tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1671740162757031962024-03-05T09:32:30.592-08:00Anarcho-MercantilistAnarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-70874919292209675252013-03-20T22:23:00.000-07:002013-03-20T22:23:54.239-07:00Obama: "[we] took care to avoid civilian casualties"<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uH796kfIQk8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Last night, Barack Obama made a speech. There is an interesting statement within Obama's speech. What is interesting is when he said "No Americans were killed during the operation [...] [we] took care to avoid civilian causalities."</p>
<p>Let us examine the above phrase: "No Americans were killed [...] [we] took care to avoid civilian causalities." If you read in-between-the-lines, it suggests something negative. It implies that innocents were killed during the invasion.</p>
<p>Also, if you look more carefully, the phrase might also suggest that American lives are more important than the lives of non-Americans. (On the contrary, the phrase could be interpreted differently. It could mean that the civilians were <em>possibly</em> guilty due to association. But even if such possibility was true, we should not condone the killing of civilians.)</p>
<p>Here is a comment which goes well with this.</p>
<blockquote><p>The deaths of brown civilians are seen as collateral damage, you know it’s not a good thing or anything, but they’re just means to an end. It’s so sickening to see how our society an separates the life of an American and places it on a pedestal above the life of someone else. A human being is a human being, a life is a life. But I suppose that this type of internally perpetuated disillusionment that many people have in America is nothing short of what’s expected, when people equate the significance of the victims of 9/11 with a higher worth than the much larger sum of civilians who were killed by American troops in the aftermath, dehumanizing and othering who you see to be the enemy has always been a common tactic in play. I really hope I don’t come off as against the victims from 9/11 in any way, one of my own relatives died because of health problems directly caused by that day, I just don’t like how it always seems that every other innocent person who has died from events related to 9/11 aren’t seen as they are as important when they should be.</p><p style="text-align:right">—Anonymous (<a href="http://reelaroundthefountain.tumblr.com/post/5124563801/no-americans-were-harmed-they-took-care-to-avoid">Source</a>)</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>Barack Obama is a <em>terrorist</em></strong> for planning the invasion. Innocents were killed, and that, by definition, was an act of <em>terrorism</em>. Barack Obama could have prevented the deaths of innocents, just by declining the invasion.</p>
<p>After all, do you think society would improve if Osama bin Laden was killed? Would "terrorism" end? No. The Middle East would continue to be angry at the United States.</p>
<p>The killing of Osama bin Laden is a worthless act. It does <em>nothing</em> to prevent further "terrorism." The Middle East will continue to be angry at the United States.</p>
<p>It's more about the Middle Eastern people, and less about Osama bin Laden himself. Osama bin Laden is merely a <em>symbol</em> of the resentment felt by the Middle East. After Osama bin Laden was called, another leader would replace him. In other words, killing Osama bin Laden would do nothing to fix the root cause of "terrorism."</p>
<p>In addition, innocent people were killed during the invasion. Was it worthwhile to kill Osama bin Laden, at the expense of the innocents who died during the invasion? No. The invasion did more harm than good.</p>
<p>The invasion against Osama bin Laden was not only counterproductive, but it was an act of <em>terrorism</em>. Innocents were killed during the invasion, and that, by definition, is a form of <em>terrorism</em>. Therefore, <strong>Barack Obama is a <em>terrorist</em></strong> just like how Osama bin Laden was one.</p>
<p>The invasion was merely an act of <em>vengeance</em>.</p>
<blockquote><p>I'm not seeing any cause for celebration in the killing of Osama Bin Laden. It's a death produced by anger and hatred which, after all, is what fuels Al-Qaeda.</p>
<p style="text-align:right">—Anonymous</p><p></p></blockquote>
<p style="color:#666">(The above message demonstrates how the word "terrorism" is used to <em>rationalize</em> our vengeance.)</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-87984320118194529062012-07-04T21:25:00.002-07:002012-07-04T21:30:27.529-07:00A Few Social Skills<p> </p><p><strong>Never</strong> apologize. Apologies could be taken as "admission" of guilt. Don't even sympathize. (An exception is made for obvious and explicit wrongs where there's no dispute.)</p><p><strong>Never</strong> assert your "right" for "free speech." This could be taken "evidence" that you verbally attacked someone.</p><p><strong>Never </strong>lie. Not even white lies. If you <em>must </em>lie, then it's always best to stay silent. Any <em>lie</em> will have unintended consequences.</p><p><strong>Don't</strong> qualify yourself, even when someone accuses you of a wrong. Your qualification could be misconstrued as an attack or nagging.</p><p><strong>Do</strong> assume that your words will be taken literally.</p><p><strong>Do</strong> realize that people often have a overly suspicious "bullshit detector." Therefore, always sound genuine.</p><p><strong>Always</strong> rephrase what other people say.</p><p><strong>Here are some terms (used throughout this blog) which are changed for accuracy:</strong></p><p>Message-passing paradigm -> Message-taking paradigm</p><p>"I laughed [at] someone/something" -> "I laughed" (Avoid saying "at" after "laugh." Don't identify the person/object which "causes" your laughter.)</p><p>Social placebo effect / Social nocebo effect -> Self-fulfilling prophecy</p><p>Perceived Polarization -> Perceived Polarity</p><p>Justification confused with attack -> Qualification taken as an attack</p><p>Justification confused with advocacy -> Qualification taken as advocacy/nagging</p><p>Exaggeration to prove a point -> Perceived exaggeration</p><p>(Sometimes.) Main point -> Primary purpose</p><p>(Sometimes.) Punishment -> Perceived punishment</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-76732970390623171742011-01-05T10:13:00.000-08:002012-01-19T06:16:15.502-08:00Sex Differences: Ability or Motivation?<p>There's a belief which is held by a lot of people:</p>
<blockquote><p>Men can have a maternal paternal parental instinct that is as strong as the one found among women, and women can be as good at running companies and countries as men.</p></blockquote>
<p>I agree in part of that quote. I agree that men can be good parents as women do, and I agree than women can be good executives and men do.</p>
<p>In fact, there's <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/everyday-mind-reading/200901/where-is-womens-intuition">a study</a> that have shown that women are NOT more skilled at men at reading emotions. Women are just more MOTIVATED to read others emotions than men.</p>
<blockquote><p>When my colleagues and I began doing research on empathic accuracy (everyday mind reading) about 20 years ago, we expected to find that women would be more accurate than men at inferring the specific content of other people's thoughts and feelings. This expectation was based on the cultural stereotype of "women's intuition."</p>
<p>Surprisingly, however, when we tested for evidence of this expected gender difference, we kept failing to find any support for it. <strong>In seven straight studies, the average empathic accuracy score of our female participants was <em>not significantly different</em> from the average score of our male participants.</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>So men can be good parents just as women. It's just that men don't have much of a preference to care about children as women do. Given a choice, men would prefer more masculine activities such as running a company rather than parenting. But if he has no choice except parenting, then men would do just as well as women do, as mentioned above.</p>
<p>I think the same thing happens with the male dominance in business. There are not much women who run companies. That's not because women aren't capable of doing it. It's because women aren't too <em>motivated</em> to run companies. Women have an maternal instinct to care for their children, so they choose to take care of their children more. But if women are forced to run a large company, they will do just as well. Women just aren't <em>motivated</em> to make money rather than raising children, compared to men. I believe that the differences are based on difference preferences rather than difference abilities.</p>
<!--p>Another example is that men are more violent. It's not because men are immoral, but men care less about morals than women do. Of course, I'm not offending the moral men; I'm just speaking in average terms.</p-->
<p>Yes, some exceptions do exist. Men do have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex-related_differences_in_spatial_cognition#Spatial_abilities">greater spatial manipulation abilities</a> than women do. But that's just an exception, not the general rule. In general, sex differences are due to differences in preferences and motivations rather than differences in abilities.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-55716304898863500862010-11-22T19:43:00.000-08:002010-11-22T19:48:47.421-08:00Why I Ditched Left-Libertarianism<p>Sorry, but I'm not a "left-libertarian" anymore. My rejection of "left-libertarianism" goes beyond the label.
</p><p>
I'm using the definition of "left-libertarianism" of <a href="http://radgeek.com/">Charles W. Johnson</a>. He defines "left-libertarianism" as someone who is not only a libertarian, but also supports the feminist movement, the anti-racist movement, and the anti-police movement.
</p><p>
I don't think that this society oppresses females more than males. I think some feminists are misconceived of the male-female "wage gap" and the "glass ceiling." I don't think it's due to discrimination at all.
</p><p>
Yes, I agree that rape is a big issue towards society. I agree that rape is not uncommon and it's sometimes under-reported. However, there are so many false accusations of rape against men. I agree that those false accusations of rape against men downplay the seriousness of rape against women.
</p><p>
However, I don't think "rape" is only a female issue that should be listed under "feminism." Men don't rape women because they hate women. But it's common for feminists to label "rape" as a "hate crime" against women.
</p><p>
I don't think patriarchy does exist in this society as it did in the past. But feminists think patriarchy does exist, because of the "wage-gap" and the "glass ceiling." There are not many powerful women. There are not many rich women. That's what they argue.
</p><p>
However, I think it's more due to culture rather than discrimination. Females choose take care of their children and do housework than men. So they don't have much time to pursue careers.
</p><p>
Violence against women by men is stigmatized. Contrastingly, violence against men by women is trivialized.
</p>
<p>
There's actually a huge bias against males. For example, if a conflict occurs between and male and a female, the male will be immediately assumed as responsible for the conflict, even though there is NO PROOF that the male is indeed responsible. In other words, if there's evidence suggest that it's the *male* is responsible, the evidence will be remembered. However, any evidence which suggests that the *female* is responsible will be *ignored* or rationalized away. This is because they have a confirmation bias against males.
</p>
<p>
It's the same thing with the anti-racist movement. I don't think this society is racist. Yes, it was racist in the past. But I don't think the current society is racist, except for the few white supremacists.
</p><p>
I think the underachievement of blacks and Hispanics is more due to culture rather than discrimination. It's common for anti-racists to paint "wage-gaps" as a result of "racism" when I think it's due to culture.
</p><p>
Same thing with the feminist double-standard. Violence against blacks by whites is stigmatized. But violence against whites by blacks is trivialized.
</p><p>
I think that the feminists and anti-racists are being overly superstitious. They cherry pick the violence against women and minorities and then exaggerate them, so they seem to be more prevalent than they are. Conversely, they ignore the violence towards males and white people because they think it's more due to a specific circumstance rather than discrimination.
</p><p>
You know, it's common for people to exaggerate their enemies:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Referring the "free speech activists" as people who want the right to offend people.</li><li>
Referring those who want to reduce immigration as "bigots."</li><li>
Referring the anti-feminist movement as "misogynists."</li><li>
Referring those who oppose homosexual marriage as "homophobes."</li><li>
Referring people who doesn't hire racial minorities as "racists."</li><li>
Referring the government as "criminals."
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Again, I think police officers are portrayed as more evil than they actually are. Violence against civilians by the police is exaggerated, so police officers seem more violent than they actually are. It's due to a confirmation bias.
</p><p>
If you think about how many people have their lives saved by police officers, then you wouldn't hate them anymore.
</p><p>
Police officers, by themselves, aren't power-hungry or sadistic. *All* people will become sadistic and evil if you grant them the power.
</p><p>
In summary, I don't support the feminist movement, the anti-racist movement, and the anti-police movement anymore. While I do think that those movements are helpful in the past, I don't think those movements should still exist in this current society as much as they existed in the past.
</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-91217832314639242002010-05-17T13:24:00.000-07:002010-05-17T13:32:59.584-07:00Placebo Effects in Human Relationships, A Summary<p>An authority figure can "<a href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/Spin_(public_relations)" title="Spin (public relations)">spin</a>" a situation to look more violent that it actually is. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/Confirmation_bias" title="Confirmation bias">Confirmation bias</a> can do such a thing. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/Conformity" title="Conformity">Conformity</a> can also do such a thing. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/Placebo_effect" title="Placebo effect" class="mw-redirect">Placebo effects</a> are yet another thing.</p>
<p>Such situations almost always happen unintentionally. All it has to do is for the authority figure to believe that his subordinate is violent, to make them more violent. As said above, this is like a <a href="http://www.blogger.com/wiki/Placebo_effect" title="Placebo effect" class="mw-redirect">placebo effect</a>, where the "experimenter" is the authority figure and the "subjects" are his subordinates. Because the authority figure believes that he is violent prior to the event, he will interpret his subordinates' actions to be more violent than it actually is.</p>
<p>Such situations are common in situations such as police brutality, controlling parenting, and other <a href="http://anarcho-mercantilist.blogspot.com/2010/04/blame-hierarchy-not-people.html" class="external text" rel="nofollow">hierarchical relationships</a>. The "abuser" almost always don't realize that they are doing something evil. They feel that their behavior is legitimate, given that they think that their subordinates are perceived to be evil.</p>
<p>That's another reason why you take the words of any Wikipedia administrator, forum moderator, or teacher, with only a grain of salt. If they accuse another of "trolling" or "bullying", it's often a mere perceived evil. None of their words may be an accurate representation of the supposed "bully".</p>
<p>Often "bullies" are "evil" only because others falsely accuse them of an alleged wrong. But, ironically, the accusers themselves are also often wrong.</p>
<p>People rationalize. And they also rationalize their friends' behavior. For example, suppose a teacher saw some other teacher yelling and apparently abusing a student. But he won't accuse him as malicious, partially because he thinks adults aren't as mean as children, and partially because he is his friend so he would rationalize his behavior as non-malicious.</p>
<p>Why are people who are abused by authority figures "assumed" bad? Such as the incident in which the police tased a student and the student responded "don't taze me bro."</p>
<p>People hypnotize each other. For example, when they are accused of something, they will apparently believe that the accusation is true.</p>
<p>For example, the victim of the "don't taze me bro" incident actually believed that he did something "wrong", even though at the time of the incident, he didn't believe he did anything wrong.</p>
<p>A "bully" can be a person who stands up for himself, a person who disobeys authority, or a rebel who wants to do things his own way.</p>
<p>I don't believe that "bullies" or "trolls" exist as commonly perceived. Then why do some many people believe that they do exist? It's partially caused from the placebo effect as described above, and then exaggerated through the media. Television shows commonly show that people who often do evil things actually have an evil personality. This is far from reality. It's even undetermined if the "bully's" actions were malicious or negligent, or whether if it's a whole misunderstanding.</p>
<p>I may write a series of posts explaining why so many accused "bullies" weren't bullying at all.</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-20514044394748816972010-04-29T21:32:00.000-07:002010-04-29T22:01:22.152-07:00Theory of Western Innovation<p><i>(This is an article that I (anarcho-mercantilist) wrote three years ago. I have then discovered that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond">Jared Diamond</a> had independently developed a very similar theory in his last chapter of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond">Guns, Germs, and Steel</a>.</i>)</p>
<p>Europeans have had the most technological advances. This article promotes a theory of their advances, comparing them with East Asians.</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Criticism_on_the_genetic_hypothesis">Criticism on the genetic hypothesis</span></h2>
<p>Genetic researchers have claimed that East Asian peoples have higher intelligence than European people, <sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-0"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup> but they have unusually "low" achievements compared to whites. Lynn suggests that Asians have lower IQ because of their conformist culture,<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></a></sup> but this is just part of the story.</p>
<p>The book IQ and the Wealth of Nations<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span>[</span>3<span>]</span></a></sup> is flawed. First, IQ does not measure general intelligence, but <a href="http://anarcho-mercantilist.blogspot.com/2010/04/why-are-there-more-male-geniuses.html">primarily visuospatial intelligence</a>. Second, the governments are not as free as Western nations so they are poor raised. Third, the governments have lots of corruption powered by oligarchies. That's why most of the not westerns have lower IQ.</p>
<p>This article will proclaim that the kind of government and culture is highly dependant on technological progress.</p>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Invention_of_capitalism">Invention of capitalism</span></h3>
<p>Chinese philosophers <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoist" title="Taoist" class="mw-redirect">Taoist</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_Tzu" title="Lao Tzu" class="mw-redirect">Lao Tzu</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Wei" title="Wu Wei">Wu Wei</a> invented capitalism. They held a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire" title="Laissez-faire">laissez-faire</a> belief that the government that governs best governs least. It was requoted by Thomas Jefferson. <a href="http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/17_3/17_3_3.pdf" class="external autonumber" rel="nofollow">[2]</a><a href="http://www.bkmarcus.com/blog/2005/11/ancient-chinese-secret.html" class="external autonumber" rel="nofollow">[3]</a> They invented theories of how taxation and regulation damages the economy. They invented theories of inflation and how it damages the society. Missionaries discovered these works and translated them, which led Enlightenment philosophers to market the ideas to society.</p>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Inventions">Inventions</span></h3>
<p>Some mathematical theorems and physics was invented by the Indians and Chinese but was later translated by Westerners, and some Western scientists and mathematicians may have plagarized them. Steel, paper, gunpowder were invented by the Chinese, centries before the Europeans adopted them.</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Geography_and_competition">Geography and competition</span></h2>
<p>As Montesquieu believed, geography affect the conditions of competition between monarchies. <sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span>[</span>4<span>]</span></a></sup> According to Montesquieu, European has a very mountainous terrian, while Asia has a flat terrian. This resulted in many emperors competing in Europe and few Emperers in East Asia.</p>
<p>Like the free market, the competition of governments in Europe resulted in the best government there due to natural selection. The most properous, innovative and friendly governments survived. This led to the development of merchantalism, and eventually implementation of capitalism in Europe.</p>
<p>Likewise, the little competition of governments in East Asia due to their flat terrian resulted in a poor government. This kept the conformist, bureaucratic, anti-technological government in China. <sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span>[</span>5<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
<p>The great competition of nations amongst Europe resulted in a nation that promoted the structures that led the Reinaissance.</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Ming_Dynasty">Ming Dynasty</span></h2>
<p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongle_Encyclopedia">Yongle Encyclopedia</a> may be stolen by anti-technological. The takeover by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchus" title="Manchus" class="mw-redirect">Manchus</a> resulted in lesser innovation. The Manchus were highly anti-technological and conformist.</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Competition_in_Europe_resulted_in_easy_colonization">Competition in Europe resulted in easy colonization</span></h2>
<p>A theory says that China descovered the Americas, and colonized them well before the Europeans. <sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span>[</span>6<span>]</span></a></sup> Why didn't china own the Americas?</p>
<p>European emperors like to grab power, due to "governmental evolution" in Europe. This resulted in best European emperors grabbing power in the Americas.</p>
<p>Capitalism is also a factor of easy colonization. Columbus discovered gold and wanted to make money so they exploited the Native Americans. This stimulated more and more Europeans to settle America.</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="The_American_revolution">The American revolution</span></h2>
<p>The American revolution is based on the Ancient Greek and Roman republics. The great competition in Europe resulted in a diverse range of governments. The republican form of government in some European nations, such as Holland and Switzerland, set an example of how republican forms of government survuved. <sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span>[</span>7<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
<p>So the United States reformed a republican form of government.</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Language_and_creativity">Language and creativity</span></h2>
<p>The logographic Eastern languages curbed creativity, while the word based languages of the West promoted creativity. <sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span>[</span>8<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span>[</span>9<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span>[</span>10<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span>[</span>11<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
<p>Why did East Asian peoples use logographic characters? Because of their high spatial intelligence, it is easier to just make a drawing than to spell out words. But the alphabetic Korean language, Hangul, was invented in 1440s. Pehaps the lack of competition of governments and languages in East Asia preserved the old, logographic languages of Asia. But syllabic/alphabetic words such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kana" title="Kana">Kana</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji" title="Kanji">Kanji</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul" title="Hangul">Hangul</a> and even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_language" title="Vietnamese language">Vietnamese</a> are still considered more concrete than Western words. <sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span>[</span>12<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
<p>The roman characters in Europe led to the invention of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press" title="Printing press">printing press</a>, which led to progress in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment" title="Enlightenment">Enlightenment</a>. It is difficult to invent a machine that would copy logographic characters.</p>
<p>All these differences magnified the inventions in Europe. <sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span>[</span>13<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Conclusion">Conclusion</span></h2>
<p>The high achievements of Europeans are not because of their intelligence, but their geography. Something simple, like geographical competition led infinite technological progress compaired to East Asia.</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span></h2>
<div class="references-small">
<ol class="references">
<li id="cite_note-0"><b><a href="#cite_ref-0">^</a></b> <a href="http://www.harbornet.com/folks/theedrich/JP_Rushton/Race.htm" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.harbornet.com/folks/theedrich/JP_Rushton/Race.htm</a></li>
<li id="cite_note-1"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b> <a href="http://www.rlynn.co.uk/" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.rlynn.co.uk/</a></li>
<li id="cite_note-2"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b> Lynn, R. and Vanhanen, T. (2002). IQ and the wealth of nations. Westport, CT: Praeger. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/027597510X" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn">ISBN 0-275-97510-X</a></li>
<li id="cite_note-3"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b> <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/montesquieu/#4.3" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/montesquieu/#4.3</a></li>
<li id="cite_note-4"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b> <a href="http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~delittle/elvin.pdf" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~delittle/elvin.pdf</a></li>
<li id="cite_note-5"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b> <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0604-chickens.html" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0604-chickens.html</a></li>
<li id="cite_note-6"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b> Common Sense (Thomas Paine)</li>
<li id="cite_note-7"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Wall-Orthography-Creativity-Encounters/dp/0812237110" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Wall-Orthography-Creativity-Encounters/dp/0812237110</a></li>
<li id="cite_note-8"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b> Hannas, W. C. (2003). The writing on the wall: How Asian orthography curbs creativity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.</li>
<li id="cite_note-9"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b> Cognitive contours: recent work on cross-cultural psychology and its relevance for education</li>
<li id="cite_note-10"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal"><a href="http://www.theoccidentalquarterly.com/vol5no3/53-wch-script.pdf" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Script And Cognition</i></a><span class="printonly">. <a href="http://www.theoccidentalquarterly.com/vol5no3/53-wch-script.pdf" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.theoccidentalquarterly.com/vol5no3/53-wch-script.pdf</a></span>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Script+And+Cognition&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theoccidentalquarterly.com%2Fvol5no3%2F53-wch-script.pdf&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Asian"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-11"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal"><a href="http://www.theoccidentalquarterly.com/vol5no3/53-wch-script.pdf" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Script And Cognition</i></a><span class="printonly">. <a href="http://www.theoccidentalquarterly.com/vol5no3/53-wch-script.pdf" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.theoccidentalquarterly.com/vol5no3/53-wch-script.pdf</a></span>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Script+And+Cognition&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theoccidentalquarterly.com%2Fvol5no3%2F53-wch-script.pdf&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Asian"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-12"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b> DeWit, Andrew, "Scientific Stereotypes East and West," <i>ZNet</i>, May 19, 2005. <a href="http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=7892" class="external autonumber" rel="nofollow">[1]</a></li>
</ol>
</div>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-49690904312047684842010-04-29T21:09:00.000-07:002010-04-29T21:59:56.147-07:00The Future of Search Engines<p>How does a search engine work? A typical person will respond that search engines retrieve data related to the keyword. Search engines do indeed work that way. But ththis answer isn't general enough to accommodate the gist of what a search engine does.</p>
<p>We have identified a two-step process in which search engines work:</p>
<p><strong>Step 1:</strong> Infer what the user has intended to search.<br />
<strong>Step 2:</strong> Retrieve all webpages which match the user's wishes.</p>
<p>This is basically how search engines work. But they usually combine the two steps. They retrieve the webpages that match the user's search term, even when the search term is too ambiguous or vague to know what the user's intention's were. This is problematic, because search engine may retrieve webpages even if it doesn't know what the user really intended to search. Ambiguous keywords and phrases are examples of this.</p>
<p>A solution is simple, such as suggestion keyword refinements. But in general, this is a problematic step in search engines.</p>
<p>But they all must rely on inferring the meaning of the user, and inferring the meaning of the webpages. Even obtaining the user's meaning is by far concise.</p>
<p>We will argue what will happen to the future of web search:</p>
<ol><li>Web pages are evaluated by thousands of heuristics; no single heuristic can override the evaluation done by other heuristics. This is useful, because if a heuristic goes wrong by making a false positive, the overall evaluation isn't as affected as much. So including hundreds of heuristics lessen the errors.</li>
<li>Common heuristics include the number of incoming links, the keyword density of the term, and how popular the site is.</li>
<li>The more and more the search engine understands the webpages, the less and less the algorithm will rely on incoming links and keyword density.</li>
<li>Search engine companies are increasingly incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) to their evaluation function. Thus, their algorithm will be less reliant on the <span style="font-style:italic;">ad hoc</span> heuristics, and more reliant on the actual content.</li>
<li>Thus, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization">search engine optimization</a> (SEO) specialists are going to focus more on quality content rather than focusing on link-building and other keyword density schemes. They will work harder and harder in hiring writers in generating original content rather than scraping content from other sources.
</li>
<li>As a side-effect, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/black_hat_SEO">black hat SEO</a> firms will be introducing more sophisticated ways to build links and generate content automatically. For example, they will use artificial intelligence for machines to generate original articles.
</li>
<li>The <a href="http://fragments.turtlemeat.com/seo-pagerank-google-anchor-text.php">arms</a> <a href="http://www.stuntdubl.com/2005/04/01/information-arms-race-ses-vs-seos/">race</a> between the <em>search engine providers</em> and <em>black hat SEO firms</em> is going to be more knowledge-based, and less based on link building algorithms.
</li>
<li>
There will be a significant increase of utilization of artificial intelligence on both sides. The search engines will use AI to combat spam and detect if the content is genuine, rather than some generated content. The black hat SEO firms too will get more sophisticated, and will use its own AI to deceive the search engine's AI.
</li>
<li>Search engines will become "smarter." But I doubt it's going to be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_AI">real AI</a>.</li>
</ol>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-90785692710999372662010-04-27T19:40:00.001-07:002010-04-27T20:26:36.627-07:00Why are Asian People Short?<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asia" title="East Asia">East Asian</a> people, who appear to be stereotypically shorter, have been increasing their average height relatively quickly through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_(nutrition)" title="Diet (nutrition)">dietary improvements</a>, as seen in nations such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Korea" title="South Korea">South Korea</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China" title="People's Republic of China">People's Republic of China</a>. <sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-0"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span>[</span>3<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span>[</span>4<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span>[</span>5<span>]</span></a></sup> Cultural influences, such as malnutrition and differences in diet, still prevalent in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developing_nation" title="Developing nation" class="mw-redirect">developing</a> nations such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea" title="North Korea">North Korea</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China" title="People's Republic of China">People's Republic of China</a>, decrease the overall Asian growth rate. <sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span>[</span>6<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span>[</span>7<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-The_Effects_of_Poverty_on_Parenting_Young_Children_7-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-The_Effects_of_Poverty_on_Parenting_Young_Children-7"><span>[</span>8<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
<p>The short stature of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asians" title="East Asians" class="mw-redirect">East Asians</a> may be contributed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronutrient" title="Micronutrient">micronutrient</a> deficiency in developing nations or even consuming Asian diets in developed Western nations. These kind of malnutrition <sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span>[</span>9<span>]</span></a></sup> such as low calcium intake partially due to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance" title="Lactose intolerance">lactose intolerance</a> in 90% of their adult population, <sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span>[</span>10<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span>[</span>11<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span>[</span>12<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span>[</span>13<span>]</span></a></sup> limited consumption of protein, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calories" title="Calorie">calories</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13"><span>[</span>14<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14"><span>[</span>15<span>]</span></a></sup><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_deficiency_(medicine)" title="Iron deficiency (medicine)">iron</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15"><span>[</span>16<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-16"><span>[</span>17<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-17"><span>[</span>18<span>]</span></a></sup> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_A" title="Vitamin A">vitamin A</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-18"><span>[</span>19<span>]</span></a></sup> reduced <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D" title="Vitamin D">vitamin D</a>, partially from their nutrition; and also from their darker skin that synthesize vitamin D at a slower rate than whites, <sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19"><span>[</span>20<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-20"><span>[</span>21<span>]</span></a></sup> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine" title="Iodine">iodine</a>, <sup id="cite_ref-Consensus_statement_on_iodine_deficiency_disorders_in_Hong_Kong_21-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Consensus_statement_on_iodine_deficiency_disorders_in_Hong_Kong-21"><span>[</span>22<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-Mild_iodine_deficiency_and_thyroid_disorders_in_Hong_Kong_22-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Mild_iodine_deficiency_and_thyroid_disorders_in_Hong_Kong-22"><span>[</span>23<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-23"><span>[</span>24<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-24"><span>[</span>25<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-25"><span>[</span>26<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-26"><span>[</span>27<span>]</span></a></sup> amongst many other nutritional deficiencies. Other factors, such as the consumption of large quantities of soy products which contains <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoflavone" title="Isoflavone" class="mw-redirect">isoflavone</a> may reduce growth rate.<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-27"><span>[</span>28<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-28"><span>[</span>29<span>]</span></a></sup> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc" title="Zinc">zinc</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-29"><span>[</span>30<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-30"><span>[</span>31<span>]</span></a></sup> amongst many other nutritional deficiencies. Other factors, such as the consumption of large quantities of soy products which contains <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoflavone" title="Isoflavone" class="mw-redirect">isoflavone</a> may reduce growth rate.<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-31"><span>[</span>32<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-32"><span>[</span>33<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-33"><span>[</span>34<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-34"><span>[</span>35<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-35"><span>[</span>36<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-36"><span>[</span>37<span>]</span></a></sup> Schools in The PRC is giving students soy milk. <sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-37"><span>[</span>38<span>]</span></a></sup> Also, the Asian diet does not promote as much testosterone as Western diets do. <sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-38"><span>[</span>39<span>]</span></a></sup> Consumption of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_rice" title="White rice">white rice</a>, the most popular <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staple_food" title="Staple food">staple food</a> amongst Asians, and refined noddles and bread, can lead to micronutrient deficiency. <sup id="cite_ref-Nutrition_and_Fitness_39-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Nutrition_and_Fitness-39"><span>[</span>40<span>]</span></a></sup> The consumption of white rice instead of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_grains" title="Whole grains" class="mw-redirect">whole grains</a>, can also instigate a sudden increase of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin" title="Insulin">insulin</a> production, which causes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormone" title="Hormone">hormone</a> imbalance and reduces <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hormone" title="Growth hormone">growth hormones</a>. <sup id="cite_ref-Nutrition_and_Fitness_39-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Nutrition_and_Fitness-39"><span>[</span>40<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
<p>Other factors such as their culture that devalues exercise <sup id="cite_ref-How_We_Grew_So_Big_40-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-How_We_Grew_So_Big-40"><span>[</span>41<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-41"><span>[</span>42<span>]</span></a></sup> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie" title="Calorie">calorie</a> deficiency, and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward" title="Great Leap Forward">Great Leap Forward</a> that plausibly created famines, stunted the growth of many Chinese people. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoride_poisoning" title="Fluoride poisoning">Fluoride poisoning</a> and other environmental conditions, which have affects including growth stunting, and affect millions of East Asians. <sup id="cite_ref-42" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-42"><span>[</span>43<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-43"><span>[</span>44<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-44"><span>[</span>45<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-45" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-45"><span>[</span>46<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
<p>East Asian cultures value white skin. <sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-46"><span>[</span>47<span>]</span></a></sup> Many of the Asians often avoid participating in sports to avoid being tanned. <sup id="cite_ref-47" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-47"><span>[</span>48<span>]</span></a></sup> Therefore, they will not grow tall due to the lack of exercise and vitamin D defiency from avoiding the sun. <sup id="cite_ref-The_effects_of_exercise_on_growth_48-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-The_effects_of_exercise_on_growth-48"><span>[</span>49<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-How_We_Grew_So_Big_40-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-How_We_Grew_So_Big-40"><span>[</span>41<span>]</span></a></sup> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_whitener" title="Skin whitener" class="mw-redirect">Skin whiteners</a>, which are unusually popular amongst Asians, contain toxic chemicals such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(element)" title="Mercury (element)">mercury</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroquinone" title="Hydroquinone">hydroquinone</a> as the active ingredient, stunts growth of Asians including fetuses in pregnant women. <sup id="cite_ref-Mercury_exposure_in_children:_a_review_49-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Mercury_exposure_in_children:_a_review-49"><span>[</span>50<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-50" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-50"><span>[</span>51<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance" title="Lactose intolerance">Lactose intolerance</a> only affects 2% of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden" title="Sweden">Swedish</a> and 5% of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_European" title="Northern European" class="mw-redirect">Northern European</a> adults and whites have the highest vitamin D intake. Thus, studies hypothesized that this might be an explanation for their relatively tall height.<sup id="cite_ref-51" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-51"><span>[</span>52<span>]</span></a></sup> <sup id="cite_ref-52" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-52"><span>[</span>53<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-53" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-53"><span>[</span>54<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-54" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-54"><span>[</span>55<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
<h2>References</h2>
<ol class="references">
<li id="cite_note-0"><b><a href="#cite_ref-0">^</a></b> "By the time the baby boomers reached adulthood in the 1960s, most northern and western European countries had caught up with and surpassed the United States. Young adults in Japan and other prosperous Asian countries now stand nearly as tall as Americans do." <a href="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/jul/17/american_diet_may_explain_height/" class="external text" rel="nofollow">American diet may explain height</a></li>
<li id="cite_note-1"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b> <a href="http://www.afic.org/newexpertdb/index.php?pageaction=viewdetail&category_id=3" class="external text" rel="nofollow">"Calcium deficiencies is also very common, and is thought to be one of the reason for shorter stature of some Asian populations, such as Vietnam and Laos compared to their counterparts in other Asian countries such as Singapore and Taiwan."</a></li>
<li id="cite_note-2"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b> <span class="citation"><a href="http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/W0073e/w0073e00.htm" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Human nutrition in the developing world</i></a><span class="printonly">, <a href="http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/W0073e/w0073e00.htm" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/W0073e/w0073e00.htm</a></span></span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Human+nutrition+in+the+developing+world&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fao.org%2FDOCREP%2FW0073e%2Fw0073e00.htm&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-3"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b> <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001857855_korea14.html" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Effects of famine: Short stature evident in North Korean generation</a> (2004) <i>The Seattle Times</i></li>
<li id="cite_note-4"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,1366867,00.html" class="external text" rel="nofollow">North Korea is failing to meet growth target</a> (2004) <i>Guardian Unlimited</i></li>
<li id="cite_note-5"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal">Jiang Y (2006). "Effect of B vitamins-fortified foods on primary school children in Beijing". <i>Asia Pac J Public Health</i> <b>18</b> (2): 21-5. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PubMed_Identifier" title="PubMed Identifier" class="mw-redirect">PMID</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16883966" class="external text" rel="nofollow">16883966</a>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Effect+of+B+vitamins-fortified+foods+on+primary+school+children+in+Beijing&rft.jtitle=Asia+Pac+J+Public+Health&rft.aulast=Jiang+Y&rft.au=Jiang+Y&rft.date=2006&rft.volume=18&rft.issue=2&rft.pages=21-5&rft_id=info:pmid/16883966&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-6"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b> <a href="http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/Ar-Bu/Asians-Diet-of.html" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Asians, Diet of</a></li>
<li id="cite_note-The_Effects_of_Poverty_on_Parenting_Young_Children-7"><b><a href="#cite_ref-The_Effects_of_Poverty_on_Parenting_Young_Children_7-0">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal">Kaiser, Ann P.. <a href="http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-956X(1996)71%3A4%3C66%3ATEOPOP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>The Effects of Poverty on Parenting Young Children</i></a><span class="printonly">. <a href="http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-956X(1996)71%3A4%3C66%3ATEOPOP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-956X(1996)71%3A4%3C66%3ATEOPOP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23</a></span>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Effects+of+Poverty+on+Parenting+Young+Children&rft.aulast=Kaiser&rft.aufirst=Ann+P.&rft.au=Kaiser%2C%26%2332%3BAnn+P.&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Flinks.jstor.org%2Fsici%3Fsici%3D0161-956X%281996%2971%253A4%253C66%253ATEOPOP%253E2.0.CO%253B2-%2523&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
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<li id="cite_note-28"><b><a href="#cite_ref-28">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal"><a href="http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/135/2/310" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Vitamin D Intake: A Global Perspective of Current Status</i></a><span class="printonly">. <a href="http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/135/2/310" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/135/2/310</a></span>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Vitamin+D+Intake%3A+A+Global+Perspective+of+Current+Status&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fjn.nutrition.org%2Fcgi%2Fcontent%2Ffull%2F135%2F2%2F310&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-29"><b><a href="#cite_ref-29">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal">Seshadri S. "Prevalence of micronutrient deficiency particularly of iron, zinc and folic acid in pregnant women in South East Asia". <i>Br J Nutr</i> <b>85 Suppl 2</b>: S87-92. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PubMed_Identifier" title="PubMed Identifier" class="mw-redirect">PMID</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11509095" class="external text" rel="nofollow">11509095</a>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Prevalence+of+micronutrient+deficiency+particularly+of+iron%2C+zinc+and+folic+acid+in+pregnant+women+in+South+East+Asia&rft.jtitle=Br+J+Nutr&rft.aulast=Seshadri+S&rft.au=Seshadri+S&rft.volume=85+Suppl+2&rft.pages=S87-92&rft_id=info:pmid/11509095&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-30"><b><a href="#cite_ref-30">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal">Chen X, Wang W, Yan H, Yin T, Xu Q. "Studies on iron deficiency anemia, rickets and zinc deficiency and their prevention among Chinese preschool children". <i>Prog Food Nutr Sci</i> <b>16</b> (4): 263-77. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PubMed_Identifier" title="PubMed Identifier" class="mw-redirect">PMID</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1492154" class="external text" rel="nofollow">1492154</a>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Studies+on+iron+deficiency+anemia%2C+rickets+and+zinc+deficiency+and+their+prevention+among+Chinese+preschool+children&rft.jtitle=Prog+Food+Nutr+Sci&rft.aulast=Chen+X%2C+Wang+W%2C+Yan+H%2C+Yin+T%2C+Xu+Q&rft.au=Chen+X%2C+Wang+W%2C+Yan+H%2C+Yin+T%2C+Xu+Q&rft.volume=16&rft.issue=4&rft.pages=263-77&rft_id=info:pmid/1492154&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-31"><b><a href="#cite_ref-31">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal">Fritz W, Wang J, Eltoum I, Lamartiniere C (2002). "Dietary genistein down-regulates androgen and estrogen receptor expression in the rat prostate". <i>Mol. Cell. Endocrinol.</i> <b>186</b> (1): 89-99. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PubMed_Identifier" title="PubMed Identifier" class="mw-redirect">PMID</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11850125" class="external text" rel="nofollow">11850125</a>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Dietary+genistein+down-regulates+androgen+and+estrogen+receptor+expression+in+the+rat+prostate&rft.jtitle=Mol.+Cell.+Endocrinol.&rft.aulast=Fritz+W%2C+Wang+J%2C+Eltoum+I%2C+Lamartiniere+C&rft.au=Fritz+W%2C+Wang+J%2C+Eltoum+I%2C+Lamartiniere+C&rft.date=2002&rft.volume=186&rft.issue=1&rft.pages=89-99&rft_id=info:pmid/11850125&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-32"><b><a href="#cite_ref-32">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal">McVey M, Cooke G, Curran I (2004). "Increased serum and testicular androgen levels in F1 rats with lifetime exposure to soy isoflavones". <i>Reprod. Toxicol.</i> <b>18</b> (5): 677-85. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PubMed_Identifier" title="PubMed Identifier" class="mw-redirect">PMID</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15219630" class="external text" rel="nofollow">15219630</a>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Increased+serum+and+testicular+androgen+levels+in+F1+rats+with+lifetime+exposure+to+soy+isoflavones&rft.jtitle=Reprod.+Toxicol.&rft.aulast=McVey+M%2C+Cooke+G%2C+Curran+I&rft.au=McVey+M%2C+Cooke+G%2C+Curran+I&rft.date=2004&rft.volume=18&rft.issue=5&rft.pages=677-85&rft_id=info:pmid/15219630&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-33"><b><a href="#cite_ref-33">^</a></b> <a href="http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/soyandbrain.html" class="external text" rel="nofollow">MacArthur, John "Soy and the Brain," <i>The Weston A. Price Foundation for Wise Traditions</i>, April 28, 2004</a></li>
<li id="cite_note-34"><b><a href="#cite_ref-34">^</a></b> Fallon, Sally & Enig, Mary G. <a href="http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/darkside.html" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Soy: The Dark Side of America's Favorite 'Health' Food</a>, <i>The Weston A. Price Foundation for Wise Traditions</i>, February 2004</li>
<li id="cite_note-35"><b><a href="#cite_ref-35">^</a></b> Rutz, <a href="http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53327" class="external text" rel="nofollow">The Big Picture: Soy is making kids 'gay',</a> <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldNetDaily" title="WorldNetDaily">WorldNetDaily</a></i>, Dec. 2006.</li>
<li id="cite_note-36"><b><a href="#cite_ref-36">^</a></b> <span class="citation"><a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3961/is_200307/ai_n9239758/pg_7" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada: Vegetarian diets</i></a><span class="printonly">, <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3961/is_200307/ai_n9239758/pg_7" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3961/is_200307/ai_n9239758/pg_7</a></span></span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Position+of+the+American+Dietetic+Association+and+Dietitians+of+Canada%3A+Vegetarian+diets&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Ffindarticles.com%2Fp%2Farticles%2Fmi_qa3961%2Fis_200307%2Fai_n9239758%2Fpg_7&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-37"><b><a href="#cite_ref-37">^</a></b> <span class="citation"><a href="http://english.people.com.cn/english/200004/05/eng20000405_38343.html" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Soybean Milk Plan to Be Promoted in Schools</i></a>, People's Daily<span class="printonly">, <a href="http://english.people.com.cn/english/200004/05/eng20000405_38343.html" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://english.people.com.cn/english/200004/05/eng20000405_38343.html</a></span></span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Soybean+Milk+Plan+to+Be+Promoted+in+Schools&rft.pub=People%27s+Daily&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fenglish.people.com.cn%2Fenglish%2F200004%2F05%2Feng20000405_38343.html&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-38"><b><a href="#cite_ref-38">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal">Suhana N, Sutyarso, Moeloek N, Soeradi O, Sri Sukmaniah S, Supriatna J (1999). "The effects of feeding an Asian or Western diet on sperm numbers, sperm quality and serum hormone levels in cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) injected with testosterone enanthate (TE) plus depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA)". <i>Int. J. Androl.</i> <b>22</b> (2): 102-12. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PubMed_Identifier" title="PubMed Identifier" class="mw-redirect">PMID</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10194642" class="external text" rel="nofollow">10194642</a>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=The+effects+of+feeding+an+Asian+or+Western+diet+on+sperm+numbers%2C+sperm+quality+and+serum+hormone+levels+in+cynomolgus+monkeys+%28Macaca+fascicularis%29+injected+with+testosterone+enanthate+%28TE%29+plus+depot+medroxyprogesterone+acetate+%28DMPA%29&rft.jtitle=Int.+J.+Androl.&rft.aulast=Suhana+N%2C+Sutyarso%2C+Moeloek+N%2C+Soeradi+O%2C+Sri+Sukmaniah+S%2C+Supriatna+J&rft.au=Suhana+N%2C+Sutyarso%2C+Moeloek+N%2C+Soeradi+O%2C+Sri+Sukmaniah+S%2C+Supriatna+J&rft.date=1999&rft.volume=22&rft.issue=2&rft.pages=102-12&rft_id=info:pmid/10194642&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-Nutrition_and_Fitness-39">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Nutrition_and_Fitness_39-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Nutrition_and_Fitness_39-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <span class="citation"><a href="http://www.uhhospitals.org/tabid/390/newsid/40420/Default.aspx" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Nutrition and fitness: Carbohydrates, Sugar, and Your Child</i></a><span class="printonly">, <a href="http://www.uhhospitals.org/tabid/390/newsid/40420/Default.aspx" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.uhhospitals.org/tabid/390/newsid/40420/Default.aspx</a></span></span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Nutrition+and+fitness%3A+Carbohydrates%2C+Sugar%2C+and+Your+Child&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uhhospitals.org%2Ftabid%2F390%2Fnewsid%2F40420%2FDefault.aspx&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-How_We_Grew_So_Big-40">^ <a href="#cite_ref-How_We_Grew_So_Big_40-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-How_We_Grew_So_Big_40-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <span class="citation"><a href="http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501041108/story.html" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>How We Grew So Big</i></a><span class="printonly">, <a href="http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501041108/story.html" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501041108/story.html</a></span></span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=How+We+Grew+So+Big&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.time.com%2Ftime%2Fasia%2Fcovers%2F501041108%2Fstory.html&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-41"><b><a href="#cite_ref-41">^</a></b> <span class="citation"><a href="http://www.huliq.com/17282/diabetes-becomes-growing-threat-for-affluent-asians" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Diabetes Becomes Growing Threat for Affluent Asians</i></a><span class="printonly">, <a href="http://www.huliq.com/17282/diabetes-becomes-growing-threat-for-affluent-asians" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.huliq.com/17282/diabetes-becomes-growing-threat-for-affluent-asians</a></span></span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Diabetes+Becomes+Growing+Threat+for+Affluent+Asians&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huliq.com%2F17282%2Fdiabetes-becomes-growing-threat-for-affluent-asians&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-42"><b><a href="#cite_ref-42">^</a></b> <span class="citation"><a href="http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/W0073e/w0073e00.htm" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Human nutrition in the developing world</i></a><span class="printonly">, <a href="http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/W0073e/w0073e00.htm" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/W0073e/w0073e00.htm</a></span></span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Human+nutrition+in+the+developing+world&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fao.org%2FDOCREP%2FW0073e%2Fw0073e00.htm&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-43"><b><a href="#cite_ref-43">^</a></b> <span class="citation"><a href="http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/epa/nrc/index.html" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Fluoride Health Effects Database</i></a>, Fluoride Action Network<span class="printonly">, <a href="http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/epa/nrc/index.html" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/epa/nrc/index.html</a></span></span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Fluoride+Health+Effects+Database&rft.pub=Fluoride+Action+Network&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fluoridealert.org%2Fhealth%2Fepa%2Fnrc%2Findex.html&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-44"><b><a href="#cite_ref-44">^</a></b> <span class="citation"><a href="http://www.fluoridation.com/brain.htm" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Fluoride's Neurological Effects: studies show there may be grave implications for Alzheimers, Dementia, Attention Deficit Disorder, reduced IQ in children</i></a><span class="printonly">, <a href="http://www.fluoridation.com/brain.htm" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.fluoridation.com/brain.htm</a></span></span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Fluoride%27s+Neurological+Effects%3A+studies+show+there+may+be+grave+implications+for+Alzheimers%2C+Dementia%2C+Attention+Deficit+Disorder%2C+reduced+IQ+in+children&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fluoridation.com%2Fbrain.htm&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-45"><b><a href="#cite_ref-45">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal"><a href="http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=030910128X" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA's Standards</i></a>. <a href="/w/index.php?title=The_National_Academies_Press&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="The National Academies Press (page does not exist)">The National Academies Press</a>. 2006<span class="printonly">. <a href="http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=030910128X" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=030910128X</a></span>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Fluoride+in+Drinking+Water%3A+A+Scientific+Review+of+EPA%27s+Standards&rft.date=2006&rft.pub=%5B%5BThe+National+Academies+Press%5D%5D&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.nap.edu%2Fopenbook.php%3Fisbn%3D030910128X&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-46"><b><a href="#cite_ref-46">^</a></b> <span class="citation web"><a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/01/news/skin.php" class="external text" rel="nofollow">"Glamour at a price in Asia"</a><span class="printonly">. <a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/01/news/skin.php" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/01/news/skin.php</a></span>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.btitle=Glamour+at+a+price+in+Asia&rft.atitle=&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iht.com%2Farticles%2F2006%2F05%2F01%2Fnews%2Fskin.php&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-47"><b><a href="#cite_ref-47">^</a></b> <span class="citation web"><a href="http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=124722&view=findpost&p=3037616" class="external text" rel="nofollow">"Asian Finest: Skin whitening"</a><span class="printonly">. <a href="http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=124722&view=findpost&p=3037616" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=124722&view=findpost&p=3037616</a></span>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.btitle=Asian+Finest%3A+Skin+whitening&rft.atitle=&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.asiafinest.com%2Fforum%2Findex.php%3Fs%3D%26showtopic%3D124722%26view%3Dfindpost%26p%3D3037616&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-The_effects_of_exercise_on_growth-48"><b><a href="#cite_ref-The_effects_of_exercise_on_growth_48-0">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal">Borer KT (1995). "The effects of exercise on growth". <i>Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)</i> <b>20</b> (6): 375-97. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PubMed_Identifier" title="PubMed Identifier" class="mw-redirect">PMID</a> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8614759" class="external text" rel="nofollow">8614759</a>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=The+effects+of+exercise+on+growth&rft.jtitle=Sports+medicine+%28Auckland%2C+N.Z.%29&rft.aulast=Borer+KT&rft.au=Borer+KT&rft.date=1995&rft.volume=20&rft.issue=6&rft.pages=375-97&rft_id=info:pmid/8614759&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-Mercury_exposure_in_children:_a_review-49"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Mercury_exposure_in_children:_a_review_49-0">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal">Countera, S. Allen; Leo H. Buchanan. <a href="http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/cehsweb/kiddiekollege/documents/counter04_mercuryexpochildren.pdf" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Mercury exposure in children: a review</i></a><span class="printonly">. <a href="http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/cehsweb/kiddiekollege/documents/counter04_mercuryexpochildren.pdf" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/cehsweb/kiddiekollege/documents/counter04_mercuryexpochildren.pdf</a></span>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Mercury+exposure+in+children%3A+a+review&rft.aulast=Countera&rft.aufirst=S.+Allen&rft.au=Countera%2C%26%2332%3BS.+Allen&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.state.nj.us%2Fhealth%2Feoh%2Fcehsweb%2Fkiddiekollege%2Fdocuments%2Fcounter04_mercuryexpochildren.pdf&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-50"><b><a href="#cite_ref-50">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal">Clarkson. <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tandf/btxc/2006/00000036/00000008/art00001" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>The Toxicology of Mercury and Its Chemical Compounds</i></a><span class="printonly">. <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tandf/btxc/2006/00000036/00000008/art00001" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tandf/btxc/2006/00000036/00000008/art00001</a></span>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Toxicology+of+Mercury+and+Its+Chemical+Compounds&rft.aulast=Clarkson&rft.au=Clarkson&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ingentaconnect.com%2Fcontent%2Ftandf%2Fbtxc%2F2006%2F00000036%2F00000008%2Fart00001&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-51"><b><a href="#cite_ref-51">^</a></b> <span class="citation Journal">Calvo, Mona S.. <a href="http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/135/2/310" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Vitamin D Intake: A Global Perspective of Current Status</i></a><span class="printonly">. <a href="http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/135/2/310" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/135/2/310</a></span>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Vitamin+D+Intake%3A+A+Global+Perspective+of+Current+Status&rft.aulast=Calvo&rft.aufirst=Mona+S.&rft.au=Calvo%2C%26%2332%3BMona+S.&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fjn.nutrition.org%2Fcgi%2Fcontent%2Ffull%2F135%2F2%2F310&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Mekong_Delta"><span style="display: none;"> </span></span></li>
<li id="cite_note-52"><b><a href="#cite_ref-52">^</a></b> Lactose and Lactase, Norman Kretchmer, Scientific American, October, 1972</li>
<li id="cite_note-53"><b><a href="#cite_ref-53">^</a></b> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11788828&query_hl=14&itool=pubmed_docsum" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Identification of a variant associated with adult-type hypolactasia,</a> Enattah NS, Sahi T, Savilahti E, Terwilliger JD, Peltonen L, Jarvela I, Nat Genet. 2002 Feb;30(2):233-7</li>
<li id="cite_note-54"><b><a href="#cite_ref-54">^</a></b> <a href="http://nutrigenomics.ucdavis.edu/nutrigenomics/index.cfm?objectid=968814F6-65B3-C1E7-0C7007B71CC9959A" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Lactose Intolerance: The Molecular Explanation,</a> UC Davis Nutritional Genomics website</li>
</ol>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-60175985867949129022010-04-25T19:13:00.000-07:002010-04-25T20:19:19.196-07:00Blame Hierarchy, Not the People<p>Parents and schoolteachers are domineering to their subordinates. When were in school, our teachers will accuse us of being "disrespectful" for not following their vague rules. They will also accuse us of not following their contradictory rules, directions, and expectations. They will tell us to "shut up" when we tell them to clarify their rules by questioning the reasons behind them.</p>
<p>But we don't know that parents and teachers are like that because we only know the parents' and teacher's side of it. That's because we don't let our children have a fair trial: we just silence them. We just gossip about our children: it's common for teachers to gossip about their students privately. But we don't know that gossiping is ridiculously inaccurate.</p>
<p><strong>All authority figures are potentially domineering to their subordinates.</strong> They are judgmental, accusative, arrogant, and controlling to their subordinates. They think that they are "better" to the subordinates only because they can tell them to "shut up", so the subordinates can't show that the authority figures are sometimes wrong. This sets up a structure which makes authority figures self-affirm their superiority over their subordinates, so they feel justified to be presumptuous, controlling, and condescending to their subordinates.</p>
<p>In addition, we have presumptions that children are "selfish", "spoiled" and "manipulative" brats who want to waste their parents' time and money. However, we often don't notice how our actions make our children behave way. Parents and schoolteachers criticize, condemn, punish, and control children as all the time. But they will never think of doing anything like this to their friends.</p>
<p>Why is this? It is because parents and children are in a <em>hierarchical <span style="font-style:italic;">relationship</span></em>, and hierarchical relationships make the controllers self-justify their superiority over their subordinates, and also make the controllers self-justify the inferiority of their subordinates. This sets up another situation which the authority figures can use their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias">confirmation bias</a> to selectively affirm their subordinates as inferior.</p>
<p>In addition, because most parents and schoolteachers think that children are evil creatures coming out to "get us", they will generalize their conception of their own children to all children. Parents and schoolteachers will treat all children as if they are evil, so that's one reason why some schoolteachers are mean to all children. (Have you ever wondered why the older teachers treat their students more harshly compared to the younger teachers? It's possibly because older teachers are more likely to have children, so they are more likely to think that their children are "evil" just because they appear that way to them. Then they will generalize their conception of their children to their students. Anyway, that's just a hypothesis.)</p>
<p>Cops are also controlling to their subordinates. They are accusative. They are trigger-happy. They can do anything to you if they're angry. But one thing that all cops have in common is that they believe that their actions are "justified." Parents and teachers, too, believe that their controlling behavior is "justified." If they don't feel that their actions are legitimate, then their empathy and remorse will prevent their controlling behavior onto their subordinates.</p><p>As authority figures justify their controlling and condescending behavior from their own biases, so will children. When the children grow up and become parents: controlling, domineering, and judgmental. Even the most rebellious teenager might possibly become a controlling parent, because they don't realize that <em>authority positions are self-justifying</em>. If they control their children a little bit, they will then feel justified to control their children even more.</p><p>The more rules and expectations a parent makes, the more likely that children won't follow them, because the likelihood that the rules and expectations will contradict one another. Think about how complicated it is to follow all the laws in the United States. It's so complicated that's it's impossible to follow without contradicting one another. The same thing happens to children. The more rules a parent make, the harder and harder it is for the children to follow the rules without contradiction. So the children will appear to disobey some rules because it's contradictory to follow all rules at once. The parents will blame it on their children for "disobedient" rather than blaming on themselves for making the contradictory rules in the first place.</p><p>The parents will respond to their perceived "disobedience" by making even more contradictory rules, expectations, and punishments. This makes the children even harder to follow all the rules consistently. So the parents will respond to that again by making more rules and punishments. This vicious circle continues, so the children will become perceived as "rebellious", when they aren't trying to be rebellious at all!</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-5692173379643514412010-04-24T08:04:00.000-07:002010-04-28T12:37:51.632-07:00Ramblings on Sex and Racial Differences in Intelligence<p>It's widely believed that men are more successful than women because there are more male geniuses than female geniuses. However, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman">Richard Feynman</a> has an IQ of only 126, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/">James_Watson</a> has an IQ of only 115. Why are they very successful dispite their low IQs? Aren't men supposed to be more intelligent than women?
<p>There's a study that <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=testosterone-bumps-up-status-seekin-2009-12-08">testosterone increases status-seeking behavior</a>. This study may suggest that males succeed not because of their intelligence, but because of their ambition.</p>
<p>There may be many women who are geniuses, but these women don't have the motivation to use their intelligence to become successful. Genius may be a product of ambition, rather than intelligence.</p>
<p>It's sad to realize that the testosterone levels of both sexes are falling, and humanity in general is becoming less and less ambitious.</p>
<p>I will respond to an <a href="http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/2010/04/there-are-more-geniuses-among-men-than.html">article</a> on the <a href="http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.com/">Health Correlator</a>. I will post a summary of my views below:</p>
<p>I have some hypotheses of why there are more male idiots than female idiots:</p>
<ul><li>Females have two X chromosomes, so the X chromosomes have protective effects against each others. In contrast, males have only one X chromosome. So males don't have the protective effect of two X chromosomes, thus men may have a greater chance of being an idiot.</li>
<li>Men are more risk-taking. So men are more prone to do activities which result in brain trauma, thus producing more idiots.</li>
<li>Men are more independent than women. Men are less submissive and more tolerant to conflict than women. So a greater proportion of men might not care about scoring high on IQ tests as women do.</li></ul>
<p>Typical IQ tests measure a person's pattern matching and pattern recognition abilities. So IQ tests are skewed towards spatial intelligence. In fact, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex-related_differences_in_spatial_cognition">men have much better spatial intelligence</a> than women. So this explains why men score higher on IQ tests than women.</p>
<p>Spatial intelligence is correlated with logical-mathematical intelligence. People who are good on IQ tests would also have good mathematical skills.</p>
<p>There are also differences in spatial intelligence between the races. For example, there's a stereotype that Asians, who have good spatial abilities, are good at mathematics.</p>
<h2>Evolutionary Hypothesis</h2>
<p>Surviving in cold climates require more spatial intelligence than surviving in the tropics. In the tropics, there are plenty of fruits and tubers to eat all year around. However, in cold climates, these plant's aren't as abundant, so humans who live in a colder climate must hunt more animals. </p>
<p>Spatial intelligence is required for hunting skills. Navigating the terrain, estimating how far an object is, identifying animal tracks, and estimating the speed of a moving object, are spatial skills; which are vital for hunting animals.</p>
<p>Asians evolved from very cold climates. East Asians on average have higher spatial intelligence than whites; about one standard deviation higher.[1]</p>
<p>Also, men have visual-spatial intelligence <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex-related_differences_in_spatial_cognition">about one standard deviation higher than women</a>, which is the result of natural selection during the hunter-gatherer society.
</p>
<h2>Spatial Intelligence and Mathematical Ability</h2>
<p>Spatial intelligence is highly correlated with logical-mathematical intelligence. The higher the visual-spatial intelligence, the better the math skills. Solving a math problem requires the human mind to imagine and manipulate symbols in their visual memory. Mathematical symbols, such as numbers, must be visualized and manipulated in the human brain. The higher the visual-spatial intelligence, the faster you solve a math problem. This is faster because you can visually calculate in your head instead of solving the problem on paper or using the limited and slower short-term memory.
</p>
<h2>IQ Tests are Biased</h2>
<p>Intelligent quotient (IQ) tests, which have time limits, are related to math skills and symbolic manipulation skills. The faster you will solve the pattern in an IQ test, the more problems get done, and the higher score you will get. High spatial intelligence is advantageous in IQ tests since problems can be quickly visually solved in the mind, instead of using the slower and limited short-term memory. Without a high visual-spatial intelligence, you cannot manipulate the symbols as easy, and will manipulate them slower, then getting a lower score on a IQ test.
</p><p>There are no significant differences in "general intelligence" between the races if and only if "general intelligence" doesn't take account of spatial intelligence. However, the general intelligence factor, especially testing among the Raven's Progressive Matrices, is strongly correlated with spatial intelligence.
</p>
<h2>Spatial Intelligence confused with "General Intelligence"</h2>
<p>I don't believe in "general intelligence." But let me explain why people confuse these two things.</p>
<p>The reason that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_intelligence">Ashkenavi Jews</a> score high on IQ tests is not because of their spatial intelligence, since theirs is low. But we do conjecture that Jews possess a high <i>short-term auditory memory</i>. The reason that they score high on IQ tests is not visual-spatial intelligence such as Asians do, but their short-term memory. Evidence: They have good verbal intelligence, which may be an effect of their short-term memory. Information must be articulated in short-term memory to retain. John von Neumann, a Jew, is able to recite thousands of digits after memorizing them in a few minutes. (But do they are able to recite the digits backwards? Reciting backwards is much harder, since it apparently requires an extraordinarily amount of visual-spatial memory, which Ashkenazi Jews Lack. They need visual-spatial memory to represent the digits so they can recite digits backward efficiently (read the digits backward in the visuospatial sketchpad). Therefore, we hypothesize that Asians are better in reciting digits backwards.) He also has fast mental calculation.
</p>
<p>Some evidence supports this hypothesis. Jews have a much more incidence of diseases like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay-Sachs">Tay-Sachs</a>. People with Tay-Sachs have improved brain function.</p>
<p>Some sources (reliable or not) suggest that Asians have lower processing speed than "whites" (or mistakenly Ashkenazi Jews, since Jews are often mistaken to whites). If these "whites" are actually Jews, then we believe that these Jews have much higher and faster short-term memory than Asians. It says that Jews have faster processing speed (mental calculation) than Asians. Short term memory is better than visuospatial memory for mental calculation, since it is a more efficient representation than visuospatial. We believe that is because Jews must have high short-term memory to compensate the visuospatial memory of Asians to succeed at IQ tests. More short-term memory manipulations are required to solve an IQ problem than the number of visualspatial manipulations. Therefore, Jews must have a MUCH higher short-term memory to exceed Asians. Since short-term memory is more efficient in mental processing than IQ tests, that is why Jews has faster mental processing time.
</p><p>East Asians score high on the visualspatial sections of the IQ test. Jews score extremely high on the verbal sections (short term memory) of the IQ test.
</p><p>For example, the Black-White gap is larger on tests that require the recall of a series of digits in reverse order than on tests that require the recall of a series of digits in forward order. Across a large number of test, the standardized mean Black-White gap varies from near zero to over one standard deviation. According to Jensen 1998b, "this variation between tests in the size of the standardized mean W-B difference is not explainable in terms of test bias or in terms of differences in types of item content or other formal or superficial characteristics of the tests."
</p><p>For example, the Black-White gap is greater on backward digits span (a test where subjects repeat digits in the reverse order that they are given, and the more g-loaded test) than forward digits span (a test where subjects repeat digits in the same order that they are given, and the less g-loaded test). As predicted by Spearman's hypothesis, the B-W gap is largest on the most g-loaded tests. Narrowing of the B-W gap has been seen mostly on less g-loaded tests, such as literacy tests.<sup>[2]</sup>
</p><p>The gap is larger to recall digits in reverse because blacks are much lower in visual intelligence.
</p><p>"a test where subjects repeat digits in the reverse order that they are given, and the more g-loaded test"
</p><p>IQ tests, and specifically "g-loaded" tests, are biased against blacks because they are designed to test people with high visualspatial intelligence, which blacks are relatively low at.</p>
</p><p>This is also supported by the study that IQ tests are biased in favor males because IQ tests measure spatial intelligence, which men excel at. <sup>[3]</sup>
</p>
<h2>IQ Testing is Flawed</h2>
<p>Some racist scientists would trust studies which conclude that Africans have an average IQ of 70. This is flawed because most Africans are illiterate and most of them don't know how to take the test. In addition, most Africans live in an impoverished environment and have experienced fluoride poisoning, heavy metal poisoning, iodine deficiency, vitamin A deficiency, vitamin K2 deficiency, and many other stressors which lower their average IQ.</p>
<p>There are plenty of examples of testing bias when done to African children. At the first attempt the African children scored an average of 70 on the IQ test. However, after the instructors taught the children how to do these tests, the children improved their score to 85.</p>
<h2>Clarifications</h2>
<p>Yes, the above hypotheses makes me sound like a racist to some, but I have argued otherwise. I have argued that IQ tests are biased against black people. I have used the research from the racist scientists to argue against these scientists themselves.</p>
<p>And, please, don't assume that I believe that men, on average, are "more intelligent" than women. Like I mentioned at the top of the article, the reason that almost all successful people are men but not women has nothing to do with their intelligence. It's because men are more status-seeking than women are.</p>
<h2>References</h2>
<p>[1] Rushton, J (2000) <a href="http://www.harbornet.com/folks/theedrich/JP_Rushton/Race.htm">Richard Race, Evolution and behavior</a> </p>
<p>[2] Murray, C. (2005) <a href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/production/files/murray0905.html">The Inequality Taboo</a>. <i>Commentary Magazine</i>, September 2005.</p>
<p>[3] Abad, F. <i>et al</i> (2002) <a href="http://www.uam.es/personal_pdi/psicologia/fjabad/cv/articulos/paid/DIFRAVEN.pdf">Sex differential item functioning in the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices: evidence for bias</a>. <span style="font-style:italic;">School of Psychology, Autonomous University of Madrid</span></p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-86233193739008340012009-12-31T16:12:00.000-08:002010-04-24T08:41:41.427-07:00How to Really Overcome Procrastination<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://spacesuityoga.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/brain-763982-1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 347px; height: 346px;" src="http://spacesuityoga.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/brain-763982-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Increase_the_Pain_of_Accessing_Irrelevant_Tasks">Increase the Pain of Accessing Irrelevant Tasks</span></h2>
<p>A lot of blogs give tips on how to increase productivity. However, most of them are ill-written and inaccurate.
But, more importantly, no one has given a theory behind procrastination.</p>
<p>Let us start with the theory of how humans appraise decisions. Suppose that you want to eat a pizza. However, you discovered that it takes twenty minutes to drive to the pizza store. What would you feel? You will probably refuse to buy the pizza. However, if the time was shorter, then you might choose to drive to the store. The shorter the time, the more likely you will choose to purchase a pizza.</p>
<p>Let us say that the pizza increases your pleasure. Let us say that driving to the store increases your pain. So, to put it more abstractly, the greater the ratio of pleasure to pain, the more likely you will make a decision.</p>
<p>This has some practical applications in overcoming procrastination. You could simply increase the pain to prevent making those decisions. For example, if you want to quit watching television. However, it is likely that you will watch it in the future, unless you throw out the television. Throwing out the television will increase the pain of driving to the store to buy another television. Therefore, this increased pain will reduce your likelihood of purchasing a new television. This is similar to the pizza example.</p>
<p>If the television is right in front of you, it would be very easy for to resume your procrastination. But throwing it out would make it harder to access. You wouldn't want to drive to the electronic store in order to watch television. Compared to the difficulty of driving to the store, you might be more likely to be motivated by completing your main task instead of procrastinating.</p>
<p>Suppose you want to reduce your Internet browsing to increase productivity. However, at times, you will procrastinate and resume your browsing. As shown above, a solution to reduce your Internet browsing is to unplug the Internet cable. This will increases your pain of re-plugging it that you will less likely procrastinate.</p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Decrease_the_Pain_of_Accessing_Your_Main_Task">Decrease the Pain of Accessing Your Main Task</span></h2>
<p>Another aspect of this is that you can reduce procrastination by decreasing the pain to access your productive tasks. For example, if you want to be more productive, such as eating healthy foods more often, you might want to make these foods easy to access. The more you can easily access these foods, the more likely you will decide those foods compared to the harder-to-access foods.</p>
<p>Another aspect, as shown above, is to make the unhealthy foods harder to access.</p>
<p>Assume that you are a writer, and you have to finish some writing project stored in some text files in a folder. Suppose you already have unplugged your Internet cables, thrown out your television. But even though you increased the pain of accessing the irrelevant tasks, you still are not motivated to increase your productivity. You still procrastinate. An additional technique to decrease procrastination is to create shortcuts to your writing folder and shortcuts to your text files on the desktop. In this way, you it would be easier to access. As said above, the easier to access, the more likely you will choose this.</p>
<p>The main point in decreasing procrastination is to increase your difficulty of accessing irrelevant tasks and to decrease the difficulty of accessing your tasks you want to accomplish.</p>
<p>This has indeed increased my productivity by several times.</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-18950275365888735332009-06-29T04:22:00.000-07:002009-06-29T04:40:11.037-07:00The Means-End Dichotomy: Some Clarifications<p>I replied to nirgraham's comment on <a href="http://anarcho-mercantilist.blogspot.com/2009/06/rejecting-means-end-dichotomy.html">Rejecting the Means-End Dichotomy</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>You start out with what seems to be a straw man.</p></blockquote>
<p>Let me explain that you also strawmanned me.</p>
<blockquote><p>praxeology does not ontologically assert the existance of things called 'means' and 'ends' that are actually in you. like a heart 'is in you', nor are they intended to reflect the functioning of the human mind overall.</p></blockquote>
<p>Praxeology ontologically asserts the means/ends dichotomy because it uses a "proof by performative contradiction." Ontology is implicit in the "proof by performative contradiction." (See below).</p>
<blockquote><p>rather they are necessary, (though not sufficient), for the possibility of economically/politicaly/(and some might say morally) analysable 'human action'/</p></blockquote>
<p>That was what I am arguing by the term "intrumental abstraction" or "non-precisive abstraction." I said that the means/end dichotomy helps us to understand Robinson Crusoe economics and the producer/consumer goods distinction. </p>
<p>So praxeology asserts the means-end dichotomy as <em>both</em> ontologically necessary <em>and</em> necessary for an understanding of economics. I was only arguing against the former, not the latter. However, you assumed that I was arguing against the latter. So you strawmanned me.</p>
<blockquote><p>does praxeology want to or need to 'reflect the /whole/ mind'?, no! it needs to reflect on the mind that 'acts', it is focused on actions. we talk about the memory in so far as it provides datum for deciding on means, we talk about empathy in that it might be datum for means etc.</p></blockquote>
<p>I neither argued that praxeology reflects the whole mind, nor argued that cognitive psychology reflects the whole mind. It is an impossiblility for <em>any</em> theory to map the whole mind, because it is impossible to fuse the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map-territory_relation">map with the territory</a>. Just because I asserted that the means-end dichotomy is less precise than the desire-instinct-habit trichotomy, this does not claim that the former is false nor the latter is true. The former is just less precise. </p>
<p>And I did not argue that the more precision, the better. Too much precision results in unnecessary complexity, making it difficult to analyze the essentials.</p>
<blockquote><blockquote><p>what about the means-end
dichotomy? As said, we can
consider it as an instrumental
abstraction. Therefore, we cannot
</p></blockquote>
<p>its logically necessary given our purpose, so we can...</p></blockquote>
<p>That is a strawman. </p>
<p>Let us look at my whole quote: </p>
<blockquote><p>What about the means-end dichotomy? As said, we can consider it as an instrumental abstraction. Therefore, we cannot just assume "means" and "ends" and then apply it into any economic or ethical system without justifying it by precision arguments to understanding it."</p></blockquote>
<p>I meant that Robinson Crusoe economics could justify the means-end dichotomy, but the means-end dichotomy cannot justify Robinson Crusoe economics. </p>
<p>I am arguing that Robinson Crusoe economics does not need too much precision, so it could justify the means-end dichotomy. However, more complex subjects such as ethics cannot justify the means-end dichotomy, because ethics requires extreme precision. The extreme precision that ethics requires must be counterbalanced by more precisive psychology rather than unprecise means and ends. </p>
<p>This is the main idea that I am arguing against:</p>
<blockquote><blockquote><p>Can we derive the means-end
dichotomy from human psychology?
(...), we cannot. </p></blockquote>
<p>no, we derive it from the logical impossibilty of 'human action' occurring without means...
and the logical impossibility of 'action' occuring without any goal (without any preference demonstration). (if you like, we are discounting any observable behaviour that is not purpuseful as being beyond our interest, it is not a human action, but mere datum that any actioner would take into consideration, but that is all).
</p></blockquote>
<p>nirgraham argued that a performative contradiction can "prove" the means-end dichotomy. However, I oppose the "proof by proformative contradiction" argument. Even though I disagree with the "proof by performative contradiction", I still accept that argument as logically consistent. However, I question the <em>logical soundness</em> of the "proof by performative contradiction."</p>
<p>All "proofs by performative contradiction" ontologically presumes the existence of its premises. Therefore, the conclusions of the argument depend on the soundness of its premises. However, the premises cannot be perfectly sound because you cannot fuse the map with the territory. Therefore, the conclusion of the argument also cannot be perfectly sound.</p>
<p>I may critique the "proof by performative contradiction" in greater detail in another post.</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-87697631941927573112009-06-24T17:35:00.001-07:002009-11-01T15:56:53.081-08:00Abstract WordsI posted a response to <a href="http://mises.org/Community/forums/t/8729.aspx">this discussion</a> on the means-end dichotomy.<span style="font-weight: bold;">
</span><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">nirgrahamUK:</span>
<a class="linkification-ext" href="http://mises.org/pdf/humanaction/pdf/Ha_04.pdf" title="Linkification: http://mises.org/pdf/humanaction/pdf/Ha_04.pdf">http://mises.org/pdf/humanaction/pdf/Ha_04.pdf</a> ?
its 4 and a half big font pages.Thank you, though not for the link. I read Human Action from beginning to end.</blockquote><p>I mean "thank you", for demonstrating that I had not written what I meant clearly enough. Thank you for showing that I had communicated my thoughts poorly.
</p><p>You have done an important thing. You have demonstrated that you have terminological differences than me. I had probably used the word "axiom" an a way differently that you had interpreted it. Thank you for taking note of the different interpretations of the words I wrote.
</p><p>I will write more carefully next time. I will not just write a few sentences to explain my thoughts. I understand the impossibility to express what I had meant with those meager sentences. I learned that no one could write understandable text in philosophy, without expressing each detail in several paragraphs or even pages. Philosophy, which deals with extremely abstract ideas, will inevitably have terminological problems.
</p><p>More concrete ideas, such as a "pencil", have no definitional conflicts. Almost everyone has the same definitions for "pencil", "chair", and "table". But not so with more abstract ideas, such as "state", "nature", "aggression", "subjectivism", and "objectivism". For example, libertarians commonly define a "state" as a "monopoly of violence funded by taxation". Meanwhile, brainwashed statists defines the "state" as "a beneficial institution that provides services for the population." Generally, the more abstract the idea, the more conflicts over its definition.
</p><p>Philosophy, ethics, and logic have a lot of abstract ideas. Therefore, those topics would probably have a potential significant amount of terminological differences. This thread itself deals with ethics. Therefore, this thread will, and has, suffered from semantic problems.
</p><p>Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, I could clearly write my thoughts clearly only if I expanded my writing. I must write several paragraphs or pages to express an idea clearly, not just in a few meager sentences.
</p><p>However, we all hate to write long forum posts. As we all know, some readers do not enjoy going through long posts, because it consumes too much time.
</p><p>Abstract topics, such as philosophy, ethics, and logic, make a lot of trouble in forums. Why? Because that we cannot clarify our semantics in a few sentences. It requires several paragraphs or pages to resolve a single definition.
</p><p>Some members of this forum shortcut their communication. They write their ideas and critiques only in a few sentences. As we know, this will only make the text ambiguous to other members. These members think that they will save time by writing a few sentences for each idea. They think that they will save the time by not tediously going through several paragraphs or pages to describe each idea.
</p><p>Wrong! This will only waste more time than doing it in the verbose way. Ambiguous text only bait irrelevant responses, strawmans, and red herrings. In addition, shortcutting their communication will only bait others to badly interpret the text, thus cause threads to go off topic. These threads will get boring, and will eventually end that way. Without a long post clarifying the terminology, those debates will never resolve.
</p><p>This has happened to my long comments at blogs such as Polycentric Order. This has happened to my long posts here.
</p><p>Because of this, I usually ignore debating philosophy, ethics, and logic within these forums.
</p><p>I have now finished typing the first half of my post. In the second half, I will clarify what I had meant in my last post.
</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-17815720343448962082009-06-24T17:19:00.000-07:002009-06-24T18:38:05.661-07:00Rejecting the Means-End Dichotomy<p>
I posted a response to <a href="http://mises.org/Community/forums/t/8729.aspx">this discussion</a> on the means-end dichotomy.</p><p>What do I mean when I say "I reject the means-end dichotomy"?</p> <p>I mean that assuming that "means" and "ends" exist within humans is far too arbitrary. The abstractions of "means" and "ends" does not accurately reflect the human mind. </p> <p>The means-end dichotomy can have useful applications. It helped us to understand Robinson Crusoe economics of how capital goods originate. Crusoe developed capital goods as a <i>means</i> to further his <i>ends</i>. The means-end dichotomy helped us to understand how producer and consumer goods behave in accord to human desires.
</p> <p>Therefore, the means-end dichotomy functions as an <i>instrumental abstraction</i>. Despite its unsoundness, it helps us to understand economic ideas. Roderick Long has <a mce_href="/pdf/asc/2004/long.pdf" href="http://mises.org/pdf/asc/2004/long.pdf">used the term "non-precisive abstraction"</a> to denote a similar idea.
</p> <p>So can we derive instrumental abstractions from science. Can we derive the means-end dichotomy from human psychology? However, we cannot. </p> <p>We cannot <i>derive</i> instrumental abstractions from science. We can only <i>apply </i>instrumental abstractions to help us understand more complicated ideas. Mises has made a mistake of trying to derive instrumental abstractions from science.</p> <p>For example, take Mises' argument for mythological individualism. Mises performed an ontological argument for methodological individualism. He said that "collectives do not exist, only individuals exist." He actually derived this instrumental abstraction. </p> <p>However, in the social sciences, methodological individualism helps us understand social behavior with more precision. Because methodological individualism focuses on the individual to observe social trends, it has more precision than, say, examining social behavior by countries. Saying that "Germany attacked France" goes against methodological individualism, because it observes social behavior as countries instead of its constituent individuals. </p> <p>However, as we emphasized, we cannot <i>derive</i> methodological individualism by making the ontological arguments. We can only <i>justify</i> methodological individualism for its practical application to help us understand social behavior with more precision.</p> <p>We will discuss another mistake by Mises on instrumental abstractions. Mises derived ordinal value from science. He cannot do this. He can only <i>justify</i> ordinal value for its practical application. </p> <p>We will list some practical applications of ordinal value over cardinal value in helping to understand the free price system: </p> <ul><li>The simplicity of ordinal value transgressing the overcomplicated numerical calculations of cardinal value. </li><li>A sound understanding of the behavior of the free price system does not require cardinal value.</li></ul> <p>Mises claimed the "impossibility" of cardinal value. This seems correct to some extent, because the human brain does not store utility in cardinal numbers. However, we could still implement cardinal value in economics. We can "numericalize" cardinal values by measuring pleasure experienced by neurons in the human brain and then converting it to some unit. Just like how we measure temperature by a thermometer. But we deny this, not because of its "impossibility", but of the two advantages of ordinal value over cardinal value: its simplicity and unnecessity.</p> <p>We have demonstrated that ontological arguments such as "collectives do not exist" or "cardinal value does not exist" are irrelevant in the justification of instrumental abstractions. Mises could have truncated his ontological arguments in Human Action, while still making his book through and logical, or even better, because it's shorter. He could have explained that methodological individualism offers more precision in examining human behavior, instead of the ontological argument that "collectives do not exist." He could have explained that ordinal value offers more simplicity and the unnecessity of numerical calculations of cardinal value, instead of the ontological argument that "cardinal value does not exist." The incorporation of <i>ontological arguments</i> and the exclusion of <i>precision arguments</i> are one of the major mistakes in Human Actions.</p> <p>Ontological arguments, besides its unnecessity, are even flawed in justifying instrumental values. To a certain degree, "collectives do exist". To a certain degree, "cardinal value does exist" (as shown by the neuron-thermometer example). Mises falsely assumed that the "existence" of an entity requires the unanimous existence in all contexts with perfect accuracy.
</p> <p>What about the means-end dichotomy? As said, we can consider it as an instrumental abstraction. Therefore, we cannot just assume "means" and "ends" and then apply it into any economic or ethical system without justifying it by precision arguments to understanding it. It is far too arbitrary to incorporate that "means" and "ends" into an ethical system just because these two words exist in the English language. Roderick Long <a mce_href="/story/2103" href="http://mises.org/story/2103">extends the precision</a> by splitting "means" into "constitutive means" and "instrumental means." </p> <p>However, we could extend the precision further by replacing the two words "means" and "ends" with another set of words related to cognitive psychology. Instead of "means" and "ends", we could use "desires", "instincts", "habits", and "reflexes". Those four terms increase the precision further, instead of two under the means-end dichotomy. If interpreted under the means-end dichotomy, "habits" can sometimes be a means and sometimes be an end, and sometimes both. "Desires" can sometimes be a means because desires can change, and sometimes be and end in itself. While the means-ends dichotomy disregards and "desires" and "reflexes", cognitive psychology increases its precision further.
</p> <p>The means-end dichotomy is arbitrary because it disregards the precision, and oversimplifies them into means and ends. While Roderick Long and some Aristolean liberals improves upon it by either splitting "means" into "constitutive means" and "instrumental means," or, as in Aristotelian ethics, an "ultimate end to life". However, Aristotelian liberalism still has less precision than grounding ethics with cognitive psychology.</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-9254900000429427382009-06-24T07:11:00.000-07:002009-11-01T15:57:14.093-08:00Ambiguous Ethical Terminology<p>Roderick Long has written <a href="http://libertariannation.org/a/f42l1.html">his argument for "natural law"</a>. We should first note that the term "natural law" has multiple definitions. Even Long himself confused the definitions.</p>
<blockquote><p>Now we can see where Rollins' critique has gone wrong. Rollins is thinking of natural rights as if they were a special kind of legal right — a right legislated by God or Nature rather than by the state. Given that assumption, what he says makes sense: legal rights are of little value unless they are also de facto rights. (When Rollins refers to "real rights" as "those rights actually conferred and enforced by the laws of a State or the customs of a social group," he clearly has in mind de facto rights.) Just as it does me no good to have a legal right on paper that the state pays lip service to in theory but systematically ignores in practice, so it does me no good to have a natural right inscribed in the Law of Nature if no one is willing or able to enforce that right.</p>
<p>But this is the wrong way to think about natural rights. A natural right isn't a legal right, it's a normative right. To claim that natural rights don't protect anything is to miss the point; natural rights are supposed to receive protection, not to provide it. Likewise, the function of Natural Law is not to protect any claims, but rather to tell us which claims deserve protection. As normative concepts, natural rights provide guidance for people's conduct. Blaming natural rights for not protecting us is like blaming a cookbook for not making dinner. Cookbooks don't make dinner for us; their purpose is to teach us how to make dinner for ourselves. Likewise, Natural Law doesn't lead our lives for us; its purpose is to guide us in the living of our own lives.3 </p></blockquote>
<p>Long here wins the first argument.</p>
<p>However, Long had used a different definition of "natural rights" than what Rothbard uses. In addition, he has conflated "natural rights" and "natural law," which could mean two distinct topics.</p>
<p>A user named "wilderness" at the Mises Community <a href="http://mises.org/Community/forums/p/8536/225828.aspx#225828">has made the same mistake.</a><p>
<blockquote><p>Taken to the further extreme it's why some can't figure out why protecting somebody's natural rights is in each individuals best interest. It's why somebody comes along and states, they "don't give a damn about liberty"... it's sickening. And why they can't understand murder, rape, and theft is not helpful. Secondly, cause of somebody like Rollins who is really confused.</p></blockquote>
<p>Wilderness has conflated the "natural rights" written in the U.S. Constitution with the "natural law" of Rothbard.</p>
<blockquote><p>Rollins is more willing than most critics of Natural Law to face the logical consequences of his position. But if morality is merely a tool for manipulating other people into doing what one wants, one wonders why people ever wrestle privately with moral dilemmas, why they ever find themselves compelled by conscience to do something that is unwelcome not only to themselves but to those around them.</p>
<p>More importantly, though, the question is why we should accept Rollins' claim that nothing is right or wrong and nothing is entitled to reverence. These are extraordinary claims, claims that run contrary to our ordinary beliefs and practices, and so the burden of proof rests with the person making such claims.</p></blockquote>
<p>Long used a different definition of 'morality' than Rollins. Rollins does not reject 'morality' in the sense what Long uses. Therefore, Long made a strawman argument.</p>
<p>Long argues this from the "performative contradiction." Some self-identified "objectivists" use performative contradiction argument to criticize "subjectivism." They argue that "subjectivists believe that everything originate from subjective preference, but deny subjectivism itself as a subjective preference." However, the self-identified "objectivists" use a different definition of "subjectivism" than what the self-identified "subjecitivists" themselves do. The self-identified "subjectivists" could refute that argument by showing that each side uses a different definition of "subjective." They use the term "subjective" to mean beliefs and values in the mind.</p>
<p>Although we should not reject the "performative contradiction" as a valid argument, the performative contradiction argument has potential flaws. Its flaws stem from the soundness of its premises. The soundness of a performative contradiction argument depends on the soundness of its premises. </p>
<p>Some examples of performative contradiction arguments:</p>
<ul><li>It is self-contradictory to reject the Aristotelian laws of identity, the excluded middle, and non-contradiction.</li><li>It is self-contradictory to reject Ludwig von Mises' law of human action.</li><li>It is self-contradictory to reject Ludwig von Mises' psychological egoism.</li><li>It is self-contradictory to reject "cogito, ergo sum."</li><li>It is self-contradictory to reject Murray Rothbard's argument for self-ownership.</li><li>It is self-contradictory to reject Hans-Hermann Hoppe's argumentation ethics.</li><li>It is self-contradictory to reject Stephen Kinsella's estoppel argument.</li><li>It is self-contradictory to reject Stefan Molyneux's universally preferable behavior.</li><li>It is self-contradictory to reject Ayn Rand's, Douglas Rasmussen's, and Douglas Den Uyl's attempts to derive "ought" from "is."</li></ul>
<p>Long conflated five different definitions of "amoralism."</p>
<blockquote><p>In the moral case, for example, Rollins, a self-proclaimed "amoralist," chooses to hold on to what most would view as a highly implausible belief — the belief that there is nothing wrong with "murder, rape, robbery, or torturing children" — and to reject more plausible beliefs whenever they come into conflict with that one.</p></blockquote>
<p>The first definition of "amoralism" signifies the descriptive notion that "rights do not tangibly exist." In the second sense, the term "amoralism" functions as a mere synonym for "quasi-realism" or "moral fictionalism." The third sense signifies the notion that using terms such as "right" and "wrong" in describing ethical commands can create conflicts between the interpretation of rights and grey areas. In the fourth sense "amoralism" signifies that "I do not feel any empathy for others. Therefore, I want to legalize rape and murder." The fifth sense of "amoralism" signifies irrelevant to morality, for example, "science is amoral because it does not deal with normative opinions."</p>
<p>Rollins probably used "amoralism" in the third sense, while Long probably used "amoralism" in the fourth sense.</p>
<blockquote><p>We may think of our evolutionarily-implanted normative impulses as playing a role in moral reasoning analogous to the role that sensory experience plays in scientific reasoning. The data of the senses are one of the most important sources of our beliefs about how the universe works. But we are not confined to the sensory level. Our capacity for reason drives us to try to build up a conceptual picture of the universe that makes sense; and although we rely heavily on sensory data in building that picture, if we have to sacrifice some sensory data in order to achieve a scientific picture that makes a little more sense — if we have to decide that, despite initial appearances, the earth isn't flat, the sun doesn't circle it, and tables aren't continuously solid all the way down — then some of what the senses tell us may have to be scrapped for the sake of a more intellectually satisfying theory.</p></blockquote>
<p>Long has used confusing terms such as "sensation," "perception," and "conception." He then equivocates "evolutionarily-implanted normative impulse" with the "sensory level." He has failed to define these three terms.</p>
<blockquote><p>Likewise, our evolutionarily-implanted moral impulses are one of the most important sources of our beliefs about how we ought to live. But we are not confined to the instinctual level. Our capacity for reason drives us to try to build up a conceptual picture of right and wrong that makes sense; and although we rely heavily on innate impulses in building that picture, if we have to disregard some of our innate impulses in order to achieve a moral picture that makes a little more sense — if we have to decide that, despite our initial impulses, we shouldn't kill animals for food — then some of what our moral instincts tell us may have to be scrapped for the sake of a more intellectually satisfying ethic. Once again, a purely evolutionary account of our sense of morality, however illuminating, will be importantly incomplete. </p></blockquote>
<p>Long presupposes a dichotomy between "innate impulse" and "reason." He then equivocates "innate impulse" with "evolutionarily-implanted normative impulse." I believe that Long has used a strawman argument against Rich Hammer. Hammer does not want to abolish "ethical reasoning" altogether in place of "evolutionarily-implanted normative instincts." If Hammer however wanted to abolish "ethical reasoning" altogether, then he would not have written his book.</p>
<p>This article is yet another example of how terminological differences can create chaos. Just imagine if we had resolved all of our terminological differences...</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-43989720153332094912009-06-05T15:42:00.000-07:002009-06-05T15:48:16.738-07:00Psychological Egoism = Psychological Atomism<p>This is previously <a href="http://mises.org/Community/forums/p/8158/161626.aspx#161626">posted on the Ludwig von Mises forums</a>.
</p><p>It is arbitrary to label the brain as "egoistic" when the components of the brain are not. Likewise, it is absurd to label the brain as "egoistic" when composites of the "whole brain" are not.</p> <p>Let us look into this. Assume that the human brain is divided into parts or modules. Each part functions independently with each other. However, they often conflict with each other.</p> <p>Let us imagine a brain with three parts. One part of the brain, called area-A, deals with the maximization of pleasure. Another part of the brain, called area-B, deals with the maximization of acquiring wealth. Another part, area-C, deals with the minimization of pain.</p> <p>How do they function? Area-A tries to maximize pleasure when area-C tries to minimize pain. They conflict with each other: does area-A want more pain at the tradeoff of more pleasure, or vice versa? Does area-A want desire short-term pleasure at the expense of long-term pain of area-C? How much pleasure and pain should each of these areas settle?</p> <p>How does area-A and area-C resolve those conflicts? Area-A sometimes have to sacrifice pleasure for less pain in area-C. Area-C may have to increase pain threadhold for area-A to gain long-term pleasure in the future. All these actions involves area-A or area-C sacrificing with each other. Area-C may sometimes altruistically benefit area-A, and sometimes area-C may be altruistic to area-A.</p> <p>Should we say that area-A and area-C behave in their own interests, or they collectively interact for the greater interest to "maximize" the "whole brain," the composite satisfaction of area-A, area-B, and area-C?</p> <p>The question is that the interactions between the three components are selfish or the component parts -- areas-A, area-B, and area-C -- are each selfish but altruistic relative to the composite brain combined?</p> <p>Let us look at the family.</p> <p>We will use a metaphor of brain parts to represent family members. One part of the brain, called area-A, represents the mother. Another part represents, called area-B, represets the father. The third part represents, called area-C, represents the child.</p> <p>The family members help each other. Each family member help one another when one is sick. Each help one another on housework. Why do all three family members help one another? Because they have an innate instinct to help each family member. Humans have evolved an instinct to help their kins. Therefore, can we describe the whole family as based on "self-interest"?</p> <p>Each person is interconnected with one another in the form of an instinct to help each kin, for the greater benefit of the family. Similarly, each part of the brain conflict with each other, for the greater benefit of the aggregate brain.</p> <p>Psychological egoists describe each family member as "egoistic" even when they help one another. This seems intuitively correct. However, could we say that each of the three parts of the brain are egoistic themselves, just like what each family member are?</p> <p>Likewise, could we describe the aggregate "whole brain" is overall egoistic? Psychological egoists would tend to agree. But could we describe the family collectively itself as egoistic? Psychological egoists may intuitively disagree.</p> <p>Each of the three brain components conflict and compromise with each other, producing an overall equilibrium. Similarly, each family member may conflict and compromise with each other, producing an overall equilibrium. Could we say that the overall equlibrium is "egoistic"? Could we say that the aggregates of the three components are as egoistic as the aggregates of the three family members?</p> <p>Why do psychological egoists arbitrarily pick the brain as "egoistic," while the family member as a whole as not "egoistic"? This is very arbitrary.</p> <p>One may object that the best level is to pick the individual brain, instead of groups more than one person. They claim that is is more accurate to analyze action on the individual level rather than the group level. They practice methodological individualism.</p> <p>However, picking the "whole brain" as the starting point of egoism is very arbitrary. Why do psychological egoists deny that "the family as a whole" as not egoistic but assert that "the brain as a whole" as egoistic? All parts in these two interact, conflict, and compromise with each other, right?</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-29324947211625901432009-06-05T15:22:00.000-07:002009-11-01T16:49:45.037-08:00Ex Post Facto Rationalizations in Ethics<p>Below is a full reply to <a href="http://corktageous.blogspot.com/2009/06/radical-leftists-against-abortion.html">Cork's post on abortion</a>:</p>
<p>The legitimacy of abortion should have nothing to do with your interpretation of the non-aggression and the proportionality principle. The non-aggression principle can have potentially arbitrary interpretations.</p>
<p>As you know, not all self-described "libertarian anarchists" hold the same views. For instance, some libertarians support animal rights, some oppose abortion, some criticize retributive punishment, and some others support some parental authority. Those views conflict and compete with one another to attract attention.</p>
<p>As we have said previously, one could interpret the non-aggression principle in about a gazillion ways. Some anti-abortionists might feel cognitive dissonance, and thus interpret abortion as a form of aggression. Likewise, some others may interpret retributive punishment as a form of invasion against the criminal. Let us recall the problems of interpreting the non-aggression principle.</p>
<p>Does does the "non-aggression principle" allow "right to self-defense" or the "right to violently punish others"? Does the "non-aggression principle" allow trespassing or hate speech? We will show that the term "aggression" is highly vague.</p>
<p>Some will define "aggression" as "the initiation of physical violence." However, the term physical violence is also vague. Does "physical violence" include noise pollution? Does it include perceived threats of violence? Does "physical violence" include fraud? Whether noise pollution, threats of violence, and fraud are "physical violence" still begs the question.</p>
<p>Libertarians usually defend the right for broadcasters to homestead radio frequencies. However, if a malicious broadcaster "trespasses" another broadcaster's radio frequency, can we label this as "physical violence"? Obviously, the criminal changed nothing physical or tangible. This, also, begs the question whether if we should consider it as "physical violence." This same argument applies with the ownership of domain names.</p>
<p>Consequentially, it begs the question to ask whether anti-defamation laws violate the non-aggression principle. It also begs the question to ask whether the prohibition of nuclear weapons violate the non-aggression principle. In addition, it begs the question to ask whether ordering carbon dioxide polluters to pay restitution violates the non-aggression principle.</p>
<p>Libertarians define "individual sovereignty" as a state in which no one commits aggression against any individual. So far so good.</p>
<p>However, as we recall above, the word "aggression" has arbitrary interpretations. As a result, "individual sovereignty," which depends on the definition of "aggression," also has arbitrary interpretations. I found your usage of "self-ownership" in you elucidation above, therefore, as problematic.</p>
<p>As a consequence, we should only establish the definition of "libertarianism," "non-aggression principle," and "self-ownership" only prototypically. By "prototypically" we meant the prototype theory of classification. Libertarianism does not have any clear-cut "essence," and so does not "aggression" and "personal sovereignty."</p>
<p>Let us take abortion as an example of the arbitrariness of law.</p>
<p>The genuine causes of the abortion controversy arise from religion, empathy, and the definition of life.</p>
<p>Referring to the non-aggression principle constitutes as a type of cognitive dissonance. Judges, for example, use the law to legitimize their evil decrees. They have the power to interpret the law in any biased way, even though the law appears "objective" to the general population.</p>
<p>Legitimizing morality in the name of "it confirms/violates the non-aggression principle" is an appeal to the rule of law. It does not state any reason of the immorality itself, but an appeal to the law of non-aggression. It also begs the question if specific acts violate the non-aggression principle.</p>
<blockquote><p>"Unborn babies" are parasites and if the mother does not want one in her body, she should not be forced to support one.</p></blockquote>
<p>I have an objection. It depends on your definition of "parasite."</p>
<p>Aging can also be considered a parasite. So does cancer. If cancer is a parasite, does it give any right for the patient to steal money from a rich person for his treatment? It is a type of theft against the rich person.</p>
<p>Anti-abortionists consider fetuses as living beings. Like the cancer patent, the mother does not have any right to murder against another person, the fetus.</p>
<p>However, I do not oppose abortion. I am making a point that the non-aggression principle and laws can have potentially arbitrary interpretations, and could possibly justify any evil behavior.</p>
<blockquote><p>The reason the cancer patient should not be allowed to steal from a "rich person" is because the rich person is *not* the parasite.</p></blockquote>
<p>That is a common objection, but it still depends on the your interpretation of "parasite."</p>
<p>You agree that life is more valuable than property. The rich person can be interpreted as a kind of "parasite" you allow the person to be rich at the expense of killing someone. The rich person could just donate his money on the condition that the mother does not abort the child. So the rich person is causing the mother the kill her child by not donating to the mother. Therefore, you are valuing the rich person's property greater that you value the fetus's life. You do not support subsidizing the mother giving birth instead of aborting her child.</p>
<p>The law forbids murder and rape. Therefore, the would-be murderers and the would-be rapists cannot satisfy their preferences. The would-be victims of murder and rape are technically "parasites" in a sense, because we our preferences for life and against rape are brought about the expense of the preferences of the murderers and rapists. The victims of rape and murder are parasites in a sense and the murderers and rapists are the "victims" in a sense.</p>
<p>So do laws that forbid petty crimes such as adultery. Suppose a wife has cheated on her husband with another man. The wife, here, can both be a victim and a predator. She is a "victim" of the in the sense that the anti-adultery law does not grant her the liberty to cheat on her husband, then punished for it. She is an predator in a sense since she violated the adultery law and that she has angered her husband.</p>
<p>So the rich person can technically be interpreted as a parasite, in a sense. The enforcement of property rights have positive effects on the intelligent and the productive people, at the expense of the unproductive, the lazy, and the dim-witted people. Since the rich person is rich because of property rights, he is a parasite to the poor people. And, because, the enforcement of "property rights" is just a law that makes some more productive at the expense of others, it can form parasites and the exploited: The enforcement of property rights exploit the mentally incompetent, the disabled people, and the unproductive people.</p>
<p>The rich person is a parasite to the fetus in a way that the rich is not subsidizing the mother on the condition that the mother will not abort the fetus.</p>
<p>My point is that the rich person can be interpreted as a "parasite" in a sense, depending on one's self-knowledge. But we have to go back to my original point is that it is circular reasoning to justify laws from the non-aggression principle. It begs the question.</p>
<p>Anti-murder laws restrain the would-be murderer's liberty at the expense of the would-be victim's liberty to be alive.
Anti-adultery laws retrain the would-be cheater's liberty at the expense of the spouse's liberty to not be cheated.
Property laws restrain the disabled, lazy, mentally incompetent, and the unproductive's liberty at the expense of the liberty of the productive, efficient, and intelligent to create wealth.
Pro-abortion laws restrain the fetus's liberty to stay alive at the expense of the rich person's willingness to not donate money to the pregnant mother.</p>
<p>Those who violate the non-aggression principle are labelled parasites, predators, aggressors, or criminals. Those who have experienced a violation of the non-aggression principle are called the victims, the prey, the exploited.</p>
<p>So terms such as "parasite," "predator," "aggressor," "tortfeasor," "criminal," "victim," and "prey" depend on one's definition or interpretation of the non-aggression principle or the law. These terms have different meanings according to one's perspective to the law.</p>
<p>Even libertarians themselves have different meanings for these terms. Some libertarians oppose retributive punishment, some oppose abortion, and some support animal rights. They therefore, have different interpretations of the words such as "parasite," "predator," and "victim." Your argument for abortion is like telling a libertarian who supports animal rights that the abused animals are not the "victims" of human "predators." Since they hold a differing interpretation of "aggression," your usage of these terms are circular, and might never influence them.</p>
<p>This is the reason why your sophistic arguments do not work. What we should be really debating with the anti-abortionists is religion and what constitutes human life.</p>
<p>Here's an example of natural law:</p>
<ol><li>Each and every individual should enjoy the full product of his labor. No one else other than the individual can accurately estimate cost of labor that he has worked to produce a good. Therefore, no one else can exchange his good with another good or take his good without the individual's permission because the cost labor he has put into producing the good may be more than others may have perceived. Exchanging a good without consent should be forbidden because the individual may lose some fruits of his labor due to the fact that others may underestimate how much labor one worked to produce that good.</li><li>If both parties agree to exchange, the exchange is voluntary. Each individual can accurately estimate how much labor he has worked to produce his respective good. Each individual can also estimate the usability of his traders' goods. Therefore, both would maintain their full products of their labor, plus the value each benefited from the exchange.</li></ol>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-59721734965389102592009-04-07T18:51:00.000-07:002009-11-01T08:33:08.788-08:00Organizational Structures in Market Anarchism<p>Peter G. Klein has written a <a href="http://blog.mises.org/archives/009744.asp">new criticism to the "left-libertarians"</a> on organization theory. Both Klein and the "left-libertarians" have made some errors. We will identify some problems with the arguments pointed out by both sides below.</p>
<p>Klein, who cited Rothbard as a source, may have performed the argument to authority. Klein used <a href="http://mises.org/story/3412">Rothbard's "critique" of agorism</a>, to exploit Rothbard's overwhelming popularity within libertarianism, to push his point-of-view. However, Rothbard, in his critique, entirely strawmanned Konkin's agorism.</p>
<p>Rothbard, in the first portion of his article, misinterpreted Konkin's objections to voluntary corporations and joint stock companies. Rothbard thought that Konkin wants to aggressively forbid the development of these organizations. Rothbard misinterpreted the statement "Konkin opposes wage labor."</p>
<p>Walter Block, Stephan Kinsella, and Murray Rothbard use and interpret the word "oppose" to mean that they oppose actions that violates merely the non-aggression principle.</p>
<p>However, the <em>Aristotelian liberals</em>, such as Roderick Long, defines morality differently. <a href="http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-01212009-095627/">Aristotelian liberalism</a>, which simply denotes a brand of market anarchism that preaches virtue ethics, defines "morality" as a broader system beyond the meta-normative conception of rights. The term "morality," in this sense, can imply voluntary ethical systems that does not necessary coincide with the non-aggression principle. When an Aristotelian liberal says that he "oppose something," he might actually mean that he want to voluntarily persuade others to avoid doing that thing. Likewise, when Roderick Long says that he "morally opposes wage labor," he actually meant to voluntarily advocate alternative arrangements besides wage labor. Long made a similar claim in his <a href="http://charleswjohnson.name/essays/libertarian-feminism/">libertarian feminism article</a>. When Long said that he "morally oppose prostitution," he actually meant that he wanted to voluntarily abolish prostitution by persuading prostitutes to look for alternative occupations.<sup><a id="ref-1" href="#note-1" style="text-decoration:none">[1]</a></sup>
</p>
<p>We should not use the term "corporation" due to its vagueness. Often, people conflate the term "corporation" in its legitimate sense and "corporation" in the illegitimate sense. In its illegitimate sense, the term "corporation" signifies state privilege; and "corporation" its legitimate sense signifies an orgazation with limited liability contracts with explicit consent by all parties. This terminological barrier confuses the whole debate.<sup><a id="ref-2" href="#note-2" style="text-decoration:none">[2]</a></sup></p>
<p>In addition, a "corporation" could mean a <em>network of independent contractors</em>,<sup><a id="ref-3" href="#note-3" style="text-decoration:none">[3]</a></sup> to borrow <a href="http://blog.mises.org/archives/009744.asp">this phrase from Peter G. Klein</a>. One could conceptualize this by imagining <em>independent contractors</em> as <em>employees.</em> Even in the real world, we find it <a href="http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/laborlaws/l/aa121800.htm">hard to distinguish</a> an <em>independent contractor</em> from an <em>employee</em> in the legal sense. Some might define the two terms as the degree of boss control, but we cannot find any strict distinction between independent contractor and employee. How much boss control, specifically, would make the worker an employee instead of an independent contractor? Because we cannot indentify the essential characterists of independent contractors from employment, some would denote these two terms as synonymous.</p>
<p>The term "firm," like "corporation," also has a fuzzy denotation. A firm, for example, could mean a loose association of smaller firms. A firm could also man a cartel agreement among competing sub-firms, or a "business trust." Could we label a joint venture itself a firm even that it comprises of two smaller firms? If we go further with this, we could even label each "independent contractor" as a firm. One could simply imagine an independent contractor as a firm that associates with another firm that pays for its services. The arbitrariness of the term "firm" makes it hard for some to decode its meaning in certain contexts, such as the <em>size</em> of the firm in a free market. We cannot make a valid argument that the median <em>firm</em> will employ less workers in a free market, because of the vagueness of the term "firm."</p>
<p>However, I understand the gist of what the "left-libertarians" mean when they talk about "smaller firms" in a free market. We can rephrase this ideas to this:</p>
<blockquote><p>Workers will have greater control over his workplace, instead of the CEOs and senior managers monopolizing control; management will be delegated to more specialized workers instead of unspecialized CEOs and senior managers; power will be distributed more evenly among the workplace; workers will have more freedom from boss commands</p></blockquote>
<p>Obviously, I criticize the second half of Rothbard's article in defense of the reformist political process. Rothbard's critique of the U.S. Libertarian Party seems to not understand that Konkin opposes them on strategical grounds, not merely on meta-normative grounds.</p>
<p>Overall, Rothbard's wrote his article in an extremely legalistic tone. First, Rothbard strawmanned Konkin that he wants to illegalize corporations and wage labor. Secondly, Rothbard strawmanned agorists for their alleged belief them illegalizing the U.S. Libertarian Party and illegitimacy of voting. Even in an agoristic point-of-view, agorists do not want to illegalize either one of them. Agorists do meant "immoral" by "illegal." </p>
<p>When the agorists label corporations and hierarchy as "immoral," they do not mean that they want to prohibit them. They mean by a prediction that workers will find a lesser degree of hierarchy in a free market. The agorists also label "voting" as "immoral" because they consider voting as strategically counterproductive.</p>
<p>Rothbard, in a paragraph, uses over-systematized nonsense to defend the <em>right</em> for slaves to vote:</p>
<blockquote><p>Let's put it this way: Suppose we were slaves in the Old South, and that for some reason, each plantation had a system where the slaves were allowed to choose every four years between two alternative masters. Would it be evil, and sanctioning slavery, to participate in such a choice? Suppose one master was a monster who systematically tortured all the slaves, while the other one was kindly, enforced almost no work rules, freed one slave a year, or whatever. It would seem to me not only not aggression to vote for the kinder master but idiotic if we failed to do so. Of course, there might well be circumstances — say when both masters are similar — where the slaves would be better off not voting in order to make a visible protest — but this is a tactical not a moral consideration. Voting would not be evil but, in such a case, less effective than the protest.</p></blockquote>
<p>Rothbard therefore strawmanned the agorists. Like Rothbard, the agorists also defened the <em>right</em> to vote. However, the agorists oppose voting on <em>strategic</em> grounds. Aside from the deontological moral arguments against voting, agorists oppose voting mainly for its impracticality and its bad consequences. Some agorists even have created a moral rule against voting because of its impracticality and its bad consequences.</p>
<p>I see problems with the term "agorism" because of its ambiguity. An "agorist" could mean a Carsonian mutualist who opposes stick ownership of capital and land. That just does not accurately describe my positions. </p>
<p>Setting terminology aside, the term "agorist" has another problem. Some agorists strategically support the black markets and unions. However, I previously described <a href="http://anarcho-mercantilist.blogspot.com/2008/12/left-libertarian-strategy.html">black markets and unions as counterproductive</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Anarcho-capitalists who advocate political reform is functionally a classical liberal, since they do the same thing. Similarly, a market-anarchist who supports syndicalism is functionally an anarcho-syndicalist. An agorist who only sells prohibited drugs is functionally the same to all of the other non-libertarian workers in the black market. Non-straightforward ways of promoting libertarianism are thus highly inefficient.</p></blockquote>
<p>I emphasized above that grey markets differ from black markets. Grey markets, unlike black markets, can actually work. I support grey markets for its decreased risk.</p>
<p>I also see problems with the term "mutualism." However, that does not imply that I consider the current system as the lesser evil than a mutualist society. Indeed, like most Rothbardian market anarchists, I would rather live in a mutualist society than in any corporatist system, if I had to choose from these two options. Furthermore, if someone opposes the term "mutualism," it does not imply that she opposes allying with the mutualists. Someone can still hold an ardent alliance with the mutualists even if she dislikes to describe herself as a "mutualist."</p>
<p>I have read most of the chapters in Kevin Amos Carson's book <cite><a href="http://mutualist.org/id114.html">Organization Theory</a></cite>. Ninety percent of its chapters deals with empirical "case studies." These "case studies" look redundant and uninteresting. I learned noting new from this book, as I already know the corporate privileges beforehard. Many market anarchists know that there exists significant principal-agent problems in all organizations, such as the oversight costs of employing workers and communication barriers. For proof, I <a href="http://francoistremblay.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/hes-not-outrageous-hes-corktageous/">commented about this</a> at <a href="http://francoistremblay.wordpress.com/">Francois Tremblay's blog</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>I agree that employment has the principle-agent problem caused from asymmetrical information. I know the significant communication barriers and oversight costs of employing a worker. I also know that in the current system, the employer can give arbitrary orders to the worker whatever the employer feels like it. I agree that in a free society, more independent firms would function.</p>
<p>In a free society, more workers would create independent firms. Instead of the worker agreeing on a contract allowing the employer give arbitrary orders without any extra compensation, the worker owning his or her own firm would have more motivation to innovate instead of doing tedious work that the employer demands. Productivity and innovation would increase and the worker would actually appreciate their work.</p></blockquote>
<p>I commented the above before Kevin Carson even released his chapter of how productivity and innovation would increase, and oversight costs will decrease under a free market. I commented this on October 7, 2008, but Kevin Carson <a href="http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2008/11/organization-theory-latest-chapter.html">released his chapter</a> about this on November 2, 2008. Even Stephan Kinsella mentioned the obviousness of these agency costs in all organizations, before Kevin Carson released his chapter.</p>
<p>Therefore I regard Carson's book as a total waste of time. Many other anarcho-capitalists, such as Stephan Kinsella and Peter G. Klein, knew the problems of business organizations without even reading Carson's book. </p>
<p>Furthermore, I carefully noticed the differing definitions of "social hierarchy":</p>
<blockquote><p>If you define a hierarchy as the criminals above-the-law who defends the state’s existence, I would oppose hierarchies. If you define a hierarchy as any middleman, such as those who transports goods throughout the society, I would support the hierarchies that function voluntarily.</p></blockquote>
<hr />
<dl class="refList">
<dt id="note-1"><a href="#ref-1">[1]</a></dt>
<dd><p>I commented about this <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7810046466856236332&postID=3509220401335719041">at Polycentric Order</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The word "oppose" has multiple meanings. In an article on Libertarian Feminism, Charles W. Johnson and Roderick T. Long "opposed" prostitution. However, they still support the right for individuals to exchange sex for money. They had used "oppose" to mean that they want to voluntarily abolish prostitution, but still support the right to exchange sex for money.</p>
<p>Likewise, when mutualists say that they "oppose wage labor," they do not mean that they oppose the right to create employment contracts. They mean by a prediction that workers will find better ways to make money instead of following the orders of his employer.</p></blockquote></dd>
<dt id="note-2"><a href="#ref-2">[2]</a></dt>
<dd><p>I commented about this <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7810046466856236332&postID=3509220401335719041">at Polycentric Order</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Even though I oppose "corporations" in the sense of state privilege and involuntary limited liability "contracts," I still support "corporations" in the sense of purely voluntary limited liability contracts between two explicitly consenting parties.
</p></blockquote></dd>
<dt id="note-3"><a href="#ref-3">[3]</a></dt>
<dd><p>I had previously used the phrase <em>assocation of independent contractors</em> in place of <em>network of indepent contractors</em> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7810046466856236332&postID=750410575054899294">at Polycentric Order</a></p>
<blockquote><p>you cannot assume that worker cooperatives will have less problems than an association of independent contractors ... Comparatively, democratically-controlled worker cooperatives would have more agency problems than an association of independent contractors.</p></blockquote></dd>
</dl>
<hr/>
Left-libertarians argue that in a free market, there would be "less" "vertically integrated" firms, partially got that idea from Kevin Carson, and from their logic. However, this is not true.<br /><br />First, they did not agree to a definition of what a "vertically integrated firm" is. All factories are "vertically integrated firms" because they seperate the production processes to different machines. In this way, vertically integrated firms exist because they are more efficient, and do not have to pay for the cost for transportation, etc.<br /><br />So, certain types of "vertically integrated firms" are more efficient. However, they also argue that because of our current monopoly of firms, there would be less because competition undermines these inefficient vertically integrated firms. They are using the words "but" in "but there would be less" without thinking about others.<br /><br />There would be MORE vertically integrated firms and corporations in a free market because there are no barriers to entry to start a corporation or a vertically integrated firm in a free market. So arguing that there would be less "corporations and more private contractors" in a free market is nonsense.<br /><br />Also, many libertarians argue on blatant geographical assumptions. For example, some left-libertarians argue that everything in anarchism is privatized. However, there could exist unprivatized land and atmosphere. For instance, Hans-Hermann Hoppe defend "immigration reduction" on the assumption that all land and atmosphere is privatized so many people would use them to block transportation. Another example is the belief in collectivist roads from left-libertarians, as they argue because all land is private, there should be some collective transporation to prevent the owners to charge high tolls.<br /><br />Also, left-libertarians are more sympathetic to anarcho-communists. This is false. Anarcho-communism is a type of collectivist anarchism, where the workers and people collectively own all the means of production. This includes the military. Why would anarcho-communists have respect to the individual when the military is collectively controlled by the workers, just like democracy? Hence, anarcho-communism is a dictatorship by the workers.
<hr/>
Limited liability can be specified by contracts, but in the current situation, some limited liability businesses has an advantage over unlimited liability businesses. Suppose a robotic truck driver runs over your property. This cannot be contractually enforced because you did not buy the truck. The owner from the truck driving company cannot get sued, because he has a state-granted limited liability privelage. Therefore, the owner can malinvest by producing more robotic truck drivers regardless of safety to get money. The business, however, is protected by the state.<br /><br />If you attempt to use PDAs defend against the truck driver in a statist society, you are liable for damaging their property. But in an anarchist society, you can use private defence agencies to offer compensation from the truck company. <br /><br />However, because our current situation is not a market anarchist society, the trucking business cannot be compensated by PDAs because they are protected by the state. Thus, in some situations, limited liability is a priveladge from the state.<br /><br />Another thing is their limited liability from intellectual property violations. They have an advantage in making products that violate patents. This is unfair to unlimited liability businesses. But the main problem is the legality of IP laws, which should be eliminated along with the state.<br /><br />Yes, do not mistake me--some limited liability can be specified by contracts--but some do not and is a priveledge of the state.Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-54394457003071377462009-04-06T14:09:00.000-07:002009-11-01T13:13:54.464-08:00Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Advocates Worker Ownership<p>If you hear someone yelling the phrase "property is theft," you might intuitively label him as a communist or as an economic collectivist. However, many libertarian bloggers and blog commentators challenge this assumption.</p>
<p>First coined by a 19th century mutualist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, contemporary mutualists and Rothbardian market anarchists continue to repeat this motto. Even that this aphorism sounds absurd at first, they generally claim that Proudhon did not meant "property is theft" in the literal sense; they claim that Proudhon referred it to the property stolen by the state. Therefore, they claim that merely "semantics" caused this terminological conflict. A blogger called "Brainpolice," in a post titled <cite><a href="http://polycentricorder.blogspot.com/2009/01/remembering-proudhon.html">Remembering Proudhon</a></cite> at <a href="http://polycentricorder.blogspot.com/">Polycentric Order</a>, postulated this:</p>
<blockquote><p>There is also a context in which Proudhon was very much in favor of private or individual property, viewing it as an indispensible [<i>sic</i>] counterweight to the state.</p></blockquote>
<p>A lot of market anarchists therefore asserted that Pierre-Joseph Proudhon favors property, and that he used "property as theft" as a rhetoric to attract readers. <a href="http://privilegeistheft.blogspot.com/2009/03/privilege-is-theft.html">Andrew's post</a> and the commentators at <a href="http://anarchyinyourhead.com/2009/03/04/property-as-theft/">this blog post</a> unanimously cited Brainpolice's assertion without even reading the primary sources.</p>
<p>However, if we take a closer look at what Proudhon meant by "property is theft," Brainpolice got it all wrong. In Proudhon's treatise <cite><a href="http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/ProProp.html">What is Property?</a></cite>, he advocates the "possession" or the "use-and-occupancy" theory of property. Proudhon, therefore, as he said, rejects <em>sticky</em> property (Lockean property), or the perpetual ownership of property:</p>
<blockquote><p>So that in society the only thing which could bring back the inequality of labor would be the right of occupancy, -- the right of property. (Page 124)</p></blockquote>
<p>Therefore, Proudhon used "property is theft" to mean that "<em>sticky</em> property is theft."</p>
<p>Brainpolice probably got this idea from <a href="http://bradspangler.com/blog/archives/313">Brad Spangler's post on Proudhon</a>, which Spangler in turn got it from this <a href="http://www.blackcrayon.com/library/dictionary/?term=property">web page</a>. If Brainpolice took that idea from Spangler, then he certainly did popularize Spangler's claim to misrepresent Proudhon. Brainpolice claimed that Proudhon merely opposes state privileges on property, but advocates sticky property just like how the Rothbardian market anarchists do.</p>
<p>Also, in contrast to the popular opinion, Proudhon actually rejected "the fruits of our labor" as a justification for property. He repeats this position in Chapter 3 of <cite>What is Property</cite>. Proudhon only justified property by "possession" or use-and-occupancy.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Proudhon used "property is impossible" to mean his theory of primitive accumulation. Proudhon argued that in a society ruled by sticky property, over time, a few hands will eventually concentrate nearly all property. He argued that these proprietors will then rent out their property to serfs. Therefore Proudhon actually used "property is impossible" to mean that "sticky property will lead to feudalism, with the poor propertyless (i.e. <em>impossible</em> for the poor to own property)." Proudhon demonstrated this in <a href="http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=ProProp.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=4&division=div2">Chapter 4</a> in <cite>What is Property</cite>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Every possessor of lands, houses, furniture, machinery, tools, money, &c., who lends a thing for a price exceeding the cost of repairs (the repairs being charged to the lender, and representing products which he exchanges for other products), is guilty of swindling and extortion. In short, all rent received (nominally as damages, but really as payment for a loan) is an act of property, -- a robbery. (Page 167)</p></blockquote>
<p>Many market anarchists blindly follow Brainpolice's authority for his claims. In the past, Brainpolice, in a comment on his website, dogmatically claimed that Mikhail Bakunin actually uses the phrase "collectivist anarchism"; and that Lysander Spooner and Benjamin R. Tucker actually use the phrase "individualist anarchism" to describe themselves. <a href="http://anarcho-mercantilist.blogspot.com/2009/04/dogmatic-left-libertarian-terminology.html">We have also refuted this.</a> We have dispelled these misconceptions.</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-2691766603908928732009-03-31T17:15:00.000-07:002009-11-01T08:31:07.275-08:00How to Spot a Naïve Ancap<p>We will make a quick post to list some 10 planks to distinguish a naïve ancap from a radical ancap.</p>
<p><b>Plank one.</b> The naïve ancap estimates that labor productivity will merely double in ancapistan. Contrastingly, the radical ancap believes that ancapistan would have at least five times greater productivity than what we have now. The naïve ancap believes that taxation and inflation more-or-less cause only a 50% productivity loss, while the radical ancap knows that the state squanders at least 80% of our labor productivity.</p>
<p><b>Plank two.</b> The naïve ancap follows mainstream supply-side celebrities like Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, and/or the conspiracy nut Alex Jones. The naïve ancap almost exclusively focuses on bail-outs, while avoiding all the other draconian privileges that the plutocrats loot from us. Contrastingly, the radical ancap focuses on the entire scope of state privileges, besides taxation. The radical ancap understands that state regulations, interventions, licensing, urban planning, and prohibitions more greatly impoverishes the economy besides merely taxation and inflation.</p>
<p><b>Plank three.</b> Because the naïve ancap have a less radical view of economics than the radical ancap, they will often resort to a fetish for the past American government, in what they call "Restore the Republic." In doing so, the naïve ancap clungs to the U.S. Constitution, an obsolete document. Likewise, the naïve ancaps more likely vote for the "fiscal conservative" candidates who promises to slash the tax brackets by an only few percentage points. They will often fall into Ron Paul's traditionalist "Campaign for Liberty," the totalitarian "Free State Project," the theocratic "John Birch Society," or "Peter Schiff for Senator."</p>
<p><b>Plank four.</b> The naïve ancap more likely follows stock market indices than the radical ancap. The stock-market indices, such as the Dow Jones Index, most likely measures the well-being of the most privileged firms. The 30 components of the Dow Jones Index consists of mega-corporations which gets subsidies and bailouts from the government, and regulations that cartelize them.</p>
<p><b>Plank five.</b> The naïve ancap more likely favors gradualist and reformist polices that compromises the their goal. For example, the naïve ancap more likely praises welfare reform programs, such as FairTax, school vouchers, Health Savings Accounts, and the other of the so-called "market-based" solutions. Contrastingly, the radical ancap recognizes these schemes as simply the government as expanding out to quasi-statist firms.</p>
<p><b>Plank six.</b> Because the naïve ancap trusts the state more, they will likely hold the status quo of legitimizing some state practices, such as immigration restriction or disallowing the "illegal" immigrants to use the bureaucratic hospitals or the state schools (indoctrination prisons).</p>
<p><b>Plank seven.</b> The naïve ancap, in general, has greater faith in the state and its bureaucracy than the radical ancaps. We do not mean that the naïve ancap supports or even tolerates statism. We mean that they only believe that bureaucracies have 50% or so inefficiency than the so-called "private" companies. For example, the naïve ancap claims that school vouchers can more efficiently indoctrinate children than state schools. However, the naïve ancap never questions the state indoctrination centers itself. Contrastingly, the radical ancap believes that truly free market schools will have 95% more efficiency, not at indoctrinating children, but at educating them.</p>
<p><b>Plank eight.</b> The radical ancap views the state as a criminal monster that deceptively steals at least 80% of our productivity, at least not as much as the naïve ancap does. Therefore the naïve ancap will likely vote and participate in electoral campaigns rather than education. Even if the naïve ancap wants to educate others, they will tend to use arguments justifying the status quo of our income distribution as a "natural" outcome of human nature or the economic system. Most of these arguments sound indistinguishable from what Such Limbaugh or Sean Hannity makes, that "tax cuts" benefits the economy, or "welfare" creates a spiral of dependence. They never question the state impoverishes individuals by its licenses, building codes, land-use regulations, red tape, and certification requirements which impoverishes them by wasting 90% of their productivity (the state steals 80% of the productivity from the middle class, but 90% of the productivity from the lower classes).</p>
<p><b>Plank nine.</b> The naïve ancap will more likely get fooled by the glittering generalities and the vague words spoken by conservative politicians and radio hosts.</p>
<p><b>Plank ten.</b> The naïve ancap still trusts mainstream media.</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-33689286967794289992009-03-29T07:14:00.000-07:002009-11-01T06:13:09.614-08:00The Social Anarchist Assault on Ancapistan<p>Alex, thanks again for your criticism titled <cite><a href="http://polycentricorder.blogspot.com/2009/03/fallacious-rejection-of-anarchism.html">Fallacious Rejection of Anarchism</a></cite>.</p>
<p>First of all, I consistently describe myself as a "poor writer," which means that my writing often misrepresents by beliefs. For instance, I mistyped yesterday's response and it contained grammatical errors, and, as you all know, some misrepresentations. In addition, I forgot to edit, revise, and clarify my work. Therefore I will clarify my claims that I pointed out yesterday.</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Alex said:</b> This is a misrepresentation of me. What affiliation with minarchism? I had come to negatively define anarcho-capitalism after having been one myself! ... The claim that I was a minarchist while making such claims about anarcho-capitalism is false - I held the exact same position I do now upon making those claims and considered myself a market anarchist. The allusion to me as a minarchist has nothing to do with this.</p></blockquote>
<p>Looking at <a href="http://individualist-journal.blogspot.com/">Alex's old blog</a> and his past influence from Ron Paul, I presumed that he had defined "anarcho-capitalism" that way. On his old blog, Alex had defined "anarcho-capitalism" as a system of competing private defense agencies operated by large bureaucratic firms. However, most self-described "anarcho-capitalists" disagree with Alex's narrow definition. These "anarcho-capitalists" define "anarcho-capitalism" more broadly, as a system in which its constituent individuals abide by the non-aggression principle. I hope this clarifies it up.</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Alex said:</b> My problem with anarcho-capitalism is in the assumption of a certain absolutist norm of property rights and by making a reductio ad absurdum out of what *some* anarcho-capitalists advocate. ... Anarcho-mercantalist would like to fool people into thinking that all of this is purely a semantic issue when it isn't. ... This is not merel about labels.</p></blockquote>
<p>I agree with Alex here. I try to minimize my use of "anarcho-capitalism" because of its connotations, especially when I communicate with strangers. In general, <a href="http://anarcho-mercantilist.blogspot.com/2009/03/informational-privacy-rights.html">as I mentioned before</a>, I dislike to describe myself with one-word, two-word, or three-word labels. I also disagree with with the beliefs that some (or most) of the "anarcho-capitalists" hold. In your quote of me, I meant that some "non-vulgar" market anarchists continue to use "anarcho-capitalism" to label themselves, even if they know that some (or most) of the "anarcho-capitalists" conflate the current system with a free market. </p>
<blockquote><p><b>Alex said:</b> it is generally revolved around the concern that "sticky ownership of land" as a normative absolute can justify authoritarianism, have bad socio-economic consequences and ultimately devolve into states. The concerns about anarcho-capitalism are not merely over the term itself.</p></blockquote>
<p>I know the consequences if we take "sticky" land ownership to the absolute. It might result in some cartelization of land, thus might devolve into a state. Nevertheless, the current system already cartelizes land.</p>
<p>Many "anarcho-capitalists" even favor land redistribution of past stolen land. See Rothbard's article on the <cite><a href="http://mises.org/journals/lf/1969/1969_06_15.aspx#3">Confiscation and the Homestead Principle.</a></cite></p>
<p>Many mutualists therefore do not see much difference between mutualism and "left-Rothbardianism." However, as I described earlier in an unexpectedly famous post titled <cite><a href="http://anarcho-mercantilist.blogspot.com/2008/12/left-libertarian-strategy.html?showComment=1228374000000">The Left-Libertarian Strategy</a></cite>, the "left-Rothbardians" and the mutualists differ by a lot.</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Alex said:</b> Some "anarcho-capitalists" likely dislike the term "market anarchism" precisely because it implies that they do not have a monopoly on free market ideas in anarchism. The resistance to "market anarchism" as an umbrella is a reinforcement of my own claim that "anarcho-capitalists" tend to be monocentric.</p></blockquote>
<p>I only partially agree with you here. Let us clarify this below.</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Alex said:</b> I have never taken an absolutist anti-private-property position.</p></blockquote>
<p>I apologize for misrepresenting you of opposing "private property" in all contexts. Anyway, I identify myself as a "poor and sloppy writer." Also, as you mentioned, I support "voluntary cooperatives" and oppose "corporations" if I follow your definitions.</p>
<p>I consider this sentence that I have written as unclear:</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Anarcho-mercantilist said:</b> I think Cork use 'private property' to mean the 'non-aggression principle'</p></blockquote>
<p>So we will rephrase and clarify the above statement: Cork used "private property" to mean that "no social anarchist has the right to harm the <em>legitimate private property</em> of third parties." I used "legitimate private property" here to refer to the private property legitimately owned by individuals, not stolen property held by a monarch or by the state (which <a href="http://anarcho-mercantilist.blogspot.com/2008/09/inverted-index-of-list-of-fully.html">includes taxpayer-funded contractors</a>).</p>
<p>Let us explain what Cork means below.</p>
<p>We find it unquestionable that all social anarchists—regardless of the anarcho-communist, anarcho-syndicalist, or anarcho-collectivist stripe—hate "capitalism" and "wage labor." </p>
<p>Thus, the social anarchists will invade ancapistan and attack their factory bosses, managers, landowners, and financiers—all the occupations that they consider as parasitic. Cork fears about this!</p>
<p>Alex might object to this claim because many social anarchists (such as Bakunin) speak of "voluntary associations." However, the social anarchists have a different conception of what "voluntary" means. As I mentioned <a href="http://polycentricorder.blogspot.com/2009/03/maximization-of-profit-as-morality.html?showComment=1238261460000#c1493188292628948079">before in another comment</a>, the social anarchists define the expropriation of capital and land by the workers as a non-aggressive act. Therefore, because the social anarchists argue the expropriation of capital and land as "voluntary," they will invade ancapistan and attack their factory bosses, managers, landowners, and financiers.</p>
<p>Mike Gogulski (who <a href="http://www.nostate.com/97/about-mike-gogulski-future-stateless-person/">describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist</a>) has commented his thoughts on the social anarchists in his post titled <cite><a href="http://www.nostate.com/757/agorism-and-ancap-panarchy-a-response-to-an-obama-voter/">Agorism and Ancap Panarchy</a></cite>. Mike, in one of his comments, has expressed the same fear that the social anarchists will attack ancapistan.</p>
<p>We hope that this clarifies Cork's thoughts on the social "anarchists."</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-28621165766092430922009-03-15T08:58:00.000-07:002009-11-01T08:54:36.998-08:00Anarchist Controversies<p>I disagree with some aspects of libertarianism promoted by virtually all libertarian bloggers. Thus I unsubscribed to almost all libertarian blogs. I began to criticise libertarianism since then. I took useless notes in hundreds of text files since I felt like it. I felt obsessed with the fallacies. I plan to integrate these notes in some writings. Below, I posted a possible outline of the free online book on libertarian fallacies. Almost all of the materials below did not show on my blog or any other author. So this outline does not repeat any of the fallacious ramblings on this blog.</p>
<p>I integrated 22 separate articles to this book as "chapters." I sorted these chapters so they would build up in order. I might also add 15 additional chapters in the <cite>Fallacies within Libertarianism</cite> section.</p>
<div style="max-width:50em">
<ol>
<li>The Abuse of Libertarian Theory
<ol>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The Fallacies of the Rule of Law
</dt>
<dd>
Why do authority figures abuse the rule of law? What
incentives does the system lack? Can we even interpret the law clear enough?
Indeed, libertarians often refer to the U.S. Constitution and
the non-aggression principle as the "rule of law."
Politicians use the "rule of law" to legitimize their
beliefs. Wikipedia editors, likewise, abuse the "rule of law"
for their own interests.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The Abuse of Libertarian Ethics
</dt>
<dd>
Hans-Hermann Hoppe cites the "non-aggression principle" to
justify closed borders. Likewise, some misapply the
non-aggression principle for their own ends. Indeed,
libertarian theorists cram their preferences with the
non-aggression principle to promote their own interests.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Libertarian Semantics
<ol start="3">
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The Confusing Labels of Libertarian Schools
</dt>
<dd>
We often cannot attach any specific or concrete meaning to
the words "liberal," "conservative," "capitalist," and
"socialist." Despite such usual words, we also confuse terms
such as "anarcho-capitalist." We found a surprising number of
definitions of "anarcho-capitalism," from the broad meaning
of the non-aggression principle, to the narrow, "hard
propertarian" meaning resembling fascism.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
Ontological Nonsense
</dt>
<dd>
In ontology, the "study of being," we take different
positions on "rationalism," "empiricism," "physicalism," and
"idealism." We will show the meaningless of these terms.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The Semantic Abuse of Meta-ethics
</dt>
<dd>
What does "objectivism," "subjectivism," "realism," and
"nominalism" mean? Can we agree on a specific meaning of
these terms? Can we "pick" a semantic interpretation of
ethics such as "cognitivism" and "non-cognitivism"? No, we do
not. Some will ignore this chapter as advocating
"subjectivism" or "idealism," but we claim to not hold any
position in meta-ethics.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The False Dichotomy of Consequentialism and Deontology
</dt>
<dd>
Many libertarians divide between consequentialist and
deontological ethics. We will deny this false dichotomy.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
E-Prime and Libertarian Semantics
</dt>
<dd>
Libertarians will often misrepresent others. How do we
resolve it? Some will resort to redefining terms, while
others avoid only those "controversial" terms altogether. We
found a new method to do this. We resolve this by practicing
a variety of English called E-Prime, which reduces labeling
and ontological fallacies.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Fallacies within Libertarianism
<ol start="8">
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The Slippery Slope of Lifeboat Scenarios
</dt>
<dd>
Libertarians will often extort aggression in "extreme" cases
of ethics as "lifeboat scenarios." However, they will often
abuse it and unconciously label "lifeboat situation" to every
subject that they repel. Indeed, many controversies orginate
from lifeboat scenarios. Thus we will refine "lifeboat
situations" to minimize ambiguity.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The Fallacy of Subjective Indeterminacy
</dt>
<dd>
When debating with some statists, we often go into debates on
whether we should support the state to fund some "public
goods" such as health care and housing. Many libertarians,
however, will go into the slippery slope fallacy of
"subjective indeterminacy" when debating about "public goods." Even with noting the multiple
meanings of this term, we still take the risk of going into a
version of the Sorites paradox.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
Market Forces and Cultural Preferences do not Mix
</dt>
<dd>
Some will say market competition will increase "popularity."
Some others claim that a product can "outcompete" others. However,
we should never use the metaphor "competition" to describe
social evolution. We often abuse free-market theory with
social movements.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The Theory of Popularity and Fringeness
</dt>
<dd>
Why many so many people adore a belief or ideology and ignore
others? Why does not the majority of economists practice
Austrian Economics? Why typists avoid the Dvorak keyboard
layout? We will claim the underlying factors of popularity,
and the unpopularity of non-mainstream viewpoints.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
Why Do We Grow?
</dt>
<dd>
What does it mean for the economy to grow? Does it mean
increased labor productivity or increased use-value
satisfaction of its individuals? Should we even consider
individual productivity as a virtue? We will conclude
"economic growth" as a nonsensical concept.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
Free-Market Manorialism: Why We All Rent and Invest Capital
</dt>
<dd>
Some will argue "rent" will decrease, due to increased land
availble and lower time-preferenecs. Some will predict land
prices to increase, thus labeling the free-market as
"manorialistic." However, we will all ubitiquously rent in a
free market, whether we like it or not.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The Myth of Regulatory Expansion
</dt>
<dd>
Some net neutrality detractors, such as libertarians, oppose
increased interventions on Internet service providers.
However, they often oppose it for flawed reasons. Can
citizens even restrain the state? Some will say no, and some
will argue yes. The Public Choice Fallacy comes.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The Economic-Demographic Myth and Sociobiological Evolution
</dt>
<dd>
Ronald Reagan once claimed the free-market as "the best
contraceptive." Ludwig von Mises and Mary Ruwart said the
same thing. Should we accept that free markets reduce birth
rates? Despite this fad, the opposite actually happens. Free
markets increase birth rates, and economic planning reduces
it. Also, due to sociobiological evolution, even a socialist
society will increase birth rates in the long-run.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The Dow Jones Fallacy
</dt>
<dd>
Libertarian enthusiasts and economists capture stock market
indices as a hobby. However, they fail to take account of the
accuracy of the reporting. Can the Dow Jones measure the
entire economy accurately? The Dow consists of the 30
privileged firms and biases itself on cartelized sectors of
the economy. Simply no.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Libertarian Traps
<ol start="17">
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The Ubitiquity of Policy Libertarianism
</dt>
<dd>
Even many those libertarians who oppose electoral politics support some form of policy libertarianism, whether criticizing Obama as a person or promoting "welfare reform" as conservatives do.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
Obama Will Not Instigate Revival
</dt>
<dd>
Many conservatives and libertarians alike, applaud Obama. They want Obama to mess the economy up so the general population will see socialism, in general, as a failure.
However, Obama supporters will not blame socialism in itself, but will blame Obama for "mismanaging" and "bad policies." Just like how the Democrats do not blame Bush for the war, but blame the "mismanagement" or "bad intelligence." They do not criticize the war in itself.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
Against Anti-Federalism
</dt>
<dd>
Almost all proponents of libertarianism, including many mutualists, support "states' rights" or defederalization of the federal republic. They will even support "local control of schools and health care" and every other thing.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
Radicalism and the Politicial Process
</dt>
<dd>
Politicans fool more libertarians than we know. They will
often fool even those who do not practice electoral politics. In the early stages of the campaign, politicians will often lie to attract the radical grassroots first, and then speak in a less and less rhetoric towards the end stages of the campaign.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
How Conservatives Deceive Libertarians
</dt>
<dd>
Conservatives often speak of "deregulation," "less spending," and oppose "socialized medicine" that appeals to some libertarians. However, almost all of such terms have multiple meanings.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
<li>
<dl>
<dt>
The Libertarian Case Against Wikipedia
</dt>
<dd>
Often, libertarians will get stuck in a bureaucratic
institution called Wikipedia. Not suprisingly, they often get
wound up on wasteful debates about changing the article
titles, prescribing their own definitions of some libertarian
terms, and putting non-mainstream knowledge and links which
invites editors to revert. Besides those numerous false
sockpuppet convictions, the editors lack many incentives to
improve articles and accept contributions from dissidents
other than to revert their edits.
</dd>
</dl>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
</div>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-12218099668899605152009-03-08T11:39:00.000-07:002009-11-01T08:31:24.208-08:00Against Information Privacy<p>I dislike to describe my beliefs with one-word, two-word, or three-word labels. Such labels, which include "libertarian," "anarcho-capitalist," and "agorist," describe belief systems inaccurately and imprecisely. Also, I dislike to describe myself with words that I consider as glittering generalities, such as "individualist." I will therefore describe myself below in a precise and concrete dialect.</p><p>To label my belief system more precisely, I believe in total informational freedom and oppose all forms of censorship, informational privacy "rights," and publicity "rights." Such informational privacy "rights" only protect criminals (which includes the state), enhance groupthink, discourage group cohesiveness, encourages dishonesty and free riders, violates the freedom of thought, and contradicts with ethical individualism. And most arguments for informational privacy "rights" rest on the flawed argument that employers would "discriminate" employees. To achieve total informational freedom, I support the re-legalization of defamation, slander, libel, hate speech, blackmail, voyeurism, audio and video recording, eavesdropping, and the banned privacy-destroying technologies.</p>
<p>I posted this because many market anarchists, and self-described "individualists," support some types of censorship.</p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-33445858574566360862009-01-23T12:09:00.000-08:002009-11-01T09:06:29.557-08:00Against Punishment - Even Nonviolent Punishment<p>I want to apologize that I misrepresented BrainPolice's position on punishment. I generally agree with his opinion in punishment. I view punishment as a "pragmatic measure to deter crimes that psychopaths plan to commit." While I do regard that the current statist society constantly misapplies punitive measures, I do believe, that even in anarchy, punishment must exist to deter certain crimes. I disagree that boycotts, as promoted by <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/3867604/FDR-5-Practical-Anarchy">Stephen Molyneux</a> (pages 118-119), stands as an effective measure to deter crime.
</p><p>I disbelieve in the "indoctrination of children" and the "operant conditioning" pseudoscience promoted by the behaviorist school of psychology. In fact, I oppose punishment more than even the most <a href="http://thesacredmoment.blogspot.com/2006/02/essays-based-on-work-of-alice-miller.html">radical detractors of corporal punishment</a>. I differ from them because I do not only oppose corporal punishment, but I oppose <em>all</em> types of punishment inflicted on children (unless the child psychopathically committed a crime). I view punishment as an irrational act, and it suffers from agent-principle problems. Children can easily avoid being punished from their parents, just like how some drug dealers can avoid being kidnapped by the state.
</p><p>I do not hold a Freudian view, as in <a href="http://freedomainradio.com/board/blogs/freedomain/archive/2008/09/11/book-on-truth-the-tyranny-of-illusion.aspx">Stephan Molyneux</a> and <a href="http://libertarian-left.blogspot.com/2007/12/raising-children.html">Danny Shadar</a>, that childhood experiences primarily determine the behaviors in adult life. </p>Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167174016275703196.post-25929704285305249532009-01-20T12:51:00.000-08:002009-11-01T06:22:33.062-08:00Limitations on Self-Defense<p>In response to <a href="http://polycentricorder.blogspot.com/2009/01/putting-nap-in-its-proper-context.html">BrianPolice's view</a> on self-defense, I posted my view on self-defense below:</p>
Previous posts related to this topic include <a href="http://anarcho-mercantilist.blogspot.com/2008/08/fallacies-of-moral-subjectivism.html">The Fallacies of Moral Subjectivism</a> and <a href="http://anarcho-mercantilist.blogspot.com/2008/06/subjective-property.html">Subjective Property</a>
<p>I will articulate my view below:</p>
<p>Some individuals will use strawman arguments against those who oppose deadly force when trespassing, as "anti-victim" or "anti-defense." They often misinterpret the definition of "punishment," so they will see the libertarian law of <em>proportional punishment</em> as promoting aggression. Too often, they conflate "punishment" with "self-defense." Punishment, however, is defined as the commission of deterrence only <em>after</em> the crime has commissioned; while self-defense is the use of force when a crime is commissioning. Thus, libertarian law does not forbid imposing "unproportional" force in the situation of self-defense.</p>
<p>Detractors of the libertarian law of proportional punishment argue that since value is subjective, no one can accurately determine the "proportional" compensation. However, as we will argue that property boundaries are <em>also</em> subjective, so these arguments presents a straw-man.</p>
<p>The law of proportional punishment can be better rephrased as the <em>compensatory damages should be proportional.</em> The law of proportionality, however, does not give any limit on the amount of <em>punitive</em> damages.</p>
<p>However, whether a "crime" has occurred or not is also subjective, but not to the extent of valuation. For example, if an individual mistakenly recognized one's house as a shopping store; he will come in; but the owner of the house will shoot him in the certain cultural context, if some walks up in the person's yard or walkway; the owner of the house does not have the right to kill him, since in the social context, yard's and walkaways leads to his door, in order to communicate.</p>
<p>Self-defense, unlike punishment, does not follow the proportionality law. The owner has the right to use deadly force against the aggressor; if the aggressor's knows that he is intentionally being mischievous and is harming you.</p>
<p>If the individual knows that he is intentionally being mischievous, and knows the risk that the owner might shoot him; but then aggresses your property anyway; then shooting him is certainly justified.</p>
<p>If an individual places a sign in front of his property that said "all trespassers will be shot," then it is possible that someone might still think that they are permitted to walk up in his walkaway or yard, to communicate with to owner. Individuals who do not know how to read English are more likely to ignore the sign. Even if the warning is very obvious to the common man, what if a colorblind person didn't notice the sign?</p>
<p>But it depends on the intentionally of the aggressor. If an robber uses his unloaded gun against you, the aggressor is clearly being intentional in this situation; so it is justified to shoot him.</p>
<p>However, suppose a random individual who is confused walks in your lawn; the individual might think that he is on commonly-owned property. Thus, the homeowner does not have the right to use deadly force against him.</p>
<p>If someone "breaks in" the house by breaking doors or windows, you clearly have the right to use deadly force; as the aggressor is clearly being intentional, as he destroyed your property.</p>
<p>Suppose you own a house, that has automatic doors, and has large windows that show a large variety of goods inside it. With both of these, your house displays the common features of a shopping store. Many individuals who look at your house would, according to the appearence, confuse your house with a shopping store. If the "shoppers" go inside your house planning to buy stuff; you do not have the right to shoot them; because the look and feel of your house resembles too much like a shopping store, thus displaying an "implicit contract" granting any individuals to enter.</p>
<p>Thus, it is too subjective if such "implicit contract" allowing individuals to enter exists. Suppose an individual grows up in a different culture that permits individuals to step on your front yard. When he moves to a different society with a different culture that does not tolerate anyone walking on the front yard, he will likely be shot. Suppose an individual that does not know English misinterprets your building as some public resort so he enters. He, too, will likely be shot.</p>
<p>Thus, we have proved that property boundaries may potentially have subjective interpretations.</p>
<p>Everyone has the right to self-ownership. Thus everyone has the right to die. So if an individual enter's another property and assumes that the risk that the homeowner will shoot him at self-defense, the homeowner can shoot. But due to vague property boundaries, no one can be sure if the individual is behaving mischievously.</p>
<p>So we will have a "common law" that establishes and objectively defines these boundaries.</p>
<p>We will have different arbitrators, because due to cultural and social differences, not all arbitrators are typically suited to judge within different cultural standards of aggression. For example, if some cultures define "hate speech" as a form of aggression, and some other cultures that that does not consider it as aggressive; different societies will construct different variants of common law that defines specific cases such as "hate speech" as aggressive or not.</p>
<p>Different versions of common law will define the "implicit contract" of the shopping store, as exemplified above. This will deter the arbitrary interpretation of subjective interpretations of aggression, thus will make individuals have greater confidence.</p>
<p>For example, if the common law approves the use of deadly force against merely trespassers walking on the front yard, then very few people will walk outside, in the fear that they will unintentionally step on someone's property and the owners will use deadly force against them. Therefore, a common law system will spring up in anarchy that forbids deadly force, in the case of trespassing when no greater threats or aggression is involved, to make people less worried of unintentionally stepping another's property.</p>
<p>Let us assume that a contract exists between the store owner and a shopper that permits the store owner to use of any force, or, in different case, if the aggressor fully knows that he is behaving aggressively, and he clearly understood that he will have risk if the crime has commissioned. Thus, following this logic, the store owner can legitimately use deadly force against individual who steals bubble gum, if the robber clearly knows that he will be facing serious consequences including being shot. However, too often the bubble gum theft occurs unintentionally, thus it will likely increase fear, and might make some avoid shopping in stores anymore. Also, it might be the case that the shopper brought his own gum to the store, so the store owner might mistakenly confuse their bubble gum with his. This will further instill fear, so individuals will likely avoid doing any action that might be misinterpreted by others.</p>
<p>A solution to these problems implying risk is to propose a common law specifying the property boundaries, the legitimate amounts of force in each given situation, and the agreeing in the amount of compensation in the event of property torts. Without common law defining, or "de-subjectifying" the values of various goods, proportional compensation and punishment is not possible. Common law is the solution to objectively definine the boundaries, the cultures (see the walkway example) and standards to judge the "implicit contract," so individuals will not be subject to various interpretations of boundaries and rules defining fraud. In addition, because the individual voluntarily agrees on a legal system that they chose themselves, this will solve the cultural problems and will not confuse the non-English speakers. At last, the legal system in an ararchic society will be competitive, and the individual may choose to live in societies enforcing any laws as he wishes.</p>
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The distinction between property damage and no property damage cannot be justified. The value of property and coercion is valued subjectively. Thus, it is impossible to objectively tell whether property damage has occurred.<br /><br />Some people would consider that flying an airplane above some land is coercion and some would consider air pollution damage.<br /><br />Suppose if one throws away some stuff that "looks" useless. However, the owner of the product have the knowledge of it, thus have the ability to estimate the value. The owner of the product sees it as highly valuable. Thus, that would cause conflict.<br /><br />If an owner decides to leave a highly valued object outside, he is implicitly accpeting the risk of some person in a parachute landing there, some bird landing there or some airplane crashing in the object. Thus, the best way to prevent conflict is to protect the object, such as building a wall or moving it inside a house. Since value is subjectivly, it is very important to protect some objects that is subjectively valued important. Otherwise, the court might value the object lesser.<br /><br />Another effect of applying this logic is proportional punishment. If a parachuter lands on the important object and breaks it, he does not deserve to die. Instead, he should offer compensation. Anyway, the owner of the object is implicitly accpeting the risks that are more likely to happen such as birds and crashing airplanes.<br /><br />But if the owner puts the object inside a building or builds a wall, the intruder deserves much more servere punishment for breaking in.<br /><br />Humans assume many biases, such as the assumption that every person owns the space directly above the land. However, this is false. One can fly airplanes or build houses that overlap them. These are legitimate only if they are not directly damaging property. But due to subjectivity, there is no clear line to define.<br /><br />Suppose one surrounds a fence around someone's house to block them so they can starve to death. This is illegitimate sometimes and sometimes legitimate.<br /><br />So commonly-agreed laws would form in an anarchist society to prevent such things. Voluntary associations would form to prevent them.Anarcho-Mercantilisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05536890545703938679noreply@blogger.com0