[MD] Value and the Individual

[Platt Holden]

> [Platt]
> "We the people" put the reigns on government, using it to protect 
> individual liberty and, as Pirsig points out, to protect the 
> intellectual level from the forces of collectivism.
> 
> [Arlo]
> Right. Balance. Just as "we the people" put the reigns on an 
> unregulated free market, using it to promote openness to DQ and, as 
> Pirsig points out, to protect us from the "the age old exploitation 
> of the poor".

Perhaps you can show me where Pirsig adds "regulated" to "free market."

> [Platt]
> The only crises of identity is your own.
> 
> [Arlo]
> It's not me who makes ridiculous "government is evil" statements on 
> the one hand, while proclaiming how patriotic and unquestioning we 
> should be on the other. If the government is so evil, so inept, so 
> malicious, so enslaving, so bungling, so preposterously "bad", then 
> why should I fall lockstep with that government when it wants to take 
> me to war? Or why should you, if you really believe that bunk, run to 
> the government for help when a motorcycle with loud pipes drives by your
> house?

You can always become a traitor when your nation is threatened. But I doubt 
you have the balls. 

> [Platt]
> Right, like it was in Communist Russia, Socialist Italy and Nazi Germany.
> 
> [Arlo]
> So Finland and Japan are one-step away from mass graves and genocide 
> because they value education as a community? Yikes! Let's invade them!

Typical lattee liberal distortion. 

> [Platt]
> "The most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the 
> government and I'm here to help.'"  -- Ronald Reagan
> 
> [Arlo]
> The most terrifying words in the English language are "Let me quote 
> Ronald Raygun".

I guess those who hold Reagan in high esteem are stupid in your book.