I’ve been working on collections of quotes lately, and I have one more that I’d like to present… this one on the thoughts of rulers. For a number of years I’ve been telling people that the incentives faced by productive people and the incentives facing rulers (of whatever stripe) are very, very different. This list, I believe, will make that point.
I’ve been working on collections of quotes lately, and I have one more that I’d like to present… this one on the thoughts of rulers.
For a number of years I’ve been telling people that the incentives faced by productive people and the incentives facing rulers (of whatever stripe) are very, very different. This list, I believe, will make that point. Continue reading “What Rulers Believe”
Status is generally defined as a person’s condition, position, or standing relative to that of others.
Please read that definition again and consider this:
Status automatically creates division and conflict. Continue reading “Status, Evolution And Human Nature”
(This post was written by my friend, Sandy Sandfort. It’s an important glimpse into an historical event.)
Inertia is a human frailty. Too often, we go along to get along. We conform. Because of this, those who claim authority can get most of us to do their bidding if it comes with a plausible justification and is only incremental. We get nickel-and-dimed to death, the death of a thousand cuts. Continue reading “Golden Disobedience”
My friend, Max Hillebrand, recently recorded and edited the whole of A Lodging of Wayfaring Men. (BIG thank you.) It will be easier to get via the RSS feeds linked at the bottom, but here it is anyway, in sections: Continue reading “Audiobook: A Lodging of Wayfaring Men”
Lots of good people are frustrated with the state of world, and I understand that only too well. They are, furthermore, eager for the world to improve, and I respect that a great deal.
Their problem arises, however, right on the heels of these desires, when they ask the question, “What should I do?” And that’s where the wheels fall off. Continue reading “The Right Time Will Never Come”
For more than two years I wrote a free monthly newsletter called Individual Virtue. Here’s a piece from one of them (with light editing). Continue reading “How to Gain Confidence and Courage”
I was introduced to Ben Hecht, many years ago now, by my friend Paul Greenfield. Like most people of my generation I had never heard of him. He had been fairly famous some decades earlier, know early for his cynical and cutting criticisms, then as Hollywood’s premier script doctor.
Here’s a typical Hecht aside: Continue reading “The Wisdom of Ben Hecht”
(Originally published in 2015)
Not too many years back, warnings of Peak Oil circulated widely, and they made me consider something a good deal more dangerous: Peak Obedience.
If that concept strikes you as odd, there’s a reason: We’ve all been living inside an obedience cult. Continue reading “The Obedience Cult”
(Originally published in February, 2015)
We’re 14 years into a new century, which is typically how long it takes for a century’s unique characteristics to show up. The 20th century, for example, looked a lot like the 19th until 1914; from there on it looked a lot different. So I think this is a good time to take a look at our new century and see how it’s shaping up.
I see two particular things that are defining the mainline culture just now. Let’s go with the easy and obvious one first: Continue reading “The Way of the 21st Century: Going Nowhere While Very, Very Frightened”
Those of us who pursue positive change are very often frustrated. We see the necessity of change all too clearly, and we can explain how it should come about, but it never seems to happen.
The truth, however, is that change does come; it just comes more slowly than we’d like, and in ways that differ from those we imagined.
One real change I like to point out is the passing of blind trust in politicians. In the 1950s and ‘60s, most people spoke of politicians with respect and even with reverence. Now it’s almost standard for people to agree that they’re liars and thieves. That’s a very significant change, even if it did take several decades to unfold. Continue reading “Looking for a Reason to Believe: The Benefit of the Doubt Is Cracking”
