Tag: Paul Rosenberg

Emerson and Hitler in the Marketplace

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

I really hate using Hitler quotes these days; people take them as ultimate slams, rather than illuminating thoughts from a bad guy. But that said, Adolph did make a very clear and useful statement when he said this:

I have not come into this world to make men better, but to make use of their weaknesses.

This is a fundamental model of human action, and sadly, one that is fairly common. Granted, most people don’t take it nearly as far as Hitler did, but they do use the model, purposely taking advantage of human weaknesses.

My first professional-level boss operated on this principle. He’d take advantage of you as far as you’d let him, although he did compartmentalize his actions. That is, outside of work he acted like my grandpa, but at the office he’d rip me off whenever he could… and he did the same to our customers.

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Five Core Economic Facts

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

Scores of economic figures go screaming across our screens every day, many of them contradicting yesterday’s figures, and perhaps half of them based upon lies. On top of that, we have dozens of economic theorists arguing back and forth. In the end, it’s all too muddled for most of us to make out. We each have our guesses, but none of them are terribly certain.

So, this week I’d like to point out the central economic facts of the moment, five fundamental conditions that we should all be clear on.

Obviously I’m not a fan of any of this, but it I think it’s crucial that we see what really is. Later, we can consider what we’d like to be.

Fact #1: We have debt-burdened money.

Dollars are created in tandem with T-bills, and T-bills pay interest. So, creating a dollar always creates an obligation to pay interest beyond the dollar amount.

But where do those extra dollars to pay interest come from?

Well, from more newly created dollars of course – but dollars that have interest requirements of their own.

What this means is that unless more and more dollars are made all the time, all the debts that are spun can’t be covered. Such a system cannot resolve unless there are debt-free dollars that can cover the gaps. And presently there are none.

So, the dollar system can run effectively in one direction only. It can operate smoothly while creating ever-more currency, but if the system starts to contract, there will be a currency shortage. And that leads directly to trouble.

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Purpose or Perish

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

Let’s be honest and admit that Western civilization has lost its sense of purpose. Western man has nowhere he’s going, has no great goal to accomplish. As a result, he and she have become listless, disappointed, and frustrated. Some still imagine that “democracy” will somehow ennoble them, but more are realizing the world model forced upon them was a patchwork of lies… that it has left them lost in the thickets.

Sadly, millions of people have never experienced this:

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.^[1]This passage comes from an Indian philosopher named Patanjali.

That’s how we are meant to live, and it requires a great purpose. None of the preapproved, mundane, collectivized purposes we’re fed by authority will do; this must be something that we care about by individual choice. Each of us has to see the goal independently, make the choice alone, and act without permission.

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The Specter of Suffering

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

Jews know how to suffer. Christians don’t, although they once did. Most libertarians don’t know how to suffer either.

While there’s no virtue in suffering itself, certain kinds of suffering are unavoidable if we want to change the world. (That is, to really change the world, not just to jabber about it.)

If you run away from suffering, anyone with a pin and a threat owns you.

Let’s be clear on this: Wanting to live in a new way opens you up to suffering. If you hope to avoid it and still attain liberty, you’re kidding yourself. It won’t happen. And to make this point very clearly, I’ll restate it:

Suffering is required; if you can’t hack that, stay home.

And while we’re at it, let me give you a few more stark statements:

• If you care more about losing money than gaining liberty, you’re not going to get liberty.
• If truth isn’t something you’re willing to be hated for, you’re not going to get much truth.
• Entrenched hierarchies always oppose progress. They’ll want to tear down the things we build. If we can’t accept losses and rebuild… and then rebuild yet again… we’re not going to get past tyranny.

Please understand that I’m not endorsing masochism here; I don’t expect anyone to like losing money or to enjoy seeing something they built torn down. But if a negative reaction stops you in your tracks, if fear of “something going wrong” paralyzes you, please stay home until you’re ready to pay that price; you’ll only muck things up for yourself and others.

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United We Fall

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

Like you, I’ve heard “united we stand, divided we fall” hundreds of times, probably thousands. If fact, we’ve heard it so many times that by now it triggers emotions in us: All together we can’t be stopped! And so on.

Except that it’s mainly a trap. Unity is the downward path – the road to decline.

In fact, being united has value in very few areas of life. If you want a mass of bodies to charge another mass of bodies on the other side of a battlefield – then unity matters. But when you want honesty, intelligence, compassion, innovation, and evolution, unity is your enemy.

Unity works for body-power, but it works against all the higher and better aspects of our nature. And to be blunt, that’s why the sacrifice collectors of mankind love unity – they want obedient bodies, not self-determinant minds.

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Cornerstones of Oppression: The Upper Middle Class

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

Let me begin by making two things clear:

First: Most upper middle class people have no intent to oppress. They’ve found themselves in an assigned role, and they are simply playing it. And let it further be said that the other class-groups (poor, lower middle class, etc.) would do precisely the same.

Second: This article addresses the current role of the upper middle class in the West and especially in the US. It does not address other places or times.

That said, and as someone of upper middle class background myself, I want these people to do better than to amorally play a role. They are educated, literate, and generally quite able. If and when they decide to find the truth of things, they are able to do so. I want these people to reclaim their morals and place them above wealth and status. The poor aren’t nearly as able, and the lower middle class are more restrained. We who are able, must do.

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Calling Things by Their True Names

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

Somewhere along my travels, I found an old Chinese proverb that says this:

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their true names.

I’ve found a great deal of value in that little saying. It is, in fact, a fundamental building block of human development. So long as we call things by false names, we maintain our own confusion and contribute to our own abuse.

So, today I want to examine several instances of calling things by false names and to define true names for them.

True Name #1: “Because violent people say so.”

We’ve all heard young people ask why certain things must be done. And we are all familiar with responses like “because it’s the law” or “because that’s how society works.”

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So, You’ve Been Made Superfluous…

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

In the US, 94 million people have “dropped out of the workforce,” and the unemployment situation is often worse in Europe. The ruling systems of the West have made these people superfluous. If you’re one of them, I’m sorry. It’s happening to millions of people right now, and it’s a horrible thing. (And it’s going to continue.)

If you think this is your fault, you’re wrong. You are willing and capable of productive work, but the system has its own needs, and they no longer involve you.

Please get clear on this: The system doesn’t give a damn about you and never will, unless you suit its needs. All those “we care about you” speeches are sucker-bait.

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Changing the World, Slowly

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

Those of us who have seen beyond the noise and confusion of the present world system tend to become urgent about other people seeing the same things. And while this impulse may be understandable, it’s not realistic. By refusing to let go of it, we frustrate ourselves and subvert our efforts to help others.

It makes no sense to sprint when the race is actually a marathon.

The Hurry-Up Method Doesn’t Work

First of all, the “accept everything I say right now” method spawns bitter intellectual battles, requiring people to say, “You’re right and I’m wrong; the foundation of my life is stupid.” People won’t do that, and demanding it turns us into intellectual bullies.

Second, people change in steps, not all at once. And those who do change all at once usually are unstable people who will change in a different direction soon enough.

Third, the demand for fast change drives us into totalitarianism. The only fast way to get everyone to live our way is to force them… which is why hardened ideologues always love a strongman ruler – he can force everyone to do as they wish.

Finally, the demand for instant change – followed by continual rejections of that demand – spawns an “us against them” mindset. And that leads to all sorts of dark places.

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One Line in the Bible They Need You to Ignore

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

There’s one particular line in the Bible that is conspicuously shunned. It sits openly in Luke’s gospel, but it is nearly always glossed over… mentioned briefly and grudgingly at best.

On one hand, I condemn this on grounds of intellectual honesty, but on the other, I can very well understand why people run away from it. Believing this line would turn anyone into a radical, and that could be dangerous… and indeed it has been dangerous.

Today I will be ill-mannered enough to address this line. But first, please understand that Luke records these words as coming from Jesus’ mouth. That’s a fact, and no amount of evasion will change it.

Here It Is

The verse I’m referring to is found in Luke 16:15 of the New Testament, and here’s how it reads in the King James translation:

… that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

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The Rape of the West

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

I wanted to find a less ugly title for this article, but I couldn’t find one that still conveyed the depth of the crimes that are under way. So, apologies where they are due.

In this post, I’m going to give you an overview of what is going on and an outline of how the schemes work. I am not going to “prove” everything I write with citations and math. That’s an important thing to do, but today I’ll pass. If you doubt anything I write here, do your own research: Find the facts, question them, compare them, and forge your own opinions.

What’s Happening

Right now, people who can fairly be called the “ruling elite” are bleeding the West dry, and many of them are fully aware of what they’re doing. Others are simply “doing what works” and hiding behind slogans like “it’s all legal” that help them bypass morality.

These people are doing this rather urgently at the moment, because the financial system is poised for a collapse. The system has been propped up with many trillions of dollars, but the debts within it will never be repaid. Once the reality of that can no longer be evaded, the hypnotic confidence people have in the system will break.

At this moment (June 2016), Europe and Japan are closer to the precipice than North America. That means that large capital flows are coming into the US and Canada. That drives up the prices of property, stocks, bonds, and other things. At some point, however, even “the last to crash” will indeed fail. And at that point, fear will spike to astonishing levels and a new game will have to be instituted. (See, please, The Breaking Dawn.)

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Seven Shocking Things That You Almost Certainly Didn’t Know

FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

“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 20^th century Europe!) We devoted two full issues to this, including lots of original-source historical material. It’s true.

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