I learned, long long ago, before I was a teenager, that nobody gives you anything unless they want something from you. I also learned that nobody is going to take care of you as well as you can. I hate, almost more than anything else, having to depend on other people to do whatever it is you need done. I'm disabled, can barely walk, have to use a cane or walker, and walked hunched over with my face looking at the ground unless I raise my head up. But I will try as hard as I can, sometimes to the point of hurting myself, to get it done. I garden, and order everything I buy online, including big heavy bags of soil amendments, and they are delivered to my porch. I use a two wheel cart to get them into the shed in the back yard. When I want to get something done, I just do it, then find out I need help AFTER I attempt it first
I would have been executed at a very young age if I lived under a communist system. I already have a problem with authority, and do not like to be told how to do things I do for myself. I also am well known for fighting back at any provocation or incursion into my world. I am living on disability from SS, and yes, I've paid in thousands of dollars over the years, but I still feel a little uncomfortable about it. And, when I could work, I made a hell of a lot more money. Personally, I will never live under a socialist regime. I won't allow it. They will end up killing me, and I hope I can take many of them with me when they do. There were never any "good intentions" with Marx or Lenin. Marx was exiled from Imperial Russia, in the early part of the 1900s, and the German government gave him one million marks, and sent him to Russia to foment revolution, to keep Russia out of WW1. They always viewed communism as a way to steal and take the rewards of hard work from, the people, and as a means to amass power over everyone else. They lied to their followers when they told them it was "for the wellbeing" of the working class, and they will live better than they did under Capitalism, or Imperialism. They played on the emotions of decent people.
The only way to deal with freeloaders who won't pull their weight is to cut them off. You have to get very cold hearted and mean sometimes, because if you give them anything once, they will keep coming back for more, and if you don't give it to them, they will steal it from you if they can.
I love your book Gene, but you are already living in a socialist regime. I feel the same as you do… ask Randy Weaver how he feels. Lavoy Finecum, David Koresh… oh yea, the last two are dead.
But here, at least in TX, where I live, we have the best chance to live free. I have firearms, I go where I want, when I want, even during Covid, but I was lucky enough to be one who was sent home to work, which I loved, it beat the hell out of the 70 mile drive I had every day. This past election is also an example, the side I support won. All my savings are in physical silver and gold, held by me, not some bank. I paid cash for my house and land and owe nothing on it, yes there's property taxes, but there's ways to reduce them if you're smart. I carry a gun everywhere I go, legally, without a permit of any kind. I have never been in law enforcement or the military, no socialist country would allow that. No, we do not yet live in a socialist country, but if our society continues on the path it has been on for the last 50 years, then yes, we will become a socialist or communist country. But the fact that I do the things I do without fear of prosecution or persecution, means this is not a socialist country, yet. I pray that it does not become so. Now, I do live in a state that values individual freedoms like land ownership, gun rights, and freedom of religion and speech. I would most likely be locked up, or dead, if I lived in NY, or CO, or CA, or OR, or WA, or IL, and I'm sure there's some others I can't think of right now.
I do all the same things you do Gene. Try going to a hospital in Texas and see how free you feel. That Gold won’t do shit when they shut it all down. You can’t barter with hordes of starving lunatics. You better have friends, and high ground if the shit ever hits the fan. You have the illusion of freedom. There is no due process. They want to knock your door down they get a warrant later.
I live in a rural area, an hour and a half from Dallas. I moved here to get the hell out of the city, before SHTF. I don't want to advertise publicly what I have, but I can survive without grocery stores for a while. I collect rain water, plan to add another barrel next month, to the 4 I already have. I build AR-15s as one of my hobbies. and keep more ammo than I will admit to here. I do have friends out here in my area. The layout of my street is perfect to shut off and guard the entrances, with two patrols of 3 people, and a roaming patrol of 3 around the perimeter. There are some 20 or so year old young men on my street, two brothers, I have befriended, initially by giving them a good deal on an AR. They help me with the heavier things I can't handle, and I pay them. I have told them, if they join with me when SHTF, I will supply them with Level 3 body armor and plate carriers, rifle if they don't have one (an AR), a sidearm, magazines and ammo for the weapons, combat type knives (I am a knife and sword collector). Body armor has gotten much cheaper recently, and in TX it is perfectly legal for a non-felon to have it and wear it. When the time comes, I will get with some of my other neighbors, about 20 houses on my street, all on lots from 1 to .25 acres. Most are relocated people from various DFW suburbs, for the same reason I am. So, Pat, I'm saying what I'm trying hard not to say. I have a feeling you have the same mindset as me. I'm doing the best I can to be ready with the resources I have. Will it work if SHTF? Who knows, like trying to be ready for any unknown situation, you do the best you can to be ready, and pray, and if you get lucky, you may just make it through. But, even if I fail, I have the peace of mind knowing I did much more than most people, and I will not become one of the starving hordes. My kids are grown, and do not share my mindset, I'm happily divorced from their mothers, and they aren't interested in it, so I only have myself and my dog to be responsible for. I also believed that my time of death was decided long before I was born, I can't change it, and it is inevitable, so whatever happens it will happen regardless of how comfortable I am while it happens.
Tyranny is a continuum, not an on-off switch. It's not capitalism one moment and socialism the next. Government force is a volume knob—there are a lot of gradations between 0% and 100%.
I have to admit the story of Harvard pissed me off beyond belief. How dare Harvard, Columbia and all the Ivy League universities take our tax money.
Not sure if you heard Harvard is suing the Trump administration (America) for the billions (up to 9 billion) of dollars in grant money Trump has held up because of their complicity with the anti Semitic protests, their anti semitic professors and the anti semitic actions of students on their campus. Yes, they said by holding back the money Trump is infringing on their 1st amendment rights, what a joke that is.
Colleges and Universities today are not what they used to be. They are big business. Harvard is in the business of making money, big money. Columbia is in the business of making big money also. Harvard has a 53 billion dollar endowment. Do you know that could pay tuition for every student they have for 100 years. These extremely wealthy Universities take our hard earned tax money, and teach their students to hate Americans that love America. They teach and allow hatred of certain groups of people based on religion. They teach that the rich should pay their fair share, while they are rich and tax exempt, Why? Why are we paying to promote these bigots? How very arrogant can a university be to be this filthy rich beyond anyone’s wildest imagination and sue a country that’s broke and 39 trillion dollars in the hole? How can they think we owe them anything? I’ve heard of Robin Hood socialism, where they rob from the rich and give to the poor, but this, This, THIS is opposite Robin Hood Socialism. This is rob from the poor and give to the rich, the rich being Harvard and Columbia.
How about this, we stop all tax payer funding of these extremely wealthy American hating, bigoted, big money making Universities, take away their tax exempt status, and teach them one of their own lessons, THEY have to start paying THEiR fair share!! J.Goodrich
We need to cut off grants to all private colleges. Especially the so called "Ivy League" schools, like Harvard, Columbia, Yale, etc. Tell them to let students who have good grades go to school for free, and those with lower scores have to pay a reasonable tuition. And make them maintain passing grades of "C" or above, and then the school can apply for a grant. Students who fail get kicked out to make room for students who really wantto learn.
I'm sorry, but your Mr. Boettke, is full of horse manure, to put it mildly.
There is nothing kind or compassionate or charitable about Communism. That part about equity and fairness? That's just the stuff that they feed the masses so that elitists - those people who think they can live off the backs of others - can maintain control over the peasantry. In fact, the doctrine of Communism makes sure that the people keep THEMSELVES at heel.
I have yet to meet a leftist who doesn't, at the very least, approve the violence perpetrated against the capitalist - capitalists like small business owners or people who are not actively taking part in the violence.
We can see the real disparity between the burning of the cities, which the left framed as the "Summer of Love" and the J6 protests. Nothing was done about burning and murder and looting and the people who participated were all given kid-glove treatment. There are still people locked up from J6, even after a presidential pardon even though nothing was burned and the protesters were the only ones killed. I have seen videos of the police firing "non-lethal" rounds into the crowd to make them violent so they could be used to further their Communist agenda.
No, there's no way you can convince me that Communism had "good intentions".
For the cognoscenti and architects of communism, yes—absolutely no good intentions.
But a lot of their rank-and-file/useful idiots have good intentions.
Those good intentions, of course, are blurred and subsumed by the narcissism of wanting to feel and appear "virtuous," such that the good intentions are hard to spot. But they are at least there in some of the rank and file.
Outwardly, that is true. But even the rank-and-file useful idiot will turn violent on command. And why shouldn't they? Their vision of an ideal society is one that places all power into the hands of a violent organization, namely government. And if somebody wants to place all power in the hands of organized violence, wouldn't it stand to reason that they, themselves, were violent?
100% agree. I have occasionally tried to explain that lefties today are no different than the lefties who fueled and abetted the slaughters of the USSR, Cambodia, China, Germany, etc. That those people were not monsters whose evils today's lefties are above, and have moved beyond. Same humans. Same incentives. Same attitudes. And given half the chance, they'd do the same evil.
Many of them still start out with good intentions, though.
And I think the lesson there is about the nature of good intentions. Good intentions aren't enough; they cannot be relied upon; and they can easily be perverted.
Most people need to be enticed and convinced before they are willing to murderl for a cause. And all that talk people do about being "better than their ancestors" is a complete misunderstanding about the nature of sentience and, along with it, the capacity for good or evil. They don't understand that the power to do good brings with it an equal power to do evil. Only our choices, our values, our knowledge and our ability to foresee the consequences of our actions makes the difference.
Yup. Made famous by Hayek in "The Road to Serfdom," IIRC. (Well, famous among libertarians, anyway!)
And it's totally true. Which is why leftism always involves massive force. People cannot be made equal in abilities, so it requires violence to attempt to equalize outcomes.
Yes, I actually have it, ha! Forgot the origin 😪 I was Libo, when I parsed political philosophies. Then, the misfortune of encountering Reason rag & Cato Instute… dissuaded my inclination.
Well, actually... The moneyed psychopaths in control on Our planet do Owe Us - multimillions. They declared Humanity "incompetent," put Our wealth into TRUSTS (legal caps), and made Themselves TRUSTEES.
But... You surely don't owe Me and I don't owe You in this moneyed world. Unless We agree to that.
For more on what the moneyed psychopaths have done, I direct You to:
Another scene I like sharing from time to time. The analogy is very versatile. Like if I try to contemplate what a Marxist/Stalin's Nanny Jeremy Farrar/Susan Michie-led WHO pandemic response would look like compared to what was the US pandemic response. 2020 being "gentle like before." Unless we prep the minds and fortitude of ourselves and our fellow Americans to be even more disobedient, in the face of Real bad hurt.
"Now Ned, them whores are going to tell different lies than you. And when their lies ain't the same as your lies...well, I ain't gonna hurt no woman...but I'm gonna hurt you. Not gentle like before. But bad. Real bad."
But there's also many more positive ways to spin the scene to fit a more desirable outcome, with power roles switched around.
I learned, long long ago, before I was a teenager, that nobody gives you anything unless they want something from you. I also learned that nobody is going to take care of you as well as you can. I hate, almost more than anything else, having to depend on other people to do whatever it is you need done. I'm disabled, can barely walk, have to use a cane or walker, and walked hunched over with my face looking at the ground unless I raise my head up. But I will try as hard as I can, sometimes to the point of hurting myself, to get it done. I garden, and order everything I buy online, including big heavy bags of soil amendments, and they are delivered to my porch. I use a two wheel cart to get them into the shed in the back yard. When I want to get something done, I just do it, then find out I need help AFTER I attempt it first
I would have been executed at a very young age if I lived under a communist system. I already have a problem with authority, and do not like to be told how to do things I do for myself. I also am well known for fighting back at any provocation or incursion into my world. I am living on disability from SS, and yes, I've paid in thousands of dollars over the years, but I still feel a little uncomfortable about it. And, when I could work, I made a hell of a lot more money. Personally, I will never live under a socialist regime. I won't allow it. They will end up killing me, and I hope I can take many of them with me when they do. There were never any "good intentions" with Marx or Lenin. Marx was exiled from Imperial Russia, in the early part of the 1900s, and the German government gave him one million marks, and sent him to Russia to foment revolution, to keep Russia out of WW1. They always viewed communism as a way to steal and take the rewards of hard work from, the people, and as a means to amass power over everyone else. They lied to their followers when they told them it was "for the wellbeing" of the working class, and they will live better than they did under Capitalism, or Imperialism. They played on the emotions of decent people.
The only way to deal with freeloaders who won't pull their weight is to cut them off. You have to get very cold hearted and mean sometimes, because if you give them anything once, they will keep coming back for more, and if you don't give it to them, they will steal it from you if they can.
sorry for the book
I love your book Gene, but you are already living in a socialist regime. I feel the same as you do… ask Randy Weaver how he feels. Lavoy Finecum, David Koresh… oh yea, the last two are dead.
But here, at least in TX, where I live, we have the best chance to live free. I have firearms, I go where I want, when I want, even during Covid, but I was lucky enough to be one who was sent home to work, which I loved, it beat the hell out of the 70 mile drive I had every day. This past election is also an example, the side I support won. All my savings are in physical silver and gold, held by me, not some bank. I paid cash for my house and land and owe nothing on it, yes there's property taxes, but there's ways to reduce them if you're smart. I carry a gun everywhere I go, legally, without a permit of any kind. I have never been in law enforcement or the military, no socialist country would allow that. No, we do not yet live in a socialist country, but if our society continues on the path it has been on for the last 50 years, then yes, we will become a socialist or communist country. But the fact that I do the things I do without fear of prosecution or persecution, means this is not a socialist country, yet. I pray that it does not become so. Now, I do live in a state that values individual freedoms like land ownership, gun rights, and freedom of religion and speech. I would most likely be locked up, or dead, if I lived in NY, or CO, or CA, or OR, or WA, or IL, and I'm sure there's some others I can't think of right now.
I do all the same things you do Gene. Try going to a hospital in Texas and see how free you feel. That Gold won’t do shit when they shut it all down. You can’t barter with hordes of starving lunatics. You better have friends, and high ground if the shit ever hits the fan. You have the illusion of freedom. There is no due process. They want to knock your door down they get a warrant later.
I live in a rural area, an hour and a half from Dallas. I moved here to get the hell out of the city, before SHTF. I don't want to advertise publicly what I have, but I can survive without grocery stores for a while. I collect rain water, plan to add another barrel next month, to the 4 I already have. I build AR-15s as one of my hobbies. and keep more ammo than I will admit to here. I do have friends out here in my area. The layout of my street is perfect to shut off and guard the entrances, with two patrols of 3 people, and a roaming patrol of 3 around the perimeter. There are some 20 or so year old young men on my street, two brothers, I have befriended, initially by giving them a good deal on an AR. They help me with the heavier things I can't handle, and I pay them. I have told them, if they join with me when SHTF, I will supply them with Level 3 body armor and plate carriers, rifle if they don't have one (an AR), a sidearm, magazines and ammo for the weapons, combat type knives (I am a knife and sword collector). Body armor has gotten much cheaper recently, and in TX it is perfectly legal for a non-felon to have it and wear it. When the time comes, I will get with some of my other neighbors, about 20 houses on my street, all on lots from 1 to .25 acres. Most are relocated people from various DFW suburbs, for the same reason I am. So, Pat, I'm saying what I'm trying hard not to say. I have a feeling you have the same mindset as me. I'm doing the best I can to be ready with the resources I have. Will it work if SHTF? Who knows, like trying to be ready for any unknown situation, you do the best you can to be ready, and pray, and if you get lucky, you may just make it through. But, even if I fail, I have the peace of mind knowing I did much more than most people, and I will not become one of the starving hordes. My kids are grown, and do not share my mindset, I'm happily divorced from their mothers, and they aren't interested in it, so I only have myself and my dog to be responsible for. I also believed that my time of death was decided long before I was born, I can't change it, and it is inevitable, so whatever happens it will happen regardless of how comfortable I am while it happens.
You have done more than most, and you set yourself up in a good place. I salute you sir, you are about as ready as one can be!
Right!
Tyranny is a continuum, not an on-off switch. It's not capitalism one moment and socialism the next. Government force is a volume knob—there are a lot of gradations between 0% and 100%.
I have to admit the story of Harvard pissed me off beyond belief. How dare Harvard, Columbia and all the Ivy League universities take our tax money.
Not sure if you heard Harvard is suing the Trump administration (America) for the billions (up to 9 billion) of dollars in grant money Trump has held up because of their complicity with the anti Semitic protests, their anti semitic professors and the anti semitic actions of students on their campus. Yes, they said by holding back the money Trump is infringing on their 1st amendment rights, what a joke that is.
Colleges and Universities today are not what they used to be. They are big business. Harvard is in the business of making money, big money. Columbia is in the business of making big money also. Harvard has a 53 billion dollar endowment. Do you know that could pay tuition for every student they have for 100 years. These extremely wealthy Universities take our hard earned tax money, and teach their students to hate Americans that love America. They teach and allow hatred of certain groups of people based on religion. They teach that the rich should pay their fair share, while they are rich and tax exempt, Why? Why are we paying to promote these bigots? How very arrogant can a university be to be this filthy rich beyond anyone’s wildest imagination and sue a country that’s broke and 39 trillion dollars in the hole? How can they think we owe them anything? I’ve heard of Robin Hood socialism, where they rob from the rich and give to the poor, but this, This, THIS is opposite Robin Hood Socialism. This is rob from the poor and give to the rich, the rich being Harvard and Columbia.
How about this, we stop all tax payer funding of these extremely wealthy American hating, bigoted, big money making Universities, take away their tax exempt status, and teach them one of their own lessons, THEY have to start paying THEiR fair share!! J.Goodrich
◦
We need to cut off grants to all private colleges. Especially the so called "Ivy League" schools, like Harvard, Columbia, Yale, etc. Tell them to let students who have good grades go to school for free, and those with lower scores have to pay a reasonable tuition. And make them maintain passing grades of "C" or above, and then the school can apply for a grant. Students who fail get kicked out to make room for students who really wantto learn.
Robbing the poor to give to the rich is the operating model of all crime syndicates.
I'm sorry, but your Mr. Boettke, is full of horse manure, to put it mildly.
There is nothing kind or compassionate or charitable about Communism. That part about equity and fairness? That's just the stuff that they feed the masses so that elitists - those people who think they can live off the backs of others - can maintain control over the peasantry. In fact, the doctrine of Communism makes sure that the people keep THEMSELVES at heel.
I have yet to meet a leftist who doesn't, at the very least, approve the violence perpetrated against the capitalist - capitalists like small business owners or people who are not actively taking part in the violence.
We can see the real disparity between the burning of the cities, which the left framed as the "Summer of Love" and the J6 protests. Nothing was done about burning and murder and looting and the people who participated were all given kid-glove treatment. There are still people locked up from J6, even after a presidential pardon even though nothing was burned and the protesters were the only ones killed. I have seen videos of the police firing "non-lethal" rounds into the crowd to make them violent so they could be used to further their Communist agenda.
No, there's no way you can convince me that Communism had "good intentions".
For the cognoscenti and architects of communism, yes—absolutely no good intentions.
But a lot of their rank-and-file/useful idiots have good intentions.
Those good intentions, of course, are blurred and subsumed by the narcissism of wanting to feel and appear "virtuous," such that the good intentions are hard to spot. But they are at least there in some of the rank and file.
Outwardly, that is true. But even the rank-and-file useful idiot will turn violent on command. And why shouldn't they? Their vision of an ideal society is one that places all power into the hands of a violent organization, namely government. And if somebody wants to place all power in the hands of organized violence, wouldn't it stand to reason that they, themselves, were violent?
100% agree. I have occasionally tried to explain that lefties today are no different than the lefties who fueled and abetted the slaughters of the USSR, Cambodia, China, Germany, etc. That those people were not monsters whose evils today's lefties are above, and have moved beyond. Same humans. Same incentives. Same attitudes. And given half the chance, they'd do the same evil.
Many of them still start out with good intentions, though.
And I think the lesson there is about the nature of good intentions. Good intentions aren't enough; they cannot be relied upon; and they can easily be perverted.
Most people need to be enticed and convinced before they are willing to murderl for a cause. And all that talk people do about being "better than their ancestors" is a complete misunderstanding about the nature of sentience and, along with it, the capacity for good or evil. They don't understand that the power to do good brings with it an equal power to do evil. Only our choices, our values, our knowledge and our ability to foresee the consequences of our actions makes the difference.
sharing.
Thank you. Always shocked when someone finds something I say of value. 😁
We owe you a debt of gratitude.
Awww. I am honored.
This is so great! Read it out loud to my husband and forwarded to my friends!
I hope they like it!
From DoG Memes:
Humans have differing capacities - if you are Free, then you are not equal. If you are Equal, then you are not free 👏
BOOOM.
Yup. Made famous by Hayek in "The Road to Serfdom," IIRC. (Well, famous among libertarians, anyway!)
And it's totally true. Which is why leftism always involves massive force. People cannot be made equal in abilities, so it requires violence to attempt to equalize outcomes.
Leftism is 99.99% evil.
Yes, I actually have it, ha! Forgot the origin 😪 I was Libo, when I parsed political philosophies. Then, the misfortune of encountering Reason rag & Cato Instute… dissuaded my inclination.
Oh goodness…I try not to talk out of school, so let me just say that you should definitely not judge libertarianism by Reason and Cato!
Well, actually... The moneyed psychopaths in control on Our planet do Owe Us - multimillions. They declared Humanity "incompetent," put Our wealth into TRUSTS (legal caps), and made Themselves TRUSTEES.
But... You surely don't owe Me and I don't owe You in this moneyed world. Unless We agree to that.
For more on what the moneyed psychopaths have done, I direct You to:
You Are a Multimillionaire (article): https://amaterasusolar.substack.com/p/you-are-a-multimillionaire
Not quite on point, but close enough for an Unforgiven scene, and who can pass those up?
"Deserves got nothing to do with it."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51qFL-mr8Rg
Great film.
Another scene I like sharing from time to time. The analogy is very versatile. Like if I try to contemplate what a Marxist/Stalin's Nanny Jeremy Farrar/Susan Michie-led WHO pandemic response would look like compared to what was the US pandemic response. 2020 being "gentle like before." Unless we prep the minds and fortitude of ourselves and our fellow Americans to be even more disobedient, in the face of Real bad hurt.
https://youtu.be/dJuQ8TDIL2s
"Now Ned, them whores are going to tell different lies than you. And when their lies ain't the same as your lies...well, I ain't gonna hurt no woman...but I'm gonna hurt you. Not gentle like before. But bad. Real bad."
But there's also many more positive ways to spin the scene to fit a more desirable outcome, with power roles switched around.
It's a wicked, wicked world in which we are forced to witness and consider such things.
B-R-A-V-O!!!
So True Christopher!
socialism and communism are for bees and ants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVCrmXW6-Pk
aw. he might wanna keep his mouth shut.
I have never seen the Nicolas Cage remake. But the original film is classic!
I don't think I wanna see either. Might cause a sleepless night !
The original is definitely weird!