Gene Wolfe Fans Talk Politics (Again)

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 19 May 2009, 21:02 · from 2009-May.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 14:02:37 -0700
Subject: (urth) Gene Wolfe Fans Talk Politics (Again)
In-Reply-To: <4239.67.142.130.18.1242766852.squirrel at brunians.org>
References: <mailman.68838.1242757770.12296.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
	<4A1304A1.1000901 at verizon.net>
	<13409.67.142.130.18.1242761222.squirrel at brunians.org>
	<2BCC6FAA-905B-4A04-BFAE-817E0EDE9BD8 at io.com>
	<10067.67.142.130.18.1242765830.squirrel at brunians.org>
	<1f7617370905191348w255b5f18ic401923d2afbf8d5 at mail.gmail.com>
	<4239.67.142.130.18.1242766852.squirrel at brunians.org>
Message-ID: <1f7617370905191402u4755cefdpb5e984087b761e83 at mail.gmail.com>

Money can come from any number of places, but ultimately it needs the
authority of something like government to make it work. You're smart
enough to know that.

Meanwhile, by attacking that strawman you've avoided responding to
my post below.

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 2:00 PM,  <brunians at brunians.org> wrote:
> Tell us where money comes from, again, Dan'l. Now that the shock of seeing
> someone as intelligent as you say something that bogus is wearing off, I
> find it incredibly amusing on a number of levels.
>
>
>
> .
>
>
>> On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 1:43 PM, ?<brunians at brunians.org> wrote:
>>> The government wants you to pay taxes, which they are going to spend on
>>> whatever. You or I may approve of everything they spend it on, or we may
>>> approve of some of it, or we may approve of none of it. No matter: we
>>> must
>>> pay. If we do not, legal processes will be begun against us, and we may
>>> be
>>> forced to pay fines, or sent to prison or even (if we are extremely
>>> unlucky) killed.
>>>
>>> What I would like you (or someone) to explain to me is how this process
>>> can be described as consensual. It seems to me much more like extortion
>>> by
>>> threat of violence.
>>
>> It's not very complicated, actually.
>>
>> One chooses to be a member of a society. If one does not like that
>> society, one leaves. If one chooses to remain, one has agreed to
>> "play" by the rules of that society's "game." (Note: the US is not like
>> the CCCP, where people needed permission to leave, and even then
>> were stripped of most-to-all their possessions when doing so.)
>>
>> The advantage of a democratic "game" is that the rules can be
>> changed to suit the people "playing." Nobody will always get all
>> the rules they want - that's the art of the compromise.
>>
>> As it happens, one of the rules by which we choose to "play" is
>> taxation. If you don't like it, strongly enough, you are encouraged
>> to go live in Somalia.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> _______________________________________________
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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

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