Russells Commentary

I love liberalism.  My mother taught me liberalism.  I remember as a child trying to make out the pronunciation of the author of the books she was reading.  Came across this quote by that author, interesting day on the calendar:

"Coexistence on this tightly knit earth should be viewed as an existence not only without wars...but also without [the government] telling us how to live, what to say, what to think, what to know, and what not to know."

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, from a speech given September 11, 1973.

 

The Gulag Archipelago Volume 1: An Experiment in Literary Investigation

by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Volume 1 of the gripping epic masterpiece, Solzhenitsyn's chilling report of his arrest and interrogation, which exposed to the world the vast bureaucracy of secret police that haunted Soviet society

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Almost.... http://www.occupywallst.org/ A shame that a solid philosophy of freedom hasn't made its way into this group before protest time. They're cut off at the knees when they say that "life trumps property." Freedom is a question of resources, and finding your own freedom by stealing others doesn't make you free.

Success in life can be measured by different yard sticks, but the core issue always remains.  If you're not getting what you want doing what you're doing, you need to change.  Why are we so resistant to change?  Why is it so hard to open up to a new paradigm and make the adjustments necessary to realize our own desires?

If you were given the option to Change or Die, the fact is you will probably die.  Check out this article by Alan Deutschman in 2005 on the subject.

 

Change or die

by Alan Deutschma

"Journalist Deutschman has concluded that although we all have the ability to change our behavior, we rarely ever do. In fact, the odds are nine to one that, when faced with the dire, life-or-death need to change, we won't. From patients suffering from heart disease to repeat offenders in the criminal justice system to companies trapped in the mold of unsuccessful business practices, many of us could prevent ominous outcomes by simply changing our mindset. This book debunks age-old myths about c…

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Refer to Thriftville vs. Squanderville.  What is being masqueraded as a "bailout" is really another step along the Road to Serfdom.

 

The road to serfdom

by [F. A. Hayek]; edited by Bruce Caldwel

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Frederic Bastiat's The Law should be required reading for every student in every civics program world wide.  It should be a pre-requisite for having a conversation that involves the role of government.  Ignorance of The Law is inexcusable in our modern political climate.  Bastiat takes on centuries of power-elite abuses, takes on millennia of classical education systems designed to teach the elite that their job is to control and dictate society, and lays the only possible philosophical groundwork for a free society.

Reprinted here, translated to English, for your education.  I believe the headings were added by translators.

 

The Law

by Frederic Bastiat

The Law was originally published in French in 1850 by Frederic Bastiat. It was written two years after the third French Revolution of 1848 and a few months before his death of tuberculosis at age 49. It is the work for which Bastiat is most famous. This translation to American English is from 1874.

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This post comes about based on a few recent political discussions.  First, a Facebook friend-of-a-friend made the statement on economics that we need to learn from our mistakes of the past.  He then refused to define what those mistakes are, while promoting a Friedmanian view of current economic theory.

Here's what I call that: A vacuous statement.  It's a shell meant to be filled with whatever "mistakes" the hearer would consider obvious, and meant to generate the perception of shared values with the speaker.  This connection then carries over into the prognosis given by the speaker, which may be entirely out of bounds to the listener, but since we're now "on the same team" it's accepted.

This is exactly what the Obama campaign accomplished in the 2008 election cycle.  By having a campaign slogan of "Change" America was invited to insert their own perspective of what is broken and what needs changed, and develop a one-sided sympatico with the candidate.  The failure is this slogan has no genuine content to it and when the candidate gets into office, it's already too late for the voters to realize the promise was made entirely in their own heads.

One of the most informative, common sense pieces of journalism on the debt ceiling debate.  Why hasn't the MSM keyed in on just a few of these fantastic talking points?

For example:

SPIEGEL: But you are willing to accept a US default if your demands for massive budget cuts and no tax increases are not met. That seems rather irresponsible or even unpatriotic. Most leading economists forecast financial "Armageddon" in that case.

Meckler: Default is a false threat. We take in over $220 billion in revenues every month and our debt service is only roughly $20 billion. The only way we will default is if the President of the United States makes the irresponsible choice not to pay our debts.

And another example:

SPIEGEL: The plan also rules out any tax increases to close the deficit, though. Even the plan of the Democrats does not mention new taxes. So your movement already won the debate over taxes.

Meckler: This debate is not about taxes. This is a question of spending. There is no amount of taxes that we could raise that would stop our deficit spending caused by politicians who have lied so often.

If the population thinks, and demands quality reporting, they'll get it.  As long as the population grazes like sheep in the pastures of agenda-driven propoganda masquerading as journalism, we'll have that to look forward to.

In 2003 Warren Buffet and Carol Loomis penned this prescient piece on the issue of trade imbalance.  Included is a PDF reprint from the original Fortune article. growing.pdf It's 2011, and if you're American and haven't read this article, you need to now.