Stultitia Delenda Est

Robert Zubrin is one of the most important advocates for space flight we have. His book The Case for Mars is one of the single best pieces of space-related writing I’ve found, and it makes an extremely convincing case for putting human boots on Mars. Moreover, it lays out an excellent sketch of how we might accomplish exactly that. It’s well worth your time and attention.

So I was happy to see Mr. Zubrin has written an excellent article for the next issue of Reason magazine on the topic of space flight safety. It’s available to read online. An excerpt:

Keeping astronauts safe merits significant expenditure. But how much? There is a potentially unlimited set of testing procedures, precursor missions, technological improvements, and other protective measures that could be implemented before allowing human beings to once again try flying to other worlds. Were we to adopt all of them, we would wind up with a human spaceflight program of infinite cost and zero accomplishment. In recent years, the trend has moved in precisely that direction, with NASA’s manned spaceflight effort spending more and more to accomplish less and less. If we are to achieve anything going forward, we have to find some way to strike a balance between human life and mission accomplishment.

Disclosure Notice

This video massively increases my respect for Vanilla Ice:

Via my friend Ann and Stereogum.

Thesis: Take any video and give it a Glitch Mob soundtrack, and the subject matter instantly becomes 112% cooler. Case in point? Manatees:

Sirenia Shadows from Built By Wildman on Vimeo.

Video via io9 and my good friend Ann.

I wanted to draw attention to two essays that I think hint at important facets of the debate in libertarianism vs. statism. First, Robert Higgs, writing for The Independent Institute, discusses the problem of burden of proof and the massive status quo bias that crushes and discussion of libertarian politics.

Morally speaking, it would seem that those who opt in favor of coercive arrangements ought to bear the burden of proof. If the state is such a superior arrangement, by comparison with genuine, voluntary self-government, why must the state be propped up by all of its police and armed forces? Why must people be constantly threatened with imprisonment and death in order to bring forth the revenues that support the state’s activities? Walmart does not put a gun to my head to gain my patronage.

He also hits on one fact that I think is crucial to overcoming status quo bias, which is that our modern system of nation states is relatively new and, historically speaking, an aberration. I wished he’d given it more consideration, but he does point out that nation states in their modern form are only a few hundred years old.

My only strong point of contention with Higgs’ essay is that I think he oversteps his case when he lumps science in with politics in his discussion of burdens of proof. The burden of proof does and ought operate differently in the two fields.

Higgs’ essay reminded me of an excellent essay by E. W. Dykes called “Demunicipalize the Garbage Service“. It was originally published in the April, 1968 issue of The Freeman and it’s pretty well known in libertarian circles, but I think it’s worth a read for non-libertarians as well. An excerpt:

War — like many other of to­day’s problems — is the culmina­tion of the breaking of libertarian principles, not once, but thousands of times. We are challenged to jump in at this point and apply our principles to get out of the unholy mess resulting from years and years of errors on errors. The challenge might just as well have been put in terms like this: “You are a second lieutenant. Your platoon is surrounded. Your am­munition is gone. Two of your squad leaders are dead, the third severely wounded. Now, Mr. Lib­ertarian, let’s see you get out of this one with your little semi­nars.”

My answer: “Demunicipalize the garbage service.”

Dykes’ essay isn’t meant to imply the libertarians are inured to war, far from it. Just that asking for a libertarian answer to war on its own is a bit like asking a vegan chef how to avoid burning your steaks. If you really followed the vegan’s advice, the problem never would have come up in the first place.

To me, the modern equivalent of the War question for libertarians is welfare. A lot of people ask me what libertarian policies suggest to people currently dependent on government welfare. And when I admit that, for many of them, a move to a libertarian society would suck, it’s suddenly the libertarian society, not the dependent welfare statism that crowded out private charity and fostered a system of dependence, that is the culprit.

Want to know the libertarian answer to modern welfare? Demunicipalize the garbage service. Asking libertarians to solve problems that are, in part or in whole, the product of statist policies isn’t non-sensical, but it to cast unsatisfactory answers as failures of libertarianism rather than the statism that caused the problem in the first place, is a bit wrong-headed.

After all, in the 20th century, governments killed over 200 million people. Not just in wars, but also in industrialized slaughter. To put this in perspective, about 520,000 people were murdered by private citizens in 2000.

This means that, at year-2000 murder rates, it would take private citizens about 390 years to commit as much carnage as governments did in the hundred years from 1901 to 2000. Put more plainly, the best data available suggests that governments kill about four times as many people in the 20th century as did private violence.

So I guess murder is one area in which government is more efficient than the private sector. Credit where it’s due, I suppose.

I thank that to somehow cast as a libertarian failing our lack of answer to “the war question” misses the point that it’s the Statist system that is actually fighting the wars.

Similarly, the government “War on Poverty” is an abject failure. Poverty rates have been stagnant since its implementation, despite funding for it skyrocketing. The government isn’t solving the poverty problem.

And yet that the libertarians don’t have a ready answer for those already dependent on government handouts is somehow a problem for libertarians, not for the government responsible for the dysfunctional system in the first place.

At any rate, I think both essays are well worth your time, especially if you’re interested in libertarian thought, either pro or con.

And demunicipalize the garbage service.

The most frustrating sort of song is that which is perfect, save for the fact that it’s far too short. This is a fantastic theme, beautifully composed and performed, and then left criminally underdeveloped.

Still: those Fastbacks sure knew how to make a pop tune.

Click for Full-Size

From the always-excellent, oft-disturbing Cyanide & Happiness.

…the world ends in ice. Or so you’d think, judging from the news coverage around these parts. Governor Gregoire has declared a state of emergency and 200,000 people east of Lake Washington are without power.

Despite the dire coverage, the situation here in the city is pretty tame. The roads are slushy but passable, and I’ve only seen one bus run into the ditch which is a better record than last year. The routes into downtown are in fair condition and unless you want to get up the steeper parts of Queen Anne, you’re probably fine getting anywhere you need to go.

Being in the tech industry, most of my team’s been working from home the past few days. Which works pretty well, except that a few of them live smack dab in the middle of the area that lost power.

This storm, as so many things do, gave me a chance to reflect on how awesome it is living in the future. Thanks to the Internet I can work from home, get my groceries delivered, order pizza, get realtime updates and forecasts. The Internet can connect me to anything I need to weather this storm, no matter how long it lasts.

Unless, of course, the power goes out.

So here’s hoping the power outage doesn’t spread, and best wishes to anyone caught in it. I hope you’re well-provisioned and in good company.

As for me, I have food, video games, warmth, and excellent companionship. Not a bad way to spend the apocalypse.

It snowed this morning. Big fat flakes wafted down for the better part of an hour and then immediately started melting. In most places in the country, this would hardly be grounds for comment, but snow in Seattle causes the whole town to be gripped with terror. You’d think an annual occurrence would eventually become mundane, but no, Seattle is Chionophobic¹ to an impressive degree.

Being in need of groceries, I elected to brave the crowds fighting for provisions and head up the road to Trader Joe’s. I could have jumped into my Japanese-designed, American-manufactured car and driven, but it was a pleasant day out and Seattle drivers lose their shit when they’ve been spooked by a dusting of winter weather. So I walked.

The walk took me over the University Bridge and along one edge of the campus of the University of Washington. In the few blocks of walking by the campus, I heard students speaking in at least three distinct languages. A group of students that I think were Japanese threw snowballs at each. A young hispanic couple speaking in Spanish did their best to scrape together a small, soggy snow man.

By the time I reached the store, the roads were bare and wet. Despite that, I saw at least three cars drive by with chains on. Two were Toyotas, one was a Mazda.

I went to the store, did my shopping, and trudged home. I’m now snacking on berries grown in Chile and pre-packaged sampler of cheese from Spain.

Thanks to globalization we educate students from all over the world, eat fresh berries in the midst of winter, and can enjoy the best culinary and engineering accomplishments from any nation.

It’s unfortunate, then, that Seattle has such a strong anti-Globalization streak. We were, after all, the site of the WTO riots in late 1999. During the height of the Occupy movement, protesters, with the help of the local unions, shut down University bridge during rush hour to strike a blow against Capitalism. Unions are strong in this town and Seattlites tend to value a curious mixture of feel-good Fair Trade economics and trade protectionism. “Free trade” and “capitalism” are generally held to be self-evidently evil.

And yet, when the scourge of snow descends menacingly onto our streets, we chain up our sensible, high-gas mileage Japanese automobiles, head for Trader Joe’s, and buy fresh Chilean raspberries and Spanish cheeses.

For most people, I’m sure they find no cognitive dissonance in such positions, but I can’t help but wonder about a town that prizes the fruits of globalization while vociferously opposing the trend itself. Whether it’s ignorance, bad faith, or guilty hypocrisy I can’t say, but Seattle is a town in which the status-conscious pride themselves on their diet of exotic cuisine, their naturally-impossible year-round vegan diets, and also on their “enlightened” liberalism, complete with its anti-globalization and anti-capitalist stances.

¹ – “chionophobia ( ′kīänə′fōbēə ) An abnormal fear of snow.” Thank you, Google!