[MD] socialism

[John Carl]

Platt and Adrie,

I believe in community, which you might think puts me on the opposite side
of you on this debate, but I'm actually opposed to national social programs
of control.  The only appropriate socialism is local - people of the same
discrete biome taking care of themselves and their families and their
neighbors.  Why should people all across America pay taxes so Californians
can have the highest welfare benefits in the country?  The inherent
unfairness of liberalism actually promotes local individual autonomy.

What happens when some disaster strikes and the neighbors all have to pitch
in together?  Warm feelings of connection and community arise and they last
a long time.

Then the FEMA trucks arrive and people stop looking at their neighbors as
helpers in the face of adversity, and start looking at them as competitors
standing in line to get the goodies from the mommy-state.  Sibling rivalry
replaces communal cooperation.

My one criticism of you Platt is that you rail against liberalism and praise
individualism, but individualism IS a creation of liberalism.

What we need is a back-to-the-land neofeudalism, where the regulations are
lifted that keep landowners from creating wealth with the wise management of
their property.  As Bruce Mollison and Masanobu Fukuoka have discovered, the
main limit on productivity is people.  The land has much more carrying
capacity and wealth-producing potential than we realize.  With the arrival
of the ubiquitous information network, encouraging experimentation and
spread of good practice, we could have a nation of proud and independent
communities again.  Its high time for the dot communism revolution to take
hold.

When the Giant dies, butterflies arise.

John the micro-utopian dreamer