Libertarian Parables

Perhaps you have seen this remarkable video, linked to here by Wolfgang. Of course it has plenty of natural interest, but I would like to interpret it as a parable of Libertarians and Collectivists.

Two social groups, one of libertarians and one of collectivists, meet on the stage. The libertarians, it turns out, are much more numerous, and individually more dangerous, but still it's one of them that gets eaten alive. The drama has four acts: in the first, the encounter with the collectivists scattering the libts, then pulling down a weak one. In the second act, bandits attempt to rob the colls of their reward, but in the third act they snatch their prize and sit down to dinner. At this point (act four), the libertarians come back together, stare angrily at the colls, and an Ayn Rand hero among them steps forward to send collectivists flying. After a few more join the skirmish, the collectivists are dispersed, and their prey, somehow miraculously still alive after having been dinner for bandits and colls alike, staggers back to the group.

It's pretty hard to imagine that our victim survived its wounds, but it's hard to see how it stayed alive that long, so who knows. If the libts had rallied and resisted from the first, it's hard to believe our aggressor would have had any chance at all.

For both our groups, political alignment is in the genes. For humans, it is more complicated, and we each choose sometimes one social strategy and sometime the other.

Another parable, the source of which I have forgotten: A ministry of agriculture official is studyinging a village of subsistence farmers. He notices that they all consistently plant weeks later than the optimal time, and asks them why.

Because of the birds, they say. The first farmer to plant loses most of his seed to the birds.

"So why don't you all agree to plant at once," the official asks? "That way the birds would only get a little from each of you.

"But if we could do that," said the farmer, "then we wouldn't be poor."