You'd have to debate strongly with me about the Founding Fathers, as well as the place of romance within marriage. The thing is that I am a huge believer in the concept of Free Will - it's a huge cornerstone in the belief system of Latter-Day Saints since we believe that the war in heaven was due to Lucifer believing that everyone should have their entire lives laid out for them. This, of course, opposed to having the ability and the will to make your own choice... even though that means people make mistakes. But then we start to get into some of the more nitty-gritty of LDS theology, which, while interesting, is not the topic here.
Suffice to say, I'm big on people having a choice in how they live their lives.
Personally, I've no mind against a monarchist government, but only so long as there is a strong democratic element to balance out not only the power of the monarch, but that of the feudal lords as well. A sort of popularly elected lower house, if you will.
I've no real quarrel against capitalism, but I feel that it is something that must be strongly regulated - things like an effective living wage must be defended because it is the income of the working man that is the lifeblood of an economy. And on that note, I have socialist leanings in that I feel that all public services - infrastructure, healthcare, education, and even necessities such as water, electricity, and fuel - are all of paramount importance to The State and should thus be operated by The State and the State alone. As for the funding... eh. So long as these things are managed with care, funding will usually take care of itself, even if you do have to pay upfront for water, electricity, and gas.
(Though it'd be pretty interesting if all public utilities were provided by taxpayer's dollars... You may pay a bit more in taxes than other countries, but at least you never have to worry about power or water getting shut-off.)
Interestingly enough, I'm not terribly against surveillance, so long as it is strictly passive except where otherwise mandated by a court order. I don't mind my image being captured impassively by stationary cameras. What I do mind is corporations monitoring all my purchases and every link that I click on the Internet. Besides, I feel it's flawed. They feel as though they can dictate to me what I want. Trust me, what I want and what I buy and look at online are VERY different things.
I feel that Humanity should not be confined to this one rock. I feel that we need to be out there and exploring, in person, and only sending drones forward where the risk is absolutely too great. I like to argue that after we landed on the moon, we more than certainly had the technology to continue on to explore the rest of our home system. It would have been an effort of sheer brute force, but the amount of money that the Department of Defense had been funneling into NASA at the time would have seen to that. What might have we accomplished if the Russians had worked the kinks out of their economy and continued to push the Space Race?
Suffice to say, I'm big on people having a choice in how they live their lives.
Personally, I've no mind against a monarchist government, but only so long as there is a strong democratic element to balance out not only the power of the monarch, but that of the feudal lords as well. A sort of popularly elected lower house, if you will.
I've no real quarrel against capitalism, but I feel that it is something that must be strongly regulated - things like an effective living wage must be defended because it is the income of the working man that is the lifeblood of an economy. And on that note, I have socialist leanings in that I feel that all public services - infrastructure, healthcare, education, and even necessities such as water, electricity, and fuel - are all of paramount importance to The State and should thus be operated by The State and the State alone. As for the funding... eh. So long as these things are managed with care, funding will usually take care of itself, even if you do have to pay upfront for water, electricity, and gas.
(Though it'd be pretty interesting if all public utilities were provided by taxpayer's dollars... You may pay a bit more in taxes than other countries, but at least you never have to worry about power or water getting shut-off.)
Interestingly enough, I'm not terribly against surveillance, so long as it is strictly passive except where otherwise mandated by a court order. I don't mind my image being captured impassively by stationary cameras. What I do mind is corporations monitoring all my purchases and every link that I click on the Internet. Besides, I feel it's flawed. They feel as though they can dictate to me what I want. Trust me, what I want and what I buy and look at online are VERY different things.
I feel that Humanity should not be confined to this one rock. I feel that we need to be out there and exploring, in person, and only sending drones forward where the risk is absolutely too great. I like to argue that after we landed on the moon, we more than certainly had the technology to continue on to explore the rest of our home system. It would have been an effort of sheer brute force, but the amount of money that the Department of Defense had been funneling into NASA at the time would have seen to that. What might have we accomplished if the Russians had worked the kinks out of their economy and continued to push the Space Race?