October 1, 1995
It is the most marvelous thing: "A" can commit an act that places a moral responsibility on "B", without "B" agreeing to the arrangement beforehand, without "A" and "B" ever knowing one another, even without "A" and "B" ever having come within 2000 miles of each other or having any contact at all. An absurd moral situation, you say? Perhaps so, but virtually all of socialism and, in particular, the moral underpinnings of the welfare state depend upon just such preposterous ideas.
...capital is dead labor, that vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labor.
... Karl Marx, Das Kapital
To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, law-ridden, penned up, directed, regulated, indoctrinated, checked, seized, censured, preached at, appraised, commanded, by beings who have neither title, nor knowledge, nor virtue. To be governed is to have every operation, every transaction, every movement noted, resistered, counted, rated, stamped, measured, assessed, liscenced, numbered, refused, authorized, indorsed, admonished, prevented, reformed, corrected, redressed.
... P. J. Proudhon, Confessions of a Revolutionary
I have a friend who is a Socialist, and even though he is a member of the intellectual elite (an engineer), he admits this. It is really a treat to chat with him, since he uses the quaint, old formulas about the leisure class, class struggle, the greed of capitalists, etc., along with all the other antique and tendentious cant of the left. It is a little like encountering an Edsel on the road or finding out what a gasogene was.
The lives of most people have no meaning at all, in the larger scheme of things, save that they have been useful in the transmission of inheritance from their predecessors to their successors. Failing that, their lives end in utter meaninglessness, except to their family and friends (no mean audience, after all), with no significance whatever to be attached to their having been present on this earth at all. What, for instance, did Mozart's grandfather do that made any permanent impact upon the world or was worth recording? So far as I know, only one thing: he fathered Mozart's father.
By calling upon people to say, "I am somebody," Jesse Jackson is urging them to utter, in almost all cases, a lie.
"And who is my neighbor?"
In reply the Teacher said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.
"A Liberal Democrat happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. After all, he had just finished sensitivity training and did not want to offend the injured man's sense of dignity and self-image by intervening in his personal crisis. Besides, he was late for his homelessness consciousness-raising seminar.
"So too, a Conservative Republican, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. By helping to lift the burden of taxation from this wretched fellow, he thought, I am doing more to help him than I might do if I interfered with his initiative and self-determination. Besides, he was late for his Second Amendment fund-raiser.
"But THE STATE, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. THE STATE approached the injured man and offered him help, saying, 'Fill out these forms (make sure you complete the part that says "Personal Income"), and come to the Office of Financial Aid on Tuesday (unfortunately, Monday is Columbus Day), and we can get you in to see a doctor by the end of the week. And be sure to ask for the Form 201/6b for restitution for your loss, as well as Form 7761 (unless you are indigent, then ask for Application Form 7762/a2). You should receive them in the mail in four to six weeks (don't forget the $2000 deductible and the means test). I really hope you come out of this OK.'
"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
Does Packwood bear the sins of all? Is he our scapegoat? Let all senators and congressmen and people in appointed positions of responsibility turn in their diaries, expose their sex lives to public scrutiny, and have all their financial dealings audited. Then we could send a whole host of them where Sen. Packwood went.
We are still hungry. A Packwood is nothing compared to a Kennedy or a Dole.
In reviewing some early recordings of Yehudi Menuhin, recently, I have recaptured the love I had for him as a child. The delicacy of his intonation, that filled his playing with such colors and moods, still affects me to this day. For Menuhin, a key was not a strict scale of notes with fixed tuning to be marched through rigidly, but a subtle instrument, flexible and expressive. I refer the reader to any of Menuhin's early recordings.
All contents © Copyright 1995, 1996 by Redmon Barbry ¶ 11:34 PM
