[MD] socialism

[John Carl]

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 11:33 AM, <plattholden at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> So John, would you rather be an individual on a desert island or an
> individual
> in a collectivist gulag? Seems to me that's a more relevant question.
>
>

Well Platt, for me it'd depend  on where the gulag is located.  If you're
talking Siberia, that might lean me mightily toward a tropical island, long
as there was enough to eat.  But I can get along with just myself for
company for quite a while.

However, the more relevant question imo, is if on a deserted island, would
you rather have people around than none at all.

Depends on the people, I guess.  But I'm willing to wager that after a few
years of complete isolation, even nasty people would be preferable to none
at all.




> > [Platt]
> > You can't solve a problem until you first recognize it as a problem. I
> > would
> > like to see something like the "Misery Index" (
> http://www.miseryindex.us/
> > ),
> > only a "Liberty Index," then give it wide publicity.  What do you think?
> >
> [John]
> Its an interesting idea.  Is liberty realized in action or potential for
> action?  In some ways, we have more potential for freedom all the time, but
> in other ways, we see more and more constraints upon freedom.
>
> Freedom is too hard to measure.  What we can measure is the social
> constraints (laws) put upon individuals and I agree that that graph would
> be
> an alarmingly rising one.
>
> [Platt]
> See Craig's post for an internet site that purports to come up with
> something
> like a liberty index. But, you have simplified the whole thing by focusing
> in
> on laws and regulations, a worthwhile measure -- the number of laws and
> regulations in effect less the number nullified. That shouldn't be too hard
> to
> calculate, perhaps weighted for the number of people affected. I agree a
> graph
> showing the results since 1900 in the U.S. would be truly alarming.
>
> Best,
> Platt
>
>
I'm not so bothered by regulation upon huge corporate entities with all the
power in the world to pollute rivers and make money without worrying about
consequences, but the impact of regulations upon local homeowners, and
property rights on the individual basis, that's the rising graph that alarms
me.  You can't even cut trees on your property without a permit around here,
and at the same time, they insist upon fire protection perimeters which are
unrealistic.  And WEEDEATING.  I hate weedeating.  I have a completely
different method for dealing with tall grasses, and while nobody has fined
me yet for my method, technically they could.  I don't cut them, I bend them
over to create a woven straw mat on the ground, still rooted in the soil so
it doesn't blow away and better for barefoot walking than sharp  poking
stubble.    Instead of the sound of the mower, is the sound of music in my
head as I dance gently on the land, bending grass this way and that, making
soil and nutrients and crop circles of fertility.  I was gonna explain this
more while explicating the similarity between guarding and gardens, but I'm
getting less and less time these days to write as much as I got bubbling up
in me.

ah well.  One day at a time, as they say.

As if we had any choice in the matter.

John the crop circler