Hi John, As we individualists say, "To each his own."
Regards, Platt On 7 Jun 2010 at 12:25, John Carl wrote: On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 11:33 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > So John, would you rather be an individual on a desert island or an > individual > in a collectivist gulag? Seems to me that's a more relevant question. > > Well Platt, for me it'd depend on where the gulag is located. If you're talking Siberia, that might lean me mightily toward a tropical island, long as there was enough to eat. But I can get along with just myself for company for quite a while. However, the more relevant question imo, is if on a deserted island, would you rather have people around than none at all. Depends on the people, I guess. But I'm willing to wager that after a few years of complete isolation, even nasty people would be preferable to none at all. > > [Platt] > > You can't solve a problem until you first recognize it as a problem. I > > would > > like to see something like the "Misery Index" ( > http://www.miseryindex.us/ > > ), > > only a "Liberty Index," then give it wide publicity. What do you think? > > > [John] > Its an interesting idea. Is liberty realized in action or potential for > action? In some ways, we have more potential for freedom all the time, but > in other ways, we see more and more constraints upon freedom. > > Freedom is too hard to measure. What we can measure is the social > constraints (laws) put upon individuals and I agree that that graph would > be > an alarmingly rising one. > > [Platt] > See Craig's post for an internet site that purports to come up with > something > like a liberty index. But, you have simplified the whole thing by focusing > in > on laws and regulations, a worthwhile measure -- the number of laws and > regulations in effect less the number nullified. That shouldn't be too hard > to > calculate, perhaps weighted for the number of people affected. I agree a > graph > showing the results since 1900 in the U.S. would be truly alarming. > > Best, > Platt > > I'm not so bothered by regulation upon huge corporate entities with all the power in the world to pollute rivers and make money without worrying about consequences, but the impact of regulations upon local homeowners, and property rights on the individual basis, that's the rising graph that alarms me. You can't even cut trees on your property without a permit around here, and at the same time, they insist upon fire protection perimeters which are unrealistic. And WEEDEATING. I hate weedeating. I have a completely different method for dealing with tall grasses, and while nobody has fined me yet for my method, technically they could. I don't cut them, I bend them over to create a woven straw mat on the ground, still rooted in the soil so it doesn't blow away and better for barefoot walking than sharp poking stubble. Instead of the sound of the mower, is the sound of music in my head as I dance gently on the land, bending grass this way and that, making soil and nutrients and crop circles of fertility. I was gonna explain this more while explicating the similarity between guarding and gardens, but I'm getting less and less time these days to write as much as I got bubbling up in me. ah well. One day at a time, as they say. As if we had any choice in the matter. John the crop circler Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
