The Devil in a Forest

David Stockhoff · 19 May 2009, 13:58 · from 2009-May.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 09:58:12 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Devil in a Forest
In-Reply-To: <mailman.67600.1242688667.12296.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
References: <mailman.67600.1242688667.12296.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
Message-ID: <4A12BAF4.7060402 at verizon.net>

You certainly have a point about good propaganda. And although I don't think your counterargument that governments are often unethical really holds much water (fish sometimes fall from the sky, too), I think your summary of the "L/L" position is apt. 

NOTHING is right simply because everyone agreed on it as a group. Had a single Abel-style "good" knight ridden into town in the middle of TDiaF, the story would have become much more clearly propagandistic. (He would have had to kill everyone but the women and children, and he would not have been wrong.)

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Message: 6
Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 17:10:12 -0500
From: "James Wynn" <crushtv at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) The Devil in a Forest
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Message-ID: <5899990178F74F96B5591E3C25EA8D3B at eMachinePC>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
	reply-type=response

> >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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