Sunday, April 11, 2010

Parasites and Creators

Reading this it's hard not to think of efforts to find a libertarian golden age as just a rehash of this hilarious bullshit:



In an especially sad episode of the The Twilight Zone Arnold Kling fell through a dimensional rift, ending up in Ladylibertopia where he was unable to find a job and starved to death.


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UPDATE AGAIN:

Kling on the Tea Partiers a while back:
Now, the elitism of President Obama and his supporters has reached in-your-face levels. They have utter contempt for the Tea Party-ers, and the Tea-Party-ers know it.

I wouldn't want the Tea Party-ers at the faculty picnic, either. But my sense of class solidarity with Obama and other educated progressives does not make me want to see them exercise power. If anything, being a member of the educated elite and knowing knowing them as well as I do makes me share the Tea Party-ers' fears.
The stupids are too stupid to hang out with, but I trust 'em more than the stupids I hang out with. Does he hate humanity more than M. Bouffant?

18 comments:

J— said...

A common macro-narrative structure often framing utopian and millenarian political ideologies/sentiments--Golden Age followed by Dark Age, Golden Age destined to return.

Holbo:

perhaps induced by Hayekian rather than conservative rhetoric

You'd be amazed by what things Hayek can induce.

Dragon-King Wangchuck said...

Oh no, you got me to watch that speech once. I'd rather be rickroll'd.

re: Golden Age of Libertarianism

Wasn't the 1880's a time when they were still building railroads? Ah the freedom to send the Chinese into dark caves while carrying bottles of nitroglycerin. Truly a Golden Age.

Substance McGravitas said...

There's got to be some sort of standard set here: if you find your argument boils down to a justification of Roarke's speech you are wrong.

J— said...

Wasn't the 1880's a time when they were still building railroads? Ah the freedom to send the Chinese into dark caves while carrying bottles of nitroglycerin. Truly a Golden Age.

And a time when Congress gave land grants of federal lands to the railroad companies because that's how free the market was then.

mikey said...

True to your word, a Sunday before noon posting.

Bouffant is rendered powerless by your tactical acumen...

J— said...

Fun response from Kling in the Crooked Timber comments.

Substance McGravitas said...

He is, of course, the real victim.

Dragon-King Wangchuck said...

So I guess this means that Kling basically agrees with Boaz - the 1880's was a shitty time for liberty, especially compared to Nobambi Socialism.

M. Bouffant said...

Bouffant is rendered powerless by your tactical acumen...

Not to take anything away from our host, but it's more along the lines of doing myself in by sloth & lassitude.

hamula: The other white meat vampire.

Rusty Shackleblart said...

Libertarianism died when the second house went up at Catal Huyuk.

J— said...

How dare you deploy the draggable, movable mustaches on Kling! You haven't walked a mile in his shoes.

Dragon-King Wangchuck said...

Are those leeches? You know, blood-sucking parasites?

Oh wait, that's Arnold Kling. Imma gunna give him some flapping moustache eyebrows.

mikey said...

It's very hard to come up with a good argument against sloth and lassitude.

Please carry on...

tigris said...

I said something about this at alicublog, too, bringing up the 5-year depression and recession than bracketed 1880, plus the numerous bank panics throughout the whole 19th century, brought on by the lack of government regulation. The whole century is proof that governments MUST regulate this crap or the country will fail and fail and fail.

Substance McGravitas said...

There is more libertarian thread at CT.

M. Bouffant said...

Aw, shucks.

J— said...

And it don't stop.

Substance McGravitas said...

Okay, that one's loopy.