by clicking on this video and watching it all the way through you are proving you are an open-minded person with the discipline to listen interested in education and tolerant of other people's beliefs thank you let's start off by drawing a simple horizontal line above that line we are going to put what might be a new word authoritarian this word may sound bad but it simply means someone who is in favor of the use of strong central power to preserve the political status qu in other words it's som
eone who's in favor of government oversight of a particular idea for instance if you are in favor of governmental enforcements of speed limits in public school zones then you have an authoritarian stance regarding those matters authoritarians are usually seen as the bad guys in movies who want complete control of the government but if we break down our beliefs to individual problems such as speed limits in school zones we can see that being authoritarian in certain instances is at least understa
ndable a good quote from Robert Anton Wilson says the individual Act of obedience is the Cornerstone not only of the strength of authoritarian Society but also its weakness underneath the line of authoritarian we're going to learn another word this time we're going to discuss libertarian a Libertarian is someone who seeks to maximize autonomy and political freedom in other words it's a person who wants to see less or no government oversight of a particular area an example of a Libertarian stance
would be someone who believes in an individual's right to homeschool their children instead of placing them into a public school system Libertarians are typically seen as the heroes in movies who overthrow their oppressive governments they are the opposite of an authoritarian who wants more government control in a particular area Thomas Payne once said the duty of a true patriot is to protect his country from its government what you'll start to realize as we continue is that there isn't one sin
gle belief system that is best in every single area those who think their side is always right are extremists now we're going to set aside the authoritarian and libertarian for a moment and focus on left and right we'll draw another line right down the middle to separate these ideas first we have the political left those who are left on the political Spectrum have a belief in society their focus tends to be on culture and societal issues as a whole in other words it's the belief that when a part
icular issue arises that issue can be resolved through a change in government culture or societal means as opposed to placing blame on one particular person those on the left tend to view things such as poverty racism homelessness as a systemic issue rather than an individual's poor choices Peter Singer has a good quote which says if we shrug our shoulders at the avoidable suffering of the weak and the poor of those who are getting exploited and ripped off we are not the left now let's focus on
right-wing Politics the right is seen as the opposite of the left because of their focus where the left focuses on systemic values and cultural issues the right focuses on the individual for instance those on the right believe that homelessness is largely due to the fault of the individual and their personal choices rather than a particular law race or any other issue the right places priority on the individual rather than society as a whole there's a good quote from a Rand saying the smallest m
inority on Earth is the individual those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be Defenders of minorities now let's briefly go over centrists and why they aren't as perfect as you may think a Centrist is is a person who focuses on balance between left and right and between authoritarian and libertarian this focus is not on right or wrong but on the extremes morality isn't the focus of a Centrist they simply try to counterbalance which ever way their country happens to be leaning they're see
n as the rebels Without a Cause rather than a focus on right or wrong a Centrist focuses on political extremes and Now ladies and gentlemen Mr Conway Twitty [Applause] [Music] let me give you an actual scenario to better understand this method of viewing politics we'll use abortion and homelessness as an example if I believe that abortion should be none of the government's business then that is a Libertarian stance if I believe that the fetus was not my personal choice then I have taken a left-w
ing stance put all of this together and that would be considered a lib stance on abortion if I believe that homelessness is an individual's fault from making bad decisions then I'm taking a right-wing stance if I believe that government interference with free social programs will encourage that person not to work and to be reliant on government handouts than I have taken a Libertarian stance put that all together and that would be a li right stance on homelessness these categories aren't perfect
but they're a great way for a person to get acquainted with the issues and to realize that there's always more to an issue than what someone on a particular side will want you to believe with that being said thank you for listening and thank you for showing your interest in learning
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