These days we get warnings, graphics, and hyperbole. I have a friend on Daufuskie Island, in Georgia, who says the worst part is the waiting. I suspect the waiting would be tolerable without the handwringing and flatscreen teevees.
Tag: society
Humanity Needs Love and Understanding
It is not enough to have good intentions, or to “love thy neighbor.” People need to actually understand what is going on, and realize that being a moral, caring human being is completely antithetical to condoning any flavor of “government” or political “authority.”
Disagreeable Me
I don’t go out of my way to find things to disagree with. I even try to avoid situations where people will be parroting things I’ll disagree with. I want to get along with people, even if I’m not good at “going along to get along.”
Welfare States Encourage Bad Economic Thinking
In the absence of sound economic thinking, which explains why particular resources end up in the hands of particular members of extended social order, there appears a tendency to invent arbitrary pseudo-reasons as to why one’s position in this order is not as satisfactory as one would like it to be.
Why We Need Markets for Justice
Richard Ebeling once told me, “Government makes criminals of us all.” Government sets up society so that no person can live a life without using some sort of government service, paid for through coerced taxes. I later came to realize that government needs to make moral cowards of us all, in order to keep us dependent on it for the dispensation of justice.
The -Ism No One is Talking About.
Children are wild and free. This alone can be very triggering to some people, but they are and that is the truth of their biology. They are meant to move, explore, be rowdy, run around, test things, play, and be in connection with other people. And not just for a couple of hours blocked off every day, but all the time. They are meant to live it. The problem is not children, the problem is a society that makes no room for them to be who they are.
When Does Tradition Become Tyranny?
Traditions emerge for a reason. Society is impossible without them. Traditions provide lenses, rules, norms, and expectations that help make sense of the world, harmonize competing aims and interests, provide stability, and enable long-term planning. But tradition can be tyrannical. Traditions can oppress, restrict, stagnate, and destroy individuals and society. So where’s the line? When does tradition become tyranny?
Pick Up a Bigger Pile of Shit
When a conversation isn’t about ideas, but rather someone trying to portray dominance through moralizing, intimidation, virtue signaling, disgust, or whatever … I will either opt not to continue the discussion, or I will play to win. I lose all pretense of the conversation being about ideas, and I will merely strategically try to dominate them.
Paradigm Shift II
Can we bootstrap ourselves into another paradigm? It says here I don’t think so. With Rome, it took the Visigoths. With the British Empire, it took Mahatma Gandhi. With IBM, it took Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. With FDR, it took the grim reaper. With the camel’s back, it took a last straw.
The Person Who Kills Millions is a National Hero
Are you ever struck by the number of ultra-criminal individuals — people who have great amounts of blood on their hands — who are not only not in prison, not only permitted to move about freely in society, but are treated as decent individuals and, on some occasions, feted as great and honorable ones?