[extropy-chat] Heinlein and thinking for yourself

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> 
> "The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe-like
> independence. 
> It did not occur to him his chattel was the end product of the
> cumulative effort and intelligent co-operation of hundreds of
> thousands of men, living and dead."

Yes, it is the common Proudhonian supposition that we have a debt to
the past generations which built the civilization we currently live in.
Like Proudhon, though, Heinlein was not yet economically educated
enough to realize that a free market properly accounts for the value of
that debt to the past in the prices of the present, far more accurately
than any government can do so with it's price-signal-deafness and
arrogant supposition that a bunch of lawyers and social scientist
bureau-rats have a better idea of what the market wants than the
population of consumers and producers.

Your only possible true debt to the past for the civilization you enjoy
is to avoid doing anything which would cause or contribute to its decay
(like socialist looting would), or prevent its continued growth and
development, as well as to actively defend it from barbarians.

Of course, the very idea that you owe anything to the past is absurd.
Contracts entered into via force or ignorance are not binding. You were
dragged kicking and screaming into this life (don't believe me, just
watch any baby being born), so its obvious you didn't come here
willingly. You don't owe the bastards anything.

If you have the arrogance to have kids, you owe them a debt for the
offense of giving birth to them. Their job is to make you pay your full
penance for your impudence.

=====
Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
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