My kids are out to make themselves satisfied. They will do this by whatever means makes sense to attain their desired goals. They will complain, cry, get angry, cooperate, ask nicely, play on internal feelings of guilt, work for it, lie, negotiate, hit, or sometimes even decide it isn’t worth the costs and move on. Counter to some ideas of peaceful parents, kids aren’t innately kind, good, altruistic or benevolent. They are selfish beings out to get their desires met. This makes them no different from adults.
Tag: order
Don’t You Know What Socialism Is?
Economists may insist on a strict definition saying that socialism is where the state controls the means of production. I would respond, what could be more of a means of production than the labor force, 99% of which comes from public schools in modern, industrial states?
Words Poorly Used #130 — Militia
The emotionally driven “we can’t just do nothing” crowd is dragging out the very ambiguous “militia” wording in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, 2nd Amendment. The Amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” There is, to my knowledge, no definition of “Militia” in the Constitution. Furthermore, the addition of the dependent preambulatory clause, and the last comma render the passage ungrammatical.
Danilo Interviews Alma Sommer of Sailing Bangarang (54m) – Peaceful Anarchism 033
Peaceful Anarchism 033 features an interview of Alma Sommer, founder of Sailing Bangarang, by Danilo Cuellar. Topics include: Bitnation, Anarchapulco, Cryptopulco, cryptocurrencies, Pangea mesh network, border patrol, authoritarian personalities, Atlas Shrugged, moving to the ocean, Liberland, and more.
The Tragicomedy of Russiagate
Let’s assume — purely for the sake of discussion since no evidence has been made public — that the Russians did it. Note, first, that the “it” looks like the product of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. I’m not going to do what Johnstone, Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Maté, and the late Robert Parry have done so well so many times, namely, catalog all the inane acts the Putin-guided Russian intel agencies are said to have committed in order to bring down America. (Start here.) Suffice it to say that if that’s the best Putin can come up with, we have little to worry about.
Sexual Harassment: A Keyhole Solution
Firms should adopt the speed dating paradigm. Let everyone secretly record their feelings, if any, for their co-workers. If the feelings are unrequited, no one ever finds out. If the feelings are mutual, however, both parties receive official confirmation. And unless they edit their recorded preferences, they waive their right to complain about (or sue over) unwanted attention from whoever they explicitly approved.
Random Ideas
Can we say yet that neither direct gun control nor background checks have made any difference? Isn’t the definition of madness to keep doing the same things, while expecting different results?
Kindle the Flame of Voluntaryism with Patience (7m) – Peaceful Anarchism 032
Peaceful Anarchism 031, “In order to teach this philosophy to the ignorant one must follow a specific progression of ideas to ensure success. Burdening a child with excessively complex concepts will snuff out the love of learning. Not presenting the child with ever increasing challenges will bore the child.”
The Economics of Law, Order, and Action
My book The Economics of Law, Order, and Action: The Logic of Public Goods is now available for purchase. Its primary purpose is to provide a comprehensive challenge to the standard position of the economic and political mainstream, according to which efficient production of so-called public goods, including law and defense, requires the use of territorial monopolies of coercive force.
Don’t Blame the Guns, Blame the Schools
Today’s public schools already share many characteristics with prisons, yet the ‘answer’ some folks are proposing to the (statistically negligible) threat of school shootings is to make schools even more like prisons. Schools are an artificial environment that (much like a prison) forces kids to join gangs or cliques in order to avoid rejection and outsider status. Those who don’t fit in are subject to ridicule, abuse, and even brutality in some cases.