I've haven't been paying attention with even almost interest to the goings on in Iowa. It's depressing - like watching the paste eaters from grade school stage a production of A Christmas Carol. You know every line, every scene, and how it's going to end. And even though the thing is so familiar you can recite it in your sleep, it is amazing how far below even your lowest expectations the show falls.
I have always felt guilty being so cynical about politics - always, in the silence of my heart, believed the goody-goody student council types who said, "If you want things to change, you can't just complain, you have to work to make it happen." Then I realized something - I'm right, and they are wrong. Reform is not really possible - history is, at its most basic level, a tale of things changing for the worse.
The reason isn't hard to fathom. There's three kinds of people: First, those who want to be someones pet - they want to be housed, fed, clothed, and protected from all evils - real and imagined. In return they promise to plow the fields, not run out of the yard, tug too hard on the leash, or make a fuss. The second kind are the ones who don't want to be kept as pets. Perhaps they are just ornery, and naturally do the opposite of what they're told, perhaps they feel no one has the right to make them do what they don't want to, or maybe they realize that politics is a zero sum game and every public good represents actual goods taken by threat of force from private individuals, that power exercised in the name of the government must be wrested from the hands of citizens, and every of advance of law must be matched by an equal retreat of freedom.
And then there is the third kind... the kind who wonder if zero sum game is on the same channel as Dancing With the Stars.
The first group has an entire political party dedicated to getting them what they want. In this time and place they're called the democrats, and they have been into keeping human beings as domestic animals from the beginning - you might call it the family business. But don't get hung up on names, there have always been those who were willing to sell their birthright for three hots and a cot, and there have always been those on the other side of the equation looking to accommodate them.
The great thing about this party is how easy it is to become a member - all you have to do is renounce your desire to be free, and promise to the best of your ability to get others to do the same. The better you are at convincing people to accept the yoke of servitude, the higher you go - sort of Cloward-Piven meets Amway. The hierarchy goes like this - on the top are the president and senior senators and congressmen, next come the sycophantic newspaper and television organisms, tame corporate CEO's, and labor leaders, followed by college professors, then public school teachers and other taxpayer funded worker bees. Finally, on the very bottom, are the organized community of mopes, dopes, mokes, druggies, rummies, lackwits, halfwits, dimwits, and nitwits who do the scutwork in return for any table scraps which might fall their way and a chance that the more enterprising of them can climb the ladder to higher levels.
There is also a political organization which tries to appeal to the third group - in the here and now, that organization is the republican party.
Oh wait, you thought the republicans would naturally try to appeal to the ornery and anti-social? Why?
That category of people isn't very large or well defined. If you are taking the time to read this, you probably fall, more or less, into that group - I would like to believe I do also, and I know regardless of meaningless polls where people self identify as democrats, liberals, conservatives, or republicans, those who want their elected representatives to use government to take wealth from others and give it to them, far outnumber those who want to be left the hell alone.
Along with being more numerous, that third group is more independent - in the same sense a toddler is independent. They weave around randomly, bump into things, fall on their butts, and finally end up in a corner picking their noses and drooling. Figuring out what they want is a hit or miss proposition. Which is why watching the republican party is so frustrating - every toy, game, and snack gets pulled out of the baby bag and waved around while candidates make cooing noises (Does diddums, want a binky, a woobie, an ethanol subsidy?), all in a desperate attempt to hold their attention until the second Tuesday in November.
And the party of treating people like infants must keep that attention focused; there is no room for error. That is because the party of keeping people as pets has massive built in advantages. Hell, the existence of public schools alone means virtually every person in the country gets ideologically sheep-dipped for thirteen years before being released into adulthood. Their constituency is designed to grow, and all they need for victory is to win is some plurality of the toddler cadre.
The republicans, on the other hand need every single one of the votes of people who get distracted by shiny objects; which means their platform, expressed in its simplest terms is, "Don't scare the baby."
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Going to the Candidate's Debate
Welcome to the Mike-istan studios. Tonight, we have a debate between all of the men... umm, men and women... err individual things who will be running for president. Remember, come January 2013 one of these things will take the oath of office and be the most powerful thing on the planet, and incidentally, hold your fate in their appendage.
Only one question: As president, what will you do to return the United States to a constitutional republic with a limited government constrained by narrow, enumerated powers?
Barack Obama: You're kidding right?
Mitt Romney: Nothing.
Newt Gingrich: Drug testing! And lots of police everywhere and I'll arrest judges I don't like and no-knock raids and drug testing for everyone except me.
Ron Paul: Limited government is vital, unless it is controlled by the Jews, because they control everything. Did I mention Jews control my mind? And we don't have to worry about Muslims because they are controlled by Jews.
Michele Bachmann: I'm prettier than Sarah Palin, and my husband can cure the gay.
Rick Perry: I apparently have no idea why Texas is doing so well, and I'll do or not do the same things in Washington plus I've got more Jesus juice than Jesus.
Jon Huntsman: I'm a Mormon with no real principals and good hair - I'm Mitt Romney.
Moderator: Thank you for your time, and I feel sick.
Only one question: As president, what will you do to return the United States to a constitutional republic with a limited government constrained by narrow, enumerated powers?
Barack Obama: You're kidding right?
Mitt Romney: Nothing.
Newt Gingrich: Drug testing! And lots of police everywhere and I'll arrest judges I don't like and no-knock raids and drug testing for everyone except me.
Ron Paul: Limited government is vital, unless it is controlled by the Jews, because they control everything. Did I mention Jews control my mind? And we don't have to worry about Muslims because they are controlled by Jews.
Michele Bachmann: I'm prettier than Sarah Palin, and my husband can cure the gay.
Rick Perry: I apparently have no idea why Texas is doing so well, and I'll do or not do the same things in Washington plus I've got more Jesus juice than Jesus.
Jon Huntsman: I'm a Mormon with no real principals and good hair - I'm Mitt Romney.
Moderator: Thank you for your time, and I feel sick.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Concord Bridge or Fort Sumter Part IV
Parts I, II, and III are here for those who wish to play along at home.
A while back, Kevin of Smallest Minority posted his thoughts on the future, and more or less concluded we are doomed and at this late date there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. His commenters split into roughly two camps - the optimistic pessimists who believe nothing is written in stone, and while tough times are coming, there is a solid plurality of citizens who will take a stand for freedom - and the pessimistic pessimists who think the collectivists have bored too deeply into the foundations of the culture and have left it ready to to collapse at the merest touch.
While both opinions have something to recommend them, they are both missing elements which leave us vulnerable to preparing for the wrong kind of trouble - and it is important we do prepare, and we do get it right.
It is vital to hold these conversations because no one person's predictions of the future are going to be completely right; they probably won't be even ten percent right, but as events unfold the parts which are correct will become evident and recognized, and hopefully just in time.
That is the other thing, if you are a genius and have predicted the future ten years out, bless your heart. But that's not me - my goal is not to outrun the future, it's to outrun the other guy.
To the pessimistic pessimists, I would offer the following warning: In our darkest moments we can envision every bad thing we see happening being taken to its logical, evil conclusion - all at once. But that's not how it works. History limps along in fits and starts because of how people are. Even the most diabolical plan is subject to the human element - and often fails because those carrying it out are venal, easily distracted by trivia, and sometimes, shockingly stupid. Hard history is on the way, but make sure you are not barricading the door against jack booted thugs who may not be coming at the expense of weather sealing the windows against a winter which definitely is.
And to the optimistic pessimists, all I can say is remember the fake but accurate Pauline Kael quote about not knowing anyone who voted for Nixon, and do not extrapolate the nature of the world from your own experience. You may be sitting comfortably on the right hand side of the bell curve. Your friends and children may have read Hayak, Burke, and Friedman, but educating people about the nature of society and culture, and then bringing them to an understanding of the need to defend the same is done one on one - it is work for and by individuals. Destroying culture and debasing society is being done on an industrialized basis in Hollywood, and virtually every public school and university, and is far easier to boot. The tearing down of things is always always less difficult than building them up.
I hope there is a path between giving too much credit to our enemies and giving too much credit to ourselves and I hope we are clear minded enough to find it.
A while back, Kevin of Smallest Minority posted his thoughts on the future, and more or less concluded we are doomed and at this late date there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. His commenters split into roughly two camps - the optimistic pessimists who believe nothing is written in stone, and while tough times are coming, there is a solid plurality of citizens who will take a stand for freedom - and the pessimistic pessimists who think the collectivists have bored too deeply into the foundations of the culture and have left it ready to to collapse at the merest touch.
While both opinions have something to recommend them, they are both missing elements which leave us vulnerable to preparing for the wrong kind of trouble - and it is important we do prepare, and we do get it right.
It is vital to hold these conversations because no one person's predictions of the future are going to be completely right; they probably won't be even ten percent right, but as events unfold the parts which are correct will become evident and recognized, and hopefully just in time.
That is the other thing, if you are a genius and have predicted the future ten years out, bless your heart. But that's not me - my goal is not to outrun the future, it's to outrun the other guy.
To the pessimistic pessimists, I would offer the following warning: In our darkest moments we can envision every bad thing we see happening being taken to its logical, evil conclusion - all at once. But that's not how it works. History limps along in fits and starts because of how people are. Even the most diabolical plan is subject to the human element - and often fails because those carrying it out are venal, easily distracted by trivia, and sometimes, shockingly stupid. Hard history is on the way, but make sure you are not barricading the door against jack booted thugs who may not be coming at the expense of weather sealing the windows against a winter which definitely is.
And to the optimistic pessimists, all I can say is remember the fake but accurate Pauline Kael quote about not knowing anyone who voted for Nixon, and do not extrapolate the nature of the world from your own experience. You may be sitting comfortably on the right hand side of the bell curve. Your friends and children may have read Hayak, Burke, and Friedman, but educating people about the nature of society and culture, and then bringing them to an understanding of the need to defend the same is done one on one - it is work for and by individuals. Destroying culture and debasing society is being done on an industrialized basis in Hollywood, and virtually every public school and university, and is far easier to boot. The tearing down of things is always always less difficult than building them up.
I hope there is a path between giving too much credit to our enemies and giving too much credit to ourselves and I hope we are clear minded enough to find it.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Friendly Fire
A lot of libertarian types have their boxers in a wad from watching the police clear the squatters from the various "occupy" camps - especially the whole pepper spray thing.
When amoral, power lusting, dirtwads like Mike Bloomberg and Antonio Villagarossa send the police to roust a bunch of whiny, collectivist, thumbsuckers who, when they grow up and have the power themselves, will gladly send those same cops to bust the heads of their current class enemies... well, it's kind of like Stalin sending the KGB to suppress the young pioneers.
Far as I can tell, it's blue on blue.
When amoral, power lusting, dirtwads like Mike Bloomberg and Antonio Villagarossa send the police to roust a bunch of whiny, collectivist, thumbsuckers who, when they grow up and have the power themselves, will gladly send those same cops to bust the heads of their current class enemies... well, it's kind of like Stalin sending the KGB to suppress the young pioneers.
Far as I can tell, it's blue on blue.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Saving The Strawmen From Further Beatings
Acairfearann thoughtfully provided the following in response to Part III of my Concord Bridge or Fort Sumter series:
Interesting, but I am not sure about the validity of the statement 'those who don't need to be ruled'. Obviously, there are many people who don't need government as a large bureaucracy. But, the phrase implies to me, and I may be misreading it in which case my apologies, that 'rule' is a negative which has no benefit to the individual. The problem with that is that any sort of cooperative, social action, which is the sort of action that allows the development of human society, requires the community to agree upon rules. And at some point your interpretation of the rule and your friend's interpretation is going to be different. Or for that matter the best way to build the bridge, best place to dig the well, the irrigation channel... And someone is going to have to decide, because constantly flipping a coin to make critical decisions creates an element of risk that tends to discourage activity in the long run.
'Rule' isn't just about negative punishments, it is also about agreed upon standards to create a society, be it neolithic Scotland or 21st century cities.
This is a tired argument and an old argument - I suspect one could find Plato using some form of it to justify the need for philosopher kings. It is an argument claiming the desire of people to be free ultimately leads to a dystopian chaos - Acairfearann has replaced Thunderdome with a coin toss, but the conclusion is the same - life becomes nasty, brutish, and short. It is an argument which cannot be refuted often enough or strongly enough.
What prompted my response however, were the examples of the kinds of rules Acairfearann fears would be lost in the inevitable anarchy. After over a quarter century in the field of civil engineering, I am familiar with regulations regarding bridges, ditches, and wells - both the rules themselves and the reasoning behind them, and Acairfearann's reasoning is exactly backwards - these standards are both the cause and result of people's desire to be free. The threat to the stability provided by these agreed upon standards comes not from those who do not need to be ruled, but from those who must rule.
Even the most cursory investigation of state, county, and local building, and development codes reveals some general themes:
First, those who administer and enforce them generally understand they are providing a service contracted by, and paid for by the citizens of their jurisdiction. When I call requesting information, whether from a local building inspector or county engineer, they call me back, send me copies of the records I request, or direct me to someone who can answer my questions. In short, they act as stakeholders who realize my work creates value, and thus, they also benefit from facilitating rather than hindering that work.
Secondly, local design and development codes represent hard earned knowledge. They are examples of “small e" empiricism and it is probably not too much of a stretch to say every item in the regulations represents a lesson learned from a flooded property, collapsed house, or a person sick, injured, or dead.
Additionally, the more local the authority, the less opportunity for rent seeking. There may be requirements for how far from the property line a house can be built, but nothing which says only Joe's Surveying Company has the magical measuring devices to tell if a building is conforming to code.
Further, the real consequences of violating the rules far outweigh the statutory consequences. If you construct your well too close to your septic system, you will be subject to fines, or the cost of moving one or the other. But these burdens are nothing compared to the impact on your health.
Finally, all of the above presume competence. The local officials and staff who administer the various agencies take for granted the people they deal with are capable of reading, understanding, and complying with the regulations. Plans are reviewed beforehand, and projects inspected afterwards on the assumption the work was performed in good faith and any problems can be discovered and fixed.
Acairfearann, the people responsible for enforcing the standards of the locality where you dwell consider you competent to arrange for building a home, excavating an irrigation channel, and for all I know, constructing a skyscraper, but do you know what you are not competent to do?
Buy light bulbs.
That is not my opinion - I'll bet you could manage it, and everyone in your town probably thinks so too, but the good people at the U.S. Department of Energy believe that given the choice of what kind of light bulbs to buy, you'll blow it, and they have the power to make you only buy what they approve.
Oh, and by federal statute, you are utterly incapable of deciding how much water your toilet should use when you flush it.
And, of course you do not have the faintest clue of what you should eat. Why, if left to your own devices you would shove any old thing into your mouth.
Actually, that last one is kind of interesting. Apparently California law enforcement, with the support of the Food and Drug Administration, raided a store which was selling people who wanted it, raw milk. It was originally reported to be a SWAT operation, but further reporting confirmed it was only a run of the mill; police kick the door in and arrest everyone inside, kind of raid. And I am also certain if someone in the store had twitched at the wrong time, they would have shot to death in an entirely different way than a SWAT team would have done it.
On the other hand, it does show there are people who, when they reach a certain level of authority, acquire a "do it my way, or I'll send men with guns to your house" attitude.
There is a Gresham's Law of laws - bad laws drive out good. Once people who we do not know, cannot reason with, and who do not care whether we live or die, have taken over our lives and the decisions which used to be ours alone to make, we are loath to surrender the remaining scraps of freedom do anyone even if they be our neighbors and no matter the potential benefit.
Acairfearann, do not take counsel of your fears. Not needing to be ruled is not the same as not wanting rules and people's desire to be free enables rather than inhibits the development of stable prosperous societies. And know this: if you are reluctant to allow yourself and your neighbors to make what decisions you deem proper and necessary, there are people with guns who will gladly take that burden from you, but good luck getting it back once it has been surrendered.
Interesting, but I am not sure about the validity of the statement 'those who don't need to be ruled'. Obviously, there are many people who don't need government as a large bureaucracy. But, the phrase implies to me, and I may be misreading it in which case my apologies, that 'rule' is a negative which has no benefit to the individual. The problem with that is that any sort of cooperative, social action, which is the sort of action that allows the development of human society, requires the community to agree upon rules. And at some point your interpretation of the rule and your friend's interpretation is going to be different. Or for that matter the best way to build the bridge, best place to dig the well, the irrigation channel... And someone is going to have to decide, because constantly flipping a coin to make critical decisions creates an element of risk that tends to discourage activity in the long run.
'Rule' isn't just about negative punishments, it is also about agreed upon standards to create a society, be it neolithic Scotland or 21st century cities.
This is a tired argument and an old argument - I suspect one could find Plato using some form of it to justify the need for philosopher kings. It is an argument claiming the desire of people to be free ultimately leads to a dystopian chaos - Acairfearann has replaced Thunderdome with a coin toss, but the conclusion is the same - life becomes nasty, brutish, and short. It is an argument which cannot be refuted often enough or strongly enough.
What prompted my response however, were the examples of the kinds of rules Acairfearann fears would be lost in the inevitable anarchy. After over a quarter century in the field of civil engineering, I am familiar with regulations regarding bridges, ditches, and wells - both the rules themselves and the reasoning behind them, and Acairfearann's reasoning is exactly backwards - these standards are both the cause and result of people's desire to be free. The threat to the stability provided by these agreed upon standards comes not from those who do not need to be ruled, but from those who must rule.
Even the most cursory investigation of state, county, and local building, and development codes reveals some general themes:
First, those who administer and enforce them generally understand they are providing a service contracted by, and paid for by the citizens of their jurisdiction. When I call requesting information, whether from a local building inspector or county engineer, they call me back, send me copies of the records I request, or direct me to someone who can answer my questions. In short, they act as stakeholders who realize my work creates value, and thus, they also benefit from facilitating rather than hindering that work.
Secondly, local design and development codes represent hard earned knowledge. They are examples of “small e" empiricism and it is probably not too much of a stretch to say every item in the regulations represents a lesson learned from a flooded property, collapsed house, or a person sick, injured, or dead.
Additionally, the more local the authority, the less opportunity for rent seeking. There may be requirements for how far from the property line a house can be built, but nothing which says only Joe's Surveying Company has the magical measuring devices to tell if a building is conforming to code.
Further, the real consequences of violating the rules far outweigh the statutory consequences. If you construct your well too close to your septic system, you will be subject to fines, or the cost of moving one or the other. But these burdens are nothing compared to the impact on your health.
Finally, all of the above presume competence. The local officials and staff who administer the various agencies take for granted the people they deal with are capable of reading, understanding, and complying with the regulations. Plans are reviewed beforehand, and projects inspected afterwards on the assumption the work was performed in good faith and any problems can be discovered and fixed.
Acairfearann, the people responsible for enforcing the standards of the locality where you dwell consider you competent to arrange for building a home, excavating an irrigation channel, and for all I know, constructing a skyscraper, but do you know what you are not competent to do?
Buy light bulbs.
That is not my opinion - I'll bet you could manage it, and everyone in your town probably thinks so too, but the good people at the U.S. Department of Energy believe that given the choice of what kind of light bulbs to buy, you'll blow it, and they have the power to make you only buy what they approve.
Oh, and by federal statute, you are utterly incapable of deciding how much water your toilet should use when you flush it.
And, of course you do not have the faintest clue of what you should eat. Why, if left to your own devices you would shove any old thing into your mouth.
Actually, that last one is kind of interesting. Apparently California law enforcement, with the support of the Food and Drug Administration, raided a store which was selling people who wanted it, raw milk. It was originally reported to be a SWAT operation, but further reporting confirmed it was only a run of the mill; police kick the door in and arrest everyone inside, kind of raid. And I am also certain if someone in the store had twitched at the wrong time, they would have shot to death in an entirely different way than a SWAT team would have done it.
On the other hand, it does show there are people who, when they reach a certain level of authority, acquire a "do it my way, or I'll send men with guns to your house" attitude.
There is a Gresham's Law of laws - bad laws drive out good. Once people who we do not know, cannot reason with, and who do not care whether we live or die, have taken over our lives and the decisions which used to be ours alone to make, we are loath to surrender the remaining scraps of freedom do anyone even if they be our neighbors and no matter the potential benefit.
Acairfearann, do not take counsel of your fears. Not needing to be ruled is not the same as not wanting rules and people's desire to be free enables rather than inhibits the development of stable prosperous societies. And know this: if you are reluctant to allow yourself and your neighbors to make what decisions you deem proper and necessary, there are people with guns who will gladly take that burden from you, but good luck getting it back once it has been surrendered.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Concord Bridge or Fort Sumter Part III
Part I of my attempt to bring some order to my thoughts about politics and human nature is here, and Part II is here.
At the end of Part II, commenter Fast Richard raised an interesting point:
He sees a three-sided conflict: more or less right versus left, with the government standing by as spectator/referee.
First, I think all internal conflict is always between citizens. The Bonus Army were citizens, and so were the soldiers who drove them out of Washington. The same for the New York Police and the occupy Wall Street protestors, and for that matter, the people on both sides of the fence at Waco were citizens.
I think it is a mistake to think of government as an entity in itself. Better to think of it as simply the means by which one group of citizens accomplishes its ends.
That is why I like the terms "those who must rule", and those "who don't need to be ruled" - they clear away the ideological baggage and let us get down to cases.
Assuming you are not self-employed, you have a boss who tells you what to do and holds your paycheck over your head to make you do it. Tough though that circumstance may be, you can always quit, and then if your boss kicks in your door at three a.m. to make you finish that project you left undone, you can kick him right back out. No more paycheck; no more work.
That kind of relationship is anathema to those who must rule. Take Elizabeth Warren for example. I don't have any specific brief against her, she is interchangeable with thousands of other brilliant, hard working, accomplished, professors emeritus of something or other, chairs of the president's council of what all and whatnot, and judging from her speeches, someone with a pathological need to rule. She is better than you, smarter than you, and knows what you need to be made to do for your own good. And when her need to rule results in your door being kicked open at three a.m., it is not going to be Liz Warren coming in, it's going to be people who don't take no for an answer - good luck kicking them back out.
As far as mine and the occupy folk's arguments being substantially similar: At its core, mine is that those who must rule are running out of other people's money and are going to use every means of government to squeeze the rest of us for what they need. While the people of Zuccotti Park believe that those who must rule are running out of other people's money and should use every means of government to squeeze the rest of us for what they need. That one word makes a big difference.
I suppose you could say the beliefs of those who must rule and those who do not need to be ruled are substantially similar - the same way you and the guy pointing the gun at you and demanding your wallet have a lot in common - both of you participating in an armed robbery and all.
At the end of Part II, commenter Fast Richard raised an interesting point:
A civil war would only incidentally involve conflict between the government and the citizens. The primary conflict would be between factions of the citizenry. You present arguments which are substantially similar to what I have heard recently from the leftists of the occupy mobs. I suspect that the desired final state of society might be different.
He sees a three-sided conflict: more or less right versus left, with the government standing by as spectator/referee.
First, I think all internal conflict is always between citizens. The Bonus Army were citizens, and so were the soldiers who drove them out of Washington. The same for the New York Police and the occupy Wall Street protestors, and for that matter, the people on both sides of the fence at Waco were citizens.
I think it is a mistake to think of government as an entity in itself. Better to think of it as simply the means by which one group of citizens accomplishes its ends.
That is why I like the terms "those who must rule", and those "who don't need to be ruled" - they clear away the ideological baggage and let us get down to cases.
Assuming you are not self-employed, you have a boss who tells you what to do and holds your paycheck over your head to make you do it. Tough though that circumstance may be, you can always quit, and then if your boss kicks in your door at three a.m. to make you finish that project you left undone, you can kick him right back out. No more paycheck; no more work.
That kind of relationship is anathema to those who must rule. Take Elizabeth Warren for example. I don't have any specific brief against her, she is interchangeable with thousands of other brilliant, hard working, accomplished, professors emeritus of something or other, chairs of the president's council of what all and whatnot, and judging from her speeches, someone with a pathological need to rule. She is better than you, smarter than you, and knows what you need to be made to do for your own good. And when her need to rule results in your door being kicked open at three a.m., it is not going to be Liz Warren coming in, it's going to be people who don't take no for an answer - good luck kicking them back out.
As far as mine and the occupy folk's arguments being substantially similar: At its core, mine is that those who must rule are running out of other people's money and are going to use every means of government to squeeze the rest of us for what they need. While the people of Zuccotti Park believe that those who must rule are running out of other people's money and should use every means of government to squeeze the rest of us for what they need. That one word makes a big difference.
I suppose you could say the beliefs of those who must rule and those who do not need to be ruled are substantially similar - the same way you and the guy pointing the gun at you and demanding your wallet have a lot in common - both of you participating in an armed robbery and all.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Obligation
In the process of writing this post, I said to myself, "Damn Mike, those are some pretty strong words for a chubby guy in a recliner. Maybe you should tone is down some."
When my reason, such as it is, leads me to a conclusion, and that conclusion is disturbing, I turn around, walk back and try again. If my best attempts still lead me to the same conclusion no matter what direction I come at the problem from, I write it.
Besides, I thought, who except me is ever going to read this stuff? It is not like reactivating a dormant blog so I have someplace to put the things which have been bottled up inside me for the past two years is even going to create a ripple on the surface of the internet.
So, along comes Tam and links to my post - thank you Tam.
With the attention came comments from good and honorable people who felt I was selling them short. Since the commenters took pains to point out they were on the side of the angels, and since I would like to be counted on that side as well, I am obligated to respond as clearly and honestly as I know how.
One comment mentions Oathkeepers, and they were in the back of my mind as the exception to my conclusion that all but a small percentage of those who do the day-to-day work of governing long ago decided they serve not the republic, but whoever signs their paycheck. I cannot guess what role the Oathkeepers and those like them will play in the coming years. But simply saying out loud that they intend to honor the promise they made when they put on the uniform causes enemies of liberty to explode in rage, and thus self identify. That means they are doing good right here and now.
And, I hope the commenters are right and I am wrong. I hope I am just some internet blabbermouth, and when the time comes, the country's public servants, and not just those in uniform, will take a stand on the side of people they serve and not their paymasters. I can live with knowing I am just a loud mouthed jerk with a computer, because that will mean all sorts of other, darker consequences will not have come to pass.
But I don't think so. I think my conclusion still stands.
Read this article from the New York Times. There is enough in a few column inches to make any decent person ill. If the picture accompanying is no longer linked to the article, here is the caption:
And, if you can no longer see it, the protesting police are carrying signs reading "Just Following Orders".
Just Following Orders?
Dear God.
Looking at the picture I can imagine I am seeing, fathers, husbands, little league coaches, and church goers. I know I am also seeing men who participated in the establishment of a feudal fiefdom.
I can think of no other term for it. The rulers of the city and their servants granted one another exemptions from the laws they enforced on the lower orders. You might call it privilege of rank, or benefit of clergy, but it is feudalism in its purest form. The police provided service for those above in return for their protection. Read closely and you see their anger is directed at those above who violated the oath of fealty - one of their own estate, a prosecutor, betrayed them.
Do you think they made their choice just that day? That the sight of their comrades being arrested turned them from honorable men to thugs in one moment? Nothing I know of history and human nature tells me that is how it works. Their choice was made in bits and pieces over time - theirs was a hand dealt years ago, and the day the picture was taken was merely the day they turned their cards over.
In New York, hundreds of police came out at the request of their union to protest what they believed to be a stab in the back by someone on their own side - if there were any who had second thoughts about the justness of their cause - I could not see them.
If a real crisis hits, and I believe it will - I believe we are heading for a convulsive time, and the mayor, police commissioner, and police chief need the support of the rank and file, do you think they will hesitate to reinstate old privileges in return for that support?
The question will not be who do you serve, it will be what is your price?
Not just in New York, but in bankrupt cities and states everywhere, the consequences of decades old decisions are going to be played out. And it won't be just the police who will be revealing the choices they made, every person who is paid from the public treasury will be laying their cards on the table.
Republics fail the same way people go bankrupt - slowly at first, then all at once. I do not pretend to know where we are on that continuum, but I know when those who must rule need to ensure the loyalty of those who carry out their will, a man in a black uniform with a deaths-head badge is a lot less effective than an accountant asking if you would like to keep your pension.
When my reason, such as it is, leads me to a conclusion, and that conclusion is disturbing, I turn around, walk back and try again. If my best attempts still lead me to the same conclusion no matter what direction I come at the problem from, I write it.
Besides, I thought, who except me is ever going to read this stuff? It is not like reactivating a dormant blog so I have someplace to put the things which have been bottled up inside me for the past two years is even going to create a ripple on the surface of the internet.
So, along comes Tam and links to my post - thank you Tam.
With the attention came comments from good and honorable people who felt I was selling them short. Since the commenters took pains to point out they were on the side of the angels, and since I would like to be counted on that side as well, I am obligated to respond as clearly and honestly as I know how.
One comment mentions Oathkeepers, and they were in the back of my mind as the exception to my conclusion that all but a small percentage of those who do the day-to-day work of governing long ago decided they serve not the republic, but whoever signs their paycheck. I cannot guess what role the Oathkeepers and those like them will play in the coming years. But simply saying out loud that they intend to honor the promise they made when they put on the uniform causes enemies of liberty to explode in rage, and thus self identify. That means they are doing good right here and now.
And, I hope the commenters are right and I am wrong. I hope I am just some internet blabbermouth, and when the time comes, the country's public servants, and not just those in uniform, will take a stand on the side of people they serve and not their paymasters. I can live with knowing I am just a loud mouthed jerk with a computer, because that will mean all sorts of other, darker consequences will not have come to pass.
But I don't think so. I think my conclusion still stands.
Read this article from the New York Times. There is enough in a few column inches to make any decent person ill. If the picture accompanying is no longer linked to the article, here is the caption:
Hundreds of off-duty officers gathered on Friday at the Bronx County Hall of Justice, backing 16 colleagues in a ticket-fixing case.
And, if you can no longer see it, the protesting police are carrying signs reading "Just Following Orders".
Just Following Orders?
Dear God.
Looking at the picture I can imagine I am seeing, fathers, husbands, little league coaches, and church goers. I know I am also seeing men who participated in the establishment of a feudal fiefdom.
I can think of no other term for it. The rulers of the city and their servants granted one another exemptions from the laws they enforced on the lower orders. You might call it privilege of rank, or benefit of clergy, but it is feudalism in its purest form. The police provided service for those above in return for their protection. Read closely and you see their anger is directed at those above who violated the oath of fealty - one of their own estate, a prosecutor, betrayed them.
Do you think they made their choice just that day? That the sight of their comrades being arrested turned them from honorable men to thugs in one moment? Nothing I know of history and human nature tells me that is how it works. Their choice was made in bits and pieces over time - theirs was a hand dealt years ago, and the day the picture was taken was merely the day they turned their cards over.
In New York, hundreds of police came out at the request of their union to protest what they believed to be a stab in the back by someone on their own side - if there were any who had second thoughts about the justness of their cause - I could not see them.
If a real crisis hits, and I believe it will - I believe we are heading for a convulsive time, and the mayor, police commissioner, and police chief need the support of the rank and file, do you think they will hesitate to reinstate old privileges in return for that support?
The question will not be who do you serve, it will be what is your price?
Not just in New York, but in bankrupt cities and states everywhere, the consequences of decades old decisions are going to be played out. And it won't be just the police who will be revealing the choices they made, every person who is paid from the public treasury will be laying their cards on the table.
Republics fail the same way people go bankrupt - slowly at first, then all at once. I do not pretend to know where we are on that continuum, but I know when those who must rule need to ensure the loyalty of those who carry out their will, a man in a black uniform with a deaths-head badge is a lot less effective than an accountant asking if you would like to keep your pension.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Concord Bridge or Fort Sumter Part II
Part I of my attempt to bring some order to my thoughts about politics and human nature is here.
Things which are unsustainable obviously will not be sustained, and the current political order in the United States is unsustainable. It is difficult not to see in today's heated rhetoric and occasional violence - though mild compared to what has happened in other places - the first breezes heralding the approaching storm.
In my previous entry, I attempted to define the opposing world views which make the conflict inevitable. I described them not as liberal or conservative, democrat or republican, or red or blue - these are meaningless labels - the modern equivalent of Guelph and Ghibelline . The next civil war will be between those who must rule, and those who have little need for rulers, and it will not flare into violence until the latter change into those who will not be ruled.
I use the term civil war simply to refer to a conflict between people who are citizens of the same country, so banish thoughts of Pickett's Charge, and Sherman's March - it will not be that kind of civil war.
The reason it won't be, is not because those who must rule are enlightened and wouldn't think of launching a scorched earth offensive through the cities and neighborhoods of those who defy them. It has happened before in this country, and it would be folly to believe the police, national guard, regular military and all the others who draw a paycheck from the state would refuse orders to make war on their fellow citizens. I would like to believe that would be the case, but the still standing chimneys of the long gone homes which once stood between Atlanta and Savannah argue against a naive trust on the better angels of human nature.
Money is the reason the conflict will not resemble that of 1861-1865. That war was mostly fought on credit, and the federal government's credit was good enough that it could issue debt to finance its efforts - even the the confederate states could, until the last days of the conflict, still purchase weapons and material on loans mortgaged against their future cotton production.
This is not the case today. Even though U.S. debt still has some value, that value would evaporate if the already nearly bankrupt federal government were to try to finance a fight against a rebellion. If you think the Iraq/Afghanistan wars were expensive, imagine the cost of those same kind of operations covering the continental U.S.
But just as the central government does not have the wherewithal to mount a continent-wide counter insurgency; no other group has the wherewithal to mount a threat which would require it. With all due respect to constitutional militia groups, while I do think citizen militia will have an increasingly important role in the coming decades, that role will not be as the thin line of resistance standing athwart the path of some statist behemoth which has finally crossed into tyranny.
You may say a government whose employees stick their hands up ladies skirts before letting them board airplanes, and supplies weapons to the vilest gangsters in the hemisphere so it can use the resulting carnage as a justification to curtail our rights at home, has already become tyrannical - and I agree with you, but do the people who live up and down your street also agree?
Doubtful.
No, make that extremely doubtful. Here in Ohio we just had an election where the biggest issue was a referendum on repealing a pension reform package which would have just slightly slowed the gravy train for public employees. The public sector unions and their allies spent thirty million dollars to convince voters that asking state employees to contribute a few percent of their pay to fund their otherwise completely tax financed salary, benefit, and retirement packages, would leave the police helpless to stop crime, the fire departments without water, and death and destruction just around the corner. The rubes bought it and repealed the reforms by a two to one margin. So no, to the vast majority of our countrymen the idea that friendly Mr. Policeman and brave Mr. Firemen, and selfless Mrs. Teacher could ever be agents of a despotic government would be an absurdity.
But the cost of those pay and benefit obligations has been going steadily up, while the revenue required to cover them has gone down. Those who must rule have established a regime where the support of half of the population is purchased by plundering and then distributing the wealth of the other half. The problem is the money is running out.
Even if those who must rule suddenly realize the trap they are in, do you think their allies - the ones who supported them, collected the taxes for them, distributed propaganda for them, enforced the laws for them, and depended on their largess for daily bread, will also just walk away saying, "No pension for me, I guess I backed the wrong horse." I can't think of a metaphor to illustrate the minuscule chance of that happening.
Mr. Vanderboegh has said that law enforcement officers must "Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve". It is important that the question be publicly put to those we trust to enforce the law, but I believe it contains within itself its own negation - the "This Day" part. All but a small percentage of police and for that matter, everyone who draws a paycheck from the state, made their choice years or decades ago - they chose the cause of their paymaster.
Things which are unsustainable obviously will not be sustained, and the current political order in the United States is unsustainable. It is difficult not to see in today's heated rhetoric and occasional violence - though mild compared to what has happened in other places - the first breezes heralding the approaching storm.
In my previous entry, I attempted to define the opposing world views which make the conflict inevitable. I described them not as liberal or conservative, democrat or republican, or red or blue - these are meaningless labels - the modern equivalent of Guelph and Ghibelline . The next civil war will be between those who must rule, and those who have little need for rulers, and it will not flare into violence until the latter change into those who will not be ruled.
I use the term civil war simply to refer to a conflict between people who are citizens of the same country, so banish thoughts of Pickett's Charge, and Sherman's March - it will not be that kind of civil war.
The reason it won't be, is not because those who must rule are enlightened and wouldn't think of launching a scorched earth offensive through the cities and neighborhoods of those who defy them. It has happened before in this country, and it would be folly to believe the police, national guard, regular military and all the others who draw a paycheck from the state would refuse orders to make war on their fellow citizens. I would like to believe that would be the case, but the still standing chimneys of the long gone homes which once stood between Atlanta and Savannah argue against a naive trust on the better angels of human nature.
Money is the reason the conflict will not resemble that of 1861-1865. That war was mostly fought on credit, and the federal government's credit was good enough that it could issue debt to finance its efforts - even the the confederate states could, until the last days of the conflict, still purchase weapons and material on loans mortgaged against their future cotton production.
This is not the case today. Even though U.S. debt still has some value, that value would evaporate if the already nearly bankrupt federal government were to try to finance a fight against a rebellion. If you think the Iraq/Afghanistan wars were expensive, imagine the cost of those same kind of operations covering the continental U.S.
But just as the central government does not have the wherewithal to mount a continent-wide counter insurgency; no other group has the wherewithal to mount a threat which would require it. With all due respect to constitutional militia groups, while I do think citizen militia will have an increasingly important role in the coming decades, that role will not be as the thin line of resistance standing athwart the path of some statist behemoth which has finally crossed into tyranny.
You may say a government whose employees stick their hands up ladies skirts before letting them board airplanes, and supplies weapons to the vilest gangsters in the hemisphere so it can use the resulting carnage as a justification to curtail our rights at home, has already become tyrannical - and I agree with you, but do the people who live up and down your street also agree?
Doubtful.
No, make that extremely doubtful. Here in Ohio we just had an election where the biggest issue was a referendum on repealing a pension reform package which would have just slightly slowed the gravy train for public employees. The public sector unions and their allies spent thirty million dollars to convince voters that asking state employees to contribute a few percent of their pay to fund their otherwise completely tax financed salary, benefit, and retirement packages, would leave the police helpless to stop crime, the fire departments without water, and death and destruction just around the corner. The rubes bought it and repealed the reforms by a two to one margin. So no, to the vast majority of our countrymen the idea that friendly Mr. Policeman and brave Mr. Firemen, and selfless Mrs. Teacher could ever be agents of a despotic government would be an absurdity.
But the cost of those pay and benefit obligations has been going steadily up, while the revenue required to cover them has gone down. Those who must rule have established a regime where the support of half of the population is purchased by plundering and then distributing the wealth of the other half. The problem is the money is running out.
Even if those who must rule suddenly realize the trap they are in, do you think their allies - the ones who supported them, collected the taxes for them, distributed propaganda for them, enforced the laws for them, and depended on their largess for daily bread, will also just walk away saying, "No pension for me, I guess I backed the wrong horse." I can't think of a metaphor to illustrate the minuscule chance of that happening.
Mr. Vanderboegh has said that law enforcement officers must "Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve". It is important that the question be publicly put to those we trust to enforce the law, but I believe it contains within itself its own negation - the "This Day" part. All but a small percentage of police and for that matter, everyone who draws a paycheck from the state, made their choice years or decades ago - they chose the cause of their paymaster.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Bust the Joint Out
It was not unexpected. The Ohio voters decided it was an offer they couldn't refuse. Now, the inevitable consequences will start to accrue. Our electorate has decided "Fuck You Pay Me" sounds good.
It is a matter of morbid curiosity for me what the "Bust the Joint Out" phase will entail.
It is a matter of morbid curiosity for me what the "Bust the Joint Out" phase will entail.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Concord Bridge or Fort Sumter Part I
Joe Huffman used for a recent quote of the day a bit from Mike Vanderboegh's post titled "Choose This Day Whom you Will Serve".
Mr. Vanderboegh posits and Mr. Huffman concurs that hard times are on the horizon, and America's law enforcement officers will be forced to pick sides. Additionally, both men, after their own fashion, warn that the police will not have an easy time of it should they choose unwisely.
Fair enough. Mr. Vanderboegh and Mr. Huffman are serious men, and are not given to bravado, and when they warn of approaching storms, we had best take heed.
But take heed of what? It is one thing to tell someone they will soon have to choose sides in a conflict and warn them of the consequences of choosing the wrong side, but that leaves some questions unanswered: What will the sides be? What kind of conflict will it be? And what will the consequences be?
What side has both Joe Huffman and Mike Vanderbeogh (and for that matter... me) on it?
You could call it the freedom lover's side, but that is a little imprecise - everyone, including drunks, addicts, perverts, and thieves loves freedom, so that won't do at all. As a flag of convenience, let’s call our side the written word side. We believe the rules by which the government must abide are written down in words; the words have meaning; the rules may be changed by consent, but words can never be arbitrarily made to mean their opposite. It is the side which believes the good of having the government prohibited from doing harm far outweighs the harm of having it obstructed from doing good. It is the side which believes in putting the government on a tight leash and never letting it loose.
The other side is less abstract, They are the elected officials, appointed bureaucrats, and the tenured university elite. In medieval history, they were the first and second estates - the aristocracy and the church. Circling them are an army of functionaries, purveyors, and petty officials, all hoping and hungry that some bit of power and legitimacy will flow downhill and accrue to them by their association with the ruling class.
The nobility may fight among themselves, we call these fights elections, history books call them dynastic wars, and while kings and popes may have struggled endlessly for power and prestige, on the issue of keeping the peasants firmly in place, they were of one mind.
Our side believes words must not be permitted to change meaning, so that regardless of innovations, technological revolutions, and social evolutions, each generation will know what the previous meant and thought.
The other side believes meanings must be divorced from words so that mere logical consistency will not impede the establishment of a static social order where their position on top is secured. The courtiers at Versailles constantly invented new dances, conversational tropes, and social rituals to act as barriers to entry and badges of status - what was new yesterday is outdated today, and if you can't keep up - back to the farm with you. The same is true today - ask anyone who has fallen afoul of a university speech code. Political correctness is a means of keeping the lower orders in their place. Use the wrong word, criticize the wrong politician, or hire the wrong person, and you will be dragged down.
The conflict between the two sides arises then as a natural result of who they are, and what they believe. It is an existential battle between those who are driven to rule over others, and those content to rule only themselves. Many in our current version of the first and second estates understand explicitly, and all understand at least implicitly, that it is meaningless to be a ruler without subjects - and no subjects may be had, if people are free to simply walk away and rule themselves.
The constitution was originally conceived to act as an impediment on the ambitions of neo-monarchists. The founders understood it was the natural tendency for some people to look for kings, and the natural tendency for others to cast themselves in that role. But freedom is a mechanism which requires constant vigilance, and those who wished to be kings encouraged those who feared living without rulers to attack the very idea of that vigilance.
Argue that divorcing words from their meanings is a deadly philosophy, and the best you can hope for is blank stares. Not many care, and many others actually approve of the fact that promoting the general welfare stopped meaning protecting citizen's livelihoods and now means redistributing wealth; regulating interstate commerce stopped meaning enabling trade, and now means an invitation to rent seeking; and that enumerated powers metastasized into a stack of regulations, enacted without the consent of the people, and used as a bludgeon to keep the populace in line.
The conflict then, is between one side which must... MUST rule over others, and another which cannot understand why anyone would want to.
Mr. Vanderboegh posits and Mr. Huffman concurs that hard times are on the horizon, and America's law enforcement officers will be forced to pick sides. Additionally, both men, after their own fashion, warn that the police will not have an easy time of it should they choose unwisely.
Fair enough. Mr. Vanderboegh and Mr. Huffman are serious men, and are not given to bravado, and when they warn of approaching storms, we had best take heed.
But take heed of what? It is one thing to tell someone they will soon have to choose sides in a conflict and warn them of the consequences of choosing the wrong side, but that leaves some questions unanswered: What will the sides be? What kind of conflict will it be? And what will the consequences be?
What side has both Joe Huffman and Mike Vanderbeogh (and for that matter... me) on it?
You could call it the freedom lover's side, but that is a little imprecise - everyone, including drunks, addicts, perverts, and thieves loves freedom, so that won't do at all. As a flag of convenience, let’s call our side the written word side. We believe the rules by which the government must abide are written down in words; the words have meaning; the rules may be changed by consent, but words can never be arbitrarily made to mean their opposite. It is the side which believes the good of having the government prohibited from doing harm far outweighs the harm of having it obstructed from doing good. It is the side which believes in putting the government on a tight leash and never letting it loose.
The other side is less abstract, They are the elected officials, appointed bureaucrats, and the tenured university elite. In medieval history, they were the first and second estates - the aristocracy and the church. Circling them are an army of functionaries, purveyors, and petty officials, all hoping and hungry that some bit of power and legitimacy will flow downhill and accrue to them by their association with the ruling class.
The nobility may fight among themselves, we call these fights elections, history books call them dynastic wars, and while kings and popes may have struggled endlessly for power and prestige, on the issue of keeping the peasants firmly in place, they were of one mind.
Our side believes words must not be permitted to change meaning, so that regardless of innovations, technological revolutions, and social evolutions, each generation will know what the previous meant and thought.
The other side believes meanings must be divorced from words so that mere logical consistency will not impede the establishment of a static social order where their position on top is secured. The courtiers at Versailles constantly invented new dances, conversational tropes, and social rituals to act as barriers to entry and badges of status - what was new yesterday is outdated today, and if you can't keep up - back to the farm with you. The same is true today - ask anyone who has fallen afoul of a university speech code. Political correctness is a means of keeping the lower orders in their place. Use the wrong word, criticize the wrong politician, or hire the wrong person, and you will be dragged down.
The conflict between the two sides arises then as a natural result of who they are, and what they believe. It is an existential battle between those who are driven to rule over others, and those content to rule only themselves. Many in our current version of the first and second estates understand explicitly, and all understand at least implicitly, that it is meaningless to be a ruler without subjects - and no subjects may be had, if people are free to simply walk away and rule themselves.
The constitution was originally conceived to act as an impediment on the ambitions of neo-monarchists. The founders understood it was the natural tendency for some people to look for kings, and the natural tendency for others to cast themselves in that role. But freedom is a mechanism which requires constant vigilance, and those who wished to be kings encouraged those who feared living without rulers to attack the very idea of that vigilance.
Argue that divorcing words from their meanings is a deadly philosophy, and the best you can hope for is blank stares. Not many care, and many others actually approve of the fact that promoting the general welfare stopped meaning protecting citizen's livelihoods and now means redistributing wealth; regulating interstate commerce stopped meaning enabling trade, and now means an invitation to rent seeking; and that enumerated powers metastasized into a stack of regulations, enacted without the consent of the people, and used as a bludgeon to keep the populace in line.
The conflict then, is between one side which must... MUST rule over others, and another which cannot understand why anyone would want to.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Two Cheers
I was at a party a while back, and the subject of libertarianism came up. Considering the makeup of the crowd, the opinion of the topic was one of almost universal approval.
Normally, I save my political rantings for more intimate venues (my wife gets to hear a lot of them - sorry honey), but I'd had a few drinks, and couldn't stop myself from playing devil's advocate.
The problem is, libertarianism is completely correct. Yep, the the whole program, liberty, personal responsibility, voluntary association - its entire intellectual foundation is logically and morally consistent, so there is almost no chance it will ever be anything but a fringe movement.
Imagine a modern person transported back to fifteenth century Germany - arriving in a large field where the townsfolk are dragging an old lady to the stake to be burned for a witch.
"Wait!" Screams our hero, "There is no such thing as a witch. This woman is innocent. Your crops failed and your cows went dry from completely natural causes, and you should look for those instead of engaging in this useless behavior."
"Further," continues the visitor from the future, "Even if this poor old lady believed herself to be a witch, even if she went out on the night of the full moon, danced naked and offered her soul to Satan in return for earthly power, even if she went about casting curses on your fields and cattle, it only means she is as deluded as you. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A WITCH! Now stop this nonsense and find the real cause of your problems."
It makes no difference that everything he says is true - factual, absolutely, mind-of god true. The mob will grab him and toss him in to burn with the witch.
It is an iron rule: Denying the existence of witches means you are one.
But, you say, those are ignorant peasants; us modern folk would never fall victim to base superstition.
Oh, yeah? Try the same kind of speech as above in Zuccotti Park, but substitute bankers for witches as the authors of all the world's ills, and see what you get - hopefully not burned at the stake, but don't bet the house on it.
Hyperbole? We have just left a century where cynical men directed the rage of the masses against Jews, capitalists, hoarders, wreckers, polluters of racial purity, and other imagined enemies. The result was a pyramid of a hundred million skulls. The context may have been different, but the unbroken chain connecting those atrocities to the witch hunts of the distant past was the eagerness of people to throw their neighbors onto the pyre.
So, to all you Free-Staters, Reason Magazine readers, and Cato Institute supporters, I am with you sixty six and sixty seven one hundredths percent, but remember, the vast majority of our species wants, needs, and seeks witches to burn - because witch hunts are less terrifying than freedom.
Normally, I save my political rantings for more intimate venues (my wife gets to hear a lot of them - sorry honey), but I'd had a few drinks, and couldn't stop myself from playing devil's advocate.
The problem is, libertarianism is completely correct. Yep, the the whole program, liberty, personal responsibility, voluntary association - its entire intellectual foundation is logically and morally consistent, so there is almost no chance it will ever be anything but a fringe movement.
Imagine a modern person transported back to fifteenth century Germany - arriving in a large field where the townsfolk are dragging an old lady to the stake to be burned for a witch.
"Wait!" Screams our hero, "There is no such thing as a witch. This woman is innocent. Your crops failed and your cows went dry from completely natural causes, and you should look for those instead of engaging in this useless behavior."
"Further," continues the visitor from the future, "Even if this poor old lady believed herself to be a witch, even if she went out on the night of the full moon, danced naked and offered her soul to Satan in return for earthly power, even if she went about casting curses on your fields and cattle, it only means she is as deluded as you. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A WITCH! Now stop this nonsense and find the real cause of your problems."
It makes no difference that everything he says is true - factual, absolutely, mind-of god true. The mob will grab him and toss him in to burn with the witch.
It is an iron rule: Denying the existence of witches means you are one.
But, you say, those are ignorant peasants; us modern folk would never fall victim to base superstition.
Oh, yeah? Try the same kind of speech as above in Zuccotti Park, but substitute bankers for witches as the authors of all the world's ills, and see what you get - hopefully not burned at the stake, but don't bet the house on it.
Hyperbole? We have just left a century where cynical men directed the rage of the masses against Jews, capitalists, hoarders, wreckers, polluters of racial purity, and other imagined enemies. The result was a pyramid of a hundred million skulls. The context may have been different, but the unbroken chain connecting those atrocities to the witch hunts of the distant past was the eagerness of people to throw their neighbors onto the pyre.
So, to all you Free-Staters, Reason Magazine readers, and Cato Institute supporters, I am with you sixty six and sixty seven one hundredths percent, but remember, the vast majority of our species wants, needs, and seeks witches to burn - because witch hunts are less terrifying than freedom.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
I Withdraw My Consent
The president's executive order on student debt forgiveness is making all of the expected waves. It is a virtually empty gesture which will benefit the recipients little, and cost the taxpayers more, not a great deal more, but something more.
It is enlightening that an obviously cynical attempt to buy the votes of what is, considering the amount of debt they have accrued in return for virtually nothing - the country's stupidest demographic, has generated so much heat.
Read enough history though, and you realize that it is frequently the small things which act as the spark that ignites the blaze. That is why the first signals of great events are often missed by those doomed to suffer the consequences of those events.
The arrogant are attuned to the grandiose - if it is not a war, riot, flood, or some other world changing occurrence - if they are not central to the story, it simply doesn't matter.
Down here at worm level however, we aren't equipped to deal with the enormous. We are too busy navigating daily life to devote the effort to understand a trillion of anything, a debt crisis spanning a continent, or a meltdown in the real estate market. And even if we skipped changing the oil to spend time learning to read a balance sheet, it's not like there would be much we could do about it anyway.
Consequently, it is the more trivial abuses which weigh on the mind - a half billion in chump change to bail out a company whose CEO is a big democrat donor, a justice department raid on a business whose owner is too outspoken against the party, a little message coordination from the white house to the media to make sure they are all on the same page when it's time to slander the decent people who publicly protest the latest outrage - the steady, daily accumulation of insults which must go unanswered due to life's other commitments.
So, in response to Obama's latest, almost offhanded, bit of machine politics, I have an inconsequential reply.
I withdraw my consent. This is not my government, and the man sitting in the oval office is not my president - he is a tribal leader who has chosen to treat half the people of the country as enemies to be plundered to provide largess for his followers.
I know my withdrawal of consent changes nothing. I know that if I offer any meaningful resistance to the rulers of this country they will not hesitate to use force to compel me to bend my knee. I know our aristocracy sees me as less than dirt and views what meager wealth I have as a resource to exploit for their own benefit. I know they would not hesitate to take the food from my family's mouth and leave us to starve so that their dogs might eat. And I know they consider all these things to be right and just and proper because I am not of their tribe.
I know all these things; I am not stupid.
My withdrawal of consent changes nothing - almost nothing. It changes me, and I am not stupid. If I realize these things, so must others, and hopefully many others, and perhaps those who think of themselves as rightfully our rulers will be so fixated on the grand events of their making, they won't notice the crowd behind them until it is too late.
It is enlightening that an obviously cynical attempt to buy the votes of what is, considering the amount of debt they have accrued in return for virtually nothing - the country's stupidest demographic, has generated so much heat.
Read enough history though, and you realize that it is frequently the small things which act as the spark that ignites the blaze. That is why the first signals of great events are often missed by those doomed to suffer the consequences of those events.
The arrogant are attuned to the grandiose - if it is not a war, riot, flood, or some other world changing occurrence - if they are not central to the story, it simply doesn't matter.
Down here at worm level however, we aren't equipped to deal with the enormous. We are too busy navigating daily life to devote the effort to understand a trillion of anything, a debt crisis spanning a continent, or a meltdown in the real estate market. And even if we skipped changing the oil to spend time learning to read a balance sheet, it's not like there would be much we could do about it anyway.
Consequently, it is the more trivial abuses which weigh on the mind - a half billion in chump change to bail out a company whose CEO is a big democrat donor, a justice department raid on a business whose owner is too outspoken against the party, a little message coordination from the white house to the media to make sure they are all on the same page when it's time to slander the decent people who publicly protest the latest outrage - the steady, daily accumulation of insults which must go unanswered due to life's other commitments.
So, in response to Obama's latest, almost offhanded, bit of machine politics, I have an inconsequential reply.
I withdraw my consent. This is not my government, and the man sitting in the oval office is not my president - he is a tribal leader who has chosen to treat half the people of the country as enemies to be plundered to provide largess for his followers.
I know my withdrawal of consent changes nothing. I know that if I offer any meaningful resistance to the rulers of this country they will not hesitate to use force to compel me to bend my knee. I know our aristocracy sees me as less than dirt and views what meager wealth I have as a resource to exploit for their own benefit. I know they would not hesitate to take the food from my family's mouth and leave us to starve so that their dogs might eat. And I know they consider all these things to be right and just and proper because I am not of their tribe.
I know all these things; I am not stupid.
My withdrawal of consent changes nothing - almost nothing. It changes me, and I am not stupid. If I realize these things, so must others, and hopefully many others, and perhaps those who think of themselves as rightfully our rulers will be so fixated on the grand events of their making, they won't notice the crowd behind them until it is too late.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
When Ignorance is Bliss
Saw Breda's link to the story about the Occupy Folk and their problems organizing a society. At first of course, I laughed at their dilemma. Who wouldn't? But then I realized theirs is the problem of every age. And at the risk of sounding faux-philosophical, we all struggle to come up with a framework to explain the world we live in.
It is no small task - the consequences of where to live, where to work, whether to have children, and every other decision, accrue from our ability to establish a reasonably accurate mental map of our world. Nobody wants to be the one who spent a lifetime learning to captain a whaling ship - just as the world switched to gaslight.
The protestors are in that position. To judge by the number of them who demand student loan forgiveness, these spiritual descendents of the campus radicals of the sixties have gone deeply into debt to buy the magic beans offered by the education industry. But, where their forebears were at least exposed to the greatness of western intellectual achievement before consciously deciding to piss it all away, these poor fools have been steeped in nothing but empty platitudes tarted up as learning. This leaves them with nothing - they may reject the rejection-ism they have been indoctrinated with, but that is not the same as creating. Old ways of thinking cannot be abandoned if there are no alternatives available.
This is a generation which has been led into the wilderness and abandoned - I pity them and I fear for them.
It is no small task - the consequences of where to live, where to work, whether to have children, and every other decision, accrue from our ability to establish a reasonably accurate mental map of our world. Nobody wants to be the one who spent a lifetime learning to captain a whaling ship - just as the world switched to gaslight.
The protestors are in that position. To judge by the number of them who demand student loan forgiveness, these spiritual descendents of the campus radicals of the sixties have gone deeply into debt to buy the magic beans offered by the education industry. But, where their forebears were at least exposed to the greatness of western intellectual achievement before consciously deciding to piss it all away, these poor fools have been steeped in nothing but empty platitudes tarted up as learning. This leaves them with nothing - they may reject the rejection-ism they have been indoctrinated with, but that is not the same as creating. Old ways of thinking cannot be abandoned if there are no alternatives available.
This is a generation which has been led into the wilderness and abandoned - I pity them and I fear for them.
Friday, January 8, 2010
You Know The Guy
He's your supervisor. The control freak bully who tells you about the big project coming up, then puts off every decision about the scope and goals of said project. He doesn't reply to your emails, goes on vacation and can't be reached when you need answers, and loads you down with trivia instead of helping you clear your desk for the heavy workload you know is coming.
And finally, when the phone book sized proposal finally drops on your desk - months after it was promised - he has the gall to tell you the deadline has been moved up and it must be completed next week.
You know you're being set up, and there is an epic disaster fast approaching. You know when the hammer falls, your leader will be smirking and pointing the finger at you, and the itching you're feeling between your shoulder blades marks the spot where the knife is going to be.
What you can't figure out is if he is too stupid to see what is going to happen, or a sadist sacrificing the greater good for the evil pleasure of seeing someone crushed, or a just lunatic who fantasizes you are an enemy to be destroyed and damn the consequences.
This foul pustule now has a name... Commander in Chief.
I didn't think is was possible to hold this wart on the nation's ass in greater contempt.
I was wrong.
And finally, when the phone book sized proposal finally drops on your desk - months after it was promised - he has the gall to tell you the deadline has been moved up and it must be completed next week.
You know you're being set up, and there is an epic disaster fast approaching. You know when the hammer falls, your leader will be smirking and pointing the finger at you, and the itching you're feeling between your shoulder blades marks the spot where the knife is going to be.
What you can't figure out is if he is too stupid to see what is going to happen, or a sadist sacrificing the greater good for the evil pleasure of seeing someone crushed, or a just lunatic who fantasizes you are an enemy to be destroyed and damn the consequences.
This foul pustule now has a name... Commander in Chief.
I didn't think is was possible to hold this wart on the nation's ass in greater contempt.
I was wrong.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
I have been trying...
... for a long time to try and get a handle not on what leftists believe - that's not really a problem - they will tell you what they believe until you are ready to stick a soldering iron in your ears just so your screaming can drown out their ceaseless blathering. And not on why they believe what they do - spend time with any four year old, and you will understand an unshakable belief in Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth Fairy is their default position. In fact, one could say the path to adulthood is is marked by the slow erosion of fantasy, and its replacement by something approaching reality.
No, what I have been unable to grasp is how an adult can cling, in the face of obvious and irrefutable evidence, to the utterly irrational leftist orthodoxy which prevails on every subject from economics to guns to global warming. It has always stumped me.
And then I found this...
It is not a perfect answer, but it does help with the problem of perspective - and that is a start.
No, what I have been unable to grasp is how an adult can cling, in the face of obvious and irrefutable evidence, to the utterly irrational leftist orthodoxy which prevails on every subject from economics to guns to global warming. It has always stumped me.
And then I found this...
It is not a perfect answer, but it does help with the problem of perspective - and that is a start.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Sometimes I Could Just Weep
Over the past year, I have been discovering a little bit how they must have felt during the Stalin era:
Every day you are confronted with stark evidence the country is falling apart around you, and every day, some apparatchik stands up and says, "Glorious news comrades. The wheat harvest is five times larger (larger than what, they never say), unemployment is non-existent, and all that is keeping us from achieving world-wide socialist revolution are a few filthy reactionary wreckers and hoarders!"
After a while, it's just too much effort to dig the accumulated bullshit out of your ears, and you stop fighting against the never ending tide of people who insist you can shine your shoes with fertilizer and the great plains are a perfect place for hydro-electric dams.
People like Michael Bennet (asshole-Colorado):
... Sen. Michael Bennet says it will take new investments in education, energy and small businesses for America to fully recover from its economic slump.
We must dedicate ourselves anew to making nothing, using nothing, building nothing - just like our pioneer forefathers did when they didn't build this country. Only that way will we save enough to...
...to make this democracy deliver on these big ideas like the new energy ideas we're talking about—and how you base an economy that is not only based on consumption and spending but also savings and investment
Savings and investment are great because when you save and invest you aren't spending which is bad because that is another word for consuming. So that cash you were going to waste on groceries? Don't. Save or invest it - that way when you need it, you'll be dead. Which is a double-good thing because dead people don't consume stuff.
Michael Bennet must have an Ivy League degree. You can't get this kind of retarded from a State U. Let's just check Wikipedia for his C.V. shall we? He worked for Dick Celeste? As a proud Ohioan, all I can say is - Colorado, you are welcome to every bit of this tool.
I don't feel sick at all, so rest easy comrades, the last line of the article threatens he'll be back at work in the senate on January 19th.
Oh joy.
Every day you are confronted with stark evidence the country is falling apart around you, and every day, some apparatchik stands up and says, "Glorious news comrades. The wheat harvest is five times larger (larger than what, they never say), unemployment is non-existent, and all that is keeping us from achieving world-wide socialist revolution are a few filthy reactionary wreckers and hoarders!"
After a while, it's just too much effort to dig the accumulated bullshit out of your ears, and you stop fighting against the never ending tide of people who insist you can shine your shoes with fertilizer and the great plains are a perfect place for hydro-electric dams.
People like Michael Bennet (asshole-Colorado):
... Sen. Michael Bennet says it will take new investments in education, energy and small businesses for America to fully recover from its economic slump.
In a discussion Sunday with about 30 people from southwest Colorado, the Denver Democrat said the American economy is still too reliant on consumption
Yes, we have been wasteful - what with spending our money on ourselves, and you know... consuming things. Because an economy based on consumption does horrible consumptive things like pumping oil out of the ground and consuming it instead of leaving it in place to accumulate interest. And steel. Us horrible consumers have spent years turning it into cars and washing machines - melting those pristine ingots into stuff we are just going to use up. Oh the suffering this has caused for the steel producers - just when they get a pile of steel made, a bunch of grubby consumers show up, buy it from them and make things with it, and they have to start all over again. Why, its like some kind of scam.We must dedicate ourselves anew to making nothing, using nothing, building nothing - just like our pioneer forefathers did when they didn't build this country. Only that way will we save enough to...
...to make this democracy deliver on these big ideas like the new energy ideas we're talking about—and how you base an economy that is not only based on consumption and spending but also savings and investment
Savings and investment are great because when you save and invest you aren't spending which is bad because that is another word for consuming. So that cash you were going to waste on groceries? Don't. Save or invest it - that way when you need it, you'll be dead. Which is a double-good thing because dead people don't consume stuff.
Michael Bennet must have an Ivy League degree. You can't get this kind of retarded from a State U. Let's just check Wikipedia for his C.V. shall we? He worked for Dick Celeste? As a proud Ohioan, all I can say is - Colorado, you are welcome to every bit of this tool.
I don't feel sick at all, so rest easy comrades, the last line of the article threatens he'll be back at work in the senate on January 19th.
Oh joy.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Easy There...
A lot of people seem to be upset that Barbar is soaking up the tropical sun while the nation collapses. But having worked in places where having the boss out of the office is considered something of a vacation for those left behind, let me be the first to say I'll donate a couple of bucks to keep the sonovabitch in Hawaii for the next three years.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Big Thought Saturday
Occasionally, one of the voices of importance will say in effect, "We are going to have to accept the fact of our own decline. We must accustom ourselves to returning to being just one nation of many. We couldn't expect to be on top forever."
Is the American era ending?
Beats me.
But I can imagine some Roman Bigwig around the middle of fourth century saying the same things about the empire.
He was right, as in his prophecy proved correct.
Paradoxically, the words he used were wrong.
He should have said, "Pretty soon here, people will be coming to kick in your door, take your stuff, and burn your house. And we won't be able to stop them."
I wonder if he had said that, would the Romans have been more motivated to stand up for the idea of Rome? Or, had the men kicking in doors and taking stuff been their own government officials so long, that the people didn't see much difference between the new plunderers and the old?
Oh, by the way did you see the news?
Enough of this sort of thing and sharia law might start looking good to someone who just wants a little peace and quiet.
Is the American era ending?
Beats me.
But I can imagine some Roman Bigwig around the middle of fourth century saying the same things about the empire.
He was right, as in his prophecy proved correct.
Paradoxically, the words he used were wrong.
He should have said, "Pretty soon here, people will be coming to kick in your door, take your stuff, and burn your house. And we won't be able to stop them."
I wonder if he had said that, would the Romans have been more motivated to stand up for the idea of Rome? Or, had the men kicking in doors and taking stuff been their own government officials so long, that the people didn't see much difference between the new plunderers and the old?
Oh, by the way did you see the news?
Enough of this sort of thing and sharia law might start looking good to someone who just wants a little peace and quiet.
Friday, November 6, 2009
What's In The Box?
Let's play a game called "What's in the box?" It works like this - imagine a box (duh... why do you think we named it that you big silly), inside is either: 1. A pile of gold coins; or 2. An angry venomous snake.
You play this game by reaching in and grabbing... wait for it... WHAT'S IN THE BOX. Amusing, no?
It's a good game for cutting through pretense and revealing what people are really like.
Some folks won't play no matter how much they stand to gain - the fear of being bitten outweighs any possible benefit.
Some will say, "Gold? I'm going to get me some of that!" shove their arm into the box, and start grabbing around.
Others, will balance the risks against the rewards: How much gold? What kind of snake? What are the odds, what are my chances? They may end up bitten, but at least are making a stab at critical thought.
Others, will balance the risks against the rewards: How much gold? What kind of snake? What are the odds, what are my chances? They may end up bitten, but at least are making a stab at critical thought.
Note the symmetry - two ends and a middle in a neat package. This represents the world we deal with. Motivations are, if not entirely rational, at least understandable.
But there is a type of person who does not reside on this continuum. They can watch you put a snake in the box, shake it up to get the critter good and irritated, and even write "Warning! Live Angry Poisonous Snake Inside!" and still they will reach in the box. They act as though they believe the snake will be turned to gold by the force of their will; that the world is what they say it is.
Admittedly, it seems to work out that way often enough that people will start believing it is true. Bernie Madoff appeared able to turn snakes into gold... for a time.
Admittedly, it seems to work out that way often enough that people will start believing it is true. Bernie Madoff appeared able to turn snakes into gold... for a time.
For the non-continuum people, I don't think it's a question of gain or loss, but of control. They must prove the universe conforms to them, and not the other way around. It's not about the gold; it's about the winning. All challenges are personal, and none are small. There is no difference between a coin flip for a dinner check and a world war.
They are Kieth Olbermann.
They are Kieth Olbermann.
After watching this video, I was puzzled because I've been to a couple of tea parties, and from what I can tell, this is pretty much the identical group of people. There are Ayn Rand fans, Ron Paul Fans, Sarah Palin Fans, and a large contingent of "never protested anything in my life, but there is a trainwreck coming, and I want it stopped" fans. But if there were any racists present, they kept it well hidden. If you were to poll these people, you'd probably find they disagree on more issues than they agree on, but what they agree on outweighs minor quibbles about gay marriage, guns, and Iraq. What they agree on is stopping the trainwreck.
Over there on the continuum, the smart (at least smartish) members of the political class are watching and trying, bless their hearts, to figure out... What's In The Box. The democrats are hoping it's something that won't hurt them; the republicans are hoping it's something that will help them, and they're all hoping they aren't the one who gets pushed into the cellar with the candelabra and shovel to see what the noise is.
But Olbermann has decided the box is full of racists and hate mongers. Has to be - he has said so. By sheer force of will he's turned gold into snakes. He has a cable talk show, and the ear of The Ones Who Matter, and fans, and so on and on. The protesters are racists. Q.E.D.
Should you fall into one or the other of our broad political groups, you should be used to name calling (you commie, nazi, dimmocrat, republithug knuckle dragger). However, for those who are politically active for the first time, being reviled and, not always figuratively, spat upon, is probably a new experience. "Hi, I'm Kieth, and I'll be spitting on you this evening, we have a lovely little vitriol - a '72 I believe - goes with everything, and also some bile if you are in the mood. For dessert the chef his whipped up a little sneering condescension ."
Olbermann is not alone in turning gold into snakes. Similarly blessed are: the Washington Post, New York Times, the Speaker of the House, and the president along with his advisers.
In a democracy, a politician's future depends on finding and winning a constituency. And when one presents itself, giftwrapped in a box, a wise politician will at least make a pretense of listening to them. Hell, even an angry crowd is a crowd, and every politician needs crowd. Winning the crowd is how you stay in office - It's kind of expected.
Maybe, "win the crowd" means something different to non-continuum people. Maybe to them, it means, "In the next appropriations bill, we'll write an earmark for some bike path improvements, and a library." It is a time tested tactic for winning over even the crankiest voters. I'll bet Mr. and Mrs. Teaparty will go right home and shut up once they see the nifty new bike path they have been gifted. It really isn't a bad bet if you are the one doing the handing out. And has the added plus of letting you avoid mingling with, well frankly, the commoners.
Maybe, "win the crowd" means something different to non-continuum people. Maybe to them, it means, "In the next appropriations bill, we'll write an earmark for some bike path improvements, and a library." It is a time tested tactic for winning over even the crankiest voters. I'll bet Mr. and Mrs. Teaparty will go right home and shut up once they see the nifty new bike path they have been gifted. It really isn't a bad bet if you are the one doing the handing out. And has the added plus of letting you avoid mingling with, well frankly, the commoners.
The current crew in charge must figure, having once turned gold into snakes, the reverse is just as easy, and come next election, they are going to reach into that box and pull out handfuls of gold.
They think it's guaranteed.
They think it's guaranteed.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
About last night...
I haven't see this mentioned explicitly, but the next big fear for the Democrats is if things improve economically in Va. and N.J. - an alternative to their plans will have been shown to work.
Now, honesty compels me to admit the economy might improve on its own - the business cycle is hard to repress - even by our current ham-handed-dolts-in-charge.
But people being what they are - firmly convinced post hoc ergo propter hoc, the new governors in those states will get the credit anyway, and the dems know it.
They are trapped into wishing ill on the citizens of New Jersey and Virginia to advance their own (never let a good crisis go to waste) agenda.
Would a Chicago lawyer and product of the Cook County Democratic machine be so low as to try to sabotage any recovery in those states to punish them for voting wrong?
I'd like to think not. But people being what they are, it should be watched for nonetheless.
As I recall, no one believed a king would order the death of an archbishop.
Um... except for the guys who did the cutting -- I guess they believed it.
But that type of sycophantic follower never ends up near the seat of power anymore, because only kings and czars , not presidents, have any use for blindly obedient hatchet men.
Uh-huh.
I haven't see this mentioned explicitly, but the next big fear for the Democrats is if things improve economically in Va. and N.J. - an alternative to their plans will have been shown to work.
Now, honesty compels me to admit the economy might improve on its own - the business cycle is hard to repress - even by our current ham-handed-dolts-in-charge.
But people being what they are - firmly convinced post hoc ergo propter hoc, the new governors in those states will get the credit anyway, and the dems know it.
They are trapped into wishing ill on the citizens of New Jersey and Virginia to advance their own (never let a good crisis go to waste) agenda.
Would a Chicago lawyer and product of the Cook County Democratic machine be so low as to try to sabotage any recovery in those states to punish them for voting wrong?
I'd like to think not. But people being what they are, it should be watched for nonetheless.
As I recall, no one believed a king would order the death of an archbishop.
Um... except for the guys who did the cutting -- I guess they believed it.
But that type of sycophantic follower never ends up near the seat of power anymore, because only kings and czars , not presidents, have any use for blindly obedient hatchet men.
Uh-huh.
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