Saturday, November 21, 2009

New Business Opportunity: Spontaneous Courts

On another list the question of whether a "judge raised up" is government, I went on: I realize government assumes "governor" but I think in terms of a system that keeps it all together, my preferences is for spontaneous order. Obviously a "judge risen up" is a system of government, since it comes out of spontaneous order and it is generally subscribed to... if you don't like it you can leave.

Myself I like to see several competing judges risen up, all coming up with a ruling on a given case. Anyone can be a judge. People pay to see the cases, and the judge with the most popular ruling gets to keep the audience fees as payment, a reward for making popular judgments. And the judges themselves have to put up maybe $100, with winner takes all. And since the judge has an audience, he can risk recommending a certain soap to the masses if he thinks he can get away with it, and get some action from advertisers. I think disputes among neighbors should be far more entertaining, and this would be a way to assure that.

While I am enjoying the effect of caffeine, I recollect it was perhaps the Abyssinians who had a real property tax assessment system superior to ours. Any property owner would declare once a year what his property was worth, and the taxes would be levied on that valuation. And for the year, anyone wishing to buy the property for that value may do so, so all property had a price at any given time. Value too low, you are liable to undersell you property. Value too high, you are liable to pay too much in taxes. You want to hit just the right number, no one buys you out, you ay no extra taxes. What money you presented in taxes defined what you valued your property at.


Friday, November 20, 2009

Is G*D an Anarchist?

Between 1 Samuel 8 and Judges 9 it seems The Creator is an anarchist, in the positive sense, to wit:

Judges 9:7-15 (King James Version)

 7And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.
 8The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.
 9But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?
 10And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.
 11But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?
 12Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us.
 13And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?
 14Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us.
 15And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.


A Scholarly interpretation from a Jewish Source:


Tu Bishvat
Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot
This year (5769) Tu B'Shvat falls on February 9, 2009

Tu Bishvat is the Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot "new year of the trees", because by that date, "most of the rain has already fallen."
Winter has already passed its peak, and fresh new growth can begin.
Tu B'Shevat, the fifteenth of Shvat is mentioned for the first time in the Mishna (1st-2nd century) as one of the four New Years of the Jewish calendar (The Torah did not mention Tu B'Shevat).
There is a dispute as to the proper date for the holiday; Beit Shammai said the proper day was the first of Shevat; Beit Hillel said the proper day was the 15th of Shevat (tractate Rosh Hashana, folio 2b).
In 1908 the Jewish National Fund and Jewish education system, adopted the custom of school children and their teachers going out to the fields and mountains to plant saplings. The planting of trees was turned into a symbol of the participation of the individual in the national project of redemption.
Tu B'Shevat symbolizes the revival of nature and of the renewed ties between the Jewish people and its land.
Different institutions choose that day as their inauguration day:
The cornerstone of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was laid in 1918;
The Technion in Haifa in 1925;
The Knesset - the Parliament of Israel in 1949.

It is a date used by farmers as a basis to calculate the annual yield of fruits, in order to know the amount of the tithe that the Bible requires.
Leviticus 27:30: 'Thus all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD'S; it is holy to the LORD (a tithe -from Old English teogo?a "tenth").
It also determines the beginning and end of the first three and four years of the tree's growth, during which it is forbidden to eat fruit from the trees.

Jotham's Parable (Judges 9: 7-21, Hebrew: mashal, ??? ????), allegorical story against the monarchy, has become a children's tale and in recent years is told on Tu B'shvat.
Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon and the only one left living besides Abimelech, escapes to Mount Gerizim, near Shechem and tells what has come to be known as Jotham's Parable, the story of "the trees who went forth to anoint a king over them."
He is using the metaphor of the the jujube to ridicule his older brother, Abimelech, who has unjustly annointed himself king, surrounded himself with yes-men and murdered all his brothers except for Jotham.

The trees first appeal to the olive, 'Be our king.' the latter refuses to be a king, asking, 'Should I give up my oil, by which both gods and men are honored, to hold sway over the trees?'
The fig and the vine likewise turn down the crown.
Neither wants to cease producing the benefits with which it honors God and man: its sweetness and good fruit, or its wine; with perhaps surprising honesty, each plant claims that it cannot both nourish its people and enable them to honor God, and at the same time be a monarch.
"Finally all the trees said to the Jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi, Hebrew: Atad,???), 'Come and be our king.'
And the Jujube , with nothing to offer but its shadow, agrees to reign, but not without making a thinly-veiled threat: 'If you really want to anoint me king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, then let fire come out of the Jujube (Atad) and consume the cedars of Lebanon!' (Judg. 9:15).
The Jujube has no appealing shade, but is aggressive thorny and its wide spreading root-system is well-known for leaching all nourishments from the soil.
The olive, fig, vine and jujube in the parable stand for different kinds of people. The good fruits are symbols of good works.
The jujube is the type of someone who does not do good uses or only does them for show and for selfish gain. The olive, fig and vine are modest and wish only to serve, but selfishness loves to rule and to be served. Fire coming out of the jujube means the burning of selfish desires. The cedar which the fire destroys stands for rational understanding. Someone who is proud or angry cannot be wise.