Curt Doolittle

Form: Short Note

  • BOYCOTT, COOPERATION We can fail to agree, and conflict with one another. We can

    http://files.janjires.webnode.cz/200000472-2879a29738/Robert%20Kagan%20-%20Power%20and%20Weakness.pdfCONFLICT, BOYCOTT, COOPERATION

    We can fail to agree, and conflict with one another. We can agree to boycott (avoid) one another. Or we can agree to cooperate with one another.

    In any rational exchange for cooperation and trust, we require the positive assertion of the requirement of production, and the negative assertion of the prohibition on free riding. Cooperation is not rational without this requirement, in both positive and negative forms. In some cases we tolerate intertemporal gains and losses in the expectation that the net outcome will be to our favor.

    For the weak, cooperation or boycott, are to be agreed upon at all costs, even if parasitic, since the weak are unable to fight. For the strong, conquest, cooperation and boycott are merely a choice between preferences, where cooperation can often provide the greatest return.

    Power and weakness produce different metaphysical assumptions and logical biases.

    See Power and Weakness by Robert Kagan

    Source date (UTC): 2014-06-19 11:36:00 UTC

  • Untitled

    http://feedly.com/e/LH1nQjxNStrange

    Source date (UTC): 2014-06-16 19:57:00 UTC

  • I love men in Ukraine. All you have to do is show the smallest amount of recogni

    I love men in Ukraine. All you have to do is show the smallest amount of recognition and respect that you will treat them as equals and all bravado disappears. I understand them. American bravado never stops, the class and race warfare never stop. I am so glad that I had the chance to live this way. And to ‘un-learn’ some americanisms.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-06-16 11:24:00 UTC

  • Dear God. Thank you for smart, strong, stubborn, women. Otherwise life would jus

    Dear God. Thank you for smart, strong, stubborn, women. Otherwise life would just not be all that interesting. 😉

    Source date (UTC): 2014-06-15 10:26:00 UTC

  • THE PLASTICITY OF FAMILY While the structure of human reproduction (family) is h

    THE PLASTICITY OF FAMILY

    While the structure of human reproduction (family) is highly plastic, and vacillates as needed throughout history, two things strike me as painfully obvious:

    1) monogamy prevents all sorts of free riding in a society.

    2) monogamous societies eventually conquer polygamous societies.

    3) in the short term, polygamous societies produce excess males who can specialize in warfare, but who are universally problematic for society.

    If you grow low maintenance crops you have time available for war. If you herd animals you always have time for war. If you farm rice you dont have time for war. So each group produces different warriors: constant raiders, militial warriors, and state soldiers.

    The large state can more easily concentrate capital in its military. The militial warriors apply more dynamic tactics and weapons. And raiders simply apply constant pressure at low cost until the economy wears down, or an opportunity presents itself.

    (You are much better off as a spoiled western woman….)

    Source date (UTC): 2014-06-14 07:46:00 UTC

  • Dear tribe. We must understand what made us different. What made us innovate. Wh

    Dear tribe. We must understand what made us different. What made us innovate. What made us adapt. What allowed us to drag humanity out of ignorance and poverty despite our own ignorance and poverty – before our crisis of confidence.

    The evidence is in front of us. We are not faster. We are not stronger. We are not smarter. So why did we rule?

    Truth. Trust. Property. Violence. Technology. Heroism.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-06-13 11:50:00 UTC

  • NEW NORMAL : SLOW GROWTH I have been pulling this argument out against Krugman/D

    http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/06/team-obama-sorry-america-the-new-normal-may-be-here-to-stay/THE NEW NORMAL : SLOW GROWTH

    I have been pulling this argument out against Krugman/DeLong/Thoma since 2006: it’s all well and good to rely on correlation with past data, as long as you understand causality. But we are at the end of over 500 years of anglo expansion of science, reason, law, contract, accounting and finance across the planet. We have to invent something as novel as steam, electricity, computation, and anti-biotics to continue the trend. And, while a few things might increase consumption, the easy gains from labor decreases and informational asymmetry are done.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-06-13 07:17:00 UTC

  • DEMOCRACY —“our representative democratic institutions have been captured by m

    http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/02/political-failure-modes-and-th.htmlBROKEN DEMOCRACY

    —“our representative democratic institutions have been captured by meta-institutions that implement the iron law of oligarchy by systematically reducing the risk of change. They have done so by converging on a common set of policies that do not serve the public interest, but minimize the risk of the parties losing the corporate funding they require in order to achieve re-election. And in so doing, they have broken the “peaceful succession when enough people get pissed off” mechanism that prevents revolutions. “—

    I guess other people are reading Burnham and Michels…. 🙂

    The swiss model.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-06-13 07:05:00 UTC

  • Multiple Currencies: If you buy a car in Ukraine, or a house, or rent a good apa

    Multiple Currencies: If you buy a car in Ukraine, or a house, or rent a good apartment, you pay for it in dollars. Locals seem to make sure they have american dollars even more so than euros.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-06-13 05:54:00 UTC

  • The Irony Of Praxeological Apriorism

    [I]n retrospect, isn’t it ironic that not just a single thinker, but a group of thinkers have tried to construct a logic of rational action, and extend it into a logic of cooperation, and further into a logic of economics, by using a method of philosophical argument that is expressly not constructed of actions – operations? It is ironic. Its Ironic as hell. But when the irony ends we are left with a tragedy. We lost a century. And we may have lost a century of our liberty because of it.