copyright and inheritance

So far, this is my favorite response to an essentially dumb article in which Mark Helprin argues for an infinitely extended copyright term.

Which reminds me: For the most part, I seem to be ( opposed to inheritance. )

But what do I know? So far my inheritance from relatives is some tablecloths and a couple of kitchen items. I might see things differently if I discover a rich and gifted uncle.

tangent

I edited a tangent out of that last post, but I'll mention it here: Phil Agre's "What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong With It?". The blunt summary:

Q: What is conservatism?
A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.

Q: What is wrong with conservatism?
A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world.

I find this essay somewhat infuriating, because he doesn't, to my mind, adequately prove a thesis that seems, well, controversial. In particular, he leaves his readers to draw the lines connecting the conservatism of, say, Edmund Burke with that of Dick Cheney. Certainly those conservatives I've had reasonable conversations with haven't seen themselves as the aristocracy. (Well, almost certainly.)

Still, it's a bracing read, and much of what he says makes sense to me... and beyond that, makes sense of what I see around me. It's become one of the tools I use to understand what's going on. Maybe you can use it too. Also, maybe sometime my "c" key will start working properly again.