Two handy tools I discovered on the internets and have used frequently ever since:
- Billy Beck's "cannibal pot" analogy for the evils and perils of collectivism.
- Joe Huffman's "Jews In The Attic" test as a quick and easy headspace gauge for any proposed piece of legislation.
Both are extremely useful for framing concepts in discussions, too, and I use them a lot in meatspace these days as well as on the 'nets.
Save yourself some time and aggrivation. I pretty much just hate everyone and everything, and I'm seldom wrong.
ReplyDeleteWV: Handure. My hand endured the surgery so I could shake hands with an old friend.
When every spoonful in the pot required herd approval, are you really allowed to dump a fresh load of Mokomokai into it? ;-)
ReplyDeleteSorry, just had to put those two together, like beef-jerkey and honey-glaze...
Some people really hate that Jews in the Attic test. They get their knickers in a twist, unable to fully grok it. It's like I am babbling in tongues to them.
ReplyDeleteI then avoid these people.
I like the Jews in the Attic test. Too bad it wasn't applied in Austria before 1938; I might have had living great-grandparents et al. on my mother's side.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that I don't is why Great-Grandma's great grandson isn't a lefty anti-gunner like most of his co-religionists.
I was at Mr. Beck's place that I first saw his observation that all politics in this country is now a dress-rehearsal for civil war. It was true then, and it's getting more obvious every day.
ReplyDeleteWhoa. I hadn't read down far enough; I assumed Mokomokai was the latest iced coffee drink from Starbucks.
ReplyDeleteI love the "Jews in the Attic" test, although a number of my friends are (stupid damn statist @#$!%#) progressives and their eyes glaze over whenever I bring it up. One day, I have the hope (hope is free after all, and worth every bit that you paid for it) that light will shine in and *POP* they will get it. Hopefully it isn't because they have need to hide a "Jew" in their attic and cant because they voted for the asswipe that sighned the law that made it impossible (secretly, I also hope that "Jew" isn't ME, after all, I am a jelly doughnut).
ReplyDeleteThe "Canibal Pot" thing makes me feel dumb. I just haven't been able to get my brain around the analogy. I understand that it's about collectivism, but damn, I just can't figure out what his POINT is (other than collectivism=bad, and I already knew that). I hope its because the link in that blog post is now broke so I have no frame of reference.
What I would really like is for someone who "gets it" to write a nice sane version ah-la the Jews test. You know, spell it out, to help us mental midgets.
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Both are good ones, and yes they DO work both in meatspace and on here; but I'd have to say meatspace is MORE fun, as you watch the opponent hoist themselves on their own petards :-)
ReplyDeleteI (think) the problem dissected with the cannibal pot-test isn't a human doobie (but it might be, sorta, if the demand to not bogart it is great enough), but that some folks standing around dippin' into the pot begin to like the taste they're gettin' and if it suits them enough to get seconds and thirdsss...
ReplyDelete@Stuart
ReplyDeleteThe link in the canibal pot post is probably to one of those stories about a fairly well off middle class family that nevertheless qualified for subsidized SCHIP health care. The point is when benefits are provided by the state (tribe, collective, community), everyone has an incentive to object to every benefit given to anyone else. This is a recipe for unbriddled envy, backstabbing, and civil war.
So, why is it called 'the cannibal-pot'?
ReplyDeleteBecause they eat one another?
ReplyDeleteHow strange. I've been using the "Jews in the Attic" as an acid test for legislation - in my own mind, not in actual discourse - for years. I'm grateful to its author for stating the case so succinctly.
ReplyDeletegvi
WV: wiledack (n) - sort of like biltong only more substantial and better suited to use in colder months.
I am honored.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
I am particularly fond of the "Jews in the Attic" test, because, as some around here have noted, I am a bit of a "RACISS!"
ReplyDeleteI might (or might not) think that the generality of Jews are obnoxious and annoying, because of and bespite of being very smart, but that would not allow me even to contemplate co-operating in the mass murder of them, or even in bullying them in any more rude way than the usual social insults the human monkeys use, and then only if severely provoked.
I believe I owe my mostly un-beat-uppidness in the Government Schools to the presence of lotsa Jews in my school district, and in my schools. Not only did they inspire me to study a little harder by their presence, but they came down hard on the bullies who picked on nerds.
There were about a dozen National Merit Finalists in my High School. Bill S. and I were the only Gentiles.
I still think Jews tend to be obnoxious and annoying, but would I hide one from the Nazis? You betcha!
WV: musench. We're obviously talking about Itzaak Perlman here, a musician and a Mensch.