In his prescient book entitled 'The Road to Serfdom' F. A. Hayek included a chapter, 'Why the Worst Get on Top'.
There he explains why only the most ruthless of men rise to the top in totalitarian regimes.
The reason being that only they are willing to do the despicable and horrific things required to establish and maintain such brutal regimes.
Where the principle of 'the end justifies the means' prevails, no such thing as morality exists.
It is almost always those who feel inferior who fill the lower ranks of the activist groups. Having no certainty in themselves they seek to obtain it in a group identity. Those with high self-esteem are not susceptible to such group allure.
It seems to be a tragic flaw in human nature that it is far easier to rally people around something negative such as envy or hatred of another than it is to rally them around something positive.
One reason Socialism appeals to the intellectual 'chattering classes' and especially the young is because there is a romantic feel to utopian abstract theories which is lacking in more practical considerations.
Visions sell; practicality, not so much.
When it comes to social policies, does it matter more what the intentions of those promoting it are or what practical outcomes it brings about?
It never ceases to amaze me how otherwise very intelligent people are utterly convinced that all could be made right if only we could put the right people in charge of bossing the rest of us around.
The most serious mistake men make regarding the ordering of society is their failure to comprehend and appreciate the limits of engineering.
They believe that since engineering has enabled us to harness nature and build monuments like expansive bridges, jet airliners, high speed trains. etc. that such engineering principles can be applied to the organization of societies as well, and to the same positive effect.
This is why planned economic schemes like Socialism continue to rear their ugly...
The class in society which most influences its direction is the intellectual class.
These are not the scholars, scientists or experts. Rather, they are the educated upper middle class who know a little bit about this and a little bit about that and believe that they are superior to the masses and equals with the scholars, scientists and experts.
They are often referred to as the 'Chattering Class's' because it is nearly impossible to shut them up.
Inevitably, and almost always tragically, the...
While outsiders can call attention to a group's problems, they can provide only ancillary support for their solutions.
These solutions must be spearheaded by members of the affected communities.
Thus with the obviously serious problems facing Muslims, blacks and the political left, they need to take charge of cleaning their own houses.
Until they do, little improvement can be expected.
There are basically three different types of information.
Misinformation is incorrect but without intent to deceive.
Disinformation is incorrect but with the intention to deceive.
Mal-information is correct but harms a favored narrative.
While all three exist, we rarely hear anything about mal-information, but are constantly hearing about both misinformation and disinformation.
Unfortunately, the later two terms are often used today as terms of opprobrium in order to hinder a person or opinion,...
Writing, which was invented around 3,000 BC was invented not for the writing of books, but rather the keeping of books.
Writing was invented to keep track of inventories and transactions.
All literature and stories at that time were conveyed orally.
The first simple papyrus and clay tablet books were not written until roughly four centuries later.
Man has a natural fear of change, and especially drastic or sudden change.
The primary reason is because it requires him to reinvent himself and this is a daunting task.
It is not well known and even less well appreciated today that it was the young which gave us most of the inventions which led us to where we are today.
Things like the domestication of animals,, the wheel, the sail, the plough, irrigation, fermentation and metallurgy were all discovered when most people died by the age of 25.
Thus it was the juveniles who ushered in the age of modernity.
There can be nothing worthy of the name 'free speech' without the freedom to offend.
In the course of evil historical events people break out into three groups.
There are the promoters of the evil, the resisters of the evil, and the apathetic onlookers.
The victory of the evil would be impossible without the tacit support of the apathetic, for as the British Conservative Edmund Burke observed, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
While we almost always consider addiction to be something negative, that isn't necessarily always the case.
If a person claimed to be addicted to generosity, reading, writing or any other positive activity, we would hardly consider that to be a bad thing.
In such cases it might be more accurate to say that we are committed to such behavior than addicted.
There are of course many quite negative addictions.
Any addiction that causes significant harm to the addict is negative by definition.
When...
The opposite of independence is dependence.
It is frustrating to be dependent upon others for one's basic necessities.
It can often breed resentment for those whom we are dependent upon.
It is important that to whatever extent we can we maintain as much independence as is humanely possible for us, and for as long as possible.
This is one of the keys to mental health.
It's difficult to stay on the moral high ground when one's opponents have descended into the depths of barbarianism.
Such is the case many of us are facing today.
All too many on the looney left are either calling for violence or celebrating it when it occurs.
Meanwhile, the saner portion of the left sits idly by and says or does nothing to rein in the crazier elements of their movement.
Almost all societies or civilizations die of suicide and not murder.
The first sign of a society's suicide is when its relationship with other differing ideologies becomes asymmetrically tolerant.
In other words, that society or civilization tolerates the views and behavior of very different societies and civilizations, while they offer no tolerance in return.
This is where we are today.