The Nobel Peace Prize is, so far as I can tell, an annual tribute to political hypocrites who make war while talking peace. South Korea’s president is quoted by his office as saying “It’s really President Trump who should receive [the prize]; we can just take peace.” If the peace comes about, any credit accruing to Trump should buy him something more worthwhile than such a bloodstained trophy.
Tag: world
“Theoretical”? “Utopian”?
Anarchy is neither theoretical nor Utopian. It’s a way to live among others without violating them. Probably the only way. It works in real life, every day, in the real world in which we live.
A Public Choice Perspective on Trade
Let’s say you could make a strictly economic case for government interference with people’s trading activities, that is, with their ability to cooperate freely with others across the world. (I have no idea what “strictly economic case” even means, but stay with me.) Would we free traders have to give up? No way.
Love and Assertiveness
Love and Assertiveness are two sides of the same coin; one necessitates and depends on the other. Loving yourself requires asserting your rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Loving a partner requires assertiveness in creating and protecting an environment of honesty and communication. Loving a child requires asserting certain boundaries or limits around their behavior.
The Myth of Institutionalized Learning
This weekend conversation exposes the deep, underlying myth in our culture that children cannot learn unless they are systematically taught. Whether in school or school-at-home, children can only learn when they are directed by an adult, when they follow an established curriculum, when they are prodded and assessed. How could a child possibly know how to identify plants if it wasn’t part of a school-like lesson?
Meditation is Selfish
We are surrounded by thousands of beliefs, ideas, and expectations which tell us that we exist for the sake of pleasing others, impressing others, placating others, pacifying others, satisfying others, and helping others. We must have a reminder that we exist for our own sakes – that we are ends in ourselves.
75 Times Around the Sun
Yesterday I observed the 25th Anniversary of my 50th birthday. On the original occasion, I opined that, like Merle Haggard, I could say “my life’s been grand!” I said at the time that I had lived a great half-century, therefore no matter what happened to me after that I could say that most of my life had been grand. The facts of the matter are that the continuing quarter-century has been even grander.
FinCEN Form 114—I’m Not the Criminal Here
You don’t need a Ph.D. in political science to realize what’s going on here. The Treasury is trying to track money related to drug trafficking, tax evasion, and other U.S. “crimes.” But its way of doing so is to impose a requirement on everyone with a foreign account willy-nilly—and that includes yours truly—and to threaten punishment of anyone who fails to cough up the required information.
How I’m Detoxing from Darkness
I’ve been dwelling a lot on the darkness in the world lately. If you study history, study people, and study yourself, it’s hard to go very long at all without realizing the extent of human violence, lust, greed, laziness, and destructiveness.
Don’t Get Stuck Waiting
If you’re creating a business, work of art, or project of any kind and you’re waiting on another person before you can take the next step, I feel you. I’ve been there and I hate it.