-Caveat Lector-
nurev wrote:
That's not the point. These people don't like any kind of
democracy because they are essentially elitist and resent
being restricted by society.
MJ:
Straw man, non sequitur, ad hominem ...
Some people favor freedom, liberty and equality over
the whims of the majority.
nurev wrote:
Favor what you like, but you can't have that in a complex society.
That's life. If you don't like it, go live in a cave.
The more complex the society, the more government control we need.
by Leonard Reed
Argued a college president at a seminar: "Your free
market, private property, limited government theories
were all right under the simple conditions of a century
or more ago, but surely they are unworkable in today's
complex economy. The more complex the society, the
greater is the need for governmental control; that
seems axiomatic."
It is important to expose this oft-heard, plausible,
and influential fallacy because it leads directly and
logically to socialistic planning. This is how a
member of the seminar team answered the college
president:
"Let us take the simplest possible situation -- just
you and I. Next, let us assume that I am as wise as
any president of the United States who has held
office during your lifetime. With these qualifications
in mind, do you honestly think I would be competent to
coercively control what you shall invent, discover, or
create, what the hours of your labor shall be, what
wage you shall receive, what and with whom you shall
associate and exchange? Is not my incompetence
demonstrably apparent in this simplest of all societies?
"Now, let us shift from the simple situation to a more
complex society -- to all the people in this room. What
would you think of my competence to coercively control
their creative actions? Or, let us contemplate a really
complex situation -- the 255 million people of this nation.
If I were to suggest that I should take over the management
of their lives and their billions of exchanges, you would
think me the victim of hallucinations. Is it not obvious
that the more complex an economy, the more certainly will
governmental control of productive effort exert a retarding
influence? Obviously, the more complex our economy, the
more we should rely on the miraculous, self-adapting
processes of men acting freely. No mind of man nor any
combination of minds can even envision, let alone
intelligently control, the countless human energy
exchanges in a simple society, to say nothing of a complex
one."
It is unlikely that the college president will raise that
question again.
While exposing fallacies can be likened to beating out
brush fires endlessly, the exercise is nonetheless
self-improving as well as useful -- in the sense that
rear guard actions are useful. Further, one's ability to
expose fallacies -- a negative tactic -- appears to be a
necessary preface to accenting the positive influentially.
Unless a person can demonstrate competence at exploding
socialistic error, he is not likely to gain wide audiences
for his views about the wonders wrought by men who are free.
Of all the errors heard about the "bargaining tables" or
in classrooms, there is not one that cannot be simply
explained away. We only need to put our minds to it.
Regard$,
--MJ
It stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's
someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there is
service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks
to you of sacrifice speaks of slaves and masters. And intends
to be master. -- Alyssa Rosenbaum
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