participant-4603, 12:09 AM, August 11
No way, you got me pegged wrong. What it boils down to is this: there’s no question that a civilising force like a Christianity or an Islam can result in a great deal of good without being authentic, legitimate, or truthful.
Because if—and I want to stress if—any notion of God is genuine or correct, it is only the God of Israel as defined in Judaism or rabbinic Judaism, and as defined by that special relationship between it and the Jewish people.
Everything else is a counterfeit. And that’s not to say that a counterfeit Gucci handbag can’t still hold your belongings—it most certainly can. It’s just that it’s not the same as an actual Gucci handbag.
And this is not meant to be an insult or offensive to you as a Christian. It’s just to tell you the God’s honest truth—pun very much intended.
But with that being said, on a certain level I have more respect for stone-cold, hardcore atheists that completely deny the God of Israel, because at least they’re not buying counterfeit.
participant-4603, 12:09 AM, August 11
This comes up often in my México group. Folks often leave México for Paraguay only to realise there’s still no where to run.
participant-3927, 12:16 AM, August 11
Andrew, before Judaism there were a long string of other religions. Judaism wasn’t the first by any measure. There’s no historical evidence of the existence of the written Torah before Hellenism (300 BCE).
participant-3927, 12:21 AM, August 11
I’m not stone cold. I do not deny feelings of exaltation and worship. I just look for their source in reality. We should worship the capacity of reason, mans focus and determination. It’s trully amazing what it can do.
participant-3927, 12:29 AM, August 11
here’s a visual for ‘worship’
participant-4603, 12:29 AM, August 11
Yeah, I totally get all of that, and I understand that some of the names that Jews attribute to being that of God have pre-Judaic origins.
I’m completely aware of this, and I don’t think rabbinic Judaism has done enough to explain this. Some theories are interesting, but as it stands, one needs to go to the hard anthropological and archaeological sciences to get better answers.
And for those that do want to shy away from the God of Israel, that’s the only legitimate way I see of doing so—by taking to task the historic record.
And yet, for sure, let’s look at the oral tradition. Much of the Talmud came out well after the New Testament—I understand that as well from a chronological perspective.
participant-3927, 12:33 AM, August 11
But there was earlier oral tradition. Almost no ideas were written prior to about 400 BCE. Writing was reserved for accounting finances. Ideas were communicated orally. Talmud was the continuation of this tradition, but in the end it was written down.
participant-3927, 12:36 AM, August 11
Also, I recommend you the book “Did Moses Exist?” by D.M. Murdock
participant-4603, 12:39 AM, August 11
Yeah, I struggle with that too, because the thing is, I want to know. Certain things do move me, and it doesn’t strike me as superficially rational. I suppose on a deeper level it could be rational, so I don’t quite know where all that fits in.
I know that we’ve discussed things like, for example, a piece of art or music that, for whatever reason, moves a person or grabs them. I guess it goes in part to what you’ve described as trading one value for another—I don’t know—or simply tipping one’s hat to something that a person feels is worthy of such a hat tip.
Maybe there’s something to all of that hippy-dippy frequency stuff, and perhaps it’s all sound. But if it’s all sound, the trouble is that does take us back to Genesis, and our Christian friend is going to say, first there was the word and that became the flesh.
So I don’t know, man, it’s tough.
But anyway, let’s circle back to what you were saying before. I think there is a desire on the part of many people for a new frontier here on dry land—something akin to, let’s call it, 18th-century America, or what later became Canada in the 19th century, or Australia. Some sort of pioneering-type place where a man could pull himself up by those proverbial bootstraps and make something of himself.
And I still think it’s possible and doable in many places. It’s just, we’re so far from the Enlightenment thinkers or the ideals espoused by Ayn Rand, which is exactly why I’m very much on board when it comes to starting the world over again—as Thomas Paine is quoted as having written—in the form of a brand new country.
participant-4603, 12:43 AM, August 11
No, you’re totally right, and it’s something that weighs on me, because you think about one of the names of God in Judaism that begins in English with the letter Y, and when you look at that, there is evidence that He or It had a wife!
I mean, I get where you’re going with a lot of this stuff, and it’s not easy, because even the ancient Israelites, to the extent that they existed, seem to have at times been henotheistic before transitioning to monotheism.
And there are folks that will make the case that there was a form of monotheism which existed for a period of time in Egypt, and it’s possible that’s one of the earlier sources.
I think one of the guys in The Doors was into that ancient Egyptian monotheism.
participant-3927, 12:45 AM, August 11
Art is a selective recreation of reality. You respond to a painting if it reflects your view of things. If you think the world is ugly, you will respond to paintings that demostrate it, such as Picasso. I used to like Dali, because he showed the world as I saw it back then – weird, incomprehensible, abstract. If you think a human being is amazing, you will respond to Rodin. If you think that a man is a passive social animal, tranquil sheep, you’ll probably like Monet. It’s not a big mistery.
participant-3927, 12:46 AM, August 11
participant-3927, 12:48 AM, August 11
“Starting the world over again” – is exactly what we are doing.
participant-5138, 9:46 AM, August 11
Isn’t public education important to teach respect of other people’s freedom and overall give kids the possibility to be good citizens?
How can one be granted citizenship if one can’t even read laws?
participant-3927, 12:57 PM, August 11
Citizenship is not automatic. You’d have to pass a test. I had to do this when I got the Canadian citizenship - I had to study, on my own, a booklet about provinces of Canada, and its basic history.
participant-3927, 12:58 PM, August 11
But, you don’t need citizenship to live in the country and work. Citizenship gives you the right to vote, and participate in the political process.
participant-5138, 1:35 PM, August 11
Obviously, but I was talking specifically about citizenship: isn’t it necessary for citizens to have a basic education at least?
participant-3927, 1:52 PM, August 11
You mean residents (people living in the country) not citizens.
participant-3927, 1:54 PM, August 11
I’m not sure what you mean by necessary. The adults are subject to the objective legal framework of the state. There is no law that states “one must respect other people.” A misanthrope has the same right to live in the country as a social butterfly.
participant-3927, 1:56 PM, August 11
As for children – it’s up to the adults to raise them into adulthood. What does this mean? Well, it means that the young adult must be able to survive on his own. Is it conceivable to be financially independent in a world with division of labour, without being educated? No.
participant-3927, 2:00 PM, August 11
There will always be lesser educated elements of society, and even if you force them to be educated (as it happens now), it goes into one ear and comes out of the other.
participant-3927, 2:06 PM, August 11
As technology advances, we see that education is getting cheaper and more available. As Will Hunting said in the movie “Good Will Hunting,” you can get your education for a few cents in the public library.
participant-3927, 2:16 PM, August 11
I have updated the website to have links to the recent Substack posts.
participant-5138, 2:18 PM, August 11
Yes, but the State works so far as a fair number of people accept and consider valid its laws. Once no sense of justice is left, the State cannot survive on its own
participant-5138, 2:20 PM, August 11
Yes, but being illiterate prevents you from being a valid citizen, because you’re never gonna be able to read laws and vote conscientiously
participant-5138, 2:21 PM, August 11
I think you can connect your website directly to Substack
participant-4603, 2:38 PM, August 11
I do know what you mean, but even an illiterate citizen can be valid. Many, if not most, places have done away with reading and poll tests.
So here’s a question that dovetails on this discussion: is universal franchise such a good thing?
Should citizenship come with voting rights, or should that be separate?
Does citizenship have to come with right of abode?
participant-5138, 2:39 PM, August 11
I meant ‘citizenship’ as ’license to vote and candidate’
participant-4603, 2:44 PM, August 11
Yeah, I get what you mean. To be fully participatory and functioning and engaged, I get the whole point about so-called public or government education when it comes to building up supposed camaraderie or fraternity.
And there’s synergy or a melting pot effect, and there are supposedly some redeeming social qualities to it. And I think there is a little truth to that.
And there is also a point to be made that children should at least receive a basic education, so I’ll concede all of those.
If I were starting the world over again or starting from scratch and putting together a new country, I don’t think I would endorse any government-sanctioned or funded education system. I do like the idea of a separation of education and State.
I’ve met many homeschoolers and unschoolers, and as Boris has pointed out, there’s a tremendous amount of free or low-cost courses and materials out there.
participant-5138, 2:48 PM, August 11
I do understand, but I wouldn’t feel safe in a country where I’m not sure people know the laws and why it is important to follow them. It wouldn’t be about normal criminals, but political movements pushing for societal and political changes
participant-4603, 3:36 PM, August 11
I don’t think that a brand new, previously uninhabited area that’s now a country is going to necessarily attract masses of unwashed, uneducated poor people — but it could, depending on where it’s located and what its migration rules are.
But to your point, yes, an uninformed public is problematic and potentially dangerous.
But isn’t that also up to the individual or families to see to it that family members are educated?
participant-3927, 3:39 PM, August 11
There’s some miscommunication here going on. There are two cases:
- A person is a citizen. To become one, he had to pass a test, which implies that he is educated enough to pass it.
- A person is not a citizen, but is resident. He can freely live and work in the country, but he has no participation in the political process. (No voting, not able to be in a political office.) This person can be illiterate.
participant-3927, 3:40 PM, August 11
My second point is that in a capitalist society dominated by division of labour, one can’t afford to be illiterate to survive. No one will hire him.
participant-3927, 3:41 PM, August 11
Quite soon there won’t be any physical labour left, like picking oranges. All will be done by machines, and people will need to be literate enough to operate them.
participant-3927, 3:44 PM, August 11
I disagree with Andrew, the new country will be filled mostly by unwashed, uneducated poor people, at least in the begining. These are the refuges that will make up the millions that will settle it.
participant-5138, 4:14 PM, August 11
Even in the case of mere residence there ought to be some kind of discrimination (as in ‘selective choice’): if citizens were to make up only a small minority, while residents embrace tyrannical ideas, the latter may become a serious threat to the State
participant-5138, 4:16 PM, August 11
Perhaps, training in the army may be a compulsory requisite for anyone applying for citizenship, while gun-ownership may be illegal for residents
participant-5138, 4:18 PM, August 11
Also, is there a clear line between freedom of speech and threat?
If someone said: «I’m going to shoot you» to another citizen, would that be considered just free speech?
Or should the police force intervene?
participant-3927, 5:05 PM, August 11
From my above article:
When building a country from scratch, the target territory is initially ruled by another entity. This entity must grant charter privileges to a private corporation to manage immigration, ensuring that only “friendlies” settle in the territory. Once the population is established, control can be transferred to a government, allowing the new society to declare itself a sovereign state.
participant-3927, 5:06 PM, August 11
Depends on the context. If it’s a joke, obviously it’s free speech. If it’s serious, it’s a police matter, because it’s a threat.
participant-3927, 5:14 PM, August 11
Also another excerpt:
Where politics cannot go, private initiative can. The lucrative business of assisting with immigration will propagandize to prospective immigrants even before they leave their home countries. These businesses would attract donations from citizens eager to protect the country from harmful ideas. The leaders of these businesses would earn respect as patriots, and the businesses themselves are likely to see an increase in sales of their other products.
participant-5138, 5:15 PM, August 11
I don’t think we can truly rely on private initiative. Not this much
participant-3927, 5:16 PM, August 11
Also, a person doesn’t need to be educated to be an egoist and live the American dream.
participant-5138, 5:16 PM, August 11
Education isn’t about algebra, in this case. It’s about being literate and understanding the philosophical principles behind the laws
participant-3927, 5:16 PM, August 11
America is socialist because of the educated intellectuals, not the poor and the uneducated. Usually the working man has better philosophy than the academic.
participant-3927, 5:17 PM, August 11
That kind of “education” will be in the air. In the movies, advertising posters, between the lines.
participant-5138, 5:17 PM, August 11
But philosophical principles must be accepted explicitly, not just implicitly, as most people do
participant-5138, 5:18 PM, August 11
Maybe. Or maybe it may end like the USA
participant-3927, 5:18 PM, August 11
No nation in the world can produce a Hollywood movie. They consider it to be to flat and simplistic. They want the movie to end on a bad ending. No one has created the Superman, the spiderman, etc.
participant-5138, 5:20 PM, August 11
I’m sorry, I can’t understand this one
participant-3927, 5:21 PM, August 11
I’m saying that the American spirit lives on, despite the decline due to socialism, in Americans. They are egoistic and don’t appologize for success. That’s why their movies are the way they are. No other nation has this.
participant-5138, 5:22 PM, August 11
That’s great, but I don’t think it can save a whole nation /nm /npa
participant-3927, 5:22 PM, August 11
This is the only thing that can. Brainwashing won’t be helpful. But propaganda through osmosis can.
participant-5138, 5:23 PM, August 11
Why would you consider it brainwashing?
participant-3927, 5:23 PM, August 11
The government can’t dictate morality. The government is a robot.
participant-3927, 5:24 PM, August 11
Look what Russia is doing. It is rewriting history books, completely brainwashing the population.
participant-5138, 5:25 PM, August 11
It should be, but it’s run by men, and men sometimes get corrupted, revolt, kill and steal.
Public education may teach classical logic and reading, giving children the tools to understand the world by themselves
participant-3927, 5:25 PM, August 11
Let’s take Roman republic as an example. For hundreds of years laws were made in Rome, and all the conquered terriotories just accepted them.
participant-3927, 5:26 PM, August 11
A small portion of citizens set the system for all the other residents.
participant-5138, 5:27 PM, August 11
Roman Republic is not a very good example: it was a oligarchy, run by rich folks only (which, in principle, isn’t a bad idea), corrupt, which struggled against enemies from both inside and outside, and most of the time had to placate plebe’s insurrections.
Ofc, it ended in a bloody, religious dictatorship, after civil wars caused by desire of power
participant-3927, 5:29 PM, August 11
It ended with socialism (the Grachi brothers giving away wheat flower for free). It always ends the same.
participant-3927, 5:30 PM, August 11
You are right that we will need to have to maintain a critical mass of capitalists to maintain freedom against the socialist ideas.
participant-3927, 5:32 PM, August 11
But a governtment can’t protect itself from bad ideas. That would be censure and tyranny.
participant-3927, 5:33 PM, August 11
You can’t pull yourself out of the water by the ears.
participant-5138, 5:36 PM, August 11
Couldn’t censorship be considered for media which call for violence?
Imagine the publishing of a modern-day Mein Kampf, for instance.
participant-3927, 5:40 PM, August 11
Yes, but I wouldn’t call it censorship, but protection of individual rights from a threat.
participant-3927, 5:41 PM, August 11
Because it’s not just an intellectual discussion, but a call to a violent action.
participant-2294, 6:52 PM, August 11
The government should only keep the marketplace of ideas open. The moment someone tries to censor, they should get a bullet to the head
participant-4603, 7:01 PM, August 11
Doesn’t that depend on the size and location of the new country?
If we’re talking about a remote atoll in the South Pacific, I’m not so certain it’s going to get inundated the way one might think if you had a large swath of land in Central Asia, for example.
participant-4603, 7:05 PM, August 11
Let’s have a little fun. Suppose we are talking about a large piece of land that could be home to hundreds of thousands, or millions, or tens of millions.
Then yes, it may make sense to emulate what Israel has done with their absorption centres and their ulpanim.
In such a situation, it would make sense to, for example, teach newcomers English, ensure they have basic arithmetic skills, help them with basic reasoning as well, and teach them about the civic and national life of the Roark Republic—namely, its ways, its customs, its structure, things of that nature.
participant-3927, 7:48 PM, August 11
So long as it’s still a chartered territory, controlled by a private entity, it can do that. But at some point the line must be drawn, and it must function as a state, rather than a private club.
participant-2294, 7:49 AM, August 12
The self-proclaimed anarchist Musk wants to use antitrust regulations
participant-3927, 12:32 PM, August 12
Did he state that he is an anarchist ?
participant-3927, 12:33 PM, August 12
The previous time he used antitrust is when the Twitter case against advertising companies
participant-3927, 12:34 PM, August 12
Antitrust laws are evil and should be repealed
participant-3927, 11:47 AM, August 15
If you want to see why it’s not going to get better, watch the clip of Stossel on NewsNation. The clip criticizes Mandani’s policies while in the same breath conceding that it’s morally justified to tax the rich. How disgusting.
participant-3927, 11:48 AM, August 15
Ayn Rand said already in the thirties that the biggest enemies of Capitalism are its so called “defenders”.
participant-4603, 4:35 PM, August 15
That’s surprising because I thought Stossel was a free-market kind of guy.
participant-3927, 12:13 PM, August 16
Re: politics of today – I want to say: told you so. Pragmatism, calling the sun the moon, day as night (a-la Sheakspeare) is not the right way to go (in Sheakspeare it was never meant to be taken seriously, but was a sexual game).
participant-3927, 12:15 PM, August 16
We will have to hit rock bottom before we come around. And it will take hundreds of years. How many examples do you need to see, to realize that we need to start from scratch?
participant-3927, 12:41 PM, August 16
Objectivist Quent Cordair, the man who refused to keep his art store closed during Covid lockdowns, tweeted yesterday: “One shouldn’t shake the hand of a mass murderer.”
participant-4603, 1:37 PM, August 16
Yeah, I haven’t graduated to being an accelerationist. I’d like to think that things don’t need to reach a point, as they did for the Soviet Union, where it just couldn’t carry on any longer and it had no other viable course but for it to end.
But I suppose things have to get so not good, where people find the cost of living so exorbitant or it so not worthwhile to produce or to save, for there to be a reset. But the amount of pain and suffering could be so great, and it just seems to be the name of the game to kick the can and to try and avoid or minimise discomfort.
participant-3927, 3:20 PM, August 16
I am an accelerationist. But the statist government won’t let it be. It will regulate it and slow it down to a crawl.
participant-3927, 3:48 PM, August 16
Instead of techonolgy freeing the individual, it will further oppress him. Bitcoin & crypto started as a symbol of promising financial freedom, since then became regulated through KYC rules, and further segregated branches by country, refusing offshore accounts. The earler e-Gold got shutdown by authorities. Silk Road’s profit absorbed by the goverenment, which is now selling off Bitcoin to fund its gestapo.
participant-3927, 3:52 PM, August 16
As the web is now regulated on cookies, the government has an excuse for increased monitoring of cookies, if it wants to. It also made the surfing experience quite unpleasant, with giant cookie warnings. And, it increased the cost of compliance.
participant-3927, 3:55 PM, August 16
Innovative companies like Google and Apple (and earlier Microsoft) are being penalized for success via Sherman anti-trust laws. Restrictions on immigration, which brougth the most talent, restrictions on offshore business, tarrifs, communicate to companies that they must leave to less regulated areas. But in other areas the same fate awaits them, once they achieve success, and it will probably come faster. In Ireland, the offshore zone, companies will have to adopt the political stance that they hate Israel. Do you think many people will stick around to work in those?
participant-3927, 3:59 PM, August 16
The promising technology of electric or hybrid cars became a crony pact between companies and government. Having such a car is a ‘woke’ political statement. Producing such a car means receiving handouts form the government. Also, it’s a giant rip off. Perhaps I can be convinced that Uber drivers (who drive a lot) are better off going electric, but I can’t see how this makes sense financially to a regular Joe. The electrirc car costs much more than the regular car, and the savings on gas you make do not offset the cost and time wasted charging it. In free market, this would never fly it this price point.
participant-3927, 4:06 PM, August 16
The promising technology of solar, which would be great for regions where wiring is difficult, the government has rammed down our throats. Subsidies, expenses, regulations, insane noise in regions of windmills, politizations and using it for woke/MAGA mind disconnect in the voters.
participant-3927, 4:08 PM, August 16
And now AI. The statist government quickly realized what a ripe regulatory field this is. It is going to pull by strings, like a pupetteer, any and every company that uses the technology. It’s cookie GDPR on steroids. Also, AI techonogy itself will give it the means for every greater surveillance, Farengheit 451 style.
participant-3927, 4:12 PM, August 16
The iPhone, useful device that literally transformed the meaning of computing to save people time, is also used by the goverment to keep track of every individual. Companies deploying on Apple and Andoid must go through the single choke-point of government relugations on the App Store and Google Play stores – something that didn’t exist in the disjointed world of websites.
participant-3927, 4:15 PM, August 16
And this is the freest sector, IT. It’s much worse in medical sector, real estate, manufacturig, flights, tourism, and now, journalism.
participant-4603, 4:28 PM, August 16
Right, they will keep on propping up the system, keeping it on life support. That’s very true.
I know this has been said many times, but it’s one of the reasons why old school socialists and Marxists were not supportive of FDR’s New Deal—because they felt it didn’t go far enough, but more to the point, that it would put a bandage on the problems and would essentially save capitalism from itself, and that the best thing would have been more acceleration to the point where people would have demanded revolution.
I’m not saying they’re right—they weren’t. I am saying that accelerationism is not beholden to any single ideology.
participant-4603, 4:35 PM, August 16
I’ll never forget E-gold, and many suspect it getting closed down in the way that it did was part of the impetus for Bitcoin, and I think that’s fair and safe to state.
But what about firearms or the automobile? They can serve great functions to advance the individual, but they can also be used to enforce collectivism. So won’t we see that with many other innovations as time marches on?
I mean, I do see and get your point, and I do think, specific to Bitcoin—as much as I love it—I do recognise that in many respects it’s a form of training wheels for the likes of CBDCs, somewhat like old school video games definitely helped when it came to training fighter pilots, for example.
participant-3927, 4:39 PM, August 16
It’s statism that gives extremes, not capitalism. The more statist it is, the more an honest Joe suffers, and the more hardcore cutthroat black market appears.
participant-3927, 4:40 PM, August 16
Technology will plateau, because a docile society of sheep can’t innovate
participant-3927, 4:48 PM, August 16
Self-driving cars, like Waymo, open the door to a new level of government surveillance. Now, they won’t need to monitor the servers, they can monitor your local network. They will require all routers (many of which are shipped by your ISP, integrated with the modem) to have a local surveillance backdoor. Driving up to houses with Waymo cars, they will monitor all traffic on your local network, installing trojans and keyloggers into your macbooks. The logger, again, can be made part of the chipset, in hardware. If you think it’s science fiction – British government for a long time (maybe still) drives up with vans to people’s houses to check for TV emissions – in Britain there’s a special TV tax which TV watchers must pay.
participant-3927, 4:52 PM, August 16
As for firearms, libertarians obsession with this issue is misguided. Firearms is not an issue worth discussing, while there’s an elephant in the room.
