Forum Post: The opposing moral systems of left and right are not going away

A primary message of the Occupy Wall street movement has been the call for moving beyond the two parties and the left/right political divide. This is a worthy goal and should be broadly supported. But ignoring political affiliation will not dissolve the opposing moral frameworks that underlie the left and right camps. In the context of the current economic crisis, the two sides have common grievances and perceived affinities. They both agree that Wall Street businesses have committed ongoing public theft with impunity, and that the government's ability to adequately serve the public has been disabled. But if deeper collaborations were begun, we would soon find two very different and opposing viewpoints on how to go about solving these and other problems.

To avoid any political labeling, let's imagine that Americans generally fall into two broad groups. Let's call one the strict group, and the other the nuturant group. The “nuturants” value the following: Empathy Strength Responsibility Opportunity Fairness Freedom Equality Excellence the Commonwealth Investment Protection Security - (not only military security, but economic security, environmental security, healthcare security, climate security, etc.) Justice Accountability Progress Decency Dignity

Let's look at what the “stricts” value by a partial listing of their current and ongoing agenda: • Assaults on unions, public employees, women's rights, immigrants, the environment, health care, voting rights, food safety, pensions, prenatal care, science, public broadcasting, and more. • Promotion of corporate theft through lax regulation and tax breaks • Promotion of government for profit (privatizing) • Promotion of their ideology itself as their highest goal to be applied to all aspects of American life, at the expense of the common good • Denial of the science of global warming and evolution (because it doesn't fit their ideology) • Gerrymandering districts at the state level and voter suppression drives to win majorities in statehouses, to destroy protections (eliminate regulations) and further extend their ideology to all aspects of American life • The absence of social responsibility • A greed-is-good ethic (a prime cause of the financial crisis) • Using budgets deficits as convenient ruses to destroy American democracy and replace it with “strict” rule in all areas of life. • Defending all of this by carrying a gun.

So to take at an example of where these two groups will diverge when solving our problems look at the banking crisis. The nurturants would want to restore accountable government and its ability to protect citizens, and enact strong regulations that prevent banks from ever defrauding the public again.

The stricts despise government and so would call for even less government, less regulation, and hand the problem over to the free market to solve.

This explains the frequent “End the Fed” posts in the OWS forums and chats. These are “stricts” who while disgusted with the banks behavior, would solve the problem by destroying a government agency that was created to to prevent crises in the first place.

So to restate, and so the movement remains clear about who they align themselves with: • eliminating party and political rhetoric is noble and right • remain aware that the moral value systems that divide the country are not going away • its probably best not to waste too much energy trying to find agreement with those who have an opposing moral viewpoint

In closing, speak your values frequently and clearly. The OWS movement's values are at base American values and will garner enough support to enact the changes we need, without having to partner with movements whose values are at odds with OWS.

Onward! www.knowyourvalues.org/occupy