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| They're at it again | |
One of the pleasures of being a member of the latte class is spending endless
hours sipping the warm, non-mind-altering (albeit fattening), comforting, decaf
liquid while making ever-more grandiose predictions about the political world. In one such recent encounter, my fellow latte drinker was outraged about the
recent aggressive show-of-weakness by wayward nation North Korea
in firing a number of missiles towards Japan and the US. One particularly large
rocket, apparently aimed at an area of sea close to Hawaii, failed after
launch, but it still upset the Americans. There's something about having people
shoot bullets close to your extremities which annoys most people. And
apparently many governments as well. This is, of course, another attempt to blackmail the rest of the world into
giving them more aid. The failures of centralized planning are nowhere more
apparent than in North Korea, where many people are said to be starving. My fellow latte drinker was outraged at the morality of a group of people who
thought it was acceptable to threaten other people with violence for material
gain - 'just because they haven't taken proper steps to feed themselves!'. The moralists in 'compassionate' successful Western countries might like to
reconsider that point of view carefully. In principle, North Korea's actions
are no different to the mob who demand welfare because of their 'needs'. The mob appointed policeman who arrests you for refusing to pay taxes to
subsidize people with less wealth than you, is no different in principle to the
North Korean soldier. They are motivated by the same seemingly unshakable
belief - that they are entitled to your wealth simply because they have less. The latte set of The Left often argues that war is an expression of a deep
sickness running right through society. In this case they are right.
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