Collectivists, authoritarians and totalitarians always and everywhere strive to focus our attention on group issues. They break us down into race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, etc.
The goal is to pit us against one another and to divert our attention from the machinations in which they are engaged.
The antidote is to focus instead on the individual.
Remember, groups do not think or act, only individuals do.
What it means to be a centrist, like so may other concepts, has evolved into something unrecognizable when one considers its classical definition.
Once upon a time it meant someone in the center politically. Neither left nor right.
Today it signifies a person in favor of a centralized governance with purported experts in charge of the rest of us rubes.
The concept 'entrained thinking' describes the behavior of members of the educated class whose education effectively insulates them from paying attention to novel, and potentially beneficial ideas and concepts which originate outside their narrow scope, and are often put forward by people less qualified than themselves.
Many groundbreaking discoveries have been made by people who were essentially amateurs in the field in question.
Government education (sic) can never be more than an indoctrination program.
If educating the young were really the goal then all schooling would be privately provided by the market.
There can be no end to the controversies regarding what may be taught or allowed in public schools. Prayer being just one example.
The only solution is to allow entrepreneurs to provide the variety of curriculums the public desires.
Each parent would then be able to find a school suitable for them.
It is difficult if not impossible to exaggerate the importance of persistence in the realization of one's goals. Having a sound strategy is of of course important, but persistence alone enables us to overcome the inevitable obstacles the path to success is strewn with.
'Divide and Conquer' is a well worn strategy expression. That however, does not in any way nullify its truthfulness.
It is one of the strategies most effectively employed by those who would rule over us.
They are fully aware that if they can manage to get us fighting amongst ourselves, we are far less likely to notice the gradual curtailment of our liberties and the shrinking of our ability to think and act as best we see fit.
Manufacturing resentment is one facet of this strategy, and it is...
More young people than ever are estranged from their parents, and especially their fathers. I consider this very unfortunate. I always loved and appreciated my parents for everything they did for me, including many sacrifices for my happiness.
As is the case in every instance I can imagine, the proof of something's correctness or appropriateness, is to be judged by the results it brings about, either satisfactory or otherwise.
I believe (based upon scant knowledge I admit) that most therapy is useless or worse.
I have believed for a very long time that the best therapy is unlikely to come from the professionals. Instead, properly trained laypeople are the most viable solution to the therapy problem.
I have written on the topic of merit before but wish here to approach the subject from a slightly different angle. That is, how it is related to compensation.
First, merit can never be properly assessed by others since it is an individual affair and the efforts of the individual can never be objectively weighed by outsiders, or compared to the efforts of others.
It might be appropriate here to recall that merit is ascribed to the efforts an individual makes to put to best use the talents and...
Considered in a certain light, the amazing progress of the human race, notwithstanding a few tragic setbacks, can be understood as the discovery of, and the constant improvements to what might best be referred to as 'Force Multipliers'. I should think the term would be clear in its meaning.
Simple examples of physical 'force multipliers' are pulleys, fulcrum and lever, steam, internal combustion, electricity, the internet.
There are 'force multipliers' in other areas of our lives which may be...
Much mischief and worse often results from initiatives and policies which are mistakenly aimed at the expressions (branches) of a problem, rather than at its cause (root).
Over the last year I have been banned from Facebook (two different accounts) and one other platform (a dating site). In neither case was an explanation given. I suppose that is because I never did anything which would cause a sane or unbiased person or group of people to ban me. At the risk of being called a conspiracy theorist, it has occurred to me that there may be some behind the scenes efforts to minimize the visibility of people holding viewpoints which are not consistent with the...
I came across a Japanese word the other day which describes one feature of my personality quite accurately. “Tsundoku” . It describes anyone who purchases more books than they are realistically able to read.
I have given away hundreds and hundreds of books, and currently have in my possession more books than I shall ever be able to read in my lifetime.
The only diversity that matters is the only one not tolerated. That is intellectual or ideological diversity.
To argue against central planning is not to argue against planning anymore than arguing against a monopoly postal service is arguing against mail.
A clever person can come up with good answers but only a highly intelligent person can come up with good questions.
Few people have understood the importance of language to the health of a society as did George Orwell. In his 'Politics and the English Language' Orwell makes a convincing case that many of society's ills can only be corrected by restoring the English language to its proper usage. I think he has it exactly right. In my experience, people who use the English language poorly are most often those also on the wrong side of important issues. I don't believe this is a coincidence.
Language usage and foolish thinking reinforce one another in a vicious cycle. The more our language is debased and corrupted, the more foolish we become and the more foolish we become, the more debased and corrupted our language becomes. And so, on and on it goes.
One can only wonder if it is possible to have fruitful political or policy discussions when most people have never learned or been taught to think for themselves but have instead been taught what to think.
The use of phrases such as 'follow the science' and 'listen to the experts' ratcheted up dramatically during the Covid-19 psyop.
The concept is far from new however. Its earliest iteration was probably Plato's 'Philosopher Kings' concept which he laid out in 'The Republic'.
These were people groomed to be experts in the rule of people and were to be given absolute control over the population.
In all such cases the 'will' of the people is little, if at all considered.
Instead the purported...