The Devil in a Forest

James Wynn · 18 May 2009, 22:10 · from 2009-May.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 17:10:12 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Devil in a Forest
In-Reply-To: <4A11D356.1080203 at verizon.net>
References: <mailman.1.1242680926.23508.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
	<4A11D356.1080203 at verizon.net>
Message-ID: <5899990178F74F96B5591E3C25EA8D3B@eMachinePC>

>David Sackhoff said:
>And finally, I agree with your quoted description of socialism.
>But it clearly has nothing to do with robbing anyone. Governments 
>redistribute wealth all the time.

This is answer that socialist economics gives to libertarian/liberal 
economics. The libertarian/liberal position is that governments do all sorts 
of things that are not ethical. Spain lawfully nationalized and 
redistributed all the property of Jews at one point. It doesn't make it 
ethical or just. The L/L position is that if an unrecompensed transfer of 
property is not right on a personal level, then it is not laundered because 
three out of five people voted that the fifth person had more than he 
needed.

Wolfe is making the L/L argument.

I'm grateful for this discussion, because when I read tDiaF I thought it was 
just a quaint, but obvious, morality tale. Now, I realize that it isn't so 
"on the nose" at all. It's actually a quite exquisite bit of propaganda 
(unlike say "Atlas Shrugged"). Truly masterful propaganda is one where the 
audience doesn't realize it's being propagandized.

J.

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