tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post5585979634170620161..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: What Freedom Is...And Isn’tFrancis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-12583792608377760852015-03-05T01:21:31.392-05:002015-03-05T01:21:31.392-05:00> The “sting in the tale” is Nozick’s concludin...> The “sting in the tale” is Nozick’s concluding question: At what point in this sequence is it no longer the tale of a slave?<br /><br />When a poison is diluted enough, it is no longer a poison. There are strengths of slavery: chattel, debt, forced labor, forced marriage. The question I quote above is a dull one because it assumes answers are black or white, rather than gray. Under every proposed libertarian system I've heard of, there are temporary partial restrictions on action while a conflict is being resolved.<br /><br />Perhaps you meant to ask a different question entirely, such as: at what point during this sequence does "government" stop being a parasite and start benefitting the individual?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-45001724867856756572015-03-03T16:12:49.414-05:002015-03-03T16:12:49.414-05:00Outstanding piece, Mr. Porretto. This piece will b...Outstanding piece, Mr. Porretto. This piece will become widely propagated.WalkingHorsenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-21468567726860285432015-03-03T13:47:49.740-05:002015-03-03T13:47:49.740-05:00What an excellent piece, Fran.
The social welfare...What an excellent piece, Fran.<br /><br />The social welfare state is the quintessential expression of the concept of political authority without responsibility. Fiscal bankruptcy is a direct result of the welfare beneficiaries' exercise of the franchise and the bleeding of productive citizens that precedes it is a matter of indifference to the winning electoral coalition. (And riots and the threat of riots are more powerful exercise of the franchise than any 10-minute visit to any polling place.)<br /><br />>> citizens were not responsible for the fashion in which they exerted their sovereign authority... other than through the tragic logic of history <<<br /><br />Right there is the encapsulation of last days of any polity. Solzhenitsyn spoke of the pitiless crowbar of events. Someone else observed that sooner or later all must bow down to Mars. Commies like to speak of the presence or absence of a revolutionary situation and Chinese in olden times spoke of the loss of the Mandate of Heaven. Christians (some) speak of the loss of God's protection. Political action unhooked to responsibility is monumentally irrational and that has been the inevitable goal to which English, European, and American systems have labored deliberately, intentionally, and with malice aforethought. Communist-dominated unions, welfare recipients, intellectuals, and feminists are powerful reservoirs of malevolence. The Treason Class and its absurdities and crimes is simply the apotheosis, the distillation, of these empowered lives of free-floating license and plunder. Open borders are, for example, open and obvious, concentrated, deliberate manifestations of pure malevolence.<br /><br />As Solzhenitsyn et al. warn, however, incoherence and ignoring of cosmic laws sooner or later lead to an unpleasant reckoning.<br /><br />Heinlein et al. are all correct but I can think of no possible course change where our current aimless depredations and stupidities can be fixed. To paraphrase what an observer of the Versailles Conference said, today everyone wants the gravy train to go on forever but no one is willing to give up what cannot be had without a train wreck.<br /><br />Don't miss Fred Reed's recent take on <a href="http://www.fredoneverything.net/IntelligentVote.shtml" rel="nofollow">the insanity of allowing morons and the intellectually slothful to vote</a>.Col. B. Bunnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09590364016079745156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-49803461491078165582015-03-03T13:39:41.423-05:002015-03-03T13:39:41.423-05:00Anybody who votes should have to pass the naturali...Anybody who votes should have to pass the naturalization test. That would at least weed out the ignoramuses who have no idea how many Senators each state has.<br />revjen45Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com