I didn’t build this blog post, Richard Dawkin’s, Barrack Obama, Mitt Romney (maybe), and a few thousand people on the internet (definitely) built it. I take no credit.

Of course, that’s bullshit. As was Obama’s accidental confession deliberate and considered opinion that he has no respect whatsoever for the sweat and toil of business people. According to Obama, because you walked on a road paid for by the state you don’t deserve any credit and don’t deserve an absolute right of property.

Just as this blog post would not have been written but for my discovering and synthesising its contents, people use the ideas and infrastructure around them to plan and run businesses but make an essential contribution. At a very least, people must absorb some knowledge about the state of the world to know that there is a problem for their business to solve, but at the very least a successful business requires a novel strategy and the irreplaceable hours of its owners life. In undermining the importance of that contribution Barrack Obama wishes to undermine the spiritual property of millions of entrepreneurs, to spiritually rob them of a part of their life, and justify the theft and control of their physical property.

I feel I’m late to spotting this one, but the memes that grew up in reaction to this are awesome. Take this example:

Steve Jobs clearly did shepherd iPhone into existence. Juxtaposing Barrack Obama is a straightforward rebellion against Obama’s claim that society owns Steve Jobs and everyone like him and they they owe one to “society”. Obviously Jobs didn’t do it alone, but he did it by building and guiding a team that could. He built it through honest trade. He traded with the proprietors and agents of component manufacturers, he traded cash for the talents of top designers and engineers, he made mistakes and took responsibility for them. He set out a vision of what he wanted and fought to make it happen.

I’m also reminded of what Rob Waller said about the importance of discovering slogans and memes. He argued that the slogans used by the left sound harmlessly nonsensical but they carry broader more abstract concepts with them that are perceived wordlessly by the consumer. This wordless perceptions allows them to sneak into a mind without thorough criticism. Strategically then, this is a Good Meme. It carries with it the concept of proprietorial pride and rebellion against claims on your life.

I didn’t build this one, but libertarians need many more like it.