When, as happened in 2004, certain citizens of the middle and lower middle classes voted against those who promised them Other People’s Money, that part of the commentariat approving of government-managed property redistribution sneered that the yabbos were “voting against their own interest.” After all, if you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul, you’ve every right to expect Paul’s support. If it weren’t for all that bitter clinging.
Pace Marx and Engels though, not every interest is economic. Some people think that guns are scary and are appalled at those who disagree. Others kneel at the altar of the public school, some of them willing to go so far as to sacrifice actual children upon that altar rather than see services moved out of doors. A noble intent that no individual should be oppressed or disfavored based on such inherent and immutable characteristics as race, origin or gender has been transmogrified into a system of shifting coalitions – grievance stoking identity groups muscling around the trough of political spoils and demanding of their constituents a kind of self-abnegation. What had once been an effort to secure individual liberty has become instead a demand for individual submersion of conscience and identity into an undifferentiated mass. For the Greater Good.
Heretics will be burned.
Finally (although the list is by no means exhaustive, leaving off for now those animal ethicists who believe their own preferences of diet and dress ought to be more generally compulsory), there are those who share either a predisposition or a preference for privately placing their wedding tackle in unconventional receptacles and who insist not merely upon a general tolerance but also as it were a kind of universal approbation of those predilections. Even from those who, for whatever reason, find talking of such things off-putting, and going so far as to demand a fundamental restructuring of a societal building block that has been in place for millennia. Let’s see what happens next and call it “progress.”
Only, a curious realignment may be taking place in that most progressive and tolerant of countries:
Dutch Gays Prefer Conservative to Leftwing Parties
If only homosexuals were to vote, Proud of the Netherlands (TON) would be the biggest party in the Lower House. Conservative parties are more favoured among them than progressive ones, a poll by TV programme NOVA reveals.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned, but the Dutch are ever-so-much closer to the fire this time. It is interesting to see what happens when the preferential and the existential are intertwined – it seems Dutch gays prefer not to be chased, beaten and stabbed to death by culturally antagonistic aliens.
That’s voting your interest.
Perhaps the smarter folks who know what is self-interest for others, or not, might examine their premise.
No, that has a touch of heresy to it, the premise is a given.
It’s worth noting that in the Netherlands, gay marriage is legal and accepted.
It’s not that surprising that when the conservative parties don’t feel the need to use government bureaucracy to regulate love, gays are willing to vote for them.
It was a startling discovery for me in college to find that a majority of my musical male friends (most of whom were gay) voted for GHW Bush.
“Other peoples money”
I know what that is. I recently met Mr. A.M.T.
Simple thieves.
b2
Pubic school…? Sign me up!
[...] takes on American exceptionalism, are manifestly signs of mental derangement and base stupidity. Neptunus Lex has a thoughtful take on precisely what voting for ones interest does mean to the average American (or panicked Dutch gay [...]
I used to say that I was so poor that I had no interest, so I might as well vote my conscience.
Now that I’m pretty old, I have a few more worldly resources, but am aware that I’ll not have a really long time to enjoy them.
‘druther vote my conscience, and expend my resources in service of my conscience, which is my interest, I think.
[...] takes on American exceptionalism, are manifestly signs of mental derangement and base stupidity. Neptunus Lex has a thoughtful take on precisely what voting for ones interest does mean to the average American (or panicked Dutch gay [...]
I don’t vote my economic self-interest.
I vote what I believe is right.
Or the closest to that state, at least.
Here is one Dane’s take on the US elections:
“”We in Denmark cannot figure out why you are even bothering to hold an election.
On one side, you have a bitch who is a lawyer, married to a lawyer, or, a lawyer who is married to a bitch who is a lawyer.
On the other side, you have a true war hero married to a woman with a huge chest who owns a beer distributorship.
Is there a contest here?”
b2
Hey B2, saw that same take over at John of Argghhh’s site…except that the war hero in that take was married to a ” good looking woman with big gazongas” … I like it…I really like it…it has a much better feel to it… verdad??…you plagerizing, no hat tipping… Pecker-Wood. Best