User:Katana0182

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[edit] Welcome

To katana0182's user page
(User ID: 16042)

incl This editor is an inclusionist.
This user does not understand mean people. Please be nice.



[edit] Bio/Demo Data

[edit] Personal Political Views

Disclaimer: My views are stated in an United States-based context.

  • General: strong liberal (in modern terms; don't confuse my liberalism with so-called "classical liberalism"); anti-coercive; recognizes that coercion comes from both lack of substantive freedom (such as poverty) as well as lack of actual freedom (such as tyranny). Detests rational choice theory as a thin, flimsy patina of justification used to obscure policies that reflect the "rationality" (e.g. amorality) of the psychopath.
  • Constitutional sphere: democratic constitutionalist, supporter of both the living constitution school & the natural legal theory school; and, IMHO, they're not in conflict.
  • Personal sphere: civil libertarian; card-carrying member of the ACLU.
  • Economic sphere: supporter of a market economy, under (small-d) democratic regulation, along with strong social rights (granted by positive law) and benefits, like universal single-payer tax-supported health insurance, social security, employment security, aid to low-income workers and working families, etc. Believes that it should be made clear that the US is a democratic nation that happens to be capitalist, not a capitalist nation that happens to be democratic. I generally have many Keynesian tendencies, and I believe that Keynesianism has been proven to work.
  • International policy sphere: supporter of democratic globalization under the control of elected representatives as opposed to the unelected and unaccountable supranational entities, elites, and corporations that form much of the international order that we have now. To that end, I support a world federation of democracies, to supplement (not supplant) the United Nations, such as the (proposed) United Nations Parliamentary Assembly or a Community of Democracies under conditions of voluntary delegation of sovereignty (and sovereignty only through explicit delegation); defined, limited power; membership limited to electoral democracies; and direct election of representatives by popular vote (perhaps through a combination of constituency and proportional representation). The UNPA/CD or equivalent should exercise democratic control over unaccountable entities such as the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO, as well as setting up a system of international regulation and taxation (with full, complete, and proportionate distribution of revenues to member states) over multinational economic actors.
    Strong supporter of the law of nations.
  • Foreign policy sphere: pragmatic idealist; supporter and believer in US leadership through example, consent, and living up to our ideals, not US leadership through imposition, coercion, and overwhelming firepower; has been strongly against the Iraq War since before it started; has (and continues) to support the liberation of Afghanistan and the *full* (not the on-the-cheap job they're doing now) reconstruction thereof. We should have never been in Iraq; we should never rest until the Taliban are driven from the face of the earth and Afghanistan is rebuilt, no matter the cost.
  • Contrarian positions: I believe in international arms control, but not gun control: disarm government, and arm the people. I support nuclear power, conditioned on strong safety measures, and also support research into fusion power. I support the space program and robotic and eventual human explorations in that area. I'm for peace, in general, but not peace at any price; war is a great evil, but in certain limited circumstances, there are greater evils than war; I believe in self-defense, not aggression.

[edit] Political Figures Admired

[edit] Personal Political Views On the United States

I love my country, and I love it not because of the blind nationalism of the drum-beaters and jingoists of the Right, of the neocons or the historical revisionists. I love my country because I have read our history, of both the virtues and the vices, the good and the evil...and I have found that unlike many other countries, we are founded on an idea of human progress, progress towards a more perfect union, progress towards greater democracy, progress towards greater freedom, progress towards greater equality, progress towards greater justice; and even though we have done a good deal of bad things, made many mistakes, and will continue to do so, we almost always do the right thing in the end, because when our conscience and values are challenged by our actions, we rise to that challenge, and change our actions to reflect our values, by our own choice, by our own convictions, by our own conscience. I don't see many others who do that in the world. Slowly, but certainly, we progress towards the outrageous hopes and deepest dreams of our founders, of human rights, of democracy, of peace, of equality, of liberty under law.

For over 200 years, we have stood before the face of tyranny and prevailed. We revolted against the kings, and created the first democratic state since Antiquity; we made reason triumph over superstition, separating church and state; we fought a civil war to free the slaves, the most bloody in our history; we fought another through nonviolence to ensure their descendants their natural right to equality under the law; we annihilated the Nazi tyranny with fire and the sword, and brought its murderers to justice in a fair trial at Nuremberg, exercising, for the first time, universal jurisdiction to enforce human rights; we held the line against the “communist” USSR until its own people and the people of the nations it conquered rose up and won the Cold War for themselves.

We created the electric light, built the airplane, invented the computer, and harnessed the power of the atom; we developed modern medicine, balanced the free market and social and economic justice, encouraged labor unionism, fought to protect the environment, landed on the moon, and built the Internet. We invented a radical concept, that all people are born equal; that government is founded on the consent of the governed, back when those who sat on lofty thrones and ruled the dominions and principalities of this world by force and fear held it to be nothing more than a radical delusion. Now, even those princes and tyrants that are left try...and fail...to justify their thrones with the principles that we first operationalized, that of the sovereign people, that of democratic consent.

In the US Declaration of Independence, issued in 1776, Thomas Jefferson, a rich, plantation-holding, slave-owner (and some would call him a slave-rapist) of Virginia wrote, in perhaps the most beautiful words ever written in the English language: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..." Some call Jefferson a hypocrite for writing these words. I do not. Jefferson was an imperfect human being, but he did not need to be perfect--for he was not stating the reality at the time of the writing of the Declaration, he was not speaking of the world as it was: he was writing of the world as it should be. He was not writing just about Dead White Rich European Males, he was writing about all people, everywhere. He was setting before us a goal. He was charging America with the duty to give his words meaning; he was laying before us what we, as a nation, as a republic, should work for; what we should strive for; what we should fight for; what we should live for; and what, if necessary, we should die for.

That is why I write this. History has proven that in my nation, America, the force of freedom, the force of justice, the force of democracy, and the force of love are far stronger and greater than the love of force and fear. That is why I state without reservation and qualification that I am proud to be an American; that I am proud to be a liberal. And though it may seem at times like we stand on the brink of oblivion (especially with Mr. Bush in office) I do not fear the future. Why? Because of belief. But not belief solely coming from romantic unreason, but instead, a reasoned belief formed as much from history and logic as it is formed from hope, love, and principle. And what I believe is that America is not a place, is not a thing, is not a state of mind; America is, instead, a process and a journey: a journey towards freedom, towards democracy, towards equality, towards solidarity, towards justice, towards a more perfect union, towards becoming that "city on a hill, a light unto the world", towards being that "last, best hope for freedom on Earth", towards the more perfect fulfillment of our ideals. How we make that journey is up to us; our ideals are a heavy burden to bear, the road is long and arduous, but we are called to the trail by the voice of our forebears, our compatriots, our heart and soul, and all people of hope and good will. Though the destination is important, it the journey--the effort, the attempt--that matters most of all to us. We may never create a perfect union; we may never end oppression, tyranny, and war; we are but flawed humans; but we are called to try. So, then, let us begin.

[edit] Philosophy

  • Worldview: Modernist; rationalist; humanist
  • System of beliefs (religion): Pluralist; each religion or system of metaphysical beliefs has certain universal truths that reveal themselves to us and are equally valuable and equally valid (on a constructive level or an actual, metaphysical level). Religious tolerance, kindness, and acceptance/understanding of different beliefs are perhaps the supreme virtues in living harmoniously with those who strongly believe in a specific expression of faith.

[edit] Interests

[edit] History

  • History of popular movements
  • Military history
  • History of technology
    • History of computing
  • History of military technology
  • History of law

[edit] Politics

[edit] Science

[edit] Computing

[edit] Games

[edit] Literature