Comments on: Everything has a Price

By: patr

patr — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 07:34:25 +0000

I’d also like to say that “live and let live” does not mean we can allow murderers to walk the streets or let genocidal dictatorships stay in power. It means that if you’re not hurting anyone (but your self possibly), then we won’t hurt you. So many problems could be solved if we just lived by this principle.

By: patr

patr — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 07:25:27 +0000

Foreign policy is a very complicated thing. We should separate it from the comparatively easy decisions that we can make regarding social and economic policy. When it comes to the world around us, there’s always going to be bloodshed. Whether it be instigated by us or otherwise. Whatever your position is, your hands aren’t going to be completely clean. Support an interventionist policy, and you’re going to lose soldiers and innocent civilians on the off chance that things might get better. Turn your back away from the injustices of the world, and millions get lost to genocide and oppression. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

If everyone lived and let live, that would be ideal. Global libertarian paradise. No more dictatorships, no more ethnic cleansing. No more injustice. We’re not there yet; maybe it’s a pipedream. But it should be a goal. We can start by having a libertarian society here at home.

Anyway, I guess all comment threads here eventually come back to the issue of foreign policy…

By: HB

HB — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 06:36:03 +0000

Pat claimed that what everyone else does is not of his business. Fine. A libertarian viewpoint. Yet he also mentions “live and let live”….

The american people were lied to and now 100,000 are dead (1800 american soldiers), millions are forced to drink sewage water and face the reality that the country is collapsing into a civil war. (not to mention the financial cost, our national reputation, so on)

Now, lying is wrong. And it is very much our business that it happened. Yet sometimes I see Bush&Co defended here. Letting it go…a pretty deadly slap on the wrist.

Well I don’t think we should just let that slide.

By: Beetle

Beetle — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 06:11:07 +0000

You’re essentially making Pat’s point for him, HB. When we decide to NOT live and let live, the corpses pile up, even if we’re doing it for a “good cause.”

And I was responding to Yuriy’s claim that these fines would “create good Christians.”

By: HB

HB — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 05:53:19 +0000

well either something is wrong or it’s not. lying that causes 100,000 killed, falls under what? but than again it’s not of our business….live and let live.

oh wait

By: HB

HB — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 05:43:25 +0000

once again, Bettle, this post makes it seems like fines are the main thing here. 30 reprimands will land you in serious trouble with the university (an institution with a certain purpose). those same offenses have a 500 dollar fine on top, but that’s minor with the threat of being kicked out of college. in addition, if you do accumulate many of those points, well, than maybe a Christian University is not for you anyway.

By: patr

patr — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 04:45:58 +0000

I’m actually Catholic. I probably wouldn’t partake in 90% of the things that my ideal society would allow. But that’s just me. Live and let live. What everyone else does is none of our business.

Jerry Falwell, on the other hand, represents the far right that would use the power of government to impose a certain morality on the entire country. People complain about Bush, but Falwell is the real deal.

He can enforce whatever set of rules he wants at his private institution. In fact, more power to him. The great thing about voluntary associations is that you get to choose a community that best fits your own beliefs. But let’s not forget that his college is a “template for the new USA” as you so proudly acknowledge, HB. You might enjoy a such a restricted society, but I prefer freedom.