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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Friday, July 22. 2011

Killing With Kindness

From a review of David Stove's What’s Wrong With Benevolence: Happiness, Private Property, and the Limits of Enlightenment  by Derbyshire:



Bertrand Russell, who met Lenin in 1920, came away with a different impression:


"When I met Lenin … my most vivid impressions were of bigotry and Mongolian cruelty. When I put a question to him about socialism in agriculture, he explained with glee how he had incited the poorer peasants against the richer ones, ‘and they soon hanged them from the nearest tree—ha ha ha!’ His guffaw at the thought of those massacred made my blood run cold."


I think Stove is right, though—prescient even—about the ultimate destination of the welfare state: “We also know that the inherent tendency of the welfare state is to increase poverty; that ‘welfare’ still continues every year to absorb a greater proportion of our nations’ wealth and population; and that there is no social force in sight capable of stopping that process.”


Posted by The Barrister at 13:30 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

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"there is no social force in sight capable of stopping that process"

There's an economic force in sight capable of stopping it.
#1 forest on 2011-07-22 13:49 (Reply)
Oh, I agree, there is a Force capable of stopping it, two actually - Depression and collapse of the system. Oddly, our Head Citizen in the High-chair seems to be rooting for both to succeed.

The Sainted Poor, incapable of even the meagerness of contribution to the country, sponges off resources and capital for more fruit-bearing endeavors. Just keep shoveling the cash, and NEVER question their acceptance, and allow the dole to persist.

All the while, the perceived 'rich' are lamented and harangued to 'contribute' more to support the Sainted Poor, since they are unable to resist effectively.

Its no longer a 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' kind of country, but a "I can't make it on my own - I need (often MANY) a handout" land.

Our ancestors are doing high revs at our idiocy and their shame for not bringing us up right/learning our lessons from their sacrifice...
#2 Fred Zeppelin on 2011-07-22 16:21 (Reply)

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