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From: ellis@chips.sri.com (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: alt.individualism
Subject: Real World
Message-ID: <8170@unix.SRI.COM>
Date: 18 Jan 90 19:42:05 GMT
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Reply-To: ellis@chips.sri.com.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
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Organization: Berkeley Private Language Institute
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> Peter Nelson

>   I propose, as I have all along, that the Real World is the 
>   ultimate arbiter of all truth.

    Obviously, but then who here has ever argued against that precious gem
    of wisdom? Are you next going to start telling us that "A = A"?

>   And in the Real World your "right" to a piece of property is a
>   complex matter based on custom, law, and your immediate resources
>   and ability to  use those resources to successfully defend your
>   property  rights.

    Indeed, the low level nitty gritty of rights certainly includes
    all that hairy stuff, and a lot more. Accounting for what rights are
    in rigorous terms at the physical level may well be beyond the
    power of reason itself. 

    Yet oddly enough, a child can understand property rights. 

    Now if you prefer to see rights as sorts of customs whose future
    maintenance is enthusiastically endorsed by the hoi polloi, that's
    your trip, I suppose. Seen in that light, "natural rights" are
    local customs that are in the process of becoming global customs.
    That doesn't make them any less real, nor do I see what distinguishes
    them from that most sacred of all western lore -- Science.

-michael