Wright flees Ignominiously
One small advantage of being a Christian is that I no longer need to be as scrupulous about my honor and pride. Indeed, part of my task is to beat down my pride, which, as a candid reader can see in the words that follow, I have not yet done.
I young (I presume) man (I presume) named Bran, who in his spare time serves as the the Mouth of Sauron and an apologist for the heresiarch Karl Marx has addressed me with the following offer, which I admit is a noble one:
He writes:
John, then let neither of us muddy the waters. This argument was not started specifically with the intention of making this into ‘capitalism vs communism’. I may have less experience than you, but I have still argued it enough to be tired of it. For the same reasons as you, just in reverse.
Let us go even unto the electronic mail, where no hecklers, rhetoricians and other people in general cannot interfere. Let us set out our arguments in a logical fashion, without ad hominem and other logical fallacies, which you rely on, but claim that you do not and I do. Let us be emotive when emotion is called for, and analytical when it is not, not this strange fusion which we are experiencing here. Let us state our sources, and also quibble over them.
How shall we discuss it? Shall we select elements, such as economic and humanitarian, and then beat them to exhaustion in turn?
What we shall not do is make unsupported assertions. Or insist that, to quote point 13: Start referring to Marxism as being some kind of religious faith, Messianic, or whatever other spiritualist bullshit you can come up with. When people point out that you can draw similarities between virtually any political ideology and other religions, ignore them. Or use smilies. -_-
Until such a time as we have finished or, to prevent either side (well, given my record, mainly me) simply not replying in order to gain time, you shall not do an overtly anti-communist post. Continuing your posts against the current action regarding insurance is fine. Criticising the Democrats is fine. Doing an angry 20,000 word rant on communist infiltration, communist indoctrination and the international communist conspiracy sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids is not fine.
In return, I shall be a lot more restrained, and not get into arguments, on any topic, with anyone. This is, of course, a perfect moment to engage me in argument. I will remain actively commenting, though.I set out the terms here, as opposed to privately, so that if you and I agree to them, then we have witnesses to our promises. A bit like a marriage ceremony, really.
I decline. I am not willing to debate a man who does not know how to debate on a topic with which he is unfamiliar. My offer was for a future time after you had corrected these shortcomings.
If the offer had been made in the language a mature man would make, not the same old sneering smugness and accusatory tones, I might be willing to put some faith in your ability to conduct yourself honorably.
As it is, I will let the gauntlet lay as is, and accept the dishonor of refusing to meet you in the lists. I think my escutcheon can withstand the stain.
I was not doing overtly anticommunists posts because, frankly, I thought with the fall of the Soviet Union your heresy had lost so much prestige that it was no longer an issue.
Just one more idol that fought the Church and failed.
I met two people, a brother and a sister, who escaped from one of your Worker’s paradises. They were Korean. In broken English, and with a look of disgust on his features, the brother explained how at the factory those who stood outside lounging got paid as much as those who worked hard all day, and so no one worked hard, or, if they could help it, at all. He could express, even in broken English, the concept so simple and so obvious that only an intellectual could fail to see it.
If you do not pay people for work, people will not work; and in order to make them work not for pay, you must taskmasters over them to drive them. They are slaves. Nothing could be more clear.
The sister mentioned that they had lost everything, their family and their home, when they fled.
That is what you are defending.
Those people were friends of mine. I knew them and worked with them. They were people whose lives were ruined because of an idea so stupid, and so obviously stupid, that no honest man can take it seriously for an instant.
Your idea.
You say that these events, the the astronomical number of innocent dead, and far more lives ruined, were killed not by your idea, by a transitional stage of communism which is not true communism: a perversion of your idea, which is wonderfulness incarnate.
To which I reply, in all courtesy and gentleness, that I do not give a tinker’s damn for your distinction between ‘true’ (i.e. make-believe) implementation of your idea of communism and ‘bad’ ( i.e. real) implementation of your idea of communism.
My idea of limited government by free men does not require nor ask that tens of millions be sacrificed during the transition from an imperfect form to a perfect form. My idea does not expect nor promise perfection this side of heaven. All my idea says is that you are not a slave, which means, you own yourself, and you own the fruit of your own labor. All my idea says is that you should tell the truth, think logically, and not covet your neighbors’ possessions, provided you are secure in yours.
If your happy-talk make-believe Alice-in-Wonderland idea of the Marxist dictatorship of the proletarian is supposed to usher in a worker’s paradise, but if in fact all this Wonderland idea has done so far is pile up ruined lives and pyramids of skulls, what in the name of the Hell you serve makes you think that somehow, tomorrow, next year, or next century whatever the mysterious mistake is that keeps derailing the promised pie in the sky will not rear its head again?
Every Communism so far has turned into a slave labor camp and a death camp. No one on the Western side of the Berlin Wall was machine gunned down trying to climb away from the racist exploitation of the democracies into the glorious five-year planned prosperity and luxury behind the Iron Curtain.
No one from Florida risks his life on a raft with a child, and dies in the attempt to sneak the child into the Worker’s Paradise of Cuba, there to get free health care.
No one. Not one. Nobody.
If all the Communism we have seen so far in history has been nothing but an empire of darkness and a vast wasteland of unconvincing lies, Newspeak, double-talk and doublethink, bloodshed, torture, lies, bloodshed, orchestrated famines, falsehoods, one-child policies, propaganda, bloodshed, secret police, political correctness, bloodshed, political polices, bloodshed, show trials, and blood, what in the Hell you serve makes you think that everything will be different once your version of the Big Brother is in charge?
For that matter, What in the Hell you serve makes you think anything at all will be different? Will human nature change? Will people work without pay and without taskmasters?
Why should you and yours be in charge of anything? I do not even trust you to hold conversation honestly. Why should I and mines place life and labor and fortune and future in your hands?
You won’t even admit that blood that is on them.
Read HUMAN ACTION von Mises. There is no argument I can make which he does not make with considerable more clarity and patience. Here is the link: http://mises.org/document/3250
If that is too technical for you, I can recommend a fairy story addressing the issue. http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Animal_Farm/english/eaf_go
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
