The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

4 responses to “Live by the sword, perish by the sword”

1. 

   Kinderling

   May 7, 2009

   Tom Riall said “I was travelling from my home to a business meeting on a clear A-road…” For me this is was enough. He was in command of his vehicle, and the driver was aware of the road and the speed he could travel safely on. I like having a society of people able to determine for themselves what they can and can’t do. To have signs that warn you but do not dictate. Like a society where everyone can carry a gun to defend themselves. Makes you kinda grown up.
   And then he becomes the Libertarian “… and I was unaware of my speed.” The usual plea of not being responsible for their actions and illiciting sympathy. ‘If we had tachometers with limiters we would all be better off’

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2. 

   Kinderling

   May 7, 2009

   Usual retort: “you have a problem with Libertarians don’t you Kinderling”
   Reply: “Yes, when people identify liberty with freedom. It is nothing of the sort. The Muslim is just as free as a Libertarian. Know what bondage there is in liberty. Then you are free indeed.

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3. 

   Tom Paine

   May 7, 2009

   I hate to interrupt your fascinating discussion with yourself, but – while libertarianism covers a broad spectrum of opinion – I have not come across anyone else who associates it with “…not being responsible for their actions and illiciting (sic) sympathy…” Being a libertarian in a nanny state with an infantilised population is a pretty poor way of eliciting sympathy, I can assure you. And taking responsibility for one’s own actions (and expecting the same of others) is pretty much the core of libertarianism isn’t it? The cold, hard, ruthless and unappealing core, as far as those who believe Nanny can always save them from themselves are concerned.
   As ever, I find your interventions fascinating. Thank you for them.

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4. 

   Kinderling

   May 8, 2009

   And I appreciate your observations of the world Tom.
   And taking responsibility for one’s own actions (and expecting the same of others) is pretty much the core of libertarianism isn’t it?
   Can a homosexual take control of what he believes uncontrolable but psychologists at the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuals and all the Western Pyschologists before 1972 understood to be a dissassociation and displacement of emotional affection? There is no responsibility for one’s own actions here. Yet they will stand beside you in your Broad Church of Libertarianism whilst tax-payer funded them to counsel your youths going through identity-issues to indulge their distracting fantancies.
   Can liberals understand that to give into your enemies will simply embolden them more? Liberals will stand by your side as Libertarians whilst your country is taken over.
   The Drug addict, ditto the smoker, will perceive nothing wrong until the very end. Then it is time to blame someone else. During that time they are grande Libertarian.
   They all made peace with the violator and became what they thought of themselves as nice people. They are the ones who bring destruction to a nation, because they look the other way.
   Libertarianism is the New Faith. Olde Tom Paine would have debunked it.

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