From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Date: Fri Jan 08 1999 - 10:12:53 MST
> I don't think that socialism/Libertarianism has anything to do with lack
> of personal integrity. It is possible to be a socialist and still have
> plenty of personal integrity; it's just stupid, because socialism has
> been demonstrated not to work. Personal integrity is defined by your
> unswerving adherence to high ideals for deeply altruistic reasons, not
> the intelligence or stupidity manifest in choosing those ideals.
I'm not so sure the two are separable. I have no beef with those
who /desire/ things like egalitarianism, altruism, and other such
silly things; but to actually advocate the use of force to bring
them about does indeed reflect upon one's personal values. If one
advocates mandating irrational social policies, then one's
commitment to reason in other matters is called into question.
Einstein did not merely long for a socialist world; he actively
called for government to bring it about by force. He can perhaps
be partially forgiven by the fact that in his day, socialism had
not yet proven itself the abject failure we see so clearly today.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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