Monday, October 14, 2013

Who's on Your Wall?

Everybody's got a poster on his or her wall, real or imaginary.  Bureaucrats have presidents, governors, and/or other frighteners (like J. Edgar Hoover).  Teenagers often have non-authority figures, as I had James Dean, or Marlon Brando with motorcycle jacket, or Elvis.  My daughters had Kiss and Sid Vicious.  It's a means of shorthand which does away with a lot of preliminary discussion.  This is a more-or-less legitimate use of the argumentation technique, "Appeal to Authority."  I would rotate the personages on my imaginary office wall today.  These people would certainly be in the rotation:  Murray Rothbard, Robert Higgs, Mark Twain, William of Ockham, John Donne, Frederic Bastiat, and Thomas Jefferson.  Who's on your wall?

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