Seven Shocking Things That You Almost Certainly Didn’t Know
“You need to tell people about all the interesting things in your subscription letter,” one of my oldest friends told me. “We do,” I said. “We list them on the site and we even have a free report to get them started.”
“Not enough,” she replied curtly. “Do more.”
So, today I’ll take my friend’s advice and explain seven things that simply aren’t taught, that simply are true, and that make a huge difference in how we view the world. I won’t be able to go into detail like I do in the monthly letters of course, but I think I can give you the crux of them fairly well. Here we go:
#1: The “Dark Ages” were a liberation.
Forget Monty Python and the Holy Grail (and let’s be honest, probably half of us got our “Dark Ages” images from it); actual life after Rome was a tremendous release. The great tyranny collapsed and dissolved, agricultural production rose, average lifestyles improved, new technologies came into use, fine crafts continued and often improved, and even literature thrived. (Yes it did, and we have proof!)
Opportunities swung open to non-elite people (the 99% that history books ignore), and there was almost no one forbidding anything. If you wanted to take an empty field, work it, and build a small castle, you could probably do it… and a shocking number of people did!
Wars were not only tiny, but they were generally limited to the aristocracy. Unless you wanted to be involved with war, you were probably left quite alone. (Compare that to 20th century Europe!) We devoted two full issues to this, including lots of original-source historical material. It’s true.
#2: Christian Europe, alone among major civilizations, killed the ancient evil of slavery.
What you were taught in school was misleading, and what you weren’t taught was nearly criminal. The statement above is true, and in the subscription letter, we covered it carefully. There is no doubt about it, European Christians killed the massive slavery they inherited from Rome, and they killed it for moral reasons. That these people are given no credit for their triumph is a horrific wrong.
#3: The most profitable business on Earth, by far, is government.
We’ve crunched the numbers from several eras, and the verdict is clear: No other business model comes close; nothing rakes in money like a government. The numbers were so large, however, that we needed a method of proof – some way to double-check them. And we found one, by comparing them to the tributes that warlords were able to extract from frightened governments. In the end, the statement stands confirmed: Government is, by far, the biggest and most profitable business on the planet, and always has been.
#4: There were a massive number of non-conformist communities in 19th century America.
This was a major part of the American tradition, and it is all but forgotten. It was such a big thing, in fact, that Ralph Waldo Emerson commented, “[There is] not a reading man but [who] has a draft of a new community in his waistcoat pocket.”
These utopian groups were the nurseries where many Americans of that era learned to think and act independently. I counted 117 groups (many with multiple communities) before I simply ran out of time. The famous abolitionist, Sojourner Truth, for example, learned how to act independently – to take risks and to defy authority – in one of the craziest of these groups. Many of the best people of the era had similar experiences. This chapter of American history should not have been scrubbed from the books.
#5: Genius is mainly a trick, and it doesn’t require massive brainpower.
Have you ever seen the equipment Galileo used to prove the basic operation of gravity? It looks like a high school shop project; there’s nothing “genius” about it. And in fact, genius by itself has led to very few real breakthroughs. Just thinking faster than the next person doesn’t matter terribly much if the other guy spends a little extra time.
The crucial thing about genius then is not mental speed (that’s what IQ tests major upon); it’s that actual geniuses learn something crucial: They can be right when everyone else is wrong.
The kid who is hated for being smart can’t escape this fact, and so he or she (if not too damaged by the experience) becomes familiar with thinking independently… and that’s what produces the magic.
#6: The first city was a peaceful anarchy.
We have a tremendous amount of evidence from this city, now called Catalhoyuk. As many as 10,000 people lived there between 7400 BC and 6000 BC, with no master and no overseer. There was no courthouse, no tax collector, no central administration of any kind.
Furthermore, these people, almost 5,000 years before the pyramids of Egypt, were peaceful, cooperative, individualistic, and highly artistic. They were clean, well dressed, well fed, and productive. Many were long-distance traders, and they may have used obsidian as a currency. They were anything but ignorant prehistoric brutes. The artifacts tell the tale.
#7: We can step into a golden age any time we want to.
Scarcity has been dying for centuries now. The price of commodities like wheat and copper have flat-lined when measured in wages. And with the technologies we have coming online now, this process is only speeding up.
Our problem is that we’ve authorized an incredible amount of replacement scarcity, and that’s what keeps us working double shifts to no great benefit. But as soon as we decide that it’s not really our duty to enthrone people we despise… once we stop “needing” every new piece of iCrap… when we stop living to impress our neighbors and start cultivating our actual lives… we’ll find that we’re already rich and we’re already producing enough for everyone to have plenty. We’ve been conditioned to believe this is impossible, but the math says otherwise.
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with your subscription to Freeman’s Perspective.
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Paul Rosenberg
[Editor’s Note: Paul Rosenberg is the outside-the-Matrix author of FreemansPerspective.com, a site dedicated to economic freedom, personal independence and privacy. He is also the author of The Great Calendar, a report that breaks down our complex world into an easy-to-understand model. Click here to get your free copy.]
I loved the last paragraph. I think many TBP’ers do as well.
That last paragraph is also a good explanation for the possibility that we are still quite a distance away from any sort of TEOTWAWKI, regardless of how much many doomers seem to hope otherwise. Look around — there is a lot of/slack/cushion/reserves still available in the world. It appears that society, the economy and the planet have abundant additional carrying capacity, and are not near their absolute limits. If there is to be an Armageddon over the next 50 years, it will more likely be a natural rather than man-made disaster.
I was a die-hard doomer for years. I believe I was wrong, and am still amazed about how things are going…and going…and going…
I liked the article, but disagree with this:
“#6: The first city was a peaceful anarchy.
We have a tremendous amount of evidence from this city, now called Catalhoyuk. As many as 10,000 people lived there between 7400 BC and 6000 BC, with no master and no overseer. There was no courthouse, no tax collector, no central administration of any kind.
Furthermore, these people, almost 5,000 years before the pyramids of Egypt, were peaceful, cooperative, individualistic, and highly artistic. They were clean, well dressed, well fed, and productive. Many were long-distance traders, and they may have used obsidian as a currency. They were anything but ignorant prehistoric brutes. The artifacts tell the tale.”
I’m not buying it. Even cohesive family units start to break down in tribal-esque squabbles after the first few hundred people are gathered together. People fight, its in our nature.
Anarchism, much like socialism, is a useful thought exercise, but is terrible in practice.
“I’m not buying it. Even cohesive family units start to break down in tribal-esque squabbles after the first few hundred people are gathered together. People fight, its in our nature. Anarchism, much like socialism, is a useful thought exercise, but is terrible in practice.” ——— TPC
Let a little research be your friend. 🙂
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“One of the most astonishing facts about the site is its apparent lack of public buildings, such as a palace, government offices, religious temples, granaries, and sanitation. In fact, there are virtually no streets. All the houses were connected wall-to-wall, and the only way to get into a home was through the roof.
Even though the population may have reached as high as 5,000–8,000 residents, we would not technically call this a “city.” It shows no evidence of the division of labor associated with a true city, or rich and poor districts. Life apparently centered on the house, and each family “did their own thing.”
@Stucky – Sorry man, but I’m not really buying it. Its archaeology, and several millennia of data indicates we are a warlike race. An anarchist utopia will not exist because it assumes that everyone is at the same level of competence and ego, with similar wants and desires.
Such a thing does not exist, rarely even under the same roof, let alone across several thousand.
In short, I’m using the same argument I do against climate science: While we may guess at the past, we cannot truly know it.
People see what they want to see. Everybody wants to believe that at our core we are a peaceful race…and we have empirical evidence that proves otherwise. The only time true peace can be achieved is if everybody has it hard enough that they have to work to survive, but not so hard that they have to relocate and wage war on someone else.
Maybe if the miracles of birth control and nuclear fusion really take off we may be able to afford such a thing, but I rather doubt it. Where would we be without war? Our technology would be a fraction of its current state. Music would be a pale thing indeed without pain as a muse. The same holds true for all art.
War, strife, struggle, and pain. These things have always guided humanity and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. If the thought of a perfect world lets you sleep easy at night, then please dream on.
…..but I don’t think you really believe in that, else you wouldn’t be on this website. A place noted and infamous for its doom and gloom, its wanton use of ad hominem attacks, and delightful focus on The Fourth Turning.
It is true that shortages are mostly created by the owners and anarchy is viable in small populations. We just want to be left alone to live in peace which is not possible in our society, perhaps it is time for a breakaway society of TBPers. But where could we find peace? What spot on Earff would we be allowed to live and let live without the owners foot up our collective arses?
Yankee territory is out of the question for me, maybe the outback with Llpoh? I’m clueless and I seriously search the internet for this Shangri-La almost everyday. So far I got bupkis.
When’s the last time a cop facilitated your interactions with the people at the bank? supermarket? gas station, drug store? etc etc.
The coercion of the state is absent for 99.99999% of our lives. We don’t fuckin need it.
Seems like my beloved little Stucky has got utopianism on the Brain today.
He believes in equality to some degree. Even though God ,creation and IQ scores completely reject such nonsense. He believes nations just peaceful coexistenced godzillaions of years a go even though God destroyed the whole planet for its evil and wickedness at about the same time of this so called peaceful existence .Think it had anything to do with that Tower of Babel thing these people had going on ?Apparently Stucky believes multicultural societies will work even though these nations always destroy themselves with ethnic bitterness and hatred.
Utopianism is another biblical God hating pagan idolatry. A monument to man’s PRIDE AND ARROGANCE….Doomed to destruction as God’s Judgment.
Dark Ages being a liberation sounds rather absurd but it is a matter of perspective.
Rome became more and more overbearing and corrupt as time went by so I suppose for the bottom of society it was liberation.
However much progress was also lost and Christianity was more of a curse upon the people of Europe than a blessing . There is a reason they call it the Dark Ages.
“it’s not really our duty to enthrone people we despise”
True, that. Da fuck I wanna go vote for some ringmeat I wouldn’t let in my yard fo” huh? whuffo?
TPC, don’t you even get it? People were free to lay around jaggin off all day. It was fuggin utopia.
Anus, Rome was a pox on humanity from the first emperor. Christendom produced western civilization. Your ass would be hanging from a cross if Rome still ruled. Be grateful.
So, do our history books refer to that time period as the Dark Ages because is was a dark time for powerful centralized governments?
the dark ages is a term used to describe the time before the enlightenment, or the time when man finally got fed up with the church as the final authority on all matters.
dark ages = flat world = cankles.
“What you were taught in school was misleading, and what you weren’t taught was nearly criminal. The statement above is true, and in the subscription letter, we covered it carefully. There is no doubt about it, European Christians killed the massive slavery they inherited from Rome, and they killed it for moral reasons. That these people are given no credit for their triumph is a horrific wrong.”
This is correct. Western civilization, led by Great Britain, started the tide against slavery, culminating in abolition. British ships chased slave ships and set them free whenever they could. This was expensive in blood and treasures (British sailors got sick and at times died in tropical areas, and these operations weren’t easy on the coffers of the British government).
Non-European nations often balked at the idea of abolishing slavery. Wherever European power was limited or nonexistent, slavery held on and even persisted.
These facts are conveniently ignored by ideological instrumentalist “historians” who subscribe to a narrative of white/European oppression of nonwhites. Nobody denies that there was oppression – but there was oppression (including slavery) perpetrated by nonwhites as well, and it was whites who put a stop to modern slavery.