The Meat Puppet Theory It is my conviction that for any group of 100 people, relatively, eighty of them will be natural meat puppets. Of the remaining twenty, sixteen will have become the equivalent of meat puppets through bad choices such as addiction, romantic misfortune, or politics. That leaves four, of whom some combination of…
Author: Kilgore Forelle
Words Poorly Used #3 — Anarchy (Continued)
Anarchy is not a political stance. Here is a good example of anarchy: that which has prevailed at the crater of Haleakala, Maui, HI, USA since its inception. The National Park Service may have built a road, and may presume to lock a gate at night, but Haleakala will be there for millions more years. …
Words Poorly Used #2 — Anarchy
I’m wondering if there is another word that is so difficult to explain so that those who abuse it will stop. Like “chaos,” “anarchy” is misused in the media, by politicians, and in the vernacular. I still get an image (vaguely tied in with Natasha Fatale and Boris Badinoff) of guys in black raincoats with…
Words Poorly Used #1 — Chaos
Senator Sam Hayakawa was a man of many hats, but his principle claim to fame was as a linguist. I learned semantics from Professor Hayakawa. “If you see in any given situation only what everybody else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture that you are a…
Re: Donut Fail
Parrish, this is priceless! And that reminds me to tell our readers that I have started on Radley Balko’s Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces. I expect to be posting a few cop fail observations myself, in the coming days. My cause célèbre is the casual shooting of dogs in…
Re: On Collectives III
Skyler, I asked the wrong question (I suppose because I view accountability as a dual proposition — ie there are both those who are accountable and those to whom they are accountable) I should have asked, who makes the members of the collective outwardly accountable not inwardly to the oligarchy? Kilgore
Re: On Collectives
Skyler, certainly specific individuals presume to take actions on behalf of the collective — if such actual and presumed delegation were not matters of course, there would cease to be collectives. But there is an inner collective in any state which is the oligarchy. The oligarchy chooses who will do the deeds for the oligarchy. …
Re: Collectives II
Nobody asked but … My Kentucky Wildcat basketball team lost in a close contest to Michigan State last night. These are two of the teams considered most likely to play for the National Championship in the early Spring of 2014. So a statist may have observed my tirade against collectives and responded with, “you are…
Re: Collectives
Yes, Skyler, that is a good distinction to make. In my lexicon all collectives are the constructs arising from central planning. Specialization occurs in free markets, without central planning or artificial conglomerations of individuals. Furthermore, if in a free market the individual had all the skills needed, and no opportunity costs, he would do a…
The Tragedy of the Collective
Nobody asked but … There is a common misconception that a collection of people can do more than the sum of the accomplishments of its individuals. In The Mythical Man Month (free download), computer scientist Fred Brooks explains that you cannot do twice as much by doubling either the time or the people allocated to…