[extropy-chat] Agreement on principles. (was Microsoft)

[KAZ]

----- Original Message ----
From: John K Clark <jonkc at att.net>

> "Eugen Leitl" <eugen at leitl.org>

> > democracy can NEVER work better than a free market in the long run.

> You are absolutely positively 100% correct Eugen, and that's why I find your
> position puzzling. A bunch of Linux nerds voted on a E mail standard in a
> democratic election and you regard their decree as gospel, Holy Writ, a
> fundamental law of the universe. Meanwhile the free market has decided that
> it prefers a different standard set by outlook express and you treat it
> with contempt.

I'm pretty sure he was attempting to rebutt me with a reductio ad absurdum argument, though he obviously failed, since his faith in bureaucracy caused him to overlook the fact that what HE thinks of as "democracy", majority rule, really is markedly inferior to the free market (meaning each person ruling his own life and deciding what decisions to make in each case separately).
 
It's funny to watch academics and elitist-wannabes angrily declaring free choice to be an evil mistake, because their favorite stuff is constantly passed over for stuff which is objectively better, thanks to their personal criteria for value judgement being wrong.
 
History's littered with their remains. I always go back to Beta and OS/2, though, as the most laughable examples of inferior products being touted by people with poor judgement, a few of whom stick with them to this day.
 
--
Words of the Sentient:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the
most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under
omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep,
his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our
own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of
their consciences.   --C.S.Lewis
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