Political philosophy (long) was RE: [rescue] MipsPro Compilers

[Chris Byrne]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: rescue-admin at sunhelp.org [mailto:rescue-admin at sunhelp.org]On
> Behalf Of ed at the7thbeer.com
>
> What amazes me is that all of that which was said, at length is covered in
> any undergraduate political science major's coursework at one point in
> time or another.

Yes it is, and therefore shouldnt be all that amazing ;-) Though I wasnt a
political science major I am a student of history. Funny enough though, it
seems lik emost of the people I know who are political science majors (other
than the ones who are doind it because they want to actually work in
politics that is) are either marxists, socialists, or EXTREME right wingers.
I wonder what it is about PoliSci that draws the extreme elements.

>
> To summarize :  Man, the State and Nature.  Or, perhaps
> more aptly applied to this thread, Man vs. the State vs. Nature.  The
> "inherent" rights are our natural rights, but there arguably are no
> limitations to them, as the "life of Man in Nature is by necessity short
> [and] brutish...",#

I remember the quote of course,  Thomas Hobbes - 'and the life of man,
solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short' (Leviathan, i. xiii. 9. SOme
great quotes here http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/nature/hobbes-quotes.html.
Of course Hobbes was the originator of the 'Perfect man' governmental
philosophy as we know it today (assuming you dont take the argument that the
Bible is essentially a PoliSci thesis) and as espoused by several popular
science fiction authors. No-one has yet come up with a response to "But what
happens when the perfect man gets a bellyache" (BTW, anyone remember whos
quote that is?)

>  Marxism relies on the notion of egalitarian
> directive, wherein the leader is the true equal of the led, nothing more
> and nothing less.  In practice that is never so.  So by definition of
> government as preventing predation, Marxism could never be a means of
> government.  It cannot, by inherent fallacies in its own logic, prevent
> that which a government must prevent.  It either fails to be a government,
> or fails to be Marxism(as a government).
>
> Of course that argument can be abused to defame any form of government, so
> it is far from the strongest.
>
> -Ed

Just because it is both true and universal doesnt make it invalid.
Government by nature is bad, and in execution tends to be worse.


Chris Byrne