Comments on: Recipe for Suicide http://www.newclarion.com/2009/01/recipe-for-suicide/ Our mission is to combat the unreason and selflessness that are sweeping our culture from the nihilist left to the religious right, and to sound a new ideal of capitalism and individual rights in American politics. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:04:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jim May http://www.newclarion.com/2009/01/recipe-for-suicide/#comment-449 Jim May Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:25:21 +0000 http://www.newclarion.com/2009/01/recipe-for-suicide/#comment-449 I heard an analogous one about a child trading away a dollar for a penny... same concept. When I hear people saying "there ought to be a law" in order to deal with minor issues, I shake my head at how cheap are the baubles people are willing to buy with their freedom. I heard an analogous one about a child trading away a dollar for a penny… same concept.

When I hear people saying “there ought to be a law” in order to deal with minor issues, I shake my head at how cheap are the baubles people are willing to buy with their freedom.

]]> By: Harold http://www.newclarion.com/2009/01/recipe-for-suicide/#comment-447 Harold Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:13:12 +0000 http://www.newclarion.com/2009/01/recipe-for-suicide/#comment-447 I like that story. I like that story.

]]> By: Richard http://www.newclarion.com/2009/01/recipe-for-suicide/#comment-446 Richard Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:55:49 +0000 http://www.newclarion.com/2009/01/recipe-for-suicide/#comment-446 A couple, with four children, finds a painting in their attic. They like it, and hang it in their living room. One day they allow a vacuum cleaner salesman to present his product in their living room. On discovering the price, they confess that the vacuum is too expensive. He commiserates about the cost of living etc., and comments that he really likes their picture. Suggesting he could help them out, he asks how much they would like for it. They debate it, and suggest $500. He haggles a bit, but they are firm: "<i>We like the picture and would not part with it for less.</i>" He agrees to the full amount, and pays them in cash, on the spot. The money helps them buy groceries for several months. One day, some years later, the couple sees the same painting on display in the window of a very high-end art store. It is priced at $85,000! Clearly, they lost about $84,500 on the very day they traded away the picture, because they did not know the value of what they had. They did not know because they had not done the learning, or research, required to understand. Are they innocent victims or, given that some art is worth a lot of money, were they just fools, in the sense that: "<i>a fool and his money are soon parted</i>? The answer is pretty obvious. The same foolishness is true of every voter who democratically supports legislative violations of Individual Rights. Unaware of the enormous value of Individual Rights, they are willing to give them up for the short term benefit that violation of those rights, as politicians purport, will bring. The painting analogy is very concrete, whereas the Individual Rights circumstance is abstract, but the principle is the same. The analogy also serves as clarion call to the electorate to understand abstract ideas. Unfortunately, few survive the Public (read: "State") education system... The State seeks to take over two things, first and foremost: the money supply and education. With those two things under their control, they marginalize the few who could stop their climb to totalitarianism. A couple, with four children, finds a painting in their attic. They like it, and hang it in their living room. One day they allow a vacuum cleaner salesman to present his product in their living room. On discovering the price, they confess that the vacuum is too expensive. He commiserates about the cost of living etc., and comments that he really likes their picture. Suggesting he could help them out, he asks how much they would like for it. They debate it, and suggest $500. He haggles a bit, but they are firm: “We like the picture and would not part with it for less.” He agrees to the full amount, and pays them in cash, on the spot. The money helps them buy groceries for several months.

One day, some years later, the couple sees the same painting on display in the window of a very high-end art store. It is priced at $85,000!

Clearly, they lost about $84,500 on the very day they traded away the picture, because they did not know the value of what they had. They did not know because they had not done the learning, or research, required to understand.

Are they innocent victims or, given that some art is worth a lot of money, were they just fools, in the sense that: “a fool and his money are soon parted? The answer is pretty obvious.

The same foolishness is true of every voter who democratically supports legislative violations of Individual Rights. Unaware of the enormous value of Individual Rights, they are willing to give them up for the short term benefit that violation of those rights, as politicians purport, will bring.
The painting analogy is very concrete, whereas the Individual Rights circumstance is abstract, but the principle is the same. The analogy also serves as clarion call to the electorate to understand abstract ideas. Unfortunately, few survive the Public (read: “State”) education system…

The State seeks to take over two things, first and foremost: the money supply and education. With those two things under their control, they marginalize the few who could stop their climb to totalitarianism.

]]> By: Jim Woods http://www.newclarion.com/2009/01/recipe-for-suicide/#comment-445 Jim Woods Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:28:27 +0000 http://www.newclarion.com/2009/01/recipe-for-suicide/#comment-445 Currently, I am reading Theodore Dalrymple's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1566635055/thenewcla-20/ref=nosim/" rel="nofollow"><cite>Life at the Bottom: The Worldview that Makes the Underclass</cite></a>. Dalrymple is an English psychiatrist who works in a slum hospital and a prison. The book relates the consequences of the welfare state on the underclass. Based upon his experiences in the UK, the primary victims of the policies advocated by Obama will be the recipients. It is an ugly and vicious thing that the Democrats propose to do to destroy their lives in the name of following an ideology divorced from reality. Currently, I am reading Theodore Dalrymple’s book Life at the Bottom: The Worldview that Makes the Underclass. Dalrymple is an English psychiatrist who works in a slum hospital and a prison. The book relates the consequences of the welfare state on the underclass.

Based upon his experiences in the UK, the primary victims of the policies advocated by Obama will be the recipients. It is an ugly and vicious thing that the Democrats propose to do to destroy their lives in the name of following an ideology divorced from reality.

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