Thursday, November 22, 2012

Common sense thought of the day


Right wing ideology has traditionally enshrined principles of blind obedience to existing hierarchical structures. To a certain extent, limited authority is inevitable because without it there could be no institutional education or political leadership. But, paradoxically, to what extent does a paradigm of worshipping inequality discredit legitimate societal authorities? After all, historically speaking, there has always been a critical tipping point at which intolerance for authorities who misuse their social influence results in them being ousted from power. In many indigenous cultures, the chief of the village was often the poorest member of their community, because status was measured not by material acquisition of wealth, as would be the pattern for European colonists in later centuries, but by how much a person was able to give away. In this manner every member of these communities was provided for and the conservative notion that "only the imminent possibility of poverty motivates the populace" was noticeably absent within their cultural framework. True leadership is about service, not tyranny.