[MD] Sin Part 1

[Case]

[Platt]
We're folding pretty fast as a result of our cowardice, if that's what 
you mean.

[Case]
I think you confuse cowardice with insanity. Insanity is doing the same
thing over and over and expecting a different result. After Korea, Vietnam
and the Russian experience in Afghanistan you would think we would learn.

> [Case]
> And five years later you would still deny him the right to know the
> charges against him. You would continue to interrogate him without
> benefit of council. You have such disregard for individual rights you
> would take them away from a man's completely for five years? If you
> agree that the government has the right to do that to That Man it has
> the right to do it to you. I do not think the constitution grants it
> that right. I certainly didn't sign up for that. 

[Platt]
Anyone bent on destroying us forfeits any rights to our Constitutional 
protections. The Constitution is not a suicide pact.

[Case]
No it is a pact between the government and it's citizens and it guarantees
all who come under its domain the protection of due process. What is
suicidal is compromising that sacred pact for any reason. If we can do it to
That Man we can do it to Any Man. If terrorists are guilty of something then
let's charge and punish them. The law provides for that.

[Platt]
So let's make taxes voluntary. OK?

[Case]
Or move to New Hampshire. Or vote for people who share your views. But
enough of this talk of slavery and being forced to pay them at gun point.
You know what the rules are, it's your free choice to play the game. 

[Platt]
Again, you say the government grants property rights. I say nonsense. 
Property rights come from intellect that demands freedom to keep the
products of your labor so you can participate in the free market and 
help in flourish.

[Case]
You have said that the government can and should strip That Man or Any Man
of all of their rights. If it can strip them a way then the only reason you
have them is that it does not. The government grants you property rights
because although it definitely can it rightfully does not strip them away.

Capitalism is just the system our government currently uses to redistribute
wealth.

[Platt]
Protecting individual rights to dispose of private property as one sees 
fit? You're kidding.

[Case]
Not at all. I believe the court said simply that issues of eminent domain
should be decided at the state rather than the federal level. This pushes
the decision making process closer to the people it affects. You would
prefer to have federal bureaucrats making such decisions?

[Platt]
I assume if a freely elected legislature passes a law affecting you, you
would obey it.

[Case]
No. Just like everyone else I do what I want and what I can get away with. I
do a risk to benefit analysis before brushing my teeth every morning.

Passing laws that can not be enforced only fosters disrespect for all laws.
It creates economic niches that bring out the worst possible traits in
citizens. It exhausts the resource of the state on foolishness. Almost any
law banning individual behavior begs to be disobeyed so when we pass one, we
should have a damn good reason.

I apologize for posting this long passage but it is one of the Koans that
has affected my life most profoundly. I think it suggests that if you want
to hit the mark you should be thoughtful about what you are aiming for. 

Skip it if you like. 

-----------------------------------------------------

>From Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince:

The little prince looked everywhere to find a place to sit down; but the
entire planet was crammed and obstructed by the king's magnificent ermine
robe. So he remained standing upright, and, since he was tired, he yawned.

"It is contrary to etiquette to yawn in the presence of a king," the monarch
said to him. "I forbid you to do so."

"I can't help it. I can't stop myself," replied the little prince,
thoroughly embarrassed. "I have come on a long journey, and I have had no
sleep..."

"Ah, then," the king said. "I order you to yawn. It is years since I have
seen anyone yawning. Yawns, to me, are objects of curiosity. Come, now! Yawn
again! It is an order."

"That frightens me... I cannot, any more..." murmured the little prince, now
completely abashed.

"Hum! Hum!" replied the king. "Then I-- I order you sometimes to yawn and
sometimes to--"

He sputtered a little, and seemed vexed. For what the king fundamentally
insisted upon was that his authority should be respected. He tolerated no
disobedience. He was an absolute monarch. But, because he was a very good
man, he made his orders reasonable.

"If I ordered a general," he would say, by way of example, "if I ordered a
general to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not obey
me, that would not be the fault of the general. It would be my fault."

"May I sit down?" came now a timid inquiry from the little prince.

"I order you to do so," the king answered him, and majestically gathered in
a fold of his ermine mantle.

But the little prince was wondering... The planet was tiny. Over what could
this king really rule?

"Sire," he said to him, "I beg that you will excuse my asking you a
question--"

"I order you to ask me a question," the king hastened to assure him.

"Sire-- over what do you rule?"

"Over everything," said the king, with magnificent simplicity.

"Over everything?"

The king made a gesture, which took in his planet, the other planets, and
all the stars.

"Over all that?" asked the little prince.

"Over all that," the king answered.

For his rule was not only absolute: it was also universal.

"And the stars obey you?"

"Certainly they do," the king said. "They obey instantly. I do not permit
insubordination."

Such power was a thing for the little prince to marvel at. If he had been
master of such complete authority, he would have been able to watch the
sunset, not forty-four times in one day, but seventy-two, or even a hundred,
or even two hundred times, with out ever having to move his chair.

And because he felt a bit sad as he remembered his little planet which he
had forsaken, he plucked up his courage to ask the king a favor: "I should
like to see a sunset... do me that kindness... Order the sun to set..."

"If I ordered a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly,
or to write a tragic drama, or to change himself into a sea bird, and if the
general did not carry out the order that he had received, which one of us
would be in the wrong?" the king demanded. "The general, or myself?"

"You," said the little prince firmly.

"Exactly. One must require from each one the duty which each one can
perform," the king went on.

"Accepted authority rests first of all on reason. If you ordered your people
to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. I
have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable."

"Then my sunset?" the little prince reminded him: for he never forgot a
question once he had asked it.

"You shall have your sunset. I shall command it. But, according to my
science of government, I shall wait until conditions are favorable."

"When will that be?" inquired the little prince.

"Hum! Hum!" replied the king; and before saying anything else he consulted a
bulky almanac.

"Hum! Hum! That will be about-- about-- that will be this evening about
twenty minutes to eight. And you will see how well I am obeyed."