CB, we agree that wars are often necessary and of course civilisation can be promoted by defeating the Matrix of Malevolence. It's a bit like fortifying a house against a hurricane - it's necessary and something people have to do, but it's not actually economically productive, especially if the house was built in hurricane-land instead of in a better place and the house gets wrecked anyway. It's at best a cost of doing business.
Since most of what we do is fighting against nature and bringing it under control so we can survive and enjoy and the Matrix of Malevolence [MoM] is just another manifestation of nature to be controlled, I suppose war against the MM is just as much economically productive as DNA research to cure or avoid cancer. Comets, cancer cells, malaria, sabre-toothed tigers and the MoM are just part of the same destructive forces of nature to be held at bay.
But it's important to ensure that it is actually civilisation that our side of the war represents and not actually the MoM. A test is "Does this action promote freedom for and voluntary exchange by people?" Government by definition [these days] is NOT about freedom and voluntary exchange because no government encapsulates raison d'etre in those terms or even a partial resemblance.
Almost all governments, including that of the USA, are almost solely interested in the propagation of their power and avarice. 'Volition' and 'voluntary', are not common words in government circles. It's all about compulsion and control. What is amazing is that all electorates choose to be compelled, controlled and to have their property confiscated by the state.
One of the common worries these days is the increasing gap between the rich and poor. Around the world that is considered a problem. Well anyone who has the slightest understanding of mathematics would know that the poorest person always has zero. There are always those on zero income and zero assets who live on charity. There is then the good old distribution curve ending at infinity.
If everyone earns twice as much, the bottom people are still on zero and the top still at infinity, but the big bulge in the middle is stretched, with everyone being better off, but the gap between the richest and poorest will have increased dramatically.
The only way to equalize everyone is to aim at zero. Which is not a nice place for anyone to be. It is especially bad for poor people if nobody is 'up there' because there won't be anything for them, whereas when plenty of people are 'up there', there is plenty of stuff to live on. Which I know you know. I'm just ranting!
Anyway, wars are NOT good and even the good guys are partly on the side of the MoM because within the ranks are MoM types who will do the My Lai stuff. The line between MoM and anti-Mom is a continuum. NZ is anticommunist, but many people are all in favour of the government owning
Air New Zealand, Rail, Hospitals, Schools and controlling what they don't own, which is, I think, fascism.
Mqurice |
