From A Self Styled Provacateur
Regarding: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/05/david-hathaway/are-you-talking-to-a-agent-provocateur/ ( I Thought about this for a day before commenting, and I won’t tear the author of the post apart for his use of technique of Marxist Critique, despite it being a classic example of the method. Libertarians spent too much time with marxists and not enough time with scientists.) [I] am trying…
The Possibility of Thick, Aristocratic, and Thin Libertarianism
(worth repeating) 1) Thick / Humanist / Psychological / Left libertarianism is a luxury good, and it is neither scientifically or rationally formulated, remaining true to the psychological tradition of classical liberalism. We CAN form a polity under Thick libertarianism, as long as luxuries are voluntarily constructed, requiring voluntary participation, rather than mandated. 2) Aristocratic…
Free Riding Isn’t An Exception, It’s the Rule.
FREE RIDING IS NOT AN EXCEPTION IT IS THE RULE. IT IS NATURAL TO MAN. PROPERTY IS THE EXCEPTION. ITS UNNATURAL. AND CREATING THE INSTITUTIONAL HABIT OF PRIVATE PROPERTY IS AN ACTIVE NOT PASSIVE PROJECT. [Y]a’ gotta’ understand: aristocracy is an activist form of defense. We evolved in a state of pervasive free riding. To…
Free Riding Isn't An Exception, It's the Rule.
FREE RIDING IS NOT AN EXCEPTION IT IS THE RULE. IT IS NATURAL TO MAN. PROPERTY IS THE EXCEPTION. ITS UNNATURAL. AND CREATING THE INSTITUTIONAL HABIT OF PRIVATE PROPERTY IS AN ACTIVE NOT PASSIVE PROJECT. [Y]a’ gotta’ understand: aristocracy is an activist form of defense. We evolved in a state of pervasive free riding. To…
A Journal Of Aristocratic Government – Of Voluntary Exchanges
A JOURNAL OF ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT [W]e learned art criticism in college. We learned to debate in college. Both were required in the rather socratic program they taught at the time. I improved my debate skills first in bulletin boards, then on Compuserve, then in internet forums, then websites, and Facebook. Debate is an art. I’ve…
Aristocractic Government : A Conference and a Journal
A JOURNAL OF ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT [W]e learned art criticism in college. We learned to debate in college. Both were required in the rather socratic program they taught at the time. I improved my debate skills first in bulletin boards, then on Compuserve, then in internet forums, then websites, and Facebook. Debate is an art. I’ve…
Are Bryan Caplan’s Views Taken Seriously By The Economics Establishment?
One measure is the difficulty in getting into the economics program at GMU. And it’s non trivial. There is quite a bit of demand there. I think Brian has made a niche for himself as someone who thinks outside the box in certain areas and for that reason I think he’s taken seriously. The problem…
Operationalism Is Synonymous With Human Action
[I] guess, I just assumed that it was so obvious that I didn’t need to say it. But apparently it’s not. So why would you try to rely on all this Kantian nonsense, in order to justify human action? Instead, why wouldn’t you base the philosophy of human action, on human action? What is the…
Why Did The Philosophers Of Science Only Partly Succeed?
WHY DID THE PHILOSOPHERS OF SCIENCE ONLY PARTLY SUCCEED? (cross posted for archival purposes) [D]id you ever read a novel, which you felt passionate about, and thought that the story was enthralling and insightful, then returned years later to re-read it thinking it was ok, but childish? You wonder what you were thinking? The story…
Rothbardianism: A Religion For Betas
[C]onvenient. Isn’t it? You can feel good that you’re a beta, but you don’t have to do anything about it except whine. Feed the internal social status junkie? Just like progressives feed it by conspicuous consumption of other people’s wealth? (Nuff said?) If you’re not a beta. And you’re not a coward. And you’re not…
Strategy? Revolution Only Takes Individuals Now
STRATEGY? [N]ow, we have spent the past century or more criticizing the keynesians, leftists, and progressives for creating systemic fragility. Not only in our culture, our laws, our institutions, our economy – but in our complex infrastructure and systems. It used to take armies to implement political change. Then it took mobs. Recently is takes…
Ending The Debilitating Libertarian Dependence Upon Rothbard’s NAP
All, *Ending the debilitating libertarian dependence on Rothbardian Libertarianism and the NAP.* [T]here is a very great difference between a general rule of thumb, and the necessary basis for a body of law whose properties are reducible to property rights, that are sufficient for the resolution of conflicts between individuals, such that they do not…
Ending The Debilitating Libertarian Dependence Upon Rothbard's NAP
All, *Ending the debilitating libertarian dependence on Rothbardian Libertarianism and the NAP.* [T]here is a very great difference between a general rule of thumb, and the necessary basis for a body of law whose properties are reducible to property rights, that are sufficient for the resolution of conflicts between individuals, such that they do not…
Which Is The Basis Of Social Order: The Prohibition On Free Riding Vs The Promotion Of Private Property
(worth repeating) If I am right, and I think I am, then we just look at private property incorrectly because it’s a positive assertion. But the negative assertion is more informative: free riding. Because it is free riding that mirrors the human moral instincts that evolved with us because they were necessary for cooperation. And…
Duchesne On Hegel’s Reason For Western Uniqueness
–“What drew Hegel’s attention was the seemingly restless desire of Western reason to become fully conscious of itself as **free activity**.”– Ok. so you know, this is what I mean. Translate that into operational language and tell me what the hell it means. I mean, I know what it *should* mean. –“According to Hegel, individuals…
Duchesne On Hegel's Reason For Western Uniqueness
–“What drew Hegel’s attention was the seemingly restless desire of Western reason to become fully conscious of itself as **free activity**.”– Ok. so you know, this is what I mean. Translate that into operational language and tell me what the hell it means. I mean, I know what it *should* mean. –“According to Hegel, individuals…
Sorry. But I Like Church.
Sorry. But I like church. I like monumental architecture. I like Catholic pageantry. I like Protestant ceremony. I wish we still ‘stood and voiced our minds’. I prefer the heroic pagan ethos to that of christian suffering. I prefer the historical narrative of Athens to that of Babylonian mysticism. But mostly I like the whole…
Buyer Beware vs Seller Beware
PROPERTARIAN ETHICS VS ROTHBARDIAN ETHICS (worth repeating) –“Under rothbardian ethics the buyer must beware, and under propertarian ethics the seller must beware. Propertarian ethics put warranty in the hands of the person with the greatest knowledge and therefore produces the least asymmetry of knowledge. ‘ — Propertarian ethics solve the problem of libertarian morality.
The Virtue Of Critical Rationalism
[T]he chief personal virtue that Critical Rationalism bestows upon you, is the understanding that you never know the ultimate truth, you merely know enough to take action given the knowledge at your disposal, and only by our failures do we learn more about the truth, than we knew before – confirmation may be efficient and…
Libertines Masquerading As Libertarians
[B]lock is the poster child for unethical, immoral, ghetto libertarianism, and he hurts the movement every time he opens his mouth. Rockwell is barman of the lunatic fringe, and Kinsella the bouncer of ignorance and dogmatism — they’re the three stooges of the red-flag rothbardian conspiracy to cause the failure of the western liberty movement…
Review: Misreading Popper
REVIEW OF POPPER BY WAY OF REVIEW OF ‘MISREADING POPPER’. Great book. Got a chance to read it this morning. THOUGHTS [I] do not know if it is fair to say that people misread popper, or that popper failed to make his case, but that he failed to reduce his ideas to general assertions that…
Question: “What are your concepts of Aristocratic, Protestant, Parasitism, Free Riding, and Immoral?”
QUESTION “Hi Curt, I’ve been reading your posts & your blog. I find it really interesting since I share a similar opinion about Rothbardian ethics. However, from your articles&posts, it is difficult to understand what is your concept of “Aristocratic”? Why is it “protestant”? I find it rather unnecessary to link the last one to…
Question: "What are your concepts of Aristocratic, Protestant, Parasitism, Free Riding, and Immoral?"
QUESTION “Hi Curt, I’ve been reading your posts & your blog. I find it really interesting since I share a similar opinion about Rothbardian ethics. However, from your articles&posts, it is difficult to understand what is your concept of “Aristocratic”? Why is it “protestant”? I find it rather unnecessary to link the last one to…
What Do American Girls Think About Chinese Guys?
Over the past decade we have collected amazing data from dating sites, and it confirms most of our old fashioned assumptions. In the case of asian males, while it depends upon which race of Americans we’re talking about, ethnically Asian men are slightly less desirable, and ethnically Asian women are slightly more desirable. Whites and…
Why Does The Belief Exist That The Usa Is A Conservative Country?
Asking who wins versus the vote distribution is confusing you. Our votes are polarized between right and left, and must be since these two views are in direct competition. If american had a european mulit-party parliamentary system rather than just two choices our government would be very different, and it is likely that compromises would…