I wrote this section as a response to the critique of my long time and much valued friend April, who said (in paraphrase) that I suffered from wanting to first state the problem I was addressing, then lay out the background concerns, only then arriving at some conclusion or recommendation. The result is that the reader does not know where I am going until the end, and there is the danger that they will get weary of following my logical progression and never actually reach the good stuff. She said that I needed to tell them where I was going right at the start, to keep them interested enough to find out how I arrived at that conclusion.
This seemed like good advice, so I started going through my articles picking out the main conclusions, thinking to add a paragraph to the start of each one. Instead I decided to put them all in one place (here) and link them to the articles showing the argument for each. I have not yet had time to do the linking part, but this at least gives a kind of overview of my socio-political philosophy, and perhaps give the reader an incentive to explore further. Some of these maxims may seem extreme or shocking, and you may find them hard to accept as true; this may be due to my failure to express them optimally rather than to their untruth. It is not my desire to preach to the choir, but rather to stimulate people into considering points of view that may not have occurred to them.
I have expanded this collection beyond the scope of the other articles here, to include many of the brief notes of ideas that I have assembled over the years.
Please do not dismiss everything I say because of any single opinion I express. It is altogether probable that I am wrong in some areas because I have not thought them through adequately, and I am very much open to considering opposing views, as long as they actually address the subject matter substantively. These short statements are not intended to be themselves persuasive arguments in and of themselves, but rather hooks to get you interested in reading further whether you agree with them initially or not. If you wish to engage in debate, it is not enough to simply quote “everybody knows…” type slogans in response.
The dictionary defines an aphorism as “a saying that expresses a belief, often true.” These are my beliefs. I hope that they are often true.
Universal
Noblesse oblige: from those to whom much is given, much is expected.
Our faults are our virtues misapplied.
We do not generally make decisions rationally, but we believe that we do. We do make decisions predictably, but we believe that we do not. Those who would control society are aware of both facts, and use them to control our behavior.
We feel our failures much more keenly than our successes
Everything always seemed as though it would be forever until suddenly it was no more
The opposite of happiness is not sadness, it is apathy. The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.
The natural state of things is that nothing is owned, and there are no laws other than the laws of nature. Any departure from this state must be justified. Justification cannot be based on assertions that cannot be logically supported.
It is not for those who object to an existing law to show that it is bad, but for those who would retain the law to show that it is needed.
Acceptable: I can’t do that because of my religious beliefs.
Not acceptable: you can’t do that because of my religious beliefs.
“You don’t solve problems by throwing money at them.” Neither do you feed people by throwing food at them. Either resource is beneficial when applied intelligently.
People are potential, and if they are physically, mentally or emotionally undernourished they will underperform.
The proper understanding of Darwinism is not survival of the fittest, but survival of the fit. Fit does not mean strong, it means appropriate.
An important role of government is to protect the weak from the strong. The strong do not need protection.
The only socio-political distinctions that matters are that between the owners, the owned and the indigent. It is all but impossible to move to the next class above (though easy to move down). Commentary…
All qualities, good and bad, are distributed more or less equally among every level of society.
There are no good people and no bad people. The line between good and evil passes through every human heart.
Trying to eliminate evil from the world is like trying to remove just the yolk from a plate of scrambled eggs.
Human nature encompasses generosity as well as greed; pacifism as well as violence; love as well as fear. All are always present: the question is, which ones do we allow to guide our actions?
I used to believe that if I could just get past the next three months, everything would be plain sailing. I have never got past those three months.
Human rights
Every child born in the world is entitled to an equal opportunity to participate in what the world as to offer. To the extent that any human law stands in the way of this, that law lacks merit and legitimacy.
Nobody should get seconds until everyone had had firsts.
Under present laws the owners of businesses can seek the cheapest labor regardless of national boundaries, but workers cannot cross national boundaries in search of better pay. To level the playing field, either workers must be allowed to migrate freely or capital must be confined by national borders.
A person may choose to live by the strictures of their own beliefs, but may not impose those strictures on others.
Groups
We are a social species just as ants and bees are social species.
Any group of people is a distinct organism with its own attitudes and rules of behavior that are seperate from, and may conflict with, those of its individual members.
A large mumber of people together can become a crowd, which has yet another set of unconscious but predictable behaviors, usually completely at odds with the normal behaviors of its individual members. A crowd can be whipped into a mob, and at that point all inhibitions are lost. A mob is capable of almost any behavior.
All organized groups without exception impose limitations upon the freedom of action of their members.
The expression “a free society” is a contradiction in terms. The purpose of society is to restrict the freedom on action of its members.
People are rewarded in our culture in inverse proportion to the amount of useful work they do. (This rule does not apply at the very bottom.)
The deprivation of freedom of movement is the harshest punishment possible short of death. It should be used as a last resort. Even then it should not also be accompanied by harsh treatment while confined.
The question is not is government necessary or unnecessary, government is unquestionably necessary; the issue is what is the proper scope and extent of government.
Whatever we use, we should obtain the most efficient use possible from it.
Money
It is not money that is the root of all evil, it is the love of money.
Money is no more and no less than a scoring system.
Money is a symbol for value, and is not itself a thing of value.
The only thing that “backs” money is the combined ability of society to provide a thing of inherent value in exchange for it. Gold is no better a guarantor of money than paper.
Money is an IOU. It is called into existence by the need to record an exchange.
Money is not complex or hard to understand. The apparent complexity is an artificial structure that purposefully obscures what is really being done and provides a cover for criminal behavior.
There should a one single bank, and it should be a community service, like the fire department. The bank is simply the societal scorekeeper.
The entire financial services industry is parasitical.
The ownership class is entirely parasitical.
There is today a global ruling class whose members wield the power of nation states.
Social issues
There are no undeserving poor.
The reason most of the population is kept just above subsistence level is that if people had time to think and organize the system would be overthrown in short order.
If we are to specify how our unborn children must live we are obliged to make it fair on all of them not just some.
There are only three classes of people: workers, beggars and thieves.
The lower on the social scale the government spends money the greater the efficiency and the economic benefit.
The banks take advantage of the fact that the poor are honest, and believe that they should pay their debts.
As long as having a job is a survival necessity in today’s world, and not having a job is seen as a moral dereliction, employers should not be allowed to fire employees at will, but only for cause.
There are eight times as many empty houses in the US than there are homeless people.
A society will tolerate certain kinds of crime to the extent that they observe that the laws are unfair.
The proper balance between socialism and capitalism is socialism for necessities and capitalism for luxuries.
You cannot eliminate terrorism by killing terrorists.
We should keep the ban on women in combat but extend it equally to men.
Slavery is still alive and well all over the world, but has become more and more virtual. We have moved from chattel slavery to debt slavery.
Education is not a zero sum game. Teaching/learning benefits both teacher and learner. The student acquired knowledge without depriving the teacher.
The true teacher is a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage.
Society has throughout history been a tool for the wielding and retaining of power. This does not make society harmful, it makes it a tool that has been used for evil ends.
Wars have always been a tool of the ownership classes, and have never benefited the population as a whole.
Violence can no longer be considered a legitimate means of settling differences in the world.
The laws of nature are absolute restrictions on our freedom of action. The laws of society are an artificial construct that can be changed at will.
Something can be judged as fair if a person with full knowledge and would agree to it without knowing which side of the question would apply to him.
Uniquely among living organisms in their natural state, as a society we deny resources to the failing and heap them upon the already successful.
The wealthy promote the virtue of personal responsibility yet do not apply it to their own children.
Communism is not an experiment that failed; it has never been tried in the world except perhaps for Cuba, where it was remarkably successful.
The experiment that has now been shown to be on an inevitable path to failure is capitalism.
Ideas
As soon as an idea is expressed in writing, it begins to lose its meaning as the words change their meaning. The longer it is since they were written, the greater this effect.
The first tool of learning is to learn to know what you know, and what is your degree of certainty in that knowledge.
All verbal communication depends on shared understanding of the meaning, both implicit and explicit, of the words used. This understanding is rarely as shared as the communicators believe.
Words can never completely describe any form of reality. The only complete description of something is the thing itself.
You cannot draw conclusions about an individual based on a generalization, or draw generalized conclusions based on observation of an individual.
There can be no absolute certainty, only greater or lesser degrees of probability.
The scientific method is an algorithm; a set of procedures which when correctly applied will yield the best possible approximation to a reliable and repeatable truth.
You cannot make a one in a million chance happen by trying something a million times. It might happen the first time, or it might not happen at all.
It is not for the poor person to explain their poverty, but rather for the rich person to explain their riches.
Poverty is more likely to be a result of virtuous behavior; wealth is more likely the result of socially destructive behavior.
Would you prefer to have your medical decisions made by someone who is paid by an organization you have no control over to deny you care, or by someone paid by an organization you are part owner of to keep you well?
Politics
The Founding Fathers worried about what they called the tyranny of the majority. This has never occurred in the USA. Instead we have suffered from tyranny of minorities.
The observation that power corrupts does not imply that we cannot allow power to be exercised. It means we need to take special precautions to monitor its use and prevent corruption.
The case for the political right is based on pragmatic considerations, that for the left on ethical ones. The right has historically co-opted the ethical arguments of the left and twisted them to justify their own ends.
