left or right?

Left - democratic socialist.

It's tough here in Oklahoma.

Romania was a communist country up till 1989, and I was born in 1990. I hate communism, but  socialist ideas applied to democracy are the best, and that's a proven fact.

mirco wrote: I think that all that claims to be socialist would drastically change their minds after two o three months living in a socialist country like Cuba (not as tourist but as normal citizens). First of all, kiss this forum goodby. Forgot buying prog records. FORGOT WISKEY (oh my god, I need a zip right now!). Forgot the overall good living. But don't take my word for sure, take the risk and fo what I'm saying.

thats right because the capatalist extreme, facism, is so much better  thats why the U.S. and saddam got along right?

so now because of the way you said that whenever someone says "im right wing" ill say SO YOU SUPPORT SADDAMS WAY OF LIFE!? socialism doesnt mean communism, and capatalism doesnt mean facism. Dont say stuff like that its really ignorant.

It's a pretty tough question- for one thing, my beliefs tend to be different in theory and in practice. I think that life is so complex that any basic statement of belief comes with a long string of qualifiers and addendum, almost always self-contradictory. I guess you could call me an Anarchic Hypocrite.

I believe strongly in the three pillars of the Bill of Rights: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We deserve them, we rarely get them, and we usually screw them up ourselves given half a chance.

Political parties, and all other personal beliefs, are like cars; everyone is led to believe they need one, so you pick one that seems to suit you...and then you end up driving on the same damn roads, in the same directions as everyone else.  

I believe in democracy to the extent that power derives from the will of the governed. However, it's pretty easy to get a majority of the people to believe lies and foolishness. And a "winner take all" approach ignores the fact that both sides of a debate can be equally valid, or equally invalid. We're all so eager to take a side, any side.

Mainly, I believe that placing our faith in commerce and convenience is a huge mistake. Most of our adult life revolves around earning, buying, and selling...and that strikes me as a rotten waste of the brief time we have here. The drive to industrialize, commercialize, and consumerize the planet has caused more suffering than any war or disaster in human history. And aligning this drive with "progress" and "practicality" has been, bar none, the single worst perversion of human thought. I have more moral contempt for the 'business world' than I do for rapists, racists, and serial killers combined. Especially since we can all hope not to become a rapist or serial killer, but almost nobody can hope to escape the economic infrastructure that makes all of our hands bloody.

I don't think society as we know it can be saved. Certainly not by any political party or leader or messiah; we need to change ourselves first. The true revolution begins in the individual, and the struggle is almost always lost as soon as it begins. Probably the only hope for the human race is to be forced to start all over again, and even then there's no guarantee we wouldn't go down the same (or other equally destructive) roads.

Without pledging my allegiance, I have the most sympathy for the hedonists who say we should just try to enjoy ourselves as our world destroys itself around us. However, I can't just laugh while I watch everything burn...so I'm forced to continue trying to improve things in my own small way while knowing how pointless it all is. In order to do that, you must compromise and set aside your reservations and deal with the world as it is, rather than mourn a lost chance at Utopia. So you grit your teeth and align yourself with something, knowing that the lesser of two evils is still really, really bad.

Which leads us right back to the usual questions, such as "left or right?"

Embittered old lefty here. Not totally dogmatic about it, though, I believe in public ownership of utilities and essential services but industry and commerce should be left private (but not unregulated).

I believe that there is no reason why any human being on the surface of the planet should not have access to food, clothing, housing, medical treatment and education, and that if any of our alleged leaders are serious about the 'wars' on terrorism, drugs and crime then tackling poverty (absolute poverty to start with) should be the number 1 priority and this will not be achieved by military action. So there.

I'm a communist,

Central issues;

Freedom for Everyone (freewill, Free speach, free choice, free traffic, freedom of religion. all free)

equality of life, both intellectualy as economicly

(for those that don't know: Sovjet Union and eastern Europe before the fall of the wall, was Fascism, it had nothing to do with communism, same goes for all dictatorships, Communism knows no ruling class, all men together are supposed to be in charge of the direction, so in the end communism is also very much about democracy) Though communism is mostly an Utopian philosophy, and probably not possible to achieve in real life. I believe in it.