Mises Institue attempts to reach a younger audience: Hilarity Ensues

[La Comédie Noire]

This article was posted around the release date of Revenge of the Sith. It's either an elaborate joke or a right libertarian star wars fan who takes star wars and his politics too seriously (Happens more often than you'd think.)


I believe that Anakin's acceptance of the dark side is based on three factors. First, he was a bastard. Second, he and his mother were slaves. Third, he abandoned his mother when he was set free from slavery only to return years latter to find that she had been horribly brutalized, surviving just long enough to die in his arms.


The second factor makes sense, slavery is a disgusting institution, but he uses that as a launching pad to...



In the galactic Republic, slavery was only practiced in the port city of Mos Espa on the planet of Tatooine. This city was controlled by mobsters and was based on businesses and trade that the government sought to suppress, such as gambling and pod racing. This would suggest that in the absence of the black market that slavery might not have existed in the Republic. Therefore we can trace Anakin's problems back to government intervention in the economy
Present the evils of government intervention. :lol:

The dark side does include bureaucrats and functionaries who are driven by their lust for power into expanding and nurturing big government. We see it in attorney generals who presume celebrities and deep-pocketed corporations are guilty until proven innocent and who twist the legal process to obtain guilty verdicts.

Yes, those poor celebrities and corporations are always right and should be left to count their money in peace.


We see it in drug warriors who destroy lives and families and trounce on civil liberties and property rights in a futile attempt to stop drug consumption. We see it in social workers who take children from their parents on the presumption that a broken arm was the result of child abuse rather than a playground accident. We see it in airport security, gun registration, tax enforcement, zoning, and environment regulation.
In a pure market economy no one would demand broken arms, so no one would supply them.
http://mises.org/daily/1818#ixzz0nuFaqrOE

[Dimentio]

Absolutely wonderful. This is the kind of stuff you get when your ideology is so far from reality that you cannot apply it to IRL situations...

[BAM]

Scrooge Defended (http://mises.org/daily/110) is one of my favourite Mises-dot-org articles of all time.

Tis the season to be jolly, indeed ...

[Raúl Duke]

This would suggest that in the absence of the black market that slavery might not have existed in the Republic. Therefore we can trace Anakin's problems back to government intervention in the economy

That's horseshit, everyone knows that free market ideology finds slavery acceptable, mostly in the form of contractual indentured servitude.

[Robocommie]

That's horseshit, everyone knows that free market ideology finds slavery acceptable, mostly in the form of contractual indentured servitude.

His argument is dumb too, because the premise of the movie was that the Republic had abolished slavery, but Tatooine was far too remote for that to mean anything. They specifically stated this. Therefore, government intervention didnt cause slavery, it was lack of government intervention that allowed it to exist.

Also, I had to laugh at the OP's joke about supply and demand of broken arms. Dark humor, but funny and true.

[Chimurenga.]

I really doubt this way of thinking will ever materialize into some mass movement aside from the internet, of course.

[Dimentio]

I really doubt this way of thinking will ever materialize into some mass movement aside from the internet, of course.

Tea Party.......

[ZeroNowhere]

Scrooge Defended (http://mises.org/daily/110) is one of my favourite Mises-dot-org articles of all time.

Tis the season to be jolly, indeed ...That is brilliant.

[Chimurenga.]

Tea Party.......

Two completely different things.

[Dimentio]

Two completely different things.

Tea Partyism is basically a popular ideology built on the same foundations as the pseudo-intellectual ravings of the Mises institute.

[khad]

What's actually frightening about this is that these arguments have a lot of "common sense" resonance in US culture. I can imagine some dumb kids nodding their heads and going "yeah! yeah!" when reading this. Fuck, I have known people who would.

[gorillafuck]

We see it in attorney generals who presume celebrities and deep-pocketed corporations are guilty until proven innocent and who twist the legal process to obtain guilty verdicts.
When someone tries to talk about how corporations and CEO's are the real victims, that's how you can that whoever is speaking is fond of Ayn Rand.

[A.R.Amistad]

In the galactic Republic, slavery was only practiced in the port city of Mos Espa on the planet of Tatooine. This city was controlled by mobsters and was based on businesses and trade that the government sought to suppress, such as gambling and pod racing. This would suggest that in the absence of the black market that slavery might not have existed in the Republic. Therefore we can trace Anakin's problems back to government intervention in the economy

Not only does he not understand social relations in reality, he doesn't even understand Star Wars society! XD Didn't he draw the obvious analogy of how the evil Trade Federation capitalists collaborated with the Sith?

[Dimentio]

Not only does he not understand social relations in reality, he doesn't even understand Star Wars society! XD Didn't he draw the obvious analogy of how the evil Trade Federation capitalists collaborated with the Sith?

Oh yes, its so obvious from the movies that George Lucas basically is a centrist social liberal. :lol:

Star Wars society is in fact hardly capitalist in our sense, since it drags its surplus value from droids. I really find it very distasteful, to create sentient beings - which obviously have emotions - in order for them to be slaves. At the same time, droid labour is obviously not used to improve the lives of the ordinary citizens of the GR.

[Nolan]

I was playing the original KOTOR the other night, and I couldn't help but notice that the Sith code is based on a mix of objectivism and fascist philosophy.

[Dimentio]

I was playing the original KOTOR the other night, and I couldn't help but notice that the Sith code is based on a mix of objectivism and fascist philosophy.

Yes, not that the Jedi are particularly good either. They seem to be confucians, who just support the traditional social order because... well, it is the traditional social order.

[Zanthorus]

Yes, not that the Jedi are particularly good either. They seem to be confucians, who just support the traditional social order because... well, it is the traditional social order.

This is what has always irritated me about Star Wars. The Jedi are supposed to be these super awesome, super-intelligent warriors yet they support a fucking republic! If the Jedi were really who they claim to be why aren't there anarchist, Marxist and Leninist Jedi? Bourgeois propaganda if you ask me :p

[swirling_vortex]

What's actually frightening about this is that these arguments have a lot of "common sense" resonance in US culture. I can imagine some dumb kids nodding their heads and going "yeah! yeah!" when reading this. Fuck, I have known people who would.
If I was 12 again and I read that, more than likely I would've been bored after the first sentence. :p

[GPDP]

This is what has always irritated me about Star Wars. The Jedi are supposed to be these super awesome, super-intelligent warriors yet they support a fucking republic! If the Jedi were really who they claim to be why aren't there anarchist, Marxist and Leninist Jedi? Bourgeois propaganda if you ask me :p

I'm not surprised. Politics-wise, the Star Wars universe isn't very well thought out. All the thought went towards fleshing out the mysticism of the series (at least pre-midichlorians), as well as the technology. The actual workings of the social order is really confused and serves merely as a placeholder for them to say "well, there's a government."

[Dimentio]

I'm not surprised. Politics-wise, the Star Wars universe isn't very well thought out. All the thought went towards fleshing out the mysticism of the series (at least pre-midichlorians), as well as the technology. The actual workings of the social order is really confused and serves merely as a placeholder for them to say "well, there's a government."

Its quite simple really. George Lucas took the social system from Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, which was basically a sci-fi version of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". Hence, the Galactic Republic/Galactic Empire is basically Rome (they even have a Rome-like world centre, Trantor/Coruscant), with droids instead of slaves (which basically are the same stuff anyway). The plot was taken from Frank Herbert's Dune Trilogy, which is a sci-fi version of the rise of Islam. Lucas brought in some stuff from the North American Liberation War (first trilogy) and the North American Civil War (prequel trilogy).