Posted on 12/20/2002 9:31:20 AM PST by billbears
For example: The humble hut that was the pioneer's castle is replaced with a mansion ablaze with electric light and equipped with hot-and-cold running water - only because he has been able, under private property, to accumulate a superfluity of wealth.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that Stalin, Hitler, and Mao all lived in mansions like this, and they were not noted for their devotion to private property.
The point here is not to denigrate private property, but instead to point out that there's a whole lot more to the equation than private property -- it's about means, not just ends. Chodorov would have done well to recall this before he went on to talk about state's rights -- especially as it relates to secession.
Why does a man produce? Obviously, to satisfy his desires, and desires are personal, not collective.
Show me a person whose motivations are limited to what Chodorov describes, and I'll show you a psychopath. Of course people produce for reasons other than satisfaction of personal desires, too. And they'll often do the right thing, even if it costs them.
BTW, it's not surprising that the decline in cultural standards we've seen since this article was written, was in large part driven by "I got mine" individualism that falls nicely into Chodorov's category of "satisfaction of desires." If nothing else, it demonstrates that individualism and private property are not equivalent terms.
What it boils down to is that for sane people living a community of sane people, things are and should be done for reasons of duty, responsibility, and for the good of the community. Everybody gains from this.
When you apply this lesson to the idea of states rights, it's even more stark. Satisfaction of individual desires led the leading men of the South to precipitate a war, rather than give up their slave-created wealth. Doing the right thing -- giving up their wealth in slaves -- would have cost them. But it would have been the right thing to do. (Hmmmm. Didn't some of those fellas live in big mansions? Is private property in slaves among the things Chodorov wants to defend?)
As is every argument about the War of Northern Aggression. We as a nation have been hopelessly brainwashed to answer 'slavery' when asked about this war. It was much more than that
What it boils down to is that for sane people living a community of sane people, things are and should be done for reasons of duty, responsibility, and for the good of the community. Everybody gains from this.
At a state level, I can see that argument. However by the very nature of the Constitution, what arose in the aftermath of lincoln's war (and the cause of it) destroyed the definition and framework of the Constitution. For 140+ years we've been flying blind, only invoking the name of the document to cover 'our' cause, whatever that cause may be.
When you apply this lesson to the idea of states rights, it's even more stark. Satisfaction of individual desires led the leading men of the South to precipitate a war, rather than give up their slave-created wealth. Doing the right thing -- giving up their wealth in slaves -- would have cost them. But it would have been the right thing to do. (Hmmmm. Didn't some of those fellas live in big mansions? Is private property in slaves among the things Chodorov wants to defend?)
Some did yes, but as many manufacturing barons did as well. Perhaps if the barons used your logic above in demanding raw Southern goods instead of requiring the federal government to establish protectionist tariffs the whole war would have been averted. lincoln protected them and their interests through the war, nothing more.
There wouldn't have been a Civil War had it not been for slavery. There may, at some point, have been a different civil war, for different reasons -- but the one we had, we had because of slavery.
The declarations of secession prove the point.
Absolutely.
Amen.
I was stationed at Camp LeJeune for 4 years. I couldn't believe the plethora of BS laws North Carolina had.
Walt
This is a contender for "Most plainly false, and ignorant statement ever made on FreeRepublic."
As we have entered the abyss spiritually, all other measures of our once great nation have fallen in lockstep.
Can a nation that has murdered 44 million of its unborn children because they were 'inconvenient' be called compassionate?We are living in a cesspool with a clothespin on our noses, rather than the country garden of 50 years ago.Is it enlightened to brag that we have twice the employment now that we had only 50 years ago, when it is because it takes two paychecks per household to earn a basic living, thus depriving nearly every home of a Mom that is so badly needed to maintain the moral, spiritual, and intellectual standards of the family?
Is it honest to speak of liberty, when even the most basic rights: the right to property, and the right to own and bear arms have almost been obliterated?
Thank you very much but I like most of the state laws passed by our legislature, many of which were passed before the tyrant's armies marched through our state. It's called morally conservative Walt. I know as big a Sebasta backer as you seem to be you've probably never heard of it, but most of us in the South are comfortable with them. The only ones that aren't are the worthless carpetbaggers who seem to think the way they did it back home is better. Well, Delta's ready when they are
I nominate that for the most hyperbolical statement ever made on FreeRepublic. I don’t know about you, but I was around 50 years ago. With all of our problems today, I would not want to go back to your Happy Days ”garden”. I remember polio and whooping cough and scarlet fever. I remember real hunger right here in the good ol USA. I remember government-sponsored discrimination and winks at lynching. I remember crushing poverty. I remember Joe Stalin, air raid drills and nightmares of nuclear war.
I remember a lot about those days. You can have your pretend garden. The reality today is no Garden, but it is far preferable to anything in the past.
And thank god we don't have terrorists flying airliners full of passengers into 110 story skyscrapers which subsequently fall to the ground with office workers and firemen still inside, taking the stockmarket with them.
(or children being taught how to be Muslims or homosexuals in kindergarten)
Do you really want to compare 9-11 to the effects of a 20 MT Soviet nuke dropping on Manhattan?
As to raw numbers from 50 years ago, with about half of today’s population, we easily lost 3000 coal miners every year back then. Now we sometimes go years without losing any. Want to count up deaths from Polio? Or measles or mumps?
I don’t know what makes you think you are living in the worst times --- some self-pity I suspect --- but you need to study some history, even recent history, and gain some perspective.
Ahh, and the Empire brought all that about did it? Tell me, however did we have inventors or curers of disease without the Empire? I'm quite sure if the amount of money stolen out of my pocket by the national government were returned to me and a portion was used at the state level (the only place it should be), information on technological and medical advancements would still continue to flow quite well.
How can I? No soviet nuke ever dropped on anything, nor was there ever any liklihood that one would.
Don't need to study the history, I lived it. - We all laughed at the stupid, socialist school teachers trying to breed fear of nuclear war with their insipid air-raid drills and simulated evacuation walks (but we enjoyed the time spent out of class while we were walking).
"Want to count up deaths from Polio? Or measles or mumps?"
Yes, let's count! - Did you know that more than 87% of 'polio' deaths were caused by the vaccine? - Oh but you don't wish to bring that government fiasco up, do you? - But the same can be said for smallpox in the U.S.
Measles, mumps? - I had them both, fortunately. - Take your 'help me government' rants back to some Dummocrap site.
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