There's nothing the state loves more than people who try to use it,
because they legitimize it. You may start as an anarchist. Then you
say, well, we're stuck with the state, let's make the best of it.
Then they've got you. Because if the state ever *is* in danger of
nonexistence, you'll be among those who rally to its defense -- to
save the good things it does for the poor, of course.
If the state makes gestures of feeding the poor, the trick for its
opponents is to avoid being seduced, so we can say, "Your so-called
compassionate gestures do not relieve you of the guilt of making them
poor in the first place! If you're serious about helping the poor,
you'll repeal the licensing acts that keep them from supporting
themselves - repeal the zoning acts that prevent the building of
housing - repeal all the regulations that are designed to maintain
high prices of food and other necessities!"
: I suspect right-anarchist to use the
: term "market" as a model of any kind of free interaction, as the left
: anarchists see in "market" only one kind of interaction. "Free markets",
: according to this definition, is therefore, to use Bateson's terms, a
: "maximisation of one variable", which can be disastrous to the whole
: system, built on many variables.
What the left fail to understand is that money is only a medium
through which we optimize and balance all the hidden variables
of our desires.
To maximize your money is to maximize the tools by which you can
choose the goods and conditions you prefer, for whatever reason.
Socialists want to guarantee food and shelter and medicine for all,
all alike, of the kind and amount that "science" proclaims to be
appropriate - and they treat each of these desiderata as if it were
unrelated from the others; if the state budget won't cover all three,
it would be sacrilege to choose between them; the budget must be
expanded! By magic, if necessary!
Free-marketers want to make people richer, so that each has more
freedom to *choose* the kind and quality of these things that each
one prefers, giving each one the option to (for example) spend less
on shelter (smaller apartment?) and more on specialized food.
Anton Sherwood *\\* +1 415 267 0685 *\\* DASher@netcom.com