I do have a hangup with the idea contained in ” … should anarchism ever be achieved … ,” which I believe mischaracterizes the goals of the libertarian, anarchist, voluntaryist. My goal is to be left free from the state.I agree that general anarchy would be a dangerous affair, but I see no evidence that…
Category: Words Poorly Used
Words Poorly Used #57 — Media
Before we started calling newsmongers by the convenient word, “media,” we called some of them “the press” and some “broadcasters,” implying that the method of delivery was the essence And they used to quarrel among themselves as to whom had a legitimate claim on the profession of journalism and to whom the label of “reporter”…
Words Poorly Used #56 — First Amendment
The First Amendment is being whipped from pillar to post again. To be sure, there is a guy who, through posting four words on the Internet, is now mouldering away in our “justice” system, while John Yoo act-alikes contravene his First Amendment claim. But that is not my major concern (not a minor one either). …
Words Poorly Used #55 — Majority
The majority hardly ever carries the day. Let’s take The USA’s torture program — there is a thing that should never exist but for an extremely small minority of government functionaries, in collusion, supported by a very small but vocal crowd of immediate gratification seekers in the populace. The thing gets off the ground before…
Words Poorly Used #54 — The Implied “Too”
Have you ever noticed how people can turn a neutral descriptor such as “didactic” into a negative? With tone of voice, facial expression, or body language, one can say “he is didactic” with the implication that he is [too] didactic. Sometimes the effect is aided by adding a vague placeholder adverbial phrase such as “he…
Words Poorly Used #53 — Law
There are many phrases built with the word “law” in them to create an impression that we are in the soft and warm embrace of a creature for humane conduct. I’m talking about phrases such as “the rule of law” which means essentially whatever catch-22 the prosecutors plan to pursue. On Friday’s Scott Horton Show,…
Words Poorly Used #52 — Minarchism
There are actually at least two kinds of minarchist. The first is the libertarian who sees a small but appropriate role for a little bit of a state. Some people see this as approving of acorns but disliking oaks. I suppose this is through a confusion among the words stasis, meaning an unchanging condition, and…
Words Poorly Used #51 — Reciprocity
Wow! I was at a discussion group meeting today where the topic was energy independence (another set of words used poorly), where the question was begged, is reciprocity even possible between states? We were discussing whether the US should demand give and take with other oil producing nations. Whenever the word demand is included in…
Words Poorly Used #50 — Standardization
“Organized” education has a fixation on standardization, seeking to remove both the messiness and joy from the one thing that all humans can do — thinking. Keep the joy. Keep the messiness. Let the standardization geeks punch themselves out. Even if one is in the most rigid state school, one can rise above the pedants. …
Words Poorly Used #49 — Zeitgeist
There are many versions of “zeitgeist” in use in the world today, but I refer here to the difference between Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s use of the term as compared to Peter Joseph’s contemporary expropriation of the term. According to David Burrell, “Schools of thought influenced by Hegel tend [to] see history as progressive, but…