Every so often, I’m struck by the extraordinary wisdom of the old maxim that “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” The man who knows nothing at all, and is aware of the fact, is far less dangerous than the ignoramus who’s learned or observed a tiny bit and thinks himself erudite and wise. These days, we see the syndrome rather frequently in the emissions of Leftist commentators.
Today, via Maura at the Independent Sentinel, we have this:
The reason for this silence is obvious: what political scientists call a “collective action problem.” As first articulated by philosopher David Hume, this is when everyone would be better off by acting together, but each individual has an incentive to cheat. Environmental degradation is a classic example. Where there’s a finite resource (a fishery, a common grazing field, or even the entire Earth’s atmosphere), everyone would benefit if we all worked together to protect the resource — but each individual would benefit more by cheating. And so there’s a built-in disincentive to cooperate.
“Collective action problems” were more recently called “the tragedy of the commons.” The “commons” is the abstract zone in which we find unowned things. I say “abstract” because ownership is itself an abstract condition. Being relational, it cannot be extracted from an “owned” thing and studied under a microscope. But to the larger point, the solution to the great majority of “collective action problems” is – dare I say it? Oh, why not – obvious: Privatize it! Cut it up into little chunks if expedient, but make it property and all the problems that arise from being in the commons will vanish.
Now, commentator Jay Michelson has an axe to grind: he hates Elon Musk for having acquired Twitter, now called X. Musk, who’s a free-speech absolutist, has ended Twitter’s previous censorship regime, which muted or silenced anything that contradicted Leftist opinions and prescriptions. The Left purely hates that. Without dominance of the public discourse, the Left cannot dominate matters of public policy. So Michelson wants to treat X as if it were something in the commons.
But X is private property. It belongs to Elon Musk. Musk certainly isn’t going to bend the knee to Jay Michelson or any other snotty Leftist. Their notions about “hate speech” and “misinformation” cut no ice with him. And for the first time in many a year, I find myself grinning early on a Monday morning.
WHOA! I just remembered something both relevant and hilarious. Back when the Sandinista regime over Nicaragua was in its first incarnation, it practiced very heavy-handed censorship. The most egregious case of this ever observed in human discourse went thus:
In 1984, [Nelba Cecilia] Blandon [was] Chief of the Censorship Department of the Ministry of Interior, as well as its Chief of Public and International Department. The principal implementor of censorship of media, political parties, religious organizations, and other civic groups. [She] attempted to justify censorship of the independent newspaper La Prensa, arguing that “They accused us of suppressing freedom of expression. This was a lie and we could not let them publish it.”
How do you like them ironies, Gentle Reader?
