tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post2189986798857683699..comments2024-03-28T06:00:18.802-07:00Comments on bionic mosquito: Why Sacrifice Isaac?bionic mosquitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-78794702853499346412019-12-06T07:06:37.732-08:002019-12-06T07:06:37.732-08:00Very good, ATL. Thank you for sharing this.Very good, ATL. Thank you for sharing this.bionic mosquitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-78144319290753941672019-12-04T14:01:22.271-08:002019-12-04T14:01:22.271-08:00"Now, this is exactly the tendency not only o..."Now, this is exactly the tendency not only of most of our governmental institutions but also and to an even greater degree of those institutions that are designed to serve as remedies for the evils that afflict us. Under the philanthropic pretext of fostering among men an artificial kind of solidarity, the individual's sense of responsibility becomes more and more apathetic and ineffectual. Through improper use of the public apparatus<br />of law enforcement, the relation between labor and wages is impaired, the operation of the laws of industry and exchange is disturbed, the natural development of education is distorted, capital and manpower are misdirected, minds are warped, absurd demands are inflamed, wild hopes are dangled before men's eyes, unheard of quantities of human energy are wasted, centers of population are relocated, experience itself is made ineffective; in brief, all interests are given artificial foundations, they clash, and the people cry: You see, all men's interests are antagonistic. Personal liberty causes all the trouble. Let us execrate and stifle personal liberty.<br /><br />And so, since liberty is still a sacred word and still has the power to stir men's hearts, her enemies would strip her of her name and her prestige and, rechristening her competition, would lead her forth to sacrifice while the applauding multitudes extend their hands to receive their chains of slavery.<br /><br />It is not enough, then, to set forth the natural laws of the social order in all their majestic harmony; it is also necessary to show the disturbing factors that nullify their action." - Frederic BastiatA Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-90709649838807104712019-12-04T14:01:09.689-08:002019-12-04T14:01:09.689-08:00"I think the problem of no pain directly cont..."I think the problem of no pain directly contributes to the meaning crisis which directly contributes to the loss of purpose in man, and therefore to our loss of liberty" - BM<br /><br />I apologize for the long quote, but every bit of it is relevant, and I don't have the heart to chop it up or summarize it. It's one of my favorites from Bastiat, along with the other much shorter one in the other comment.<br /><br />"Deny evil! Deny pain! Who could? We should have to forget that we are talking about mankind. We should have to forget that we ourselves are men. For the laws of Providence to be considered as harmonious, it is not necessary that they exclude evil. It is enough that evil have its explanation and purpose, that it be self-limiting, and that every pain be the means of preventing greater pain by eliminating whatever causes it.<br /><br />Society is composed of men, and every man is a free agent. Since man is free, he can choose; since he can choose, he can err; since he can err, he can suffer.<br /><br />I go further: He must err and he must suffer; for his starting point is ignorance, and in his ignorance he sees before him an infinite number of unknown roads, all of which save one lead to error.<br /><br />Now, all error breeds suffering. And this suffering either falls upon the one who has erred, in which case it sets in operation the law of responsibility; or else it strikes innocent parties, in which case it sets in motion the marvelous reagent that is the law<br />of solidarity.<br /><br />The action of these laws, combined with the ability that has been given us of seeing the connection between cause and effect, must bring us back, by the very fact of suffering, to the path of righteousness and truth.<br /><br />Thus, we not only do not deny that evil exists; we recognize that it has its purpose in the social order even as in the physical universe.<br /><br />But if evil is to fulfill this purpose, the law of solidarity must not be made to encroach artificially upon the law of responsibility; in other words, the freedom of the individual must be respected.<br /><br />Now, if man-made institutions intervene in these matters to nullify divine law, evil nonetheless follows upon error, but it falls upon the wrong person. It strikes him whom it should not strike; it no longer serves as a warning or a lesson; it is no longer<br />self-limiting; it is no longer destroyed by its own action; it persists, it grows worse, as would happen in the biological world if the imprudent acts and excesses committed by the inhabitants of one hemisphere took their toll only upon the inhabitants of the other hemisphere." - continued in next comment.A Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-69250610357561542992019-12-04T13:55:54.877-08:002019-12-04T13:55:54.877-08:00"And since responsibility cannot be conceived..."And since responsibility cannot be conceived of without free<br />will; since acts, if not voluntary, could not furnish valid instruction or experience; since beings whose improvement or deterioration would be entirely due to outside causes without any act of will, reflection, or choice on their part, as happens in the case of inert matter, could not be called perfectible in the moral sense of the word; we must conclude that freedom is the very essence of man's progress. To tamper with man's freedom is not only to injure him, to degrade him; it is to change his nature, to render him, in so far as such oppression is exercised, incapable of improvement; it is to strip him of his resemblance to the Creator, to stifle within him the noble breath of life with which he was endowed at his creation." - Frederic BastiatA Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.com