I used to think that some people were ignorant, but otherwise intelligent – they just didn’t have all the facts. Surely, once they gather all the evidence, they’ll see their error in judgment. Of course, there are still plenty of people who are ignorant, gain knowledge or experience, and alter their position on a given subject. Unfortunately, there are also plenty that don’t.
I’m tired of hearing how nice it is to have a president who’s intelligent. I’m tired of hearing how smart he and his people are relative to their predecessors. Don’t get me wrong, President Bush was no genius, but I don’t think the intelligence gap is what people have made it out to be. President Obama is crafty and an excellent orator (when he has a prepared speech); that’s not real intelligence – i.e., the ability to reason, think logically, and make sound decisions accordingly.
How can anyone with half a brain and the facts that are available to anyone with access to Google or (God forbid) a book, think that the financial crisis was caused by capitalism; that what we had before the recession was free market (laissez-faire) capitalism and what we need now is to reign in the “free” part and regulate the greedy sons of bitches. For those paying attention and have ever been on a debate team or studied logic or philosophy, what President Obama and many before him are employing is the classic straw man argument.
A straw man argument is a fallacy whereby you misrepresent or exaggerate the opposing position, making it weaker and thus easy to knock down (like a man made of straw). It is a very effective way to win an argument if the people you’re trying to convince (the American people, for example) aren’t really paying attention. Here’s an example: Anyone who is pro-choice believes it’s alright to kill babies. This argument misrepresents and exaggerates the pro-choice position, thus making it easy to argue against. Here’s another: Pro-Lifer’s think it’s alright to kill actual human beings for the sake of a zygote. Obviously, this is an exaggerated position as well, making it easy to refute the pro-life position.
This is what President Obama and anyone else who says capitalism caused the financial meltdown, are doing. There are only two possibilities – either he is not as smart as everyone thinks he is or he is much more dangerous than I predicted before the election.
I’m going to break this down over a couple of posts. First let’s do something that should always be done at the top, but has yet to be done by any who are involved – we must define our terms.
Capitalism – A social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which there is a complete separation between state and economics. This is a definition of free market or laissez-faire capitalism.
Mixed Economy – A social system which has a mixture of private ownership and state ownership and controls.
Which one did we have prior to the financial collapse? If you say free market capitalism, check your definitions (and your premises)!
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