About Blueberry Tech
Gov. Rick Perry once said “Austin is like the blueberry in the tomato soup [of Texas]”. I think this aptly describes anyone from Texas and has political leanings anywhere to the left of … well I can’t say his name in the very first post can I?
On a single axis political alignment, most people would call me a “pinko-communist liberal” but I like to present politics as a two axis alignment. The x-axis is the traditional left = liberal and right = conservative (or taken to extreme: left = pure communism and right = pure “laissez-faire”). The y-axis represents authoritarianism at the top, or a pure dictatorship, and libertarianism, or pure anarchy, at the bottom. (note: this is little-”L” libertarian, not the big-”L” Libertarian party in the US who are more akin to “Republican-lite”)
Two axis alignment is nice because it allows the separation of economic policy from social policy and represents the positions of a greater variety of people. For example it’s easy to say that Stalin was a pure communist, but that doesn’t tell the full story. Stalin would fall very close to the top left corner of the grid because not only did he believe in pure communism as an economic policy, he was a dictator in terms of social policy.
It’s also important to realize political alignment in my blog is represented on a global scale. American Republicans and Democrats are both situated in the upper right quadrant of our grid, probably two-thirds of the way between the center and the top, and then two-thirds from the center to the right. The generic Democrat is barely to the left of the generic Republican. By contrast most western European countries are somewhat authoritarian (above the X axis) and very close to center, some being center-right and others being center-left. We Americans often speak of “socialism” but there are no true communists and very few socialists governments in the world today.
I personally fall into the libertarian left (see the red dot above). I’m close to center on the social scale but I tend to move around a bit depending on the question (Check out The Political Compass to take your own test) and to the left economically. I think people on the libertarian left are pragmatists above all else. I personally like capitalism because it has benefited me greatly, however I realize that regulation is a necessary evil because not everyone acts altruistically. I don’t particularly like paying taxes, but I do like smooth roads, clean air and protection from marauders, so thus I pay them because I understand that things cost money and I won’t work for free so neither should anyone else.
I believe that in society everyone has a degree of personal responsibility, but at the same time I recognize that inequality exists and understand that capitalism alone isn’t equipped to deal with it. I also believe that human-beings have intrinsic value beyond their economic output. Some people simply don’t have the ability to be more than a blue-collar laborer, or even a fast-food worker, but even in those cases those people deserve to be able to eat and have shelter and not be crushed by debt if they happen to get sick.
Finally, I believe freedom is more than just the freedom to go out and make millions of one’s proverbial lemonade stand. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” isn’t just about working yourself to the bone to buy a bigger boat than the guy down the street. True freedom is the freedom from economic strife caused by natural disasters or personal health crises or even the circumstances of one’s birth. It’s security of basic necessity, food, water and shelter. In the richest country on earth, that shouldn’t be so difficult.
I want this blog to be about practical things in politics, technology, management (since I’m a manager), and life in general. From a person who believes in the value of people, even among those who disagree with me. Perhaps a few readers will even find some common ground. Welcome to Blueberry Tech.
