Dr. Ahmad Reza Taheri

ahmadrezataheri — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:25:44 GMT

What are YOU: which category you belong to

Ahmad Reza Taheri

Radical Liberal Moderate Conservative Reactionary

Left………………………………………………………………………Right

Indeed, upon careful scrutiny we will find it very difficult to place ourselves in any single category (radical, liberal, moderate, conservative, reactionary) because our attitudes on various issues will range over two or even more sectors on the spectrum.

Sometimes, a person who considers himself/herself as a liberal may not have liberalistic characteristics at all. It all depends on the nature of the society, nature of the state, and nature of the people living in a particular country.

Unfortunately, many people lack basic understanding of these concepts. Many people believe in reactionary approach, but never consider themselves reactionary rather regard themselves as liberal; well, whether they are right or wrong, that is not the place to discuss it here.

Since in social sciences socio-political concepts can be challenged and criticized, many do not accept or do not follow one school of thought. For instance, the concept of liberalism which has been defined in our note is according to the western standard, cannot be accepted by an eastern society like India or China. Indians in general (as far as the society limits are concerned and not state rules) do not follow the western form of liberalism. In China, in the context of politics, liberalism has no space. In an Islamic state like Iran the dominating class/group follows its own way of liberalism. I may refer to it as an "Islamic liberalism."

Back to the question, the followers of all these political concepts on the political spectrum illustrated above do deal with international institutions accordingly. For example, as Professor Leon P Baradat says (in his book, political ideologies: their origins & impact), "Believing that people are self-oriented and competitive, conservatives are likely to assume a relatively suspicious posture in dealing with foreign governments. They are apt to rely heavily on strong military capability to preserve the peace. Restoring to the cliché, the way to preserve the peace is to be prepared for war, as a distinctly conservative approach to foreign policy; they see the world in adversarial terms. But, the liberal approach is different. Liberals do not believe that people are aggressive by nature. They believe that people are capable of solving their problems/differences rationally… Although liberals certainly do not ignore the martial aspect of foreign policy, they place much less emphasis on it. They believe that the way to preserve the peace is to discover and eradicate the causes of war."

Dr. Ahmad Reza Taheri

What are YOU: which category you belong to

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نظرات درباره موضوع های: "روشنفکر سیاسی" و "اندیشه کمونیزم و علم ناقص ما"

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