Man has only two options when it comes to making judgments.
He can either rely on reason or feelings. There is no third option.
Faith, if one considers it carefully, is nothing but feelings, and has nothing to do with reason.
Everything worthwhile man has accomplished was the result of reason.
In my previous post I brought up the role of resilience in people's life choices.
So, what is this thing we call resilience?
Simply put, it is the ability to deal successfully with adversity, trauma or stress. The ability to bounce back.
It is believe that rather than being an innate ability, resilience is a learned trait and can be developed.
The question then becomes: 'Why do some elect to develop it while others do not?'
The debate regarding nature and nurture has been a long one and continues to this day.
Consider one situation where it comes into play.
Two people grow up in very terrible environments.
Perhaps they were the victim of abuse.
One person, devastated by the experience chooses a life of crime or addiction.
Another person, who has been the victim of something similar, or perhaps even worse, determines to make their life into something worthwhile.
What is the difference?
Does an innate resilience or lack...
In order to navigate life successfully and be happy, a person needs self-esteem.
What exactly is self-esteem?
It has two components.
One must believe that they are worthy of living a happy and satisfying life, and they must believe that they have what it takes to do so.
If I were asked to summarize the benefits of human society in just one word, that word would be ''Exchange'.
If I were asked to clarify what I meant, I would use two words. 'Knowledge' and 'Goods'.
The value we derive from the knowledge of others, both living and dead is inestimable.
When I use the term 'Goods' I mean all the products and services available on the market.
The variety and plentifulness of these goods is the result of the 'division of labor' and 'free markets'.
It is inaccurate to claim to love something or someone that you do not value.
There is no love apart from value.
I claim to love reading and writing. That is because I value each highly.
All of the people in my life whom I claim to love I do so because I value them.
To claim to love something which one does not values is a contradiction in terms. Any positive feelings one has for something which they do not value is nothing but sentimental nonsense.
The human brain had been increasing in size for most of the past two million years, and then for the last twenty thousand years it has been shrinking.
We have lost the brain size equivalent of the volume of a tennis ball over that time span.
What might account for this?
The explanation I find most compelling is that as social cooperation has expanded, the number of things we can depend upon others to do has as well.
Therefore, we are able to offload some of the thinking which we previously needed...
It is quite evident that public (State operated) education is more about grooming the young to accept and support beliefs bereft of facts or reason than to teach them how to think and make prudent choices.
This is precisely the reason so many Gen Z young people support social systems that have produced nothing but pain and suffering historically.
Part of their grooming consists of editing out certain portions of history in order to sanitize the horrible record of Socialism and Communism.
If we...
As emotional beings, you and I are prone to evading that which might cause us emotional pain. And, while this is understandable, it is counterproductive and unhealthy.
Nothing can be repaired, improved or eliminated which is not first confronted.
It takes courage to confront our fears and the prospect of suffering.
Thus, courage is one of the most important virtues upon which so many others are based.
Resolve never to evade that which requires your attention and action.
You will never regret it...
Antiseptics were first introduce around 1865 by Joseph Lister a Scottish surgeon whose work was based upon Louis Pasteur's germ theory.
It was probably the most important medical breakthrough of the 19th century.
You and I need a different form of antiseptic today to combat the disease that is the 'Vampire State' and its efforts to manipulate and dominate us as well as to deprive us of the fruits of our labor.
The antiseptic we require is that of thinking, questioning and a stubborn refusal to...
Every living organism needs to keep moving in order to stay alive.
The movement needn't be dramatic, but all living organisms from amoeba to humans must be actively involved in carrying out those functions their existence depends upon.
To be still is to be dead or dying, for all life is movement.
All living things must necessarily eat other living things to survive.
Animals eat either plants or other animals and we eat them along with certain types of plants.
Failure to do so will be our demise.
When we eat beef we are indirectly consuming the nutrients the cow had obtained from the various grasses and grains it consumed.
When our dead body decays it will return to the earth where it will be consumed by plants which will be consumed by animals which, along with certain plants...
Matter has always existed and always will.
However, matter is always changing its form.
We rarely stop to ponder this truth.
We often view the occurrences of life very superficially if not childishly.
For example when we burn a log in our fireplace it appears as though the log no longer exists.
The truth is that technically there is no longer a log as we would define it but the matter of which the log consisted does still exist. It has simply been reconfigured into heat, light, sound, smoke and...
We humans are unique in so many different ways.
From other living things that is.
No other living thing, to the best of our knowledge, ever becomes bored.
They are unlikely to become depressed either.
An even sadder way in which we are unique is our capability of contemplating or committing suicide.
No other living thing is capable of such.
Whenever a decision of any import needs to be made, the most important question is: 'Who get's to decide?'
For example if an important decision regarding your life needs to be made (say regarding a vaccine), are you allowed the sovereignty of deciding or has some other authority (the State) usurped the right to decide for you?
Whenever another authority wishes to influence your decision, they must either persuade you or coerce you. There is no third option.
People often claim that they did something on a whim, but what does that mean?
Most of the time the person making such a claim doesn't actually know what the term means.
Essentially it means that a decision has been made without reference to any clear reason for doing so.
Truth is a concept which we take for granted.
What does it mean though?
I think the simplest and most accurate way to define it is that 'truth is that which aligns with reality'.
Reality is the yardstick by which claims are measured.
Everyone has a set of values or standards.
Most of us never give much thought to what they are exactly, or how we came to have them.
The most fundamental or highest value is man's life.
The reason is that if we are not alive, we cannot have any values whatsoever.
All of our other values are derived from this fundamental one.
Friendship, loyalty, love and all other values are derivatives of the value of a man's life.
The serenity prayer draws a very important distinction.
It is that between the things we can change and those we cannot.
The former are the things which are man made.
The later are things metaphysically given.
So, while we can most certainly change our political system and politicians, we can do nothing to change gravity.
Have you ever stopped to wonder why so many people are boring?
I have.
I think the reason is that they are incurious. They don't ask good questions often enough. Perhaps because they don't valued knowledge and understanding beyond a very limited range, perhaps involving their career.
It has been said that we can stand those who bore us, but not those we bore.
I've often said that I don't mind being accused of anything except being uninteresting.