MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents"
|
|
MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents" |
| MY GLASS HOUSE | THE PREVIOUS EVENT | THE NEXT EVENT | THE WRITERS/GUIDELINES | |
IN PRINT - The miracle of seeing something I wrote, appearing in publication, is a heart-stopper. It looks like iron hammered into granite, permanent and irretrievable. Can't be erased by anything short of infamy and disgrace. Being a chicken, I don't have the guts to get it wrong. Every premise has to be right, or halfway logical, or at least truthful in the offer.
This is all well and good while I'm noodling, preparatory to writing. Sitting down at the keyboard bumps the ante, like a high-stakes poker game. And nothing is scarier than betting my final Hit the Send Button version of an idea. Most of the web looks cheery and benign by comparison, especially mainstream stuff like girlie pictures and discount books. But not me. Not the least bit cheery (and dangerous to boot). I bet my reputation on a stud poker hand, claiming to know something about justice. Maybe I do.
Justice is the armed defense of innocent liberty.
I confess that I have a secret weapon in this war of words. Queenie checks everything before it goes out. She growled at the notion of "chivalry" and objected that women don't need patriarchal "defense of the innocent" --- they need us to get out of the way and quit interfering. Women want the legal right to carry concealed weapons and to defend themselves; to maximize their economic progress as individuals; and to organize themselves into groups, some of which are successly reclaiming their neighborhoods from drug dealers and introverted, self-indulgent men. Women are driving the government bandwagon. Women are far from helpless. We are perfectly able to defend ourselves, Queenie concluded. Okay, maybe so.
The World's Magazine: g21.net
Event # 206: ANNIVERSARY WALTZ
This Pull-down Menu will hyperjump you to all our great features. Try it!
JOIN THE G21 MAILING LIST. Get updates on new features. Take part in our Readership polls, shape the future of The World's Magazine. It's easy! E-mail The World's Magazine with the "Subject" line: SUBSCRIBE.
Want to know more about our community? The Info is here.
LAST WEEK's EDITION
For Deep Background visit the G21-Barnes & Noble Shop
OR get great books at the G21 BARNES & NOBLE SEARCH ENGINE
Discover the MOIA Discussion List
But when shit comes to holler, and public justice hangs in the balance, women need us to hold up our half of the sky, gentlemen. A good start would be zero tolerance of domestic violence, something that's clearly within male power to regulate in a free country. The thing to be freed from is brutality. Ours.
Keep in mind that there are five terms involved in that proposition. The easiest one to grasp is the term being defined: justice. Broadly speaking, justice is an action. It doesn't happen by itself. People have to do it willfully and thoughtfully. Now, what kind of action? Armed defense. That means kicking somebody's butt, like George III, Adolph Hitler, or a garden variety thug. Why? In defense of innocent liberty. Not everybody's liberty, just the innocent (mostly women and children). Why defend the innocent? Because they can't successfully defend themselves. They need our help. It's called chivalry.
Therefore, justice includes the right to order society more or less along liberal outlines. As much liberty as possible for everybody, consistent with the expanding (not shrinking) liberty of women and children in particular. For innocent liberty to expand, kids have to eat. They need housing, education, medical care, sports, encouragement, opportunities to grow and appropriately measured challenges set by adults.
Oy, vey! It's in print. Now, I'm stuck with it. The libertarian Free Market Forum went ballistic yesterday, accusing me of "recanting" my anarchist position, when I said that I was opposed to dismantling the welfare state. Indeed, I am opposed. I refuse to make life harder for the poor. Period.
I think the welfare state is going to hit a brick wall circa 2015, when the 35 million suburban Baby Boomers hit retirement age and put their hands out for Social Security and Medicare. Let's not make things worse, faster, by shutting off entitlements tomorrow morning. That's what's wrong with the libertarian movement. They think it's a cool idea to trim government down to a nightwatchman, guarding the vested property of the rich, in the name of liberty. I detest and condemn their myopic "natural law" claim.
And so, armed defense of innocent liberty means something very specific. It does not mean economic freedom for the rich, at the expense of the poor. Maybe I should cover my butt and add that the poor have no Marxist right to eat the rich. Thugs forfeit innocence by taking the law into their own hands. Rather, justice requires the rich to play ball, to provide employment and thus distribute property to the working poor and their innocent children. Liberals often have a tough time explaining these things. I know I certainly do.
But once it's in print, there's no way to laugh it off. Not when the topic is armed defense. "Let each man search his conscience and search his speeches. I frequently search mine." (Winston Churchill, June 18, 1940)
+++ THE RDR Archives +++
MY GLASS HOUSE | THE PREVIOUS EVENT | COMING ATTRACTIONS | THE WRITERS/GUIDELINES |
© 2000, GENERATOR 21.
E-mail your comments. We still like to hear from you. Send your snide remarks to rod@g21.net.
