Aristotle as quoted in Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Diogenes Laertius.
I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
Author: Redactor
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Good Friday Agreement
On the hundredth day of 1998, 21 years ago today, the Northern Ireland peace talks ended with an historic agreement, dubbed the Belfast, or Good Friday Agreement. The accord was reached after nearly two years of talks and 30 years of conflict.
Everyone comes into this world with advantages and disadvantages.
In the last century, public morality focused on the disadvantaged. Government policy changed dramatically, aiming to help those lacking many obvious advantages. But that focus got fuzzier and fuzzier as the ranks of disadvantaged people remained, even grew larger. Progress was made on several fronts, sure, but not on all — especially not on the ones most targeted.
We even “lost ground.”
Maybe because of this, the political focus shifted to “privilege” — which often merely means “advantaged” and sometimes means a special license granted by custom or law, which is said to be “systemic.”
White males, we are told, have the most of it.
So they must be attacked.
But does “white [heterosexual male] privilege” really exist?
Sure, in some contexts. But so do other “privileges.” Here is a better question: Are there privileges so built in that people try to horn in on them?
When there really was white privilege, “passing for white” was a thing. Now, we see other directions of racial “passing.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 99 and 44/100ths pure white, for example. If white privilege were really systemic, would she have pretended to be a native American?
If white privilege were significantly at play in the academic world, the issue of Asian students qualifying for (and being accepted into) the country’s most prestigious universities wouldn’t even come up.
And if white people actually enforced their privilege, would the charges against Jussie Smollett for perpetrating a fake racial/ideological hate crime have been dropped?
Seems unlikely.
If the results of focusing on advantage and privilege have been so dismal and dismaying, maybe it’s time for a refocus: on simple justice.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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J. H. Levy
Looked at from an economic point of view, I hold socialism to be the active or direct distribution of products by the state. Regarded from its more general or political aspect, I designate as socialistic any extension of state interference or activity beyond the point up to which that interference is necessary in order that freedom may be at the maximum. Individualism postulates that some government — that is, some compulsory cooperation for political purposes — is needed in order to keep freedom at this point, that so much government is justifiable and good, and that all government beyond this is unjustifiable and mischievous. This quantum of government desiderated by the individualist constitutes a norm from which anarchism diverges on one side and socialism on the other. If we are suffering from a poison we find it advantageous to take a second poison, which acts as an antidote to the first. But, if we are wise, we limit our dose of the second poison so that the toxic effects of both combined are at the minimum. If we take more of it, it produces toxic effects of its own beyond those necessary to counteract, so far as possible, the first poison. If we take less of it, the first poison, to some extent, will do its bad work unchecked.
Joseph Hiam Levy, The Outcome of Individualism (1892), Chapter Two.
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Independence Maintained, Gained
Despite being outnumbered 16 to one, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy proved victorious over the Archduchy of Austria in the Battle of Näfels, April 9, 1388.
On this date in 1991, Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
Back in the 1990s, we used to talk about “rogue agencies” of the U.S. Government. And for good reason: the Branch Davidian massacre and the Ruby Ridge fiasco were hard to forget.
After 9/11/2001, however, we cut the agencies some slack. Why? Their incompetence and our hope.
But it became obvious from the NSA’s illegal metadata collection program, as revealed by Edward Snowden, the core agencies of the military-industrial complex do not like playing by rules that the American people have a say in.
How bad is it?
On New Year’s Day this year, Sen. Chuck Schumer was talking to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow about their favorite conspiracy theory. Maddow, as we all know, had gone Full Nutter on this “collusion”/“corruption” story, and Democratic politicians (along with nearly the whole of the mainstream news media) ran with the story for two years. Then, the Mueller report is “no collusion.”
But on that first Tuesday of 2019, Ms. Maddow was talking about Trump’s tweets which she characterized as “taunting” the CIA and other agencies obsessed with the “Russian hacking” angle of the brouhaha. And Schumer’s response?
“Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”
We should take this as a signal. It is like making prison rape jokes. It says something about the situation: prison rape or Deep State machinations. And about the speaker: leveraging a rogue element as a threat.
No wonder many now think the Russiagate/Mueller investigation was a “Deep State Coup” attempt.
A republic with rogue agencies is hardly a republic at all.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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George Santayana
George Santayana, Character and Opinion in the United States (1920).
American life is a powerful solvent. As it stamps the immigrant, almost before he can speak English, with an unmistakable muscular tension, cheery self-confidence and habitual challenge in the voice and eyes, so it seems to neutralize every intellectual element, however tough and alien it may be, and to fuse it in the native good-will, complacency, thoughtlessness, and optimism.
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17th Amendment
On April 8, 1913, the 17th amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, was ratified.
Gender equality — a concern that has come to sports.
Click on over to this weekend’s scoring of arguments, then come back for a few more free throws:
- “Notre Dame women headed back to title game after late rally to knock off Connecticut,” by Mike Bernardino (USAToday, April 4, 2019)
- “This Top Women’s College Basketball Coach Is Done Hiring Men,” by Lindsay Gibbs (ThinkProgress, March 30, 2019)
- “My Kind of Mayor,” by Paul Jacob (Common Sense, April 5, 2019)
- “Muffet McGraw Says She Won’t Hire a Man on Her Coaching Staff. Let Her Tell You Why.” by Kelly Whiteside (New York Times, April 4, 2019)
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Prohibition Begins to End
On April 7, 1933, Prohibition in the United States was repealed for beer of no more than 3.2 percent alcohol by weight, eight months before the ratification of the XXI amendment.