Re: democracy?! (Re: Terrorism is a NON-THREAT (fwd)

Forwarded message:

> Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 13:28:22 GMT
> From: Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk>

> The real problem as I see it with democracy is that not only do your
> neighbours get to vote to have you locked up for something which is
> none of their business, and has no conceivable effect up on them; but
> they actually get to vote for you to be charged for the "service" of
> being locked up to protect you from yourself.

Exactly what kind of democracy are you speaking of? Sounds like you are
lumping them all into one big bucket, a disservice to all involved in this
discussion and a popular spin-doctor tactic. If so, please be so kind as to
demonstrate how a representative, constitutional, and majority democracy are
the same? And for the record, we have a constitutional representative
democracy.

Personaly, I figure you must be one of those folks with a cognitive
disfunction. What part of "Congress shall make no law..." do you not 
understand?

> The wild west was better than this state of affairs -- people didn't
> have the energy or inclination to waste their own resources being nosy
> parkers, and those that did were apt to wind up full of lead.

Boy, you history is simply fucked. If you seriosly think the west was like
television you should spend more time reading books and period newspapers
and less time looking at the boob-tube. At the height of the range wars there
were only 9 murders associated with the conflict, not hundreds as the popular
entertainment media and spin-doctor culture would have you believe. Get your
fucking facts straight.

Face off's at high-noon simply didn't happen and poeple didn't run around
having gun fights all the time.

I would suggest *strongly* that if nothing else you review the western
history series by Time*Life, should be at your local library, and UT Press
put out a book called "The Texas Rangers". I have both of them but
unfortunately they are in my shop 30 miles away. A lookup at your local
bookstore should get them if you are truly interested in how it was. "The
Quick & The Dead" was a movie, not a historical documentary.


    ____________________________________________________________________
   |                                                                    |
   |    The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there   |
   |    be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves.       |
   |                                                                    |
   |                                       -Alan Greenspan-             |
   |                                                                    | 
   |            _____                             The Armadillo Group   |
   |         ,::////;::-.                           Austin, Tx. USA     |
   |        /:'///// ``::>/|/                     http://www.ssz.com/   |
   |      .',  ||||    `/( e\                                           |
   |  -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'-                         Jim Choate       |
   |                                                 ravage@ssz.com     |
   |                                                  512-451-7087      |
   |____________________________________________________________________|

Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com> writes:
> Adam Back <aba@dcs.ex.ac.uk> wrote:
> > The real problem as I see it with democracy is that not only do your
> > neighbours get to vote to have you locked up for something which is
> > none of their business, and has no conceivable effect up on them; but
> > they actually get to vote for you to be charged for the "service" of
> > being locked up to protect you from yourself.
> 
> Exactly what kind of democracy are you speaking of? Sounds like you are
> lumping them all into one big bucket, 

I figure it's a reasonable summary of a lot of democracies right now.

> If so, please be so kind as to demonstrate how a representative,
> constitutional, and majority democracy are the same? And for the
> record, we have a constitutional representative democracy.

Didn't say they were "the same".  But they do share a characteristic:
distortions of free market in the form of voting for theft and
redistribution of other peoples money leading to annoying government
micro-management, and general do-gooder busy-body-ness, and the many
laws on thought crimes.

> Personaly, I figure you must be one of those folks with a cognitive
> disfunction. What part of "Congress shall make no law..." do you not 
> understand?

I understand it, but US politicians either don't, or don't care and
largely ignore the constitution.  What does it matter whether I
understand it or not?  Your constitution says you can own and carry
guns; your politicians and law enforcement increasingly say that you
can not.  Your response to my saying that is that _I_ don't understand
the constitution?

> > The wild west was better than this state of affairs -- people didn't
> > have the energy or inclination to waste their own resources being nosy
> > parkers, and those that did were apt to wind up full of lead.
> 
> Boy, you history is simply fucked. If you seriosly think the west was like
> television you should spend more time reading books and period newspapers
> and less time looking at the boob-tube. 

I don't own a TV, and so don't watch much (by choice -- it's mostly
garbage); printed mass media is a bit better, but not that much.

> At the height of the range wars there were only 9 murders associated
> with the conflict, not hundreds as the popular entertainment media
> and spin-doctor culture would have you believe. Get your fucking
> facts straight.

I know, that was my point; recall that I said the murder rate was low.
The point was there were way less laws, and few were telling their
neighbours what they could think.

> Face off's at high-noon simply didn't happen and poeple didn't run
> around having gun fights all the time.

Right!

Adam
-- 
Now officially an EAR violation...
Have *you* exported RSA today? --> http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/rsa/

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