[extropy-chat] Why I am No Longer a Libertarian Either...

[The Avantguardian]

--- Robert Lindauer <robgobblin at aol.com> wrote:

> It's implied.  Google:/SLAVERY.  The blessings of
> liberty were supposed 
> to be secured for "our posterity" - not that of the
> poor dominated 
> underclass that contributed the labor and suffering
> to make America the 
> great country it is today.

No. The constitution does not start out "We the rich
white-folks. . ." It was to secure the liberty of the
posterity of the people. Don't blame the framers of
the constitution for the fact that the definition of
who we classified as people changed as we became more
inclusive as we became more intelligent. Sometimes
even questionable people can create something bigger,
better, and more profound then they themselves are. I
think the Constitution is clearly one of those things.
 

> Certainly -some- people deliberately thwart the
> vision of the founding 
> "fathers".  I'm not actually clear on whether or not
> any of them 
> thought slavery was wrong, though.

Some clearly did. Do you think Thomas Jefferson would
have willed his slaves freed upon his death if he
thought it was right? He more than most in his time
understood the distinction between convention and
correctness.

>  There is,
> however, a continuous 
> class of land-owning wealthy people in the United
> States who despite 
> not having slaves have managed to surround
> themselves with the same 
> level of comfort and security of their power
> structure as when they 
> did.  They have, instead of literal slaves,
> effectively slaves.

Actually the industrial capitalists got away with a
lot more oppression than the slave owners did. Slave
owners had a vested interest in the health and welfare
of their slaves because slaves were expensive
investments. Why pay for a slave and his room, board,
and health when you can just tell a man that he is
free citizen and put him to work in your factory for
minimum wage without worrying if he lives, dies, or
has a place to sleep at night?  
  
> They're called the middle class.  The ones that live
> in tract houses 
> that they "own" by paying rent to "the banks", that
> drive to work in 
> cars that they're paying "the banks" for, that work
> for companies owned 
> mostly by "the banks", that were educated in the
> "learn to work 
> program" of the new deal.  "You are a slave neo,
> kept in a prison you 
> can't see or touch or feel, a prison for your mind. 
> Free your mind!"

Wow. If you think that the middle-class suburban life
is slavery, you need to spend more time in the
inner-city or the third-world. But don't worry, your
slavery won't last long as the middle class is quickly
disappearing to be replaced by the super-rich and the
seething masses of the truly poor that would envy
slaves if they only understood that freedom doesn't
pay the bills.   
 


The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't attempted to contact us." 
-Bill Watterson


		
__________________________________ 
Yahoo! Mail for Mobile 
Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone. 
http://mobile.yahoo.com/learn/mail