"Some say knowledge is power. Some tell us that all power comes from the gods. Others say it derives from law. […] Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less. A mummer’s trick, a shadow on the wall […] yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow." – Lord Varys

@Neopatriarch > Paper can’t do anything. It can preserve our thoughts for other people to see/read, though more often this is done using electrons/computers. > Writing doesn’t give it magic powers. No, but it can allow other people to coordinate around. > Rights survive only where a man already holds a moral standard the paper did not create. But you're writing this down on the digital equivalent of paper, making a point involving those moral standards and rights using it. Spooner challenges us to do better of course and not to assume our writing will do all the work for us, but whatever work we do a lot of it is going to involve writing.

Writing can document and coordinate. It cannot make a taking just. The Constitution is useful the way a ledger is useful: it records a claim. It does not turn the claim into a right. When a badge says “necessary and proper,” he is not consulting a moral standard. He is consulting a permission slip. Spooner’s point isn’t “don’t write.” It’s “don’t confuse the slip with the standard.” Conscience is the standard. The paper is the alibi when conscience is refused.