{"id":1125,"date":"2003-05-09T11:08:02","date_gmt":"2003-05-09T15:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kith.org\/journals\/vardibidian\/2003\/05\/09\/1125.html"},"modified":"2003-05-09T11:08:02","modified_gmt":"2003-05-09T15:08:02","slug":"conservative-tenet-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/2003\/05\/09\/conservative-tenet-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservative Tenet # 10"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I'll press on with # 10 of the Conservative Tenets<\/a>. I'm really happy with the convo<\/a> on # 8, but I would still really like a Conservative to show up and defend these. Not because I'm waiting with a cream pie, either; the Conservative Tradition is, presumably, the source of a lot of majority thought in this country, and while I am rejecting it, I'd like to be sure I'm rejecting it on the basis of what it actually is, rather than a caracature.\n\n

10. The prime importance of private property for liberty, order, and progress.\n\n

Here is an example of a part of the conservative tradition I totally fail to understand.\n\n

When I was younger, I was persuaded by the Neo-Mao-Marxists that private property was, in fact, a myth, and a destructive one, at that. I've since modified my views somewhat; I think there's a category of private property that should be respected: for want of a better definition, things that are an extension of the people they \"belong\" to. For me, it's a pretty small category: my toothbrush, some old (and some recent) correspondence, my clothes and personal accessories, a few dozen photographs and a few hundred computer files, my stuffed bear, the contents of about a boxful of scrapbooks and memorabilia. Irreplaceables. I'm willing to accept that they are vulnerable to decay, fire, theft, etc., but I am not willing to accept that anybody else has any claim on them that can be justified over my claim.\n\n

I hold, as you can probably guess from the above list, a pretty restrictive view of that category. I own hundreds of books and hundreds of CDs, some spiffy computer gadgets and some battered old kitchen implements, a couple of artworks and a couple of savings bonds, and a nearly complete set of San Francisco Giants Media Guides<\/i> of the last 20 years. I'd be devastated if they were taken from me (by fire, confiscation, or theft), and not just financially. I accept that. But if somebody stole them, what about them exactly makes them mine? Your computer, your car, and your couch are not extensions of yourself; the state (or anybody) oughtn't take them away from you without good reason, but your \"ownership\" doesn't trump natural rights, or even Good Outcomes (although maintaining some stability of stuff is, in itself, a Good Outcome).\n\n

All of that said, if private property is a myth, it isn't always a harmful one. It does (sometimes), as the capitalists say, provide incentives for productivity, ingenuity, and creativity and certainly I'm in favor of those things. What is a harmful myth is stated explicitly in Tenet 10 upstairs: that private property is of prime importance. It isn't. It's of, at best, secondary importance, behind ... oh, compassion, ethics, a sense of history, reason, humility, and these great red outfits.\n\n

Seriously, a well-nourished, well-educated populace is of higher importance than private property for creating and improving liberty, order and progress.\n\n

Thank you,
-Vardibidian.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ll press on with # 10 of the Conservative Tenets. I’m really happy with the convo on # 8, but I would still really like a Conservative to show up and defend these. Not because I’m waiting with a cream…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[201],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-navel-gazing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/vardibidian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}