Thank You Barry for once again. telling it like it is. Your assessment of our two “choices” is spot on. I’m enthusiastically supporting RFK Jr. He’s demonstrating great courage in answering the call. As always, words are insufficient to express the value of your presence and contributions.
In parallel with Marcus Aurelius' meditations, I am preparing spiritually for Easter with the Jesuit community (not my confession, but they welcomed me as a spiritual pilgrim, in fact a very
lost sheep -:)).
Since you mentioned Pascal, who gave up science for religion, I'll make a reference to a passage in the Bible, which I came across these days, and which Pascal probably knew it very well.
John 3:19 ... light came into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil things hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be revealed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light...".
I am shocked by many passages that seem so timely and yet written more than two millennia ago. Just as Marcus Aurelius said nothing ever changes...
Great post Barry! You mentioned principles. Principles form a bedrock upon which we can judge a candidate's positions or a law's validity. This bedrock has slowly been eroded. For many, principles are shifting sands - what feels right.
In Liberty and Property, Mises explains that the goal of society is to create "a sphere in which the individual is free to think, to choose, and to act without being restrained by the interference of...the State". Why? Essentially, because centralized control is less efficient than the free market. Centralized control leads to poverty; the free market to overall prosperity. Centralized control requires submission and obedience. Society stagnates and declines. The free market demands self-responsibility and social cooperation. Society flourishes. At least it has a better chance of flourishing.
I rarely hear candidates speak about these principles - mostly us versus them. RFK, jr. is a rare exception. He's not perfect, but I do feel like he's genuine. That said. It really doesn't matter who's in the White House as long as the majority of voting citizens have no real understanding of the benefits of a free society. We're in a war of ideas. It is not between left and right. It is between empty promises of gifts from the public trough that lead to violence, degradation, and starvation and the very real promise that through discipline, effort, and the desire to be of value to our neighbor we can collectively survive and thrive in this life.
Thank you for framing the issues so well, as always. As a municipal debt analyst, I recall Trump and Atlantic City. I may not agree with many of RFK Jr’s positions on issues, but am inclined to believe that we could return to a nation where it is okay to disagree and engage in lively debate of the issues. Channeling my inner Feynman here, but just in the area of science, we watch as those who run afoul of the narrative are marginalized at best. If anyone reads The Uncertainty of Science, they will know it is the “wrong results” relative to retrying experiments that further innovation, not lockstep agreement with shoehorned settled theories. I think this is true of all disciplines I cannot imagine what it is like at universities today but when I was at Columbia, we discussed the Yom Kippur War. There were people from many nations, and none left the table in rancor (International House was my dormitory at that time). I listened to a speech RFK Jr delivered in Germany several years ago and thought, ‘I wonder. Could he be that person for these times?”
Thank You Barry for once again. telling it like it is. Your assessment of our two “choices” is spot on. I’m enthusiastically supporting RFK Jr. He’s demonstrating great courage in answering the call. As always, words are insufficient to express the value of your presence and contributions.
In parallel with Marcus Aurelius' meditations, I am preparing spiritually for Easter with the Jesuit community (not my confession, but they welcomed me as a spiritual pilgrim, in fact a very
lost sheep -:)).
Since you mentioned Pascal, who gave up science for religion, I'll make a reference to a passage in the Bible, which I came across these days, and which Pascal probably knew it very well.
John 3:19 ... light came into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil things hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be revealed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light...".
I am shocked by many passages that seem so timely and yet written more than two millennia ago. Just as Marcus Aurelius said nothing ever changes...
Great post Barry! You mentioned principles. Principles form a bedrock upon which we can judge a candidate's positions or a law's validity. This bedrock has slowly been eroded. For many, principles are shifting sands - what feels right.
In Liberty and Property, Mises explains that the goal of society is to create "a sphere in which the individual is free to think, to choose, and to act without being restrained by the interference of...the State". Why? Essentially, because centralized control is less efficient than the free market. Centralized control leads to poverty; the free market to overall prosperity. Centralized control requires submission and obedience. Society stagnates and declines. The free market demands self-responsibility and social cooperation. Society flourishes. At least it has a better chance of flourishing.
I rarely hear candidates speak about these principles - mostly us versus them. RFK, jr. is a rare exception. He's not perfect, but I do feel like he's genuine. That said. It really doesn't matter who's in the White House as long as the majority of voting citizens have no real understanding of the benefits of a free society. We're in a war of ideas. It is not between left and right. It is between empty promises of gifts from the public trough that lead to violence, degradation, and starvation and the very real promise that through discipline, effort, and the desire to be of value to our neighbor we can collectively survive and thrive in this life.
Thank you for framing the issues so well, as always. As a municipal debt analyst, I recall Trump and Atlantic City. I may not agree with many of RFK Jr’s positions on issues, but am inclined to believe that we could return to a nation where it is okay to disagree and engage in lively debate of the issues. Channeling my inner Feynman here, but just in the area of science, we watch as those who run afoul of the narrative are marginalized at best. If anyone reads The Uncertainty of Science, they will know it is the “wrong results” relative to retrying experiments that further innovation, not lockstep agreement with shoehorned settled theories. I think this is true of all disciplines I cannot imagine what it is like at universities today but when I was at Columbia, we discussed the Yom Kippur War. There were people from many nations, and none left the table in rancor (International House was my dormitory at that time). I listened to a speech RFK Jr delivered in Germany several years ago and thought, ‘I wonder. Could he be that person for these times?”