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October 25, 2013
"As a white American, I think that African Americans and Indians should pay us royalties for the use of our civilization."
I do not propose a great exaction, but only a reasonable fee for enjoyment of contributions that whites have made and that others use.I mean things such as telephones, air conditioning, flush toilets, democracy, civil rights, antibiotics, running shoes, and the machines that read EBT cards. Also paved roads. Cars. Computers. Electricity. Clean water. Those sorts of things. Fred Reed, Ideas for a Better Nation
Posted by gerardvanderleun at October 25, 2013 1:19 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
"What have Europeans ever done for us? Besides telephones, air conditioning, flush toilets, democracy, civil rights, antibiotics, running shoes, and the machines that read EBT cards. Also paved roads. Cars. Computers. Electricity. Clean water.
"I mean, apart from those things, what did Europe ever do for us?
"You forgot Monday Night Football."
"Oh, yeah. Okay, apart from . . ."
Posted by: Donald Sensing at October 25, 2013 4:10 PM
Yeah I have a hard time feeling bad about destroying the culture of a stone-age people living in hides and sitting in the dirt. Welcome to the future, chums, come with us!
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at October 25, 2013 4:27 PM
There's probably more wealth bound up in one single LandSat image than was destroyed by us in the West's romp around the world. Any conceivable amount of money in reparations for the damage we did to everyone, times a thousand, has been amply repaid. We have collectively created whole worlds and put them in the hands of the entire Human Race, either for free or for a tinytiny fraction of the cost of making them. We've actually altered the way the human race does things. We created the sky and then built ships to travel it. History will never again be the same for our existing, and the options available now to even the smallest person alive boggle the mind.
There is no more moral component to these claims; they're simply power politics and should be treated as such. Don't get heated up about them; stay cool and organize to fight. Propaganda is a very old game.
Posted by: JB at October 25, 2013 6:39 PM
Honestly? Blacks have no ideas, including that of reparations. Their universe of thought is sorted and limited by progressives, who are white. This sorry condition is true of white people as well, but not so universally. Yet. As von Mises saw it, all societies are eventually a reflection of their intellectuals. Currently that is a class that, in general, badly needs hanging.
Posted by: james wilson at October 25, 2013 7:06 PM
Some of my ancestors in Massachusetts helped run the underground railroad - I've thought that instead of demanding reparations, maybe the blacks they helped should pay their fares.
JB really nailed it!
Posted by: Old Surfer at October 26, 2013 7:48 AM
Contrariwise, G.W. Carver invented peanuts and sweet potatoes, or something.
Posted by: BillH at October 26, 2013 8:41 AM