NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9587

Text File | 1992-12-24 | 11.9 KB | 240 lines

Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
From: Hank Roth <[e-mail]>
Subject: Just a parable...
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: [e-mail]
Sender: [e-mail]
Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 07:17:33 GMT
Approved: [e-mail]
Lines: 225

<<< via P_news/p.news >>>>
<Global reprint permission is granted by the author as long as     >
<he is credited and the article is not changed.  He can be reached >
<at the "Paul Revere News Service" BBS [phone].             >

                    THE PARABLE OF THE RIGHT
                               by
                        Clyde H. Spencer
                         Copyright 1991


     In a galaxy not so very far away, a declining empire called
the Confederated States of Freedonia was celebrating the 2nd
Millennium of their much admired Bill of Individual Rights.  To
most liberals however, the BIR was figuratively a BIR under their
blanket.  Particularly the zeroeth amendment to the Articles of
Confederation!  The zeroeth amendment stated "A well regulated
banking system being necessary to the economic security of a free
state, the right of the people to keep and bear coinage shall not
be infringed."

     Now it is well known that money is the root of all evil and
empowering individual citizens with the ability to purchase all
manner of things without government approval was of great concern
to many legislators serving in the great halls of Progress.  Who
knows what evil might be done if people did not have to account
for how and where they spent their money.

     Allowing people to keep and bear instruments of money,
rather than computer credits, made it difficult to keep track of
what people were doing with their money.  It also made it
difficult to fully tax them  --  and without an efficient tax
system it was difficult to fund the numerous social programs that
were so near and dear to the hearts of the reigning political
party, the demigods.  (Legend has it that the party was
originally called the demagogues, but that can not be
substantiated by any historical records.)  The party has both
liberal and conservative elements but the standing joke is that
the only difference between the two is that the conservatives
make their wealth before entering politics while the liberals
make their wealth while in office.  Be that as it may, the
politicians were richer than most of the population; a few of the
puppet politicians were owned by private citizens richer than
themselves.  During the two millenniums, the concept of being a
politician had changed from being viewed as a temporary public
service position to that of a lifelong ruling-class position.
Only for the most grievous and indiscreet crimes against society
or nature were demigods removed from office.

     During the bi-millennium celebration there was considerable
debate about the original meaning of the right to keep and bear
coinage.  Some said that unless people actually used banks they
were not entitled to have coinage.  But, it was pointed out that
since the government-owned banks controlled the system of
computer credits, virtually everyone used the banks at least
indirectly and were therefore eligible to own coins.  Since that
attempt to rationalize banning coins didn't work, other
intellectuals in the employ of the liberal politicians suggested
that the right was a collective right, not an individual right,
and only restrained the federal government.  City states were not
similarly restrained from banning or otherwise restricting the
use of cash.  Not withstanding the observation that the zeroeth
amendment was in the Bill of INDIVIDUAL Rights, these supposed
intellectuals attempted to stand logic on its head and insist
that the zeroeth amendment was intentionally an anomaly.

     However, one problem was that if it was a collective right,
just who would sue to insure the retention of their rights?  Only
a person can truly have rights and exercise them.  An abstraction
such as the "body politic" or the "electorate" can not exercise
freedom of speech or show up in court.  Only an individual can
press for and use his rights.  Rights only have meaning in the
context of what an individual can exercise and seek redress for.

     One splinter group of objectionists claimed that coinage was
an anachronism and unnecessary in the age of networked neural-
computers.  However, they overlooked the obvious  --  a
significant number of people still desired to use money instead
of computer credits.  When taken to task for their oversight they
usually remarked that anyone who wanted to have cash must be
engaged in illegal activities, that the only thing cash was made
for was avoiding an audit trail and therefore should be banned.

     For generations, the National Riches Association (NRA) had
held off assaults on the zeroeth amendment through effective
political lobbying.  The NRA was frequently vilified by the
puppet press and political aspirants and was referred to as the
Evil Empire.  Were any minority group to experience the bashing
endured by the NRA the liberals would have been up in arms (so to
speak).  However, it was the liberals who were hypocritically
engaging in the bashing.

     The NRA's headquarters were in the capitol city of
Launderton.  Launderton is an interesting story in itself.  It
was the center of wealth (and corruption) in the nation and had
severe restrictions on the use of cash.  Yet, it has been shown
to have been one of the most flagrant users and abusers of cash.
More money gets laundered (under the table so to speak) in
Launderton than in any other place in the empire.

     The NRA had lost some key battles in the states of Califo
and New Jermania.  Some enterprising souls had recognized the
strong desire for coinage and had begun minting plastic tokens
(competing with the state and federal governments).  These
plastic tokens had been eagerly accepted by certain members of
the population.  The plastic coins had the advantage of being
lighter and not jingling loudly when one walked.  The governments
of Califo and New Jermania decided that the plastic coins were an
assault on the legitimate (government controlled) minting of
coins and were a clear danger to government control.  Further,
these plastic coins could not be detected by metal detectors and
therefore it was difficult for the government to monitor the
movement of cash.  Certain political appointees attempted to
capitalize on the media attention and proclaimed "who has need
for coins like these?"  However, the media never allowed any
spokesmen for their usage to publicly respond to the rhetorical
question.  The puppet press condemned the "assault coins" by
association with drug dealers known to prefer cash transactions.

     These so-called "assault coins" were effectively banned in
the two states.  Many who possessed the coins complained that in
times of natural disaster the computers would be down and the
banks would be closed and they would be on their own until order
was restored; most did not comply with the law requiring
registration of their existing assault coins.  The NRA sued to
overturn the law.  However, the courts did not have the courage
to deal directly with the issue.

     Other states attempted to ban these so-called "assault
coins" also, but, were unsuccessful.  The confederate legislators
in the halls of Progress subsequently proposed similar
restrictions to apply to all the states in the confederacy.
Further, there were also proposals to ban large denominations.

     At the same time it was proposed to establish a waiting
period to prevent people from drawing cash from their banks on
short notice.  Certain crusaders  --  most notably the Brady
Bunch  --  who had suffered personal tragedies pointed to the
frequency with which people used cash to buy light-sabers or
poison to commit suicide.  There had even been instances where
swift and severe attacks with light-sabers had resulted in
political assassinations.  These well meaning, but brain damaged
and emotionally disabled dupes felt that these increasing
problems could be eliminated if people were required to have a
cooling off period before they could withdraw funds to purchase
items that could not be traced through the computers.  In a
classical example of inconsistent principles, they claimed that
any inconvenience was worth it if even one life was saved.  The
Coin Investigation Agency secretly provided assistance to
persuade recalcitrant legislators and gain public support.

     The NRA complained that the proposed legislation was a
violation of the intent of the zeroeth amendment.  To attempt to
control distribution of cash was clearly an infringement on the
right to keep and bear it.  The liberals replied that
"reasonable" regulation fell under the allowable activities of
police power, and that after all they had no intention of
prohibiting ownership of coins!  They just wanted to insure that
cash "didn't fall into the wrong hands."  It was appropriate to
give the police an opportunity to do background checks and make
sure that the individual withdrawing the money was entitled to
it, and not in love or otherwise temporarily insane and was not
likely to misuse it.

     A long drawn argument ensued as to whether that information
could ever be ascertained with any certainty  --  particularly in
the light of even the few remaining privacy laws.  The NRA
attempted to compromise by proposing an instantaneous background
check  -- the opposition would settle for nothing less than a
waiting period, whether there was a background check or not!

     The outcome of these final political battles is not recorded
because shortly after the celebration of the 2nd Millennium the
empire collapsed as a result of all the wealth being consolidated
in the hands of the ruling class.  The great mercantile consumer
class that had built the wealth of the empire was bankrupt.  The
banking system failed and the great middle-class had too little
money to bail it out and the rich refused to assist.  And the
morally bankrupt politicians were no help in saving the empire
either.

<END>


----------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER: P_news on Fidonets and p.news on
Peacenet serve as  conduits for articles from
*LEFT* wing publications and other sources. The
posting of said articles do not in any way
[necessarily] represent the position of P_news or
p.news or the poster, but are provided merely for
informational purposes only. The LEFT is not a
monolith and various divergent views are held not
only by individual groups but also by individual
members of groups and independent socialists and
anarchists. The facilitator, <Hank Roth> of these
two conferences does not FORMALLY endorse any
specific group or publication and we will
endeavor to continue to provide other views from
our conferees and their favorite *LEFT* wing
publications. You are also encouraged to post
articles and comments to p.news and P_news.
---------------------------------------------
P_news is a conference for progressive news,
articles and views on Fidonets. If you have
access to a Fidonet BBS and want to read and post
to P_news directly, ask your sysop to get it for
you. It is available nationwide (on the zone 1
backbone). And, p.news is a parallel, but separate
conference on Peacenet. You may subscribe to this
worldwide network by calling Peacenet at: (415)
442-0220. (Both conferences are limited to *LEFT*
wing participation. If you would like to
volunteer to provide both conferences with
articles and news from your favorite *LEFT* wing
publications or theoretical journals, or have
comments about this article or others, send
comments to me: <Hank Roth> [e-mail]
(On Fidonets at 151/101). My address on Peacenet
is [e-mail].
###################################################