Category Archives: Philosophy

Socialism Destroys, by John Stossel

Just because you put the word “Democratic” in front of socialism doesn’t make socialism any better than the failure it has repeatedly been. From John Stossel at theburningplatform.com:

Socialism is hot.

Famous actors recently made a commercial proclaiming that “democratic socialism” creates some of the best parts of America. It’s “your kids’ public school” (says Susan Sarandon), the “interstate highway system” (Rosario Dawson), “public libraries” (Jay Ferguson), “EMTs” (Ethan Embry), “workers who plow our streets” (Max Carver) and “scientists” (Danny DeVito).

Wow. I guess every popular thing government does is socialism.

The celebrities conclude: “We can do better when we do them together.”

There is sometimes truth to that, but the movie stars don’t know that America’s first highways were built by capitalist contractors. They also probably didn’t notice that the more popular parts of government — public schools, EMTs, snow plowing, libraries, etc. — are largely locally funded.

Continue reading

Advertisements

Most of Us Are NOT Participating in the Hysterical Rage You See on the News, by Daisy Luther

When was the last time you slugged someone? For most of us the answer is probably years, if not decades. From Daisy Luther at theorganicprepper.com:

If you were to read about the United States of America from someplace else, you’d probably think it was a nation full of people who are gearing up to go to war. Anyone would think the same thing from what they saw in the media. You would see hysterical rage fueling terrible acts. You’d see the intense hatred between people who belong to different political parties. You’d believe this is nationwide.

But it’s not. Sure, there’s some tension if you talk politics, but in most places, it isn’t crazy in a life-threatening kind of way. Mostly, it’s pretty friendly.

But this isn’t the America of the media.

Continue reading

The People Give the Orders and the Government Obeys, by Jeff Thomas

One town in Mexico is making something that looks suspiciously like libertarianism work. From Jeff Thomas at internationalman.com:

The sign above is located in the state of Chiapas in Mexico. In English, it says, “You are in the territory of Zapatista in Rebellion. Here, the people give the orders and the government obeys.”

Well, of course, what that really means is that the Zapatistas give the orders, not the people as a whole. Still, the people generally regard the Zapatistas as being more representative of their wishes (and less parasitical) than the government.

Continue reading

A Silver Lining, by Robert Gore

A political victory only, not a stand on principle.

No lion, tiger, bear, or wolf would, if it could choose, give up its claws or fangs. No poisonous snake or spider would surrender its venom. Only humans voluntarily abandon their means of survival.

Reason is humans’ tool of survival and separates them from the other animals. The Oxford Dictionary defines reason as: “the power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic.” Ayn Rand had it right when she warned that reason was under sustained attack. It has only intensified since her death in 1982.

Anybody can accuse anybody of committing a crime. The longstanding legal presumption is that the accused is innocent until proven guilty. Given a guilty judgment’s consequences, the burden necessarily falls on accusers to prove guilt. If it did not, mere accusation would be a verdict leading to punishment of the accused, or Salem Witch Trial justice.

Continue reading

Kavanaugh The Swamp Creature, by Luis P. Almeida

Kavanaugh, as his supporters endlessly point out, is well within the judicial mainstream. What that means is that he’s comfortable ensconced in the cohort that has read the Constitution out of the Constitution and has given carte blanche to the swamp dwellers. From Luis P. Almeida at lewrockwell.com:

Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed as the next Supreme Court Justice perhaps as soon as the end of this week. The Republicans have the votes and it is highly likely that at least two Democratic Senators from Red states will cross the aisle and vote in favor of confirming him. All of the antics we witnessed in Washington D.C. over the past few weeks have been nothing but political mise en scene, the Republicans always had the votes and it should have been evident to everyone that the Democrats were simply delaying the inevitable in an effort to rally their base.

It is quite a shame that the country was torn apart during the process around allegations that happened three decades ago when the nation could have been debating topics of real substance. Topics that actually reflect on how Kavanaugh will perform his duties on the nation’s highest court. Information such as the fact that he leaked information regarding Grand Jury proceedings during the Vince Foster investigation and that he in effect helped cover up Vince Foster’s murder. Leaking information on a secret judicial process or aiding and abetting criminals is infinitely more relevant than his high school drinking habits, yet we heard almost nothing about it over the past few weeks.

Continue reading

Misesian Destructionism: Then and Now, by Thomas DiLorenzo

Socialists want to upend the existing social order while consuming whatever it has produced. Once they’ve eaten their seed corn, they’ve got no idea how to raise a new crop. From Thomas DiLorenzo at lewrockwell.com:

In his classic 1922 book Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (first English edition published in 1936) Ludwig von Mises wrote of how the object of socialists everywhere had always been the destruction of existing society.  After that is accomplished, then they can begin making vague promises of their “utopian” society.  “Socialism is not . . . the pioneer of a better and finer world,” Mises wrote, “but the spoiler of what thousands of years of civilization have created.  It does not build; it destroys.  For destruction is the essence of it.  It produces nothing, it only consumes what the social order based on private ownership in the means of production has created . . . each step leading towards socialism must exhaust itself in the destruction of what already exists” (p. 414).

This scenario has been played out in country after country that adopted socialism, from the Soviet Union to Venezuela.  The Soviets lived off the capital accumulated by previous generations (and by property stolen from other countries through military conquest); British “Fabian” socialism consumed capital until it all imploded with the “British Disease” of the 1970s; Capitalist Sweden adopted socialism in the 1950s with the result that not a single net new job was created for the ensuing 55 years, 500 percent interest rates in the 1980s, and a struggle to de-socialize ever since.  And of course once-prosperous Venezuela completely destroyed itself in a mere decade after Hugo Chavez, the latest in a long line of Castro-loving communist presidents, nationalized virtually all of industry and imposed universal price controls.

Continue reading

He Said That? 10/1/18

From Chuck Palahniuk (born 1962), American novelist and freelance journalist, Invisible Monsters, (1999):

Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foolish.