The Dangers Of Collectivism

Posted on December 16, 2016 by Danilo

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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The Importance Of Failure

Posted on December 11, 2016 by Danilo

Many people complain that they cannot do a particular task because they have failed at it. This is not a reason to stop trying. In fact it is a reason to pursue it evermore vigorously. With every failure one is that much step closer to success and little wiser as a result.

In one’s personal affairs every failed relationship or friendship is a learning experience at how to treat others and what one desires in a mate or a friend. If one’s relationship requires force to maintain that is a despicable circumstance indeed. In business every failed venture is a lesson in how to efficiently allocate scarce resources. If one’s failing business requires violently redistributed stolen funds to continue, this is by definition a waste of resources. Hence the State is the largest polluter on the planet.

Failure is necessary and fundamental to a thriving and resilient market economy. When businesses are allowed to rise and fall of their own accord the result is efficiency and prosperity. The market, through the sum total of billions of consensual peaceful interactions, will decide which businesses will get awarded with success and which will vanish like a javelin thrown into a serene lake. Just like death nourishes and makes way for budding life, so too does failure provide the fertile ground wherein another creative entrepreneur might improve upon the mistakes of his predecessors. This is the marvelous splendor of the market economy we are all privileged to witness. It’s a beautiful time to be alive!

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Finding Your Tribe Of Confidantes

Posted on December 11, 2016 by Danilo

It is not about how many friends you have. It is about the meaning and depth of those friendships. A small handful of genuinely caring friends who would come to your aid in your time of need is more valuable than the most precious rubies and gems. No man is an island unto himself. We humans are social creatures. We strive for connection and companionship above all else. What better way to express this brotherly love than to trade with our fellow men and women?

We thrive on improving each other’s lives through specialization and the division of labor. The Free Market is the fullest expression of love for our fellow brethren. When you love your neighbor you do not seek to rob him through taxation, strangle his business through onerous regulations, or encumber his freedom through a myriad of burdening arbitrary man made laws. Desiring absolute freedom for oneself must necessarily entail desiring absolute freedom for one’s neighbor. Moral reciprocity and a deep respect for the life of another is the foundation of virtue and integrity. I hope you all find your tribe of deeply caring confidantes. It makes this dance of life all the more pleasurable.

When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.

Frédéric Bastiat, French economist and scholar

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Empowering Hearts and Minds

Posted on December 4, 2016 by Danilo

“Why do you talk about philosophy, morality, and economics? They are just theoretical and abstract. Why don’t you talk about reality!? That’s what matters!”

All individuals act based on a particular set of morals and code of ethics. I want to know what your code is. What morals do you hold dear? What principles would you risk life and limb to protect? What are you passionate about? What do you love? If you truly love something you must love it more have than you love yourself. You must be selfless and devoted to the thing you love.

To appeal to people’s actions without attending to their moral compass or code of ethics is endeavoring to move the statue by pushing the shadow. The thoughts that originate in the mind are always the source of action we see in the real world. Thoughts and beliefs are always more powerful and dangerous than any gun, tank, or bomb. It is the human beings that wield such things that bring about consequences in the real world. Human beings powered by erroneous belief system are what pull triggers in unprovoked attack. Human beings hijacked by misguided belief systems are what detonate bombs designed to maim and destroy innocent men, women, and children.

If you truly wish to affect reality thereby improving the world, it is absolutely imperative to discuss philosophy, morality, and economics. More lives can be saved by empowering hearts and minds than by taking away all of the guns from soldiers and law enforcement officers. We differ from the beasts in that we possess the capability of critical analysis and logical deduction. To act without employing this most defining characteristic is to reject that which makes us human beings. Savage beasts act based on primal instinct and emotional ferocity. Civilized human beings act based on sophisticated principles and dignified morality. Celebrate your heritage with enthusiastic vigor!

He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles at all.

Aesop

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Monetary System/Economics Part 3: What Is Wealth?

Posted on December 3, 2016 by Danilo

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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