all socialism is slavery
In countries where socialism is more open, the government pays for the healthcare — AFTER it has extracted the money from the people. This hides the cost, so people believe it is free. In reality, it is ignorance. They are being forced to pay for something that will benefit others, and that is socialism, and it is also why ALL socialism is slavery. It’s just that the master is hidden. rather than living in a plantation mansion, the master lives in the White House (or whatever state building houses the head of State).
Clare Flourish is very good at finding interesting characters with interesting opinions. This interesting character believes that paying taxes in a co-operative society, where we all benefit from the provision of useful things like education, healthcare, roads, libraries, railways, pensions, social care, welfare benefits and a criminal justice system, is a form of TYRANNY or even SLAVERY.
Now, of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If they want to live in a country where no-one pays into a big pot for their own welfare and the welfare of others, they can move to Somalia, or hide in the hills, twitching, with their god-given guns to protect them from the slave-drivers and tyrants seeking tax dues.
However, I do have a few confused niggles about this point of view.
1. Who isn’t willing to pay something for the benefit of others? Seriously. I personally, as an atheist with nothing to gain in an afterlife, don’t mind paying for the benefit of others. Other people don’t have the advantages I have in life, either through birth or misfortune. I’d hate to be well-fed and clothed, my every health need tended to on a whim, living surrounded by people who were hungry and suffering from treatable diseases. This does happen on a global scale and I’m ashamed of myself and all humanity that we can’t yet find better ways to deal with this. But at least I know the people in my community, in the society I live in and from the government I elect, have access to healthcare, education and emergency support when they need it.
2. Who isn’t willing to pay into a bigger pot for support for themselves or their loved ones should they need it? We’re not all healthy all of the time and we can’t control what happens to everyone we care about, or be here to look after them forever. Why would we want to leave those we love in a society that won’t care for them should the worst happen?
3. Why does it seem to be mainly Christians, who claim to believe in a benevolent deity, who claim to follow the teachings of the character Jesus, who bang on about the dangers of living in a mutually supportive society? Did Jesus not wish to help the poor and provide cures for the sick people? Did his followers not sell all their belongings to live communally and support each other?
Obviously no system is perfect. But to aim for a society that doesn’t automatically take care of its citizens seems like a thoroughly un-Christian way to live.
The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek is the text for these ideas. I got a copy of The Constitution of Liberty when I was a Tory, though its epilogue is titled “Why I am not a Conservative”.
LikeLike
When you were a Tory!? I can’t imagine. I found old school books with “Tories Rule OK” written on them, and “Down with CND”. We’ve come a long way. Thanks for the book tip, I’ll log it.
LikeLike
My father was conservative party constitutency association chairman. It was inherited. There are cures!!
LikeLike
Yikes!
LikeLike
I was just constituency association treasurer…
LikeLike
Yikes!!
LikeLike
Joe is now claiming that he is “a trained philosopher”.
LikeLike
Yes, I read that paragraph! I wish I had more time to dedicate to reading his work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a bizarre way of looking at socialism… the tyranny of having to have smoke and CO2 detectors in the home, the tyranny of a local fire station and on-call firefighters, the tyranny of keeping roads clear of snow, the tyranny of having rules to follow for other vehicles on that road when encountering emergency vehicles responding to a fire, the tyranny of being covered financially for property damage and repair through fire insurance, the tyranny of being able to seek medical aid and follow up treatments for physical injury from that fire, the tyranny of suffering from a house fire and being able to have help at every step of the recovery. Rather than experiencing a catastrophic event and becoming a pauper for services rendered, people suffering such tyranny (paying taxes) seem quite able to recover with such tyrannical help and then carry on paying taxes!
How is such tyranny a Bad Thing?
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s a truly bizarre outlook and I can’t quite understand how so many people are lost in it.
LikeLike
Yes, i know you’ve seen this before, but it so very much belongs here:
LikeLiked by 4 people
Yes, I found out about Somalia from you! But I think hiding in the hills is a good option too.
LikeLike
Hey John, higharka did a mirror comment at the bottom. I know you usually like these and I think s/he’s done a fair job.
LikeLike
Higharka is truly special
LikeLike
Religions, such as Christianity in general is a value base that changes according to the society around it. The rituals remain barely recognizible and some obscure and meaningless stuff, like concepts of gods and salvation (but from what) remain somewhat similar. However, what changes are the practical applications of morals and the interpretation of the details in the stories depending on the values of the surrounding society.
The US grew into the leading economic superpower in the wake of WWI and WWII in wich all the other mighty empires on earth became terribly endebted to it. The heritage of the US was, that they are the free peolple who have moved away from the tyranny of the older empires and all of the symbolic power those old empires weilded – like taxation. With the debt money inherited from those wars it has been possible for the US to experiment on ideologically motivated, but unrealistic economic ventures for decades. Now it seems they have run to ground, but the trouble is, that the once most progressive nation has also developed an ideological idealism of ignorance, and it may make their empire unable to cope with the coming change. Christianity is – as any religion allways is – only an excuse to the moral choises, that are done on some other idealistic value base – like in this case the ideal of freedom. Freedom to economically oppress the less fortunate. Capitalism is not the scourge of one nation though. There are a lot of rich people around the globe.
It is not especially Christian to oppose socialism. On the contrary the early Jesus cult was basicly a communist social unit. But as modern most extreme forms of Christianity delve in capitalistically inclined societies, their true value base is capitalism and Jesus only comes as a patsy. On the other hand, I have heard comments, like socialism harms the willingness of people to do charity – in wich case it seems very much that the Christian sees the charitable nature of the fortunate as the purpose and providing for the poor, or otherwise misfortunate people only as a tool, or some sort of side effect. To me, it seems then, that the poor and unfortunate people have also become merely tools for the rich and fortunate and it is hard to not get the impression, that the “charity” is about buying a stairway, while no actual empathy towards the poor was ever transmitted. The most simple mind defence is, that if someone has it hard, it is their own fault and in such a system (as governed by a benevolent entity) I the clever one, could never end up in to the same situation. It seems ridiculous, but fear motivates people to autosuggest themselves all sorts of nonsense, like that there is a benevolent god watching over them…
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s really interesting. I’ve never heard it suggested that their fear of taxation comes from releasing themselves from the old order.
The charity aspect is really weird. It just leaves provision up to random chance and creates a real division that would be difficult to surmount.
LikeLike
Well, perhaps I was cutting the corners a bit short, but basicly the individualistic nature of the US culture resulting in rowes of people moving there to look for a new opportunity is as much as it is a benefit also a hazard, in the sense, that ultra individualistic mindset seems to reach as ridiculous extremes such as libertarianism in wich nobody is responsible for the infrastructure of the society. Now, what each society thinks is part of infrastructure is a nother matter. Is it just roads to manifest individualistic identity of the individuals who have prospered to own motor vehicles, or does it include healthcare for those who became ill. But it is the same individualism as joined with the thought of an all-mighty god, that may lead to the silly notion, that the sick somehow deserved their poor fate.
Calvinism rose originally in Swizerland and Holland during an age of rapid growth of commercial wealth. A new class of rich merchants desperately needed a deliverance from their sore conscience and once again Christianity just shapechanged to provide them with the perfect excuse. Their predecessors, the nobility had excused themselves from such burden, by telling themselves that the order of the world was the handywork of all-mighty god to set these certain better families to rule over everybody else and now the new social class, that was reaching for the same social position simply recyckled the same notion. But it happened at the advent of the Americas being colonized by all sorts of enterpreneuers from Europe, who understood how little the old aristocracy was willing to share power and wealth with them here.
It is perfectly natural for us to feel bad conscience for the goods we have, while we know there are other people in dire need. We are social animals, after all. It is equally natural for us to make up excuses, instead of trying to repair the situation, because we are lazy and selfish apes. It just is, that since such excuses rarely are based on reality (rather on imaginary nonsense like religion), they form up into lies and lies rarely have beneficial consequenses. Especially if they are invented in the selfish interrests.
LikeLike
“It is not especially Christian to oppose socialism. On the contrary the early Jesus cult was basicly a communist social unit.”
Exactly. John Zande did a post on this.
“and it is hard to not get the impression, that the “charity” is about buying a stairway, while no actual empathy towards the poor was ever transmitted.”
I agree, though I don’t believe all Christians feel that way. However, I do think that those who deal with significant death anxiety do as well as the Christian prosperity movement which is epidemic in America. If you aren’t prospering, then something must be wrong with your faith and trust in god. Hint, hint — you’re not giving enough to the church so ministers can buy $68 million dollar jets.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t realise it had that name – Christian prosperity movement. I’ll keep an eye for it more. I remember reading about it under ‘health and wealth’ or something, is that right? It’s totally sick. Thanks for linking to John’s post, very relevant.
LikeLike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology
Violet, in essence, this is one of the main reasons why the poor and homeless in our country are looked upon with disdain, and why many political conservatives are hell-bent on dismantling the social safety net.
“The prosperity gospel Is surprisingly mainstream: the message of “health and wealth” enjoys wider support than one might imagine.” ~ Christianity Today
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, that’s shocking! I might try and do some focused lurking when I get time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s difficult to accept that the “prosperity gospel” and the NT episode of Jesus and the money-changers were based on the same religion. Weren’t the monney-changers just trying to acheve prosperity? Sounds like a case of Christians wanting to have their wafer and eat it too.
LikeLike
Oooh, I did a post on it already! My very first lurking post. Interesting it’s so widespread though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed, most Christians do not sign to prosperity gospel, nor any of that transparently selfish nonsense. Actually I find it hard to find anything in particular that most Christians sign to because they are Christians. Any religion, that has been around as long as Christianity is bound to have laid it’s skin so many times, that only the fables and some forms of ritual remain as the connecting things. Naturally they find those core fables and the rituals very important, but as I said, nothing really practical seems to connect them. There is no universal Christian morals for example. The moral views in Christian culture that are uniform to different Christian sects are uniform to all cultural movements on earth.
LikeLike
“I’d hate to be well-fed and clothed, my every health need tended to on a whim, living surrounded by people who were hungry and suffering from treatable diseases.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure I agree. I think even without religion we are all too capable of shrugging our shoulders and thinking there’s nothing we can do. The people who are motivated to make changes do it whether they believe in a god or not.
LikeLike
That looks like something som would write. He rants a lot about the affordable care act (?)
LikeLike
I think you’ll like this blogger. Have a look at the latest post:
LikeLike
Where do you get such loonies?
LikeLike
Almost always Clare!
LikeLike
Tell Clare to go easy on your brain cells
LikeLike
Did you like the post? I thought of you when I was reading it. It’s the type you usually work over beautifully. The following post is a humdinger too. Shame they’re so long, I can’t concentrate beyond 500 words …
LikeLike
They are too long. I could keep it for blog fodder
LikeLike
I can’t see your comment to him. Did he delete it?
LikeLike
I didn’t write on his blog. I had a feeling it may not stand and since I had time, it was better to show he is mad where I have all the control
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have done a response to it. Clare should leave such loonies alone
LikeLike
Oh Mak, I see you were given high praise in that’s blogs addendum! You’re counterpoint post was so dangerous the writer actually had to warn readers away from you. I can only hope I’ll receive such accolades someday.
LikeLike
Dang it…Violet, I do know the difference between “you’re” and “your.” 😉
LikeLike
I just read it. What class of readers does he have who can’t make that judgement for themselves?
And he has written another maybe as a lecture for me on logic. And you know he says logic is given to us by god or something along those lines
LikeLike
Oh fantastic…another one! You know he must have about 40,000 followers.
LikeLike
I think he has more than that number and they are school children who need guidance on what to read and what not to
LikeLike
I checked and he only has 149 followers, which is more than twice what I have. So he’s popular but not famous!
LikeLike
I have never warned those who read my blog not to read a post where someone has tried to respond to me and I am certain, I have more traffic than he does.
LikeLike
You’d better start writing sanctimonious warnings then, Mac. 😀
LikeLike
Fortunately, I think very few theists have taken the opportunity to do a critic of my posts and link back. Maybe only one. That could explain why I have no use of warnings
LikeLike
Really? CS doesn’t try to?
LikeLike
Nope, he doesn’t. Yes really.
LikeLike
Surprising.
Well I’m off to bed…it’s 1am. I think it must be daytime for you, so have a great day. 🙂
LikeLike
Sleep well Vi. It’s going to 9.00am here
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooops, that was meant for down here
LikeLike
I see there’s another person here who can’t figure out these damn reply buttons…I’m forever replying to the wrong person.
As for the addendum about Mak, just click on violet’s link and it’s right at the end of the main post. He doesn’t mention Mak by name but it’s clear he’s referring to him. To see Mak’s response post, click on the middle “ping” in the comments, and it’ll take you there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re a saint! 🙂
LikeLike
You’re quite welcome. 🙂
You’re the second person today talking to me of sainthood…it must be something in the air. The first person said if I could just regain my belief in god through all my suffering, than I would be a SERIOUS CANDIDATE for sainthood.
Christ.
LikeLike
Well, if you like, Mak and Violet and I can beatify you into our Cult of the Giant Red Shoe.
LikeLike
I kinda like that idea! Though I was pondering on making a cult name that would be more inflammatory…you know, to keep the bible bangers away.
LikeLike
John! You take that back!
LikeLiked by 1 person
“I see there’s another person here who can’t figure out these damn reply buttons…I’m forever replying to the wrong person.” – Look above the Reply button, you will see a faint dotted line that separates the two comments, and the reply button relates to the comment below the line (as the arrow would seem to indicate) —
LikeLike
Thanks Arch. 😉
“as the arrow would seem to indicate.” Yeah, I know it would seem easy, but when you get a lot of replies going and the column narrows, and they don’t all have arrows, it’s harder to decipher. Not to mention it looks completely different when you’re in the WP reader, and you have no dotted lines, and black arrows that point to nothing…oh wait, you don’t have a WP reader. Well, get an account and then tell me how to figure out Vi’s buttons. ❤
LikeLike
Hm – sounds like the solution to one of your problems would be to NOT USE THE WP READER!
I went away for awhile, but I’m back now. As for the ones without reply buttons, as the stacked column gets narrower, it reaches the point where it can’t go any narrower and still make a lot of sense, so the reply buttons disappear – if you still want to reply, you need to scroll back up to the last reply button, click, post your reply, and it will go to the bottom of the stack, which will put it next to the comment you’re responding to only if that comment is last in the stack. Does that make sense? Since I can never be entirely sure exactly where my comment is going to turn up, I usually paste the part I want to reply to at the top of my comment, as a reference.
LikeLike
Yes, actually, that does make sense, thank you. I think I need to do that trick at the top so people know who I’m referencing.
As for the WP Reader, I love it…for everyone’s blog except Vi’s. You’d love it too if you ever got your ass in gear and opened an account here. 🙂
LikeLike
My ass IS in gear! Reverse!
LikeLike
Then get your ass in the proper gear and go forward…you have many things to offer, yet you keep it all to yourself (or in your little zip drive somewhere).
If you don’t want to blog, maybe you could just put the info out there and give people who want it the link? 🙂
LikeLike
Like I said, I’m looking for the right provider, at a reasonable price. I want one that offers something to my commenters – even though there might be only two of them – much like this:
NING offers such a format, but they charge $65 per month – my last one cost $3.99 – when I find something comparable, trust me, it will be all assholes and elbows until I put it back together again.
LikeLike
$65 a month! That’s a lot of money to make it easy for your commenters.
Do you think you’ll find the format of perfection you’re looking for in this current century? 🙂 I’m already 41, and I might be dead before you get it up and running.
LikeLike
Violet, don’t waste your time with Arch. It’s fruitless. I was stupid for even attempting to reason with him again. I’ve tried for close to a year, to no avail. He rarely got comments on his website in the first place, yet he thinks 2 commenters being able to post an image or indent a sentence in the comment section is more important than potentially thousands of readers.
If truth be told, he’ll most likely be 6 feet under before he gets the data online again.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yeah, we’ll all be 6 feet under feeding the worms before it happens. In the meantime I’m new to atheism and am trying to find good info, and he has his zip file shoved up his ass. Why is there no smiley face that’s doing an eye roll to insert here? Arch, if you’re going to make it easy for your commenters, make sure there’s a smiley doing an eye roll.
LikeLiked by 1 person
” I’m new to atheism and am trying to find good info, and he has his zip file shoved up his ass.”
I was about to sign off for the evening. It’s just after midnight here, but I’m glad I hung in there a few more minutes. I am LMAO.
He could duplicate his work by having a free .wordpress.com site while waiting to find the “perfect” format elsewhere. That way, if he kicks the bucket, his work will always be online, where as his website (if he ever finds what he’s looking for) will expire after he’s dead and gone. Like I said — no common sense. 😉
LikeLike
Sounds like an excellent argument, Victoria…unfortunately it’ll fall on Arch’s deaf, illogical ears. Alas I’m also going to bed it’s just after midnight here too), so I can be up for my extremely energetic kid at the crack of dawn. I guess we can all sleep well knowing Arch’s pile of useful information is forever lodged up his colon, decaying into oblivion. *sigh*
LikeLiked by 2 people
I proposed this to him several months back, again, to no avail. He’s most definitely constipated. Hope you rest well. Nighty night.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m going to go out on a cheeky limb here and declare I thought his website was a rambling mess. I poked about for 10 minutes and got incredibly bored. Clearly the reason he isn’t coming over to WordPress is he can’t make that mess fit in a sensible format. If he had a genuine problem with the commenting function in WordPress, he wouldn’t hang about sites here all the time, commenting! But don’t tell him I said anything because it’s clearly a touchy subject. 😀
LikeLike
“I thought his website was a rambling mess. I poked about for 10 minutes and got incredibly bored.” – And exactly when did you do this “poking around”?
LikeLike
As for your being bored is concerned, I’ve often seen you speak of your boredom at comments made on your own site, which at the time, gave me cause to wonder about the length of your attention span. Possibly you’d be more comfortable reading Tweets, they’re guaranteed by definition to be 140 characters or less.
LikeLike
LOL. Violet, I believe I was rather supportive of his website, but he doubts that I ever read all his posts, which I did, as well as commented and subbed, which I did and have email proof, so it’s likely he will doubt you were ever on his website. 😉
LikeLike
No, I don’t doubt that you were on my site, because you said you were. I was surprised when you first told me, because I don’t recall your comments; perhaps they simply weren’t that memorable.
LikeLike
Well, my comments were commending your posts. =/
LikeLike
Yeah, but I get that so often – except from the Wisp, it would seem – I just hope her attention span allows her to get all the way through this sentence.
LikeLike
I once lived next door to a girl who had a hyperactive 4-year old who used to pop out of bed like a piece of toast at four every morning – she taught him how to run the vacuum cleaner, slept soundly ever after and woke up to clean carpets every morning.
LikeLike
If I gave my kid a vacuum, he’d throw it threw the window! Perhaps if he calms down a bit in the future…
Great avoidance tactics there, Arch. 🙂
LikeLike
As much as you might prefer otherwise, I ain’t goin’ nowhere —
LikeLiked by 1 person
Violet, do you get email notifications so you can follow the conversation? If so, you can reply directly from there. Hit reply and it will take you to where you need to go. Just above the reply box, it will show who you who you are replying to.
LikeLike
Arch, don’t read this.
Victoria, the email notifications are hugely unreliable…I get some notifications but not others. I’ve messed with my WP settings a 1000X and nothing works to fix it. Violet’s blog is the only one I ever have a problem with…it must be her theme that doesn’t view properly through the reader. Or maybe my chromebook is the problem.
LikeLike
That’s highly possible, Violet. I never have issues with Violet’s template, but I know there are others who do. Now sometimes, when there are a lot of comments, several hundred, it might automatically start a new thread at the bottom if I reply from email. That’s happened to me on a few rare occasions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Arch, don’t read this.” – Oh, OK.
(Have you not MET me?!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I see higharka is back…once again I cannot surmise the meaning of his comment. Maybe if I were still a crazy catholic it’d make sense.
LikeLike
I hear ya. When I’m reading his comments, I think I’m reading something from The Onion.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Arch, can you tell me what’s going on with higharka’s comment at the bottom there….what’s his point? I can’t sleep with such a mystery on my mind.
LikeLike
“Arch, can you tell me what’s going on with higharka’s comment at the bottom there….what’s his point?” – I don’t know, I never read his stuff. I read his first one, it sounded like gibberish, so I never bothered again. Even when I’m, uh, not entirely sober, I write better than that.
LikeLike
Violet, I think I’ve stated before that I’m very liberal myself, but I have the great fortune (*cough*) of being surrounded by many conservatives (aka: religious nutcases). The main argument I hear is that the conservatives don’t trust the government to do the right thing with their money, so they don’t want to give any money at all. They view government as corrupt and looking to “steal” their hard earned cash, which they worked for “by the sweat of their brow.”
It’s hard for foreigners to understand the individualist nature of american…after all, that is what made us prosper in the first place. Many here operate on the idea that if you work hard, you’ll be rewarded. Unfortunately that premise no longer holds true as opportunity is not what it used to be, and inequality is out of control (ie only the rich are prospering). Many conservatives think the sick and the poor DESERVE to be sick and poor, because they aren’t working hard enough for their fair share. Basically if you don’t work, you deserve to die. There are biblical verses that support this idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Ten_Virgins
One other point: when there is no social safety need, it drives greed. It’s about getting all you can for yourself, because no one else is going to take care of you if something goes wrong. Again, individualist thinking.
I consider these views to be short sighted, and about half the county agrees with my liberal views. The other half doesn’t…we are a country completely divided, half in one ideology and half in another. I don’t have much hope it can meet in the middle.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I completely agree about the lack of social safety net making people really self-centred, and it’s perfectly understandable. It’s hard to imagine that your country could change such embedded ways of thinking, but it must be possible over several generations.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Forgot to mention that your duck is glorious!
LikeLike
Thank you! I think it’s rather stunning too, another recycled old one, but I’ve got some new photos coming up soon, included more duckies.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m really a fan of the ducks!
LikeLike
“I’ve got some new photos coming up soon, included more duckies.” – Be still my pounding heart!
LikeLike
violetwisp is very good at finding interesting characters with interesting opinions. This interesting character believes that laboring on a co-operative plantation, where we all benefit from the provision of useful things like education, healthcare, roads, crops, foremen, and old-age retirement, is a form of TYRANNY or even SLAVERY.
Now, of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If they want to live in a country where no-one works for the master, they can take the Underground Railroad up north, or hide in the wilderness, twitching, with their god-given guns to protect them from the slave-drivers and tyrants seeking enforced labor.
However, I do have a few confused niggles about this point of view.
1. Who isn’t willing to work hard for the benefit of others? Seriously. I personally, as a darkie slave with nothing to gain, don’t mind working for the benefit of others. Other people don’t have the advantages I have in life, either through birth or misfortune. I’d hate to be well-fed and clothed, my every health need tended to on a whim, living surrounded by darkies who had no master to look after them. At least I know the people on my master’s plantation, in this society I live in and from the masters we serve, have access to healthcare, education and emergency support when we need it.
2. Who isn’t willing to work hard to support themselves and their loved ones should they need it? We’re not all healthy all of the time and we can’t control what happens to everyone we care about, or be here to look after them forever. Why would we want to leave those we love in a society that won’t care for them should the worst happen?
3. Why does it seem to be mainly Christians, who claim to believe in a benevolent deity, who claim to follow the teachings of the character Jesus, who bang on about abolition and about the dangers of living in a simple plantation where master takes care of all of us? Did Jesus not wish to help the poor and provide cures for the sick people? Did his followers not sell all their belongings to live communally and support each other? Master owns all of us just the same, and takes care of us as long as we follow his rules and work in his fields.
Obviously no system is perfect. But to aim for a society that doesn’t automatically take care of its citizens seems like a thoroughly un-Christian way to live.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is a great comment, I love it! Mirror posts are my favourites and I think you’ve done an excellent job at illustrating your perspective here (and I like how you ‘liked’ your own comment, never seen that before). I’m not sure about your use of the word “darkies” though, and I hope no-one takes offence.
Can I ask what your utopia looks like? Who provides education for the population? Is it all homeschooling? Who maintains things like roads and police forces, and how is it all organised? I view my government as made up of representatives who are elected to do my bidding. Servants rather than masters. Most of them are stuck in jobs and in this country their whole life. I float about the world as I please, and when I stop, I pay my taxes and reap the benefits of my contribution, regardless of the country I’m in.
LikeLike
❤
Here's an essay describing a program I worked with once: Every Child Fed.
Will follow up with you more in a bit.
LikeLike
Consider yourself unspammed.
LikeLike
violetwisp,
You may want to check your spam filter. I linked to a website in my comment earlier, and WordPress is rather totalitarian about that, as their junior-league programmers clumsily attempt to differentiate between advertisement programs and conversation with links.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here’s the link again; maybe just cutting and pasting it, rather than using html, will help the simple folk at WordPress process it:
http://higharka.blogspot.com/2014/03/every-child-fed.html
LikeLike
And again. My link tolerance is set very high, so it’s clearly a bad association with the spam tin on your part. 🙂
LikeLike
higharaka — in the future if you don’t want to just leave a URL use this:
TEXT HERE
LikeLike
LOL — I’ll try this again
–>TEXT HERE<—
Minus the arrows on the left and right.
LikeLike
OK — never mind. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Okay, I skim read that, seems really silly AND it doesn’t answer any of my questions about roads, education etc.
LikeLike
There seems to be a distinct difference between requiring someone to contribute to the provisioning of food, and requiring someone to contribute to the building of a billion-dollar network of roads for you to drive around on in your new car.
Do you feel that interconnected road networks for the use of individualized internal-combustion transportation units is a fundamental human right?
LikeLike
“Do you feel that interconnected road networks for the use of individualized internal-combustion transportation units is a fundamental human right?” I much prefer trains. Perhaps you’re right and they should be considered a human right. I think that’s what went wrong with the USA.
LikeLike
…nope! It ate the other one, too, where I just cut-and-pasted the address rather than used html. Check that spam filter. 🙂
LikeLike
Or maybe your god is trying to tell you something —
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe, but I still think violet should check her spam filter. Usually once I go through this a time or two on any given person’s WordPress site, the links start working. Also, I answered a lot of violet’s questions from up there, but they got eaten.
LikeLike
The default on most WP blogs, as I understand it, is two links – more than that, and it goes straight to spam. The administrator can change that to 3, or more, but it’s automatic, and no ill intentions on the part of the blog owner.
But then I’m still waiting on an answer to a question I asked Vi last week – with two small children, she can hardly hover over her keyboard, I’m sure she’ll get back to us when she can.
LikeLike
(I only used one link. And WP regularly blocks anything with any suggestion of a link–that’s why I never stuck with it.)
LikeLike
higharka, if you only used one link and you say tha WP regularly blocks anything with any suggestion of a link with regard to you — are you meaning other blogs, too? it’s possible that you have been flagged as spam by other bloggers on WP. I have posted more than 2 links on Violet’s blog before, and none of my posts have gone to spam.
LikeLike
Well, I am unpopular. I vote for your theory.
LikeLike
Btw, I wasn’t suggesting that Violet had flagged you as spam — only that it may have happened with other bloggers.
LikeLike
I can’t imagine why —
LikeLike
I’ve never had a problem with a single link, I do it all the time. Even the images I post are in fact not images, but rather links to the location where the image is stored. Only Vi can answer.
LikeLike
What question did you ask me?
LikeLike
I didn’t ask you anything, I was explaining to higharka why his/her email may have gone to spam – i.e., over-the-limit links.
LikeLike
Arch writes on April 8: But then I’m still waiting on an answer to a question I asked Vi last week –
LikeLike
Oh, well hell, that was last week – I’ve slept since then.
LikeLike
Found it – I thought you meant I asked you something recently:
LikeLike
“And exactly when did you do this ‘poking around’?” I would guess about a year ago when you started commenting here and saying your site was superior to anything on WP.
LikeLike
Interesting – my site’s been down for nearly two years.
LikeLike
Arch, you really should go see a doctor about your very poor memory. You’ve established a pattern. This is from my email notification from last year:
A comment regarding “– in His own image –“, a post at in-His-own-image.com, was written at 6/4/2014 9:01:59 AM.
Btw, I accidentally hit “like” on your last comment as I went to reply. I have since “unliked” it.
LikeLike
Has it really only been a year? It certainly seems like two. My memory has to do with things, not with times – I honestly could not tell you most of the time, what day of the week it was, and most certainly, not what date of the month it was, and occasionally, not even the month – time has simply never had any meaning to me. Ask anyone, I’m late to everything. It’s all about prioritizing, and letting the little things go. We’re here for a blip, and if you start subdividing that blip into segments, it only goes a lot faster, and you’ve already wasted a lot of it in the process of subdivision. After all, does anyone really know what time it is? Does anyone really care?
LikeLike
“Btw, I accidentally hit “like” on your last comment as I went to reply. I have since “unliked” it.” – That would be one of those little things of which I could easily let go.
LikeLike
violetwisp: “I much prefer trains. Perhaps you’re right and they should be considered a human right.”
I wasn’t suggesting that cars or roads or trains should be considered a human right. I was interested to know whether or not you thought they should be a human right.
Remember, when you say that something is a “human right,” what you mean is that armed gunmen in special uniforms (police) should be sent to attack anyone who won’t work in order to create those roads/cars/trains for others. And if such a person should attempt to defend herself, the police would kill her in response.
That’s why this is such a serious issue. It’s life or death. It’s not just a question of whether or not the magical House of Lords can make special treats appear. Only with immense gravity and humility should you approach the question of what “benefits” you can expect to be entitled to.
So, to summarize,
(1) Do you feel that some kind of transportation network should be a human right?
(2) If your answer to question (1) was a “yes,” are you willing to accept the use of deadly force against those who refuse to contribute to the transportation fund?
(3) If your answer to both questions (1) and (2) were “yes,” how many people would have to resist and be killed before you determined that the costs of socialized transportation as a human right were too high? Or, are you indifferent to the possible costs because the benefits of “the human right of a fancy train network” are so high that they outweigh the detriments of tax rebellions?
(4) If your answer to both questions (1) and (2) were “yes,” how many people would have to lead miserable, powerless lives slaving for a system that they hated, and resenting every instant of forced labor, before
Or, are you indifferent to the possible costs because the benefits of the human right of a fancy train network is so high it outweighs destroyed lives?
(5) If your answer to question (2) was “yes,” are you willing to join a police force, put on body armor, and raid the homes of, and potentially kill, or be killed by, idiots who think they are defending their freedom by refusing to pay tax?
LikeLike