Creating a philosophical and ideological base of knowledge.

[Absnt]

I think it's necessary for individuals like myself, and perhaps like you, to create a philosophical and ideological base of knowledge. You can try to create an opinion on every single little problem that comes your way, but I honestly think that you'd sooner run out of time and end up in inaction than make the right decision. It's important to find out what you believe, and extrapolate, and have a basic ideology/philosophy so you can deal with real world situations that present themselves in a timely and accurate fashion.

Of course, you can't half ass your philosophy/ideology though. I'd rather you be inactive than recklessly engage in actions based on a poorly thought out set of beliefs. (Which, I find, most people end up doing.) So don't fucking half ass it, or don't fucking do it at all and try to base everything on the information you can gather in the moment. (Which probably won't be enough info, and you probably won't have time to make a good decision...)

[fish20]

?

[The Shadowman]

Ok, I think I understand.

[Absnt]

^ Here's an example:

It's time to vote, and there are four candidates. All have different ideas and all are ideologically different... Which are you going to vote for? Sure, you can go home and look up their views, and indipendently make judgements on them. But do you REALLY have enough time to read up on your economic history, make an accurate judgement on abortion, learn everything you need to learn about politics to ensure this person is goign to help and not hurt, and all of that by next week, or hell, even next month? No. So I suggest creating an umbrella of ideas... A philosophy, and an ideology, in order to apply them to situations like these in order to accurately deal with the situation.

Of course, that requires a lot of reading, a lot of learning, and a lot of decision making. Once you have your philosophy and ideology, you can apply them to a hell of a lot more than political decisions too. Everyday decisions, believe it or not, can be morally and rationally difficult to handle if you actually want to get a good outcome. It's very helpful to know what you think before actually confronting these types of situations. (Sorry for my shitty example, I'm not in a creative mood.)

[gore goroth]

Here comes absent, rolling out lots of wordy, philisophical threads in the span of a couple hours.

[Miller0700]

Oh wow. I thought I was the only one who did this.

[thewake]

Well, I don't know if this helps, but I have a general idea that I want to further individual liberty and human prosperity, so that's how I make my political decisions.

[Blobthe15]

I've been thinking of using this:

The Philosophy of Liberty