Rynar wrote:
I suppose in the over-arching theme of the article is more Randian than Owellian, but the specific excerpt you presented us with was absolutely Orwellian, as it presented the historical mission statement of a government entity stating that it's purpose and roll are and has been the perfect opposite of what they are and what they achieve.
Except that it isn't stating any such thing. It's stating that its mission has changed from being a profit-generating entity to pursuing an ideological goal regarding housing. You're reading a far more deep-seated effort at deception into it than is actually there. They're not attempting to hijak the language or anything like that except insofar as they're fooling themselves as well.
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The people who vote in our country have largely incorporated ourselves into the fabric of our government, in doing so we have incorporated the rest of the country as well, as we passed laws that have given rise to a domestic policy that is invasive and pro-active in many aspects of all American lives. Whether I disagree with these things or not doesn't matter, the fact is that they exist, and most voters support some varying percentage of them and feel that the government is acting with their best intentions in mind. In addition to the voting minority, the votes cast by them also effect the largest group of non-voters who benefit from the social programs and infrastructure payed for by others, this second group needs the government to redistribute wealth into it, and support it for that reason. These two groups combined make up a simple majority of our country.
You are missing the point entirely. Most people do not feel that the government is acting wih their best interests in mind. Most people agree that the government is acting in their best interests in some areas and not in others. There are many people, for example, that praise the government for attempting to maintain these housing policies on one hand while loudly castigating the government in other areas, such as foriegn policy.
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Given my above response, I would say that clearly the government exists because most people are satisfied with it more than they are opposed to it, otherwise we wouldn't have it anymore. For them to be satisfied with it, the good things an individual thinks the government does for him would have to outweigh the bad, or in other words "have the individuals best interests at heart".
The problem with this is that mere "dissatisfaction" with the government doesn't mean people think a better alternative is reasonably available. It also assumes that people are either "satisfied" or "dissatisfied" with the government. They are rarely one or the other except in media polls that artificially divide it into those two oversimplifications.
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You have far more faith in our "news outlets", and have a much higher opinion of the average person than I do.
I have no faith whatsoever in news outlets, which you should know by now. That does not change the fact that this very article was almost gleeful in exposing this nonsense, knowing that it would create outrage, and outrage sells. I don't need to have any faith in the news media to know that they love a gigantic mess they can sink their fangs into. The media may have bias, but bias only goes so far in the face of a scoop and profit.
As for the average person, one of the biggest problems in discussions here is the lack of confidence in the average person most people here have. We ahve a lot of people that like to assume that the average person is just like the average of all average persons. It is not true that the average person blindly believes everything they are told. That's just the arrogance of people here liking to pretend they are members of some special crowd that's smarter and better informed than all the "average" people we're supposedly beset with.
Ladas wrote:
You guys are seriously arguing over whether these two companies are either stupid or nefarious? Who cares, they both suck, and contributing to further declines.
Yes. Misattribution of the results of incompetance to malfeasance is a serious problem. It distorts the issue by creating the appearance of grand agendas that really don't exist in any coherent way.