November 5, 2009
Klein Boggling – What’s behind door number one is what’s behind door number two
A Klein Boggle is a certain non-orientable argument, i.e., a contention (a one-dimensional manifest) with no distinct "logical" and "reasonable" sides.
Ezra Klein tries to split the political difference between force and force.
Klein:
[I]f you eventually developed a preexisting condition — asthma, say — would you rather a world in which insurers couldn’t discriminate against you or a world in which you could send in a form to the state of Missouri and ask if they had any room in their Big Pool o’ Sick people?
Me:
Imagining "worlds" is something children do. This world is what it is, and there won’t be any changing it. If Klein means "system" or "set of rules" or "laws", he should say so, but then, of course, his propaganda, buttressed as it is with various euphemisms and vagaries, would be all the more obvious and therefore less effectual.
I’m tempted, though, to fantasize a world where people who ask stupid questions are laughed into shame, instead of having their premises accepted as worthy of discussion (and then having them nattered over as though serious.) For instance, how does one go about "develop[ing] a preexisting condition"? One begins to suspect that Klein’s thinking is as sloppy as his writing.
Further, both of Klein’s "worlds" are based on government coercion, and therefore, the only answer a freedom-loving person can give is, "Neither". End of discussion.
