I decided to move some discussion from this post up to the top level here. Specifically, Watoosh wrote: "Well, if violence is defined as initiation of force (which, of course, presupposes certain property rights), then I think Rockwell is correct..." Well, if we define cats as elephants, then many people keep elephants in their house. More seriously, firstly, violence is not usually defined that way. It's defined as, you know, violence, so that, say, someone may respond violently or non-violently to someone who aggresses against them. Otherwise, it would make no sense to say, for instance, "He punched me, but I did not stoop to violence in response." And, secondly, the libertarian usage of "initiation of force" is very offbeat. If I wander onto someone's meadow, most people would not say I had "initiated force" -- I mean, sure, I used "force" against the earth to push off walking, but that's not force directed against...
Bah! EU languages only! So Eurocentric!
ReplyDeleteWelsh is a Gaelic tongue
ReplyDeleteNo, Rob, Welsh is a Celtic tongue, but it is from the p-Celtic branch, not the q-Celtic branch that the Gaelic languages are from. Here is the Wiki page on Gaelic.
DeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteI had always assumed that "celtic" and "gaelic" were synonymous.
I see now that are are not.
So I guess I didn't waste the day.