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- Activist
- Busybody.
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- Cargo Cult Politics
- The belief that a collection of people can transform themselves into a unified and effective political party by pretending that they already have.
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- Citizen
- The smallest unit of government. The growing use of this term is a cheap and easy way to devalue the
existence and power of each individual person, and enforce deference to the
state. Young "citizens" are educated to be docile followers and to value themselves in relation to their
contribution to the group. Aging "citizens", who will have noticed that the
system is both corrupt and decadent, are bribed with state pensions and medical
support to stay silent about the fact, and die quietly.
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- Homeland
- A newly popular term, used instead of "our country", and
newly necessary as an emotional reference for the numerous US troops sent to
fight "wars" outside of it.
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- Fair Share
- As in "The banks (or the corporations or Big Oil or Big Labor, etc.) must pay their fair share." This always means more than the amount currently being paid, with the extra of course intended to go to the favorite cause of whichever group is complaining about the presumed injustice. Note that "fair share" is
never less than is currently being paid.
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- Ideology
- "..is an instrument of power; a defense mechanism against information; a pretext for eluding moral constraints in doing or approving evil with a clean conscience; and finally, a way of banning the criterion of experience, that is, of completely eliminating or indefinitely postponing [consideration of] the pragmatic criteria of success and failure."
(The Flight from Truth, Jean Francoise Revel, New York: Random House, 1991, p. 228.)
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- Libertarian
- One who advocates maximizing individual rights and minimizing the role of the state.
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- Libertarianism
- See Ideology.
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- Political Party
- A voluntary organization formed expressly to secure and manage the offices of government by winning them.
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- Political System
- "That type of government where politics proves successful in ensuring reasonable stability and order."
(In Defence of Politics, 4th Edition, Bernard Crick, University of Chicago Press, 1993, p. 21.)
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- Politics
- "The activity by which differing interests within a given unit of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power in proportion to their importance to the welfare and the survival of the whole community."
(Crick, op cit, p. 21.)
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- Society
- When used in political discussions, this word means "that
part of the populace that agrees with me on this issue." That is how "the good of
society" is used to justify the most extreme and even opposing goals of both the Left and the Right.
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