In the context of Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial, a friend asked me ‘which right takes precedence?’
A ‘right’ can be understood in two ways.
As something granted to somebody by somebody else. Or as a consequence of modus vivendi. A consequence of how people interact among themselves.
People who see it in the first way, will ‘fight’ to establish that ‘precedence’.
Those who understand rights as being a consequence of social evolution will negotiate among themselves about the order in which rights should be exerted.
Hence my assertion. No guns should be present at a ‘peaceful’ manifestation. Where people come to manifest their grievances. Where a car or two might get torched. Where a window or two might get smashed. But where – if things go as ‘planed’, nobody will loose more than a couple of teeth. No matter what!
But as soon as guns are brought along, the ‘atmosphere’ is changed. People start loosing their lives. And while a car, or a window, can be replaced… lost life cannot be brought back!
And for me, life takes precedence over property. I would aim a gun – If I had one, at somebody trespassing through my bedroom but I would not shoot at them unless my – or others, life was in danger.
So yes, Rittenhouse was right to defend himself but he shouldn’t have brought that rifle to a manifestation. No matter how riotous. It wasn’t his job to police the town. A town which wasn’t his home, where he owned no property… but where he eventually had taken two lives while ‘protecting property’. While asserting “his right to bear arms“.
For sometime now, I was having a very hard time trying to understand what’s going on.
Seemingly intelligent people keep sending messages demonstrating the exact contrary. On ‘social media’!
So. Communism is good and life saving masks and vaccines are bad… Communism is good because some of the capitalists have been bad and life saving measures are bad because they are forcefully imposed!
Communism – which has failed each and every time when and where it had been attempted, is better than capitalism. Because some of today’s capitalists refuse to pay their taxes. The fact that people living in the ex-communist countries still struggle with the consequences of the systemic errors inherent to the communist ‘order’ isn’t relevant anymore. The selfishness of the tax-dodgers ‘trumps’ everything else. Pun intended!
Life saving measures are bad for the single reason that they are forcefully imposed by a majority which wants to live upon a minority which considers liberty to be more valuable than life. I’m not going to argue that you cannot enjoy liberty while being dead. That would be idiotic. I’m only going to ask
Liberty from WHAT?!?
From WHOM?!?
Who’s the oppressor? What do they force us to do? Live?!?
Or wear a mask, get jabbed and pay taxes? As in ‘do something back for the community which supports you’? Contribute to the community where you had been born, raised and which makes your current life possible…
The eureka moment had come when
I realized that ‘it takes two to tango’.
Marx wouldn’t have had any traction without the ‘exaggerations’ of the early ‘robber barons’. Lenin wouldn’t have been able to steer the Russian Revolution so far left without the ‘benefit’ of the former, Tsarist, rulers having behaved in an absolutely idiotic manner. Hitler, and Mussolini, wouldn’t have been able to steer their countries so far right without the errors committed by the previous ‘administrations’. The current American political scene would have been completely different had the political actors behaved in a more reasonable manner. Both sides of the political spectrum…
We’re currently at war. Undeclared and mostly not understood. Let me use a WWII example to make things clearer.
Much of the equipment used by Hitler’s army to attack the USSR had been built outside Germany. Following German designs and according to technological processes developed in Germany but using foreign workers laboring in foreign manufacturing facilities and processing raw materials sourced from outside the Third Reich. France’s Renault, Citroen, Peugeot, Berliet and the Czech Skoda are but a few examples. Yet despite the fact that the nazis had forced almost the entire Europe to work for them, the Allies have eventually prevailed. Simply because the Allies had pulled together! And that they had been helped by the Resistance. Which Resistance had been encouraged and helped by the Allies themselves.
The current aggressor, SarsCov-2, uses the very same tactics. It invades an organism, takes over and forces its victim to work for it. To build fresh virus armies. Which armies are then sent out to conquer more organisms. More Human People, that is.
And what do we do? The potential victims? The ‘logical’ allies?
Do we stick together? Do we have each-other’s backs, like all truthful allies? Do we make good use of whatever weapons each of us can use? Masks, vaccines, social distancing…?
Like the allies had done during WWII?
You see, WWII, like all other wars, have not been won, or lost, by soldiers alone. War is a country wide effort. To win, a country must mobilize all its energies. The “Home Front” is not an empty phrase. Not at all!
Do you see that happening in the current war?
Or too many of us have let the health-workers to fight OUR war of survival on their own? On our behalf…
ICU nurse sleeping in a box while all the beds and the chairs in the hospital (St. Pantelimon Emergency Hospital, Bucharest, Romania) were occupied.
For knowledge to become actionable, it has to be trusted. It has to be believed as being true!
In order to cooperate with somebody, you need to trust that person.
But trusting a person is far more complicated than believing that a piece of information is true!
Evaluating a piece of knowledge is a uni-dimensional business. That piece of knowledge either corresponds with (what is considered to be) reality – it is ‘true’, or it doesn’t. Hence it is false. And it’s only after you have satisfied yourself about an information being true that you may start to ‘own’ it. To act upon it.
When it comes to trusting a person, you are confronted with a bi-dimensional endeavor. Which makes it a real problem. In order to be able to cooperate with somebody, you need to be satisfied on two accounts. That that person is qualified enough for the business at hand AND that that person ‘means well’.
Not that simple, is it?
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Sugar, flour, vegetable oil, gas, toilet paper, soap, pork belly… and also coal, steel, timber, cement…affordable mass produced ‘things’ you expect to be able to buy whenever you need them.
Until something happens and you are no longer able to… either you lost your job or they have disappeared from the market. For whatever reasons. It is then when you realize that many of your contemporaries consider many of them to be luxuries… And that now it’s your turn to share their experiences…
Then we have the natural ‘commodities’. Things we take for granted but which have not been produced by our fellow humans. That the sun will rise tomorrow, fresh air, clean water, fertile soil… Things we take for granted… but, again, quite a lot of people find many of those things to be rather ‘out of reach’!
Finally, but no less important, we have the ‘virtual’ commodities. Man ‘made’, again, but, this time, ‘untouchable’. Love, friendship, respect, trust…
To me, the most important of the ‘commodities’, virtual or otherwise, is trust.
Once we loose trust, we loose everything!
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As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
To solve it, you have to break the box your own mind has assumed. The limitations your own mind had imposed, at least initially, over the whole thing. You have here the psychological intricacies.
But ‘breaking’ the box isn’t enough. You also need to ‘see’ the lines… Giving yourself enough ‘space’ to solve a problem is an absolutely necessary step but will not necessarily take you there.
There are other approaches.
There’s a guy, very successful, apparently, who advocates rethinking the boxes. You can start exploring his ideas here:
There’s another guy who argues that there is no box. No box at all! And that what you should do if you really want to ‘boldly go where no one has gone before’ is to “Set your box on fire“ Ooops… the guy really needs to make up his mind! Before giving advice to others … How can you “set your box on fire” before acknowledging its existence?!?
Which brings me to conclusion.
The first step towards solving a problem, any problem, is to determine the box which contains that problem. The limits you have to cross in order to be able to build a solution!
Which solution might not become apparent the moment you have crossed those limits! Or ever…. But which solution would have never crossed your mind had you remained inside the original box.
Inside the box in which you had originally confined yourself!
Stage 1 You are the prisoner of the box you have assigned to the problem you have to solve.
Stage 2 You’re still inside the box but your thinking outside it. The box had become porous. ‘Inflatable’, even. You can make it as big, or as small, as you deem necessary.
Stage three. You have removed yourself from the box. You are aware of the fact that the problem must still be solved inside of a box. Inside your knowledge and inside whatever resources may be made available for the task. But your current relation with the box containing the problem makes it possible for you to understand – and, maybe, solve, the meta-problem. From the outside it’s easier to figure out that it is you who needs to muster the pertinent knowledge, the necessary resources and the stamina to solve the problem. If you really want it solved, of course.
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated! Another very efficient way to help would be to share my posts.
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
We know that smoking is bad for us yet we continue to smoke.
Because too many of us are convinced that each of us, in particular, will be fine. That things are not that bad. Well, maybe for those who had bad luck. Or something…
You see, I’ve reached the conclusion that an individual’s conscience is more preoccupied with it’s own survival than with the ‘well being’ of it’s “host”. The conscience itself comes first, in its own ‘eyes’.
“What?!?”
Do you have a better explanation for why so many of us continue to smoke? To do drugs? To drink/eat too much? To… – feel free to fill in your favorite aberration! Your own method of self-destruction.
Please don’t quote any study about how powerful addictions are. For each of those there are many studies proving how powerful our minds are when they become determined enough.
How fast things happen after our knowledge about something becomes a belief. A belief in something…
Let me put it the other way around.
Did you get the anti-Covid jab? Why? You haven’t made up your mind yet? Because you are not yet convinced? You’re not going to? No matter what? Because you don’t believe in vaccines?
See what I mean?
The world is awash in information. All of us are exposed to more or less the same knowledge. All of us know that a considerable number of people – the vast majority, actually, are convinced about the roundness of the Earth. Yet there still is a very vocal group of Flat-Earthers. Of people acting as if they actually believe that the Earth is Flat. All of us have been told that smoking can cause cancer. And other diseases. Yet some of us continue to act as if they actually believe that nothing of that sort might happen to them.
Mind you, there is nothing inherently bad in this! On the contrary. If people would have believed everything they had ever been told… at one time… the Earth would have remained flat, all witches would have been burned – or drowned, all ‘Jews’ would have been killed – many centuries ago…
The point of this post is to underscore the importance of self. The huge responsibility placed upon our individual shoulders by the fact that we are the ones called to choose what to believe.
Yes, we are indeed inundated with ‘data’. From the day we are born to the day when our conscience goes dark. Yes, some minds are sharper than others. Some of us are better at spinning thoughts than the rest of us. Some of us are indeed better at making sense of the information which happens to cross their paths. And some of us are better at influencing others. At shining ‘light’ on ‘things’ in a manner which makes the message they want to convey more palatable for their intended targets.
Yet all this ‘trivia’ doesn’t change the reality. We are the ones who make decisions. We are the ones who choose what to believe. We are the ones who shape our fate.
By choosing our faith! By convincing ourselves that some things are worth doing and that some should be left undone.
LE If this is of any help, for any of you, I still smoke a few cigarettes each week. And continue to drink. Alcohol. I’m not perfect either!
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As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
Until recently – historically speaking, people had two ideologies to choose from.
Conservative and liberal.
The conservatives used to posit ‘law’ as a ‘cage’ which didn’t allow any transgression while the liberals understood ‘law’ as an agreed upon environment which allowed people an individual but orderly pursuit of happiness.
The advent of Marx’s communism changed everything. His promotion of ‘class warfare’ as a legitimate political instrument had effectively muddled that which had previously been considered a clear choice.
After communism proved itself to be an abject failure, the naifs have forgotten about Marx. Flying under the ideological radar, ‘class warfare’ has metastasized.
Nowadays, Regular Joe is confronted with three ideologies. And to make things worse, their names – attributed and/or assumed, are misleading.
We have a line of thought which uses (natural) ‘law’ as a line of defense against any kind of change. And as a means of bringing back the ‘better yesterday’.
Another line of thought which sees (man made) ‘law’ as an instrument to implement – forcefully, if needed, whatever the ‘implementer’ wants to achieve. One of the most often professed goals being ‘equality’. Close on its heels comes ‘diversity’.
And the ‘classical’ liberals who are squeezed between the previous two.
The state/government – whose job is to keep ‘the playing field’ level and functional, is paralyzed by the first two factions fighting to control it. The ‘conservatives’ want to use the state/government as a ‘preserving agent’ for what they consider to be their (natural) ‘rights’. The ‘progressives’ want to use the state/government as an instrument of (forceful, if needed) change towards what they consider to be ‘the common good’.
Meanwhile, the classical liberals – berated by both of the above, have a hard time explaining to a shrinking audience that the state/government is an extremely dangerous instrument if allowed to fall into the hands of ‘single-minded’ operators. That as soon as the freedom of the markets (the economic and, way more importantly, the ideatic ones) is curtailed, everything starts to go south. Fast!
Democracy and the free market have brought us so far. The freedom of thought/expression and the freedom to act as an honest entrepreneur have been instrumental in us reaching the present state. With the goods and the bads in it.
Each instance in which the state/government had fallen prisoner in the hands of ‘men of state’ with ‘focused vision’, history started to run backwards. No matter whether that ‘limited vision’ had been focused in the past or on “a certain” future.
Each time this subject comes about I remember about Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History. About how concentrated he was on the future he considered to be forthcoming. About how his ‘hard focus’ had prevented him from noticing the sunken part of the iceberg.
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated! Another very efficient way to help would be to share my posts.
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
More than ten years ago I was preparing my thesis. To get a ‘title’ – BA in sociology, in my case, each Romanian student must submit a paper to a commission. To help them, students are allowed to chose a Professor. My choice had been Petre Anghel. We had many interesting ‘exchanges’. Before, during and after preparing my thesis. One of the most interesting ones had been about education.
Education is, maybe, the most ‘conservative’ things known to man. The transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next one is the single thing which allows a society to survive. And to thrive, if each successive generation diligently improves what has been bestowed upon it!
Petre Anghel
Fast forward to right now.
The US is the current ‘top dog’.
According to my Teacher, for a nation to reach this ‘stage’ it needs a smooth flow of knowledge from one generation to the next one. And a strenuous effort to improve that knowledge made by each successive generation.
Nowadays, both current generations – the one trying to pass over its knowledge and the one at the receiving end of the process, are dissatisfied with the current ‘education system’. Many belonging to the ‘mature’ generation are obsessing about ‘who runs the system and towards which end’ while the ‘learning generation’ is buckling under the costs incurred during the process.
Do I need to remind you that it’s the conservatives the world over who are whining about this?
OK, I understand the whiners living in failed states. Afghanistan, Somalia… But those enjoying the perks of living in the ‘civilized’ world? What are they complaining about? Weren’t they in charge while the current education system had been put in place? Aren’t they the parents, and educators, of the current student generation?
What’s going on here?!? Why are the American Conservatives, living in the most advanced country of the world – no doubt here!, the most vocal critics of their own education system?
What, and why, went wrong?
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As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
Some of you will agree and some will say I’ve lost it.
First things first.
Socialism does take away liberties. One by one. Under various pretexts. I’ve learned this on my own skin.
Spending the first 30 years of your life under a communist regime teaches you a thing or two…
On the other hand, the meme above does have a certain ‘appeal’. A significant number of people had their pensions slashed, watched their savings disappear and their jobs being exported. Health care and education have become exorbitant. Racism, xenophobia and hate have again risen their ugly heads and more and more people die at the wrong end of a gun. Of a gun ‘manhandled’ by ’emotionally distressed’ persons…
What’s going on here? Why so many people’s lives are so badly ruined?
You see, “capitalism” stealing anything is a lie. A blatant lie!
Capitalism cannot steal anything!
Socialism can rob you of your rights because it actually says it will do it. Given the slightest chance, those who promote socialism will use the doctrine to ‘discipline’ their followers into a herd.
Capitalism doesn’t promote stealing! Stealing is not condoned by any capitalist ideology while concentrating all decision making in the hands of the ruling coterie is the cornerstone of socialism.
‘If capitalism doesn’t condone stealing then why an increasing number of people end up penniless while so much money gets concentrated in such a small number of hands?!?’
Why are we living in such fugazi times?
Replace “capitalism” with ‘some (fake) capitalists’ and the text above will make so much more sense!
You see, what we have here is the perfect illustration of fugazi. We are in a fucked up situation! And instead of trying to solve it, some of us attempt to ‘fake it’! And consequently make it worse…
Socialism won’t bring any respite!
Solving the current untenable situation starts with acknowledging its causes! Its real causes…
Blaming the socialists for the errors committed because too much greed had been ‘expressed’ at ‘very high levels’ doesn’t solve anything. Promising that socialism will making things right is just as malignant as blaming the socialists for the mistakes made by the greedy who have brought us where we currently are.
Only when we’ll stop faking it we’ll be able to look for solutions. For workable solutions…
Oh, I almost forgot! Don’t allow the ‘con-artists’ to convince you that social democracy is equivalent to socialism. This is a thesis put forward by the same people who maintain that “republic” is good while “democracy” is bad. And don’t allow the ‘other’ ‘con-artists’ to convince you that all wealthy people are bad and that (forced) “equality” will solve everything.
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated! Another very efficient way to help would be to share my posts.
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
The single truth which is accessible to us is that while there is a single truth – we may call it ‘reality’, if you want, we’ll never know it in its entirety. We may get ever closer to getting there but we will never arrive.
The corollary – which is an integral part of the kernel truth, being that the effort to get closer to that single truth can be exerted only as a collective endeavor. Any other approach will, sooner rather than later, end up in a cul-de-sac.
The sooner we agree about this ‘kernel’ truth, the more peaceful the journey to never get there will become.
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As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated! Another very efficient way to help would be to share my posts.
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
As much as I love writing, I do have to eat. And to provide for my family. Earning money takes time. If you’d like me to write more, and on a more regular basis, hit the button. Your contribution will be appreciated!
