her opinion on the snake's words), then we just all end up with a long mental virus.

You may find the following interesting - how one can learn all kinds of ideas from nature (earth, air, sky, pigeon, etc.) rather than from copying other people's ideas: http://thesomathread.com/2016/09/11/the-24-teachers-of-dattatreya/

Dear Chris Lewis,

Come on mate, have you really studied this stuff?

You say you don't believe in social democracy.

This is Wikipedia's definition;

“Social democracy is a political, social and economic philosophy that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal democratic polity and a capitalist-oriented economy.”

Why in the hell don't you believe in it? A philosophy which humanises capitalism and constrains its excesses yet you won't have a bar of it?

Of the political parties in the current Costa Rica parliament the National Liberation Party and the Citizens' Action Party which make up the majority and both have Social Democracy as a pivotal part of their ideology. Third on the list is the Broad Front which is listed as ideologically Green, Progressivism, Humanism, and 21st century socialism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Costa_Rica

This Social Democratic ideology has helped create a highly stable country with excellent health, education and environmental policies. Certainly a standout for its region if not the world. Why do you find such ideology problematic? Perhaps you need to brush up what you were taught at Monash.

Your link is paywalled but if you wanted to post some of it I'm happy to respond.