{"id":11417,"date":"2010-02-25T23:53:41","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T06:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=11417"},"modified":"2010-02-25T23:53:41","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T06:53:41","slug":"meet-the-third-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11417\/meet-the-third-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Third Thing…"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This is an essay I wrote in the mid-1990s, an attempt to explain to libertarians, especially various flavors of devotees of Ayn Rand, why the idea of a minimal state must always fail — just as the minimal state as envisioned in 1789 is failing right now. The argument holds up well, I think — though I am by now less lean-look’d a prophet. It’s just that no one wants to hear it… –GSS]<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
\nThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;
\nThings fall apart; the center cannot hold;
\nMere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
\nThe blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
\nThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;
\nThe best lack all conviction, while the worst
\nAre full of passionate intensity.
\nSurely some revelation is at hand;
\nSurely the Second Coming is at hand.
\nThe Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
\nWhen a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi<\/em>
\nTroubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
\nA shape with lion body and the head of a man,
\nA gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
\nIs moving its slow thighs, while all about it
\nReel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
\nThe darkness drops again; but now I know
\nThat twenty centuries of stony sleep
\nWere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
\nAnd what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
\nSlouches towards Bethlehem to be born?<\/p>\n

William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The first thing to do is laugh, of course.<\/p>\n

We stare tragedy right in the face, so close to it we can smell its stale breath, and it is reaching for us.<\/p>\n

Everything we say should not, must not, cannot happen — every bit of it does happen. Teenage gang-bangers with AR-15s car-jack Sally Suburbanite and toss her baby out the window. Middle-aged speed freaks imprison their own mothers and force them to write bad checks. One-hundred-thirty-five years after emancipation, people are owned as slaves and the value of their labor is stolen from them. The falcon cannot hear the falconer and Vicky Weaver and 81 Branch Davidians lay slain.<\/p>\n

Should not. Must not. Cannot. Does.<\/p>\n

And there’s plenty more, of course, and every bit of it is tragic. Except us, for we are tragic Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This is an essay I wrote in the mid-1990s, an attempt to explain to libertarians, especially various flavors of devotees of Ayn Rand, why the idea of a minimal state must always fail — just as the minimal state as envisioned in 1789 is failing right now. The argument holds up well, I think — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251,24,212,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-big-mother","7":"category-egoism-in-action","8":"category-flourishing","9":"category-group-therapy","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4976,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4976\/the-soul-of-wit-boiling-obama-down-to-his-essence\/","url_meta":{"origin":11417,"position":0},"title":"The soul of wit: Boiling Obama down to his essence","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is Melanie Phillips in the Spectator:You have to pinch yourself \u2013 a Marxisant radical who all his life has been mentored by, sat at the feet of, worshipped with, befriended, endorsed the philosophy of, funded and been in turn funded, politically promoted and supported by a nexus comprising black\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13551,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13551\/tte-tte-in-tombstone\/","url_meta":{"origin":11417,"position":1},"title":"Tête-à-tête in Tombstone","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie story When the shadow blocked the doorway of Johnny Ringo's, everyone in the bar looked up. The door was propped open and traffic was brisk. The glare of the late afternoon sun fought the gloom of the little taproom to a draw. But then gloom captured\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5705,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5705\/you-dont-hear-many-msm-analysts-making-this-obvious-connection\/","url_meta":{"origin":11417,"position":2},"title":"“…you don’t hear many MSM analysts making this obvious connection”","author":"Richard Riccelli","date":"November 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting piece at kausfiles.com.\u00a0 Excerpt: Real estate prices started to plummet just as expectations of imminent semi-amnesty were turning into the reality of harsher enforcement. Schools in immigrant heavy areas of L.A. for example,\u00a0reported declining enrollments in 2006.\u00a0 The\u00a0nationwide character of the Gran Salida\u00a0became apparent,\u00a0even to the press\u00a0by early 2008.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2682,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2682\/words-never-fail-we-hear-them-we-read-them-they-enter-into-the-mind-and-become-part-of-us-for-as-long-as-we-shall-live-who-speaks-reason-to-his-fellow-men-bestows-it-upon-them-who-mouths-inanity\/","url_meta":{"origin":11417,"position":3},"title":"Words never fail. We hear them, we read them; they enter into the mind and become part of us for as long as we shall live. Who speaks reason to his fellow men bestows it upon them. 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I was told that the goals were pretty widely shared\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1369,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1369\/welcome-to-the-peoples-republic-of-california-steve-jobs-cannot-tear-down-his-own-house\/","url_meta":{"origin":11417,"position":4},"title":"Welcome to the People’s Republic of California: Steve Jobs cannot tear down his own house","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Palo Alto Online:The California Supreme Court does not want to hear about Steve Jobs\u2019 quest to tear down a historic Woodside mansion. On April 25, the state's high court turned down Jobs' petition to hear his case. Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc., has been waging a losing battle against\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7572,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7572\/by-applying-cdss-to-cdos-did-aig-go-mia-or-could-the-sec-the-ots-and-one-unhired-cfo-have-kept-it-from-turning-up-doa\/","url_meta":{"origin":11417,"position":5},"title":"By applying CDSs to CDOs, did AIG go MIA? 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