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In all fairness to the government they aren't sure exactly how much money is in the vault when they pull up to do a robbery. They have a pretty good idea but not exact.
I don't know what any of this means but Rand Paul and Ayn Rand are/were hardcore statists...not anarchists.
Also, Rand hated libertarians, the LP, Rothbard, etc. Like visceral hatred actually.
It's a common thing, to take the easily lampooned villains and mistakenly make them the straw man stand in for that which needs attacked. Rand is easily assailable, so she becomes the face of any small/limited/no government theory. Notice how little Rothbard and Spooner get the same clowning? That's not by coincidence.
Also, Rand hated libertarians, the LP, Rothbard, etc. Like visceral hatred actually.
It's a common thing, to take the easily lampooned villains and mistakenly make them the straw man stand in for that which needs attacked. Rand is easily assailable, so she becomes the face of any small/limited/no government theory. Notice how little Rothbard and Spooner get the same clowning? That's not by coincidence.
I don't get the Rand thing either. I find her "philosophy" trite and simplistic, to say nothing of the requirement of an authority that enforces it. Although Rand was my gateway into Spooner, Thoreau, von Mises and Rothbard, mainly because I disagreed with many of her ideas, or, as she wrote horrendous prose, I misinterpreted them.
She had enough character flaws to make a smorgasbord of derisory remarks, and her later hypocrisy (although that doesn't excuse the equal hypocrisy of detractors who support the welfare state complaining about her benefit from it, if indeed it was welfare, and not FICA based benefits).
I guess its tilting at the biggest windmill for some.
I don't get the Rand thing either. I find her "philosophy" trite and simplistic, to say nothing of the requirement of an authority that enforces it. Although Rand was my gateway into Spooner, Thoreau, von Mises and Rothbard, mainly because I disagreed with many of her ideas, or, as she wrote horrendous prose, I misinterpreted them.
She had enough character flaws to make a smorgasbord of derisory remarks, and her later hypocrisy (although that doesn't excuse the equal hypocrisy of detractors who support the welfare state complaining about her benefit from it, if indeed it was welfare, and not FICA based benefits).
I guess its tilting at the biggest windmill for some.
She covers a lot of "oh yeah, what about..." bases, so long as the person employing the various fallacies is preaching to someone equally as ignorant on what Objectivism is and is not relative to libertarianism, classic liberalism, anarchism, etc. That makes her a useful straw man for guilt by association, begging the question, ad hominem, etc.
She did indeed write horrendous prose ("this is John Galt speaking" being one of the most famous examples), but buried in her mountains of self-adulation and verbosity, were a few proper individualism and anarchism points, and she is a good gateway into small/limited/no government theory with the real thinkers like Rothbard and Spooner.
I actually used Bastiat as my gateway to all of them, the original pain in all statists' arses. I think the one thing you can get from Rand is the notion of how wrong it is that collectives just decide they have more powers and rights than do the individuals within the group, especially power over others, simply because they create/invent/grab a monopoly on force and violence and then just decide it must be that way. Also, that the collective demands you not only obey, but agree and sanction their oppression of you. It is buried under thousands of pages of extraneous bloviating, for sure, but the message is in there.
She covers a lot of "oh yeah, what about..." bases, so long as the person employing the various fallacies is preaching to someone equally as ignorant on what Objectivism is and is not relative to libertarianism, classic liberalism, anarchism, etc. That makes her a useful straw man for guilt by association, begging the question, ad hominem, etc.
She did indeed write horrendous prose ("this is John Galt speaking" being one of the most famous examples), but buried in her mountains of self-adulation and verbosity, were a few proper individualism and anarchism points, and she is a good gateway into small/limited/no government theory with the real thinkers like Rothbard and Spooner.
I actually used Bastiat as my gateway to all of them, the original pain in all statists' arses. I think the one thing you can get from Rand is the notion of how wrong it is that collectives just decide they have more powers and rights than do the individuals within the group, especially power over others, simply because they create/invent/grab a monopoly on force and violence and then just decide it must be that way. Also, that the collective demands you not only obey, but agree and sanction their oppression of you. It is buried under thousands of pages of extraneous bloviating, for sure, but the message is in there.
And other than adding your own flavor of bloviating to the mix, what is the end you seek?
And other than adding your own flavor of bloviating to the mix, what is the end you seek?
Anarchists: The ends never justify the means.
Statists: The ends always justify the means.
That's all we are saying.
On a personal level I'd like to see one of you admit the immoral and illogical paradigm of statism. Sort of like the climax of A Few Good Men when Tom Cruise gets Jack Nicholson to admit that he ordered the code red.
And other than adding your own flavor of bloviating to the mix, what is the end you seek?
Understanding? Intellectual honesty?
I didn't start this thread. I responded to it. Once more into the breach and all that, because once again, someone just had to axe grind on those of us who do not accept the legitimacy of the state. So I type what I type in an attempt to foster understanding and intellectual honesty.
I reference much better thinkers than myself, I quote others who say things better than I can, and I try to help those in the cave understand the shadows on the wall. If one more person out there "sees" for themselves, then my mission is accomplished. If you do not see, that's cool...I will keep trying.
Also, there is something in it for me. The more people who see means more people who are content to leave me alone and not hire out agents of state tyranny to harm me. Less people seeking to actively harm me is a good thing.
I didn't start this thread. I responded to it. Once more into the breach and all that, because once again, someone just had to axe grind on those of us who do not accept the legitimacy of the state. So I type what I type in an attempt to foster understanding and intellectual honesty.
I reference much better thinkers than myself, I quote others who say things better than I can, and I try to help those in the cave understand the shadows on the wall. If one more person out there "sees" for themselves, then my mission is accomplished. If you do not see, that's cool...I will keep trying.
Also, there is something in it for me. The more people who see means more people who are content to leave me alone and not hire out agents of state tyranny to harm me. Less people seeking to actively harm me is a good thing.
It will fall on deaf ears because we agree on the matter but that was a very reasoned and measured answer to the inquiry as well as an insightful look into what makes an anarchist tick.
If I had a bit more maturity I'd second it. I just want them to admit they ordered the code red (aka admitting that consent can't be given by flying out of a vagina).
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