Reply #25: It's important to be able to do that.

[John Gauger]

It's important to be able to reevaluate your own beliefs when you find yourself outnumbered by a differing position. But it is also important to resist the pressure of the majority and use only logic in your evaluation of your position. I am a big fan of Chavez and love what he is doing for the poor of Venezuela and other countries. He's my favorite world leader. But his time has passed. He is grabbing at power all too rapaciously. His policies feeding, housing, and educating the poor, diversifying and strengthening the economy, resisting corporate domination of the Third World, and relieving debt of exploited nations should be continued, but he should retire as soon as possible. He is human, and as such his flaws make that amount of power dangerous. Put him in charge of an NGOthat works to eliminate poverty or something, or just give him a nice little farm where he can be surrounded by the people who love him, but don't let him take that nation any closer to dictatorship. I think I would make a great world leader, but if I ever become one and start grabbing at power like that, depose me. Make sure I don't plunge my nation into a crisis.