57

Coincidence of the day:

In 1957, Humphrey Bogart, age 57, a heavy smoker and drinker, dies of cancer of the esophagus, after losing his esophagus, two lymph nodes, and a rib to cancer.

In 1957, Ayn Rand, a heavy smoker, publishes Atlas Shrugged, a book that she claims contains the gospel truth on all things in the universe (she claimed it encompassed her whole philosophy and that that was a closed system, i.e., not amenable to amendment), a book that features scenes that glorify the cigarette as symbol of the fire of the mind:

"When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind — and it is proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette as his one expression." (P. 64.)

She had driven far down the winding road, and the lights of the diner were long since out of sight, when she noticed that she was enjoying the taste of the cigarette he had given her: it was different from any she had ever smoked before. She held the small remnant to the light of the dashboard, looking for the name of the brand. There was no name, only a trademark. Stamped in gold on the thin, white paper there stood the sign of the dollar.

She examined it curiously: she had never heard of that brand before. Then she remembered the old man at the cigar stand of the Taggart Terminal, and smiled, thinking that this was a specimen for his collection. She stamped out the fire and dropped the butt into her handbag.

Train Number 57 was lined along the track, ready to leave for Wyatt Junction, when she reached Cheyenne, left her car at the garage where she had rented it, and walked out on the platform of the Taggart station. (P. 310.)

She was a slow learner. Later in life, she lost a lung to cancer and finally died of heart failure.

These days, aging objectivists are slowly smoking themselves to death. Though they are self-proclaimed advocates of reason, no amount of reason, logic, and evidence can convince them that that work of fiction is wrong and that smoking kills.

So sad.

And at the other end of the Nolan Chart, the authoritarians are busy confiscating weed. Not that killing people to save them from themselves would ever make sense, but if they would steal their cigarettes instead of their weed, that would be at least slightly less illogical. Not that there is any sort of smoke that isn't carcinogenic, though.

Don't drink and smoke, folks. That combination is as sure to kill you as you're to kill someone else if you drink and drive.

Here the movie version, thanks to Murray Rothbard:



And here the remake:



End of the public service announcement.

3D-Printed Guns: Orwell Was Wrong, So Was Rand

The 3D gun printing process doesn't constitute the invention of a new wheel of undocumented gun cottage industry. Skilled gunsmiths and semiskilled machinists have always been able to manufacture undocumented ("illegal," "unlicensed") guns.

The true significance of the 3D-printed gun is the "democratization" of gun manufacturing. Now all the equipment you need is a 3D printer and the skills required to operate it.

The knee-jerk reaction by the people's rulers, New York Senator Chuck E. Schumer and Congressman Steve Israel? They want to ban all plastic guns.

"But if you're going to download a blueprint for a plastic weapon that can be brought onto an airplane, there's a penalty to be paid."

That doesn't even begin to make sense. Hijacking aircraft is already illegal. A hijacker, particularly if he's a suicidal religious fanatic, isn't going to be deterred by an additional gun charge.

Over at the Huffington Post, the assorted fascists, commies, gun control freaks, and other intellectual bottom feeders creeping around there are huffing and frothing at their mouths. But just that they don't like reality doesn't change it.

"This elegant statement of purpose [the Preamble to the US Constitution] confirms that our Founders saw a more energetic, more capable federal government as the best possible guarantor of individual rights."

Only that this government turned out to be the most vicious destroyer of individual rights. Apparently, the huffy poster is unable to distinguish between individual rights and the will (the tyranny) of the majority.

"He prefers an anarchical society where government lacks the ability not only to accomplish great things, but also to do the mundane, like ensuring that judgments are enforced and laws executed."

Let me take Israel's nonsense statement and turn it around into something meaningful:

We're all for enforcing (Anarcho-Capitalist) laws against true crime. But if you're going to raid someone's house to steal his books, computers, and weed, to lock him into a cage, and to murder him if he tries to defend himself, there's a penalty to be paid.

If everybody has a gun, no organization, be it a fascist state or an Anarcho-Capitalist corporation gone rogue, can afford to enforce laws against victimless "crimes." Neither fascist pigs nor Anarcho-Capitalist security guards will be at all eager to enforce contempt of cop on even the lowliest individual.

The case of 3D-printed guns proves two popular antifascist writers, George Orwell and Ayn Rand, wrong.

In 1984, Orwell painted the dystopian picture of an omnipotent state enslaving its subjects through technology. Now we see that technology is not the evil tool of the fascist state.

At worst, technology is morally neutral, neither good nor bad, its moral worth depending on which party uses it, the state or the freedom fighters. At best, however, technology is so disruptive that, once genie is out of the bottle, it reduces any organized monopoly government ad absurdum.

Murray Rothbard correctly stated that:

"Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism."

Which, as this case demonstrates, can be turned into this corollary:

Technology is the fullest expression of anarchy, and anarchy is the fullest expression of technology.

Advanced technology makes totalitarian rule impossible, and the absence of pointless regulations allows more technological progress.

Rand believed that anarchy would result in the rule of brute force, and consequently fantasized about how to keep some hypothetical "limited government" limited. Now we see that anarchy is not the rule of brute force, but of force controlled by the mind.

Anarchy is the "rule," for lack of a better word, of those who can operate 3D printers. Not the rule of decrepit old men like Chuck E. Cheese, who cannot tell the "intertubes" from their feeding tubes, old men who love nothing better than to at the drop of a hat make laws to kidnap and murder random individuals who never harmed anyone.

If you want to wrap your mind around how far the lunacy of the government toadies goes, look at this huffy poster contradiction:

"The concept of a government 'monopoly on force' may sound inconsistent with the political traditions of a country steeped in stories of its own revolution, but it is the fundamental organizing principle of any nation-state."

Versus

"We don't know if the project will be producing serviceable handguns and assault rifles anytime soon, but if it does — and if these weapons avoid regulation — political violence could one day replace political dialogue as the hallmark of our democratic system."

In the first quote the gun control freak extols the state's monopoly on force. In the second quote he condemns political violence.

But what is the state's monopoly on force, if not political violence, political violence perpetrated by the majority to enforce its will on the minority? Looks like political violence is fine with freaky-boy as long as it has been rubberstamped by the majority.

Majority tyranny, democracy, is fine and dandy for him. Looks like he expects to always have a leftist majority to back him up.

But be careful, freaky-boy. A government that is powerful enough to give you anything you want is also powerful enough to take away everything you have. I dare say that if your authoritarian government turns on you, saving an authoritarian like you from death row will be the lowest of the low priorities for any anarchist.

You dirty fascists, commies, conservatives, and socialists. Your government stole our herbs, guns, and books it didn't approve of, locked us in cages, and murdered us. When we complained, you basically told us to go fly a kite.

Now liberty and anarchy is coming to you, and you don't like it one bit. You complain to us.

You know what? Go fly a kite.

Anarchy is the way of the future. Better get used to it.

The shot heard 'round the world.