Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Monday, November 16. 2009

QQQ

"Some of the Great Goods cannot live together. That is a conceptual truth. We are doomed to choose, and every choice may entail an irreparable loss."


Isaiah Berlin, from Isaiah Berlin, Beyond the Wit at Chronicle. I would have said "does," not "may."


Posted by Bird Dog in Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ) at 10:10 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

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Liberals would use this as support for their health care schemes - since choices must be made, and losses incurred, who better to make that choice on a grand scale than the government?


Quotes like this MUST be contextualized. Berlin is correct, which is why the choices have to be left to the individual. Who better, than the individual making the choices, to know what losses they are willing to incur?


Adam Smith labored over this issue at great length and it is clear, in "The Theory of Moral Sentiments", that the gross aggregate of all individual choices leads to a greater good, or at least a benign loss.
#1 Rick on 2009-11-16 12:26 (Reply)

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