Curt Doolittle

Theme: Governance

  • David’s right. Tipping point was in the past 30 days. It’s happening. Putin was

    David’s right. Tipping point was in the past 30 days. It’s happening. Putin was the catalyst for the death blow to the postwar model.

    Need to look at the cycles again now. Revisit demographics again. Not sure I have time for that kind of deep think.

    When I said the correction would continue through 2014, and possibly through 2020, part of that statement was hopefulness. The human ‘forgetting curve’ is about four to six years. People have to ‘give up’ on prior habits and develop affinities for new ones, for a reformation of values to take root.

    Now, technically speaking that cycle is about eight or nine years. (Flocking and schooling in a business cycle.) So, we should have one year left and see something serious in about 2015.

    That’s coinciding with the departure of the (civilization-destroying) boomers (first generation of empowered proletarians).

    That wave is coinciding with the collapse of anglo debt capacity.

    And that wave is coinciding with the collapse of the postwar model (european american fantasy).

    Demographics get pretty critical between 2020 and 2025.

    Now, politically and intellectually you can start to see the change happening over the past year.

    And technology is making an institutional solution to political conflict a possibility (just as all major innovations are technical innovations that assist in cooperation under greater complexity.)

    Perfect storm.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-04-03 12:46:00 UTC

  • The first question of politics: “Why don’t I just kill you and take your stuff?”

    The first question of politics: “Why don’t I just kill you and take your stuff?” We don’t have to LIKE that this is the first question of politics, any more than we have to like that the first question of philosophy is why we do not commit suicide. But that is the first question, and it’s merely dishonest to start elsewhere.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-04-01 10:59:00 UTC

  • CAN HELP UKRAINE

    http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141041/pawel-swieboda/europes-eastward-evangelistsPOLAND CAN HELP UKRAINE

    Source date (UTC): 2014-03-30 15:39:00 UTC

  • Untitled

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(international_relations)

    Source date (UTC): 2014-03-29 04:18:00 UTC

  • UPDATE: (a) RUSSIA WILL INVADE (b) AND REASONS WHY (one of the better articles)

    http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/james-sherr-it-is-time-we-stopped-praising-ukraine-for-exercising-restraint-340991.htmlUKRAINE UPDATE: (a) RUSSIA WILL INVADE (b) AND REASONS WHY

    (one of the better articles)

    Source date (UTC): 2014-03-27 07:58:00 UTC

  • “The absence of a workable integrated theory of economics and politics reflects

    –“The absence of a workable integrated theory of economics and politics reflects the lack of systematic thinking about the central problem of violence in human societies.”– Violence and Social Orders (Preface).

    The fundamental problem of cooperation is the suppression of free riding. Violence is but one of the many tools used by free riders.

    Our emphasis on suppressing violence distracts us from the insufficiency of suppressing violence in creating a polity capable of generating wealth in a division of knowledge and labor.

    Very poor societies manage to prevent violence and theft. What they do not prevent is every other possible means of free riding.

    The smaller the family size the higher the trust in any polity.

    But for small family sizes suppression of free riding must be nearly universal.

    And therefore not only must we possess property rights to allow small families to engage in production, but we must suppress all forms of involuntary transfer to lower the risk enough to do so. (ANF societies are fragile.)

    By eliminating free riding we obtain trust, and the low transaction costs that come with trust. In seeking to obtain trust, non-aggression is not enough.

    The source of any liberty was, is, and will always be, the organized use of violence to suppress free riding in all its forms.

    The reason that democracy, policy and economics are in conflict is the intellectual failure to address the incompatible moral codes of the different demographic groups, and the degree of trust vs demand for intervention, that is expressed by these different groups.

    As such, western high trust, which is an extension of the absolute nuclear family, democracy, rule of law, and the high economic performance of the few high trust societies, are assumed to be the consequence of democracy.

    Whereas democracy is a luxury of the high trust society.

    There is no free lunch. You either accept universal absolute nuclear families and total suppression of free riding in all its forms as a high cost you must bear for prosperity and liberty, or instead, you obtain some variant of every other lower and lowest trust societies on the planet.

    No way out. Period.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-03-25 21:00:00 UTC

  • “By using the case of Finland the way he does, Rothbard is trying to use an exam

    –“By using the case of Finland the way he does, Rothbard is trying to use an example of successful military resistance to Soviet expansionism to argue that there was no such thing as Soviet expansionism by military means.”–

    Typical Rothbardian logic: nonsense.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-03-25 19:56:00 UTC

  • “The modern equivalent of communes would be seasteads.”– Arnold Kling

    –“The modern equivalent of communes would be seasteads.”– Arnold Kling.

    Source date (UTC): 2014-03-25 02:53:00 UTC

  • Venetian people realized that we are a nation (worthy of) self-rule and openly o

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2586531/Venice-votes-split-Italy-89-citys-residents-opt-form-new-independent-state.html#ixzz2whVdAdxj—“The Venetian people realized that we are a nation (worthy of) self-rule and openly oppressed, and the entire world is moving towards fragmentation – a positive fragmentation – where local traditions mingle with global exchanges.”…”We are only at the Big Bang of the movement – but revolutions are born of hunger and we are now hungry. Venice can now escape.”—

    Source date (UTC): 2014-03-22 10:13:00 UTC

  • I think you understand the Putin strategy, although you do not seem to have adde

    http://buchanan.org/blog/putin-irrational-one-6292Pat,

    I think you understand the Putin strategy, although you do not seem to have added the obvious problem that Russia has enormous borders and a thin population – which has historically been accosted from all sides. Their only defense is a strong offense.

    Second, if Putin is in fact, an ethno-nationalist, (I agree that he is) then he should just say so. Because a lot of the west would support him in that position for, as you mentioned, the same reasons we support the jews. Conservative support would be overwhelming.

    Third, but the problem he has in convincingly making that argument, is that his government is profoundly corrupt, extractive and predatory on its own people. By contrast, it’s very obvious that membership in the EU is life-alteringly superior for eastern Europe – at high cost to western europeans.

    Fourth, Russia has nothing to offer the world or its orbit other than oil and gas. Russian occupation is a net negative for any economy that it influences. (See the Economists’ report.)

    Fifth, all he had to do was offer all Russian-Crimeans dual citizenship, and then ask for a referendum – one which everyone would support. It was completely unnecessary to use military occupation with a foregone conclusion.

    Russia must reform it’s systemic and pervasive corruption. It is too heavy a burden on the people for the people to compete on the world market. Without reforming corruption, Russia is just a rogue and predatory militaristic state with nothing to offer the world.

    An ethno-nationalist Russia that suppresses corruption offers something wonderful to the world. 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2014-03-19 11:24:00 UTC