a word on "cd"

[bigmike]

i have the good fortune of renting a room from a brilliant/crazy poly-sci professor. this guy starts his first class with a lecture on jury nullification and is a key player in the marijuana legalization movement here in michigan. when he ran as a libertarian for state rep years ago, his campaign slogan was "i'm for what you're for, i'm against what you're against!"

in our discussions regarding the free state project and my enthusiasm for becoming involved in acts of civil disobedience, he printed out a portion of "civil disobedience" written by henry david thomas and updated by timothy w. deville that i thought most of the readers here would appreciate:

"the mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. they are the standing army, and the militia, jailors, constables, posses, etc. in most cases they exercise no free judgement or moral sense; they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and robots can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purposes as well. such as they command no more respect than a lump of dirt. they have the same worth as horses or dogs. yet such as these are commonly thought of as good citizens.

others - as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and officeholders - serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, the are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as god.

a very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it."

[Sam A. Robrin]

Uh--Thoreau.  Henry David Thoreau.
Otherwise, great quote!

[David]

The first libertarian that I met that said he was one, was an economics teacher.  At the time I was a budding but not commited communist, and I thought he was cold hearted, at least in his retoric.  I liked him as a person though.   
Thoreau, good man.  An original abolitionist.   

[bigmike]

thanks for the correction sam.

i'm going to try to track down that book.

[Sam A. Robrin]

The first libertarian that I met that said he was one, was an economics teacher.  At the time I was a budding but not commited communist, and I thought he was cold hearted, at least in his retoric.  I liked him as a person though.   

A quote attributed to just about everybody except Mark Twain, H. L. Mencken, or Oscar Wilde has it that if a man is not a socialist at 20, he has no heart; if a man is still a socialist at 40, he has no brains . . .

[David]

I'm 26.    
BigMike, here online. 
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/t#a54

[bigmike]

thanks so much david for that link.

i'm sure i'll end up spending hours on that site