While many of us are familiar with Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' , far fewer of us are familiar with his previous and equally important book entitled 'A Theory of Moral Sentiments'. If you have not read it I cannot recommend it too highly.
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A person can learn more about human psychology and behavior by reading Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' than by reading a handful of contemporary social psychology manuals.
I believe it was Donald Rumsfeld who pointed out the fact that there are known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns.
The known knowns are the things we know that we know.
The known unknowns are the the things we know that we don't know.
The unknown unknowns are the things we don't know that we don't know.
It is the latter unknowns that cause most of our problems.
Reason, while underrated by those who suggest that revelation and emotions are reliable means of knowing, may also be overrated.
By this I mean that we often overestimate our reasoning abilities and thus fall into error when we reason logically to a wrong conclusion.
This hubristic view of reason is what convinces the collectivists that we can create a perfect system for human existence.
This is arrogant and nonsensical.
Probably nothing is more important for a person than to become self-aware. What does it mean to be self-aware?
Essentially it simply means to understand oneself.
Imagine if you will, trying to operate a piece of equipment which you did not understand.
Now consider the fact that you yourself are the most complex piece of equipment you will ever encounter.
How can you possibly expect to operate effectively if you do not understand yourself?
Self-awareness is possible because you and I are the only...
The root of civilization is civil. Once we start down the path of uncivility we simultaneously begin to destroy our civilization.
That is precisely where we find ourselves today.
In modern times civility is difficult if not impossible to detect and/or maintain.
Why is civility becoming an endangered behavior?
I believe the explanation is to be found in the fact that there are always those who profit from discord and disharmony.
Both may be employed in order to gain more power over the masses who...
People often mistakenly believe 'Capitalism' is the opposite 'Socialism'. Actually, it is 'Individualism' which is 'Socialism's' opposite. The former places the highest value on the individual while the latter places the highest value on society as a whole.
There are so many things wrong with 'Socialism' that one hardly knows where to begin. For one thing a society is nothing more than a specific group of individuals. It is an abstraction and not something of substance.
As Ayn Rand pointed out,...
Principles provide us with guidance as to how to live and conduct ourselves. They are the signposts and guardrails along the highway of life. They are the compass and rudder of our ship on the sea of life. Without them we wander and drift aimlessly but not harmlessly. We become lost.
One of the most important things a person can do for themselves is to determine and become crystal clear about the principles they intend to live by. Principles, if a person has adopted them are interrelated and...
The term 'push polling' refers to a polling organization or pollster's use of loaded and leading questions in order to obtain the responses they prefer and are 'fishing' for.
The questions are crafted by behavioral experts in such a way as to elicit the preferred responses in order to make it appear that the public is in favor of something which it is not, or is opposed to something which it is not.
Often euphemistic terms are used to induce those questioned to respond as desired.
The goal is...
All collectivist efforts, which always require force and thus lead totalitarianism, are based upon the false belief that man's reason is capable of designing social systems which can improve his lot and are superior to anything which might come about spontaneously and without central direction.
This is one of the most serious errors men are prone to make and is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of innocent individuals across modern history.
One term for this misguided attempt...
I find the phenomenon of path formation fascinating. Before a well worn path is formed people take different routes through the woods. Eventually, one route becomes the preferred one and everyone begins taking it.
None of this is planned of course, which is what makes it so fascinating to me. It is a 'compositive' occurrence which happens spontaneously and without a shred of planning.
In many instances this is how something comes to exist.
Consider language for instance. The only attempt to...
While opinion is invisible its effects are anything but. All individual action is driven by opinion. We do nothing unless we are of the opinion that our acting will improve circumstances or prevent them from becoming worse.
And, while we share much in common with our fellows, it is impossible that one person will have identical opinions regarding every topic that another individual has.
The challenge is to make the best use of this reality. We can learn very little from those who agree with us,...
Another concept which has fallen into serious disrepute is that of meritocracy. The situation is so bad that certain parties are claiming the the concept is a construct of white European males to suppress women and minorities, essentially preventing them from rising in various areas of human endeavor.
One can easily debunk this nonsense by pointing out the fact that people from India and Asia outperform white European males in many fields based upon merit and not ethnicity.
Attempts to portray...
Colonialism is used today almost exclusively as a term of opprobrium. It is used to demonize the west and especially western Europeans. If one reads only the side of the history of colonialism that portrays all of colonialists as horrible and even genocidal they would only be viewing one side of the historical ledger.
This rather myopic view is favored by those who wish to contort history to support their narrative and further their aims. These aims almost always involve money and power.
It is...
Concept creep is the phenomenon whereby harm related words such as 'racist', 'bullying', 'genocide', 'prejudice', etc. are expanded to include a broader range of phenomena than originally intended, thus increasing sensitivity to harm. It's one of the explanations for why so many young people are oversensitive and fragile.
The expansion may occur vertically by including less severe cases than those previously regarded as harmful or horizontally by including other behaviors previously not...
Perhaps you, like I hitchhiked when you were young. It was a common occurrence in the 60s and even into the early 70s. Even attractive young women felt safe hitchhiking.
So what happened, and when?
I believe that people began to feel less safe hitchhiking partly because of such highly publicized cases as that of the 'Zodiac Killer'.
Also, as the counterculture movement was winding down hitchhiking didn't so much display a nonconformist attitude as a lack of responsibility and failure to be...
I, like so many others have suffered the painful loss of a loved one in my lifetime. The most painful were those who were young people with their whole life before them.
Probably the most disturbing, if not more painful than the others was the loss of a granddaughter who committed suicide.
I have given a good deal of thought to the topics of depression, despair and suicide.
I think the reasons are because of the losses I mentioned, and my own predilection to be happy and positive, no matter my...
I don't suppose there is any area of life where language is misused and weaponized more than in politics.
I am old enough to remember when the word 'liberal' actually meant liberal. Then the crafty left commandeered the term in order to cloak themselves in a fine word which they were undeserving of.
Classical liberalism or what might be considered small 'l' libertarianism today was a well rounded and principled philosophy for living.
Unlike what passes for Liberalism today, it embraced some...
Coercion is the use of force or threat of force to make someone do something against their wishes or prevent them doing something they wish to do.
There are basically three means for getting people to do what we want them to do.
Argumentation, where we attempt to convince them with our words.
Incentivization, where we attempt to convince them by providing a benefit or reward.
Coercion, where we use or threaten to use force.
The first two are perfectly acceptable while the third is not.
I believe...
The concept of fairness is one which is bandied about a good deal but is not really thought through sufficiently.
What does it mean for something to be fair?
In some cases it is quite obvious while in many others it is less so.
For example, if you and I are assigned a science project together and I do all of the work and you get all of the credit, that is obviously not fair.
On the other hand if we both work on the project equally and are credited equally that is just as obviously fair.
Different...