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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Poet who wrote (220)	1/10/2001 5:05:07 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

Respectfully, I do think you're overgeneralizing here. Well yeah, I was overgeneralizing. You can't make a point in four sentences without overgeneralizing. <g> But I do have a basis for it. I've told this story elsewhere on SI. I read the Washington Post for years and years in its paper version and always read the letters to the editor. After a while I began to notice a formula in the letters. The first paragraph would describe some problem or opportunity. The second paragraph would make a pitch for the importance of the matter. The last paragraph was always short. It would simply say that the government should do something about it. The problems could be anything from nuclear war to chewing gum on the floor of movie theatres. The formula was inevitable. There is a problem; it is important; ergo the government should do something about it. Once I recognized the pattern, I began to notice it in my friends. Now, I realize that this little observation of mine is not a formal study, but what cinched it for me was the way the pattern stopped. It began tapering off right after Reagan's election and was all but gone within a few months. With regard to government grants supporting the arts, this is precisely the kind of thing that I, as a liberal, support. It's a thoughtful way to for us to enrich the human experience. You've rearranged the formula a bit, but the message seems the same to me. Art enriches the human experience ergo you approve of government grants to support it. Now, I realize that you were making your point in only two sentences, half of my four, but there doesn't seem to me any consideration there of whether government grants are the most appropriate or effective way to support the arts. I appreciate the arts, too, and I appreciate liberals. The arts can move me and liberals tend to be very nice people. I don't have a big problem with my tax burden, although hefty, because I have a good life, and I'd probably ratify most of what the government spends money on. I'm not trying to diss anyone here. I'm just explaining what it is about liberals that makes me crazy-- it's the apparent knee-jerk reaction that it's the government's job to solve all problems. If liberals would just go through the motions of examining other approaches to achieving their goals before settling on a government program I'd be content. If it would make you feel any better, I could post what it is that makes me crazy about the right wing... Karen