From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Tue Sep 05 2000 - 16:06:07 MDT
On Tuesday, September 05, 2000 11:28 AM Michael S. Lorrey
retroman@turbont.net wrote:
> > >...if a guest wants to repeatedly enjoy use of
> > >club grounds without becoming a member, they usually pay higher greens
fees.
> >
> > Pretty exclusive club, to make an educated professional jump through
hoops
> > for membership, while a substantial fraction of its current membership
> > enjoy professional wrestling and can't locate Europe on a map.
>
> While I understand the sentiment, I've often thought that citizenship
should not
> be automajically conferred with birth, but earned through merit
(Pournelle's
> concept of the planet Sparta being such an example), and you could argue
that
> heritable citizenship is technically inconsistent with the Constitution
> prohibition on inherited titles, your statement forgets the logic that
once you
> are in, you are in for life, and anyone that is out, is out. Of course,
some
> members get by 'on scholarship'.... ;)
Nice to quibble over such things, but how should citizenship be conferred?
And should noncitizens be subject to the government, if one believes in
government with the consent of the governed? (If one does not, that's
another story.)
> Kinda like being appointed to the Supreme Court, once you are there,
there's not
> much they can do to you. Notice how Clarence Thomas doesn't give a rats
patooty
> what NAACP, et al think of him (not that he cared much before), but there
is
> nothing they can do to him once he passed the 'high tech lynching' the
media put
> forth.
But Thomas does care. Note how before he was appointed, he was very much
for Natural Law, but during the appointment process he turned into a
pragmatist very quickly. I guess his avowed principles were only so much
window dressing. (Or, if he's returned to them, they are only to be held
when they are convenient.) This tells me he is not independent minded. He
just caters to a different audience than the NAACP.
Cheers!
Daniel Ust
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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