Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Lew Rockwell Releases New Book


From the description, "Relentless moving from left-wing to right-wing and back to left-wing policy is not progress; it means continued movement down the road to serfdom."

13 comments:

Chris said...

I like Lew Rockwell's defense of rights vis-a-vis the state, but ignoring the fundamentals of the historical struggle, repackaging as "the road to serfdom", will not make it go away. It is a fundamental part of politics. There has always been a lower class and higher class struggling to defining rights around the production process (first slavery, and now wage slavery).

Josh said...

The point is that neither the "left" nor the "right" is making it better for the wage the slaves, and in fact are increasing the number of "wage slaves" in the US. Some might say this is happening because this is what the government wants in general, no matter which party is in power, which is why this left and right argument in the US has become useless. The playing field does change over time and if we fail to realize that, we'll lose the game.

Douglas Porter said...

"what the government wants in general'

Idiocy. There is no such thing as "the government". Instead, it is what the corporate elite wants in general.

Josh said...

"Idiocy. There is no such thing as "the government". Instead, it is what the corporate elite wants in general."

There is such thing as "the government", but you're right, I'm putting too much faith in the government to assume that it is focused on one particular goal. You're right though, its not the entire government, its the corporate elites and their whipping boy politicians.

Chris said...

"There is such thing as "the government", but you're right, I'm putting too much faith in the government to assume that it is focused on one particular goal. You're right though, its not the entire government, its the corporate elites and their whipping boy politicians."

There is still no such thing as "the government" as a seperate entity.

Josh said...

As much as there is "the private sector" there is "the government".

Chris said...

"As much as there is "the private sector" there is "the government"."

There is no "private sector". They are just adjectives we use to describe a group of people doing X at any one time.

Josh said...

Yes, and at any one point in time there is a group of people we describe as working for an entity we call "the government".

"(government) the system or form by which a community or other political unit is governed"

"the private sector is that part of the economy which is both run for private profit and is not controlled by the state"

Josh said...

More importantly, if I say "the government" people know what I'm talking about. It is a defined institution. Your rationalization would mean I cannot say "the company" as the company is simply a group of people doing X at one time. Yet, a company is definable.

Douglas Porter said...

"More importantly, if I say "the government" people know what I'm talking about. It is a defined institution. Your rationalization would mean I cannot say "the company" as the company is simply a group of people doing X at one time. Yet, a company is definable."

If you are railing against "the government" when you should be railing against specific problems of the government, yes, that means you can't use "the government" as a proper term. "The government" is a universal term.

"Yes, and at any one point in time there is a group of people we describe as working for an entity we call "the government"."

And unless you are criticizing the government as a universal entity or an entirety, you can NOT use "the government". Instead, you must use specfic terms to describe specific problems.

Josh said...

"If you are railing against "the government" when you should be railing against specific problems of the government, yes, that means you can't use "the government" as a proper term. "The government" is a universal term."

And government is universally wasteful, as any monopoly is.


"Instead, you must use specfic terms to describe specific problems."

Depends on specific I choose to be.

Douglas Porter said...

"And government is universally wasteful, as any monopoly is."

That is a silly, unprovable statement.

"Depends on specific I choose to be."

No, you have to be specific, or you can't be universal. For example, please prove to me that all government is wasteful. You'd have to give example after example, which are all specific to prove your universal statement. You can't do that, because not all governments are wasteful. Therefore, silly statement.

Josh said...

"That is a silly, unprovable statement."

History proves it.

"For example, please prove to me that all government is wasteful."

This blog continues to provide examples of government waste. Is every government and government agency wasteful? No. But government in general is more wasteful than the private sector.