[MD] freedom is for the rich

[Laird Bedore]

Hi Micah,

I'd agree that there's an awful lot of bathwater that comes with the 
baby. But you presumably like talking on [MD], living at your residence 
with electric and plumbing and other major conveniences that come about 
due to social structure. :) Enough of me being a pain in the ass, I get 
where you're going - there's a disparity between the basic function of a 
society and the way our culture is behaving today.

Your note on the increase in laws is an important one. It reminds me of 
the chemistry lab in ZMM:
"As he was testing hypothesis number one by experimental method a flood 
of other hypotheses would come to mind, and as he was testing these, 
some more came to mind, and as he was testing these, still more came to 
mind until it became painfully evident that as he continued testing 
hypotheses and eliminating them or confirming them their number did not 
decrease. It actually increased as he went along.

"At first he found it amusing. He coined a law intended to have the 
humor of a Parkinson's law that "The number of rational hypotheses that 
can explain any given phenomenon is infinite."

Science and our post-WWII legal system share something in common: 
determinism, manifest as literalism in law. No idea or scenario can go 
undocumented, lest someone use the omission as a loophole! The problem, 
of course, is that the number of scenarios is infinite, and as the 
worker bees continue in their effort to nit-pick every condition down to 
a deterministic end, we end up with laws that are increasingly rigid and 
dictative in nature.

It's an SOM fundamentalism that many people are unwittingly following. 
They get the feeling that something's missing from this whole law 
situation, so they add more laws to try and fill the holes. But that 
exponentially creates more holes and the problem becomes cyclic. The 
hole is the SOM fundamentalism underlying their methods... The spirit of 
the law is no longer good enough for a court case, the letter of the law 
is needed. Heh, if it wasn't Aristotle that started that line of thought 
it must have been his reincarnation!

-Laird

> Laird,
>
> I don't care for social structure. The odd thing is, as we become more
> civilized we get more laws, which is backwards. I don't feel the need for
> supervision.
>
> Micah
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: moq_discuss-bounces at moqtalk.org
> [mailto:moq_discuss-bounces at moqtalk.org]On Behalf Of Laird Bedore
> Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 1:56 PM
> To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
> Subject: Re: [MD] freedom is for the rich
>
>
>
>   
>> [Micah to Case]
>>
>> I don't understand your point, unless it is; "America, love it or leave
>> it!"?
>>
>> Please explain how not to pay taxes and continue to live free in America.
>>
>>
>>
>>     
> [Laird]
> Mmmm... Your request added in an extremely tenuous condition. living
> free _in_America.
>
> I characterize your view of freedom to be a fairly extreme perspective
> (taxes are tantamount to slavery, etc)... but at the same time you're
> asking for a means of maintaining this rather-extreme freedom while
> living _in_America - within a social structure (rules tantamount to
> slavery). Living within the social structure of America is quite
> voluntary - it doesn't take much to move 'off the grid', but at that
> point saying that you live "in America" seems rather academic. Sure,
> you're within the geography of the nation but not within its social
> structure. So I have my doubts that your question is even answerable,
> based upon its implied conditions.
>
> -Laird
>
>   
>> [Case]
>> As I went on about at length with Platt, you are not forced to pay taxes.
>> You are not forced to do much of anything in this country. You do so
>> voluntarily.
>>
>> [Micah]
>> Arlo,
>>
>> Thanks to the government roadway system we have sprawl, gas shortages,
>>     
> more
>   
>> global warming and an auto-centric lifestyle, but it's nice, oh - and
>> selfless!
>>
>> A little slavery is not possible. We shouldn't be forced to pay for
>> anything.
>>
>> Micah
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: moq_discuss-bounces at moqtalk.org
>> [mailto:moq_discuss-bounces at moqtalk.org]On Behalf Of Arlo Bensinger
>> Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 10:20 AM
>> To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
>> Subject: Re: [MD] freedom is for the rich
>>
>>
>> [Micah]
>> Ahhh, the ends justify the means!
>>
>> [Arlo]
>> Yes, having a great roadway system justifies taxes to create it.
>>
>> [Micah]
>> You make slavery sound soooo nice!
>>
>> [Arlo]
>> Am I a slave because I am forced to pay for the military? Or is slavery
>> only when my tax dollars help heat someone's house?
>>
>>