Mangled Thoughts

Posted by D
`Anti-discrimination laws’ are acts of discrimination, as dicta by govt. attemptting to coerce citizens to exercise the discrimination set in the `law’ or, at least, to comply with the judgement of those who are in govt or interests given special treatment by govts.

Discrimination cannot but be exercised, daily. We discriminate between 2+2=4 and 2+2=5 on logical lines and little Johnny or Sally are chided their work is wrong and that they should cease being lazy and attend to their homework.
Discrimination is exercised when an employer selects an employee over other possible employees. Discrimination is exercised aesthetically : a poem or novel that is well written, badly, or indifferently competent and then judge the theme.
Parents exercise discrimination in choosing schools for their children, children’s friends - don’t play with that lot, they are thugs and so a bad influence, never associate with them, they will pull you down.

The exercise of discrimination is not only unavoidable it is elementary in steering a course through life. The foundations of an open society, free markets, yes laissez faire, and the rule of law, have induced the exercise of discrimination on rational grounds, not according to one’s subjective view of things but on objective grounds such as evidence, theory, experience, usually all three at once.

The notion of anti-discrimination is outright nonsense.In an article, 1944,on
The Socialist Calumny Against the Jews , Ludwig von Mises wrote something which has bearing upon the subject of the ethanol scam:

Interventionism means compulsory discrimination, which fur?thers the interests of a minority of citizens at the expense of the majority. Nevertheless discrimination can be applied in a demo?cratic community too. Various minority groups form an alliance and thereby a majority group in order to obtain privileges for each. For instance, a country’s wheat producers, cattle breeders, and wine growers form a farmers’ party; they succeed in obtaining discrimination against foreign competitors and thus privileges for each of the three groups. The costs of the privilege granted to the wine growers burden the rest of the community?including the cattle breeders and wheat producers?and so on for each of the others.

It cannot be gainsaid, however, to muse, of the Australian wine-industry which is an industry of entrepeneurs and they run to markets, not govt. `welfarism’ for business. In return, they are sacked even more than other types of businesses and , of course, endure other special treatments from the likes of little pen-pusher man Carmody and his cast of spivs of the ATO, over and above all the other stasi-land `laws’ and police powers they exercise.

The Oz wine industry aside, von Mises remarks indeed apply no less to the economic policies of Menzies. By contrast, the Cain-Kirner govts.sunk below the depths of poor judgement , now repeated by the current pack of Spivs on the Treasury benches in Spring St. It applies equally to many policies and legislation of the Coalition govt. and Latham , on the strength of what he has announced so far, plans more intrusive, police-state measures.

The pertinence to the von Mises article is, in an open market economy, an individual may be ill-disposed to Jews or any other, women indeed, but apart from saying not patronising a business owned by a Jew or hiring and promoting a woman, they are not free to impose their prejudices upon others. Not that prejudice is wrong per se, one is prejudiced against socialism, against gangsters,zoos paraded as schools, greenies, they are good prejudices to hold, an act of sound judgement, discriminations indispensible to eliminating fools, thugs, commie dictators from any position which has bearing beyond their own capricious, savage little habits and beliefs.

A shopkeeper, of course, is also free to not serve any one they disapprove of, it may be financial folly but they are, in common law free to do so. There can indeed, at times, be a good reason not to serve someone in particular. Likewise hiring and promotion of women, it might be folly to not do so, missing out on expertise because the hirer is not so disposed towards women. But, then, there can also be good reason not to so treat women.

The reality is,open fre markets reward, over the long run, the exercise of sound judgment. The arrogation by central bodies, whether church, Imams, central govts. of the exercise of discrimination, eliminating the freedom of citizens to freely exercise is discrimination, does not lead to a more moral, better, more enlightened world. To the contrary, it is the intervention of few in the act of imposing their own prejudices, good, bad, indifferent, upon all others. This capricious, coercive, totalitarian bent of far too many,is itself one act the force of which is to undermine civilisation. Needless to say, the demand of the Queensland cane-growers that oil refioners and consumers be compelled to take ethanol in fuel is an outrageous and savage, totalitarian demand.

No less totalitarian in force are the Spring St Spivs blasphemy `laws ‘ and HEROC. No less savage is `industrial law’. No less barabaric too are `anti-discrimination laws’ and so many other laws each tier of govt. has dreamt up to impose the prejudices of some upon others.

Behind the assault on free markets and common law, behind the morlaising, hectoring special pleading by which each tier of govt. asserts, this or that intervention is not only warranted but, mind, `necessary’, stands the beliefs and mores of the tin-pot dictator emergent.