Webb Traverse and the Philosopher's Stone

[mikebailey]

On Mon, 18 Jun 2007, Mark Kohut wrote:

> Well, we will move beyond the Gold Standard, like advanced
>   capitalism has.


The "full faith and credit" of central banks is based on
the government's power to print money (ie - to inflate
the currency pool and direct the current of new currency
so that it passes first through favored hands)
and levy taxes (take money by force and threat).

these aren't endearing activities...are we sure they
represent an advanced capitalism or (as some Misesians have
suggested) a decline into mercantilism?

But I can't move on till I've tried to make a more coherent
statement here.

Anarchism and the gold standard...are relevant to AtD
I think maybe for 3 reasons:

1) the 2 flavors of anarchism bear on the opposition/relationship
betw Webb and Vibe as extreme, uncompromising, unreasonable
archetypes of labor and management - the most unflattering portrait
of each as seen through the other's POV - and an opposition which
reflects the hothouse/street division from "Entropy" --

This might be a major axis of the co-ordinate system of the book
(in which case, there might be others...)

2) the gold standard used metaphorically, as a currency between
people; some kind of standard of treatment or behavior, a Rule
so precious that it is called Golden...seeing its workings
is of interest in any work of literature...

3) 19th century bimetallism in the US involved the government
purchasing silver, thus interfering in the market.
This led investors and laborers to put their time and money
into mining silver...meanwhile, favored insiders found a way
to abuse its provisions, so that the government commitment couldn't
be sustained...
eventually, Repeal hurt all those who had relied on "the full
faith and credit" of the government's commitment -
including Webb and his family...and proved to him yet further
that government wasn't in fact there to protect him, but
to protect the wealthy from his wrath.


** it's interesting that both extreme modes of thought
regarding how things ought to be run, agree on eliminating
the State as a hindrance to their ideals.
A conclusion one might draw is that maybe these ideals spring
from 2 different sorts of person (implying physical difference:
maybe a key gene that could be toggled one way or another)
and that a state in fact has
arisen as an entity to play upon or mediate these differences...


(nope, still not that coherent.  glad this is for fun, and not
for a grade...)