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Intelligence and Subversion of Intelligence

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Ilya Shambat

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Dec 27, 2011, 1:39:51 AM12/27/11
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Camille Paglia, in addressing socialist tendencies of some American
university students, said that the toilets in which they graffitied
their slogans came from capitalism. There is a problem with that
argument. There were toilets in the Soviet Union as well; and there
are also toilets in places, such as Sweden and Netherland, that
practice the democratic socialism that these students actually find
attractive (as opposed to state socialism - known in the West as
Communism - that very few if any of them want).

Having attended university in Virginia and having majored in
economics, I was never one of those students. I know enough about
market economics to see merit in it; I also recognize the vast extent
to which capitalist prosperity is owed to non-capitalist entities.
These include, but are not limited, to: Science that is at the root of
everything that business sells; education that makes people
employable; and projects such as the Interstate and the Internet that
have created an infrastructure for business to do its work. I look
toward an intelligent optimization scenario in which people get the
benefit of both the market and the government while minimizing the
flaws that come with both. And that means: Freedom for business to
produce prosperity, and recognition of, and respect for, the non-
business entities that also do worthwhile work.

But returning to the original point. When a person - any person -
lives in an order - any order - everything that he has around himself
would be a result of that order. The Soviet Communists could have said
just as easily to capitalist sympathizers in the Soviet Union that
they owed what they had to state socialism, and that their adoption of
market economics was a betrayal of what they had. Similarly, we see
many Christians denigrating accomplishments of atheists (Ayn Rand
comes to mind especially) because most of these atheists have had
Christian influences. The problem with that argument is not a
difficult one to spot. In a Christian society, most people are
Christian, and these are the people that one has around oneself -
either to help oneself or to hinder oneself. And I am sure that Ayn
Rand, for one, had many negative experiences with Christian-affiliated
people.

Rather than engaging in such mind-suffocating argumentation,
therefore, it is of merit that the ideas compete with one another on
the basis of their quality. If some American university students find
democratic socialism attractive, then they should be able to look at
places that practice democratic socialism and see if they like them
better. Similarly, if someone who lives in a socialist country or in a
left-leaning region prefers the way that things are in Queensland or
Texas, then he should be able to go to Queensland or Texas and try his
luck there.

There is intelligence, and there are practices that subvert
intelligence. Intelligence, when allowed to exist, creates real
solutions and arrives at real benefit. The less subversion of
intelligence, the greater the understanding and the more informed the
solutions. And that means: More informed people, better decisions, and
better world.

ala

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Jan 22, 2012, 1:20:24 PM1/22/12
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"Ilya Shambat" <ibsh...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:f87f59d1-4728-4393...@h37g2000pri.googlegroups.com...
> Camille Paglia, in addressing socialist tendencies of some American
> university students, said that the toilets in which they graffitied
> their slogans came from capitalism. There is a problem with that
> argument. There were toilets in the Soviet Union as well; and there
> are also toilets in places, such as Sweden and Netherland, that
> practice the democratic socialism that these students actually find
> attractive (as opposed to state socialism - known in the West as
> Communism - that very few if any of them want).

heck the cavemen grafittied their caves

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