The Christmas Truce of 1914 and The Power Of One Idea

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It is Christmas Day today. Children all over the world will be waking up to a plethora of gifts underneath their tree. They will be shrieking in joy at the excitement of opening up a gift just for them. They will be playing with their new games or toys for the very first time with all the exhilaration that animates even the most phlegmatic and stolid amongst us. Whatever your views are regarding Christmas or the holidays matters little. Is this explosive elation in our children not one the most precious things to witness in our children?

 

Top 10 Rich People Who Were Once Poor

 

Many parents work hard building a business or acquiring wealth so that their children do not need to “suffer” as much.

 

Ironically sometimes out of an environment of mild privation emerge the most dedicated and passionate individuals.

 

Strong work ethic and a desire to achieve are the pillars of success.

 

There is so shortage of rags to riches stories.

 

 

“Success is ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm”, Winston Churchill

 

Just as we, as parents, must encourage our children to devote themselves to their craft if they want to achieve mastery, so too must we encourage them to seek self-knowledge.

 

Knowledge that is learned of one’s own accord becomes owned as opposed to knowledge passively given to us by others.

 

Being comfortable in solitude or surrounding oneself with a small group of soulful genuine friends can facilitate this process.

 

 

Before I leave you I would be remiss if I did not make mention of the Christmas Truce of 1914. Simply put, it was a brief pause in the bloodshed of the trench warfare that comprised World War I.

 

To the immense chagrin of the superior officers for one day there was no more slaughter.

 

For one brief day there was camaraderie, friendship, and benevolence. There was hand shaking, retrieving and burying of the dead. There was exchanging of gifts and conveying heartfelt messages of love. There was drinking, eating, laughing, and playing of games. For one brief day amongst the carnage, humanity shone through.

 

The immense tragedy is that this magnanimous sentiment lasted only one day before the killing commenced once again.

 

 

 

This is the power of one idea!

 

This is why I write, produce videos, and interviews! This is why I focus my attention on discussion of philosophy, morality, and economics!

 

War, oppression, and injustice are largely the result of ignorance and misunderstanding, not evil.

 

I hope you all carry this Christmas spirit of compassion, kindness, and humanity far beyond this one day. I hope you all are able to carry it with you throughout your lives. This is what changes paradigms. This is what improves the world.

 

Happy Holidays! 🙂

 

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Obedience Is The Enemy Of Morality

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It is very difficult to judge law enforcement officers and soldiers on the basis of their individual actions because they pride themselves on not acting as individuals, but rather as being the physical manifestations of the State. Nevertheless we must make the effort.

An order is just spoken words or ink on paper. It is the order followers who bring those orders into the real world where they have real consequences. At every point of the chain of obedience there is always a choice to continue obeying. Therefore every order follower must always assume personal responsibility for each and every action committed by their hands. There is no shirking responsibility. To attempt to do so is to pretend one is a soulless machine rather than a thinking sentient human being.

The beginning of wisdom is to be fully accountable for one’s actions no matter how egregious. Self-ownership involves claiming ownership of one’s physical body, the fruits of one’s labor, as well as the direct consequences of one’s actions. When every human being assumes this there will be no cowardly blaming of one’s superiors, the law, politicians, or one’s job. There will be no shameful diffusion of responsibility. The phrases “I’m just doing my job” or “I didn’t write the laws I just enforce them” denote a special degree of mind body separation that would make any spiritual adept green with envy. They are only used when justifying truly horrifying actions.

Teach your children what is right and wrong. Teach your children what is morality and to think for themselves. If you succeed in doing this you will not have to fear that they will rationalize future atrocities with such contemptible phrases. A child who internalizes a moral compass will not, as an adult, be swayed by the tempting allure of poisonous sophistry nor the forked tongue of political predators. The child is the father of the man. Raise your children in the manner you wish to see the world of tomorrow. Your words become their reality. Choose your words with great care.

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The Dangers Of Collectivism

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The dangers of collectivizing groups of people is never immediately apparent until one is in dire need of the help of individuals. Every moment of every day we are making decisions according to the information presented to us. Sometimes it is necessary to make decisions based on a quick assessment of the situation. Sometimes this assessment is based on sketchy details, previous beliefs, and previous experiences. This is called Heuristics and one must take care when to employ it. Quick assessments may prove to be beneficial when dealing with inanimate objects such as choosing what to eat for dinner, choosing what clothes to buy, choosing what car to buy, choosing what house to rent/buy etc. When applied to human beings this quick assessment may prove rash.

 

Unlike inanimate objects human beings have needs, wants and desires that vary based on gender, ethnicity, religion, culture, race, creed, and the individual. The same individual’s desires can change based on the year, month, week, and even day in question. After knowing an individual for a long period of time one may make certain general predictions based on previous behavioral patterns but even this may be risky.

 

Not only is it insurmountably difficult to thoroughly know another person, it is likewise quite difficult to fully know oneself. One is born and lives everyday in this human shell but that does not mean we are all masters of ourselves nor do we fully possess self knowledge.

Every day we are all incessantly learning about ourselves, others, and the world around us. This is exactly why one can never legitimately impose one’s beliefs onto another. It is impossible to have all the information. The future is both unknown and unknowable. The only way to act with moral consistency is to live and let live. Civilization is for the civilized.

Man as an individual is a genius. But men in the mass form the headless monster, a great, brutish idiot that goes where prodded.

Charlie Chaplin.

 

 

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Black Friday Is The Crowning Achievement Of Capitalism

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Many people enjoy looking down upon other people who choose to partake in the Black Friday sales. This is a tragic reflection of supercilious conceit that some who earn more currency have for those who earn less. It is an unnecessary and thoroughly harmful abhorrence of those who seek to enrich their lives through purchasing goods and services in an attempt to improve their lives. Regardless of one’s income level, we all seek to improve our lives through the patronizing of businesses of our choosing. That people of all different earning ranges can advance the quality of their lives in this manner is the wonder that the market economy brings to humanity.

 

While it may be true that some of this repugnance may stem from the fact that many of those people are on State subsidized welfare programs, this is a thoroughly separate issue as the presence of violently redistributed stolen State funds fundamentally distorts market signals. The fact that entrepreneurs and business owners can be so efficient with their business as to provide such steep discounts is testament to the daily miracles that the market economy showers upon its consumers.

 

If you truly feel pity for those who earn less, do not display this so shamefully with your condemnation of days during which they can partake in the cornucopia of the market economy. Instead devote your energies to helping them further improve their lot by educating them, donating to them, or by opening a business yourself. Add to the accumulated wealth of the world. It is easy criticize and destroy. It is far more difficult to create and innovate. Pay your respects to the magnificent wealth you have inherited from your forefathers. It was amassed through great toil and industry.

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Monetary System/Economics Part 3: What Is Wealth?

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The true measure of a civilization is the piecemeal accumulation of wealth that can only occur when peaceful individuals are able to trade and interact unhampered. Currency and money are not wealth. They are the conduits through which true wealth can be accessed and acquired. A pile of gold coins on a desert island is useless because they cannot buy anything of value. When there is nobody to trade with money becomes useless. Their function is apparent only when entrepreneurs create and innovate wondrous things that lift us out of poverty and raise the standard the living of humanity in very real ways. Take away the currency or money and people will use something else to trade in.

 

In order to destroy wealth one must destroy factories, medical technology, industrial machines, combine harvesters, tractors, excavators, 18 wheeler trucks, trains,  cargo ships, cars, computers, smart phones, houses, electricity, indoor plumbing etc. Do that and you will plunge humanity into a most abysmal and wretched dark age that no wanton conquerer in history has been able to achieve. The painful reduction in the standards of living of billions of people will be acutely felt as lifestyles become downgraded to that of the common folk of centuries past.

Technology is a tool that humanity has marvelously wielded to attain unprecedented levels of prosperity and comfort. It is the application of the faculties of logical deduction, critical analysis, creativity, and imagination that has placed human beings far above his animal brethren. The knowledge and wisdom procured by our forefathers is the most valuable treasure we have inherited. May your existence add to the heirloom wealth we pass on to our progeny.

 

 

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Isaac Newton, physicist and mathematician

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