"If you get rid of the government, then the costs of violence are imposed directly upon the person who wants to use the violence." - "Intellectualism is a defence against inflicted falsehoods as a child." - "People get that morality has been used to control them as children, and as soon as they try to treat morality as morality and make it universal to their society as a whole, they're attacked as immoral, as uncaring, as brutish and wrong... It's crazy. People's brains are fried... they have been crippled, mentally." -- How many fingers, Winston?

'Nature strives to keep us sane, society tries to make us mad.' -- In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or politics, two and two might make five, but when one was designing a gun or an aeroplane they had to make four. (George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four)

"The individual is pathologized so that society can be termed healthy." - '...a way forward for society that does not require the drugging of helpless children and badly informed adults.' - "What we call mental illness is injury to the brain that results from its repetitively incorrect usage."

'The original call for Occupy Wall Street came from non-profit international media foundation Adbusters. ...Adbusters takes a significant portion of its money from the Tides Foundation, an organisation partnered with one of Wall Street billionaire oligarch George Soros's foundations, the Open Society Institute... Freedom House is another of Soros's Open Society partners. It supports the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (Canvas), an organisation started by Serbians Ivan Marovic and Srdja Popovic. After playing a pivotal role in the CIA-backed deposing of Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic, the western media hailed Marovic as a democratic genius, but it came out later that his programme came out of an elite Boston thinktank's "regime change" manual, From Dictatorship to Democracy, written by Harvard professor Gene Sharp. Sharp's book is a bible of the colour revolutions – a "regime change for dummies". There are also reports of Canvas activity during the early days of Occupy Wall Street, including a video of Marovic himself addressing the general assembly. Currently, Canvas are touting their recent role in working with Egyptian and Tunisian protesters from as early as 2009, teaching skills that helped bring down their presidents and spark regional revolt. When the dust settles and it's all said and done, millions of Occupy participants may very well be given a sober lesson under the heading of "controlled opposition".' -- Pied pipers are piping

'Revolutions are dangerous and unpredictable beasts, and for a population to enter into one without fully understanding what is at stake is much like handing a loaded 45 automatic to a toddler.' -- What have you bought into; what will it cost to buy you out?

'Dominant Social Theme: Workers unite! There is an emergency! The world is warming! Al Gore tried to explain it! The UN tried to fix it! Now it is up to us! Never mind that it doesn't exist – it's still important! It's the best way to realize the one-world ambitions of the power elite to whom we are beholden! Oops! Shouldn't have said that. (We got carried away.) -- Free-Market Analysis: The Anglosphere elites are trying everything they can to implement "solutions" to the non-existent problem of global warming and now it seems they've set their controlled Occupy Wall Street movement to the task. Adbusters has proudly posted a screed on the new OWS "news" website calling for a global decentralized protest movement that will focus on, of all things, global warming. OWS at the top is increasingly a stalking horse for the UN's unrealized agenda. What could not be gained so far by the UN because of resolute opposition via principled people (mostly patriotic Americans) is to be achieved by a manipulated movement of "people power" that is supposed to sweep all before it. How do you combat the world's growing recognition that the 20th century was nothing but elite-directed history? You used MORE directed history. Watch how OWS evolves.' -- Obvious obvious is obvious

"The free-market is predicated upon win-win negotiations." -- "Is government inherently evil? 'Government' is just one category of the initiation of force. The initiation of force is evil." -- "It's a logical fallacy [Post hoc ergo propter hoc] to say that because the government does it, if the government doesn't do it, it won't get done." -- "Saying you give money to the IRS is like saying you make love to your rapist. It's a contradiction in terms. It's like saying you're being charitable to the man who is robbing you." -- "Representatives are not accountable to voters. Do you have a contract with your political representative?" -- "You don't need a government for people to get together and make decisions." -- "If you live in a world of words you can manipulate your fantasies in any way you want. The Matrix is language. 'Government should be held accountable for its actions.' An imaginary entity should be held accountable in some imaginary, undescribed way for the actions which itself as an imaginary entity it can't even take since the 'government' doesn't exist and cannot act."

'Marcuse said that you could never break the spell. That however much you took American culture and played rebelliously with it, you would always remain possessed by it. But this would set in motion a terrible logic within the New Left that would lead to a creeping distrust of all dreams of the future. ...in 1964 Marcuse became pessimistic. He wrote another book called One Dimensional Man. He had realised, he said, that capitalist society was far more manipulative than he had imagined. It had learnt how to take those desires and feed the masses spurious, addictive pleasures that enslaved them. This wasn't liberation – it was a dark world of what looked on the surface like an entrancing modern culture in which sex was discussed and portrayed openly, but really it was all cheap gratifications and stupefying pleasures that blotted out true human needs. Marcuse gripped the student left because he describe the revolution in a completely new way. The struggle was in your heads as much as in the streets. It was summed up in a slogan - There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads. He must be Destroyed.'

'Prior to the worldwide OWS-inspired protests on October 15, a group of prominent leftists “issued a manifesto that includes a strong call for global democracy and, in particular, democratic rule over the international financial system,” reports UNPA Campaign. Instead of calling for abolishing globalist networks such as the IMF, the WTO, multinational banks, the G8/G20, the European Central Bank and the UN security council, the manifesto calls for “democratizing” them. Supporters of the text, including Naomi Klein, Vandana Shiva, Michael Hardt, Noam Chomsky, and Eduardo Galeano, say “our global institutions” must be democratized or overturned. They accept that “more than ever before, global forces shape people’s lives” and “citizens of the world must get control over the decisions that influence them in all levels – from global to local. That is global democracy. That is what we demand today.” It should be noted that the manifesto was not produced by the Ford Foundation funded UNPA and the CIA, but its enthusiastic reception by the organization is highly suspicious. The OWS represents both a threat and opportunity for the globalists. It is imperative that they compromise the movement and sell it on a bait-and-switch version of global totalitarianism masquerading as change...' -- PIED PIPERS ARE PIPING

'In the 20th century, historical evidence produced by the Internet increasingly shows that the Anglosphere elites used countries like Russia and Germany as laboratories to try out different methodologies of social control. In fact, when the real history of the 21st century comes to be codified (and it will be) the narrative will likely show that every aspect of Western society (especially) was focused on the elite goal of a new world order. Everything – absolutely everything – was focused on this goal. Money was securitized and central banks created to appropriate industrial wealth and middle-class power; sexual mores were exploded and politicized to destroy the family unit; public schools were greatly expanded to indoctrinate children with statist nostrums; woman's lib was introduced to assure women it was OK to work – and to leave their children in the care of the state; history itself was perverted and realigned according to the false "great-man model. Today, we think we see dimly yet another realignment of the elite's dominant social themes. The new ones, as we have noted, will focus on global government – and on making that kind of government work better through "transparency," direct democracy and a political infrastructure emphasizing "green communalism."'

'All too often, humans have sought shortcuts in the path to a free world. They have done what emotionally and intuitively “felt” right without performing the necessary critical analysis required to truly “know” that it is right. It is only when we can configure our emotional wants and rewards to be in line with analytically sound mental constructs of causality that we will both be feeling like we are making a difference while at the same time actually be making one. These two outcomes, the perception of progress and actual progress, must never be confused; we can however work to make them congruent. A free world is being built today already by those who have understanding of its nature. It is not occurring through the passing of new laws, taxes, or treaties, the election of new local or global leaders, attacks upon perceived enemies and enslavers, or the occupations of public places and protests for a shift in power. It is being built through education of the intellectually curious, daily self-improvements, voluntary commerce, and the kindness we elect to bestow upon those who respond in kind.'

'I have to say that I share most — if not all — the goals of the honest Left, which would be embodied in a constantly rising standard of living for the lowest economic classes. I often find myself watching Democracy Now for its antiwar, free-speech, and anti-death-penalty stances. But the big problem with the honest Left is their absolute and obstinate refusal to learn the most basic economic principles. The "Occupy Wall Street" movement is no different, and it is a real pity that all this energy and frustration can't be put to use toward achieving their goal. Many demands are being made, but sadly, if these were ever implemented, they would make problems worse by lowering the standard of living for all — especially for the poor! I will proceed to address some of the demands in plain English, hoping to reach out to them.'

'"More money printing? My masters are you mad? ... According to the BBC, the Bank of England has decided to 'inject a further £75 billion into the economy'. Who knew it was that easy? I mean, why not inject £500 billion? Or a trillion? According to the BBC's logic, it would surely make us the wealthiest nation on Earth." – Daniel Hannan, UK Telegraph' -- 'Dominant Social Theme: Let the printing presses roll. It must be done. -- Central banks are inflation MANUFACTURERS. They are money-printing factories. They are set up to produce inflation, which they do by performing their designated function, which is printing money.These paper producers fix the price of money with interest rates and money printing – and fix it downward. Over time they devalue currency and ruin the savings of the middle class. Since the Anglosphere power elites are at war with the middle class – seeing them rightfully as an impediment to world government – central banking is a great way to diminish opposition. To make people so miserable that they cannot concentrate on anything but ensuring their next meal is a recipe to implement the coming new world order. It's been going on, worldwide, for at least a century with evermore velocity and malice aforethought.'

'A tribute to the glorious accomplishments of many decades of communist governments around the world.' -- This is what democide looks like.

'When government is entrusted with the "redistribution" of wealth, no one should be surprised that the wealth straightaway is used to buy votes, to reward interest groups, to bribe constituencies, and to pay off friends -- not to mention to honor "public servants" with the style of life of which they think they are worthy. In terms of the growth of wealth and improvement of human life, these are all wasted uses. The situation is even worse when the money is borrowed or printed rather than taxed: The borrowed money must be taxed or printed eventually, while the printed money is simply stolen, by creating an artificial price inflation, from those who hold monetary assets (less likely to be the rich, whose assets are varied, than the poor and middle classes). Some people accept this corruption because they are deceived by the moralistic rhetoric that accompanies it (that the "self-interest" of the rich is replaced by the "public spirit" of the politicians); but it is more likely that the rhetoric is waved through more because people are satisfied with their share of the loot. As long as I get my "benefits" (Social Security, Medicare, etc.), then government must be doing a good job. Or, if "programs" exist to end or alleviate poverty, then we can congratulate ourselves on our own benevolence and compassion, as expressed through the "collective" action of government.'

'Despite their honest intentions, many of the Occupy Wall Street protesters are being suckered into a trap and calling for the very “solutions” that are part of the financial elite’s agenda to torpedo the American middle class – higher taxes and more big government. The zeal for totalitarian government amongst some of the “protesters” is shocking. One sign being carried around read, “A government is an entity which holds the monopolistic right to initiate force,” which seems a little ironic when protesters complain about being physically assaulted by police in the same breath.' -- Useful idiots are useful

'What we call the Internet Reformation – the era of the Internet – has provided a good deal more information on the way the world works. It's helped people understand why government doesn't work and why regulations are generally pernicious and usually encourage the very trends they are supposed to prevent. But education only goes so far; and it's an ongoing process. In response, the Anglosphere power elite that we write about regularly has fought back. It's been trying to crank up the "blame Wall Street" theme for several years now. Now, finally, it's catching on. Unfortunately, Occupy Wall Street has taken a (predictably) anti-free market turn. It's apparently being hijacked by the modern Left, and the rhetoric of individuals involved increasingly mimics the socialist heyday of the early 20th century. On purpose, they are creating a straw man. Free-markets don't really exist these days.' -- Pied pipers are piping

'Amateur surgery always ends in a bloodbath...' -- "Begging the mafia to solve the problem of crime is a futile, ridiculous and embarrassing thing to do."

tags: 2+2=5 repetitioncompulsion statism government democracy delusion StefanMolyneux

'Don't underestimate him! I don't think he is stupid at all. Obama is a political ideologue with a dogmatic adhesion to communism that he plans to shove down our throats whether we like it or not. He is what Eric Hoffer called a "true believer." Take this man seriously as the student of Frank Marshall Davis, the black CPUSA member who was his mentor during his formative years in Hawaii. Consider his communist "class warfare" references, his Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) membership, his repeated inferences to colonialism, class struggle and other communist "hit words." There is not one successful case of a socialist or communist state in world history. Did any of these Obamaites ever study history? Well, of course they did but just exactly like every one of their predecessors, their effort will be different and it will work because they are so much smarter than the rest of us.' -- None dare call it communism.

"Here's what he's saying: We need to get the whole world ready for an alien invasion – that's not actually going to happen, that's all a mistake – but we should spend all of our resources building weapons to combat aliens... This is his economic stimulus?! Prepare for an alien invasion?! I mean, people look up to this guy! This is off-the-charts lunacy!" -- CNN: http://youtu.be/E1Fzzs7oVaA

'...the [2+2=5] continues to promote the psychological perspective of victimhood. The cost of this perspective is dear. Feelings of powerlessness, of helplessness, and of personal impotence are psychologically devastating. Such feelings are prescriptions for depression, anxiety, and misery, and they undermine a sense of personal agency and efficacy – the sense that you have the ability to make things happen in your life. Though the leaders of the [2+2=5] enjoy the benefits of making important things happen, their world view has the effect of instilling this sense of victimhood in its followers – with one exception: by participating in the overwhelming movement of historical and social forces in which those on the [2+2=5] believe, you get to be a member of a powerful group. By being part of the movement of the [2+2=5], you get to feel the power of history, the power of natural forces sweeping you and your cohorts to the vanguard of the new world order – or so you think.'

'The world's economy is a kind of planned madhouse. Those in power have inflicted upon it scores of central banks – all busily printing/creating money from nothing at the push of a button. Those who run these central banks are well aware of their ruinous disposition. They understand fully the boom bust cycle that brings bankruptcy and hopelessness to so many. But one does not ever acknowledge this. If one works within the system, one is not supposed to. In the upside-down world of modern finance, central bankers who print money are "hawkish inflation fighters." Politicians who endlessly create the distortive price fixes, called "laws," are "public servants." Corporate leaders who generate profits by linking their companies to the great, grinding machinery of Western legislation are "entrepreneurs." ...the Anglosphere elites also work via OMMISSION. That is, in addition to advocating fear, they actively encourage ignorance. The mendacity is breathtaking.'

'...Reich is just one example of what's gone wrong with America's – and the West's – political system. Reich is regularly presented by the mainstream media as a fierce critic of the powers-that-be, a radical friend of the workingman. It is apparently an act, a farce, a beard. This man foresees chaos if the debt ceiling is not raised and considers those who wish it to remain stuck where it is to be "insane." Reich is no radical freethinker, no rebel-with-a-cause. He is merely one more piece in the phony Hegelian dialectic that the elites have foisted on the West to make sure no real sociopolitical dialogue ensues. He's taken it on himself (nobody forced him) to become part of a dominant social theme. (The world is divided between communists and capitalists and there's no other choice.) There are plenty of these people around. 99 percent of the journos, analysts and big-thinkers writing for the mainstream press participate in this false dichotomy.'

'Free Range Empires and the End of Human Farming - Why freedom always leads to tyranny under statism.' -- "Citizens fund their own slaughterhouses. Just like cattle. Freedom = Wealth = War (Internal [Welfare State]/External [Warfare State]) = Collapse"

'Dominant Social Theme: Capitalism always seeks to exploit the worker and is always expansive. Wars are always those of exploitation. -- The above is nonsense of course but the memes keep getting repeated. It is a form of mind control ... an elaborate thematic fiction involving the way society is supposed to work. The press will play up the BP documents endlessly because they make great fodder for the perceptions that Western elites want to confirm: All wars, certainly the smaller ones, are those of Western imperialism with the goal of raw material exploitation. This removes the onus of war from the government itself, which is seen suddenly as a passive, put-upon actor. (Without evil corporations, government would be a force for good.) It also obscures the ... small, familial power elite that stands BEHIND government and is waging a war not for resources ... but to, in a sense, RUN THE WORLD. The Anglo-American elites will do anything and everything they can to obscure this fact!'

'"My whole life I've made a concerted effort to give people a fair shake and understand different points of view because I felt that everyone had something valuable to offer, but it turns out most of what they had to offer was complete bullshit." "Seriously," Richman added, "what have I gained from treating everyone's opinion with respect? Nothing. Absolutely nothing."' By his estimates, Richman's receptiveness has resulted in 160 irreplaceable hours of listening to grossly uninformed political opinions, 300 hours of carefully hearing out both sides of pointless arguments, and at least a month of listening to his parents' bullshit about how important it is to be open-minded.'

'Those blessed with liberal guilt take for granted that being a wealthy, healthy, white, straight male makes one more lucky than everybody else, and therefore that those so enlightened should feel guilty for existing. It's common knowledge that you are responsible for everyone else's problems when they are less lucky than you. Therefore, people afflicted by liberal guilt are responsible for the problems of the entire universe. They should be hated by every variety of minority unless they do charity work and state how tolerant and sorry they are for having been born. Liberal guilt is a variant of white guilt. The two often appear interchangeable, but don't be fooled - there are differences. Liberal guilt in its purest form usually involves any or all of the following: #Owning a hybrid #Involvement in any number of ineffectual nonprofit organizations, which advertise with slick yet "natural"-looking brochures and periodicals ...'

‘The good, bad and mad of Marxism with Robots!’

"What is it that goes on in somebody's life that would lend them to be more susceptible to Marxism? There is a strangely stale and dead relationship that is always depicted in Marxism where there is a factory owner, a bunch of workers – and nobody else throughout the entire economic landscape. There is also within the Marxist class analysis not much room for [the idea of social mobility amongst the classes]. The capitalists can't fall and the workers can't rise. It's all frozen in time. Why [would Marxists] accept that there's no competition for workers between capitalists unless they are [unconsciously] mistaking the employer/employee relationship for the parent/child relationship? [There is no social mobility within a family.] Children are children and parents are parents. The family is communism; the family is socialistic. From each according to their ability to each according to their needs... That is the definition of the parent/child relationship."

Gather round ye children come, Listen to the old old story, Of the power of death undone, By a computer born of glory, Son of Cyber, Son of OMM

'It's hard to get upset with people who are so deluded...' -- "Politics is violence. Government is force. 'Laws' are violence. Prison is coercion. The police kidnap and imprison. National debts are theft from the unborn. Taxes are theft. Tariffs, regulations are all the initiation of force. The State is a monopoly agency for the initiation of force in a geographical area. The State is the very definition of violence. Government is exactly what people don't want to do because they have to be forced. Whatever someone is doing when they have a gun to their head, is exactly what they don't want to do."

You're trying to use the scientific method to invalidate the scientific method?? -- 'If replication is what separates the rigor of science from the squishiness of pseudoscience, where do we put all these rigorously validated findings that can no longer be proved? Which results should we believe?' -- Only those verified by the scientific method. -- RELAVITISM: 'The decline effect is troubling because it reminds us how difficult it is to prove anything. [RHETORIC: Appeal to invented commonplace (pretend):] We like to pretend that our experiments define the truth for us. But that’s often not the case. [Proven by... the application of scientific method?] -- [TRUTH STATEMENT:] Just because an idea is true doesn’t mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn’t mean it’s true. [Including your 'idea', your truth statement?] When the experiments are done, we still have to choose what to believe. [via Evidence? Scientific method?]' -- Summary: Empirical junk data exists

"If you really love someone, you owe it them to correct their crazy... You owe them an intervention if you want to continue to claim you love them."

'One problem is that information in oceanic magnitudes can confuse and confound as easily as it can clarify and empower, even when the information is correct. A sufficiently copious flood of data creates an illusion of omniscience, and that illusion can make you stupid. [Exceptionalism?] Vigilantism has always eroded trust and civility, but what's new online is the sterile imprimatur of a digital ideology that claims to offer automatic betterment. Vigilante information violation is a form of assault that degrades society for everyone. [Define "society"] Anarchy and dictatorship are entwined in eternal resonance. One never exists for long without turning to the other, and then back again. [Evidence?] The only way out is structure, also known as democracy. [Slavery?] We sanction secretive spheres in order to have our civilian sphere. We furthermore structure democracy so that the secretive spheres are contained and accountable to the civilian sphere, though that's not easy.' -- LOL!

How many fingers, Winston?: "My position that religiosity is fundamentally child abuse because it is the aggressive infliction of empty and bigoted conclusions upon the minds of children – and you do not have the right as a parent to inflict your bigotries and preferences and faith onto your children. You DON'T own their minds."

Lobaczewski: '...pathocracy progressively intrudes everywhere and dulls everything... the common man is blamed for not having been born a psychopath, and is considered good for nothing except hard work, fighting and dying to protect a system of government he can neither sufficiently comprehend nor ever consider to be his own. An ever-strengthening network of psychopathic and related individuals gradually starts to dominate... Once a group has inhaled a sufficient dose of pathological material to give birth to the conviction that these not-quite-normal people are unique geniuses, it starts subjecting its more normal members to pressure... For many people, such pressure of collective opinion takes on attributes of a moral criterion... Individuals with a more normal sense of psychological reality leave after entering into conflict with the newly modified group; simultaneously, individuals with various psychological anomalies join the group and easily find a way of life there.'

"Because we cannot recognize evil; because we have been trained from birth to ... engage in crimestop – we cannot face reality." -- "You know you're a good person."

"People have a very hard time living in reality. Reality is not a comfortable place for most people – and it's not because reality is inherently threatening... unfortunately we are told so many lies when we're growing up that reality becomes the enemy of our very identity later on in life." -- "If you don't know why you resist the truth, you have no chance of achieving it. And to know why you resist the truth requires introspection, it requires self-knowledge, and a real pursuit of your own soul and motivations." -- @ 46:00 "Capitalist" 'exploitation'.

'Is the continued authoritarianism of the elite as regards its failing memes actually a dominant social theme of itself – a promotion that constitutes one side of a new dialectic? Seen from this perspective, one side is the (deliberately imposed) failure of nation-states economically, militarily and politically; on the other side is hypothetically a vision-in-the-making of a more trusting global world order – one of transparency and resolute reasonableness (perhaps led by a Julian Assange-type movement). If over time this observation proves out, it will mark a decisive shift in elite tactics, as we do not believe that such a dialectic was contemplated even a decade ago. The elite does adapt to circumstances... Alternatively, as we have suggested above, there is no further strategy, only the continued unraveling of elite memes, an increased reliance on authoritarianism to invoke more centralized world governance and, as a result, an increasingly pathological dysfunction.'

'People have said I am anti-war: for the record, I am not. Sometimes nations need to go to war, and there are just wars.' -- Cool story, bro.

'It's not correct to put me in any one philosophical or economic camp, because I've learned from many. But one is American libertarianism, market libertarianism. So as far as markets are concerned I'm a libertarian, but I have enough expertise in politics and history to understand that a free market ends up as monopoly unless you force them to be free.' -- You? Force? Them? Free?

'The primary social evil of our time is lack of respect for self-ownership rights. Self-ownership is rendered meaningless if the right to own private property is not also respected. The unique relationship between a person and "his" body — his direct and immediate control over the body, and the fact that, at least in some sense, a body is a given person and vice versa ... is what constitutes the objective link sufficient to give that person better title to his body than any third party claimant, even his parents... Any outsider who claims another's body cannot deny this objective link and its special status, since the outsider also necessarily presupposes this in his own case. This is so because in seeking dominion over the other, in asserting ownership over the other's body, he has to presuppose his own ownership of his body, which demonstrates he does place a certain significance on this link, at the same time that he disregards the significance of the other's link to his own body.'

'To say a person is estopped from making certain claims means that ... he will not be heard to make a statement which is flatly inconsistent with his earlier behaviour (and which another relied upon). Principled application of the estoppel principle would result in a free society. For all coercive crimes could be: punished (if not by the state, then at least by victims or their agents or defenders); and all non-coercive "crimes" could not be enforced. Since an arguer is estopped from denying the validity of estoppel in general, he must accept its validity—and he must also accept the validity of the results of its application. [This] framework establishes the validity of the libertarian nonaggression principle, which has been shown by many others to justify a libertarian or at least a minimalist or night-watchman state. Thus, everyone "must" accept the validity of the free society; to urge otherwise is to argue for inconsistency, and to be inconsistent, and to necessarily be wrong.'

'When a religious person is told that there is no God, what he hears is, “My parents lied to me.” A thinker cannot logically differentiate the nonexistence of a deity from the nonexistence of any other thing which does not exist. All con artists operate by affirming a general rule, and then creating an exception for themselves. A thief wants everyone to respect property rights except him; a counterfeiter wants everyone to accept the value of money except him—and a philosophical con man wants everyone to reject truth except for his own propositions. Don't fall for it, not for a minute! The moment an agnostic says, "Gods may exist in another dimension,” immediately identify the principle behind his statement, which is that no truth can be stated, and apply it to his own statement, thus rendering it invalid. To create a singular exception to a universal rule for that which makes you uncomfortable, rather than just admitting your discomfort, is dishonest and cowardly.'

But who would build the roads?!?! -- 'A critical examination of agnosticism and religion by Stefan Molyneux.' -- http://www.fdrurl.com/atg

"To change the perception of reality of every American – to such a extent that despite the abundance of information – no one is able to come to a sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves, their family, their community, and their country. Marxism/Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students – without being challenged... The result: most of the people who graduated in the 60s – drop outs or half-baked intellectuals – are now occupying the positions of power in the governments, civil service, business, mass media, educational system – you are stuck with them. You cannot get rid of them; they are contaminated. They are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern. You cannot change their mind – even if you expose them to authentic information, even if you prove that white is white and black is black... In these people, the process of demoralization is complete and irreversible."

'To run a really successful tyranny, the leaders must have increasing wealth as well as more reliable data. They need wealth to hire the programmers, the data collectors, and the police. Computer costs keep falling, but they fall much faster in the private sector (microcomputers) than the government sector (mainframes). Yes, governments have access to ever-growing quantities of data. But the public has far greater access to low-cost information that it uses to increase the overall complexity of society. The task of monitoring what is going on becomes ever-more utopian. The government is always falling behind... The greater the complexity of society, the less able the State is to monitor it, assess it, and use the data to control it. The police State is doomed. It cannot possibly keep up with the constant innovation of society. It cannot gain access to enough resources to maintain control. It wastes the resources it commandeers. The free market is winning.'

'...the two researchers – Professor Dan Ariely of Duke and Michael I. Norton of the Harvard Business School – did not ask the pertinent question, namely, "Would you prefer a fairer, more egalitarian, society if it meant that your liberty to use your life, time, labor and resources would be severely curtailed by the government as it undertakes making people equal?" But this question wasn't asked and accordingly the conclusion the researchers reached is completely useless.' -- Other people are not your property. Agree [ ] / Disagree [ ]

'"You've held your tongue – or been overly polite anyway – and so have others. And now it's an explosion on the 'Net. All these people out of nowhere starting sites... All power to the people and down with the banksters! An explosion of websites and people seemingly committed to the movement of sovereign money. In fact, the powers-that-be would love the US and the world to move toward sovereign money! They work like a kind of mafia and are always trying something new. Think about it: If states or the US Treasury begin to print sovereign money, Leviathan will STILL be in charge of the printing press. Do you really think the powerful families – your perspective – that seem to run the world will have any trouble influencing the government as its prints more money? They could care less if it's "debt money" or not, just so long as they stil control the printing presses. Do you really think the money won't end up in THEIR pockets? The one thing they DO control is government."'

'The solution is usually the same (though again, we have not read Marshall's full book) and features additional programs and initiatives that are somehow not tainted by elite interference. This is government, in other words, without mercantilism. It is a fantasy in our view. It cannot exist. If there are governmental levers of power, wealthy elites will always find a way to pull them. The only solution is to starve the beast. Remove the levers of power altogether, or at least as much as possible. We believe in free-markets. We do not see it in class-warfare terms, necessarily. We do not see it even in terms of capitalist exploitation. We see it as a kind of cultural problem. These families have been pursuing the same goals for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years. And for those who say it is impossible, we point to modern royalty and its entrenchment. It is indeed possible to leverage privilege into law and perpetuate wealth through national mandates. The evidence is all around us.'

'Both parties want the central bank abolished. It is important to understand this crucial difference between the gold standard advocated by the Austrians and the gold standard that is advocated by bankers. The Austrians want a 100% reserve gold backed system of private currencies. A 100% reserve system means the banks essentially act like warehouses. They hold the people’s money and charge a nominal fee for this service. They don’t actually create money through lending like they do now. Inflation in a 100% reserve gold system can only occur if the supply of gold is increased, which requires a large amount of time and effort on the part of gold miners. In a greenback system, inflation is caused by government simply running a printing press and then spending that newly printed money into the economy. If government can’t control its borrowing now, it is ridiculous to think it will be able to control its printing under a greenback system.'

'Reuters is a media arm of the power elite and the stories that this mighty corporation disseminates tend to reinforce the power elite's various dominant and sub dominant social themes. The article reinforces [the] meme that "society" may exist extant of human beings. In other words, that there is some mysterious unseen force called "society" that regulates people's behavior and that people are beholden too. ...human action shows us quite clearly that individuals make the decisions in this world and pursue their enlightened self interest as best they can. (Is it a fiercely debated point? It ought not to be.) If there is a society that people relate to, it is not more than perhaps 150 people at most.. Certainly there is no such thing as a "nation" (though people may identify with larger groups with similar tribal characteristics.) Even less is there a global government that people will "belong" too. These are elite fictions, fear-based promotions.' -- There is no such *thing* as society

Comment: DB: 'The reason to trust markets more than government is simple. Markets, absent government interference, are ruled [by the] Invisible Hand of competition. Governments are not. In a competitive environment it is impossible to be dishonest over a long period of time because consumers will shift their patronage to a partner they can trust. Not so in a government setting. Competition is a far more trustworthy medium for reducing anti-social behavior than government, which is often itself corrupt and anti-social. Who watches the watchers? Ms. Brown's emphasis is so strongly on government solutions - in an era where public solutions increasing fail - that we wonder what the agenda is. Why not let the free-market decide on money instead of trying to re-manipulate government to make it work "better." As to what we suggest ... It is simple. Fight as hard as possible through education and other peaceful means to do away the insanity of regulatory democracy... We would suggest freedom'

'Ellen Brown, the Greenbacker, has posted a reply to me. It is addressed to me: an open letter. I do not intend to reply to her directly. I will address my comments to her victims: her readers. If you are interested in my responses, you can check [here] daily. I will respond by posting one article per day.'

'For two generations conservatives have been shouted down by the Left with this accusation: "Fascist!" Ellen Brown is now making this accusation plausible. Yet the great irony is this: Ellen Brown is a Leftist. There is nothing even remotely free market or conservative about The Web of Debt. It is a call for a Federally funded welfare state. She praises the New Deal. She praises John Maynard Keynes. She has only one objection to their recommended programs: governments borrowed money to fund them. She wants a welfare state that is funded entirely by paper money printed by Congress. She is about as conservative as Nancy Pelosi. How could her ideas be getting a hearing in Tea Party circles? The strategic problem is this: the Tea Party movement is filled with people who have no economic understanding. They cannot distinguish Ron Paul's opposition to the FED, based on the gold coin standard, from Ellen Brown's opposition, based on a fiat money standard. They are intellectually defenseless.'

'The scientific evidence underlying the near-universal resistance to reason and evidence. If you want to change the world, you first must understand the unconscious barriers to thinking.' -- '"None of the circuits involved in conscious reasoning were particularly engaged," Western said. "Essentially, it appears as if partisans twirl the cognitive kaledoscope until they get the conclusions they want, and then get massively enforced for it, with the elimination of negative emotional states and activation of positive ones."

"I consider rights to be libertarian form of religion. ...anybody who believes in a government says, “I have the right to protection from aggression, so I want a government.” And the first thing the government does, of course, is aggress against you to take your money in order to protect you, your property ‘rights’ and your ‘right’ to live without aggression. And so this is a self-detonating statement. I would say that it’s all nonsense and the reason people say that is, when you are a child, you do have just claim to protection and food and love from your parents. And I think that people take that expectation into the adult world. But ‘rights’ don’t exist and any attempt to enforce them using a government is a fundamental contradiction, a performative contradiction because you’re saying, “these rights are inviolate, universal and precious, and therefore they need to be violated by a small group of individuals in perpetuity” – and that doesn’t make any sense.”

"Slaves attack each other for stepping out of line. The State is the willingness of your fellow slaves to attack you for pointing out the truth. If you want to be free, you simply have to stop associating with people who will attack you for pointing out the basic moral, economic and practical realities of our situation, of our lives. The State is your fellow slaves."

'It begins in the school system. Instead of being objective forums for the transmission of the values of civilization to the young, our colleges and universities have now become fervent breeding grounds for this statist recruitment process, in which the better students get swept up in the "false ideal" of collectivism. It is a powerful futuristic vision that is subtly instilled into callow minds who lack the necessary sophistication to resist. Being young and prone to idealism, they perceive "political centralization and a one-world government" to be an ideal just as the students in Marx's day mistook his "dictatorship of the proletariat" as some sort of ideal. Thousands of highly intelligent students spring forth from this brainwash every year to enter the world and spread their newly learned convictions that capitalism and Western civilization are the "roots of all evil." They think they are working for an "ideal."' -- Alumnus illuminatus!

'...we think the Austrian economic movement is one of the longest-lived and most important intellectual and ideological conversations in history. And whatever misrepresents it is of similar import, especially if it represents a larger trend. There is no way to describe the impact of the Austrian school on someone who wanted to know more and had the (mis)fortune of running into the Institute in the late 1980s or early '90s. It was a virtual out-of-body experience. The movie the Matrix is about as close as you can get. It was the red pill, only you had to swallow it without any support group... Gradually you realize the ambit of a conspiracy so gigantic it's hard to fathom. It ignores and misrepresents the entire history of human ideas. It is a fully manufactured world. What is black is white. What is up is down. When the Internet comes along you start to see how far back in time the conspiracy goes and how deeply it runs. -- The Internet has created a whole new world.'

'...in our era the White House and its legal team, lead by Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein, insist that government creates our rights, that we have none based on our human nature. If one complains about these people extorting from us our life-times and our property, i.e., a chunk of our very lives, the politicians and bureaucrats can retort that these are not really ours at all, we have no rights apart from what they decide we have! (This is exactly what some of the stars of contemporary political theory preach!) That is what it means to claim that government creates our rights and we have none based on our humanity! ...this utter distortion of the nature of government and our basic rights must be something to which American citizens should pay the utmost attention instead of dosing through the experience. It is time to wake up to this travesty and to do something decisive about it. And that must start in the hearts and minds of the citizenry.' -- Do what? Vote? Appeal/Apply/Beg?

'...it should be noted that if no one had the right to acquire and control anything except his own body (a rule that would pass the formal universalization test), then we would all cease to exist, and the problem of the justification of normative statements simply would not exist. The existence of this problem is only possible because we are alive, and our existence is due to the fact that we do not, indeed cannot, accept a norm outlawing property in other scarce goods next to and in addition to that of one's physical body. Hence, the right to acquire such goods must be assumed to exist. Nobody could argue in favor of a property system defining borders of property in subjective, evaluative terms because simply to be able to say so presupposes that, contrary to what theory says, one must in fact be a physically independent unit saying it. -- There are popular attempts to define ['invasions'] of the value or psychic integrity of other people's property [= conservatism and socialism].'

'Thought leaders are necessary from a credibility standpoint. But now the power elite has a problem. Not all of the intelligentsia is leftist or socialist these days. Some of them are right wing and a good many are libertarian. This is a very big problem for the elite. The response (and it is increasingly effective as we have indicated) is apparently to cultivate a whole new brand or class of quasi-libertarian intellectual. This is heady stuff. Hirsi Ali is using the firepower of her intellect not to promote peace or understanding but to advocate what is essentially (in our humble view) the "long war." This is indeed a new paradigm for the modern intelligentsia. In the past century most of the intellectual class has been seen as peaceable and even pacifistic. But the new tone of the modern-day mainstream writer for thought magazines (some of them anyway) is increasingly militant and chauvinistic. It is fascinating (in a queasy way) to watch.'

'Dominant Social Theme: The lunatics need to be reined in. -- ...such an article is of obvious interest to the Daily Bell because it counteracts (with the calm voice of reason) suspicions that the powers-that-be are in any sense aimed at US citizens themselves. Here are the top ten list of conspiracy theories from AlterNet and our comments beneath. ... -- There is ample evidence in our view (on the Internet) that the powers-that-be seek continued global convergence and control. Most conspiracy theories in fact deal with ways that the elite plans to create and increase this control. The Daily Bell itself is an outgrowth of this phenomenon, pointing out on a regular basis how elite fear-based promotions are initiated and configured to permeate Western culture. Each of these promotions has its goal, in our opinion, (cumulatively, anyway) the formation and expansion of world government. The pattern is not hard to detect, we believe. One does not have to be "paranoid" to do so.'

"So the elders say, “Only good little boys can see the apple!” That’s why they layer in this moral dimension. ...by getting the person to believe that if they can’t see the invisible apple they’re bad, well then you torture them and you set them up with this lifelong quest to see an invisible apple which they just frickin’ well can’t do! You’ve put them into this mode of a dog chasing its own tail for the rest of its life and that person is then going to pose absolutely zero threat to the power structures that exist in the world, because he’s going to be so consumed with his own inability to see this invisible apple that he’s not going to raise any sort of basic or sensible questions to those in power. ...you’re fundamentally, absolutely, and completely helpless, because how are you going to question the morality of those in power with reference to logic and facts and our common humanity, when at the very beginning of things, you swallowed this invisible apple and called it tasty?"

'#Ethics of the Free Market: The ethical touchstone of free market thinking is consent. Activities universally treated as crimes, such as robbery, burglary, embezzlement, assault, battery, rape and murder, are unethical because they are done without the consent of the target. Free market thinkers generally regard fraud as unethical because it operates by subverting the target's ability to consent. From the free-market point of view, it is the lack of consent, not the fact that such activities are prohibited by government, that renders them unethical. Conversely, any transaction based on consent is presumably legitimate, even if governments have declared it illegal. Carried to its logical extreme, the ethical dimension of free market thinking leaves little room for modern government. If ethical transactions require the consent of the parties, no transaction that requires the coercive force of government can be ethical.'

'#Ethics of the Free Market: The ethical touchstone of free market thinking is consent. Activities universally treated as crimes, such as robbery, burglary, embezzlement, assault, battery, rape and murder, are unethical because they are done without the consent of the target. Free market thinkers generally regard fraud as unethical because it operates by subverting the target's ability to consent. From the free-market point of view, it is the lack of consent, not the fact that such activities are prohibited by government, that renders them unethical. Conversely, any transaction based on consent is presumably legitimate, even if governments have declared it illegal. Carried to its logical extreme, the ethical dimension of free market thinking leaves little room for modern government. If ethical transactions require the consent of the parties, no transaction that requires the coercive force of government can be ethical.'

'A marvelous thing happened over on Paul Krugman's blog at the New York Times last week. Krugman effectively conceded defeat on a range of economic debates. Who defeated him? People who posted comments on his New York Times blog. Mere commenters.'

'The pathologies of late empires...' -- "There's a reason that you have to invent the government to make all this stuff work – you have to invent the government to make all this stuff work because people wouldn't buy it without the government! You have to invent God if you're a priest to tell people what to do because nobody's going to obey you, you're just some guy. You have to invent governments to justify theft because so very few people want to steal directly. The important question to ask is, what's going to happen when this ponzi scheme called government stops 'working'?" [Are people going to be able to admit that] what has failed is coercion, is government, is using violence to achieve your ends? The price we pay for fantasy is destruction. And we will continue to pay that price until we understand the mechanics of what governments do, which is rape and pillage the average person for the profit of the elite."

'How false concepts obscure real violence.' -- "Like all [2+2=5], she wants to divide violence into 'good violence' and 'bad violence'."

Is there any proof I am bound by such a contract, Officer? Am I obliged to sign a social contract, Officer? Under whose authority and under what law?

'A short example of how to use a universal theory of ethics to prove the validity of property rights.' -- “It is impossible to argue against property without using property.”

'What is socialism? We cannot offer anything like a complete account here, but it begins with the idea that society’s resources should be directed to serving the needs of people, not the profit dictates of the few.' -- Spot the false dichotomy? How about the profit of the many? How about 'the people' direct themselves rather than be subject to your *shoulds*? And how are YOU separate from 'the people'? What are your *needs* in creating abstract categories called 'the people'? Engineering an exploitable ideological *resource* perhaps? Dear 2+2=5, Please learn to debate on facts rather than attempting flimsy rhetoric that a 5 year-old could poke a finger through. It's 2010. People are smart now and they have facebook accounts that prove—contrary to your OBVIOUS abstraction called 'the people'— that they are individuals and yet still quite capable of co-operating with each other voluntarily and in peace. Now back to your state-funded academies and... LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE!

'...one can gain much understanding of current events by paying attention to Western power-elite rhetoric in all its varied manifestations. Anyone can perform the kind of analysis the Bell attempts to provide. Simply accept (a terrible and fearful thing to be sure) that there is a power elite – a group of extraordinarily wealthy and powerful families and individuals engaged in an intergenerational conspiracy to create world governance – and then begin to track the dominant social themes that they utilize to shove a hitherto-unsuspecting public in the desired direction. -- ...the Internet has ravaged elite memes. Suffice it to say that what is happening now is a kind of huge and unstoppable tidal wave, one that is sweeping all before its path. Cultures and belief-systems will be reconfigured before all this is over. We believe the elite may have finally recognized this – certainly we see rhetorical indications that it has. (Perhaps elements read the Bell?)'

'The exhortations to spend are necessary in an "Alice-in-Wonderland" fiat money economy and because the idea that people must spend instead of save encourages people to feel both profligate and helpless. It undermines civil society and makes the spendthrift citizen even more dependent on the state. The article, above, points out that without government spending, however, the British economy "would have been back in recession." From there the logic flows naturally. No matter how corrupt various government services are, they must not be cut. That would be "the worst medicine possible for a sickly patient." Of course the British economy is not a "sickly patient." The British economy is in fact made up of millions of harassed individuals taking human action as best they can. They wish to keep their money for themselves, to spend as they wish... A system that proposes citizens spend instead of save in order to "save" the economy is an ideology that is as repulsive as it is risible.'

'It is a kind of mini-meme, a sub-dominant social theme. "Trade wars turn recessions into depressions." The "trade war" meme is another seamless propaganda gambit. It puts the onus on government and shifts the responsibility from the market to government bureaucrats who must "get it right" else the "free-market" itself suffers. In fact, the trade war theme is joined at the hip with the immigration problem that is much in the news these days. Both trade wars and immigration issues could be solved, theoretically, anyway, by placing private property fully in private hands. If property was mostly or wholly private, people and business could trade with whom they wanted to trade with and work with whom they wanted. But because so much is in public hands, and because the rhetoric has been skewed to generate yet more public involvement, private solutions are difficult to envision and even harder to implement. Government is always and inevitably involved.'

Naive, Public Mandate, Elitist Snob, Indoctrinator, Xenophobe, Love It or Leave It, More Humanitarian Than You [LOL], Terrified, Entitled, Drug Warrior, Freeloader, Bereaved Parent, Nanny Statter, The Dreamer, Petty Tyrant, Masochist, The Lawyer, Just Following Orders, Stockholm Syndrome, The Deluded, The White Sheep, Theocrat, The Green Zealot, Drunk on Debt

'What is startling, when one takes a step back, is that the 20th and now the 21st century seem to provide a kind of fish bowl of misinformation within which most happily swim, never knowing any better. It is in fact the Internet that has allowed us to exit this vast fishbowl and to take a step back to see how thoroughly Western society has been diminished. There is, unfortunately, a pattern to it all. At every level of the West's descent into a kind of ineluctable ignorance one finds busy agents of the power elite, beavering away to insure that the decline continues. The impulse, almost always, is to impress upon the naïve, the trusting, the young and the old, the halt and the healthy, that a handful of authorities, peopled by a select few individuals, are equipped to take life-decisions for all. The power elite has left no stone unturned, no aspect of life untouched. Anywhere that one looks, the pattern is there if one wishes to see.'

"The problem is that people believe the wrong things. We claim to be moralists but our enemies understand the principle of universality and ethical theories so much better than we do... The enemies of freedom and rationality know that human beings are run by ethics – that's why they take them when they're children and put them in state schools and churches. They take those children and they mold them into slaves based on 'ethical' commandments that they cannot escape. And we who believe in ethics, don't believe that humans are ethical?? Isn't that astounding! We believe in ethics and we doubt the desires of people to be ethical?? Statists and collectivists claim *not* to believe in ethics but control the entire planet by accepting that human beings want to be good – and corrupting that desire to be good which is innate to our natures."

'The root causes and only solution for what we all face.' -- "You have to stop listening to people who tell you that the problem is the free-market – the free-market is simply private property and the non-initiation of force. This is kindergarten philosophy: Your stuff is your stuff and don't hit people." -- "Will you see reason before it's too late?"