The philosophy of protectionism is a philosophy of war.
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Blasé about sweeping government surveillance? Think you have “nothing to hide”?
I bet you do.
Ever draw curtains? You have “something to hide.” If you balk when a con man says, “I need your birthday and Social Security Number,” you have “something to hide.” When you feel comfortable giving certain information about yourself to some persons but not others, you demonstrate your preference to hide some things from some people.
That’s not nothing.
Philosopher Harry Binswanger, however, says he is not worried. “I have no secrets. Those who raise the specter of Big Brother are not on a wrong basic premise, but they are being unrealistic: when and if we fall into the grip of totalitarianism, there will be nothing to stop the dictatorship from spying on us by any means it wishes. Such a regime does not require that the tools have been set up in advance.” Some reining in may be appropriate, but “alarmism” is unwarranted.
It’s warranted.
Totalitarianism doesn’t happen with a flip of the switch. Tyranny works from precedents. Daily encroachments help establish it.
And our government violates our rights in the here and now, in days prior to any fully Orwellian dystopia. The tools usable tomorrow by an American-style GPU or Gestapo to violate our rights can be thus used today by an IRS or NSA.
Our governments snoop on us unwarrantedly today. They hide the extent of their spying on innocent people, today. They have motives to use what they get by their spying — today.
It should stop.
Today.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Ludwig von Mises
Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer.
“Consider that just a couple of weeks ago, Apple rolled out a new mobile operating system, and within days, they found a glitch, so they fixed it,” President Obama recently told an audience. “I don’t remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads or threatening to shut down the company if they didn’t.”
Acknowledging the many problems that popped up in last week’s rollout of the online healthcare exchanges, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius offered, “[H]opefully you’ll give us the same slack you give Apple.”
Let’s review. Apple fixed its problem. And customers continued to voluntarily purchase its products.
That’s where the president’s and the secretary’s analogy badly breaks down. Obamacare’s problems are myriad and metastasizing . . . and hardly being fixed.
Even Obamacare enthusiasts Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas, writers of The Washington Post’s “Wonk Blog,” objected to the ridiculous comparison between Apple and Obamacare in a story headlined, “Obamacare’s Web site is really bad”:
The Obama administration doesn’t have a basically working product that would be improved by a software update. They have a Web site that almost nobody has been able to successfully use. If Apple launched a major new product that functioned as badly as Obamacare’s online insurance marketplace, the tech world would be calling for Tim Cook’s head.
The differences between Apple and Obamacare hardly end there. Did I mention that no one is forced to buy Apple products?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Anne Hutchinson
If any come to my house to be instructed in the ways of God what rule have I to put them away? Do you think it not lawful for me to teach women and why do you call me to teach the court?
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Denis Diderot
There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge… observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.
The Obama Administration won’t say how many Americans have successfully navigated the online sign-up during last week’s grand opening of the Affordable Care Act healthcare exchanges . . . if anyone.
To quell the media manhunt, the White House tweeted that Chad Henderson, a mild-mannered 21-year-old Georgia college student with a part-time day-care job, had, through sheer determination of will, managed to sign up for Obamacare at a cost of only 30 percent of his salary.
“I really just wanted to do my part to help out with the entire process,” Henderson said. But Chad was soon found to be hanging out there, suspiciously, finally admitting he hadn’t truthfully grabbed the new entitlement’s brass ring after all.
Chuck Todd announced on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown that it had been a “rough first week” for Obamacare. He wondered how the folks who “brought us the most technologically advanced campaign in history . . . blew it this badly on this — their biggest, most important government outreach?”
“[T]hey really had to get this right,” added National Journal’s Ron Fournier, “not just for the healthcare reform, but for the whole idea — that a lot of us believe in — that a strong, effective government can help people through this huge economic and social transition we’re going through.” Fournier admitted that the failure undermined the “central argument that we’re having in this country.”
Even “objective” media folks, who believe government should play a much larger role in running our lives, aren’t so sure it’s up to the job.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Denis Diderot
No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others. Freedom is a gift from heaven, and every individual of the same species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he is in enjoyment of his reason.
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Countdown to Zero
The New York Times has a timeline of the progress of Obamacare.
It’s okay as far as it goes. Which is not too far, since only the most recent dates seem readily accessible. And since the Times editors blindly favor the Obama-assault.
But sure, labor leaders have both criticized and praised Obamacare (9/12/13), some states have fought it (or “moved to undercut” it) (9/18/13); Pennsylvania State University has decided not to fine employees $100 a month for being too reticent about personal details on “wellness” questionnaires (9/19/13). Etc.
A headshake-worthy aspect of the chronology, however, is its showcasing of opinion published in the Times itself — as if each Times-punditarian rebuke of opposition to medical serfdom were another epochal event in the steady march of the wonderful Obamacare. So Gail Collins “chastises Republicans” for jeopardizing global stability to oppose Obamacare (9/19/13). Paul Krugman avers that the GOP, “hysterical” over Obamacare, is changing from stupid party to crazy party (9/20/13).
Fine, fine. But toss in some pro-free-market, anti-socialist and anti-Krugman events also, okay? Like the first publication of Ludwig von Mises’s comprehensive, devastating critique of Socialism (1922). The publication of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, sweeping saga of social collapse as feverish proto-Krugmaniacs stamp freedom out of existence (1957). The day Mike Tanner elaborated “Why Freedom Is the Key to Health Care Reform” (9/5/09). And let’s not forget John Goodman’s seminal post, “When It Comes to Healthcare Issues, Paul Krugman Is Wrong 100% of the Time” (5/30/13).
All that being said, a timeline is one thing, “progress” quite another. The word implies a good goal. Though hey, doctors do sometimes speak of the “progress” of a cancer or a fatal disease.
In the end, a timeline of Obamacare must include its own demise.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
As the federal government does its darnedest to prove that class warfare isn’t rich vs. poor, or white vs. black, but, instead, government vs. the people, let’s try to keep our sanity.
Of course, one element of keeping our sanity is to recognize how big a problem it is when those in government are, indeed, “out to get us.” We’re not paranoid; they are craven. For evidence, see this weekend’s Townhall column. And come back here for a full list of references.
First, the ones provided as links in the column in question:
- “The Mysterious Barricades,” Common Sense by Paul Jacob
- “Les Barricades Mystérieuses,” Wikipedia article on the lovely harpsichord piece by François Couperin, referenced in the column
- “Washington Monument Syndrome,” Wikipedia article on the central concept in the column (it also mentions the Firemen First principle)
- “Government shutdown in the United States,” Wikipedia entry
- “Rushmore blockage stirs anger in South Dakota,” Sioux Falls Business Journal
- “A Tale of Two Parks,” by Warren Meier, Political Economy Research Center (splash page for a study presented in PDF)
Then there are the links not provided in the column:
- “NBC: Police Remove Vietnam War Veterans at Memorial Wall,” Weekly Standard
- “Shutdown overreach: More personnel sent to WWII memorial than Benghazi; Park Service closes park it doesn’t run,” Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner
- Quotation is from email sent by Anna Eberly
- Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes
- Second Treatise of Government, by John Locke