From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Tue Jun 28 2005 - 20:41:59 BST
Hi All,
I don't know what the law is in other countries, but here in the U.S. we
enjoyed a legal right to own property. I say "enjoyed" because last week
our Supreme Court in a 5-4 split decision struck down property rights by
ruling that government can bulldoze your home if it stands in the way of a
corporate entity who wants to use your property to build a facility that
will increase the government's tax base. In other words, you can be forced
from your home to make room for a hotel or shopping mall.
Heretofore, the government could condemn and take property under the laws
of eminent domain for obvious public uses such as roads, bridges, military
installations and the like. Now the Court has broadened the eminent domain
concept to include the taking of private property for the purpose of
increasing tax receipts and fattening the pocketbooks of corporations.
Anti-capitalist liberals should be outraged. But, they're largely silent.
Why? Because once the liberal principle of redistribution of income
through government taxation was sanctioned in the name of the "public
good," then any property produced by intellect (which accounts for all
human goods and services) belongs not to the producer, but to any social
entity who wields the power of government to claim it.
Pirsig described this moral conflict involved when he wrote:
"That's what this whole century's been about, this struggle between
intellectual and social patterns. That's the theme song of the twentieth
century. Is society going to dominate intellect or is intellect going to
dominate society?" (Lila, 13)
And the social patterns are winning. As Pirsig pointed out, intellect,
being objective-dominated, cannot observe or measure moral values and is
thus impotent against the social moral claim of "the public interest." As
a result, with this latest Court decision immorality triumphs again,
individual freedom is further compromised, and the road to serfdom grows
ever wider.
Best,
Platt
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