[geeks] Political philosophy (long) was RE: [rescue] MipsPro Compilers

[Chris Byrne]

Honestly I'd rather chew broken glass than try and sort out the ramblings of
Either Marx or Engels. The length that they go to "prove" that everyone is
exactly the same part of this grey faceless mass that is the proletariat,
and that society is the ultimate exploitation. That any advancement above
the norm must be based on the exploitation of others. That submission to the
will of the greater whole is the only way to ensure prosperity etc... etc..
while at the same time insisting that of course really they, and certain
other intellectual elites must of course guide, and shape the proletariat...
I honestly don't know how people swallow this shit, except as justification
for what they want to do anyway which is usually to be one of those
intellectual elites.

My personal political philosophy is something I like to call constructive
anarchism (though I did join the libertarian party this past US presidential
election, I still registered as non-aligned in California. Eric Raymond has
a similar philosophy which he calls Minarchism, though he has rejected it as
insufficient). I believe that all things being equal responsible adults
should do whatever the hell they want to do as long as no-one is getting
hurt who isn't payin extra.

That being said, this clearly leaves society open for the depredation of the
weak or weak willed by the strong and immoral. The purpose of government is
to prevent this either on the micro scale (crime) or on the macro scale
(war). Any other function served by government strays from it's true
purpose.

Government does not exist as an instrument of either societal levelling or
elevation. It is a tool for control and conformity and as such is inherently
bad by it's nature. Humans are not perfect however and some level of
government, some acceptance of this hopefully small evil is necessary to the
formation, growth, and continuation of a society.

We as a people throughout the world have also broadly chosen government to
provide certain other useful functions, that properly are the function of
private individuals or entities. Functions that otherwise would not be done,
or would be preformed to the exclusion of the interests of society as a
whole. These functions often include the support of education, health care,
scientific research, and the furthering of trade and the arts. All of these
things serve a useful and valid purpose and should at least in some degree
be accepted by the individual members of a society as good for society as a
whole, without unduly interfering with the rights of individuals or
entities.

And that's the really crucial statement isn't it? Without unduly interfering
with the rights of individuals or entities.

The more government tries to intrude into our lives and our businesses the
more it is interfering with our basic rights. Please take to heart that
government did not provide these rights, they are inherent to us as beings
capable of rational thought. Government should exist to protect and further
them.

Lets reinforce that statement a bit.

You as an individual have an inherent right, granted by whatever makes us
rational beings (god, a soul, the ability to think, whatever you believe) to
do as you wish limited only by how yourn excercise of those rights affects
other individuals and entities. In the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes "your
right to swing your fists ends at my nose".

Alright, some of you will say, don't we owe society?

Yes we do. Without a doubt an individual living in a society, raised in a
society, taking advantage of the opportunities and protection that the
society offers owes that society. At a minimum they owe the society a
deference and obedience to that societies laws, and perhaps customs,
conventions, and mores. But only to the point that those laws, customs,
conventions, and mores do not unduly interfere with your rights as an
individual.

In my personal case I believed I owed society more. I believe I owed my
society a debt of protection so I enlisted in, and was later commissioned as
an officer in the armed services of my nation. No-one serves society more
than those elements of society that service it's primary function, the
prevention of the predation by the strong of the weak. Police, and the
military are our primary instruments for this purpose, but all members of a
society owe this debt. If you have received the benefit of societies
protection, you owe a debt of protection to that society.

Alright, so I've spent a lot of time talking about rights, but what about
responsibilities?

I don't have to mention that word very often, because everything that I have
talked about above is inherently a responsibility of each society, and each
individual or entity, whether a member of a society or not. Our purpose as
individuals on this rock is not simply to live and to die. If our lives are
to have any meaning at all our purpose must be to elevate ourselves as
individuals, and our society. To make things better for our children and our
proceeding generations then they were for us, or for preceding generations.
If we have not done this, if we do not do this, we have failed in our
greatest mission.

Chris Byrne

Moving over to geeks

> -----Original Message-----
> From: rescue-admin at sunhelp.org [mailto:rescue-admin at sunhelp.org]On
> Behalf Of Guy Yasko
> Sent: 29 April 2002 14:04
> To: rescue at sunhelp.org
> Cc: gyasko at nefastis.mrbill.net
> Subject: Re: [rescue] MipsPro Compilers
>
>
> >>>>> "Chris" == Chris Byrne <chris at chrisbyrne.com> writes:
>
>
>     Chris> Honestly I tend to think of him as the computer worlds
>     Chris> version of Karl Marx. I.E. Engels had the more well formed
>     Chris> ideas and was the better writer, and Lenin, Trotsky
>     Chris> etc... actually did something about them, but Marx got his
>     Chris> name on the door.
>
> yes, unfair that.  All Karl did was write Capital and the whole
> movement gets named after him.
>
> As for Engels having the more well-formed ideas, you'd have to sort
> out the Engels from the Marx, then figure out how they influenced each
> other (dialectically) to really get at the issue.  It would be a nice
> little project to keep you occupied for the next 15 years or so.
>
>
>
> --
> Guy Yasko -- gyasko at mx7.ttcn.ne.jp
>
> Make me look like LINDA RONSTADT again!!
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue