The fearful live in the past, the courageous invent the future, do you agree?

Question

Is it true that conservative voters live in the past because they are fearful of the future, almost pathologically so, while progressives see the future as a canvas to invent a more satisfying and humane life, in a more well adjusted manner.

Answer 1

That statement is so cliche, it hardly merits an answer. When you paint a topic with a broad brush you are bound to get paint on yourself.

Answer 2

Why would a conservative fear the future? What makes a progressive more able to design a future? Evolution and progress requires both states of mind. The world is advancing so swiftly in areas of technology and information transfer that we all should be a little conservative and step back and see what we've created. The fact is, Advertising and sales drives the technology. Every new step forward is another way to bombard us with sales pitches. A conservative saves, a progressive spends, at times wastefully.

Answer 3

i think the first pat of your observation is correct but i think you are being slanted to label conservative voters as fearful of the future, and willing to live in the past because of that fear. I stopped watching the news when i was a teen (long before i knew or cared anything about the political system) because i saw that their purpose was to instill fear into the minds of the public.

So it has been my observation that the leftist are the ones promoting fear. Even though they are promoting a "new" frontier or pathway for society. I believe the places they will lead us as a people will be destructive to us as a people. I come to that belief based on the Holy Bible as a hand book for the creature the Creator created. And for the historic record we see since the 60's of where liberalism has already taken us as a society.

Answer 4

A pessimist sees what could be.

An optimist sees what should be.

A cynic sees what is.

The pessimist fears the future, as it will repeat history.

The optimist embraces possibilities and welcomes hope, thinking that trends will reverse.

The cynic knows that humans always act in their own best interests, often at the expense of others.

Let's see, what are the possibilities?

Pessimist: Global warming will accelerate and eventually wipe us out.

Optimist: We will get greener, and reduce CO2 emissions.

Cynic: We will reduce the rate of CO2 emissions increases, yet CO2 will still go up and we will all eventually fry. If we ENDED carbon emissions [not possible] centuries would be needed for plants to convert the existing excess back to oxygen. The crisis is inevitable.

Pessimist: Real estate values will continue to plummet and the banks will continue to take a beating and recession is inevitable. At least, in the US. The rest of the world may avoid the plummet.

Optimist: The worst is over. The Banks have made their adjustments and the Federal reserve is moving in the right direction. There is no where to go but up!

Cynic: The highest priced real estate in the world is in London. The equivalent of a two car garage recently sold there for three quarters of a million. This, in one of the most tenuous economies in the "developed" world. The burst of the bubble has begun in the US, but the rest of the world is due. Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen!

Pessimist: Population increases continue to put pressure on global resources and worsen the CO2 problem. Birth control measures are not slowing growth fast enough.

Optimist: Globalization is bringing a greater awareness of the need to control population, and medicine is developing better methods of birth control. Population growth will soon top out, and a gradual reduction will begin. problem solved.

Cynic: The greatest enemy of long term planetary survival is modern medicine. The explosion of population did not get real traction before modern pharmaceuticals and immunology reduced the fatality rates in "developed" nations (about a hundred years ago). The same technologies are now advancing into "emerging" nations. As death rates diminish, population growth increases (Duh!). Globalization will accelerate population growth. Which will also accelerate the demand for energy and accelerate the production of CO2, thereby accelerating global warming.

Nine billion people within forty tears will more likely be ten or eleven, possibly twelve, as population growth rates increase with improvements in medical technologies and death rates decrease for the same reason.

Pessimist: Oh MY GAWD!

Optimist: This means that the productive base of young people needed to care for and support the old people kept alive by modern science will blossom. There will be lots of young, productive people using newly discovered technologies on a planet soon divested of conflict and the waste of war! Globalization will bring harmony and efficiency never seen before, and brilliant minds and creative thinking will revolutionize society and civilization will move into an era of unprecedented abundance.

Cynic: The number of old people will increase exponentially. The number of young folk will increase as well. The number of acres to accommodate their housing and grow their food will not increase at all. Crowding gives rise to violence and deviant behavior. Hunger leads to strife. Not to mention, the dread CO2. Apart from magic, which only the optimist considers, hoping to win the equivalent of a cosmic powerball, there is no hope.

I would guess that the percentage of people actively aware of global crowding as an issue is very small, under one percent. All the rest are concerned about is tomorrow and the bills that need to be paid. Even the wealthy for whom population pressures provide no more than an inconvenience are not truly aware of the problem. The wealthy and the poor alike are concerned about the "economy". Suffocating heat is a concern for the average guy. For the wealthy, it is no more than an increase in the electric bill. The wealthy get wealthier no matter who the consumer is. The average guy sees his paycheck being shipped to another country.

I say to you, "Be courageous! Inherit the future! Ignore the negativism of the scum!" But, I think this only works for a small few. The very rich get brave and overtake the rest. Few poor folk take advantage of their neighbors and crush their competitors and become wealthy, but one or two have done so. The rest of us watch our planet get dirtier and more crowded and increasingly more complex, and wonder where it will all end.

"SEE the future as a canvas to invent", if you like. Alternatively, fear it as repetition. Or, stare it down as an inevitability. Take your choice, call it what you want. But, be sure, your perspective will not alter the future, as the future is cast by the present and designed by the past.

Answer 5

Of course...we, at present, are the overlapping of the past and the future...Fear of change gets in the way of progress. Traditionalists will call them heritics...anyone who thinks our understanding of the universe is complete, is naive. We're no different in our capabilities than those people of the past who thought the earth was flat.

Answer 6

Hi. Most people resist change. The tendency tends to get stronger as folks age. My opinion.

Answer 7

courageous live in the present while fearful imagine the future.......

Answer 8

I know this doesnt awnser your question but how do u do that to ur picture make it look lik that!! i can never doo it but please!! e-mail me back with the awnser !1 my e-mail is [e-mail]....thanx in adveanved

Answer 9

Without question, I agree!

Answer 10

so true I totaly agree