Comments on: Jack Woodford

By: jgm219

jgm219 — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:20:56 +0000

I would have been as well but sadly they don’t. Here I come Amazon. com.

By: Pat_S

Pat_S — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:46:58 +0000

The free thinkers who advocate legalizing drugs and prostitution have an attitude they are honest and wise about the true nature of the human beast and the rest of us are frauds. Ironically, they appear to feel superior about it. Yes, we are frauds. Civilization and social order is a lie, an unnatural life, to which most of us are willing to agree. It’s what sets us apart from other animals.

The eternal problem is what standards and limits to set and how to enforce them. It’s a process that never ends and for that reason we need political freedom. We’ll work it out amongst ourselves, but government and the judicial system are part of the process. There are disagreements about the proper balance of individual liberty, preserving order and, well, is it going too far to say some sort of purification process. The human species, I believe, has a drive, an aspiration, for higher things that require shutting our ears to the call of the wild.

We’ll make laws that go too far or not far enough, but we will make laws. Advocates for all points of view have turns in dominating the debate of who we are and what we should do. That debate isn’t always—irony again—civil. As long as we have a mechanism to correct ourselves, we’ll stumble through winding up who knows where.

In the words of another curmudgeon, Alexander Pope from The Essay on Man:

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride,
He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas’ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall:
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl’d;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

By: Floyd R. Turbo

Floyd R. Turbo — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:53:20 +0000

Maynard, that brings to mind the phrase from back when: “Where were you in ’62?”. Don’t remember if it was a tag line from a movie or what it came from. But, life was much simpler then. I was a junior in high school. JFK was President and would be for another year until his assassination. Somewhere around that year was the Cuban missle crisis. And, of course, Krushchev and the Cold War were raging. In spite of those and other things, life was simpler. At 63, I’m beginning to see something of what my parents, the “WWII” generation witnessed in their lives, changes beyond what the mind can keep up with. I’m sure they saw the degeneration of the society they matured with but the degeneration we have seen in the last years is most disheartening. The rapid, horrendous growth of our “brood sow” government and the shrinking of our freedoms and liberties. It’s scary. I’m sure our parents were fearful for their children, what kind of an America would we have left. We are faced with even more fearful scenes in what the Congress and our President have done to our children’s and grandchildren’s future America. As a Believer, I still know that God has a good plan for this great country, whose seed He planted hundreds of years ago on this soil. But I also realize that He must deal with and respect the human will, the will of man to go completely against His Plan. And He must stand by and let us screw up. Even so badly as to destroy His country and dream. He’s like that. He loves us so much He must honor our will and ability to screw up, even when He’s given us instructions how to avoid the problems we so easily and blindly create. Ah, wonderful hard headed, beligerent, arrogant, ignorant, insane humanity. In spite of all those qualities (?!) He still sent His Son to redeem us…Who we celebrate this Christmas season. God helped us. And we still refuse to see Him. “But to as many as received Him…”. John 1:12.

By: Pangborn

Pangborn — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 06:09:20 +0000

Maynard,
I certainly consider myself one of your “core fans” even though I have been AWOL from this site for several months (the depressing nature of the Michigan economy has soured me on most political discourse—once I was a conservative/libertarian, now most days I am a confirmed cynic).
Your post was most entertaining and illuminating as always. I too have some sense of Mr. Woodford’s argument despite his seeming endorsement of heroin use. Perhaps it would be preferable to be shackled for a time to some highly addictive narcotic rather than being enslaved forever by some stultifying and stupefying State. Free will and individual liberty, guaranteed to each and all by the Constitution, not only make us Americans but human beings as well. If we continue to silently surrender the sovereingty over our selves we will cease to be either.

By: Maynard

Maynard — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:13:09 +0000

I’d be surprised if you found this in your library.

By: Kimj7157

Kimj7157 — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:03:04 +0000

“You lousy sheep, do you realize you voted freedom out of this country?”

Ain’t that the truth… . :/

Hope you have a beautiful, blessed Christmas, Maynard. And a Merry Christmas to all the good people who post here. :)

(Just so you know, I’m considering changing my handle to “maynardcorefan”.)

By: jgm219

jgm219 — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:16:13 +0000

Maynard, I believe I will be, at the very least, looking for this in my local library. I’d like to read about our world which has moved on and as an aspiring writer, maybe his autobiography has some pointers. Thanks for the post! It was thought provoking. Merry Christmas to everyone!

By: Uffda

Uffda — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:02:01 +0000

Yeah, and the fact that laws were being broken had nothing to do with it.

By: Maynard

Maynard — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:37:55 +0000

CO2, of course what you say is valid. But yes, I would say the situation is complex enough to defy a “correct” resolution. See the discussion offered by Mr. Radargeek.

Also, of course, I could only include a tiny portion of the chapter. So I would be doing Mr. Woodford an injustice if I were to present that as an argument in totality. But then, my point wasn’t simply to make the argument in favor of chemical liberty. It was illustrate an ideal that I found to be thought-provoking. It may be that some will find the example too outlandish to be used for this purpose. But I thought it made it nice point to go this way instead of going for a slam-dunk “obvious” example of government overreach.

By: radargeek

radargeek — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:30:51 +0000

I think I understand the point. When citizens are free to live the way they want, they grow as a person. That includes when they screw up themselves or not. People had the right to do that. This is how you learn from your mistakes. Anyway, the citizenry demanded the government to get involved to stop alcohol and drugs. We saw the results of prohibition. Drugs, on the other hand, have not run the same course as alcohol.
The citizenry is convinced that the government is doing the right thing to stop drugs. The citizenry is blind to the harsh affects of government. Does it make since to you to arrest someone, make them a felon and ruin their lives and their kids to where they cannot come back and make a living? Oh, but it saves my kids and my life… Well, be prepared to pay for those lives your government just ruined!! The government is harsh, cold, and doesn’t care for you; unless you are of the political class! They come into poor neighborhoods and arrest the disadvantaged and poor and put an even larger albatross around their nicks to a point where they cannot come out of poverty. That’s why I can’t stand watching COPS. They are always in trailer parks or ghettos ruining more lives- this great government…
Have you ever gone to your local police compound where the police cars are towed after wreaking from a car chase? I once lived in a small city and saw dozens upon dozens of totaled police cars. Who pays for this? What did the offender get as punishment? Do the ends justify the means? It’s just sick that the citizenry are so paralyzed to stop the madness of the government.
Why is it that the people today are afraid of their own government? I believe it is because the citizens see how over powerful the government had become and they have all the bureaucratic departments at their disposal to ruin you if you make a fuss. Just like the MOB, when you ask the government to come in and help you, they will never leave. Like a termite to a house, the government will use extortion to stay in your life and eat away at your hard earned money; that is your freedom; until you are an empty shell.