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So, we rise from the rubble...
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Friday, April 18, 2025
"Permanent Adolescence: The Epidemic That Will Destroy America"
"Permanent Adolescence:
The Epidemic That Will Destroy America"
by Dr. Paul Kindlon
"As a Humanities professor I have had the opportunity to teach psychology and social psychology for more than 25 years. Occasionally the knowledge obtained in these areas allows me to analyze and understand social behavior and certain cultural trends. This is one those occasions.
If one is able to observe American society in an objective manner (granted no easy task) it becomes clear that the country is suffering from an epidemic of arrested emotional development (AED). This particular illness is characterized by some combination of: addiction, greed, immaturity, fear, blame, shame, resentments, anger, confusion and suffering. What it means is that the vast majority of Americans are stuck in adolescence exhibiting behavior like lying, negative attitudes, disobedience and disrespect, drug and alcohol abuse, depression, and issues of sexuality.
One has only to watch American movies or television shows to get a snapshot of juvenile, puerile, and base comedy characteristic of adolescent humor. It’s no accident that 48 year old Jimmy Fallon is essentially the “eternal teenager” performing comedy that mostly includes bathroom humor and gags that are based on and appeal to a silly sense of immaturity. The other darling of late-night shows in America is Stephen Colbert, age 58, who specializes in insulting public figues in an overtly adolescent display of negative attitude and disrespect.
Another hallmark of AED is to evade responsibility and blame others for failure. One had only to observe the millions of Hillary supporters to understand this phenomenon. Also common for AED sufferers is to show disrespect in sophomoric ways usually by damaging property as we see with monuments being defaced and destroyed.
Teenagers, of course, tend to have identity issues often involving sexuality which is another phenomenon all too apparent in contemporary America. It’s almost uncool not to be LGBT or confused about your gender nowadays. Soon there will be as many genders as ice-cream flavors for it’s all just a matter of taste!
In terms of cognitive activity AED is characterized by exaggeration and over-simplification. If you are angry with one of your parents you might refer to them as a Nazi or Fascist.
This negative attitude now is extended to anyone who disagrees with you and can be seen in slogans such as “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA”. Adults are an endangered species. The cognitive effect of exaggeration and over-simplification leads to irrationality and confusion. Witness the millions of people who think they are being anti-racist by opposing “White Supremacy”. No anthropologist on earth would claim that “White” is a race (although a Neo-Nazi would) It’s not even a primary color. The Irish were discriminated against for more than a hundred years in America due to Anglo-Saxon racism yet the Irish are considered “white”. There are millions of Americans of German, Polish, and Scandinavian extraction who have been working-class and lower for a very long time. Are these “white people” guilty of supremacy? Against whom? Themselves?
Of course, what the protestors should be focusing on is class and not race which is really an arbitrary term. Unfortunately. the progressive movement in America has gone from “Occupy Wall street” to “occupy the public bathroom”. Lenin would be turning over in his grave – if he had one. With regard to alcohol and drug addiction in America, the statistics are startling. Opiod addiction alone is becoming a national health issue as is depression. Alcohol abuse, of course, is also quite high. Lying is also becoming commonplace. It used to be just politicians and lawyers who were known to “play with the truth”. Nowadays the mainstream media is widely seen as a mainstream of lies with CNN now wearing the title of FAKE NEWS.
The teenage attempt to rebel and show disobedience is often manifested through the use of profanity intended to shock the older generation. Gratuitous profanity is pervasive in American culture and has replaced the imagination as a form of creativity. It is not an accident that Pussy Riot – a group of “performance artists” using profanity in a Cathedral considered sacred to “shock” the Russian public and “disobey” authorities – has found a home in the United States and been befriended by Madonna, another symbol of eternal adolescence. Her AED was on full display when she publicly offered all men fellatio if they voted for Hillary Clinton. And as any rebellious teenager attempting to shock the “older generation” she had to announce that she “swallows”. Stay classy, Madonna. Keep in mind we’re talking about a 63 year old mother of six.
You see…if everyone is a teenager there is no adult supervision. That is the problem. After an autopsy is conducted years from now to ascertain how and why the American Empire expired, the obituary will include multiple causes of death and AED will be listed prominently. Perhaps a precocious teenager will be allowed to write the epitaph that will read…”When extended, the bridge between adolescence and adulthood can take a heavy toll”.
○
“Most people don’t grow up. It’s too damn difficult. What happens is most people get older. That’s the truth of it. They honor their credit cards, they find parking spaces, they marry, they have the nerve to have children, but they don’t grow up. Not really. They get older. But to grow up costs the earth, the earth. It means you take responsibility for the time you take up, for the space you occupy. It’s serious business. And you find out what it costs us to love and to lose, to dare and to fail. And maybe even more, to succeed."
- Maya Angelou
"Making Your Best Guess"
"Making Your Best Guess"
by Arthur Silber
"We are not gods, and we are not omniscient. We cannot foretell the future with certainty. Most often, cultural and political changes are terribly complex. It can be notoriously difficult to predict exactly where a trend will take us, and we can be mistaken. We do the best we can: if we wish to address certain issues seriously, we study history, and we read everything that might shed light on our concerns. We consult what the best thinkers of our time and of earlier times have said and written. We challenge everyone's assumptions, including most especially our own. That last is often very difficult. If we care enough, we do our best to disprove our own case. In that way, we find out how strong our case is, and where its weaknesses may lie.
Barring extraordinary circumstances, we cannot be certain that a particular development represents a critical turning point at the time it occurs. If we dare to say, "This is the moment the battle was lost," only future events will prove whether we were correct. We do the best we can, based on our understanding of how similar events have unfolded in the past, and in light of our understanding of the underlying principles in play. We can be wrong. "
"The Point..."
"What is the point? We assume that every time we do anything we know what the consequences will be, i.e., more or less what we intend them to be. This is not only not always correct. It is wildly, crazily, stupidly, cross-eyed-blithering-insectly wrong!"
- Douglas Adams, “The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide”
The Universe
“Believe me, I know all about it. I know the stress. I know the frustration. I know the temptations of time and space. We worked this out ahead of time. They're part of the plan. We knew this stuff might happen. Actually, you insisted they be triggered whenever you were ready to begin thinking thoughts you've never thought before. New thinking is always the answer.”
Dan, I Allegedly, "Why You Can’t Afford Burgers - A New Luxury"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, AM 4/18/25
"Why You Can’t Afford Burgers - A New Luxury"
"Real estate deals aren’t always what they seem! In this video, I’m sharing some shocking stories that reveal the dark side of real estate transactions, from deceptive sellers to unexpected legal nightmares. Whether it’s a dream home turning into a disaster, bizarre escrow cancellations, or challenges with insurance and credit cards, things are getting crazier in the market. Plus, with rising tariffs and economic uncertainty, I’ll break down how this impacts homebuilders, buyers, and everyone in between."
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John Wilder, "Misplaced Empathy: It’s Killing Us"
"Misplaced Empathy: It’s Killing Us"
by John Wilder
"Empathy. I first heard that word when I was five. I asked Grandma McWilder what empathy was, and was told that “Empathy is what bleeding heart GloboLeftist women do while their men do the dishes. Now get to work resizing that brass – this ammunition won’t reload itself.”
That’s supposed to be good, right? We’re supposed to feel good about ourselves when we care about others enough to mentally put ourselves in the position of another to share what they’re feeling. Empathy really is part of what makes us human. Empathy allows us to model other humans and understand how they’re feeling. And, in some cases, anticipate how they’re going to feel. Like asleep. Or perspiring. Or sticky. You know, emotions. Empathy is important.
But the problem starts to occur when empathy becomes our sole guide for how we conduct our world. One example are the transgender people. I still recall when the blonde gentleman with longish hair who was larping as a woman in a store back in 2019. He got famously irate because a flustered clerk couldn’t process that Macho Ma’am Trandy Savage was pretending to be a woman.
Because he was in this very weird place, his brain short circuited. He had been taught at a very young age that it was polite to call an older man sir. Confronted with the cognitive dissonance of what was obviously a man in makeup, his synapses fried by adrenaline, he did what he had learned as a babe. He called the dude, “sir.”
While demanding empathy, the dude showed none himself. Empathy on the part of this brittle freakshow would have solved the situation, but the reason that it felt itself privileged enough with his lipstick and five o’clock shadow is because society has shown far too much empathy for people like him for far too long. Misplaced empathy has turned him into a sociopath. You want to play pretend? Fine. Keep away from children, and don’t expect me to participate in the charade. And don’t yell at some minimum wage clerk who is really just trying to help.
We also show empathy for the wrong things. Who was the worst person in the movie Titanic? Rose. She was the villain. She’s married, but cheats on her fiancé with a random Chad urchin and then spends the next 84 years pining for Chad, all while being married to someone she didn’t love nearly as much and then drops a necklace worth (according to the Internets – it’s fictional) $3.5 million dollars into the ocean. This could have been a life-changing inheritance for her great-grandchildren. But no. Everything is about her. The audience is supposed to feel empathy for her? Hell, she could have jumped in and let Chad live, or died with him. No. She’s awful. But she’s not alone. Hollywood loves trying to make people feel empathy for the bad guy.
And don’t get me started on "Dead Poets Society" where the teacher played by Robin Williams (who is the walking, talking essence of the French Revolution) removes all the value systems from his students while giving them nothing to take their place. The real bad guy in this movie is the teacher. But you’re supposed to feel bad for him because he got fired, but not bad because his removal of a belief systems without replacement caused a kid to commit suicide. Because the teacher convinced the kid to throw everything away and become an actor.
You don’t hate Hollywood enough, but let’s move to hospital beds. And don’t get me started on the misplaced empathy in health care, where literal titanic efforts (no necklace) and tons of treasure go into the last, miserable year of the lives of most people.
We also have addled ourselves with empathy via the Internet. There are those that share so much online, that I honestly believe that they cease to exist if they’re not posting. Who cares what other people think of your lunch? Who cares what other people that you’ve never met think about you?
This weird, parasitical empathy where people feel good about themselves only because others think well of them is the sympathy of a society where values and laws are being replaced by the feels. Look at the way the GloboLeft work to keep a criminal illegal in this country, and whine and cry to keep him from being returned to his own country. It’s misplaced empathy.
This also has implications with race. People felt badly for black people, having empathy for discrimination. Now? Black entitlement is so strong that they feel that a killer is the actual victim, rather than the person he stabbed, and expect people to feel their pain.
This is at least in part because of the way misplaced empathy has let blacks act in violent fashion and subsidized their lifestyle through welfare. Misplaced empathy tells people they don’t have to conform to societal norms. The GloboLeft can’t wait to knit them sweaters and sacrifice their children to them.
Enough is enough. Empathy is not a blank check. The good news is that people are finally waking up, and realizing that it is far past the time when we as a society need to end our misplaced empathy. That’s good. After all, that ammunition won’t reload itself."
Gregory Mannarino, "US Economy In Rapid Freefall - Mass Layoffs, Manufacturing Shutdowns, A Dead Dollar"
Gregory Mannarino, 4/17/25
"US Economy In Rapid Freefall -
Mass Layoffs, Manufacturing Shutdowns, A Dead Dollar"
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o
Full screen recommended.
Market Gains, 4/18/25
"IRS Just Fired 42,000 People Today as Economy Crashes"
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o
Full screen recommended.
Market Gains, 4/18/25
"Almost 50,000 Workers Have Been Fired
From UPS as Recession Hits Hard"
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Bill Bonner, "A Very Dumb Idea"
"A Very Dumb Idea"
by Bill Bonner
Youghal, Ireland - “Why Trump Unleashed Tariff Chaos” is still a popular headline at Bloomberg. Search for ‘Trump tariffs’ on Google and you will get “about 357,000” results.
The Wall Street Journal can be counted on to be fairly reliable on economic issues. It recognizes that the government is generally incompetent and malevolent - at home. But when it goes abroad, somehow it becomes an angel…doing good by forcing the foreigners to bend to its will. On ‘Trump Tariffs’ the WSJ might have gone either way. As an economic policy, tariffs are clearly foolish. But as a foreign policy tool, they can be used to bludgeon friends and adversaries alike.
As it turned out, the WSJ has come up with a remarkably sensible view. Phil Gramm and Donald Boudreaux write: "Trump’s Tariffs Are as Bad as Bidenomics." "Both models of state-directed capitalism misallocate resources and make the nation poorer. Not since Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff has a president chosen to disregard a larger body of informed opinion than President Trump did when he instituted his protectionist trade policy. Based on a series of verifiably false grievances - wages haven’t grown in 50 years, manufacturing has been hollowed out by imports, countries with trade surpluses are “ripping us off” - Mr. Trump used constitutionally questionable powers to abrogate Congressionally approved trade agreements and undermine the world’s trading system.
Here at Bonner Private Research we just look for patterns - historical, political, economic. Many people think you just have to keep your focus on the incoming ‘data.’ Even the Fed claims to be ‘data-driven.’ But the data is mostly noise and nonsense…without melody or rhythm. It’s like the background hum on an airplane…everything from A flat to E sharp is there. You hear what you want.
(Our aged mother thought once she heard English hymns on Air France. She was so sure of it, she asked a stewardess where they got the soundtrack. The young lady humored her…thinking she must be crazy. After all, France is a secular state!)
Eventually, the incoming ‘data’ will tell you something. But only when it is too late. And now if Trump’s tariffs are implemented, we will wait for the data to tell us what we knew all along - tariffs are a very dumb idea.
The Journal explains that tariffs never have worked…and that each job created by tariffs since 1950 has cost Americans more than $800,000. What’s more, there are plenty of jobs in manufacturing available today - but there are no workers willing to take them. The WSJ: "Forty-three percent of U.S. manufacturers in the recent National Federation of Independent Businesses questionnaire said that they couldn’t find employees to fill existing jobs."
Bare is the cupboard supplied only by its owner. Instead, we eat vegetables grown by Californians and drive cars built by the Japanese while wearing shoes made by North African immigrants in Italy. People who specialize can make things better and cheaper than people who don’t. If we worked at it long enough, we could probably make a pair of shoes. But you wouldn’t want to wear them!
The fact pattern is consistent…and the logic is airtight. Adam Smith explained how trade makes us better off. When it comes to growing pineapples, people in Hawaii have a big ‘comparative advantage’ over people in Greenland. Adam Smith: "If a foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it off them."
Is that not true? WSJ: “The administration has presented no evidence showing how the U.S. or any other nation has benefited economically from broad-based protectionist policies.” Still…the Trump Team seems to hear tunes that everyone else knows aren’t there.
An 80-year-old may have the moon in his eyes and Dean Martin’s ‘That’s Amore’ ringing in his ears. He may hope to relive his youth…to learn to ride a two-wheeler…to laugh like a hyena watching reruns of The Three Stooges…and be thrilled at the discovery of sex. But that is not the usual pattern. Nor, in the history of tariffs, is there any cause for geriatric optimism. It is economic death that awaits us, not a second childhood. Trade makes us all richer. Any interference with the exchange of goods and services necessarily makes us poorer.
One of the most recent failures was just recalled to us by Counter Offensive. After liberation from the Soviet Union, foreign autos became available in the Ukraine…"To support domestic producers, Ukraine introduced a 25 percent tariff on imported cars in 1991. ZAZ [the local car manufacturer] itself lobbied for the idea of import duties.
However, this import policy did not prove to be a long-term solution… Domestic manufacturers struggled to deliver the necessary quality and technological standards to compete with foreign brands. Even after introducing protective tariffs, the Ukrainian automotive industry could not regain its position in the market. As Ukraine began to increase imports of safer and more efficient foreign cars, people began to find the Ukrainian Tavria and Slavuta expensive and outdated."
And in the US, industrial production increased during the first two years of the last Trump administration. Then, in the third year, Trump’s tariffs began to bite. Industrial output fell by 2%.
The WSJ with the last word: "The continuation of current trade policies will likely produce a worldwide recession, and even if Mr. Trump’s policies succeed in bringing back manufacturing jobs, the U.S. economy will be less efficient, economic growth will be stunted, and most Americans will be worse off." Amen."
Dean Martin, "That's Amore"
Jim Kunstler, "Kilmar for President!"
"Kilmar for President!"
by Jim Kunstler
“Autistic people contribute every day to our nation’s greatness.”
- Senator Elizabeth Warren
"So, you wonder why Democrats are so anxious to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the USA. Is it to lead the national ticket in 2028? Who else have they got? Pete Buttigieg doesn’t have half of Kilmar’s charisma. AOC is just pretending to be Sandy-from-the-block - and everybody knows it. Who else best represents the party’s newest constituency: the undocumented (people unfairly deprived of documents by a cruel and careless bureaucracy)? Who best represents the Democratic Party’s number one policy goal: diversity fosterization! Kilmar, of course! Viva Kilmar!
It’s also pretty obvious by his recent actions, that Judge “Jeb” Boasberg is angling to be Kilmar’s running mate in ‘28. Perfect! He could fulfil the traditional role of vice-president by doing nothing for four years, which is exactly what people of non-color should do in the Democratic Party’s new national order. (Haven’t they already done enough?) Boasberg could set an example for the rest of America’s dwindling color-deficient population: quit hogging all the action, stop collecting all those dividends and annuities, step aside and give the other a chance at the American Dream!
Did you happen to notice how enterprising Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been since he boldly breached the border in 2011, fleeing persecution from the vicious gangs of his native El Salvador? Running a one-man jobs program, he crossed the country countless times indefatigably from Maryland to California in his mobile office - the legendary KAG SUV - seeking employment opportunities for young women of color otherwise condemned to clean hotel rooms and labor in senior care facilities filled with abusive people of non-color clinging pointlessly to life only to oppress their caretakers with never-ending demands for medication and extra portions of Jello.
Kilmar’s gritty organization, Mara Salvatrucha-13, has been among the Democratic Party’s most effective NGOs in a greater galaxy of justice-seeking ventures marshaled under the USAID umbrella - recently vandalized by Elon Musk’s DOGE band of pillaging oligarchs. MS-13, for short, was beloved among the undocumented for its fund-raising abilities, its networking expertise, and its relentless search for the missing documents the undocumented have been searching for lo these many decades - rumored to be concealed in a vast underground complex in the Catoctin Mountains of Frederick County, MD. (More white peoples’ mischief!)
Thus, it came to pass that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Maryland Dad-of-the-Year, was cruelly snatched from an MS-13 board meeting last month and transported without benefit of due process to the Salvadorean hell-hole known as CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo).
And so, his Senator, Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) traveled this week to Central America on his one-man rescue mission. The Senator claimed he was detained miles from the gate of CECOT, and yet we have this photograph of Mr. Van Hollen meeting with Kilmar (and an unidentified aide) over Margaritas and pupusas at a cantina in the nearby town of Tecoluca. Asked to comment on the photo, El Savador’s Presidente, Nayib Bukele, declared: “Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camp’ & ‘torture!’ Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody,” Mr. Bukele added.
Oh, so you say Señor Presidente! But not if “Jeb” Boasberg can help it. The dauntless super-judge has ordered Kilmar to be returned the USA pronto expressimo, or else he, the judge, is laying criminal contempt charges on the entire West Wing staff of Donald Trump’s White House. They will go to jail just like Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, two capos regime of Trump’s MAGA gang, did last year for the insolence of refusing to testify in Congress. Only, they will get life-without-parole! Lessons to be learned, ye miserable color-deficient, oppressors!
Alas, the DC federal district court is a bit short of enforcement officers, so Judge “Jeb” has enlisted the Harvard rowing crew to bring Kilmar back home. Kilmar will take the coxswain’s place in the racing shell as the crew rows up the Pacific Coast to their planned landing spot at Las Olas, CA, just south of San Diego. Joy will reign in Wokeville.
Having displayed such pluck at diplomacy, unnamed sources say Senator Van Hollen is under consideration for Secretary of State when Kilmar wins the 2028 election. Up until now, we’d been hoping for Senator Adam Schiff to fill that spot, but he has his hands full fighting the influence of the Soviet Union on the Trump cabinet. Looking forward, though, to the bold prosecutor, New York AG Letitia ‘Tish” James, moving into the top spot at DOJ, if her term for mortgage fraud ends before Jan-20, 2029. The Democratic Party - such bright prospects! Forward together, with Kilmar and company! Documents for all, at long last!"
Adventures With Danno, "Aldi Saver Deals Everywhere, Amazing Prices!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, AM 4/18/25
"Aldi Saver Deals Everywhere, Amazing Prices!"
Comments here:
"Shock! Time Travel Is Real And Here's How It Works, Government Hiding It"
Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 4/17/25
"Shock! Time Travel Is Real And Here's How It Works,
Government Hiding It"
Comments here:
Thursday, April 17, 2025
"This Is Bad, People Selling Gold to Buy Time, Save The House"
Jeremiah Babe, 4/17/25
"This Is Bad, People Selling Gold to Buy Time,
Save The House"
Comments here:
Gerald Celente, "Bust For Tech, Boost For Gold"
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 4/17/25
"Bust For Tech, Boost For Gold"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."
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Oh, Gerald's in fine form today! lol
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Colorful NGC 1579 resembles the better known Trifid Nebula, but lies much farther north in planet Earth's sky, in the heroic constellation Perseus. About 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across, NGC 1579 is, like the Trifid, a study in contrasting blue and red colors, with dark dust lanes prominent in the nebula's central regions.
In both, dust reflects starlight to produce beautiful blue reflection nebulae. But unlike the Trifid, in NGC 1579 the reddish glow is not emission from clouds of glowing hydrogen gas excited by ultraviolet light from a nearby hot star. Instead, the dust in NGC 1579 drastically diminishes, reddens, and scatters the light from an embedded, extremely young, massive star, itself a strong emitter of the characteristic red hydrogen alpha light."
Chet Raymo, "Starlight"
"Starlight"
by Chet Raymo
"Poor Calvin is overwhelmed with the vastness of the cosmos and no small dose of existential angst. He is not the first, of course. Most famously the 17th-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal wailed his own despair: "I feel engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing and which know nothing of me. I am terrified...The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me."
The Poet: Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
- Dylan Thomas
"I Have Accepted The Fact..."
“One can fight evil but against stupidity one is helpless… I have accepted the fact, hard as it may be, that human beings are inclined to behave in ways that would make animals blush. The ironic, the tragic thing is that we often behave in ignoble fashion from what we consider the highest motives. The animal makes no excuse for killing his prey; the human animal, on the other hand, can invoke God’s blessing when massacring his fellow men. He forgets that God is not on his side but at his side.”
“There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy.”
- Henry Miller
"A Sad Fact..."
"A sad fact, of course, about adult life is that you see the very things you'll never adapt to coming toward you on the horizon. You see them as the problems they are, you worry like hell about them, you make provisions, take precautions, fashion adjustments; you tell yourself you'll have to change your way of doing things. Only you don't. You can't. Somehow it's already too late. And maybe it's even worse than that: maybe the thing you see coming from far away is not the real thing, the thing that scares you, but its aftermath. And what you've feared will happen has already taken place. This is similar in spirit to the realization that all the great new advances of medical science will have no benefit for us at all, thought we cheer them on, hope a vaccine might be ready in time, think things could still get better. Only it's too late there too. And in that very way our life gets over before we know it. We miss it. And like the poet said: The ways we miss our lives are life."
- Richard Ford
"Too Often..."
"The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt."
- Leo Buscaglia
"Why You Can Do Anything… And Why You Can’t"
"Why You Can Do Anything…
And Why You Can’t"
by Paul Rosenberg
"People frequently tell children “You can do anything you want.” This causes a lot of confusion, because in the real world, they can’t. And after their first clash with the aforesaid real world, the child is left wondering all sorts of unpleasant things: Did mom and dad lie to me? Are they just ignorant? Am I defective? Should I find someone to blame?
The worst thing about this, however, is that the child is likely to have their opinion of themselves reduced. And that’s tragic. As I’ve noted many times, we are magical creatures. Humans, alone in the known universe, are able to create willfully… are able to reverse entropy willfully. The child should think of his and her self as magical… because they really are! So, let’s make some sense of this problem.
Why You Can: Humans are wonderful creatures. Sure, we’ve been long trained to consider each other corrupt and dangerous – a belief that’s essential to rulership – but it simply isn’t true. We are stunningly capable beings, and we generally behave pretty well, even under a regime that rests upon self-debasement.
Take a look around you. Wherever you live, you’re surrounded by buildings, roads, and cars. All of them exist only because of human virtues. Without human creativity and human cooperation, they could not exist. And they are everywhere. We’ve filled the Earth with hospitals and airplanes and food and computers and medicine. And the list could go on almost indefinitely.
More than that, we’ve learned how to cooperate very well. Forget wars; they’re run by competing states and will exist as long as states do. Instead, look at your local soccer league, little league, church choir, and family gathering. And as you do, remember that we’ve been trained to see one flaw and to condemn the whole from it. (And to hypnotically accept any and every flaw of rulership.) But should being less than perfect make us monsters? Must anything less than 100% equal zero?
We are wonderful creatures, and how much better might we be if we dared consider that possibility? Here’s a quote from G.K. Chesterton that I’d like you to read: "There runs a strange law through the length of human history – that men are continually tending to undervalue their environment, to undervalue their happiness, to undervalue themselves. The great sin of mankind, the sin typified by the fall of Adam, is the tendency, not towards pride, but towards this weird and horrible humility."
Can we dare imagine that Chesterton was right? And if not, why not? That kind of imagination is what the child needs, and it is that kind of imagination that results in human thriving, as noted by Leon Battista Alberti, the epitome of the Renaissance Man: "A man can do all things if he will". Yes, that’s a bit overstated, but we have the essential ability to do amazing things, and if we thought and acted like it – thought and acted like Leon Battista Alberti – we’d do a lot more amazing things.
Why You Can’t: There are two reasons you can’t do anything at all. The first is simple: Nature stands in your way. No matter how much we imagine we can do something, if nature doesn’t agree, we can’t do it. We can work with nature to do “impossible” things (building flying machines for example), but we can’t simply violate it.
The second reason is also simple: Other humans oppose us and stand ready to use violence against us. This reason is always cloaked in confusing and deceptive terminology (“it’s the law” among others), but the truth is that adversarial wills and violence oppose us all.
What we lack is a life affording scope. Our lives should be unlimited by outside forces. We should be free to do whatever we like, so long as we don’t intrude upon the equal rights of others. And so I’ll give you a few thoughts on that, then bring this column to a close:
Regulation forbids adaptation. Obligation supplants compassion. Only violent and corrupt human wills deserve restriction. And once more, the 14 words we used in a previous post: "We are a beautiful species, living in a beautiful world, ruled by abusive systems. Please give these things some extended thought. We can be, in actual practice, far more and better than the present regime has permitted."
"Plato's Cave"
Full screen recommended.
"Plato's Cave"
by Phil Williams
"It is the task of the enlightened not only to ascend to learning and to see the good but to be willing to descend again to those prisoners and to share their troubles and their honors, whether they are worth having or not. And this they must do, even with the prospect of death." – Plato’s "Republic", Book 7
"Orson Welles’s psychedelic 1973 adaptation of Plato’s timeless allegory of the cave and Kafka’s “Before the Law,” two parables of the human condition. Plato’s allegory of the cave thought-experiment ponders the experience of prisoners shackled in a cave from birth, only able to see the shadows of objects projected onto a wall. The text then traces the journey of a prisoner who is set free from the cave, given the opportunity to experience reality in the glow of the Sun and, upon returning to the cave, is met with laughter by the other prisoners, who think him a fool for struggling to readjust to his old existence. A simple story yielding complex commentaries on the nature of reality and wisdom, Plato’s timeless allegory is built into the foundations of modern philosophy and, more than two millennia later, still stirs debate. Carried by a rich narration from Orson Welles, this rarely seen 1973 animated adaptation of Plato’s words populates the tale with haunting human figures, bringing retro-surreal life to the parable."
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Free download "The Republic", by Plato here:
"We Were There..."
"Someday stars will wind down or blow up. Someday death will cover us all like the water of a lake and perhaps nothing will ever come to the surface to show that we were ever there. But we WERE there, and during the time we lived, we were alive. That's the truth - what is, what was, what will be - not what could be, what should have been, what never can be."
- Orson Scott Card
"Now the voices and the sound of movement were gone, and the stream could be heard running quietly under its banks. The air was full of the scent of water and of flowers. She walked, quiet, while the house began to reverberate: a band had started up. She walked beside the river while the music thudded, feeling herself as a heavy, impervious, insensitive lump that, like a planet doomed always to be dark on one side, had vision in front only, a myopic searchlight blind except for the tiny three-dimensional path open immediately before her eyes in which the outline of a tree, a rose, emerged then submerged in dark. She thought, with the dove's voices of her solitude. Where? But where. How? Who? No, but where, where… Then silence and the birth of a repetition. Where? Here. Here? Here, where else, you fool, you poor fool, where else has it been, ever…?"
- Doris Lessing
“'Law' as a Jedi Mind Trick"
“'Law' as a Jedi Mind Trick"
by Paul Rosenberg
"About half the time it is used, possibly more, the word “law” is nothing more than a Jedi mind trick. There is nothing noble, righteous, or even ‘conservative’ about it. It’s a way for you to be abused via ignorance and inertia. We’ve all seen this trick in action, of course. It’s very common. And, sadly, more or less all of us have fallen (or rather, were pushed) into it at some point. It’s a way for you to be abused via confusion and inertia. And, sadly, more or less all of us have fallen (or rather, were pushed) into it at some point. That complicates things because people generally don’t like to admit their errors.
Nearly all of us have been taught, repetitively, to “respect the law,” and because of those teachings, nearly all of us have decided certain things must be right, simply because they were “the law.” We decided this, not because we understood the benefits that would follow certain actions, but because of repetitive prodding. It’s important to be clear on this: To uncritically, reflexively obey is not respect… it is to hold “the law” above reason… above reality. Saying, “Everyone else did it too,” makes this no better.
It is also common for obedience to follow intimidation: Obey, or else… armed men will hurt you; teacher will shame you; the other kids will laugh at you; important people will criticize you in public. Please note all of these are primitive, degrading reasons. But they were thrust upon us as small, coerced children, and they very often stuck. The really damaging part, however, comes after you obey reflexively or fearfully: when you leap to justify your past actions. Not many of us enjoy admitting our errors, but if we want to become honest, conscious adults, that is precisely what we need to do.
“But, but…” Yes, yes, I know the same automated slogans:
• Without the law, all would be chaos and death!
• Outside of law is tyranny!
• We are a nation of laws, not of men!
• Only law separates us from savages!
Please take a couple of deep breaths and continue.
There’s Law, and Then There’s Law: In the modern West, there are two different kinds of law. Unfortunately they are usually rolled up together and placed under a single tag. That’s a major part of this problem. If the early days of Western civilization, law was simply the process of determining what was just. Law was considered good if it were reasonable, fair, and had stood the test of time. And that’s all.
Historian Fritz Kern, in his "Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages", explains it this way: "For us law needs only one attribute in order to give it validity; it must, directly or indirectly, be sanctioned by the State. But in the Middle Ages, different attributes altogether were essential; medieval law must be “old” law and must be “good” law…. If law were not old and good law, it was not law at all, even though it were formally enacted by the State.
Law, in the old days, was developed locally, and judges were simply trusted men who reasoned well. The form we in the English-speaking world know best was the common law of England, and it was precisely this type of law. In fact, the historical record shows early English kings having to adopt customary law:The 1164 Clarendon Constitution cites a “record and recognition of a certain portion of the customs and liberties and rights of… ancestors.”
Article 39 of the Magna Carta (1215) reads, “No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed, or outlawed… except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”
Now, before I explain how we got from law based on reason and experience to where we are now, there is one thing that is necessary to understand: Until recent times, law was not legislation.
I know this is contrary to what you’ve understood, but it’s true all the same. Legislation is primarily a modern invention. Law in the old days was not made by politicians or even by princes. Law was, as we said above, the process of determining what was just. The common law was created and updated by judges, not by legislators. To buttress this point, consider that when philosopher Jeremy Bentham died in 1832, he was revered as “the founder of modern legislation.” I won’t belabor this point, but consider these two statements, please:
• Legislation displaces law that is based upon reason and experience.
• Legislation is the edict of politicians, and nothing more.
Under legislation, reason and experience are not required. Politicians – whom nearly all of us hold in low regard – create this new law and can change it on a whim.
So… Let me ask some pointed questions:Is it sensible to worship the words of people we also condemn? And if we hold words above critical thought, are we not holding them above reality? Is that not a kind of worship or idolatry? Idolatry is precisely what we do when we hold politician-created “law” above reason. (Whatever you hold above reality is your god.)
Yes, I know, we did this because we were trained to do it and because we were intimidated into it. But we’re adults now; we should be ready to face our errors and correct them. The law of reason and experience always stands, of course, simply because it is reasonable and useful.
An uncritical respect for legislation, on the other hand, is a mind trick and differs little from that of a Star Wars Jedi. It requires us to bypass our minds and sacrifice our will to inertia and fear."
"Man's Nature..."
"Man has one name, and many more than two natures.
But the essential two are these:
that he shall strive to impose order on chaos,
and that he shall strive to take advantage of chaos…
A third element of man's nature is this:
that he shall not understand what he is doing."
- John Brunner
Dan, I Allegedly, "People are Going to Jail - The Crackdown Begins!"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, 4/17/25
"People are Going to Jail - The Crackdown Begins!"
"Get ready for one wild ride as I uncover the shocking $300 million fraud tied to JP Morgan's infamous "infinite money glitch"! Thousands of people tried to game the system with bad checks, and now JP Morgan is coming after them like never before—bankruptcy court battles, lawsuits, and more. I’ll break down how this scam worked, the consequences for those involved, and why not responding to the bank might land you in even more trouble. There's so much happening in this story, and trust me, you don't want to miss it."
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