"The lies aren’t some artifact of her misunderstanding the debate, they are the entire contribution from the left. Because they have no substantive contribution to make, they need continuous propaganda to ensure their supporters don’t get distracted by the facts."
http://timworstall.com/2011/09/04/shirley-williams-daft-old-bat/
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Poem, by Mencius Moldbug
Hanged in the lovely month of October,
My troubles were not over. I thought Hell;
But went to Heaven, where bull-necked
Angels grabbed and threw me down.
Straight they dragged me to the edge
Of a cloud, where from a long bar
I was hanged again - and this time, drawn,
My bowels burned before my eyes. For
Hours the black drops welled and shot
Twisting to the old and distant earth:
Indescribable. But next day
I was healed; so they could melt me
To hipbones in a tub of cold lye.
In Heaven you never lose consciousness.
And there is no Hell - but this Heaven,
Unroofed against the freezing fog,
Whose God is Jean Cauvin's,
Whose dirty work is His alone; nay He
Glories in it; so it went on. The
Cross? Oh, yes, the cross; many
Times; ingeniously refined. Did I
Cry, why? Many times. To no answer
But the ungentle angels. Finally
I understood; and some time later,
Was smelted of my crimes. My soul
Was good silver, thinner than paper,
Stamp-small; such remained; such
Big angels brought before the Lord.
Who spoke formalities, and sent me
Back to the one hell, this earth,
Where it is summer always, where men
Are animals, where I whisper
Like a leaf in the perfect breeze.
http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2009/07/poem.html
My troubles were not over. I thought Hell;
But went to Heaven, where bull-necked
Angels grabbed and threw me down.
Straight they dragged me to the edge
Of a cloud, where from a long bar
I was hanged again - and this time, drawn,
My bowels burned before my eyes. For
Hours the black drops welled and shot
Twisting to the old and distant earth:
Indescribable. But next day
I was healed; so they could melt me
To hipbones in a tub of cold lye.
In Heaven you never lose consciousness.
And there is no Hell - but this Heaven,
Unroofed against the freezing fog,
Whose God is Jean Cauvin's,
Whose dirty work is His alone; nay He
Glories in it; so it went on. The
Cross? Oh, yes, the cross; many
Times; ingeniously refined. Did I
Cry, why? Many times. To no answer
But the ungentle angels. Finally
I understood; and some time later,
Was smelted of my crimes. My soul
Was good silver, thinner than paper,
Stamp-small; such remained; such
Big angels brought before the Lord.
Who spoke formalities, and sent me
Back to the one hell, this earth,
Where it is summer always, where men
Are animals, where I whisper
Like a leaf in the perfect breeze.
http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2009/07/poem.html
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Secession
http://tfiafc.blogspot.com/2011/06/call-to-arms-democracy-via-secession.html
http://www.box.net/shared/tco3u7xh2hceodto70b0
Obviously England needs a Secession Party. The purpose is to end redistribution of wealth from the productive to the unproductive, and thus lower taxes. This cannot be achieved through electoral politics, so the solution is to split the polity. Other good reasons include a more responsive political system (smaller electorate: more influence per person), more competition between the seceded regions, and thus lower taxes and regulation. Smaller states, and indeed city-states, are better. We cannot terminate payments to Scotland without taking away their votes, and we cannot take away their votes without paying them to keep quiet. The only way to do it is to split the polity. We cannot keep control of Scotland for our own purposes (tax) unless we either pay them (contradictory and unacceptable) or use the army to crush rebellion. There is no public appetite for this and the army would not obey. Secession is the solution.
At the very least, this would be a Secession Party for the whole of England, to stop transfers from England to Scotland and Wales. But it could cover a smaller area than England. The advantage of an England-wide party is that this helps it avoid being a single issue party, thus giving it broader appeal. It would be easier to insert the policy into an existing political party (the Conservative Party) if it was for England to secede.
Unlike the Scottish National Party, our manifesto commitment will not be to hold a referendum on secession, it shall be to UDI: to unilaterally declare independence from the United Kingdom.
This might be easier after we have elected police chiefs, because then a member could be elected Local Police Commissioner. The police would then legitimately owe allegiance to the new government against the old. Countries are ruled (laws enforced, taxes collected) ultimately through their police locally and army nationally. It is the police who arrest those who break the law and the army who arrest police who are not obeying the national government. So having the police on side is essential.
The only way the UK could prevent secession is therefore to use the army. Hopefully the army would not be willing to fire on civilians. But it could still arrest the police. If the Secession Party won a majority in the House of Commons, this would not be a problem. But a much smaller area of secession would not be able to do this.
Where should secede?
Many places could benefit massively from freedom from the United Kingdom. They would de-tax and deregulate, and become fantastically productive and wealthy.
London and the Home Counties don't have as much scope for growth. However, it would still be worth them seceding in order to keep their current wealth.They would need to keep coastal access.
Should the Secession Party pursue local or national government? Both.
Control of Westminster would allow dismantling of the UK, which would benefit each new country. For example, Scotland and Wales would have an incentive to become productive. The North and the South East of England could become new countries (I favour the names the Kingdom of Northumbria and the Kingdom of Wessex). However, for a Secession Party to gain control of Westminster, it would need to win the majority of seats in the Commons (could form a government with the Scottish Nationalists). This would be easier if it was a Secession Party for the whole of England (i.e. the Conservative Party with a new policy).
Control of the County Councils of the Home Counties would enable UDI without control of Westminster. But they would need to somehow gain control of part of the army, or hope that the UK would not use the army, or that the army would not obey the UK's demands to crush the rebellion.
Strategy
http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/06/patri-friedman/beyond-folk-activism/
The Free State Project aims to encourage like-minded people to move to New Hampshire, as a practical alternative to changing other people's minds.
A Secession Party would only put up candidates in the area it wants to secede, and would encourage potential supporters to move there. E.g. the Hull Secession Party would only field candidates for Hull parliamentary constituencies and local and county council elections.
Also
The True Election Party. Slogan: "one vote once".
http://www.box.net/shared/tco3u7xh2hceodto70b0
Obviously England needs a Secession Party. The purpose is to end redistribution of wealth from the productive to the unproductive, and thus lower taxes. This cannot be achieved through electoral politics, so the solution is to split the polity. Other good reasons include a more responsive political system (smaller electorate: more influence per person), more competition between the seceded regions, and thus lower taxes and regulation. Smaller states, and indeed city-states, are better. We cannot terminate payments to Scotland without taking away their votes, and we cannot take away their votes without paying them to keep quiet. The only way to do it is to split the polity. We cannot keep control of Scotland for our own purposes (tax) unless we either pay them (contradictory and unacceptable) or use the army to crush rebellion. There is no public appetite for this and the army would not obey. Secession is the solution.
At the very least, this would be a Secession Party for the whole of England, to stop transfers from England to Scotland and Wales. But it could cover a smaller area than England. The advantage of an England-wide party is that this helps it avoid being a single issue party, thus giving it broader appeal. It would be easier to insert the policy into an existing political party (the Conservative Party) if it was for England to secede.
Unlike the Scottish National Party, our manifesto commitment will not be to hold a referendum on secession, it shall be to UDI: to unilaterally declare independence from the United Kingdom.
This might be easier after we have elected police chiefs, because then a member could be elected Local Police Commissioner. The police would then legitimately owe allegiance to the new government against the old. Countries are ruled (laws enforced, taxes collected) ultimately through their police locally and army nationally. It is the police who arrest those who break the law and the army who arrest police who are not obeying the national government. So having the police on side is essential.
The only way the UK could prevent secession is therefore to use the army. Hopefully the army would not be willing to fire on civilians. But it could still arrest the police. If the Secession Party won a majority in the House of Commons, this would not be a problem. But a much smaller area of secession would not be able to do this.
Where should secede?
- London
- London and the Home Counties
- Brighton
- Hull
Many places could benefit massively from freedom from the United Kingdom. They would de-tax and deregulate, and become fantastically productive and wealthy.
London and the Home Counties don't have as much scope for growth. However, it would still be worth them seceding in order to keep their current wealth.They would need to keep coastal access.
Should the Secession Party pursue local or national government? Both.
Control of Westminster would allow dismantling of the UK, which would benefit each new country. For example, Scotland and Wales would have an incentive to become productive. The North and the South East of England could become new countries (I favour the names the Kingdom of Northumbria and the Kingdom of Wessex). However, for a Secession Party to gain control of Westminster, it would need to win the majority of seats in the Commons (could form a government with the Scottish Nationalists). This would be easier if it was a Secession Party for the whole of England (i.e. the Conservative Party with a new policy).
Control of the County Councils of the Home Counties would enable UDI without control of Westminster. But they would need to somehow gain control of part of the army, or hope that the UK would not use the army, or that the army would not obey the UK's demands to crush the rebellion.
Strategy
http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/06/patri-friedman/beyond-folk-activism/
The Free State Project aims to encourage like-minded people to move to New Hampshire, as a practical alternative to changing other people's minds.
A Secession Party would only put up candidates in the area it wants to secede, and would encourage potential supporters to move there. E.g. the Hull Secession Party would only field candidates for Hull parliamentary constituencies and local and county council elections.
Also
The True Election Party. Slogan: "one vote once".
Friday, 2 September 2011
Reactionary heroes
- Sulla
- A general: never lost a battle; the only man in history to have attacked and occupied both Athens and Rome. Twice consul, he became dictator, executed thousands, and neutered the Plebeian tribune, thus preserving the power of the aristocracy and the senate against the people and democracy. He then resigned the dictatorship and was elected consul for the second time.
- Charles I
- "For the people. And truly I desire their liberty and freedom as much as anybody whomsoever. But I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having of government; those laws by which their life and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in government, Sir, that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a soveraign are clean different things, and therefore until they do that, I mean , that you do put the people in that liberty as I say, certainly they will never enjoy themselves."
- Ian Smith
- "I told you so." Declared independence from the United Kingdom rather than give in to democracy in Rhodesia. Rhodesia was destroyed by sanctions from the International Community, who gave power to Robert Mugabe, who destroyed the country. Life expectancy is now the lowest in the world, having declined from 60 in 1990 to less than 40 now. There are frequent famines in what used to be the "breadbasket of Africa", and Zimbabwe now relies on aid from abroad. This is blamed on "erratic rain". Rhodesia never had "erratic rain" problems.
- Lee Kuan Yew
- Singapore remains low tax and regulation through suppression of democracy.
- The Duke d'Alba
- Imposed order and tax by executing thousands.
- General Pinochet
- Imposed low tax and regulation by suppressing democracy.
- The White Rajahs of Sarawak
- Ruled a happy, prosperous state for a hundred years until destroyed by the British after World War 2.
- Porfirio Díaz
- Ruled a successful, prosperous state until he started to encourage democracy. Under Díaz, Mexico was ahead of the U.S. in learning and the arts.
- Enoch Powell
- Eloquent opponent of expansions of democracy. He opposed reform of the House of Lords, which would reduced its power relative to the Commons, and expansion of the electorate whether by the Reform Acts or immigration.
- Lord Cromer
- Consul-General of Egypt. Ruled a country of 10 million with 1000 British civil servants and 5000 soldiers, and profitably.
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Programme for reactionary government
A reactionary government will liberalise the economy and abolish democracy. It must formalise power, so that the people who appear to hold power are the same as the people who actually do.
How will it cement its power?
It must write a new national curriculum to explain the principles of non-democracy. History lessons will demonstrate the unusualness of democracy. Novels such as "Starship Troopers" could be studied in English Literature lessons.
The state broadcaster will encourage self-reliance instead of socialism. Universities will produce research designed to support the self-reliance and the new state over socialism. Control of university funding will encourage such research.
If the state broadcaster and the universities cannot be reformed, they will have to be dissolved, like the monasteries, as competing power centres.
The state schools will remain, because they definitely can be reformed.
The armed forces will also have to be reeducated to ensure loyalty to the new principles of the state. This should not be difficult. Different ethics classes, and a different selection of military history, will show that taking the necessary measures to preserve the government from the people are both moral and easy.
How will it cement its power?
It must write a new national curriculum to explain the principles of non-democracy. History lessons will demonstrate the unusualness of democracy. Novels such as "Starship Troopers" could be studied in English Literature lessons.
The state broadcaster will encourage self-reliance instead of socialism. Universities will produce research designed to support the self-reliance and the new state over socialism. Control of university funding will encourage such research.
If the state broadcaster and the universities cannot be reformed, they will have to be dissolved, like the monasteries, as competing power centres.
The state schools will remain, because they definitely can be reformed.
The armed forces will also have to be reeducated to ensure loyalty to the new principles of the state. This should not be difficult. Different ethics classes, and a different selection of military history, will show that taking the necessary measures to preserve the government from the people are both moral and easy.
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Obviously wrong philosophies
Various political, philosophical and moral theories have struck me as bunk. People advocating them seem to know this, too. We can pretend to believe them for the sake of argument, but we all know that they're not true.
So I thought I'd collect them together here.
Convervatism
Conservatism: there's not much to it. See my previous post. Not so much wrong as incomplete and ineffective.
Natural-rights libertarianism
Nonsense on stilts. Rights-based theories of morality are as wrong as other theories of morality (see below).
Freedom as the highest political goal
"Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end." Lord Acton, The History of Freedom in Antiquity (1877).
Why?
The Social Contract
It's not a contract, because no one ever agreed to it. It's not a contract because it isn't fixed; no one knows what it is (because it isn't written down) and it seems to change over time. (Some people call it a "social compact" to distinguish it from a contract.)
In fact, it's bunk. There is no social contract. It doesn't exist. It's a myth required to justify various ideologies.
Objective morality
I have no problem with the idea that some things can just be true. Why does the gravitational constant have the value it does? It just does.
But the idea that morality exists, that things can be right or wrong, good and bad, is bunk.
My claim is not moral relativism; I am not claiming that different people's moral beliefs are all equally true. I am claiming that they are all equally false.
Moral facts could exist in various different ways. The universe could be dualistic, with moral facts existing as Platonic forms. The universe could be monistic, with moral facts existing out there as atoms or patterns. They could be in the mind of God, in which case to know moral facts would be to know the mind of God. There is no reason to suppose that moral facts could not change over time.
We have as much reason to believe in the existence of moral facts as we have to believe in the existence of God.
If moral facts existed, we have no way whatsoever of discovering what they are. There is no way to measure them. We might presume that a list of moral facts could not contain a contradiction, so we could reject a given person's list of moral facts if it contained a contradiction. But we would have no reason whatever to accept a list of moral facts as true just because it did not contain contradictions.
Because we could no more know moral facts if they existed than we could know the mind of God if he existed, there is no way they could affect our daily lives.
Often, when trying to argue against the view that there is no objective morality, people talk about the consequences of such a view. "Surely it would be terrible if everyone thought so?" "How can you live with such a view?" But the supposed consequences of a view have nothing to do with whether it is true or not. People want it to be true, but that does not make it true.
People talking about morality sound to me like people discussing whether animals go to heaven. "I believe that animals have souls and go to heaven." "Do you really? I believe that only pets have souls and go to heaven". No one can possibly have anything more to say on the subject than anyone else.
So I thought I'd collect them together here.
Convervatism
Conservatism: there's not much to it. See my previous post. Not so much wrong as incomplete and ineffective.
Natural-rights libertarianism
Nonsense on stilts. Rights-based theories of morality are as wrong as other theories of morality (see below).
Freedom as the highest political goal
"Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end." Lord Acton, The History of Freedom in Antiquity (1877).
Why?
The Social Contract
It's not a contract, because no one ever agreed to it. It's not a contract because it isn't fixed; no one knows what it is (because it isn't written down) and it seems to change over time. (Some people call it a "social compact" to distinguish it from a contract.)
In fact, it's bunk. There is no social contract. It doesn't exist. It's a myth required to justify various ideologies.
Objective morality
I have no problem with the idea that some things can just be true. Why does the gravitational constant have the value it does? It just does.
But the idea that morality exists, that things can be right or wrong, good and bad, is bunk.
My claim is not moral relativism; I am not claiming that different people's moral beliefs are all equally true. I am claiming that they are all equally false.
Moral facts could exist in various different ways. The universe could be dualistic, with moral facts existing as Platonic forms. The universe could be monistic, with moral facts existing out there as atoms or patterns. They could be in the mind of God, in which case to know moral facts would be to know the mind of God. There is no reason to suppose that moral facts could not change over time.
We have as much reason to believe in the existence of moral facts as we have to believe in the existence of God.
If moral facts existed, we have no way whatsoever of discovering what they are. There is no way to measure them. We might presume that a list of moral facts could not contain a contradiction, so we could reject a given person's list of moral facts if it contained a contradiction. But we would have no reason whatever to accept a list of moral facts as true just because it did not contain contradictions.
Because we could no more know moral facts if they existed than we could know the mind of God if he existed, there is no way they could affect our daily lives.
Often, when trying to argue against the view that there is no objective morality, people talk about the consequences of such a view. "Surely it would be terrible if everyone thought so?" "How can you live with such a view?" But the supposed consequences of a view have nothing to do with whether it is true or not. People want it to be true, but that does not make it true.
People talking about morality sound to me like people discussing whether animals go to heaven. "I believe that animals have souls and go to heaven." "Do you really? I believe that only pets have souls and go to heaven". No one can possibly have anything more to say on the subject than anyone else.
Saturday, 27 August 2011
The emptiness of conservatism
Conservatives have always been a movement crying out for a philosophy.
Conservatism is a party before it is a philosophy. Just as the Right contains many different people (including conservatives) with conflicting opinions, so does conservatism (a subset of the Right) also contain many different people with conflicting opinions.
The Conservative Party in the UK (and its predecessors) is regarded as a very successful political party, which has survived for so long by not having any principles.
However, the since the Conservative Party has occupied the niche of the right-wing party in the UK for many years, it has required a political philosophy to attempt to justify its existence and actions.
So what is conservatism? It is a political philosophy that thinks some things should be conserved. Which things? It is a political philosophy that thinks that change should be slow. Yet it does not oppose all change. So which changes are good, and which bad?
The reasoning behind conservatism is the law of unintended consequences. This should guard against being too convinced of your own rationality. ("The essential idea of leftism is that the world should be governed by scholars." C.f. the Cult of Reason.) A policy which appears to be good, on rational inspection, may turn out to have bad consequences on balance, because of bad consequences which were not foreseen by rationality. This has earned conservatism something of a reputation for disparaging rationality.
But how are we to judge policies except with the power of reason? Conservatism still cannot answer our question of what should be conserved; which changes are good? The law of unintended consequences should influence policy, but it is not a political philosophy.
Conservatism provides no long-term political direction.
In practice, conservatives are limited to trying only to reverse recent changes, or more usually to trying to prevent further change. They tend to accept changes as "inevitable" soon after they happen, and have a limited memory so tend to become happy with the change before last: they only want to turn back the clock a little bit.
Their mistake is to believe that they can stop the growth of state expenditure in a democracy, or that they can reverse social change without dominating the universities. With no long-term political direction, they cannot win.
http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2007/06/why-conservatives-never-quite-catch.html
Conservatism is a party before it is a philosophy. Just as the Right contains many different people (including conservatives) with conflicting opinions, so does conservatism (a subset of the Right) also contain many different people with conflicting opinions.
The Conservative Party in the UK (and its predecessors) is regarded as a very successful political party, which has survived for so long by not having any principles.
However, the since the Conservative Party has occupied the niche of the right-wing party in the UK for many years, it has required a political philosophy to attempt to justify its existence and actions.
So what is conservatism? It is a political philosophy that thinks some things should be conserved. Which things? It is a political philosophy that thinks that change should be slow. Yet it does not oppose all change. So which changes are good, and which bad?
The reasoning behind conservatism is the law of unintended consequences. This should guard against being too convinced of your own rationality. ("The essential idea of leftism is that the world should be governed by scholars." C.f. the Cult of Reason.) A policy which appears to be good, on rational inspection, may turn out to have bad consequences on balance, because of bad consequences which were not foreseen by rationality. This has earned conservatism something of a reputation for disparaging rationality.
But how are we to judge policies except with the power of reason? Conservatism still cannot answer our question of what should be conserved; which changes are good? The law of unintended consequences should influence policy, but it is not a political philosophy.
Conservatism provides no long-term political direction.
In practice, conservatives are limited to trying only to reverse recent changes, or more usually to trying to prevent further change. They tend to accept changes as "inevitable" soon after they happen, and have a limited memory so tend to become happy with the change before last: they only want to turn back the clock a little bit.
Their mistake is to believe that they can stop the growth of state expenditure in a democracy, or that they can reverse social change without dominating the universities. With no long-term political direction, they cannot win.
http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2007/06/why-conservatives-never-quite-catch.html
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