day no. 17,115: defying and redefining

“When a man committed adultery many generations ago, he was disobeying but not trying to redefine. It is like the difference between a thief and a socialist. A thief recognizes the boundaries of property, he just doesn’t respect them when it comes to his own personal behavior. The socialist wants to abolish all such distinctions—in effect, he wants to steal the world.” — Douglas Wilson, Virgins and Volcanoes

There is a difference between trying to defy the rules and trying to redefine them. There is a kind of crime that respects the rules. The thief does not respect your right to property, but he respects it well enough once it is in his possession.

“Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it. But philosophers dislike property as property; they wish to destroy the very idea of personal possession.” — G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

A socialist policy pusher is worse than a thief. He does not merely wish to take something of yours, he wishes to take your ability to have anything. He wishes to legislate away your ability to call anything yours. He is at war with every possessive pronoun other than theirs.