By Fred Bethune on Wednesday March 2, 2011 09:51 AM
i really think the u.s. and britain, or the u.s. and the eu, or nato, needs to nudge gaddafi from power with high explosives and special forces operations.
So, is Crispin Sartwell an airstrike anarchist or a propertarian cruise-missile liberal in drag? Thoughts?
Comments (19)
He's not a micro-economist who thinks arguing statistics and futile micro-gestures will improve things.
So where's your room for condescension, Mr Tinker-Toy?
Posted by CF Oxtrot | March 2, 2011 10:11 AM
Posted on March 2, 2011 10:11
Seems like the light of reason to me.
Posted by sk | March 2, 2011 10:30 AM
Posted on March 2, 2011 10:30
I don't know Sartwell, but I understand the impulse. Liberals are trained from birth to abhor violence. Of course, this is unnatural, since violence is in us, according to Desmond Morris. So, it results in displaced violence, like "the rule of law", which accomplishes the same end as violence, without the embarassing appearance of it. Now, Qaddafi, has pulled back the curtain and shown the true nature of things, so he must be eliminated. Or, not him personally -- that would be cruel and inhumane -- just the bad behavior. With no collateral damage, of course!
Posted by senecal | March 2, 2011 11:09 AM
Posted on March 2, 2011 11:09
"I go back and forth with people on buy/sell, private property, and corporations. The first two items I find necessary from my own perspective. I like the vehicle of exchange, but I want to be free to use barter and not be taxed on it, not have to hire a tax lawyer/accountant to show it's a like-kind exchange and file a detailed return etc. (Which wouldn't be an issue w/o the State of course.) I like my personal property as well as the land I live on.
The corporation in itself, the idea, the structure, the entity -- it's not a problem to me. ....what I really approve of is partnerships and other combines where people create a business entity but remain on the hook for its operation.
The critique of corporations as they work in America is easy...
The comparison of a corporation's power to work injustice does pale compared to that of the state. ....So if one is prioritizing...
I'd say .... the State. When eliminating or restructuring the State it is easy to make the corporation... well... disappear."
restructuring ????...into what ???
a system of pure voluntary exchange ????
Posted by anon | March 2, 2011 12:17 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 12:17
At every inner circle discussion there is someone at the table silently drumming his fingers and mumbling "assassination, I told 'em, assassination." He thinks himself the peacenik of the group. He is 'old and wise.' The young bloods speak in terms of speeding vehicles and planes and explosives and bursts of machine gun fire. The prime-of-lifers go for the B-52s, in effect, Raid®, for its broad spectrum effectiveness. The 'demand of the public' for action shames the do-nothings into silence.
The decision maker weighs the options by a mysterious process of identification with some adviser of the moment. "How will we sell it," asks the decision maker. The pollster is called, the spokesman instructed.
And BOOM. Policy is executed.
Posted by Flak | March 2, 2011 2:43 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 14:43
Amazing, isn't it, how they don't sound any different now then the supporters of Johnson and Humphery sounded almost fifty years ago?
Posted by Michael Hureaux | March 2, 2011 3:05 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 15:05
op, it's okay -- you don't need to use "anon" to hide. you're already hiding behind "op."
you proved you can find a post of mine. SWEET! you know how to search!
let's have more micro-econ Tinker-Toyism! and let's do it while pretending to pick apart something by adding:
?
superb!
for a guy who fancies himself the ultimate Sage on the Mount, you aren't very sagacious today. were you ever?
Posted by CF Oxtrot | March 2, 2011 3:52 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 15:52
PS to op:
the internecine squabbles, they serve only to help you bookbinders and other-minders feel superior in the tiny confines of Us vs Them, while ignoring the bigger We.
long live King Pyrrhus! ever our Regent!
Posted by CF Oxtrot | March 2, 2011 3:58 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 15:58
"Amazing, isn't it, how they don't sound any different now then the supporters of Johnson and Humphery sounded almost fifty years ago?"
Isn't Sartwell a "he," not a "they"?
Posted by Jack Crow | March 2, 2011 4:13 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 16:13
I don't know Sartwell from Adam, but I know a cruise-missile humanitarian when I see one. We must do everything within our power to help the Libyan people... as long as it involves killing lots and lots of Libyan people...
Posted by Christopher M | March 2, 2011 4:41 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 16:41
Did Prof Crispy say he wanted to kill people? or is that being inferred from a perhaps arch/sarcastic post?
Posted by CF Oxtrot | March 2, 2011 6:34 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 18:34
I'm with Oxtrot on this one. We have to consider all the angles here. Under no circumstances should anyone refer to him as Crispin' Libyans before all the facts are in.
Posted by FB | March 2, 2011 7:00 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 19:00
Exactly. And meanwhile we should examine whether our best strategy is to advocate for a Fed lending rate of 3.40% or the radical, nearly unconscionable and supersystem-destroying 3.41%, because that's where real change lies.
Posted by CF Oxtrot | March 2, 2011 8:10 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 20:10
Re: senecal: whatever the essence of the Naked Age, violent or otherwise, it's always amusing when violence as some fundamental element of human nature is deployed to explain war. War is, in fact, a political instrument; not the satisfaction of some collective violent spasm delivered by empathetic politicians. Violence is not the end, but an incidental consequence of an effort achieve some other, typically imperial, objective. Otherwise, whence the difficulty recruiting soldiers?
Posted by Peter Ward | March 2, 2011 8:12 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 20:12
and a double-P, ess to The Pope:
Clever how you used ellipses to eliminate what I said about corporations' liability veil needing to be eliminated. Such a good editor! Will you help me edit The Marxist Reader? I've been hired by The Noam to streamline it, to make it readable by people who haven't been to MIT and haven't taken his linguistics class. I'm looking forward to earning some MIT-derived bucks, but I need a good co-editor.
Posted by CF Oxtrot | March 2, 2011 8:13 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 20:13
Peter: fair enough, only by violence I didn't mean some blind instinct to hurt our neighbor, but the conscious desire to take (expropriate) his property. Since that's the basis of the political system you're talking about, we're talking about the same thing.
Posted by senecal | March 2, 2011 9:54 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 21:54
CFO, OP -- somebody give us the link. Or have I missed it? This is starting to sound like an overheard, over-loud angry cellphone conversation.
Posted by MJS | March 2, 2011 10:35 PM
Posted on March 2, 2011 22:35
http://eyeofthestorm.blogs.com/eye_of_the_storm/2011/02/yeah-i-especially-hear-from-anarchists-the-criticism-that-i-always-attack-the-state-and-not-capitalism-or-the-corporation-an.html
Posted by FB | March 3, 2011 7:18 AM
Posted on March 3, 2011 07:18
overheard, over-loud angry cellphone monologue
Posted by anon | March 3, 2011 10:26 AM
Posted on March 3, 2011 10:26