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A very happy centennial birthday to the late great master of scifi, Robert Anson Heinlein!   Robert Anson Heinlein
7/7/1907—5/8/1988Heinlein is by far my favorite classical scifi author. What follows are some of my own favorite quotes - unfortunately, due to space constraints, I'll have to leave out basically the entirety of the Notebooks of Lazarus Long (click that link!), but you should get the picture. "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." --Robert Heinlein (as Lazarus Long), Time Enough For Love
"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life." --Robert Heinlein, Beyond This Horizon
"A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as ‘state’ and ‘society’ and ‘government’ have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsible individuals. He believes that it is impossible to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame ... as blame, guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human beings singly and nowhere else. But being rational, he knows that not all individuals hold his evaluations, so he tries to live perfectly in an imperfect world ... aware that his effort will be less than perfect yet undismayed by self-knowledge of self-failure." --Robert Heinlein (as Professor Bernardo de la Paz), The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
"I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman- which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Robert Heinlein (as Jubal Harshaw), Stranger in a Strange Land
"Of all the nonsense that twists the world, the concept of 'altruism' is the worst. People do what they want to, every time. If it pains them, to make a choice- if the 'choice' looks like a 'sacrifice' -- you can be sure that it is no nobler than the discomfort caused by greediness... the necessity of having to decide between two things you want when you can't have both. The ordinary bloke suffers every time he chooses between spending a buck on beer or tucking it away for his kids, between getting up to go to work and losing his job. But he always chooses that which hurts least or pleasures most. The scoundrel and the saint make the same choices...." --Robert Heinlein (as Jubal Harshaw), Stranger in a Strange Land
"No matter how lavishly overpaid, civil servants everywhere are convinced they are horribly underpaid-but all public employees have larceny in their hearts or they wouldn't be feeding at the public trough." --Robert Heinlein (as Friday), Friday
"'Love' is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." --Robert Heinlein (as Jubal Harshaw), Stranger in a Strange Land And above all things... TANSTAAFL!There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.The Moon is a Harsh MistressA thanks for the reminder to Amy Sturgis from Liberty & Power. Check out her postTags: books, events, heinlein, history, holidays, people, quotes
Current Mood:  thoughtful
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For this Independence Day, I'd like to take a page from Roderick Long and point you all to Voltairine de Cleyre's insightful thoughts on the revolution. Think about the prophetic words of Thomas Jefferson, which she quotes: "The spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may become persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated that the time for fixing every essential right, on a legal basis, is while our rulers are honest, ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will be heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion." Does the spirit of '76 live on in the United States on this, its 230th birthday? Or have Americans lost their stomache for liberty entirely? The 4th is not a celebration of fireworks, or of flags, or of wars, or of men. It is fundamentally a celebration of ideals. On this day, our founders pledged "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" on the gamble that they might see freedom from England - and establish a nation on the principles of the Enlightenment. The rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were " self-evident truths," not merely nice goals, to be tossed aside when we are too lazy, afraid, or power-mad to keep them. A microcosm of the perverse nature of our current Congress is the closeness of the flag burning amendment to passing the Congress last week. By one vote! A vote to destroy the very ideals for which the flag stands, in honor of the flag! How hypocritical, or how misguided, for men whose bread and butter are platitudes built on the fathers of the Revolution? Those men cared not for flags, but for liberty. A flag is a symbol, and for Americans it is the symbol of that liberty - but it is the liberty also to destroy one's own property, no matter what its symbolism to others. Yet the people do not know this. They do not think about it, even; they merely get upset at the burning of their symbol, and cry out for the American judicial system to satisfy their anger. Not because of principle, not because of the ideals of the flag, but merely because they are angry. It is this that the Constitution tried to prevent, which it has failed to do. Realize today that the federal government is merely another group of men, just like yourselves. That it does not have the power to heal all wrongs, and that granting it more power will inevitably corrupt it further. Those radicals in 1781 and 1789 had the right idea in attempting to chain Leviathan. But it is up to us, not the Supreme Court or anyone else, to ensure that those chains remain strong. In that duty, Americans have been derelict. It is not too late, but it is a hard road back. And I fear there are few men or women left in this country. Jefferson said, also: "God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion...What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is its natural manure." Tags: culture, events, history, holidays, politics, rant
Current Mood: contemplative
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Just as I posted last year, I shall once again remind everyone what the true celebration of Thanksgiving should be: the triumph of private property and the free market over collectivism and tyranny. The first Thanksgiving was in 1621 and was the result of a meager harvest. At that time, the colony was run communally - the crops would go into a common store, and would be distributed to families much as the Marxist maxim: "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need." Because of this, there was corruption - "much was stolen both by night and day, before it became scarce eatable." Bounty did not come until 1623, when, as William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth colony, writes on: So they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length, after much debate of things, the Governor (with the advice of the chiefest amongst them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves; in all other thing to go on in the general way as before. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number, for that end, only for present use (but made no division for inheritance) and ranged all boys and youth under some family. This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression. The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato's and other ancients applauded by some of later times; and that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labor and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labors and victuals, clothes etc., with the meaner and younger sort, thought it some indignity and disrespect unto them. And for men's wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it. Upon the point all being to have alike, and all to do alike, they thought themselves in the like condition, and one as good as another; and so, if it did not cut off those relations that God hath set amongst men, yet it did at least much diminish and take off the mutual respects that should be preserved amongst them. And would have been worse if they had been men of another condition. Let none object this is men's corruption, and nothing to the course itself. I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in His wisdom saw another course fitter for them.
(emphasis mine) So remember and give thanks, as you eat your Thanksgiving feast, the origin of that bounty. It is the calculation of the price system and the incentive of private property that have brought plenty to America. Without capitalism, the cornucopia that surrounds many American families on this day would most certainly be diminished considerably. Individuals, not governments or collectives, are truly responsible for the continuous prosperity we enjoy. For more, I encourage you to read Richard Maybury's article, "The Great Thanksgiving Hoax" from the Mises Institute. Once again, my continual quest to turn every holiday you love into a political rant ;-) Tags: events, history, politics
Current Mood: thoughtful
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 "Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government."
"If something about the human body disgusts you, complain to the manufacturer."
"The 'what should be' never did exist, but people keep trying to live up to it. There is no 'what should be,' there is only what is."
"Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God."
"Capitalism is the best. It's free enterprise. Barter. Gimbels, if I get really rank with the clerk, 'Well I don't like this', how I can resolve it? If it gets really ridiculous, I go, 'Frig it, man, I walk.' What can this guy do at Gimbels, even if he was the president of Gimbels? He can always reject me from that store, but I can always go to Macy's. He can't really hurt me. Communism is like one big phone company. Government control, man. And if I get too rank with that phone company, where can I go? I'll end up like a schmuck with a dixie cup on a thread."
Tags: entertainment, history, life
Current Mood: inspired
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As it is Martin Luther King, Jr. day, I feel compelled to comment. Specifically, I would like to recommend his famous letter from Birmingham jail: You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of Harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus is it that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong. Now, we must not deify MLK, the man. He was not an individual without flaws - he was a socialist, an adulterer, and possibly a plagiarist. He was, however, probably the most significant figure in the mid-20th century civil rights movement - and with his fighting, his convincing speeches, his calls for nonviolent civil disobedience, he ended segregation and helped guide the US to the path of racial equality. For that, I admire him. He may not have always been consistent with the words expressed in his " I Have A Dream" speech, yet with those words he still established a noble and correct approach to the purpose and nature of civil rights. The idea that men may be judged, not "by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" is the spirit of legal equality made real. He pointed out the horrible inconsistency of the application of the Declaration of Independence - how it embodied the promise of justice to all men, yet the eventual establishment denied justice to so many. I salute Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for his mighty service to this nation and to people of all races. He helped to force the issue of freedom through methods deemed highly controversial - through the breaking of unpopular laws, but without violence, without hate. He fought the systemic perversion of liberty, and history proved him successful on many fronts - even as we have receded on others. Government is an imperfect institution, as are all works by fallible men. I hope the lessons of our past are not forgotten, but that it is remembered forever that liberty is not free - that, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." I see folks trying to grant more and more power to those who govern us, claiming it is for our own good - that without government, people will not make the right decisions. The necessity of the civil rights movement proves that government far too often fails - on the grand scale - at making right decisions itself. It takes strong men and women, like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks, to remind people that the torch of liberty is fueled - not by government - but by citizens who do not merely stand by and accept the persistent and unjust violation of their fundamental human rights. Dr. King once wrote, "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." Here is the lesson of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: What are you doing to fight for your liberty? Tags: events, history, politics
Current Mood: thoughtful
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So we are having an apartment Thanksgiving tomorrow, since we'll be having "real" Thanksgiving at our respective parents' houses. Tonight...we made desserts. Beth made an interesting berry concoction that looks delicious, Chris made a lovely chocolate bundt cake, and I made two pumpkin pies. I hope they turned out alright - they are cooling right now, and the crust looks like it may have overcooked, but we shall see. I'm sure they'll be tasty anyway, they look and smell very good. Tomorrow we make turkey, stuffing, potatoes, yams, and other such delicacies. I look forward to it. And remember this, folks - while the first Thanksgiving is considered to be from Plymouth colony in 1621, that was not a bountiful cornucopia but a meager harvest, and many of the colonists died from famine. The harvests were not bountiful until the colony abandoned socialism in favor of the free market in 1623. That is the Thanksgiving we should be celebrating - the triumph of individualism that brought people together better and more prosperous than ever. It is the celebration of man's ability to produce and to thrive in the face of grave adversity when he is merely allowed the tools and the incentive to do so - private property. And in case you're wondering, yes, I plan on turning EVERY holiday you love into a political rant ;-) Tags: events, history, politics
Current Mood:  content
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Don Boudreaux nicely sums up one of the most important differences I perceive between libertarians/classical liberals and the rest of modern political society - our treatment of government and its role. Growing up, I constantly heard people say that government exists to serve the people - that we hire them, they work for us. Yet few people blink when they hear the famous line from JFK's inaugural address - "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." Isn't that the exact opposite of what I learned growing up? Isn't that the exact opposite of the ideals of a democratic society? One question one could pose would be, of course, what does JFK mean by "country"? Is he asking for voluntary civil service for your community, your society - or is he talking about serving the State for the Greater Good? While Kennedy was not nearly so leftist as his successors in the Democratic Party, he was still a leftist, and to most leftists "government" seems to be synonymous with "society". And when one looks at the context of the quote, Kennedy seems to be specifically talking about national service - ie, serving the interests of the State. But whatever interpretation you take, let me make this clear. I have no problem with voluntary service to one's society - I applaud it, in fact. But mandatory service - merely because one is a citizen of a nation - is unacceptable and inadvisable. It is each of us through our own individual efforts that creates the Great Society - it is not Lyndon Johnson and his army of bureaucrats. The New Deal should have been a deal struck by men with other men, a natural, voluntary rebuilding of the nation - but instead, it was a mandatory restructuring by an ultimately corrupt and power-mad administration which had to resort to intimidating the Supreme Court to get its way. Once you start putting the focus of society in the hands of government, you have embarked on the road to fascism in its purest original sense - the deification of the State above the common man. "The State not only is authority which governs and molds individual wills with laws and values of spiritual life, but it is also power which makes its will prevail abroad.... For the Fascist, everything is within the State and... neither individuals or groups are outside the State.... For Fascism, the State is an absolute, before which individuals or groups are only relative." --Giovanni Gentile
"Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato." ("Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State".) --Benito Mussolini Tags: history, politics
Current Mood:  sick
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 Today, as you all know, is Independence Day. I have always had a special feeling for this day, as most Americans do, but now - because of what I have learned over the last few years - it means even more to me. Something real and valuable. The Declaration is more than a historical document, it is more than a symbol of America. It is a human cry against tyranny - it is a philosophical treatise, dedicated to man's fundamental liberties. Despite the flaws that our founding fathers may have had, they were some of the closest leaders in political history to the true meaning of liberty. They understood it better than any modern president has had any conception of. I am posting the Declaration in the cut below in the hopes that you will read it again, if you have not read it recently. There are certain things many of us miss, and things many of us may not have understood when we read it in elementary school, or junior high, or high school. I have emboldened a few such phrases which I admit I did not fully appreciate until recently - and I hope that, if you did not notice either, you will take notice of them as well. ( The Declaration of Independence )Tags: history
Current Mood: patriotic
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I feel like making a related addition to that list of quotes I posted a while back. It is from the Bible - the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 8. Now, it doesn't matter if you're a Christian (or a Jew, or a Muslim) or not, because this chapter is not religious in nature; it is just an ancient story of a man and his people. I'm quoting the chapter in it's entirety, so that it can't be said I'm taking it out of context. As background for the story: The Israelites at the time had no king. They had just revolted against the oppression of the Phillistines who had conquered them, and after many losses (including the loss of the ark of the covenant for 23 years) they finally won autonomy once more. Samuel was a "judge", which made him a leader for the Israelites, but not a king; judges resolved disputes between people, they interpreted God's law, but they did not have executive power over armies or people. Israelite society was otherwise quite individualistic and relatively anarchistic in that respect. This is the setting into which this chapter begins. ( 1 Samuel 18 )Tags: history, politics, religion
Current Mood: thoughtful
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