{"id":1743,"date":"2009-03-06T15:07:47","date_gmt":"2009-03-06T05:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1743"},"modified":"2009-03-06T20:29:45","modified_gmt":"2009-03-06T10:29:45","slug":"the-prodos-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1743","title":{"rendered":"The Prodos Challenge!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prodos Marinakis is challenged<\/strike> has a challenge. An advocate of laissez-faire<\/em> capitalism, Prodos lacks sufficient capital to be a successful capitalist, and instead must content himself with barracking from the sidelines and engaging in self-promotion; hoping, presumably, that at some point his loudness will transform itself, via<\/em> the magic of the marketplace, into lucre<\/em>. A useful idiot, in other words, whose utility remains somewhat obscure.<\/p>\n

The Prodos challenge<\/a> is two-fold. First, advocate capitalism, and obtain a blog provided by Prodos<\/a>. Secondly, “Over the next week [beginning February 28] write three posts, each of which includes at least one quote from any of these \u201cBig Seven\u201d Thinkers<\/a>: Aristotle, John Locke, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Frederic Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises and Ayn Rand”.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I do not advocate capitalism, and I already got a blog. Still…<\/p>\n

Aristotle<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Marx’s central criticism of capitalism was neither that it robbed working people nor that it denied them elementary personal freedoms. Certainly he thought that capitalism did both, but more important, Marx condemned capitalism because it murdered what is most beautiful in human beings, the potential for creativity and intelligence. The fulcrum by which he judged capitalism he borrowed from Aristotle.” ~ Roger Boesche, Theories of Tyranny, from Plato to Arendt<\/em>, Penn State Press, 1995, p.238<\/p>\n

John Locke<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leave enough, and as good. But leave. Please.<\/p>\n

Adam Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n

When a person is converted to a tool of production, he “has no occasion to to exert his understanding, or to exercise his invention”, and “he naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become”, his mind falling “into that drowsy stupidity which, in a civilized society, seems to benumb the understanding of almost all the inferior ranks of people”. ~ Book Five, Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth, Expense of the Institutions for the Education of Youth<\/a>, Wealth of Nations<\/em> (1776)<\/p>\n

Thomas Jefferson<\/strong> \/ Wendell Phillips <\/p>\n

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”<\/p>\n

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty\u2014power is ever stealing from the many to the few\u2026. The hand entrusted with power becomes \u2026 the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continual oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot: only by<\/em> unintermitted Agitation can a people be kept sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Frederic Bastiat<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Who?]<\/p>\n

Ludwig von Mises<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I \u2665 the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.”<\/p>\n

Ayn Rand<\/strong><\/p>\n

“A=A.” For further elaboration, see<\/em>: A=A FAQ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Prodos Marinakis is challenged has a challenge. An advocate of laissez-faire capitalism, Prodos lacks sufficient capital to be a successful capitalist, and instead must content himself with barracking from the sidelines and engaging in self-promotion; hoping, presumably, that at some … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-s7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}