Re: Property Rights

From: mark@unicorn.com
Date: Wed May 12 1999 - 06:20:38 MDT


david_musick@juno.com wrote:
>Why so much hostility, Mark?

Because it would be nice to have a life where I didn't have to spend half
my time working to pay for the policies put in place by well-meaning idiots
and envious assholes and to be able to live in peace without the hostility
created by those policies. Unfortunately I can't, because more and more of
you always crawl out of the woodwork no matter how many times your ideas are
shown to lead to nothing but a war of all against all. "War is Peace", right?

> I simply made the observation that people's
>hostility towards each other is responsible for most of the world's
>problems. Why do you interpret this as though I am saying you are bad
>and childish?

You wrote:
>Just as you can't peacefully take something from a child when the child
>thinks they own the object, you can't "eliminate property rights" when
>people still believe in the fiction.

You wrote:
>They wouldn't need the psychological crutch of "property
>rights" to maintain a civil, productive society.

You wrote:
>Mark, I don't
>think you realize how easily others can lead you around by your desires
>(like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey). You are actually quite
>helpless to resist those who offer you what you want.

Now maybe it's just that I'm not schizophrenic, but your four comments
here are clearly contradictory. According to you, if I believe in property
rights, I'm like a child who needs a psychological crutch and has no
control whatsoever of my life. Gosh, how respectful of you. Thanks a bunch.

>And why do you imagine that I have any desire to force you
>to do what I want?

Uh, because you can't eliminate property rights without forcing me to do
so as well? Because you can't have a society where everyone gets everything
for free without forcing us to work for you? Because communism and socialism
are totally impossible on a large scale without coercion?

>I simply
>realize now that my hostility is responsible for most of my problems, and
>I am working to move beyond that.

Indeed. And if you throw out your silly utopian dreams you'll do a lot better
at it.

>It is in my best interest to help
>you escape the dangerous trap of your own hostility.

"You're inferior, I'm superior, I know everything, I must help you to enlightenment"

Yet you said:
>Another reason is that people waste their time reinforcing
>dominance relationships.

Pot meet Kettle. Kettle meet Pot. You seem to be projecting all your faults
out into the world and pretending they're ours, rather than dealing with
them yourself.

    Mark



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