Settlement of California didn't really kick into gear until the 1840s. Absolutely anything that survives from those days is worth its sentimental weight in gold. But if it's private property, it's worth a lot more as real estate. So the Briones House in Palo Alto will soon be no more.
Property rights are foundational to a just society. If the broader community can arbitrarily redefine that which we have taken risks to obtain as being at public disposal,* then all of us are ultimately subject to the whims of the bullies and the rabble-rousers. It's just a damn shame that the property owners in this case are individuals who value their new dream home more than an irreplaceable historic property. The proper answer would have been for the public (as represented by local government) to buy the place for preservation. The public did not. And so, down she goes.
* - There are many exceptions, needless to say, where eminent domain supercedes individual property rights. But sentiment should not weigh much, and historic interest is not the same as historic value.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Don
I'm too serious
Tell me, tell, me, if you think you know
Labels
- About Me (15)
- aminals (25)
- architecture (3)
- burningman (41)
- ceaseless self-examination (19)
- history (17)
- inchoate entrepreneurialism (2)
- kid stuff (24)
- long unedited essays (22)
- music (4)
- NaNoWriMo (29)
- nanowrimocrastination (3)
- oh my godless (2)
- OMG IM OCD (4)
- people are strange (2)
- people are stupid (11)
- people what matter (18)
- perpetual picture-taking (24)
- politics (67)
- random life events (59)
- random whining (14)
- reading (4)
- San Francisco (11)
- shameless sexism (1)
- short fiction (3)
- short unedited essays (10)
- society (14)
- sports (2)
- thinking too much (9)
- Thursday Thirteen (6)
- travel (53)
- wha-a-atever (25)
- wordless wednesday (6)
- work (34)
- writing (15)
- xmas (13)
Blog Archive
-
▼
2007
(170)
-
▼
March
(23)
- Being Stupid Sort Of Pisses Me Off
- Hot Chicks Update
- Hunted
- B.S. Alarm
- Fresh Air
- Thursday Thirteen: Teenage Romance
- Early Early Adopter
- Freshly Beaten Paths
- Digital Muse
- Movie-picks something
- Penny Foolish, Pound Wise and Gift Card Idiotic
- Whereas, Ovine, I Follow
- Paying Attention
- Hot Chicks
- Waah Anyway, and So On
- Down She Goes
- Best Thing Ever of the Moment
- Empty Room
- Self Restraint
- Four-meme
- Sunday Night Random
- Bar Stangled Spanner
- Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Things That Annoy The...
-
▼
March
(23)
8 comments:
Still and all, it's a shamed it couldn't be moved.
Have you ever been to the Washoe House, Don? On Stoney Point Road north of Petaluma, a stone's throw from where we live, it's the oldest road house in California. The food's passable, and it has an old funky bar that's pretty welcoming.
No I haven't. I just ooked it up, it looks pretty much my speed!
"Property rights are foundational to a just society."
You fucking what? That is almost exactly opposite to the truth. Do not bother writing a reply. I've read enough libertarian "thinkers" to be all too aware of the bullshit you'll defend that with.
Property is theft. That's not just a slogan. It encapsulates a deep truth about this world. That you don't understand it is part of the cause of your muddled political thinking.
I'll reply as I please. You are dead wrong, as you always have been despite your abilities. Philosophies such as yours, by denying the inherent rights of humans, enabled more violent death and misery in just the past century than any of us can really comprehend.
"Property is theft." Your failure to defend this "deep truth" is not just yours, but built into the thing itself.
Come on down some weekend and I'll buy you a beer.
Then we can go draw a bead on some silhouettes at Montana Hawk and pretend they're...whomever.
I don't think I can go with Dr. Zen's "philosophy" 100 percent, but to say that it " enabled more violent death and misery in just the past century than any of us can really comprehend." strikes me weird too, especially when thinking of the century before that.
strikes me weird too
Rather a sweeping statement, I admit. What happens when you try to keep it simple. So keeping it simple: Though Zen doesn't acknowledge it, the fundamentally altruistic outlook ("Let us sacrifice our individual interests for the interests of others") pretty much enables every socialist, fascist and religionist power. Add up all the "good" those accomplished in just the 20th Cent on the broken bodies of countless millions and the slughter gets pretty much incomprehensible. Obviously, capitalism as practiced is flawed. It could still benefit from certain aspects of what we might call a socialist consciousness, and it is easily taken over by people who would deny others the rights they themselves enjoy (as is also done under all the other systems), leading to some slaughter of its own. But as a fundamental goal, rational self-interest (i.e. recognizing and encoding in law that everyone works for themselves anyway, whatever else they may claim) can work for everyone, while Zen's incoherent anarchic ramblings ultimately serve the thugs who put themselves at the head of the collective / party / church. When you add that he doesn't believe in rights except those granted by whoever happens to be in power (tho' that's not how he puts it, it's what he means), you might see why I tend to take a hard and simplistic line. :)
That was good. I can't wait to see the bad Dr.'s response.
Post a Comment