tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post1025506193136565084..comments2024-02-29T03:34:23.190-05:00Comments on Who Were the Sea Peoples?: No, Plato Did Not Think Taxes Were Some Sort of Permitted Theftgcallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10065877215969589482noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-74416263614405496332014-02-18T16:51:17.208-05:002014-02-18T16:51:17.208-05:00Unfortunately, a good deal of them seem to have wo...Unfortunately, a good deal of them seem to have worldviews that are rather reductionist, dividing the world up into "government" and "the free market". I imagine it would be hard for them to have discussion with, say, a person who wants poaching elephants in the Serengeti to be illegal.Samson Corwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10148822362930969284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-28815982056134679912014-02-16T00:45:08.546-05:002014-02-16T00:45:08.546-05:00I can't speak for Gene, but I suspect Hobbes a...I can't speak for Gene, but I suspect Hobbes and the rest would point out that anarcho-libertarians haven't solved or even addressed the problems of power and government, they've merely mythologized them away with fanciful notions of private defense agencies. The great political thinkers ultimately try to relate theoretical constructs to real-ish concepts of the state. Hobbes and Locke don't stop with the fanciful state of nature. AnCaps do the opposite, abstracting what they like about the existing state-filled world (free markets and individualism) and then saying all that would still exist, only more of it, in a world in which violence is organized on radically new grounds. But you can't argue with a fantasy. Daniel McCarthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07151051165704452294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-6845195158616677692014-02-14T14:25:36.049-05:002014-02-14T14:25:36.049-05:00Didn't Gene used to BE one? That likely has so...Didn't Gene used to BE one? That likely has something to do with it. Bobybuilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07218089991533436881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-41530788315803620682014-02-14T10:58:12.791-05:002014-02-14T10:58:12.791-05:00Mr Callahan,
Why so do many anarchists read this b...Mr Callahan,<br />Why so do many anarchists read this blog, obliging you to write so many posts refuting their arguments? There can't be so many of these crackpots, can there? I am slightly worried...Gorilla Bananashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13044093013423635830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-70928960702469588072014-02-14T10:53:23.396-05:002014-02-14T10:53:23.396-05:00Which part of the pizza don't you want? The pu...Which part of the pizza don't you want? The public highways? The sewers and sanitation? The enforcement of laws protecting your property and person?Gorilla Bananashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13044093013423635830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-13901110696694136672014-02-14T02:14:36.243-05:002014-02-14T02:14:36.243-05:00If someone forces a child to come with them in a c...If someone forces a child to come with them in a car, they are a kidnapper, even if they call themselves a "parent." If someone knocks down a house they are a vandal, even if they call themselves an "owner."<br /><br />Anarchism really involves some willful stupidity, doesn't it?gcallahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10065877215969589482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-90120988474165375822014-02-14T00:08:39.967-05:002014-02-14T00:08:39.967-05:00Hobbes would snicker. "You didn't think I...Hobbes would snicker. "You didn't think I was SUGGESTING that?"Bobybuilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07218089991533436881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-36955743543199957442014-02-13T19:12:53.105-05:002014-02-13T19:12:53.105-05:00I've recently been wondering what political ph...I've recently been wondering what political philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Locke would have to say if we could ressurrect them. What do you think they'd say about libertarianism?Samson Corwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10148822362930969284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-15610353042983968322014-02-13T13:19:13.833-05:002014-02-13T13:19:13.833-05:00Knappster has missed your point entirely. Plato di...Knappster has missed your point entirely. Plato did not concede he was an advocate of theft. He thinks quite the reverse, the would be freeloader is the thieving miscreant.<br />The point is important because Libertarians take the "you KNOW I'm right but won't admit it" tack. As Genes says, nossir not a bit of it.Bobybuilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07218089991533436881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-48629821880118804612014-02-13T13:15:15.524-05:002014-02-13T13:15:15.524-05:00He was, but that just reinforces Gene's point....He was, but that just reinforces Gene's point. Plato didn't see taxes as any kind of theft. He saw refusal to pay them as theft.Bobybuilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07218089991533436881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-662740513018977442014-02-13T13:14:16.500-05:002014-02-13T13:14:16.500-05:00He was. But that just reinforces Gene's point....He was. But that just reinforces Gene's point. Plato would not concede taxing was theft, he would argue refusing to pay taxes was.Bobybuilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07218089991533436881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-23890442791899626742014-02-13T11:40:14.150-05:002014-02-13T11:40:14.150-05:00Every idiot who advocates shirking by chanting &qu...Every idiot who advocates shirking by chanting "taxes are theft" bloviates as to how they have no obligation to contribute to the common good from which they benefit.gcallahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10065877215969589482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-46468755448834742662014-02-13T09:41:27.122-05:002014-02-13T09:41:27.122-05:00The clear meaning of what Plato wrote is exactly t...The clear meaning of what Plato wrote is exactly the opposite of your headline.<br /><br />Every advocate of theft for his favored street gang, aka "government," bloviates about "the payment of contributions." And every advocate of such theft betrays the fact that that's exactly what he's advocating when he follows up the rhetoric about "contributions" with a clear warning that if you don't "contribute," "the several magistrates shall impose upon the disobedient a suitable penalty, and bring them before the court, until they are willing to do what they are ordered."<br /><br />If I think that you and I should both have pizza, and I take the money for "your share" whether you want to buy pizza or not, at gunpoint or at threat of gunpoint, I'm stealing from you. Even if I call myself a "magistrate" and weary a fancy chapeau.Thomas L. Knapphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16271473384378782680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-61366519847937644182014-02-12T22:10:42.053-05:002014-02-12T22:10:42.053-05:00Wasn't Plato somewhat of a totalitarian?Wasn't Plato somewhat of a totalitarian?Samson Corwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10148822362930969284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225373.post-32324746267128372822014-02-12T08:53:12.541-05:002014-02-12T08:53:12.541-05:00+1
I do get tired of this trope. I even see it fr...+1<br /><br />I do get tired of this trope. I even see it from smart guys like Steven E Landsburg. They also elide differences between rule by a thug and reasonably legitimate governments that have broad based support. <br />Bobybuilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07218089991533436881noreply@blogger.com