Fav quotes

Started by Lord T Hawkeye, September 19, 2009, 01:02:11 AM

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Thanks, Shane. :)

"As the Government gets more and more oppressive, as taxes get higher and higher, more and more people are going to look to evade these taxes in order to simply survive." --Peter Schiff, Health Care, The "Patriot" Act & the U.S. Constitution
Peter Schiff is win.
I suggest everyone here watch the entire video for full context. :)
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

Quote from: surhotchaperchlorome on December 28, 2009, 03:51:27 PM
"You can't have your cake, and eat it too." --Unknown

But you can't eat it when you don't have it either.
...You're fucked any way...it's hopeless...it's...Oblivion! @_@

Sorry um... What were we talking about?

Also, there's no point in having a cake if you're not going to eat it.

I always thought that was a stupid expression.


@Shane/MrBogosity:  True, I thought the same thing when I heard it (aside from confusion).
I suppose it just means that there are going to be times when you have to choose.
For example, you can have freedom, or you can have a welfare/warfare state (to use examples from the Mises Institute and Ron Paul respectively); you can't have both.

@Gumba Masta:  And here I was wondering if anyone would try to make the link between those two sayings. :P



Some more good quotes:

"Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?" --Will Rogers

"Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it." --Richard Lamm

"[Keynesian] Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists." --John Kenneth Galbraith

"DO NOT WANT!!!" --An internet meme
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

December 28, 2009, 09:36:22 PM #125 Last Edit: July 21, 2012, 05:26:24 AM by surhotchaperchlorome
"While it is true that Taxation is robbery, I find that, like other forms of theft, it exists in varying degrees of severity.  The least severe would be simple direct taxation, usually in the form of a sales tax.  Above that would be taxes that are less subtle for more specific things (e.g. Telephone tax).  When you tax something directly, it is like discrimination (sort of) among services and goods.  Beyond that would be taxation for things long since past that we didn't have any responsibility for, such as the Spanish War Tax.  Beyond that would be taxes on productive behavior (Income Tax, Corporate Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Death Tax, Taxes on Dividends, etc).  Not only do they make up among the biggest source of income for a State that cannot deserve the funds, they also mess with the market incentive structure, slowing growth and accumulation of capital.  This harms the people who the politicians would try to help most with their "income re-distribution schemes".   There are still worse.   In third place would be a direct inflation tax, when the Federal Reserve prints money, either to pay off debts, or to "stimulate the economy".  This causes a vast host of problems ranging from Inflation, the destruction/devaluation of capital, to the boom and bust cycles.  It is this high up because it just so goddamn deceitful.
However, there is a spin that can be made on this that can make it worse.  It ties for first place.
What are these two most evil forms of theft from the State?
They are:
a.  Borrowing money via deficit Spending which has all of the effects listed along with having to pay it back WITH INTEREST.  It is the worst of every world.
b.  State Regulations.  From what I understand, not only do they make us less safe (FDA and AMA) they also brutalize our economy.  Each job given to a regulator takes away 150 jobs from the private sector and vise versa, all under the pretext of making us safer when they don't.
Don't even get me started how they hurt our liberties..."
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

"The State in the U.S. now extorts 75% of our wealth through both direct and indirect means.  Sometimes I just wish the State would just give everyone a flat tax of 75% and completely stayed out of everything, and did nothing else.  That would suck, but at least that would be HONEST." --Me
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

When I accused someone supporting a censorship law of being inconsistent, he responded by telling me it's better to judge things on an individual basis than worry about being consistent.

My response...

"You say it as though the two things were mutually exclusive.  Virtue requires consistency, otherwise at best, you're only doing the right thing some of the time."

It was never responded to.
I recently heard that the word heretic is derived from the greek work heriticos which means "able to choose"
The more you know...

>_>
<_<

"DEMOCRASHEY! FUCK YEAH! TWO WOLVES AND LAMB VOTING ON WHAT TO EAT, YEAH!!!" --Morrakiu, making fun of democracy.
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

"Statism is a religion that I simply do not practice. I obey because I'm under threat of violence to accept the tenants of a religion, the beliefs of which I simply do not share. I have no faith in this man-made religion known as Statism." --Dale Everett, Rejecting the Religion of Statism
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

"I would just like to take a moment to clarify something since there seem to be a lot of different interpretations of what I mean when I poke fun at "minarchists".

When I use the term "minarchism", I'm referring to an individual belief system, someone who believes a small government is necessary, and perhaps evil. A minarchist believes that government has a role in protecting life, liberty, and property. By itself, that wouldn't be worthy of ridicule, but where it falls apart is when they insist that it must be an authoritarian monopoly on violence, i.e. that it must exert a supreme authority over a certain geographic region and individuals cannot choose to act apart from it. By its very nature, such a thing will never protect life, liberty, and property. Such a thing is inherently contradictory to such values. If, on the other hand, you can let go of the idea of it being a monopoly, then it is subject to the controls of the free market and regains the accountability that's essential for it to ever do more good than harm.

Secondly, while I have no faith in politics to get us any degree of freedom in the big scheme of things, I have nothing against a gradual approach. Agorism takes a gradual approach and I believe in agorism. I'm all for taking little bites out of the elephant if it works. In fact, I am concerned that existing governments may rapidly collapse due to their own incompetence and some degree of chaos will inevitably ensue because most people remain in a child-like state of subservience and don't know how to live as adults. They have no idea how to function outside the rule of governments. However, I don't think it's something we should try to induce and I certainly don't believe in using violence to overthrow the government. I don't think it's either right or viable. I think we need to be building up voluntary versions of the services we currently ascribe to monopoly governments while at the same time acting as wrenches by refusing to comply with existing violent governments. Something along those lines is what I believe will make gradual progress toward more individual freedom.

Most importantly, both minarchism and anarchism are individual points of view, or philosophies about how to maintain civilized society. It's only when individuals evolve that society will make progress. When I hear someone talk about whether anarchy is possible, I cringe. This is where I differ with many anarchists. Society cannot exist in a state of anarchy because it's a fiercely individualist philosophy. It is possible for YOU to achieve it because it happens when YOU personally transcend the indoctrination that will allow YOU to stop being a cog in the machine of violent governments, and to at least begin to consider becoming a wrench. Once you understand that, then you realize how silly it is to think of minarchy as a step on the way to anarchy. Anarchy, as a philosophy, is the first and most crucial step that individuals must make in order for all of us to make progress toward a smaller and less intrusive government. As long as you see government as a necessary thing, as the protector of your liberties, you are seriously deceived and have little hope of making any progress toward even shrinking it.

But the good thing about minarchists is their hearts are in the right place. They are the hope of the future. Almost every anarchist was a minarchist somewhere along the way. So if you're a minarchist and you're offended, just realize I'm also kind of poking fun of myself. It wasn't that long ago that I was where you are."  --Dale Everett, The source (warning, will be offensive to Minarchists)
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

(For those wondering, yes, I'm in an Anarchist mood at the moment.  Don't worry, I have only three more from Dale to provide and (unless I find more neat stuff) I'll give it a rest.)

"In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a massive super computer is asked for a simple answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. It spends 7 and a half million years to determine that the answer is 42. Of course, the realization is quickly made that a simple answer to an extremely complex question, or more accurately many difficult questions, is ridiculous on its face. The real answers to all the big problems are not easy, however badly we may desire them to be.

A lot of irrational beliefs have been fostered and perpetuated by barbaric civilizations in their desperate quest for answers. Virgins have been thrown into volcanoes to appease angry volcano gods. Rain dances have been performed to water dried up crops. People pray to various gods to heal a sick loved one. I happen to be an atheist. If I tell a person his prayers won't work because his god doesn't exist, it's not so I can give him a new god to pray to instead. The point is encouraging him to abandon the simplistic answer to a very difficult problem so he can face the cold hard reality. There are many realistic cures for cancer being pursued with varying degrees of success, but they can be painful, time-consuming, expensive, and don't always work. If he pursues these and his loved one gets better, his god will get the credit. If not, he will make excuses. Perhaps his faith wasn't strong enough! Through an atheist's eyes, his prayers had little to do with his loved one getting better except perhaps from a placebo effect.

We look to governments in much the same way we look to gods, to offer us easy answers. Similarly, when things work, we give governments credit. When they don't, we make excuses. We still have crime, war, car accidents, poverty, sickness, and death, despite the fix-all of authoritarian monopolistic governments, and sometimes because of. Instead, governments are forgiven for these massive failures and we continue to insist they have some crucial role to play.

I don't present anarchy as an alternative fix-all solution just as atheism is not a cure for cancer. If I tell you that your prayers are doing nothing to heal a sick loved one, that doesn't mean I have a cure for their cancer. It just means I'm encouraging you to seek any one of many possible treatments that have some basis in reality. Otherwise your efforts are futile at best, and possibly even harmful if they're delaying you from pursuing real solutions.

The answers to the difficult problems aren't simplistic. We can't simply pass the buck to gods and governments and expect them to get resolved. It's a hard pill that we each must swallow if we're to evolve our societies. Our irrational beliefs provide comforting delusions not easily given up. This is true of notions of gods, mysticism, and paternalistic governments.

When someone asks me something like how anarchy will prevent crime, the question sounds absurd. The question has it's origins in an incorrect presumption that our governments are preventing crime. Instead, police spend most of their time creating and enforcing false crimes like making plant possession illegal, and writing tickets to predominantly innocent people to pay their own salaries. Meanwhile, the false sense of security they provide to true believers prevents them from taking measures that would actually make them safer like fortifying their homes, getting sufficient insurance, and arming themselves for self protection. Anarchy won't prevent crime, but preventing the crimes perpetrated by governments would certainly be a good start in the right direction.

As an anarchist, I will confidently tell you that violent authoritarian models of government are not answers at all. They don't solve life's many complex problems. It doesn't mean I have a simple solution to offer in their place. The answer many will not want to hear is that there is no superior government to offer, just as there are no new gods with healing powers to replace those whose existence I have denied. The unpleasant but truthful response is to shatter the comforting delusions so we can start the hard but inevitable march toward finding real solutions to the problems life throws at us.

Just like religions, governments comfort us with fantasies. They claim we need them to protect us from crime, but they're the greatest perpetrators of crime. Governments take more money from us on a regular basis than thieves would ever manage to steal in their absence. Police are locking up innocent people for victimless crimes, sometimes killing them in the line of duty or torturing them with tasers while their government status protects them from the repercussions of their actions. The supposedly free country of the U.S. locks up a larger percentage of the population than any country in history. The exorbitantly expensive war in Iraq is killing our loved ones as well as countless Iraqis, all the while fueling anger that makes us more likely targets for terrorism. Right now the massive bailout is taking money from our economy and giving it to favored elite in the name of helping us. They're swiping more wealth from the poor and middle class in one fell swoop than all the welfare they've ever offered throughout history, and handing it over to their wealthy supporters. They'll amputate our legs and then offer us a free wheelchair to show how badly we need them. Authoritarian governments haven't reduced crime. They've simply claimed a monopoly on it.

Why doesn't the rain come when we do the dance? We all have a sense that governments are horribly off in some way or another but can't quite put our fingers on it so we keep doing all the same rituals to try and fix it. Democrat and Republican candidates get more alike each election, but voters keep thinking that if they just get their guys in there, the "good guys", and get the "bad guys" out, it will make things better. The truth is they're all bad guys and the inherently corrupt system makes them that way. The vote they recently had was a ritual designed to reinforce and validate an irrational belief that authoritarian monopolies can be in any way accountable to the people.

Governments continue to fail us because we've put our faith in something that makes no sense. We've consolidated power but we haven't consolidated morality. We handed our teeth and our testicles over to governments, attempting to delegate solving all the really difficult problems. People have faith that it will act on their behalf, but there's no logic backing that faith. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In our desperation for simple answers, we have perpetuated an irrational belief that the only way society can function peacefully is if one organization has all of the power. Many call it a monopoly on violence as if that's a good and necessary thing! They insist that governments be monopolistic over a region and that means they have to exercise violence or the threat thereof to maintain those monopolies, usually against innocent people. In essence, they claim government can only work if it's a criminal organization. The exact opposite is in fact the case. The checks and balances that the founding fathers tried to institute are nothing more than internal checks and balances of a criminal organization on itself. There is no way to watch the watchers. Effective checks and balances can exist only to the extent that we manage to distribute power back out to sovereign individuals.

To those with a continued religious faith in the state, I say the authoritarian but also benevolent government you want is a paradox. It does not exist and cannot be created no matter how badly you desire it. Just as atheism is only a solution to futile mysticism, anarchy is only a solution to one problem, but one which is quite pervasive– the irrational belief that an organization which is inherently criminal can also be benevolent. Anarchy is not an answer in itself. It's simply a rejection of the false answer.

There are many paths and many solutions to the difficult problems. There are many ways for us to work together without enslaving all of humanity under tyrannical mob bosses. There are many ways to fight crime without becoming criminals ourselves. There are many ways to help the poor without becoming thieves. In fact, there would be a lot less poor if governments stopped pillaging the economy. If someone doesn't amputate your legs, you won't need them to provide a wheelchair. Problems are solved by many people with expertise in different areas all focusing on what they're good at. The ultimate checks and balances are the result of a truly free market of individuals working together. I'm skilled in many areas, but there are far more areas where I lack expertise. I have no idea how to make shoes and yet I am wearing nice shoes which government didn't provide.

So anarchy isn't the answer. However, it is the beginning of finding real answers. Anarchy is merely a rejection of falsities. The anarchist has chosen to abandon childish fantasies and face reality, and in so doing is better equipped for pooling his skills in a mutually voluntary fashion with other awakened individuals toward finding real solutions. Realizing that the magic bullet solution we've been pursuing is irrational and hopeless is only the first step, but it's an absolutely crucial step if we're to make progress toward real freedom, peace, and prosperity." --Dale Everett, Anarchy Isn't The Answer
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

"I'm getting asked a certain question a lot lately. Why pick on minarchists? We're on the same side! Why aren't you picking on socialists more? I'm glad I was asked because it made me put some thought into best how to express this with words. What is it about the philosophy of minarchism that really gets up in my craw?

And then it occurred to me. Anarchists and minarchists in one key respect are polar opposites. I've said before that there is an ocean between an anarchist and a minarchist, but only a creek between a minarchist and a socialist and I can finally nail it down succinctly. An anarchist believes that a monopoly government is the source of our enslavement. A minarchist believes a monopoly government is crucial to protecting our liberties. Exact opposites! So why do people keep saying we're on the same side? Presumably it's because we have similar preferences. We both love liberty.

Now let's compare minarchists to socialists. A socialist will justify aggression on the basis of need. Food, shelter, and medical care are all essential needs and a socialist feels justified in using aggressive violence to satisfy those needs. On that same basis, a socialist will also absolve individuals of responsibility and pass that responsibility onto "society" which is a very abstract and subjective thing, a calamity of collectivism, which of course is why it's such a disaster in implementation. It's why individuals fail to develop a sense of their own responsibility and become incredibly dependent on their governments, remaining in a childlike state with governments assuming the role of their parents.

So now let's compare minarchists to socialists. A minarchist loves liberty a lot. A minarchist also believes aggressive violence against innocent people is justified due to a critical need, but only for that which suits their personal preference, i.e. providing for the protection of liberty. This is commonly defended in the same manner that socialists use for justifying aggressive violence, i.e. on the basis of need*. The minarchist claim is that we are responsible for providing for all of our own needs whether it be food, shelter, health care, or educating our children, but when it comes to the most crucial thing that's at the foundation of all the others, they absolve the individual of responsibility and pass that crucial task on to a murky subjective thing, that calamity of collectivism known as "society".

It's for this reason that I believe the minarchist approach to liberty is such an utter failure. I don't argue against minarchism to pick nits or because I'm a purist. I'm a long way from being a purist. If I were, I'd stop making calculated decisions regarding my activism. I'd drive without a license and I wouldn't pay a single penny in taxes no matter what, even if it meant pointlessly rotting in a jail cell or living as a hermit in a booger hut.

No, I argue against minarchism because I believe principles are pragmatic and that the promotion of minarchism is a big part of the problem. They're arguing against socialism out of one side of their mouths while proposing a slight variation on socialism out of the other side. It's an incredibly weak argument and makes an easy target for our opponents to poke holes in. I love them because we have a common interest, but I feel a need to exercise great care in how I team up with them because the act can make me an easy target right along with them. It can be quite a liability from a completely utilitarian and pragmatic point of view. The irony that they've often felt the same way about me has not escaped me.

In the process of defending minarchy, one is also inevitably defending socialism. It is for that reason that I am so skeptical of whether minarchy is even possible. Governments, like a cancer, don't stay small as long as they have legitimacy and they don't get smaller as long as they have near 100% compliance with their demands and massive moral support. Can we have much smaller government? I hope so and I'm an optimist. I think we can. I'm sure we can make governments smaller, which I would be thrilled to do, but it will require anarchism to get on the right track.

Minarchists, I love you like I love a pet that just won't potty-train. I know you're trying your darnedest, but it sure is frustrating. I'm going to keep making fun of you, but just remember that it's playful ribbing from a friend; an incredibly condescending and tactless friend, but a friend nonetheless.

* Here's a little thought game for objectivists. Grab a highlighting pen and go through some of your blog posts against anarchism. Now highlight everywhere you say the word 'need'. Can I get an "Oh, SNAP!" from some of my gay fans?" --Dale Everett, Anarchists & Minarchists & Socialists, oh, my!
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

"Here's your chance to sell me on the notion so make it good. Bare in mind, however, that I'm a critical thinker and I'm looking for logical arguments without the usual presumptions like "It's always been done this way." If we invented really efficient and clean-running hovercrafts, it would be silly to cling to the idea of wheels just because that's how it's been done for thousands of years. I'm also tired of arguments from need which are irrelevant. It doesn't matter how much we need unicorns if they don't exist or voodoo spells if they don't work. There's no point in having a discussion about the benefits of unicorns and their healing and purifying magical powers until someone convinces me they exist or they can create them.

And of course, there is the ever common presumption that minarchy "works", but that would be circular because that's the point of this post. I don't believe it can work and in fact I think it's counter-intuitive to think that it would. I see no historical evidence that societies are better off thanks to the existence of monopoly governments and I see no evidence that such things can stay small, and that's what I mean by "work". I think the record for a semi-smallish monopoly government is about 8 and a half minutes for the American version before the tyrannical power grab known as the Constitution, give or take a few years.

So please make an effort to abandon the common presumptions. Pretend I've not been to the government indoctrination centers known as public schools and that I haven't spent my developing years immersed in a society that takes it as a given that the way to less violence is through violence. I would also appreciate if you will have your discussion with me and not just continue some discussion you've had with other anarchists. I am not proposing an alternative to your minarchist system. I'm sure that may seem convenient, but it's the only way I can be intellectually honest. I suggest this post of mine for clarification, but I will put it another way. As a minarchist, you are the one suggesting one magic pill that cures all ills. I am not suggesting that such a thing exists or can be created. I am not aiming to replace your blanket system with some other. I do not have to know a cure for cancer to demand proof that voodoo spells are anything other than a complete waste of time and resources or that certain voodoo rituals may even be harmful to the intended recipient.

So to be clear on semantics, what I am referring to is an authoritarian style monopoly on violence being presented as a means to achieving a more civilized society than we could have if we withdrew our support from such things and began to individually but cooperatively oppose tyranny and mystical claims to authority in all its forms whenever it pops up its ugly head. Please attempt to disregard previous discussions with other anarchists and whatever straw-men arguments they have conveniently provided you to knock down. You are not arguing against something. You are arguing for something. There are many problems that societies face in their attempts to work out the differences among themselves and I posit that there are many solutions to those problems and I see every reason to allow people to try whatever they think might work as long as they aren't violating anyone's rights in the process, the one thing that minarchists insist must be done for their magic pill to work.

Here's a tip. When you inevitably ignore my request against arguments of need and argue that we need authority figures because humans are inherently incapable of civilized behavior without them, please explain where that authority will come from that will cause those particular flawed humans to be morally superior to the others. For instance, if it originates from some god who is presumably superior morally to us flawed humans, you're going to first have to take a few steps back and convince me of its existence. You will then need to convince me that this god has in fact granted its authority to some particular mortal agents causing them to overcome this otherwise tragic flaw in human nature. If you have a magic piece of paper, a magic badge, a magic title, or a magic black robe that corrects this inherent flaw of moral imperfection in human beings, you'll need to explain to me how the ritual works that creates these talismans. And I'm afraid "majority support" is epic fail as an answer so can we please keep the discussion moving forward? Majorities have been violently exploiting minorities for all of recorded history.

Are you beginning to get a sense of why I am skeptical of Utopian magic pill solutions? Humans are as varied in personalities and motivations as snowflakes which makes for some complicated problems when we try to get along in a civilized manner. It will likely take us a lot of trial and error in a free market to find good solutions for these many problems. Monopoly governments have been doing more harm than good for thousands of years. All I suggest is that we finally abandon our fantasies so we can begin to get to work on real solutions. But if you actually have the snake oil elixir that fixes everything and it really works, I will gleefully burn all my anarchist and voluntaryist t-shirts and stand in line to buy some from your booth at the next Porcfest! Until then, I hope you will understand why I find the notion thoroughly worthy of ridicule in comic strip form.

In closing, I have a crazy notion for you to consider. Let's change individuals. With each individual who learns what it really means to behave morally and to co-exist in a civilized manner with his or her neighbors, society gets a little bit better. That's one more person who will contribute his ingenuity and brotherly love to humanity's many problems. That's one more person who will appreciate the value of peace and tolerance for others and their differences and pass on that value to his children; teach that value to his neighbors. It's a realistic and gradualist approach. It's not an attempt to suddenly and violently overthrow governments. It's not Utopian. Blanket solutions for all of society are mystical. Individual changes are realistic and possible and those changes can ripple out to other individuals and have an exponential positive impact and make quantifiable steady progress toward peace and prosperity. Those of us who have chosen to be civilized will be better equipped than any slave for working together voluntary to protect our rights and provide for our mutual benefit. Anarchy is not a violent system that we attempt to impose on millions of people with or without their consent. Simply choose right now to consistently reject arbitrary and mystical claims to rulership of one man over another. Such designs are inherently exploitative and harmful. Anarchy is possible. Anarchy is in your head and in your heart the instant you are ready to embrace it." --Dale Everett, Is Minarchy Possible?
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

"No, not worst. Typical." -My father in response to this video: [yt]qvPuNU_meEc[/yt]