CRIMEA
I get that Crimea has the best of both worlds if it stays part of Ukraine, but has Russia’s backing. In effect it gets to play the Black Sea version of Hong Kong. If brought back into Russia directly it would have less autonomy that it does as a ‘leased territory’.
(FWIW: stopping the Russians from taking over the Ottomans (the crimean war) was yet another stupid thing we did. Added to the list of many stupid things we did. Sigh…)
Source date (UTC): 2014-02-24 04:08:00 UTC
DOMINATION, CHARITY, OR CHEAP STATUS SIGNALS?
There is a great difference between these levels of interest: domination, management, insurance, and charity.
The world is a pretty charitable place really.
If a people ASK for charity we should be as charitable as their behavior warrants. But the Japanese for example, pretty much refused our assistance (wrongly). And our assistance in most places (Haiti included) has been more damaging than good. Our attempts to help Africa have almost all been damaging to Africa – and the scholarly review of our failures is not even a matter of dispute any longer.
Involving ourselves both at the state level and via multitudes of NGO’s that the EVIDENCE shows CLEARLY cause more harm than good; or involving ourselves as the world’s police force – which the evidence suggests causes more harm than good (we have been wrong more than right); or acting as the evangelists of the religion of Universal Secular Christianity that we call “Social Democracy” which the evidence again CLEARLY demonstrates that we cause more harm than good – is just an elaborate way of using our wealth to generate status signals for ourselves at other people’s expense.
We are not smarter than the rest of the world. We are wealthier. We are wealthier because we have had longer to convert our society to ratio-scientific thought. And we are wealthier because we have the common law (in anglo countries), we used our technological leadership to conquer the two most remote continents (Australia and north america); and because we have influenced Continental law by two major wars of conquest in which we dictated terms. And because we inherited the british empire’s control of the seas built up over 500 years, when it committed suicide in the wars. And because we forced the world onto the petro-dollar standard in order to finance our global war on communism.
Those are the reasons we are wealthier. And while we have done a lot of good by converting the rest of the world unwillingly to CONSUMER CAPITALISM – which is our greatest contribution – we have also done a lot of harm with our wealth – motivated by good intentions, in practice, out of ignorance.
Source date (UTC): 2014-02-24 04:05:00 UTC
ARISTOCRACY, GODS AND PRAYER : A CURE FOR THE GOD THAT FAILED
(meaningful)
Aristocracy prays, if it does, to its ancestors. And you pray to your ancestors only if they are worth praying to. Moreover, you pray to some other god only because your ancestors are not worth praying to.
All gods exist – at least as much as ideas exist. The question is the relative merit of each. The merit of any god, any religion, is the status of the people who worship it. If a people prosper and endure then they chose the right gods. If they suffer in ignorance and poverty, then they chose the wrong gods.
Clearly the corporate State, the “God That Failed” was a bad god to pray to. Our old gods must mourn. And the other gods must laugh at them. Because all evidence indicates, that the State is the god of Genocide.
In that sense, the god of the State, the god of Genocide, is not a failure. The god of Genocide succeeds so more every day. The “God That Failed” is then, a mistake. It is not the god that failed: it is we who failed in choosing our god.
No man will pray to ancestors that are not his. No man will pray to ancestors that are not worthy. And men who pray to unworthy gods will pay for it. And men who pray to genocidal gods, will pay with their genes – forever. A never-ending price.
There are many gods. That is just an irrefutable scientific fact. The question is who we choose as our gods. One always chooses a god. Even if one chooses not to. Choosing not to, is a choice too. And at least empirically speaking, it appears to be a very bad one. Because it is a lie. Without choosing other gods, we of necessity choose the state. And the state is a genocidal god.
Curt Doolittle
Kiev
Source date (UTC): 2014-02-23 15:03:00 UTC
THERE ARE BUT THREE WAYS TO CONTROL A PEOPLE:
1) MORAL ARGUMENT
i – Tools: Religion. Shaming. Rallying. Deception. Obscurantism.
ii – Threat:Inclusion and Exclusion from the benefit of group membership.
iii – Our defense: Reason, Science, Propertarianism (the logic of cooperation)
2) VIOLENCE
i – Tools: War. Law. Police.
ii – Threat: death, deprivation, takings.
iii – Our defense: The Militia. Rule of law. Common Law. Constitution. Property Rights.
3) REMUNERATION
i – Tools : Fiat money. Fiat Credit. Taxation. (extraction)
ii – Threat : deprivation. poverty.
iii – Our Defense: Precious metals. private money. digital currency.
A PEOPLE MUST POSSESS THESE DEFENSES TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM THE PREDATORY STATE.
a) Reason. Science. Propertarianism.
b) The Militia. Rule of Law. Common Law. Constitution. Property Rights.
c) Natural Money. Private money. Digital Money.
IT IS AFTER THE PEOPLE POSSESS THESE THINGS, AND ONLY AFTER, THAT IT IS SAFE TO USE THE STATE FOR MUTUAL INSURANCE AND CARE-TAKING.
The government is a very dangerous thing. Like all dangerous things, it may have benefits. But only if the dangers are handled with the extreme caution that they deserve. Like all harmful things, the state will harm those who attempt to gain its benefits without paying the high cost of its careful handling.
Source date (UTC): 2014-02-23 13:42:00 UTC
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2014/02/what-it-takes.html?spref=fb–“The moral victory of the hard men of the Ukrainian opposition in Kiev in trampling on the most recent European-negotiated compromise solution and successfully driving the elected President out of the capital comes not just from dying bravely, but from winning. “–
Source date (UTC): 2014-02-23 12:55:00 UTC
ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF “PARLIAMENTARY COMMON LAW”
It’s not a practical time for big political ideas, but in a country like Ukraine, that probably DOES need a parliament, it would be very helpful to use lottocracy to elect ‘citizen judges’, selected by lot, from each district, to approve any law voted on by the parliament. Say, 12 citizen jurors for each representative. This essentially places common law requirements on the legislature. Use standard jury selection processes. As a citizen judge you must only vote in favor of a law if you understand it, it does not violate the constitution and it is good for your country.
That is the best protection OTHER than NO GOVERNMENT that we can come up with, Direct democracy is a good idea but it is also terribly open to corruption, whereas juries whose actions are taken in public are not as easily corrupted as you think.
This makes each citizen have a personal stake in the law.
Source date (UTC): 2014-02-23 09:45:00 UTC
MARCH 1ST :REQUEST FOR VOLUNTEERS TO CLEAN UP MAIDAN
Well, I was too much of a coward to go fight, (and I didn’t feel I had the right to), but I think I’ll go help clean up a bit. At least I’ll feel like I did something to honor the dead and the people who did the fighting, even if it’s really small – even insignificant. I don’t know any other way to show respect for those that did the real work.
Source date (UTC): 2014-02-23 09:36:00 UTC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_traditions_and_superstitionsSUPERSTITIONS AS LAWS
Having a great, fun, chat with Paul Bakhmut on Slavic superstition and he’s connecting the dots for me on the use of superstitions in lieu of laws. It’s genius. I love it. All these superstitions have some useful purpose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_traditions_and_superstitions
Source date (UTC): 2014-02-23 09:30:00 UTC
WHAT I LEARNED FROM HANS HOPPE?
Someone asked me what I learned from Hoppe, accusatorially. that I hadn’t learned elsewhere. And I was so stupefied by it that I couldn’t put it into words that the time.
But, what I learned from Hans-Hermann Hoppe that I did NOT learn from any other source, was how to construct moral arguments in economic terms. Or rather, that all moral statements were reducible to statements of property, and that, furthermore, economic reasoning was applicable to ALL human behavior.
Yes, I have to filter out the Rothbardian and Misesian errors. And yes, Hans likes to interject a lot of sarcastic humor or ridicule into his speeches. But in general, the way of constructing arguments with that much rigor reliant entirely on demonstrated ACTIONS not empty VERBALISMS, is unique to libertarianism. It’s unique to Hoppe really. You just don’t find that intellectual rigor anywhere else. He makes almost all academic philosophy look like the work of children by comparison.
And that’s where my approach got it from – although I tend to think in more Hayekian voice.
Now, in my work, I have the ADDITIONAL burden of having to describe the CAUSE of liberty, where Hans didn’t. (He didn’t know it.) Where he had only to work with correlation, I have to work with causation.
And it’s harder to do that. I can’t rely on an assumed natural morality the way he did. Instead I treat human cooperation as a form of rigorous logic – a science. It’s more burdensome. But it works.
Anyway. Hans solve the problem I was looking for. He solved what we hadn’t solved for 2500 years. And what he DIDN”T solve, I will (assuming I live long enough – cause that’s a hell of an assumption.)
That’s why I am so indebted to Hans despite the fact that he didn’t directly give me much help. On the other hand, he didn’t need to.
Curt Doolittle
Kiev
Source date (UTC): 2014-02-23 09:23:00 UTC
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10191978/These-hereditary-peers-put-our-MPs-to-shame.html?fbPeter Oborne: “…the House of Commons cannot be relied on to defend traditional English liberties or the British way of life. Again and again, the nation has found itself relying on the good sense and sound instincts of the House of Lords, in particular the hereditary element. “
Source date (UTC): 2014-02-23 09:10:00 UTC