Curt Doolittle

Source: Original Site Post

  • Heidegger Is An Intellectual Date Rapist. 😉

    COMMENT ON HEIDEGGER You are teaching me about these nutty people, and it’s…. it’s awful. Its, well….. it’s like talking to a woman that’s trying to get you to engage with her emotionally so that she can manipulate you with those emotions. Like Huck Finn trying to gut us to a paint the fence. Just with more elaborate language. This is quite separate from the agreement to engage in argument for the pursuit of true statements – understanding the quality of an argument. Which is quite separate from the agreement to engage in argument for the purpose of cooperation: consent on property (action). You cannot read this nonsense without FIRST agreeing to the value judgements that he makes about experience. If man seeks to escape the sentimental and rise to the rational, whether the origins of those sentiments be biological, or normative, or uncommon events, he can give himself the option to experience what he wishes, and in doing so may train himself to wish what is good for him. But I can find no circumstance where feminine perspective is of value for other than circular argument. The feminine perspective exists only to forbid outliers (alphas) from gaining too much control and depriving them of choice of mates and survival of offspring. It’s not rational, it’s not a ‘good’ for rational creatures, and in an industrialized society it does nothing except promote dysgenia and overconsumption of the world’s resources. You can say that a thing is possible, and that it’s possible to gain pleasure from it. But that’s different from saying its a ‘good’ independent of our primitive senses. I mean we can all seek physical pleasures. We can seek it in liesure, in sex, in food, in acquisition of things, in acquisition of experiences, in conversation, in artificially induced states via drugs, in artificially induced states by repetition of experiences (most eastern tactics), or in artificially induced states by repetition of reason (the western model.) These states can all be achieved. We are happy to say that many drugs that give us great pleasure damage our bodies. We are happy to say that many sexual experiences give us pleasure at the cost of being ostracized from much of society. We can say that contravening norms gives us pleasure, at the cost of ostracization, and economic hardship. We can say that repetitive internal reflection minimizes the necessity of problem solving through cooperation with others, and therefore the minimization of rejection stimuli. WE can say that repetitive internal reflection can train us to habituate any number of our more primitive, and therefore ‘cheaper’ stimuli such as the feeling of euphoria from pack membership, or the ‘undiscovered valley’ of resource richness. But each of these actions has a short term cost and a longer term consequence for the individual and for the group. The feeling of using certain drugs is unreachable by any other experience but the body degrades quickly. On the opposite end of the spectrum, excessive training that allows us to obtain cheap internal pleasure has led all societies that operate by that mechanism to ignorance and poverty. The profit from learning to interact with the physical world so that we may transform it, and how to interact with others to cooperate in transforming it, has few consequences. So perhaps I do not understand the logic here. Other than from my perspective, like a manipulative woman, Heidegger attempts to seduce us into a form of consent before we know the terms and consequences of doing so. In other words, Heidegger us using deceptive language as a the intellectual equivalent of a date rape drug. -Curt (PS: Kinda doubt you’ll find that comment elsewhere.) lol

  • On The Word “Articulate”

    One is articulate if one speaks articulately. Most definitions say ‘speaks clearly’. However, the term “clearly” itself is subjectively inarticulate. To speak articulately is to express concepts as a unified set of causal relations. The problem with any unified set of causal relations is that the set of causal relations a) must be expressed as a series of actions (to avoid the platonic or subjective errors), b) must bridge the gap between different audiences with greater and lesser knowledge. c) and the steps in those causal relations must be short enough that the audience can follow them. Net is to articulate something well requiers we understand it well. and understand others well enough to calculate how we can bridge the gap between those states of understanding.

  • Answered: Why Can’t Many Libertarians Articulate Libertarianism?

    WHY ARE MOST SELF DESCRIBED LIBERTARIANS UNABLE TO ARTICULATELY DESCRIBE LIBERTARIANISM? There is a reason that the term ‘libertarian’ often cannot be explained by advocates, and it’s the reason social democrats cannot explain marxist theory (which is extremely elaborate.) Libertarianism can refer to: 1) A sentiment (the preference for liberty above all other moral ambitions). 2) A moral conviction that liberty produces ‘goods’. 3) A political preference – which is the minimization or elimination of bureaucracy because all bureaucracy becomes self serving. It can refer to an economic model that suggests liberty will provide the most competitive and wealthiest economy for all. 4) It can refer to a political model, such as Classical Liberalism, Private government or Anarcho Capitalism. 5) It can refer to a specific and rigid philosophical doctrine that states that all exchanges must be voluntary and devoid of fraud theft or violence. And in the classical liberal model, additionally, that transactions may not cause externalities (external involuntary transfers), and that norms and the commons are forms of property we must pay for through forgone opportunities for self gratification. Libertarianism is, aside from marxism, the most analytically rigorous political theory that exists. But whether anarchic or classical liberal, or anything in between, the guiding principle is that all statements about rights can be reduced to statements about property rights, and the only ‘rights’ we can possess are those that are reducible to statements about property rights. So a person who refers to himself as a libertarian, may be correct in that he prefers less government and more personal liberty, for anything from a sentimental desire, to a fully and rationally articulated philosophical, economic and political model. And if someone doesn’t know how to explain what ‘libertarianism is” that’s because you’re talking to people with sentimental attraction rather than something more rationally chosen. Or you’re talking to a set of people who express their sentiment in a broad spectrum from intuitively emotive, to fully rationally articulated. And you’re unable to identify the similarities.

  • Defending Libertarianism Wherever I Need To – Today’s Edition

    From Politicus USA “Real Liberal Politics” http://www.politicususa.com/seriously-libertarians-wtf.html

    WHY CAN’T LIBERTARIANS EXPLAIN THEIR IDEOLOGY?

    There is a reason that the term ‘libertarian’ cannot be explained, the same way social democrats cannot explain marxist theory (which is extremely elaborate. Like leftism, Libertarianism can refer to a sentiment (the preference for liberty above all other moral ambitions). It can refer to a moral conviction that liberty produces ‘goods’. It can refer to a political preference – which is the minimization or elimination of bureaucracy because all bureaucracy becomes self serving. It can refer to an economic model that suggests liberty will provide the most competitive and wealthiest economy for all. It can refer to a political model, such as Classical Liberalism, Private government or Anarcho Capitalism. It can refer to a specific and rigid philosophical doctrine that states that all exchanges must be voluntary and devoid of fraud theft or violence. And in the classical liberal model, additionally, that transactions may not cause externalities (external involuntary transfers), and that norms and the commons are forms of property we must pay for through forgone opportunities for self gratification. But whether anarchic or classical liberal, or anything in between, the guiding principle is that all rights can be reduced to property rights, and the only ‘rights’ we can possess are those that are reducible to property rights. Libertarianism is, aside from marxism, the most analytically rigorous political theory that exists. So a person who refers to himself as a libertarian, may be correct in that he prefers less government and more personal liberty, for anything from a sentimental desire, to a fully and rationally articulated philosophical, economic and political model. So if someone doesn’t know how to explain what ‘libertarianism is” that’s because you’re talking to people with sentimental attraction rather than something more rationally chosen. Of course, the right answer, is that it’s easy to advocate for a moral preference, about which you hold a genetic, habituated, and reinforced position. It’s much harder to objectively articulate every perspective on the political spectrum and compare those choices.

    Explaining the libertarian perspective.

    I. Libertarians are not idealists about human nature. 1) they believe that weapons should be in their hands in case the government overreaches. The cost of government abuse is higher in the aggregate than even war. There is no higher ‘good’ that preserving liberty. 2) They believe that the data shows that disarming people increases crime. 3) They believe that the only way to protect children is to either arm teachers or put armed guards, armed parents, or armed policemen in the schools. II. 1) The woman who complained was a conservative not a libertarian. III. 1) The west developed the high trust society out of indo european aristocratic egalitarianism. (evolving to aristocratic manorialism). I won’t bore you with the full set of historical details. Conservatives are the remnants of this manorial system and the reason that we have the high trust society that the rest of the world can only marvel at. Necessary components of the high trust society are forced outbreeding (forbidding cousin-marriage) and property rights. This breaks normal familial and tribal bonds and fools humans into acting as if all people in a society are family members. (Something that only westerners think.) Libertarians in the founding fathers sense, are a product of the rise of anglo commercial society during the enlightenment. They are STILL ARISTOCRATIC, in that they are both meritocratic, and fully embrace universalism. HOwever they havec dropped the militarism since it’s unprofitable under trade, even though it was highly profitable under manorialism, and the only source of profit under indo european pastoralism. In more practical terms, just as liberals are the thought leadership for social democrats, libertarians are the thought leadership for the conservatives. Conservatives speak in metaphorical and allegorical and historical language. Classical Liberal Libertarians speak in philosophical language, and Anarchic Libertarians and Private Government libertarians speak in economic language and use analytical philosophy. Cheers PS: I found this post through google alerts that I have set up for any blog that posts about libertarianism.

    WHAT IS MY ROLE IN THIS NONSENSE?

    Thank you for the kind words. I try very hard. The truth is that in the past, I intentionally tried the antagonistic approach for a year (because it draws a lot of attention) and realized that it was’t helping me understand anyone, or any one understand me, and it was drawing negative attention. So I changed my approach, and have tried to be objectively informative. The work by Jonathan Haidt helped me understand the progressive and liberal perspective and supplied enough quantitative data to support all perspectives, that I ceased attributing negative intent to most political argument regardless of spectrum. As for my work in Libertarian and conservative theory, I’m one of the only active post-analytic libertarian philosophers. My original intent was to assist conservatives in speaking in rational language rather than metaphorical language. My thoughts on that have changed over the past few years. Now my work is an attempt to find a solution to post-democratic government, and the problem of conflict in large polities under majority rule. Rorty has put forth that the metaphysical program has been a failure and that ‘truth’ is effectively consent. “whatever people agree upon”. This is what separates analytic from post analytic philosophy: that we abandon the program of justifying philosophy as a science, and that we fully incorporate science, and attempt to interpret, understand and incorporate it. Rothbard reduced all rights to property rights and voluntary exchange – effectively making the same argument as Rorty. (Although that’s a difficult statement for some to swallow.) Rothbard attempted to create an anarchic system, but like most reformists he failed because his ethical program was insufficiently complete to satisfy the moral and reproductive requirements of other than a narrow minority. Hoppe, following Rothbard, extended propertarian reasoning and solved the problem of a monopolistic bureaucracy with competing insurance companies. Which is largely (at least in terms of budgetary activity) what the US Government and most western governments do today. Very little is spent on what we supposedly justify government with : infrastructure. This solution satisfies the needs for small homogenous polities. Partly because small homogenous polities are highly redistributive because they function as an extended family. And in turn, this is because increasing diversity does incrase status signal rewards for people at the bottom of society for a time, but it has the consequence of eroding trust and exchange. The problem is, that small homogenous polities a) have less ability to insure, b) have less ability to negotiate import export terms. And so large polities are more economically competitive, but have much higher internal friction and resistance to redistribution. I am trying to solve this problem. I think I have. But time will tell. Cheers.

    ARE LIBERTARIANS INFORMED OR NOT?

    Actually, every piece of data that we have confirms that libertarians are both the best informed and the most economically knowledgeable. (And almost entirely male.) Economic conservatives who state they are libertarian are not incorrect, since libertarianism is simply a commercial offshoot of conservatism (aristocratic egalitarianism.) Social conservatives do not generally state that they are libertarian, because they place higher emphasis on norms, and are, most of teh time, representing the middle, lower middle, and upper proletarian classes. Upper middle class conservatives tend to self identify either as classical liberal libertarians. And that pure ‘geeks’ as libertarians entirely. This difference has to do with the perceived value of the opinions of others, and roughly maps to 15points of periodicity in the IQ curve, and therefore to social class. This is because ‘others’ are an advantage to more average people because they provide information and ideas, and less of an informed source to more intellectually and financially independent people. There is no mystery to this. It isn’t the 19th century. We have a lot of polling data that goes back to the second world war now. And we have fair economic data back into the 1700’s. Political preferences generally are a) genetic in origin and b) reflect our different reproductive strategies – at least in the aggregate. That is why people’s preferences don’t change, other than that they tend to become more conservative as they age, and gain a deeper understanding of human nature. This is just how it is. Political argument is specious because no one is ever convinced of anything. They just reinforce their existing opinions because their existing opinions are necessary for their reproductive strategy. Liberals for example (less than 20% of the population) are not breeding. Conservatives are breeding. And immigrants are outbreeding them both. The only material shift in the polity has come from the increases in single mothers, who would have swung conservative but as single mothers swing left to gain support from the state that they cannot get from a husband and family. And the constant shift of white nuclear family voters to the republican party, which is, at present, becoming the ‘white’ party, at least numerically. Parties are arbitrary devices. They don’t mean much other than that the party structure in different countries causes more or less diversity of interest, while power still consists of coalitions built ether in the populace directly as here in the states, or in the government’s multi-party system as in much of Europe. This, in turn, is caused by the use of majority rule as a deciding factor in political action. Versus the multiple-winners and losers in markets. Cheers

    CONSERVATIVE SUPPORT OF THE BANKING AND FINANCE SECTOR

    QUOTE: The currently popular teabagger version of Libertarianism is “carpetbagger Libertarianism,” at best. A hyper-wealthy elite (think Koch brothers) pump out the accepted memes through their wholly-owned consortium of “advocacy groups”

    ANSWER: Actually, conservatives made an intentional decision to abandon the popular press as a vehicle, because the combination of left bias in the media, and in the school system required an alternative means of advocacy. This led to a focus on think tanks, magazines, inexpensive AM radio, and governorships. These think tanks have produced a series of strategies and ideologies. One of them was that we ally with the capitalists (big money) to compete with the state, that was dependent upon these companies for revenue to support their left leaning programs. Another strategy was to try to drive the government into bankruptcy before it could bankrupt and corporatize the private sector, and therefore illustrate the failure of the Keynesian debt model and inter-temporal redistribution that the social democratic state’s ponzi-financing was built upon. And then return to a savings and interest state that was less fragile. This strategy is what you see being played out in washington today. Forcing the government into insolvency in order to undermine the state’s legitimacy. THe problem was, that while conservatives were able to understand that the left would use immigration and the destruction of the nuclear family to win a majority, they believed that they could morally appeal to the majority of the american public that leans conservative. And it worked. They changed the debate. What they did not count on was the rapidity of immigration from the third world, the drop in reproductive rates, and the loss of american economic advantage once the rest of the world adopted capitalism. The general conservative thinking was that we could outlast the communist movement worldwide, and protect our empire inherited from the British empire. They did not count on the attempt of the muslim world to organize and undermine the world system of oil production that the USA used to finance it’s military operations by selling petrodollars, then inflating them away. THis is how we pay for the 1/3 of our budget that we cannot pay for out of tax production. It is also how Europe affords its services: they don’t pay for the stabilization of oil prices either with policy or military expenditure like we do. I know this history because I was there. I was a bit player. But I have been involved in this thinking since high school. What changed my mind is the realization that the constitution failed to protect our individual rights. And that by introducing women into the voting pool, we forever changed the classical liberal and aristocratic models, because women have a genetic interest that is the polar opposite of that of men. So some of us are trying to figure out what we do next. Cheers.

  • What Is The Most Effective Yet Efficient Way To Get Rich?

    Read “millionaire mind” and “millionaire next door”.

    Statistically speaking: run a small business. Sell it to a larger business.

    Create balance sheet wealth.

    https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-effective-yet-efficient-way-to-get-rich-2

  • What Are Some Good Examples Of Intellectual Honesty?

    Intellectual Honesty means, in practice, that  in any argumentative or persuasive discourse, when given an incentive for deception, either of yourself and/or others, that you avoid such deception at all times.   Or more simply, arguing to win, or to avoid blame, rather than arguing in pursuit of objective truth. 

    And objective truth means, that among peers, citizens or shareholders, that you will self benefit, at a cost to others through deception.

    (PHILOSOPHICAL RIGOUR WARNING)

    1. Morality. 
    Morality is the term we use for stealing from, or failing to contribute to, the commons. Morals are, universally,  a normative portfolio of prohibitions  on stealing from the commons.  Where the commons can be defined as anything from physical property, to the habituated common property that we call ‘norms’.  Incentives then, can come from more than selfish benefits. In other words, morality varies by the various definitions of the commons.  Notoriously conservatives place high value on the normative commons, and progressives discount it entirely.

    2) Externalities
    In any debate, (economics and politics in particular) there are unknowns.  In economics we know must less than economists suggest with their arguments.  We only have reasonably good data since 1945, and arguably, all economic data from that point onward is simply the effect of US Military and commercial dominance working its way across the world.  And nothing else.  Secondly, there are siginficant ways in which our societies are impacted, and some of them are positive (risk taking) and some of them are negative (fragility, overbreeding, overconsumption). These are called externalities. Since externalities actually benefit some and harm others, and since these benefits and harms favor different political groups, policies are a source of conflict. Because these matters are complicated, even the best (nobel prize winners included) often confuse a preference with a truth.

    3) So, intellectual honesty requires consideration of
    a) your ignorance vs knowledge
    b) your likelihood of error in reasoning
    c) your personal incentive to fool yourself or others
    d) your preferences for moral biases.
    e) your preferences for externalities
    The problem with most intellectual debates is a failure to account for the full scope of a thru e.

    4. Antiquated Language.
    The term ‘intellectual honesty’ is somewhat confusing. That is because our language is still antiquated. Our language is stil antiquated because we use moral terms with religious origins that rely upon norms, rather than propertarian terms with commercial origins that rely upon property.  Even when our morals are, universally, statements about property.  When we use propertarian terms, we can remove the obscurity of moral language, and see the voluntary and involuntary transfers that occur in any interaction between humans.  Propertarian language is to morality, as the language of physical science is to human perception.  Human emotions are reactions to changes in the state of property. And human political conflict is a reaction to changes in the perceived ‘fair’ definitions of property.  And definitinos of fair property are determined by reproductive behavior and signaling, and therefore vary by class and gender.

    5. Propertarian Language – Paying for right of free speech
    In Propertarianism we would argue that intellectual honesty means that you forgo the opportunity to use deception, and suppress the human natural instinct for deception, and thereby pay for your right of free speech.  As such free speech is property, gained through constant payment, by forgoing opportunities for self benefit – including the most simplistic psychic rewards from winning arguments, to the most sophisticated achievement of wealth and power.

    (END PHILOSOPHICAL RIGOR WARNING)  🙂

    https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-examples-of-intellectual-honesty

  • What Are Some Good Examples Of Intellectual Honesty?

    Intellectual Honesty means, in practice, that  in any argumentative or persuasive discourse, when given an incentive for deception, either of yourself and/or others, that you avoid such deception at all times.   Or more simply, arguing to win, or to avoid blame, rather than arguing in pursuit of objective truth. 

    And objective truth means, that among peers, citizens or shareholders, that you will self benefit, at a cost to others through deception.

    (PHILOSOPHICAL RIGOUR WARNING)

    1. Morality. 
    Morality is the term we use for stealing from, or failing to contribute to, the commons. Morals are, universally,  a normative portfolio of prohibitions  on stealing from the commons.  Where the commons can be defined as anything from physical property, to the habituated common property that we call ‘norms’.  Incentives then, can come from more than selfish benefits. In other words, morality varies by the various definitions of the commons.  Notoriously conservatives place high value on the normative commons, and progressives discount it entirely.

    2) Externalities
    In any debate, (economics and politics in particular) there are unknowns.  In economics we know must less than economists suggest with their arguments.  We only have reasonably good data since 1945, and arguably, all economic data from that point onward is simply the effect of US Military and commercial dominance working its way across the world.  And nothing else.  Secondly, there are siginficant ways in which our societies are impacted, and some of them are positive (risk taking) and some of them are negative (fragility, overbreeding, overconsumption). These are called externalities. Since externalities actually benefit some and harm others, and since these benefits and harms favor different political groups, policies are a source of conflict. Because these matters are complicated, even the best (nobel prize winners included) often confuse a preference with a truth.

    3) So, intellectual honesty requires consideration of
    a) your ignorance vs knowledge
    b) your likelihood of error in reasoning
    c) your personal incentive to fool yourself or others
    d) your preferences for moral biases.
    e) your preferences for externalities
    The problem with most intellectual debates is a failure to account for the full scope of a thru e.

    4. Antiquated Language.
    The term ‘intellectual honesty’ is somewhat confusing. That is because our language is still antiquated. Our language is stil antiquated because we use moral terms with religious origins that rely upon norms, rather than propertarian terms with commercial origins that rely upon property.  Even when our morals are, universally, statements about property.  When we use propertarian terms, we can remove the obscurity of moral language, and see the voluntary and involuntary transfers that occur in any interaction between humans.  Propertarian language is to morality, as the language of physical science is to human perception.  Human emotions are reactions to changes in the state of property. And human political conflict is a reaction to changes in the perceived ‘fair’ definitions of property.  And definitinos of fair property are determined by reproductive behavior and signaling, and therefore vary by class and gender.

    5. Propertarian Language – Paying for right of free speech
    In Propertarianism we would argue that intellectual honesty means that you forgo the opportunity to use deception, and suppress the human natural instinct for deception, and thereby pay for your right of free speech.  As such free speech is property, gained through constant payment, by forgoing opportunities for self benefit – including the most simplistic psychic rewards from winning arguments, to the most sophisticated achievement of wealth and power.

    (END PHILOSOPHICAL RIGOR WARNING)  🙂

    https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-examples-of-intellectual-honesty

  • A Definition Of HBD Human Bio Diversity (At The Request Of HBD Chick.)

    DEFINITION OF HBD: THAT RESEARCH PROGRAM WE CALL “HUMAN BIO DIVERSITY” HUMAN BIO-DIVERSITY: “The study of heritable human genetic differences and the variation in distribution of those differences within human populations that show affinity for one another. And where those affinities express themselves as political, social, familial, and personal institutions, behaviors, abilities and preferences. And where those expressions of differences have economic, institutional, and normative consequences, and where those consequences cause economic and political competition and conflict. HBD is an attempt to understand the source of differences in modes and methods of human cooperation due to biological and normative differences.” – Curt Doolittle

  • The Complete Definition Of Property: An Excerpt from Propertarianism

    [P]ropertarianism differs from Libertarianism by: 1) First, Propertarianism argues that the principle of involuntary transfer – a prohibition on not only fraud theft and violence — but also involuntary transfer in all its forms, including “cheating”, or privatization of the commons, is the boundary that determines ethical use of property, because it is how humans act in all states of development, regardless of the allocation of property they rely upon in their culture. 2) Second, Propertarianism recognizes that the institution of property is a prescription for the monopoly of use of a resource, including one’s self, but that each time a person respects someone’s property, he bears a cost by doing so. This cost in forgone opportunities is how we pay for the norm of property. 3) Third, Propertarianism extends libertarian ethics by the expansion of the definition of property to describe what people demonstrate that they believe is property, rather than what we hypothesize that it should, could, or might be the optimum definition of property. This leads us to the conclusion that all societies posssess property rights. But they are allocated in superior and inferior ways. And superior and inferior because individual property produces an economically superior outcome, and humans universally demonstrate a preference for economically superior outcomes, because those outcomes grant them greater opportunities for positive experiences. 4) Fourth, propertarianism describes principles and formal institutions that allow voluntary cooperation at scale where cheating would prohibit voluntary cooperation in the market, without those prohibitions on cheating. These principles require calculability, contracts instead of laws, and ‘houses’ whether representative or direct, that facilitate cooperation between classes who have disparate interests. This is the one and only legitimate use of government: to prohibit cheating – indirect involuntary transfer by other than theft, fraud or violence. Oddly enough, in the marketplace, we sanction the ‘cheating’ of competition, thus violating one of the natural ethical principles of human cooperation. But we sanction competition in order to provide incentives for innovation, and reduced prices. It is this pair of ethical problems that government, whether that government be a constitution and free market judges, or a vast totalitarian capitalist state. [L]ibertarians argue that: 1) All human rights can be expressed in terms of property rights — and moreover, that the only rights possible for humans to possess are those that can be expressed as property rights. 2) That an advanced economy is not possible without property rights because humans cannot calculate and plan a better future, nor do they, nor can they, have the incentive to do. 3) Establishing Personal Property as a formal institution will lead to a peaceful social order of moral norms — meaning that norms will evolve that allow people to plan and execute actions independently without the necessity of violence, theft or fraudulent behavior. And in this peaceful environment will experience the comfort of familial relations even in the competitive marketplace. PROPERTARIANISM’S DIFFERENCES [L]ibertarianism as a sentiment is a broad classification of political sensibilities, but what they share in common is a desire for liberty, and a preference for limited governmental interference in that liberty. In philosophical terms, libertarianism is a preference for private property as the best means of organizing a society. In other words, the best allocation of property rights is purely to individuals, rather than purely to a hierarchy, ore purely to a commons, or any mixture in between. Libertarians and Propertarians differ on: 1. Origin: Whether “Markets Evolved” and regulation is a form of theft, or “Markets Were Made” and regulations by shareholders or their representatives are an expression of property rights. In practical terms, this is a derivation of principles 1, 2 and 3 above, since regulation is an attempt to solve the problem of involuntary transfers, fraud due to asymmetry of information, and fraud due to external involuntary transfers. 2. Justification: Whether i) we derive property rights from the practical necessity of creating a division of knowledge, labor and trade — in which sense property is utilitarian. Or ii) whether we derive property rights from an abstract moral commitment to the individual — in which case it is an ideal. Or iii) whether there is some natural or evolutionary law that we should observe. Some might argue all of the above (iiii). 3. Cause: Whether i) the system of ethics that evolves from private property begins with the Rothbardian assumption of the non-aggression principle — from which we can derive private property — as a purely moral abstraction. Or ii) whether, as I have stated, we pay for our property rights by forgoing our opportunity for using violence, theft and fraud. If the latter, then by consequence, people pay for the norm of property – and in fact, pay for ALL norms. And as such, failing to observe norms is a theft from the shareholders of those norms. This approach to forgone opportunity costs more accurately describes the european aristocratic manorial ethic because particular norms are necessary for land holding. As I state elsewhere, the difference between the Rothbardian ethic and this ethical extension of Rothbard and Hoppe, is that the Jewish tradition is diasporic and unlanded. The Christian tradition is a landed tradition, and there are high costs to a social order for holding land. (Aryan is probably more accurate a term, since it predates Christianity, but it’s a tainted term) 4. Institutions: The preferred institutions for enforcing property rights: which political system they prefer. From the anarchic to the private monarchic government, to the classical liberal republican government. Propertarians Differ on which institutions that they prefer. I argue that the set of institutions that each author advocates is determined by the author’s heritage, and therefore the origin of those differences lies in the a) size of te population b) the diversity of the population in ability, identity and norms, c) the need for landholding or not. And that differences between the author’s viewpoints are meaningless, other than perhaps valuable in describing the variety of societies that can be created using the institution of property. Rothbard’s anarchism is just an instantiation of a Jewish diasporic religion. Hoppe’s private government is an instantiation of German Nationalism. And my classical liberalism is an instantiation of English imperialism. These forms of government are all possible to accomodate within the propertarian ethic: a total homogeneity of belief in a religion, a tribal homogeneity of a small territory. Or the multi-tribal demands of a federated alliance. Propertarian ethics inform us as how to structure each political order. The order itself is determined by circumstance and is constant across all human populations. But the Popertarian ethic applies equally to each. 5. Limits: On the limits of property rights (at what points one’s rights begin and end). For example, some would argue that the right to property is infinite regardless of the circumstances of others. Some would argue that property rights are a norm that is subject to limits at the extremes. So, for example, if I have gallons of water in a desert I cannot let the man before me die of thirst. Some would say I must simply give it to him. Others would argue that the man owes for the drink of water at a later date at market price, but that I cannot refuse to give it to him under this condition of duress simply because he currently lacks a means of payment. I support the latter position since it does not violate the principle of property it only presses my assets into a receivable. Otherwise I am profiting from suffering which is an involuntary transfer, not a voluntary exchange. 6. Ethics: The responsibility or lack of responsibility for symmetric knowledge in an exchange. Stated as “In any exchange the seller has an ethical obligation to mitigate fraud from the asymmetry of knowledge.” Classical liberals and Christian authors advocate symmetrical-knowledge ethics. Anarchists and Jewish authors advocate asymmetrical-knowledge ethics. Rothbard and Block are asymmetrical advocates. Most classical liberals lack the knowledge of Rothbardian/Hoppian ethics necessary to articulate their values in Propertarian terms. However, the classical liberals as well as the Hayekians, both advocate symmetrical-knowledge ethics whether they articulate the ideas effectively or not. 7. Warranty: Implied warranty is a derivation of Symmetrical Knowledge Ethics above. Expressed as: “In any exchange the seller must warrant his goods and services to prevent fraud by asymmetry of information.” Classical liberal and Christian authors imply warranty. Anarchist and Jewish authors expressly deny warranty. (I address this elsewhere as the BAZAAR EXCHANGE ETHIC vs the WARRIOR EXCHANGE ETHIC.) 8. Externalities: “No exchange, action or inaction may cause involuntary transfers from others”. Whether or not there is a prohibition against all involuntary external transfers (classical liberal and Christian authors), or a prohibition only against state conduct of involuntary transfers (anarchist and Jewish authors). 9. Exclusion (Ostracization) Whether individuals can aggregate into groups have the right of exclusion. That is, to prohibit individuals from a defined area. While all seem to agree that individuals must have the right of passage in some way, others deny groups from forming a boundary and in effect prohibiting immigration. 10. Scope: The scope of property rights. All societies select a different portfolio of Property Types to which they apply different allocations of control to the individual, the group and the political authority. We know today, that several property rights are necessary for economic calculation and to provide individuals with incentives to serve one another. But that knowledge has not always been available. Societies evolved more than chose those rights. That evolutionary process was chaotic and debilitating for some societies and enabling for others. The scope of property includes the following questions:

    1. Community / Shareholder:While ‘community property’ violates the principle of calculability, and in an advanced, large, mobile society, is impossible to administer without involuntary transfers, and further, is subject to the tragedy of the commons, and bureaucratic appropriation, those problems are solved by issuing quantities of shares, even if they are highly restricted, for currently communal goods.Some libertarians eschew the concept of community property, because they wrongly believe that such a thing implies the existence of a bureaucratic government and/or a corporeal state. But community property can be created through shareholder agreements specific to each instance of it, and numeric shares, even if they are illiquid and subject to dilution, are calculable. And as calculable, the problem of enumerated rights and responsibilities, as well as the ability to price abuses in order to both buy-in to communities, and to enforce restitution upon abuse, is solved. General laws need not be created in such cases. The outcome is also beneficial: immigration and childbirth become solvable cost subject to pricing. And the fact that such prices would be exposed is a significant enough reason for some to advocate this strategy, and for others to fight it.
    2. Norms: Since norms require restraints from action (forgone opportunities), and property itself is a norm paid for by restraints from action (forgone opportunities), then all those who adhere to norms, ‘pay’ for them. Therefore norms within a geography are a form of shareholder property, and violations of norms are involuntary transfers (thefts) from norm-holders to norm-destroyers.
    3. Artificial Property Whether to permit Artificial Property or not. In practical terms, this is a derivation dependent upon “ORIGIN” above. Since if markets were made, then their owners have a property right to create artificial forms of property – (because different portfolios of property types are artificial norms that vary from group to group.)
    4. Types of PropertyThe anarchist libertarians have artificially narrowed the concept of property to suit their desired ends. Property exists in those forms that people ACT as if it exists. If the anarchists choose to suggest otherwise, they refute their own arguments for the Praxeological necessity for the institution of property. Humans demonstrably act as though there are four categories of property:
      I. Several (Personal) Property
      Personal property: “Things an individual has a Monopoly Of Control over the use of.”

      1. Physical Body

      2. Actions and Time

      3. Memories, Concepts and Identities: tools that enable us to plan and act. In the consumer economy this includes brands.

      4. Several Property: Those things we claim a monopoly of control over.

      II. Artificial Property

      Artificial Property: “Can a group issue specific rights to members?” This topic is dependent again, upon the ORIGIN question above. If markets are made, then the shareholders of the market may create artificial property of any type that they desire. Including but not limited to:

      1. Shares in property: Recorded And Quantified Shareholder Property (claims for partial ownership)

      2. Monopoly Property such as intellectual property. (grants of monopoly within a geography)

      3. Trademarks and Brands (prohibitions on fraudulent transfers within a geography).

      III. Interpersonal (Relationship) Property

      Cooperative Property: “relationships with others and tools of relationships upon which we reciprocally depend.”

      1. Mates (access to sex/reproduction)

      2. Children (genetic reproduction)

      3. Familial Relations (security)

      4. Non-Familial Relations (utility)

      5. Consanguineous Relations (tribal and family ties)

      6. Racial property (racial ties)

      7. Organizational ties (work)

      8. Knowledge ties (skills, crafts)

      9. Status and Class (reputation)

      IV. Institutional (Community) Property

      Institutional Property: “Those objects into which we have invested our forgone opportunities, our efforts, or our material assets, in order to aggregate capital from multiple individuals for mutual gain.”
      1. Informal (Normative) Institutions: Our norms: manners, ethics and morals. Informal institutional property is nearly impossible to quantify and price. The costs are subjective and consists of forgone opportunities.
      2. Formal (Procedural) Institutions: Our institutions: Religion (including the secular religion), Government, Laws. Formal institutional property is easy to price. costs are visible. And the productivity of the social order is at least marginally measurable.
      3. Land.

  • Mathematics vs Cinema As Tools For Explaining The Universe

    ‎”Cinema can still explain the whole world. Mathematicians think it’s math. I believe it’s cinema.” – Jean-Luc Godard

    Mathematics can explain only what we cannot sense. That is why we have mathematics: to compensate for our limited ability to perceive the universe. However, human concepts must at some point be reduced to those stimuli which we can experience. All language is reducible to an analogy to experience. All imagery is by definition experience. Mathematics is, at some degree of abstraction, simply a vehicle for compensating for our terribly weak short term memories by creating categories, applying quantities, and rearranging symbols while preserving ratios. The mind could do this without mathematics if we had the short term memory to do it with. Film is, today, the most informationally rich means by which, that which we *cannot* perceive directly, can be reduced by analogy and narrative, to that which we *can* perceive directly. At first glance, these statements are not terribly romantic. But after we consider that human beings have invented mathematics, the narrative, and visual media so that we can rapidly sense what we could not sense directly, we can certainly wonder at the marvel of what man can accomplish in the service of his mind and his experience. And in that understanding we can appreciate that there is no material difference between mathematics and cinema. They are simply extensions of us. And that is as romantic an experience as any. – Curt Doolittle 😉 (Originally posted under FilmmakerIQ)