(urth) Gene Wolfe Fans Talk Politics (Again)

[Jerry Friedman]

I'd be interested in a citation to Washington's writings
for the quotation from his writings.  It's widely quoted
at Google Books with various differences in wording, but
the first hit I can find is from 1878 (in the Congressional
Record).

There are no hits on "Washington government
force fire servant master" at yale.edu, which includes "The
Papers of George Washington".

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/washpap.asp

But that may not mean anything, as some books date
the quotation to 1785, and the Yale collection has nothing
that early.

This site (which seems to support a right to gun
ownership, but I just glanced at it) calls the quotation
"bogus", along with many others attributed to the Founding
Fathers.

http://www.guncite.com/gc2ndbog.html

The quotation from Josh Geller appears to go back to Max
Weber and to be a compressed, indeed oversimplified, way
of saying the government decides what violence is
legitimate (including self-defense, which is legitimate
violence not carried out by the government).

By the way, who is Josh Geller?  (When I ask it that way,
the initials are a little disturbing.)

Jerry Friedman

--- On Tue, 5/19/09, brunians at brunians.org <brunians at brunians.org> wrote:

> From: brunians at brunians.org <brunians at brunians.org>
> Mao was a perceptive guy about some
> things. Power and how to use it, for
> instance. Decent poet also, I'm told.
> 
> Not a very nice man, but pretty smart.
> 
> If three people as different as Mao, Washington and Geller
> agree about
> something, I'd say it's time to sit up and take notice.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> .
> 
> 
> > If Mao said it, it must be true.
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 21:32:54 -0400 (EDT)
> > This does not change the nature of the interaction,
> Dan'l. I do understand
> > why one would want to deny the reality of the thing,
> of course.
> >
> > Government is force. It is a dangerous servant and a
> fierce master.
> >
> > -- George Washington
> >
> > Political power comes out of the barrel of a gun.
> >
> > -- Mao Zedong
> >
> > Government is the monopoly on legitimate violence.
> >
> > -- Josh Geller