Either choice in any election is the greater of two evils. The one who seems the lesser of the evils becomes the greater of the two evils when she is elected and gains access to the powers granted thereby. Kilgore
Category: Words Poorly Used
Words Poorly Used #27 — Constitutional
If Lysander Spooner wrote, “But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain — that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist,” in the middle of the 19th century, then how…
Words Poorly Used #26 — Character
No people who ever lost their character kept their liberty. — Lawrence W. Reed Nowadays we speak of character as a byproduct of negatives — we refer to a loss as character building, we refer to duress as character building. Authority figures, who are in fact bullies, often refer to the sadism that they inflict…
Words Poorly Used #25 — Sacrifice
People often talk about making a sacrifice for others, or subsuming their individuality to an external cause, as a positive. But what they are doing is choosing to behave in a certain way. Others will refer to sacrifice as something positive expected of others — commanders will say that they had to sacrifice so many…
Words Poorly Used #24 — Minarchy
The problem with minarchism is that there is no agreement on what the minimum activity of government is. I believe government has no role in human nature. So if we talk about going through minarchy as a step toward anarchy, that is unfortunately an ambiguous target. If we instead are using minarchy to mean less…
Words Poorly Used #23 — Legalize
I am in favor of dis-legalization of marijuana. Marijuana is already “legalized” in all jurisdictions, where it is either outlawed or taxed and regulated. It’s just a plant, folks! Why can’t we just eradicate all “legal” references to marijuana. You can’t win against the state as long as you let them control the words. Legalization…
Words Poorly Used #22 — Etymology
Etymology, as a word itself, is poorly used in its neglect. Too many people do not know from where words make their way to our communications. An important part of using the right word to convey an idea is precision. It would be very difficult to understand a word precisely if one does not know…
Words Poorly Used #21 — Justice
We often confuse the outcomes of our bungled justice system with justice itself. The procedural system that has been produced by the infinite number of self-appointed chimpanzees through their eternal tinkering with “legislation” (not law) is not concurrent with the value system referred to as justice. In fact, it is too frequently diametrically opposite to…
Words Poorly Used #20 — 3D
All the movies ever made have been in 3 dimensions. The black and white, or color, spaces are arranged in 2-dimensional visible patterns where each referential part has two important unique characteristics, horizontal distance from a reference point and vertical distance from another reference point. The third and most important dimension of movies is movement…
Words Poorly Used #19 — Minarchy
I cannot say it better than Amanda Billyrock (‘This is the last argument I will direct toward self-professed “minarchists”.‘). I will not try, but I will add a few observations that she has inspired in me. If one’s idea of freedom is attached to the idea that the state must cease, then one will forever…