Science, then, is not an organization, and is not a proclamation from someone in a white coat, or even an army of impressive coats with impressive titles. Science is nothing but a process of isolating reliable facts. Continue reading “Earned Knowledge, L12, P2”
Author: Paul
Earned Knowledge, L12, P1
Unplanned Changes
Because of Western civilization’s built-in characteristics (like initiative), Europeans didn’t stop creating new things once kings took control of the continent. In fact, Europe’s commercial revolution and its Renaissance made people more likely to step out on their own and try new things. These people became the sources of large and unexpected changes. Continue reading “Earned Knowledge, L12, P1”
I’ll Need Reasons To Believe The Next Vote Count
I’m not a political guy. Fundamentally I’m a voluntaryist, which means that I want to leave political rule behind, en toto. But I also live among good people who still believe in political processes. So, as I run across contributions I may be able to make, I consider offering them.
Today I have something. Perhaps it will make next year’s political game a bit less bad, and perhaps it won’t, but this is at least the right time to try. Continue reading “I’ll Need Reasons To Believe The Next Vote Count”
ROSC 16: Rebels with Full Bellies
Thank God for experience. Last week we had another of our meetings at Jay’s bar, and it almost turned into a disaster. Only long experience saved it.
Everything was proceeding nicely until I saw my old friend Martin walking up to the bar with a man who creeped me out. This guy was perfectly attired and wore the same type of overcoat I used to see in and around power centers in Rome. (I lived in Rome for a short time.) This guy smelled of “heartless elite.” Continue reading “ROSC 16: Rebels with Full Bellies”
40 Years on the Road: A Report
In 1977 I began taking road trips (driving a car or truck) up and down Interstate 80. I had taken a few road trips prior, but 1977 was the first time I drove cross-country as an adult and for work… the first time I was looking on the experience with moderately confident and mature eyes. I’ve taken road trips many times since, though not in the past two years.
(This piece was originally published in 2017.)
In 1977 I began taking road trips (driving a car or truck) up and down Interstate 80. I had taken a few road trips prior, but 1977 was the first time I drove cross-country as an adult and for work… the first time I was looking on the experience with moderately confident and mature eyes. Continue reading “40 Years on the Road: A Report”
The Covid Calculus
It has now been two years since the height of the Covid compulsions, and even though some people are clinging to their rhetoric, almost no one is lining up for each new injection. After all, everyone got the disease regardless. The Covid vaccine (“You won’t get or spread Covid”) was, in modern parlance, an epic fail.
And so I’d like to examine what happened to us, then find a way back to living with each other in decency and in peace. Continue reading “The Covid Calculus”
ROSC 15: Building Ourselves a City
Theorizing is one thing; doing is quite another. No matter how good you think your theories are, applying them to the real world is always a revelation. More than that, actually doing is far more fun that theorizing. And right now hundreds of thousands of young people (and a lot of older ones too) are building the economy of the future. It’s a magnificent thing to be part of. Continue reading “ROSC 15: Building Ourselves a City”
ROSC 14: The Bitcoin House
It’s been a strange but recurring theme in my life that when a cluster of bad things hit, something good follows close behind. Often, I learn later that the good thing was initiating just as the bad things struck.
But whatever that is and however it works, it happened to me again. There is currently so much going on that I barely know where to begin.
It’s been a strange but recurring theme in my life that when a cluster of bad things hit, something good follows close behind. Often, I learn later that the good thing was initiating just as the bad things struck.
But whatever that is and however it works, it happened to me again. There is currently so much going on that I barely know where to begin. Continue reading “ROSC 14: The Bitcoin House”
Earned Knowledge, L11
The Second Europe
Europe, by 1300 AD, had a very specific flavor. Things differed from place to place, of course, but the life on the continent was now fairly uniform, and far better for most people than it had been under Rome. (Elites didn’t have it as well.) But as groups of humans do, these people began to solidify their arrangements: to see rules and hierarchies as more fundamental than real things. Continue reading “Earned Knowledge, L11”
ROSC 13: Time to Have Fun Again
Last Wednesday was my day to reorient myself. I end up doing that from time to time, and I think it’s essential, given the complexity and pressures of modern life… and very certainly so, given the complexities of a non-standard life.
Immediately I focused on the messes of the sanitarium and the “superfluous” people I had lent my time to. I don’t regret it of course – it was the right thing to do and may end up keeping a few people from deep trouble – but it quickly became a double-scoop of drama, the kind of thing that can raise your blood pressure unhealthily. Continue reading “ROSC 13: Time to Have Fun Again”