tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post8026231741222471951..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: Political Elites And “Magic Dirt”Francis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-54335731367353480802016-11-12T11:28:08.790-05:002016-11-12T11:28:08.790-05:00"Politicians never willingly retire – and the..."Politicians never willingly retire – and the longer they enjoy power, the more willing they become to do anything to enlarge and keep it."<br /><br />Almost always true. But I proffer the counter-example of G. Washington, who gave up power willingly, twice.Sherman Logannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-43149195230129107672016-02-08T16:27:03.926-05:002016-02-08T16:27:03.926-05:00Tim... "ain't no point in talkin' whe...Tim... "ain't no point in talkin' when there's nobody listenin'"<br />your apparent desire to reason with the unreasonable is laudable, but the time is long passed that 'they' share your desire to entertain discussion. As brother Fran has stated, 'they' are interested only in power - maintaining it, and acquiring more. Don't bother 'them' with details like truth and numbers - for neither of those lie; thus, you would be speaking a language foreign to them. <br />We shall soon be at that point in history where the only thing 'they' will understand (and we've seen examples lately...) is violence. The sad fact is, 'we'; for many diverse reasons, are likely very well versed in delivering said violence... and all will see that in an 'us vs. them' event, it will be either all of us, or all of them. Sad,that. But as the last ones of "them" fall (or hang...) they will surely be surprised - and still try to blame 'us'...<br />But, as victors, we shall write the history. At that time, your logic, truth, and numbers; shall assist in explaining 'why'.<br /> - Grandpa Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-36124146924021958792016-02-06T22:49:10.654-05:002016-02-06T22:49:10.654-05:00The Magic Dirt theory might explain why European A...The Magic Dirt theory might explain why European Americans are so much less statist than Europeans in Europe. It might even explain why Switzerland is so much less statist than the rest of Europe.Josephhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04720409839023747889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-54241209934661187842016-02-06T04:28:43.819-05:002016-02-06T04:28:43.819-05:00Furthermore, many people much brighter than I have...Furthermore, many people much brighter than I have spoken about the fact that the politicians/kings rule by the knowledge they have cops/soldiers/men-at-arms who will enforce their will. It does no good whatsoever to talk about how there are Oh, so many citizens than enforcers. Solzhenitsyn said it: if the people are too timid, fearful, to rise up it doesn't matter how few the enforcers.<br /><br />Additionally, although I am certain individuals such as Merkel and Obama and Cameron are stupid, even for politicians, how can they look at what is happening in France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and England, and not realize they have no power over their muslim subjects/citizens/immigrants or over the "refujihadis" flooding their respective countries. They are trading meek natives who _will_ follow their commands as enforced by their minions for a collective mass of invaders who will NOT follow their commands. <br /><br />Why do you think their enforcers won't patrol or police the ghettos/banlieu where these muslims congregate? It is much easier to subdue the native Germans as they peacefully protest than to subdue the muslim swine who were finger-raping their women - their wives, daughters, and sisters. Just as it was easer for the mayor of Baltimore to let our ignorant savages rampage and destroy public and private property in her city.<br /><br />The traitorous elite who currently rule Western civilization (remember - we no longer live under the rule of law, but the rule of men) _may_ be stupid enough to think they will have power over the murderous muslim scum they have been importing in large quantities, but I think the game is larger than that. No, I don't have a clue what the end game is, but I'm pretty damn sure they think they do, and that one world-wide government is part of it, run by them - from bunkers, if necessary, but preferably from Gstaad or Fiji or wherever they will move to in order to avoid direct consequences from their folly.Reg Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14099612693763932005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-28824902194375524672016-02-05T18:33:00.385-05:002016-02-05T18:33:00.385-05:00Politicians don't derive their prerogatives on...Politicians don't derive their prerogatives only from the total number of people under their sway but the kinds of people (Germany and the US are still putative democracies). 'Syrians' like mooslems everyway (in civilized nations) vote left. Thus european and american left wingers are hard on it. If they did not vote left then they would be blocked from coming.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03688647747392318324noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-51836696535124676942016-02-05T15:40:08.342-05:002016-02-05T15:40:08.342-05:00The European powermongers are forgetting their Mac...The European powermongers are forgetting their Machiavelli. They are doing all of this stuff in order to maintain their grip on power, but the people they are importing have no interest in being ruled by them. Eventually, when the Muslims take over, the old ruling class that tried to hang on using the Muslim voters will be replaced and probably not in a very nice way. Machiavelli was right: when the new ruling class takes over, the first thing it does is slaughter the old ruling class. The Bolsheviks didn't keep Nicholas II and his family around for very long, did they?Akakyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00187471562516416268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-74586006288560351502016-02-05T14:06:35.641-05:002016-02-05T14:06:35.641-05:00"Thus endeth the lesson."
I remember wh..."Thus endeth the lesson."<br /><br />I remember when I first thought I understood modern economics: it's a house of cards!<br /><br />As I get older, I think EVERYTHING - civilization, politics, culture, finance - is a "gentleman's agreement" based on nothing other than consent to an abstract. We talk about ethics, physical reality, God-given morality or mini-max Darwinian evolution. But the truth is, whatever humans let others do to them that they don't agree with is ONLY because humans believe there is a consensus. That "consensus" might be between an individual and his God, but it is usually understood as being, "what everybody else thinks or is willing to put up with."<br /><br />As an example, I grant you that the NKVD in Russia in the '30s had "the ability to coerce others and get away with it." But you must admit that the Russian people had the overwhelming ability to stop Lenin, Stalin and the Bolsheviks early on. And even in the '30s, there were never enough secret police or government bureaucrats to stop an uprising of the "soviet" peoples.<br /><br />Power resides where people believe it resides. You and I can't give power to those who might have agreed with the people behind the Oregon-Bundy-Malheur standoff. Schools/media/government can indoctrinate, "inform" and coerce all they want. But history has shown time and again that committed minorities have often overwhelmed established and seemingly powerful foes.<br /><br />I grant you that those are also examples of "the ability to coerce others and get away with it." But you seem to imply that power itself is inherently "wrong," whereas I would bet that you recognize that "power" just "is," whether it resides in an individual, a bureaucracy or a people.<br /><br />My point is (to address your original post's concluding paragraph) that if Europe will stop Islamist immigration, it won't be by understanding or defeating Merkel's power or the "state's" power. It will be by Europeans exercising their collective power of nationalism, rationalism, self-interest and understanding that THEY - in their collective millions - have the actual power to determine their fate.<br /><br />By the way, I do not disagree that "the psychology of the power-seeker a critically important subject." I believe you write cogently and compellingly about important topics. Please don't take my posts as disagreement with your core points.Tim Turnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-66772896355150595302016-02-05T14:01:39.637-05:002016-02-05T14:01:39.637-05:001) SORRY!
3) You're far more erudite and compe...1) SORRY!<br />3) You're far more erudite and compelling than I am. I just wanted to comment (or say SOMETHING on a tangent.) :)<br />4) Oops. Sorry, again.<br /><br />2) "Power arises from the ability to coerce others and get away with it." Uh-oh. You're right, of course. But in this case, I feel the temerity to sort of disagree.<br /><br />From Game of Thrones:<br /><br />Varys leaves [Tyrion] with a riddle:<br /><br /> “In a room sit three great men, a king, a priest, and a rich man with his gold. Between them stands a sellsword, a little man of common birth and no great mind. Each of the great ones bids him slay the other two. ‘Do it’ says the king, ‘for I am your lawful ruler.’ ‘Do it’ says the priest, ‘for I command you in the names of the gods.’ ‘Do it’ says the rich man, ‘and all this gold shall be yours.’ So tell me who lives and who dies?”<br /><br />. . .<br />[Varys]] asks if Tyrion has thought on his riddle, and Tyrion replies that it is a riddle with too many answers, as it all depends on the man with the sword.<br /><br /> “And yet he is no one,” Varys said. “He has neither crown nor gold nor favor of the gods, only a piece of pointed steel.”<br /><br /> “That piece of steel is the power of life and death.”<br /><br />So does that mean the swordsmen all have the true power? Varys asks. And if so, why do they obey kings, even when they are children or “wine-sodden oafs”?<br /><br /> “Some say knowledge is power. Some tell us that all power comes from the gods. Others say it derives from law. Yet that day on the steps of Baelor’s Sept, our godly High Septon and the lawful Queen Regent and your ever-so-knowledgeable servant were as powerless as any cobbler or cooper in the crowd. Who truly killed Eddard Stark, do you think? Joffrey, who gave the command? Ser Ilyn Payne, who swung the sword? Or another?”<br /><br /> Tyrion cocked his head sideways. “Did you mean to answer your damned riddle, or only to make my head ache worse?”<br /><br /> Varys smiled. “Here, then. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less.”<br />Tim Turnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-13024881428708828832016-02-05T10:33:25.022-05:002016-02-05T10:33:25.022-05:00Dear Tim,
1) Yes, you've gone off on a tangen...Dear Tim,<br /><br />1) Yes, you've gone off on a tangent.<br /><br />2) Power arises from <b><i>the ability to coerce others and get away with it.</i></b> It isn't always a matter of concession by others.<br /><br />3) You talk about what you prefer to talk about, and I'll talk about what I prefer to talk about. I consider the psychology of the power-seeker a critically important subject, which is why I write about it frequently.<br /><br />4) Steyn didn't originate that phrase "preemptive submission." It appears in Herman Kahn's 1961 book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thermonuclear-War-Herman-Kahn/dp/141280664X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454686160&sr=8-1&keywords=On+Thermonuclear+War" rel="nofollow"><b><i>On Thermonuclear War,</i></b></a> and can be found in other publications as well. It is, however, an evocative phrase, as we would expect from Steyn.Francis W. Porrettohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-16359944207480721162016-02-05T10:17:33.471-05:002016-02-05T10:17:33.471-05:00Fran, as usual, I probably am going off on a tange...Fran, as usual, I probably am going off on a tangent.<br /><br />I understand your point about politicians and power. But instead of railing against politicians (who will "always be with us") I would advocate for just loudly and repeatedly addressing facts.<br /><br />* Nuclear power: safety and cost have advanced dramatically since 1970. Thorium-salt has some tremendous possibilities.<br /><br />* Black crime and education results - the numbers are there.<br /><br />* Non-violent crime incarceration rates, the cost of the war on drugs versus results - the numbers are there.<br /><br />* Gun rights (sigh) - the numbers are there.<br /><br />Without trying to intuit the mind-set of politicians, minorities or liberals, there are facts that can be presented right up front and OVER AND OVER without having to get into the viscous, nebulous slanted talking points of SJWs, homosexual activists, race-baiting demagogues, college children, feminists or American apologists.<br /><br />What I mean to say is that you are probably right about politicians and power. But power only resides in those that we believe have it. Chaos and revolution come when two or more factions argue over who really has power. More moderate change comes when people consistently acknowledge reality, declare facts and teach history.<br /><br />Rather than get into the motivations of Hillary or Obama, et. al., I think we would be better served by constantly quoting the facts of unemployment, black crime, gun statistics, immigration data, the history of appeasement, the mathematics of debt creation and inflation, minimum wage laws, and the money and politics behind crony capitalism as opposed to real free markets.<br /><br />The truth/fact/reality is there.<br /><br />By the way, Mark Stein's phrase: "Preemptive submission"? Priceless and spot on.Tim Turnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-79742814390435883302016-02-05T08:41:53.221-05:002016-02-05T08:41:53.221-05:00The Barnhardt Axiom.The Barnhardt Axiom.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com