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Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Hippocrates, Gorgias of Leontini, a 3-inch-nail, and Thou
Disconcerting.An Aberdeenshire joiner has hit out after waiting nearly 24 hours to have a 3in nail removed from one of his fingers.There are few things which demonstrate, to my mind, the sophistry of collectivists more clearly than socialized medicine. Governments can no more 'poof' a private good into abundance that it can 'poof' a system for innovating said good into existence that could trump simple competition. In the attempt to do so, one encounters Mr. Law of Unintended Consequences in the form of a digitally suffused 3-inch-nail, or worse. So the proposition for the collectivist here (and elsewhere) is, “am I willing to sacrifice fundamental questions of quality assurance along with the hope of innovation and without even any guarantee of quantity, in return for the attribution of 'free-to-all'?” A faustian gamble. Whatever else one might say about him, Dan Smoot offers a poly-sci angle on the question: Whenever government enters a field of private activity, that field becomes a political battleground. Whenever you mix politics with medicine, doctoring becomes a political instead of a medical activity.As well as becomming a bureaucratic instead of medical activity. These considerations are outside the field of vision for these would-be Protagorases as they have diefied the “narrative” and thus fallen captive to it's charm. To wit, Gorgias tells us: “The spoken word is a mighty lord, and for all that it is insubstantial and imperceptible it has superhuman effects. It can put an end to fear do away with distress, generate happiness, and increase pity…When the power of the incantation meets the beliefs of a person’s mind, it beguiles, persuades, alters by its sorcery…techniques which cause the mind to err and deceive beliefs…For if everyone could remember everything that had happened in the past, could understand everything that was happening in the present, and could foresee everything that would happen in the future, the spoken word would not have the power that it has.”But it cannot invent magnetic resonance imaging. posted by Malaclypse the Tertiary at 1:11 AM · Monday, September 20, 2004
Sometimes a Cigar is...
 Virginia Postrel asks:Watching news reports of John Kerry's latest campaign appearance, a pressing question occurs to me: Why don't politicians use lavalier microphones when they speak without a podium? Do media consultants tell them it's more effective to talk loudly by carrying a big stick?Better yet, why not a headset mic so they can execute the complicated choreography? posted by Malaclypse the Tertiary at 1:59 AM · Monday, September 06, 2004
A Spade is a Spade
Item 1 is an Op-Ed by Ralph Peters which includes the following:If Muslim religious leaders around the world will not publicly condemn the taking of children as hostages and their subsequent slaughter ? if those "men of faith" will not issue a condemnation without reservations or caveats ? then no one need pretend any longer that all religions are equally sound and moral.My feelings on religion notwithstanding, I think it's time we get honest and let everyone know that the single largest — indeed the defining — component of the War on Terror is a war against radical Islam. Inasmuch as there are actually some few "Moderate Muslims" (ie. Muslims who believe in the separation of church and state,) this is not a war against all Islam, but certainly most of it. Item 2 is this post at Chicago-Boyz entitled, "The Ideology of Total War: The Wars on Civilians" and it includes this quote from Item 2a, Jane Novak's post, "The Path to School #1" attributed to Imam Al-Sudayyis of the Grand Mosque in Mecca: You have revived the hopes of this nation through your blessed Jihad. By Allah, be patient until, with Allah's help, one of two good things will be awarded you: either victory or martyrdom. Our hearts are with you; our prayers are dedicated to you. The Islamic nation will not spare money or effort in support of your cause.The piece goes on to make a rational case for what the overwhelming majority of westerners know through cultural conditioning, namely that killing children in the name of politics, Allah or any damn thing else, is BARBARISM — you know, an act committed by the product of a primitive culture. Though I don't recall the source, not long after September 11, some bureaucrat or other from Italy (I believe) dared to suggest that western culture was indeed superior to Muslim culture. He was characterized by the ephebish European press as a Neanderthal, but I'll stand squarely in his court until such time as the Imams and Mullahs show as much concern for innocent children as they do for French journalism. posted by Malaclypse the Tertiary at 1:41 AM · Thursday, September 02, 2004
Evolutionary Civil Development and Terror
John Kerry wants to fight a "more sensitive" war on terror. It seems strange that it must be said so often and with so little impact, but I’m all for pissin’ in the ocean, so here goes: The level of consciousness (vis-à-vis one’s social context) necessary to be able to frame conflict in terms of sensitivity is simply not something to which fully two-thirds of the population of the planet are availed. Let me try that again: Kerry’s position requires all negotiators can agree to certain philosophical ground rules. I am suggesting that the environmental requirements by which such a philosophy becomes possible in the mind of any given person are plainly not present in most of the world.
I’m frustrated that it is so difficult to find coverage of the siege at School #1. I’m just not open-minded enough to think that a dead sea’s worth of sensitivity would have any effect other than emboldening more – and more horrific examples – of this. As an aside, it is one of many examples of which I am made conscious, of the power of distributed systems that Stan of Logic and Sanity is livetranslatiblogging the Russian wire reports about the siege. posted by Malaclypse the Tertiary at 11:15 PM · |
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