tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2494463997800061462024-03-05T02:12:05.050-07:00Marco's BlogMarcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-81321870477773293032023-12-17T17:52:00.003-07:002023-12-17T17:52:30.971-07:00The Age of Fear, Anxiety, Climate Fraud<p> In 1987 Micheal Crichton published "State of Fear" an interesting novel that contained in appendix the best bibliography available at that time to non-scientist. It predicted the state of mind of most of society in the US today and how private interests and the mainstream media were intent in shaping collective beliefs.</p><p>Today Michael Shellenberger demonstrates that we have in fact fallen into the hands of those private interests, not because they had evil intents but simply because they ignorantly believed "the most heard" and gradually most of us came to drink the same cool-aid. It is not too late for a little education. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqcDyHdbYd4&ab_channel=TheTelegraph">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqcDyHdbYd4&ab_channel=TheTelegraph</a></p><p>And for the data-focused/minded reader, check the data and the charts that debunk what we hear. It is free education <a href="https://environmentalprogress.org/the-case-against-environmental-alarmism?utm_source=pocket_saves">https://environmentalprogress.org/the-case-against-environmental-alarmism?utm_source=pocket_saves</a> and the good news is that even the activist "average" forecast does not warrant the hysteria of the "extreme" forecasts that are much advertised because hysteria sells media.</p><p><br /></p>Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-37462040635366086722023-12-11T17:53:00.001-07:002023-12-12T12:31:19.837-07:00The Purges Continue<div dir="ltr">Let's just hope that X becomes the app that replaces Eventbright and other tools of censorship<div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/the-purges-are-ongoing-5544919?utm_source=opinionnoe&src_src=opinionnoe&utm_campaign=opinion-2023-12-11&src_cmp=opinion-2023-12-11&utm_medium=email&est=eZjKee0P4RlOArTn0mYGuNLvI%2BvYsJClHUszAAonV%2FJoHfuaaYHc2c5%2FUCbQuhE7zrPV">From The Epoch Times - The Purges Continue by Jeffrey Tucker</a></div></div> Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-48836865149499693502023-10-07T09:43:00.001-06:002023-10-07T09:43:41.446-06:00Greenpeace co-founder, Dr. Patrick Moore:<div dir="auto">Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) posted at 1:50 AM on Sat, Oct 07, 2023:<br>Greenpeace co-founder, Dr. Patrick Moore:<br><br>"There is no definitive scientific proof that CO2 is responsible for any of the slight warming of the global climate that has occurred during the last 300 years."<br><br>"But there is certainty beyond a reasonable doubt that CO2 is the… <a href="https://t.co/GxB12hsibG">https://t.co/GxB12hsibG</a><br>(<a href="https://x.com/wideawake_media/status/1710578211833188711?t=d8PgQ7AUuLEg1ReDzOcYyA&s=03">https://x.com/wideawake_media/status/1710578211833188711?t=d8PgQ7AUuLEg1ReDzOcYyA&s=03</a>) </div> Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-46586032131129664712023-10-04T22:18:00.001-06:002023-10-04T22:18:43.311-06:00Understanding Ukraine history - Scott Ritter.<div dir="auto"><div dir="auto">Without understanding we can only make a mess of things </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><a href="https://youtu.be/l6y3l9xLBRs?si=I_uUzFyooEHjGQ8z">https://youtu.be/l6y3l9xLBRs?si=I_uUzFyooEHjGQ8z</a> </div> Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-10455442473266464892023-10-04T20:50:00.000-06:002023-10-04T20:51:03.862-06:00The Club of Rome<div dir="ltr">Beware. It has been identified repeatedly over 50 years. This started longer than you've been alive<div><br></div><div><div class="gmail-css-1dbjc4n" style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;margin:0px;min-height:0px;min-width:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Times New Roman";font-size:15px"><div class="gmail-css-1dbjc4n gmail-r-1s2bzr4" style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;margin:12px 0px 0px;min-height:0px;min-width:0px;padding:0px"><div dir="auto" lang="en" class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-r-18jsvk2 gmail-r-37j5jr gmail-r-1inkyih gmail-r-16dba41 gmail-r-135wba7 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-bnwqim gmail-r-qvutc0" id="gmail-id__kcrwnvs8m2" style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(15,20,25);display:inline;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:17px;line-height:24px;font-family:TwitterChirp,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;margin:0px;padding:0px;min-width:0px"><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;color:inherit;display:inline;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;white-space:inherit;min-width:0px">"Now humanity is inexorably threatened by humanity itself." Climate con man extraordinaire, John Kerry, is upset that millions around the world are awakening to the </span><span class="gmail-r-18u37iz" style="flex-direction: row;"><a dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ClimateScam?src=hashtag_click" role="link" class="gmail-css-4rbku5 gmail-css-18t94o4 gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-1cvl2hr gmail-r-1loqt21 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" style="background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);color:rgb(29,155,240);font:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0px;text-align:inherit;text-decoration-line:none;border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline;padding:0px;white-space:inherit;min-width:0px">#ClimateScam</a></span><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;color:inherit;display:inline;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;white-space:inherit;min-width:0px">, going on to paraphrase an infamous quote by the Club of Rome (from their 1991 book, 'The First Global Revolution'): "The need for enemies seems to be a common historical factor. States have striven to overcome domestic failure and internal contradictions by designating external enemies. </span><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;color:inherit;display:inline;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;white-space:inherit;min-width:0px"><b>The scapegoat practice is as old as mankind itself. When things become too difficult at home, divert attention by advent</b></span><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;color:inherit;display:inline;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;white-space:inherit;min-width:0px">ure abroad. Bring the divided nation together to face an outside enemy, either a real one or else one invented for the purpose." "The sudden absence of traditional adversaries has left governments and public opinion with a great void. </span><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;color:inherit;display:inline;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;white-space:inherit;min-width:0px"><b>New enemies, therefore, have to be identified."</b></span><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;color:inherit;display:inline;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;white-space:inherit;min-width:0px"> </span><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;color:inherit;display:inline;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;white-space:inherit;min-width:0px"><b>"In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill</b></span><span class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" style="border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;color:inherit;display:inline;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;white-space:inherit;min-width:0px">. All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behaviour that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself." Source: </span><a dir="ltr" href="https://t.co/yocvga5qgP" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" role="link" class="gmail-css-4rbku5 gmail-css-18t94o4 gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-1cvl2hr gmail-r-1loqt21 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" style="background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);color:rgb(29,155,240);font:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0px;text-align:inherit;text-decoration-line:none;border:0px solid black;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline;padding:0px;white-space:inherit;min-width:0px"><span aria-hidden="true" class="gmail-css-901oao gmail-css-16my406 gmail-r-poiln3 gmail-r-hiw28u gmail-r-qvk6io gmail-r-bcqeeo gmail-r-qvutc0" style="border:0px solid 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Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-65144349815043200842023-10-04T13:12:00.001-06:002023-10-04T13:12:49.667-06:00SCIENTIFIC Predictions<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://x.com/iluminatibot/status/1709486069895287044?s=20">https://x.com/iluminatibot/status/1709486069895287044?s=20</a><br></div> Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-58983950981629474962023-09-28T17:12:00.001-06:002023-09-28T17:12:47.421-06:00History of WHO by Dr David Martin<div dir="auto">Blake 🔮 (@gunthertree2) posted at 0:30 PM on Wed, Sep 27, 2023:<br><a href="https://t.co/Gp5hStyFoC">https://t.co/Gp5hStyFoC</a><br>(<a href="https://x.com/gunthertree2/status/1707115518455373954?t=ahQoH7toQVt4dz31XuY7eA&s=03">https://x.com/gunthertree2/status/1707115518455373954?t=ahQoH7toQVt4dz31XuY7eA&s=03</a>) </div> Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-18604398851144906012023-09-28T17:09:00.001-06:002023-09-28T17:09:42.740-06:00Climate scam debunked - Activists have no data on CO2 %?<div dir="auto">Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) posted at 6:42 AM on Thu, Sep 28, 2023:<br>Australian broadcaster, Alan Jones, utterly schools a panel of climate zealots on the reality of the #ClimateScam.<br><br>"CO2 is 0.04% of the atmosphere, and human beings are responsible for 3% of that 0.04%... It's like saying: 'There's a granule of sugar on the Harbour Bridge. Clean… <a href="https://t.co/dGPKvpZjoF">https://t.co/dGPKvpZjoF</a><br>(<a href="https://x.com/wideawake_media/status/1707390269115576579?t=x8YK-ns0yJ4Y7MZIy_QDRA&s=03">https://x.com/wideawake_media/status/1707390269115576579?t=x8YK-ns0yJ4Y7MZIy_QDRA&s=03</a>) </div> Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-57528920303482166382023-09-28T17:02:00.000-06:002023-09-28T17:03:07.190-06:00What's to know about WHO<div dir="auto">Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) posted at 0:22 AM on Thu, Sep 28, 2023:<br>German MEP, Christine Anderson, puts the unelected globalist tyrants at the WHO on notice:<br><br>"This will end if we simply say no. And that's what we're here to do today, because an unelected body like the WHO, [which] is controlled and run by multibillionaires, should never be… <a href="https://t.co/vBnv3fOPR3">https://t.co/vBnv3fOPR3</a><br>(<a href="https://x.com/wideawake_media/status/1707294739869962570?t=RuBzNqT_8oChVPwXp9YTTA&s=03">https://x.com/wideawake_media/status/1707294739869962570?t=RuBzNqT_8oChVPwXp9YTTA&s=03</a>) </div> Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-61511178764189414522023-09-28T16:56:00.001-06:002023-09-28T16:57:09.651-06:00Mission Accomplished<div dir="auto"><br><a href="https://victorhanson.com/is-the-left-happy-that-they-got-their-wish/?s=03">https://victorhanson.com/is-the-left-happy-that-they-got-their-wish/?s=03</a> </div> Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-75816909703242715332022-12-22T11:00:00.001-07:002022-12-22T11:18:17.876-07:00The Age of Amnesia<p> Below is a Commentary by Jeffrey Tucker (see bio at the bottom) in <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-age-of-amnesia_4926465.html?utm_source=opinionnoe&src_src=opinionnoe&utm_campaign=opinion-2022-12-21&src_cmp=opinion-2022-12-21&utm_medium=email&est=Re4%2Bt5quOFBM3eDY3txmdZd0bdZPMtMcByNxGh5pLQOnsfXuyX0q1xBMK98dlmCKCiwB" target="_blank">The Epoch Times</a> on 12/18/2022</p><p>This is THE MOST spot-on assessment of our times that I have read anywhere. I republish it here to have one more place where it may not be forgotten. This is my "resistance at the little game" (see below).</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"></p><div class="post_title" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 40px; line-height: 49px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 40px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Age of Amnesia</span></h1></div><div class="author_date_tools" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="author_with_image" style="background: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: 15px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 680.737px;"><span class="author" face=""Ringside Condensed", D-DIN, Arial" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: inline-block; float: left; font-size: 17px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: unset; vertical-align: baseline; width: 340.362px;"><a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/author-jeffrey-a-tucker?utm_medium=email&utm_source=opinionnoe&utm_campaign=opinion-2022-12-21" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; text-decoration: unset;"><span class="avatar" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; float: left; height: 80px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 80px;"><img alt="Jeffrey A. Tucker" src="https://img.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2022/07/19/WEB_JeffreyATucker.jpg" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 50%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span><span class="info" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; float: left; margin: 20px 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: calc(100% - 124px);"><span class="name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.4px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: capitalize; vertical-align: baseline;">Jeffrey A. Tucker</span></span></a></span></div> <div class="date" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Ringside Condensed", D-DIN, Arial; font-size: 17px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="publish" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 7px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 12px; vertical-align: baseline;">December 15, 2022</span> <span class="update" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 12px; vertical-align: baseline;">Updated: December 18, 2022</span></div></div><div class="author_date_tools" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="author_date_tools" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="tools" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; bottom: 6px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="text_sizes" id="font_sizes" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: inline-block; font-family: D-DIN, Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 16px; margin-right: 10px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle;"><span class="font-bigger" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;">bigger</span><span class="font-smaller" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 3px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;">smaller</span></a> </div><div class="tools" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; bottom: 6px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em></em></div><div class="tools" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; bottom: 6px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em></em></div><div class="tools" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; bottom: 6px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em></em></div><div class="tools" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; bottom: 6px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></em></em></div><div class="tools" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; bottom: 6px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Commentary</em></em></div></div><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The main defense of Dr. <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-anthony-fauci?utm_medium=email&utm_source=opinionnoe&utm_campaign=opinion-2022-12-21" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Anthony Fauci</a> in his legal deposition this month was pretty simple: he forgot. He said that he couldn’t recall nearly 200 times and versions of that many more. He said that he was so busy running his huge agency plus shepherding vaccines that he couldn’t possibly remember this or that email implicating him in a <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-censorship?utm_medium=email&utm_source=opinionnoe&utm_campaign=opinion-2022-12-21" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">censorship</a> scheme. He gets thousands of emails a day and there’s no reason to think that any, in particular, would grab his attention.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a>It’s all a bit implausible because we saw him on TV several times a day for the better part of three years. He was the hard-working actor out there. I do TV and interviews several times per week but I try my best to throttle them back and turn many down simply because they truly drain away energy and focus from other work. In short, they are all-consuming. The notion that he neglected issues of message in favor of serious science is an incredibly obvious strain on credulity.<p></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">So what was the point of this line of answer? Yes, he wants to save his skin. No question about that. But it occurs to me that there is another point, too. He wants to model for the nation and the world how to think about the whole of the last three years. His view is that everyone should forget about it.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">You have surely noticed this happening ever since the opening following <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-lockdowns?utm_medium=email&utm_source=opinionnoe&utm_campaign=opinion-2022-12-21" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">lockdowns</a> and the rest. We are all just supposed to forget. We are supposed to move on. I’ve heard already a thousand times that we never had a lockdown. There seems to be little in the way of official memory of two years of school closures or the shutting of churches on holidays.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">We are being told to forget about the medical <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-mandates?utm_medium=email&utm_source=opinionnoe&utm_campaign=opinion-2022-12-21" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">mandates</a> that displaced millions from their jobs. We had relatives die and we couldn’t attend their funerals, but we are supposed to forget about all that. I see claims daily that the censorship never really took place or wasn’t that bad really, so we should shut up already.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">What about all the politicians who violated stay-at-home orders, went on vacations or got hairstyles, or were photographed partying without a mask even as they imposed them on everyone else? Hey, mistakes were surely made but let’s not make too big a deal of it.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Indeed, it was amazing to me how the most egregious and global attacks on human liberty in the name of public health were very quickly memory-holed by the major media, which we now know was the answer to public health agencies themselves the entire time. We all stood by in shock and wondered if we were the crazy ones.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">That, after all, is the whole point of Orwell’s “memory hole,” the invention of an alternative <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-history?utm_medium=email&utm_source=opinionnoe&utm_campaign=opinion-2022-12-21" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">history</a> of the recent past that contradicts our own memories and invites us to believe that we are crazy or obsessed or otherwise thinking about things that truly don’t matter. This is why the memory hole was so important in Orwell’s book. It becomes a means by which the population is controlled in its thinking and therefore in its psychological capacity to resist the next round of impositions.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">This is why cultivating a solid memory is so crucial to the preservation of the good and civilized life. The barbarians all around us are constantly inviting us to forget so that we don’t learn lessons and don’t apply the lessons we learn. Instead, we become blank slates for the ruling class to write on daily, and then we are more likely to believe them. Better to never learn lessons at all. If we must learn something, it should be along the lines that we need more control and more acquiescence in the future.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Movements that truly seek to prevent the horrors of the past must also seek to preserve memory. This is why there are Holocaust museums, for example, to help us understand experiences that were not ours but from which we can still learn. Indeed, this is the whole point of learning in general, to extract wisdom from people and events that have come before, in order that we can be better prepared to build a future.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">People who invite us to forget are more than likely up to no good. It’s not just that they want to replace a real narrative with a false one. They want history to start over at any given moment so that we are more easily manipulated in the future.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Perhaps this is why basic memory skills have been so deemphasized in early childhood education for so long. It’s a true tragedy because young people do have a remarkable capacity for memorization. They might lack the ability to think abstractly or process difficult strings of logic but they do have the mental power to hear and repeat, which is why a classical education puts so much emphasis on this and probably why modern education regards memorization as a waste of time.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The urge to forget plays out in strange ways in our time. When accounts are banned on YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook, so too are the archives of those accounts blown away so that we can longer access information about the recent past. That’s intentional, otherwise, the banning would be a mere blocking of new content. No, the whole point is to wipe out what we know or think we know.</p><div class="article-widget-p" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: auto auto 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This is one of the tragedies of the Trump ban on Twitter, for example. We lost a narrative record over years of important data points, making even writing the history of our times more difficult. So when the account came back, so too did our memories and then we could scroll through and verify a version of events that is closer to reality rather than the fake history we were being told to accept from on high.</div><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">We’ve been through almost three years in which powerful elites have done their best to wipe out history. I recall the chills I got down my spine when major media organs began putting trigger warnings on links older than a few months. The clear message was: This is no longer valid or reliable because things have surely changed. This is also why Fauci kept saying that the science has changed. It was a call for us to forget all the statements that contradict his latest statements.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">In this way, we have entered into an age of amnesia with a ruling class that wants everyone to forget the wisdom of the past and even the events of recent history, to forgive but mostly to forget and move on like good little pawns in their game. Just do what we are told and forget everything else.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><b>We can all resist this little game</b>. We can access Archive.org and, more importantly, we can consult the wisdom of the ages through books and poetry and religious teachings. If <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/t-civilization?utm_medium=email&utm_source=opinionnoe&utm_campaign=opinion-2022-12-21" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">civilization</a> is to survive the onslaught, it will be because we choose to remember and act on those memories in defiance of every demand that we forget.</p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><i style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.</i></p><div class="author_wrapper" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: auto auto 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="one_author_block round" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="top_row" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/author-jeffrey-a-tucker?utm_medium=email&utm_source=opinionnoe&utm_campaign=opinion-2022-12-21" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="Jeffrey A. Tucker" src="https://img.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2022/07/19/WEB_JeffreyATucker.jpg" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 50%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 60px;" /></a> <div class="names" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 12px; vertical-align: top;"><div class="name" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/author-jeffrey-a-tucker?utm_medium=email&utm_source=opinionnoe&utm_campaign=opinion-2022-12-21" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 22px; line-height: 31px; text-decoration: unset; text-transform: capitalize;" target="_blank">Jeffrey A. Tucker</a></div><div class="title" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #777777; font-family: "D-DIN Bold"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 14px; margin: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div></div><div class="bio" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jeffrey A. Tucker is the founder and president of the <a href="https://brownstone.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Brownstone Institute</a>, and the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press, as well as 10 books in five languages, most recently “Liberty or Lockdown.” He is also the editor of The Best of Mises. He writes a daily column on economics for The Epoch Times and speaks widely on the topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.</div><div class="social_row" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://twitter.com/jeffreyatucker" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0000ee; font-family: d-din, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span class="author_twitter" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></a><span class="author_website" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://brownstone.org/author/jeffrey-tucker/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0000ee; font-family: d-din, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Website</a></span></div><div><br /></div></div></div><div class="article-below-offers under-article-container desktop piano-templates standard" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Vollkorn, Georgia, Palatino; font-size: 17px; margin: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div>Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-64928293001334702692022-04-18T10:32:00.003-06:002022-04-18T22:07:31.730-06:00Playing with fire, poking the Russian bear<p> From current news: <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/amphtml/russias-debt-default-one-hardest-080000031.html" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: #e3e3e3; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif, NotoColorEmoji, "apple color emoji", "windows emoji", "windows symbol"; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.2px; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">https://news.yahoo.com/amphtml/russias-debt-default-one-hardest-080000031.html</a></p><p>I was asked - Is this war, a path to war?</p><p>I think the news is credible but it is not war, yet. The US is pushing to bankrupt Russia and Putin may start a war as a way to stay in power, so our neocon crazies are playing with fire. Continuing to play with it as they have done with Ukraine. But, as we saw with Argentina and Chile in the 80's and 90's default does not create wars. It forces a government change via either a public vote, or revolution, or a military coup. Russia is more likely to have a military coup than anything else, so no gain for the pain in the end - thank our neocon fools. </p><p> Banks, US and EU, would take huge losses if there is no negotiated settlement, so before default, there will be a negotiated settlement that inflicts enormous pain to the Russians to save the banks. That's what happened with Greece in 2015. The people pay the price for the games US neocons play (see Afghanistan, Iraq, Lybia, Syria). See my post on Greece from 2015 http://marcomessina.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-simple-view-of-greece-and-grexit.html That forecast is true today Something similar will happen to Russia (barring Armageddon) but the added risk is: Russia has nukes and Greece did not. Different stakes same fools in charge. Fingers crossed.</p><p>A sobering update from 4/18/22 9p MST https://www.newsweek.com/putins-iskander-missiles-are-battle-tested-can-carry-nuclear-warheads-1698559?utm_source=PushnamiMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=automatic&UTM=1650324671734&subscriberId=5efd004a23994a6b8781312b</p><p><br /></p><p></p>Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-89067467591567857552021-11-02T22:15:00.000-06:002021-11-02T22:15:07.646-06:00Sic Semper Tyrannis<p>11/2/21 </p><p>Did you notice last night, on whatever channel you watch the news, the emblem of Virginia? Sic Semper Tyrannis - "This way end all tyrants" (under the image is of young maiden standing on the throat of the tyrant). Well it could have not happened in a better place. The anti-woke revolt may have started.</p><div>As one of the anchors said "Let's go Brandon" - BTW if the expression means nothing to you, get hip and read the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lets-go-brandon-what-does-it-mean-republicans-joe-biden-ab13db212067928455a3dba07756a160">meaning</a><a href="https://apnews.com/article/lets-go-brandon-what-does-it-mean-republicans-joe-biden-ab13db212067928455a3dba07756a160"> and funny origin here.</a> (ingenuity of American crowds and media).</div><div>Like all revolutions, it took time and a lucky accident (and blessings from above) to get the needed steam, but the optimist that I am, I can see the Cultural Revolution that I fear starting to fade away (maybe). A friend in France told me yesterday "America seems to be on the razor's edge, will it come back before it's lost?". Maybe. </div><div>Sic Semper Tyrannis</div><div>https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/election-results/virginia/</div>Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-15951718959297013012021-10-28T14:07:00.002-06:002022-04-18T10:20:50.326-06:00von Mises saw it coming<p> This post is a 2018 reprint by the Mises Institute of a speech given by the economist Ludvig Von Mises in 1950 in NYC</p><div>His forecast of what was to come is simply amazing and frightening. </div><div>Were it not for the short interlude of the Regan and Thatcher administrations the US and UK would be where the rest of Europe and much of the world are today, but judging from current economic policy proposals we seem to be on track to follow after all.</div><div>The case is made so simply and clearly that a child could get it. It would seem that naivete, wishful thinking and/or the propensity to appropriate someone else's wealth are too strong for most humans to resist.</div><div><br /></div><div>Pass this on in case we can still change enough minds before our children are abandoned to a future of a Chinese-style existence.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><a href="https://mises.org/library/middle-road-leads-socialism">https://mises.org/library/middle-road-leads-socialism</a></b></div><div><br /></div><div><h2 class="page-title" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: crimson_text, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px 0px 16px; vertical-align: top;">The Middle of the Road Leads to Socialism</h2><div class="group-image-wrapper field-group-html-element pull-left" id="slideshow" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494e54; float: left; font-family: myriad-pro, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; 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width: 240px;"><li class="first last" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a class="language-es" href="https://mises.org/es/library/la-mitad-del-camino-conduce-al-socialismo" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; text-decoration-line: none;">LEE ESTO EN ESPAÑOL</a></li></ul></div><p class="tags" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #51585c; font-family: myriad-pro, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;"><span class="tag-label bold" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600; padding-right: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;">TAGS</span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://mises.org/topics/socialism" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #51585c; text-decoration-line: none;">Socialism</a></span></p><section class="group-date-author" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494e54; font-family: myriad-pro, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span class="date" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00426b; font-weight: 600; text-transform: uppercase;">01/11/2018</span><span class="author" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://mises.org/profile/ludwig-von-mises" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00426b; text-decoration-line: none;">Ludwig von Mises</a></span></section><div class="group-links list-group" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494e54; font-family: myriad-pro, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 20px; overflow: hidden; padding-left: 0px;"><div class="list-group-item bg-gray" style="background-color: #e4ebee; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: -1px; padding: 10px 15px; position: relative;"><h3 class="sub-heading contrast" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #729949; font-family: inherit; 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box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: middle;" title="application/pdf" /> <a href="https://cdn.mises.org/middle_of_the_road_leads_to_socialism_mises.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank" type="application/pdf; length=1183979">middle_of_the_road_leads_to_socialism_mises.pdf</a></span></div></div></div></div><div class="body-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494e54; font-family: myriad-pro, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">The fundamental dogma of all brands of socialism and communism is that the market economy or capitalism is a system that hurts the vital interests of the immense majority of people for the sole benefit of a small minority of rugged individualists. It condemns the masses to progressing impoverishment. It brings about misery, slavery, oppression, degradation and exploitation of the working men, while it enriches a class of idle and useless parasites.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">This doctrine was not the work of Karl Marx. It had been developed long before Marx entered the scene. Its most successful propagators were not the Marxian authors, but such men as Carlyle and Ruskin, the British Fabians, the German professors, and the American Institutionalists. And it is a very significant fact that the correctness of this dogma was contested only by a few economists who were very soon silenced and barred from access to the universities, the press, the leadership of political parties and, first of all, public office. Public opinion by and large accepted the condemnation of capitalism without any reservation.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">1. Socialism</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">But, of course, the practical political conclusions which people drew from this dogma were not uniform. One group declared that there is but one way to wipe out these evils, namely to abolish capitalism entirely. They advocate the substitution of public control of the means of production for private control. They aim at the establishment of what is called socialism, communism, planning, or state capitalism. All these terms signify the same thing. No longer should the consumers, by their buying and abstention from buying, determine what should be produced, in what quantity and of what quality. Henceforth a central authority alone should direct all production activities.<span></span></p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">2. Interventionism, Allegedly a Middle-of-the-Road Policy</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">A second group seems to be less radical. They reject socialism no less than capitalism. They recommend a third system, which, as they say, is as far from capitalism as it is from socialism, which as a third system of society’s economic organization, stands midway between the two other systems, and while retaining the advantages of both, avoids the disadvantages inherent in each. This third system is known as the system of interventionism. In the terminology of American politics it is often referred to as the middle-of-the-road policy.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">What makes this third system popular with many people is the particular way they choose to look upon the problems involved. As they see it, two classes, the capitalists and entrepreneurs on the one hand and the wage earners on the other hand, are arguing about the distribution of the yield of capital and entrepreneurial activities. Both parties are claiming the whole cake for themselves. Now, suggest these mediators, let us make peace by splitting the disputed value equally between the two classes. The State as an impartial arbiter should interfere, and should curb the greed of the capitalists and assign a part of the profits to the working classes. Thus it will be possible to dethrone the moloch capitalism without enthroning the moloch of totalitarian socialism.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">Yet this mode of judging the issue is entirely fallacious. The antagonism between capitalism and socialism is not a dispute about the distribution of booty. It is a controversy about which two schemes for society’s economic organization, capitalism or socialism, is conducive to the better attainment of those ends which all people consider as the ultimate aim of activities commonly called economic, viz., the best possible supply of useful commodities and services. Capitalism wants to attain these ends by private enterprise and initiative, subject to the supremacy of the public’s buying and abstention from buying on the market. The socialists want to substitute the unique plan of a central authority for the plans of the various individuals. They want to put in place of what Marx called the “anarchy of production” the exclusive monopoly of the government. The antagonism does not refer to the mode of distributing a fixed amount of amenities. It refers to the mode of producing all those goods which people want to enjoy.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">The conflict of the two principles is irreconcilable and does not allow for any compromise. Control is indivisible. Either the consumers’ demand as manifested on the market decides for what purposes and how the factors of production should be employed, or the government takes care of these matters. There is nothing that could mitigate the opposition between these two contradictory principles. They preclude each other. Interventionism is not a golden mean between capitalism and socialism. It is the design of a third system of society’s economic organization and must be appreciated as such.</p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">3. How Interventionism Works</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">It is not the task of today’s discussion to raise any questions about the merits either of capitalism or of socialism. I am dealing today with interventionism alone. And I do not intend to enter into an arbitrary evaluation of interventionism from any preconceived point of view. My only concern is to show how interventionism works and whether or not it can be considered as a pattern of a permanent system for society’s economic organization.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">The interventionists emphasize that they plan to retain private ownership of the means of production, entrepreneurship and market exchange. But, they go on to say, it is peremptory to prevent these capitalist institutions from spreading havoc and unfairly exploiting the majority of people. It is the duty of government to restrain, by orders and prohibitions, the greed of the propertied classes lest their acquisitiveness harm the poorer classes. Unhampered or <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">laissez-faire</em> capitalism is an evil. But in order to eliminate its evils, there is no need to abolish capitalism entirely. It is possible to improve the capitalist system by government interference with the actions of the capitalists and entrepreneurs. Such government regulation and regimentation of business is the only method to keep off totalitarian socialism and to salvage those features of capitalism which are worth preserving. On the ground of this philosophy, the interventionists advocate a galaxy of various measures. Let us pick out one of them, the very popular scheme of price control.</p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">4. How Price Control Leads to Socialism</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">The government believes that the price of a definite commodity, e.g., milk, is too high. It wants to make it possible for the poor to give their children more milk. Thus it resorts to a price ceiling and fixes the price of milk at a lower rate than that prevailing on the free market. The result is that the marginal producers of milk, those producing at the highest cost, now incur losses. As no individual farmer or businessman can go on producing at a loss, these marginal producers stop producing and selling milk on the market. They will use their cows and their skill for other more profitable purposes. They will, for example, produce butter, cheese or meat. There will be less milk available for the consumers, not more. This, or course, is contrary to the intentions of the government. It wanted to make it easier for some people to buy more milk. But, as an outcome of its interference, the supply available drops. The measure proves abortive from the very point of view of the government and the groups it was eager to favor. It brings about a state of affairs, which — again from the point of view of the government — is even less desirable than the previous state of affairs which it was designed to improve.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">Now, the government is faced with an alternative. It can abrogate its decree and refrain from any further endeavors to control the price of milk. But if it insists upon its intention to keep the price of milk below the rate the unhampered market would have determined and wants nonetheless to avoid a drop in the supply of milk, it must try to eliminate the causes that render the marginal producers’ business unremunerative. It must add to the first decree concerning only the price of milk a second decree fixing the prices of the factors of production necessary for the production of milk at such a low rate that the marginal producers of milk will no longer suffer losses and will therefore abstain from restricting output. But then the same story repeats itself on a remoter plane. The supply of the factors of production required for the production of milk drops, and again the government is back where it started. If it does not want to admit defeat and to abstain from any meddling with prices, it must push further and fix the prices of those factors of production which are needed for the production of the factors necessary for the production of milk. Thus the government is forced to go further and further, fixing step by step the prices of all consumers’ goods and of all factors of production — both human, i.e., labor, and material — and to order every entrepreneur and every worker to continue work at these prices and wages. No branch of industry can be omitted from this all-around fixing of prices and wages and from this obligation to produce those quantities which the government wants to see produced. If some branches were to be left free out of regard for the fact that they produce only goods qualified as non-vital or even as luxuries, capital and labor would tend to flow into them and the result would be a drop in the supply of those goods, the prices of which government has fixed precisely because it considers them as indispensable for the satisfaction of the needs of the masses.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">But when this state of all-around control of business is attained, there can no longer be any question of a market economy. No longer do the citizens by their buying and abstention from buying determine what should be produced and how. The power to decide these matters has devolved upon the government. This is no longer capitalism; it is all-around planning by the government, it is socialism.</p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">5. The <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Zwangswirtschaft</em> Type of Socialism</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">It is, of course, true that this type of socialism preserves some of the labels and the outward appearance of capitalism. It maintains, seemingly and nominally, private ownership of the means of production, prices, wages, interest rates and profits. In fact, however, nothing counts but the government’s unrestricted autocracy. The government tells the entrepreneurs and capitalists what to produce and in what quantity and quality, at what prices to buy and from whom, at what prices to sell and to whom. It decrees at what wages and where the workers must work. Market exchange is but a sham. All the prices, wages, and interest rates are determined by the authority. They are prices, wages, and interest rates in appearance only; in fact they are merely quantity relations in the government’s orders. The government, not the consumers, directs production. The government determines each citizen’s income, it assigns to everybody the position in which he has to work. This is socialism in the outward guise of capitalism. It is the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Zwangswirtschaft</em> of Hitler’s German Reich and the planned economy of Great Britain.</p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">6. German and British Experience</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">For the scheme of social transformation which I have depicted is not merely a theoretical construction. It is a realistic portrayal of the succession of events that brought about socialism in Germany, in Great Britain, and in some other countries.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">The Germans, in the First World War, began with price ceilings for a small group of consumers’ goods considered as vital necessities. It was the inevitable failure of these measures that impelled them to go further and further until, in the second period of the war, they designed the Hindenburg plan. In the context of the Hindenburg plan no room whatever was left for a free choice on the part of the consumers and for initiative action on the part of business. All economic activities were unconditionally subordinated to the exclusive jurisdiction of the authorities. The total defeat of the Kaiser swept the whole imperial apparatus of administration away and with it went also the grandiose plan. But when in 1931 Chancellor Brüning embarked anew on a policy of price control and his successors, first of all Hitler, obstinately clung to it, the same story repeated itself.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">Great Britain and all the other countries which in the First World War adopted measures of price control, had to experience the same failure. They too were pushed further and further in their attempts to make the initial decrees work. But they were still at a rudimentary stage of this development when the victory and the opposition of the public brushed away all schemes for controlling prices.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">It was different in the Second World War. Then Great Britain again resorted to price ceilings for a few vital commodities and had to run the whole gamut proceeding further and further until it had substituted all-around planning of the country’s whole economy for economic freedom. When the war came to an end, Great Britain was a socialist commonwealth.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">It is noteworthy to remember that British socialism was not an achievement of Mr. Attlee’s Labor Government, but of the war cabinet of Mr. Winston Churchill. What the Labor Party did was not the establishment of socialism in a free country, but retaining socialism as it had developed during the war and in the post-war period. The fact has been obscured by the great sensation made about the nationalization of the Bank of England, the coal mines, and other branches of business. However, Great Britain is to be called a socialist country not because certain enterprises have been formally expropriated and nationalized, but because all the economic activities of all citizens are subject to full control of the government and its agencies. The authorities direct the allocation of capital and of manpower to the various branches of business. They determine what should be produced. Supremacy in all business activities is exclusively vested in the government. The people are reduced to the status of wards, unconditionally bound to obey orders. To the businessmen, the former entrepreneurs, merely ancillary functions are left. All that they are free to do is to carry into effect, within a nearly circumscribed narrow field, the decisions of the government departments.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">What we have to realize is that price ceilings affecting only a few commodities fail to attain the ends sought. On the contrary. They produce effects which from the point of view of the government are even worse than the previous state of affairs which the government wanted to alter. If the government, in order to eliminate these inevitable but unwelcome consequences, pursues its course further and further, it finally transforms the system of capitalism and free enterprise into socialism of the Hindenburg pattern.</p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">7. Crises and Unemployment</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">The same is true of all other types of meddling with the market phenomena. Minimum wage rates, whether decreed and enforced by the government or by labor union pressure and violence, result in mass unemployment prolonged year after year as soon as they try to raise wage rates above the height of the unhampered market. The attempts to lower interest rates by credit expansion generate, it is true, a period of booming business. But the prosperity thus created is only an artificial hot-house product and must inexorably lead to the slump and to the depression. People must pay heavily for the easy-money orgy of a few years of credit expansion and inflation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">The recurrence of periods of depression and mass unemployment has discredited capitalism in the opinion of injudicious people. Yet these events are not the outcome of the operation of the free market. They are on the contrary the result of well-intentioned but ill-advised government interference with the market. There are no means by which the height of wage rates and the general standard of living can be raised other than by accelerating the increase of capital as compared with population. The only means to raise wage rates permanently for all those seeking jobs and eager to earn wages is to raise the productivity of the industrial effort by increasing the per-head quota of capital invested. What makes American wage rates by far exceed the wage rates of Europe and Asia is the fact that the American worker’s toil and trouble is aided by more and better tools. All that good government can do to improve the material well-being of the people is to establish and to preserve an institutional order in which there are no obstacles to the progressing accumulation of new capital required for the improvement of technological methods of production. This is what capitalism did achieve in the past and will achieve in the future too if not sabotaged by a bad policy.</p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">8. Two Roads to Socialism</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">Interventionism cannot be considered as an economic system destined to stay. It is a method for the transformation of capitalism into socialism by a series of successive steps. It is as such different from the endeavors of the communists to bring about socialism at one stroke. The difference does not refer to the ultimate end of the political movement; it refers mainly to the tactics to be resorted to for the attainment of an end that both groups are aiming at.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels recommended successively each of these two ways for the realization of socialism. In 1848, in the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Communist Manifesto</em>, they outlined a plan for the step-by-step transformation of capitalism into socialism. The proletariat should be raised to the position of the ruling class and use its political supremacy “to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie.” This, they declare, “cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which in the course of the movement outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionizing the mode of production.” In this vein they enumerate by way of example ten measures.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">In later years Marx and Engels changed their minds. In his main treatise, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Das Capital</em>, first published in 1867, Marx saw things in a different way. Socialism is bound to come “with the inexorability of a law of nature.” But it cannot appear before capitalism has reached its full maturity. There is but one road to the collapse of capitalism, namely the progressive evolution of capitalism itself. Then only will the great final revolt of the working class give it the finishing stroke and inaugurate the everlasting age of abundance.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">From the point of view of this later doctrine Marx and the school of orthodox Marxism reject all policies that pretend to restrain, to regulate and to improve capitalism. Such policies, they declare, are not only futile, but outright harmful. For they rather delay the coming of age of capitalism, its maturity, and thereby also its collapse. They are therefore not progressive, but reactionary. It was this idea that led the German Social Democratic party to vote against Bismarck’s social security legislation and to frustrate Bismarck’s plan to nationalize the German tobacco industry. From the point of view of the same doctrine, the communists branded the American New Deal as a reactionary plot extremely detrimental to the true interests of the working people.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">What we must realize is that the antagonism between the interventionists and the communists is a manifestation of the conflict between the two doctrines of the early Marxism and of the late Marxism. It is the conflict between the Marx of 1848, the author of the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Communist Manifesto</em>, and the Marx of 1867, the author of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Das Capital</em>. And it is paradoxical indeed that the document in which Marx endorsed the policies of the present-day self-styled anti-communists is called the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Communist Manifesto</em>.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">There are two methods available for the transformation of capitalism into socialism. One is to expropriate all farms, plants, and shops and to operate them by a bureaucratic apparatus as departments of the government. The whole of society, says Lenin, becomes “one office and one factory, with equal work and equal pay,”<a class="see-footnote" href="https://mises.org/library/middle-road-leads-socialism#footnote1_yo5pjl5" id="footnoteref1_yo5pjl5" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-size: 0.9em; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: -0.25em; vertical-align: top;" title="Cf. V.I. Lenin, State and Revolution (Little Lenin Library No. 14, New York, 1932), p. 84.">1</a> the whole economy will be organized “like the postal system.”<a class="see-footnote" href="https://mises.org/library/middle-road-leads-socialism#footnote2_o7876gm" id="footnoteref2_o7876gm" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-size: 0.9em; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: -0.25em; vertical-align: top;" title="Ibid., p. 44.">2</a> The second method is the method of the Hindenburg plan, the originally German pattern of the welfare state and of planning. It forces every firm and every individual to comply strictly with the orders issued by the government’s central board of production management. Such was the intention of the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 which the resistance of business frustrated and the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional. Such is the idea implied in the endeavors to substitute planning for private enterprise.</p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">9. Foreign Exchange Control</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">The foremost vehicle for the realization of this second type of socialism in industrial countries like Germany and Great Britain is foreign exchange control. These countries cannot feed and clothe their people out of domestic resources. They must import large quantities of food and raw materials. In order to pay for these badly needed imports, they must export manufactures, most of them produced out of imported raw material. In such countries almost every business transaction directly or indirectly is conditioned either by exporting or importing or by both exporting and importing. Hence the government’s monopoly of buying and selling foreign exchange makes every kind of business activity depend on the discretion of the agency entrusted with foreign exchange control. In this country matters are different. The volume of foreign trade is rather small when compared with the total volume of the nation’s trade. Foreign exchange control would only slightly affect the much greater part of American business. This is the reason why in the schemes of our planners there is hardly any question of foreign exchange control. Their pursuits are directed toward the control of prices, wages, and interest rates, toward the control of investment and the limitation of profits and incomes.</p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">10. Progressive Taxation</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">Looking backward on the evolution of income tax rates from the beginning of the Federal income tax in 1913 until the present day, one can hardly expect that the tax will not one day absorb 100 percent of all surplus above the income of the average voter. It is this that Marx and Engels had in mind when in the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Communist Manifesto</em> they recommended “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">Another of the suggestions of the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Communist Manifesto</em> was “abolition of all right of inheritance.” Now, neither in Great Britain nor in this country have the laws gone up to this point. But again, looking backward upon the past history of the estate taxes, we have to realize that they more and more have approached the goal set by Marx. Estate taxes of the height they have already attained for the upper brackets are no longer to be qualified as taxes. They are measures of expropriation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">The philosophy underlying the system of progressive taxation is that the income and the wealth of the well-to-do classes can be freely tapped. What the advocates of these tax rates fail to realize is that the greater part of the income taxed away would not have been consumed but saved and invested. In fact, this fiscal policy does not only prevent the further accumulation of new capital. It brings about capital decumulation. This is certainly today the state of affairs in Great Britain.</p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">11. The Trend Toward Socialism</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">The course of events in the past thirty years shows a continuous, although sometimes interrupted progress toward the establishment in this country of socialism of the British and German pattern. The United States embarked later than these two other countries upon this decline and is today still farther away from its end. But if the trend of this policy will not change, the final result will only in accidental and negligible points differ from what happened in the England of Attlee and in the Germany of Hitler. The middle-of-the-road policy is not an economic system that can last. It is a method for the realization of socialism by installments.</p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">12. Loopholes Capitalism</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">Many people object. They stress the fact that most of the laws which aim at planning or at expropriation by means of progressive taxation have left some loopholes which offer to private enterprise a margin within which it can go on. That such loopholes still exist and that thanks to them this country is still a free country is certainly true. But this “loopholes capitalism” is not a lasting system. It is a respite. Powerful forces are at work to close these loopholes. From day to day the field in which private enterprise is free to operate is narrowed down.</p><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px; vertical-align: top;">13. The Coming of Socialism is Not Inevitable</h4><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">Of course, this outcome is not inevitable. The trend can be reversed as was the case with many other trends in history. The Marxian dogma according to which socialism is bound to come “with the inexorability of a law of nature” is just an arbitrary surmise devoid of any proof.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">But the prestige which this vain prognostic enjoys not only with the Marxians, but with many self-styled non-Marxians, is the main instrument of the progress of socialism. It spreads defeatism among those who otherwise would gallantly fight the socialist menace. The most powerful ally of Soviet Russia is the doctrine that the “wave of the future” carries us toward socialism and that it is therefore “progressive” to sympathize with all measures that restrict more and more the operation of the market economy.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">Even in this country which owes to a century of “rugged individualism” the highest standard of living ever attained by any nation, public opinion condemns <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">laissez-faire</em>. In the last fifty years, thousands of books have been published to indict capitalism and to advocate radical interventionism, the welfare state, and socialism. The few books which tried to explain adequately the working of the free-market economy were hardly noticed by the public. Their authors remained obscure, while such authors as Veblen, Commons, John Dewey, and Laski were exuberantly praised. It is a well-known fact that the legitimate stage as well as the Hollywood industry are no less radically critical of free enterprise than are many novels. There are in this country many periodicals which in every issue furiously attack economic freedom. There is hardly any magazine of opinion that would plead for the system that supplied the immense majority of the people with good food and shelter, with cars, refrigerators, radio sets, and other things which the subjects of other countries call luxuries.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">The impact of this state of affairs is that practically very little is done to preserve the system of private enterprise. There are only middle-of-the-roaders who think they have been successful when they have delayed for some time an especially ruinous measure. They are always in retreat. They put up today with measures which only ten or twenty years ago they would have considered as undiscussable. They will in a few years acquiesce in other measures which they today consider as simply out of the question. What can prevent the coming of totalitarian socialism is only a thorough change in ideologies.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">What we need is neither anti-socialism nor anti-communism but an open positive endorsement of that system to which we owe all the wealth that distinguishes our age from the comparatively straitened conditions of ages gone by.</p><hr style="border-bottom: 0px; border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(228, 235, 238); border-top-style: solid; box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-top: 25px;" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 12.5px;">[This address was delivered before the University Club of New York, April 18, 1950. First printed by <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Commercial and Financial Chronicle</em>, May 4, 1950; reprinted as a chapter in <a href="https://mises.org/library/planning-freedom-and-twelve-other-essays-and-addresses" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; text-decoration-line: none;">Planning for Freedom</a>.]</p><ul class="footnotes" style="border-top: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-size: 0.9em; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 4em; padding-left: 0px; position: relative;"><li class="footnote" id="footnote1_yo5pjl5" style="background: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; list-style-type: none; margin-left: 2.5em;"><a class="footnote-label" href="https://mises.org/library/middle-road-leads-socialism#footnoteref1_yo5pjl5" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; left: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration-line: none; z-index: 2;">1.</a>Cf. V.I. Lenin, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">State and Revolution</em> (Little Lenin Library No. 14, New York, 1932), p. 84.</li><li class="footnote" id="footnote2_o7876gm" style="background: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; list-style-type: none; margin-left: 2.5em;"><a class="footnote-label" href="https://mises.org/library/middle-road-leads-socialism#footnoteref2_o7876gm" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e; left: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration-line: none; z-index: 2;">2.</a>Ibid., p. 44.</li></ul></div><h6 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494e54; font-family: myriad-pro, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 25.0001px; margin-bottom: 12.5px; margin-top: 12.5px;">Note: The views expressed on Mises.org are not necessarily those of the Mises Institute.</h6><div class="view view-term-landing view-id-term_landing view-display-id-author_box audience author-box view-dom-id-69be5aa5f8b2c029f77e9098feab945d" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #494e54; font-family: myriad-pro, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-top: 45px;"><div class="view-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 1em;">Author:</div><div class="view-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first views-row-last" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><div about="/profile/ludwig-von-mises" class="ds-2col-custom-fluid column node node-person-profile view-mode-author_box clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box;" typeof="schema:Person sioc:Item foaf:Document"><div class="panel-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"><div class="group-top col-xs-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin-bottom: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 10px; position: relative; width: 693.33px;"><p class="author-box__name" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://mises.org/profile/ludwig-von-mises" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #38709e;">Ludwig von Mises</a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;">Ludwig von Mises was the acknowledged leader of the Austrian school of economic thought, a prodigious originator in economic theory, and a prolific author. Mises's writings and lectures encompassed economic theory, history, epistemology, government, and political philosophy. His contributions to economic theory include important clarifications on the quantity theory of money, the theory of the trade cycle, the integration of monetary theory with economic theory in general, and a demonstration that socialism must fail because it cannot solve the problem of economic calculation. Mises was the first scholar to recognize that economics is part of a larger science in human action, a science that he called <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">praxeology</em>.</p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-27884611642918565672021-08-16T23:06:00.002-06:002021-08-19T19:04:35.374-06:00Perspective from my 70th birthday<p> Yesterday I turned 70. The world could care less. A few dear friends did and threw me a party in case I do not make it to 71. Fingers crossed.</p><p>Today the world is different: America is legitimately embarrassed by the incompetence of our leaders - watch Suday 8/15/21 videos of people falling off airplanes escaping from Kabul. How could we come to this? Some would say: Simple. History repeats itself: elect an incompetent like Carter (Biden) as a knee-jerk reaction to a personally objectable President like Nixon (Trump) and your fate is sealed. History is not kind to amateurs and incompetents. Carter should have stuck to Habitat charities, Biden to credit card lobbying. As with Carter (a real nice person but unfit), we are set for inflation, recession, "malaise" and geopolitical embarrassment (Iran then, Afganistan now), energy dependence (Biden just begged OPEC for help - to his credit Carter knew better than that). Our chief general Millie (Gen. Woke, also the mastermind of Afgan Army and Police training since 2003) was more concerned with promoting LGBTQ and gender studies in our military than in winning strategies and limiting losses getting out of Afghanistan.</p><p>I see the world through an old and odd lens foreign to today's younger crowd: </p><p>I grew up in an Italy rebuilding after WWII destruction, I saw the power of a free economy destroyed by socialism and communism in 68-75, - yes, Italy, it has the largest communist party in non-USSR western Europe countries and to this day the highest unemployment outside of Greece in the EU. When I came to the US (legally) in 1970 I saw Black Panther riots in the US and the Student for Democratic Society and associated terrorism, I applauded the welcome sacking of Nixon, the catastrophic electoral response electing Carter. After immigrating legally a second time, I saw the recovery of America with Regan (the "Regan recession" was most painful to me personally, but it worked for the country. I believe that the Regan/Thatcher economic policies are the reason for the difference in today's economies and standards of living of US-UK vs. the rest of Europe). Then I witnessed the corruption of national finances and character brought by Clinton, then Bush's disastrous extension of the Afgan War and the conning of the country to go to war in Iraq, on and on.</p><p>From those experiences, I conclude that history is a sequence of ups and downs. Biden has just shown us one of the most costly downs in recent history. Incompetence does not come close to describe it, but should have been expected. The criteria for a person's <span style="font-family: inherit;">selection to a task are no longer competence, just woke-fitness. So we, Americans, pay the financial cost <span style="font-size: 12pt;">(inte</span>rest on Afganistan and Iraq wars is estimated at 6.5 trillion by 2050 - the kids will pay for it). Afgh</span>ans will pay a personal price and in the geopolitical future untold numbers will see their world upended.</p><p>It is not what I had hoped to enter the end of my days</p>Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-52260665853284446952021-02-03T08:38:00.012-07:002021-02-09T17:35:37.976-07:00Logotherapy - Part Psychiatry Part Philosophy<p>In my continuing search for answers to the riddle of life, I took the online course Introduction to Logotherapy a subject that has held my curiosity for years since reading Victor Frankl's <i>Man's Search For Meaning.</i> The course is taught by Batya Yaniger PsyD at the <a href="https://themeaningseeker.org/" target="_blank">Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy in Israel</a>. The course has been an awesome experience.</p><p>As it is my habit to really learn anything I read, I developed a mindmap of the main concepts in each chapter of the second part of the book - <a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/webmaps/Logotherapy in a nutshell.html" target="_blank">Logotherapy In A Nutshell,</a> my crumbs trail to go back and search through. Search away, I hope you find half of the answers I found.</p><p>Another <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93KR6DFiIAc&ab_channel=AncientFaithMinistries" target="_blank">presentation of Logotherapy</a> is by <span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">Dean Theophilos, MA, LCPC, CRADC, LPCC, LADC, NCC -</span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">Licensed Therapist - </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">The Mansio Center, Inc.</span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">499 Anthony St. </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">Glen Ellyn, IL 60137</span></p><p><br /></p>Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-83950557352048066572019-09-04T14:11:00.000-06:002019-09-06T12:07:28.717-06:00The Road to SerfdomIn the mid 1940's, as a result of WWII won with the use of centralized economic planning, many US citizens began to believe the centralized planning with a socialist bent was the more efficient way to go forth into the future. Today as we look for concerted action on Global Warming, conflated with a new search for economic justice, the popular thinking seems to be going in the same direction.<br />
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The idea that a benevolent bureaucracy elected by and responsive to the people could more efficiently direct society toward salvation, wellbeing, social equality, and morality than individuals pursuing their crass economic interest, is easy to buy into. But I lived through the destruction of industry and productivity in Italy during the mid 60's to mid 70's (lasting to this day) that birthed social democracy and included various experiments in many cities with socialist and communist administrations. To this day, economic opportunity, wellbeing, benevolent public bureaucracies are still to be found. With that history, I understood the warning that Nobel-Price Economist Friedrich Hayek offered in "The Road to Serfdom". </div>
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His book and warning, however, would have been too academic, pedantic heavy-lifting for most readers. In a stroke of luck, the Reader's Digest, the most read magazine of that time (still barely available today in airports' bookstores) published a summarized version of it in April 1945. Millions read it, millions got the point, and America's short love with socialism ended at the ballot box. Most countries in Europe, at some point in the 40's to 90's flirted with the socialist experiment and with few exceptions still pay a high price with economic stagnation, bloated government bureaucracies and loss of their most educated and motivated citizens to other countries.</div>
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With this experience in mind, I publish here my extract of <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FzRdOumO0t-oi6GFDUsR8a6QqqbOyJ5o">The Reader's Digest condensed version of The Road to Serfdom </a>contained in the complete IEA publication below.</div>
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The complete version, with more background, introductory notes, references to publications of the time, etc as published by IEA is available<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1J3PmmwAa4ZKHMc8L_GiviOEWkhGa9SP4"> HERE</a><br />
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iPhones and Androids have free apps that can read a pdf file to you. After you open the link above you can download the pdf and listen to it at your convenience.<br />
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Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-53437895119916158712019-07-17T11:46:00.001-06:002022-04-18T10:23:50.022-06:00Must Read: from Ryan Holyday of DailyStoic.com<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="templateContainer" style="background-color: #fafafa; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; color: black; max-width: 600px; text-size-adjust: 100%; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<a href="https://gen.medium.com/if-youre-angry-you-re-part-of-the-problem-not-the-solution-d50a74b119cb" style="color: #007c89; font-weight: normal; text-size-adjust: 100%;" target="_blank">If You’re Angry, You’re Part of the Problem, Not the Solution</a></h2>
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<em>Here is <a href="https://gen.medium.com/if-youre-angry-you-re-part-of-the-problem-not-the-solution-d50a74b119cb" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;" target="_blank">my latest post</a> on Medium...</em></div>
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It’s ironic that the only thing we all seem to agree on lately is that there’s a lot to be angry about.</div>
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On the left, we have the insurgent anger of “resistance.” Race, gender, police brutality, immigration, the environment — unspeakable wrongs are happening right in front of us, they argue — and anyone who can’t see that is complicit. The other side has just as much rage. Just a few weeks ago, Sohrab Ahmari, a Catholic convert and editor for The New York Post became a hero on the right for arguing that the stakes of the culture war are so high that it’s time for conservatives to do away with Christian kindness and civil discussion in favor of seeing <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/05/against-david-french-ism" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">“politics as war and enmity.”</a></div>
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If you’re not outraged, they both tell us, <em>“You’re not paying attention.”<span><a name='more'></a></span></em></div>
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Anger, in this way, can seem almost inspiring, even admirable — that it’s a sign of how much you care. The American-Irish political journalist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cockburn" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">Alexander Cockburn</a> was famous for sitting young writers down and asking them, “Is your hate pure?” If they hesitated, if they squirmed, he wouldn’t hire them. He once asked this question to a young <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Miliband" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">Ed Miliband</a>, who would go on to be the leader of the Labour Party in Britain and later a cabinet member. Miliband replied that he didn’t hate anyone. This, Cockburn smirked as he proudly <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2013/09/alexander-cockburn-the-last-polemicist" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">retold the story</a>, “tells you everything you need to know.”</div>
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Yeah, it shows that Cockburn — and the people who stroke our angriest impulses — are only making things worse.</div>
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For a simple reason: It’s not controversial to say that most of what is wrong in this world is not intentionally wrong. How could it be, unless you believe that the majority of people are evil? Think about it: Are most people doing wrong on purpose or are they like you — in all the times you have been or done wrong in the past — probably (wrongly) <a href="https://dailystoic.com/never-attribute-to-malice/" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">convinced</a> that what they’re doing is right? Obviously anger is not the most effective or appropriate response to these situations.</div>
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And what about the cases when wrong is being carried out deliberately? What about actual evil — which sadly is all too real? Here, again, anger isn’t the right response either. Because truly diabolical people are far too nefarious and dangerous for us to approach with anything other than our most rational and strategic efforts. (You don’t foil sociopathy by yelling.)</div>
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Yet here we are, constantly being egged on by both sides about why we need to get angry, telling us that our hate should be pure.</div>
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If anger was something that made people better, do you think athletes would work so hard to get under the skin of their opponent? Do you think lawyers would try to attack and frustrate witnesses under cross examination? Of course not. It is precisely because anger is blinding, because it makes us irrational, that one opponent uses it to undermine another.</div>
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What we need — in sports, in life, in activism — is restraint, not rage.</div>
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<em>Oh, but that’s very privileged of you to say</em>, one might think. <em>You wouldn’t be so blasé if things were worse for you personally.</em></div>
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History overwhelmingly disproves the idea that self-composure is a synonym for resignation. George Washington’s defining characteristic? It was, as he often said, the ability to look at things in the “mild light of calm philosophy.” He refused to get upset, he refused to get angry — no matter the insult, no matter the injustice, no matter the betrayal. And it was precisely this self-control that allowed him to direct his efforts towards his great task — freeing a colonial people from the subjugation of a capitalistic imperial empire, to put it in modern language — so it cannot be argued that he simply tolerated the status quo.</div>
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History also shows that there are far more effective emotions to incite if your goal is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VXJAUqnqWM" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">to create action</a> and meaningful change.</div>
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A recent exchange illustrates this well. On the eve of his inauguration, President Donald Trump, <a href="https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/820255947956383744?lang=en" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">took to Twitter</a> to attack congressman and civil rights icon, John Lewis.</div>
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It was just a highlight of a cycle that was to come: Trump using Twitter to try to provoke someone, with the talking heads in the media (on both sides) taking the bait. Basically, everyone got upset about it.</div>
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Except one guy: John Lewis. Lewis could have easily responded with anger to this attack on his character. Instead, he had a moment of self-reflection, calling what he described as “an executive session with myself.”</div>
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The following day, Martin Luther King Day, as it happened, Lewis took the high ground in an apparent response to the president. “I say to the future leaders of this state, the future leaders of this nation, of the world — you must never, ever hate,” <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-john-lewis-martin-luther-king-day-response-twitter-attack-a7530186.html" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">Lewis said </a>at a memorial breakfast “The way of love is a better way. The way of peace is a better way.”</div>
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No one can say John Lewis is “all talk.” Or that privilege corrupted his response. This is a man who had been beaten nearly to death in 1965 as he and 600 people attempted to peacefully march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to protest segregation. What he learned in a career of effectual political action is that getting angry is not a strategy. It’s a distraction.</div>
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Think of Abraham Lincoln. A defining moment of his life came in 1841 when he, then no more than a successful mid-Western lawyer, saw a group of slaves chained together on a riverboat like “so many fish on a trotline.” Abolitionists had witnessed scenes like this for centuries and many of them became radicalized in the process. Lincoln’s reaction was different. It wasn’t anger, he felt, but a deep and profound sadness at the injustice of it. But this was key. For all the passion of the abolitionist movement, it was Lincoln who spent the next two decades plotting a course of political change that ultimately accomplished what generations of Americans had failed to do. It was Lincoln — unlike even the radicals — who never doubted that the Union could be preserved, that the war could be won, who steered the ship unswervingly through those terrible times, all the while <a href="https://dailystoic.com/they-are-just-what-we-would-be/" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">preaching</a> a need for understanding, for forgiveness and mutual culpability. He was even-keeled in his determination to improve the world.</div>
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The Civil Rights Movement — per Martin Luther King’s leadership as well as the leadership of brave people like John Lewis — was <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/love-not-hate/id1430315931?i=1000420505002" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">defined not by anger, but by love</a>. By a call to better angels, not our worst ones. So was Gandhi’s. The most powerful and enduring symbol of resistance to the Vietnam War was not the angry, long-haired students, it was the monk who doused himself in gasoline and lit a match — without a hint of emotion, only perfect stillness and moral urgency. Churchill’s famous line during World War II was that he didn’t hate anyone, except Hitler — and even that he tried to keep professional. If Churchill could do that, what excuse do we have?</div>
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My point is that while peace isn’t always the solution, avoiding anger is.Because to paraphrase and add to the line from Angela Merkel, just as you can’t complete tasks with “charisma,” you can’t do much when you’re blinded with rage or hatred either.</div>
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Indeed, this is what many philosophers ask us to step back and learn from history. “Constantly run down the list of those who felt intense anger at something,” <a href="https://dailystoic.com/marcus-aurelius/" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">Marcus Aurelius</a> wrote, “the most famous, the most unfortunate, the most hated, the most whatever. And ask: Where is all that not? Smoke, dust, legend… or not even a legend.” Alexander the Great was as angry and motivated to put his dent in the world as they came, and what happened after his early death? The whole empire fell to pieces. What of Gracchus or Catiline, whose angry conspiracies against Rome were driven by a kind of Joker-esque nihilism of just wanting to see the world burn? Not only did they fail, but chances are many people aren’t even going to be familiar with my reference. Because Marcus was right — it was forgotten. It all became dust.</div>
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The fact that we will all become dust one day is not a reason to do nothing. It’s a reason to <a href="https://dailystoic.com/the-important-thing-is-to-do-the-right-thing/" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">do the right thing</a>, the right way.</div>
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In his fascinating essay, <em><a href="https://geni.us/7Bd1NR" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">Of Anger</a></em>, <a href="https://dailystoic.com/seneca/" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">the philosopher Seneca</a> makes a similar point. He wanted to know if it was possible to respond to evil and violence “judiciously and with foresight,” instead of being driven by some primal emotion.</div>
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“‘Does a good man not get angry?” he asked. “Even if he watches his father get killed or his mother raped?’” No, was <a href="https://dailystoic.com/justice-doesnt-have-to-be-angry/" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">Seneca’s answer</a>. But just because we don’t give in to anger doesn’t mean we have to accept this injustice. “The good man will carry out his duties without fear or turmoil… My father is being killed; I’ll defend him. He has been killed; I’ll avenge him — but because it’s right, not because I’m grieved… To get angry on behalf of one’s kin is the mark of a weak mind, not a loyal one.”</div>
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It calls to mind the powerful example of <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/midwest/ct-mollie-tibbets-mom-20181228-story.html" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">Laura and Rob Tibbetts</a>, whose daughter was murdered by an undocumented immigrant in 2018. After the body was discovered, letters started pouring in. People tried to stoke their passions of this grieving family for political purposes. “This is why we need to build a wall,” they said. “Those people are animals. We need to protect ourselves.”</div>
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If anyone had an excuse for “pure” hatred, it was probably the Tibbets. And what did they do?</div>
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They opened their home to a young boy whose parents were also undocumented immigrants and had worked in the very same fields as the man who had murdered their daughter. That’s not just a lovely example of forgiveness, it’s a profoundly virtuous and impressive act. There must be so much pain in their heart, so much anger. Yet they rose above it. They spoke out against those who tried to turn their pain into profit and to polarization, calling it “everything that’s dark and wrong in America right now.” And instead of being tempted by anger, they focused on finding a way to see through the rage and the hurt to find something common in their shared humanity.</div>
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It was a decision that will produce more real change than any of the pundits can ever hope to.</div>
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Who should we listen to? Whose example should we follow? The people who capitalize off of blind emotion in order to gain a following? Or people like the Tibbets who are quietly doing good, despite their very real grievances?</div>
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There is today, as there has always been, profound injustice in this world. But that injustice will not be solved by getting upset, by painting the other side as irredeemable, or by giving into our worst impulses.</div>
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It must be addressed politically, personally, and with precisely the opposite of the traits that caused the injustice in the first place. You must treat indifference with empathy, cruelty with compassion, anger with patience and love.</div>
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We know this from our own personal lives. The things that make you the most angry are the things you have the toughest time resolving. Has yelling or <a href="https://ryanholiday.net/heres-how-you-stop-anger-from-making-you-do-something-stupid/" style="color: #007c89; text-size-adjust: 100%;">losing your temper</a> ever made things better at home? Or does it only make things worse?</div>
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Each of us has to work on this, myself included. We cannot let ourselves be rattled by the wrong we see in the world. We must limit our inputs, and cut out toxic provocateurs and manipulative media. We must sit quietly with our own thoughts, and push ourselves to respond to everything we see with kindness and calmness.</div>
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It’s easy to clever or cruel. It’s hard to be composed and clear. But which gives us the change we need?</div>
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Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-3100571766687111202018-08-21T17:13:00.000-06:002019-08-08T10:26:36.978-06:00One more for the bucket listSomewhere in my bucket list, one item has been outstanding a long time: To publish a novel that I had started writing in 2006. It started as science fiction and a test of whether I could write a novel almost 100% dialogue. It was fun in the beginning, dreaming of the future and imagining a conversation with my grandchildren. Alas, finding an end proved to take years and almost became a challenge beyond my patience. Then, one day, it came to me and I finally wrote "The End".<br />
<br />
Finishing a draft of a short story and publishing it are universes apart I discovered. Editing is harder than writing, proofreading is mindlessly hard. Even when you are done with months of all of that, how do you publish an ebook? I ran aground again. Then on my birthday, I decided it had to be done no matter if less than perfect. As Facebook admonishes its staff "done beats perfect", and so it was.<br />
<b><a href="http://kpd.amazon.com/">Amazon</a></b> was the first channel for the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GJGDGBL/ref=kinw_clar_choose1?_encoding=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0">Kindle version of The Yoda Machine</a>. It was easier than I had imagined, quick, and free. You can find it here. Soon I discovered that despite the supposed popularity of Kindle, none of my friends had it. Kindle Reader is available free for every possible mobile device and OS, but getting family and friends to install it appeared to be too heavy lifting.<br />
<b><a href="http://draft2digital.com/">Draft2Digital</a></b> was the next platform I tried for the <a href="https://www.books2read.com/b/47ZRoR">Epub version of The Yoda Machine</a>. Not nearly as automatic as Amazon to format correctly, but still quick and easy and free. It automatically submits your ebook to a multitude of publishers (Kobo, Scribd, B&amp;N and more), it collects royalties and it generates ebooks in various formats (epub, mobi, pdf) that you can download in finished form for whatever purpose you wish.<br />
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(2018 update) In time I hired a professional editor to review and advise. To one raised Catholic mortification cannot ever be a surprise. Well, it was. Starting from scratch on something very different seemed to be the message heard. Time passed, mortification subsided, as it always does, and The Yoda Machine remained published, in need of a 2nd edition, all to happen someday.<br />
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So, one more is off the bucket list. Now back to writing software a clearly more appreciated endeavor.Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-45358206138608088762016-09-27T17:11:00.000-06:002018-08-21T17:20:51.463-06:00Beware easy answers and political dynastiesI am tired of the litany of insults. I am not uneducated (MBA), not a misogynist (women friends will attest to it), not retarded (can prove somewhat above 100), nor violent (I am for guns controls and have none). Still, holding my nose and with all my fingers crossed, I will vote for Trump as the lesser of two evils. Here is why:<br />
1. I trust the American political system enough to keep a buffoon from doing much damage. The Congress shackled Obama for eight years to do little, and only one party was at it. With two parties in opposition, President Trump will do little other than talking big and delivering less. The Founding Father designed the system to do just that. ANd based on current count of friends, few cronies and lobbyists should be able to come to the through to collect.<br />
2. Conversely, the election of another Clinton who believes that the law does not apply to them is the beginning of a political dynasty.<br />
2. I firmly believe that ANY political dynasty is a recipe for disaster. A lesson we should have learned with the Bushes' gifts of the Neocons and Iraq.<br />
But just in case we need education from the experience of the rest of the world, here it goes: In all cases (after WWII) where spouses followed spouses in a similar position of power (may not be the same title), corruption reigned supreme. But the issue is not the wives, there are even more examples in the more general sense of a close relative following a close relative. In ALL cases, to the best of my memory and research, they resulted from, or advanced, corruption of their respective political systems. In many cases the results were catastrophic, as n GW Bush. One can easily conclude that dynasties corrupt political systems either because a ruling class fosters cronism or because the cronies of the first leader elect the second to retain and advance their position.<br />
Look at the world. Exceptional as America may be, it would be hard to escape the pattern:<br />
a Juan and Isabel Peron in Argentina in the 70’s (husband and wife)<br />
b Kirchners in Argentina in 2000’s (husband and wife)<br />
c The Aquinos in the Philippines (husband would have been president if not assassinated, Corazon, the wife, became President, her son became President too)<br />
d Nehru and Gandhi in India (Mother Indira Gandhi followed her father (Nehru) and son Sanjay virtually ran the country under her administration)<br />
e GHW Bush and GW Bush in the US (father and son) already mentioned for thegift of the Neocons and Iraq<br />
f Mandelas in South Africa (husband and wife controlled the ANC gorvernment) raised corruption to a science<br />
g Imelda Marcos Provincial Governor while husband Ferdinand was President<br />
h and in 2016, the ultimate, Nicaragua's Ortega is running for a third term with his wife on the ticket (Bill Clinton might have called it "two for the price of two")<br />
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After her great speech performance of the last few days, may we expect Michelle Obama to take a cut at it? But if Hillary gets it, my money is on "Chelsea for 2020", by then, maybe, with her husband)<br />
<br />
Beware political dynasties was good advice for ancient Rome and for the Founding Fathers, and still is today. Of course, there is the risk of passing up on a very qualified leader along the way, but history would show it to be well justified to avoid the risk of walking into dynastic politics which have never been dislodged without a violent upheaval.<br />
Beware the easy answer.Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-64482556848043607112016-01-11T11:52:00.001-07:002017-05-22T13:10:43.384-06:00Exorcising a ski runThis story is an attempt at an exorcism of sorts. I'm writing it with the hope of getting out of my mind the experience I had skiing with some friends yesterday at Park City/Canyons.<br />
Two days before Darlene, Linda and I had skied Grande, a double black rated run off the Tombstone Chairlift. The snow had been great, not untracked, but nice and soft. The run is challenging because it requires skiing in tight trees to reach an open bowl that is quite steep but easily manageable. Above the bowl is a is rocky face un-skiable by anyone with a working brain. Last Friday, the rock face was roped off and with a yellow sign with an arrow pointing to skier's-left to avoid the rocks. With deep snow, it is a great run.<br />
Yesterday at the end of a great ski day with Darlene and Linda, we decided to ski Grande again as our closing run. We entered the run too far at skier's-right without noticing that the rope above the rocks was missing. As we started traversing to the left looking for more familiar terrain I found myself on the rock face with Linda closely behind. I barely managed to bushwhack my way above and out of that mess, back to safer terrain. There, I noticed that we were well below the familiar yellow arrow-sign above the rock face and that the orange out-of-bounds rope had been pulled and thrown behind a tree by some irresponsible fool. Linda, instead, was still stuck on the frozen rocks with her skis tangled in barbed-wire-like low bushes of scrub oak. In the hope of freeing herself from the bad spot,<br />
<a name='more'></a> she attempted to take her skis off. The first came off, but fell below, stuck in the middle of the rock face. The second ski, she could not release, either too tight or because of her precarious position or exhaustion setting in. She is a very experienced mountaineer, but was stuck on a dangerous spot and her ski boots on frozen rock gave her no traction. I turned around and tracked back, close to Linda's position, to help her get out of her undesirable perch. We managed to pull her, thankfully, 0%-fat-body up from slippery rock and above a big tree that would prevent us both from a long fall. With only one ski there was no way she could safely ski out of there, so we refitted my ski bindings to her boots and she skied back to safer ground. I planned to walk my way out of the ugly place after freeing her lost ski and throwing it below where it could be retrieved. I used her remaining ski as my shovel to plant in the snow and arrest my fall. After freeing the ski I found myself simply unable to turn and exit, feeling my boots losing grip on the frozen rock and the ski an ineffective ice axe. From my perch, I could see that, if I fell, I might manage to slide in a small culoir where snow had accumulated that hopefully would cushion me. I was just conning myself.<br />
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We were lucky; an off-duty ski patroller, Jason Fife with his friend Jamie Elliot happened to ski the same run; both gave great help to Darlene (her angels in her FB post), retrieving the errant ski and shouting, from below, encouragement and helpful guidance to move to more practicable terrain. In the event of a fall, stopping my descent on the steep face, with no skis, I was totally dependent on using the ski in my hands as a shovel. I hoped for the best, and carefully I tried to move in the direction indicated by Jason. I could feel my ski boots, barely holding on the frozen rock, sadly aware that they were not designed for that terrain. I felt almost frozen, on that frozen face, as I judged my odds of crossing the rocks to snow where I could have some footing.<br />
Suddenly the frozen, still world around me got into furious motion. As I went over the rocks I lost my shovel. I realized that I had spun head-first on my back when I looked "up" and could see the dark big evergreens at the bottom of the bowl coming at me fast. I was out of control with no tools to dig into the snow. Inhaling the flying snow I felt I was drowning, but the terror of stopping head first into a tree at the bottom was worse. Somehow one hand got just enough grasp into the snow, I spun like a top and feet first I could dig into the soft deep snow. From the speed of the slide, I sunk to mid thigh just a few feet from Jason and ten yards from the trees, coughing uncontrollably spitting snow. It had been an instant but it had felt, in slow motion, like an eternity. The only damage, a bruised elbow and two coats ripped in the elbow spitting feathers as fast as I was spitting snow. Jason came close, felt my hips and back clearly surprised that I had no damage.<br />
Darlene and Linda caught up with me by more traditional descents. Linda got back in her skis, I resized mine and we went home grateful for a close call with no serious damage. Once home I needed a nap just to shed the tension and adrenaline. During the night, twice I woke up with a feeling of sliding on my back, but the bed was still. This morning after Darlene went to work, I surprisingly continued to re-live the event. I thought a long time of going to ski Grande today to get it out of my head, but I have no ski buddy to go with and it is not terrain one should ski alone. I'll go back next Friday, but by then, I hope, my brain will not be in need of that medicine. Perhaps, putting the story to paper will do the trick that writing has done many times before in sad and scary events of my life. Let's hope for this exorcism to work.<br />
Cheers<br />
Marco<br />
1/10/2016<br />
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P.S. 20/20 hindsight review.<br />
As I reconsider the events, returning to lend a friend a hand was, no doubt, the thing to do. Taking a risk to retrieve a ski from above was bad judgement in an instant under pressure. The ski could have been retrieved by many lesser-risk paths. As a, long ago trained, volunteer ski patroller I should have known better. At a fork in the road I took the wrong one. Embarrassing. Lesson learned. Exorcism completed.<br />
1/12/2016<br />
<br />Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-28724098572912411162015-11-03T10:22:00.000-07:002017-05-22T12:58:28.688-06:00Memories From A Tech Startup (back in the stone age)My story, below, was prompted by reading that an <a href="http://mashable.com/2014/11/17/atari-landfill-games-sold/">Atari video game cartridges from a 1980's landfill sold for $37,000</a>. The past rushed back at me as I re-lived an earlier very dramatic time of my life. Brace yourself.<br />
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If your first video game console was a Nintendo, this story might as well be about dinosaurs or the Roman Empire or The Middle Ages. If you are older than that you might find some memories and may notice that little has changed since those times except the absolute speed of change (the relative speed of change has not and more of that later). In hindsight, the risks of high-tech startups do not seem to have changed much and the planning to deal with it requires the same considerations today as it did then. The roman-candle story of <a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/">Rom</a><a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/">Labs Inc. </a>may give us a glimpse into it.<br />
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The business environment<br />
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It's 19<b>83</b>, the first "video games bubble" has been running since 1980-81 and it was a classic "bubble" unbeknownst to all industry participants. The key players of the second generation of video games devices included video game console (VGC) makers Atari, Intellivision, Coleco (also Commodore, Radioshack, Texas Instruments) and third party developers (game software only) Imagic, Activision and Electronic Arts and a host of other minor participants.<br />
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Video games for personal computers like IBM PC (came to the market in 1982), Apple II and Mac and Amiga and all kinds of C/PM operating system microcomputers were also on the rise and would eventually create the more complex, multi-user and graphics intensive games of today, but in 1981-83 they were not part of the "bubble" scene which involved games and consoles oriented to non-technical consumers.<br />
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Since 1976, all the VGC games (software) were distributed in ROM cartridges (Read-Only Memory). Games went to market with prices ranging from $40 or more at the time of release and would decline to $15-20 a few months later as novelty declined and consumer demand moved elsewhere. Game developers would invent the games, project unit sales and cartridges were produced to meet expected demand. Going to manufacturing was very expensive and required a large investment. The process was conceptually simple, tricky and risky and could be enormously profitable; in essence it had all the ingredients for a "bubble". If the manufactured volume was very large, unit cost would be reduced dramatically and profits could be huge IF the game sold well. If the game sold poorly, inventories would build, prices would have to be cut dramatically, the reputation of the game would be eroded into a downward spiral. If not enough copies were, made demand would not be met ( price however could not be raised), potential sales woud be lost and those that were made could have had a higher profit margin. Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and the other early industry players had proven to be a master in managing this problem, but the increasing number of participants, especially the software-only developers was making the game harder and riskier to manage. Furthermore, Bushnell had sold <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari#Atari_Inc._.281972.E2.80.931984.29">Atari</a> to Warner Communications in 1976 and was fired in 1978. After his departure the Warner's team of incompetent "suits" mismanaged games production so radically that truckloads of Atari game cartridges were reported to be going into landfills in mid-1983 (now you see why past and presents collided in my mind).<br />
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Evolution of electronic memory technology<br />
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By 1982 new Erasable-Programmable ROM devices (EEPROM) were coming to commercial market (initially had been restricted to military use only). They opened the doors for a host of new applications of compact (for those days) digital memory devices. By being reprogrammable, they eliminated the need of huge production volumes to achieve low unit cost, although, early in their life cycle, they were scarce and relatively expensive compared to ROMs.<br />
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Invention and business venture<br />
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<a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/041.html">Two young inventors</a> in Redmond, WA were interested in the early model personal computers that in the mid 70's had become affordable for individuals to buy. They were also researching the technology driving the exploding market of video games. Reading about EEPROMs they envisioned designing erasable and reprogrammable video game cartridges. Experimenting in their garage/lab they designed and prototyped a reusable game cartridge for the Atari 2600 video game console.<br />
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They imagined that the efficiency offered by the new cartridge would be irresistible to the industry and would make them rich. They sunk all their savings into refining the product and prototyping cartridges that fit all available consoles to demonstrate to potential licensees.<br />
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They also envisioned that their reusable cartridge could be remotely erased and reprogrammed over a phone line. This vision required the integration of a) a software-driven modem built with a single-chip-computer (in later years Hayes opened the age of cheap PC telecommunications with this design), b) a speakerphone and c) a cartridge programming slot to plug in their cartridge into.<br />
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The proposed system would then support two business models:<br />
1) a game-publisher-to-consumer (today we call it B2C) - In this case, a game developer would sell the reprogrammable ROM cartridge to a consumer who would be able to buy new games directly from the manufacturer by simply placing a phone call.<br />
2) a business-to-business (B2B) model. In this case, the games developer would deliver electronically and on-demand new games to retailers who would "burn" them into the consumer's cartridge for a fee using a <a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/011.html">programming console</a> compatible with all major VGCs<br />
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The Rom-Labs system was completed by Summer 1983 just as AT&T and Coleco announced a joint venture to develop and enter electronic distribution of video games (front page of <a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/231.html">WSJ 9/8/1983</a>). The news over-excited the <a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/031.html">Seattle Times</a> and the <a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/051.html">Seattle PI</a> and some investors that had heard of their invention. The moment in the spotlight in the papers and on prime-time news happened when I sent a copy of the WSJ article to the Seattle Times asking why so much fuss was made over "AT&T-Coleco's plans" when we already had a working system. One phone call was enough, and we became the news of the town.<br />
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Conclusion of the story<br />
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Some weeks after RomLabs brief moment in the spotlight, Atari announced a $300 million quarterly loss. The industry was shaken to its foundations and the exuberant braggadocios that ran it turned into deer-in-the-headlights. Talking to any game publishing or VGC manufacturing company became virtually impossible and, with few exceptions, useless. These instances were representative of the environment in which RomLabs went to market: The press openly called that time the collapse of the video-games bubble. Atari had bigger fish to fry than talking to RomLabs as their executives being "executed" weekly. Imagic, the industry's star, missed their IPO by literally one day and their owners never had a second chance to cash in (see the documentary "It's All In The Game"). Activision's management was busy trying to jump from the ship they had steered to near sinking. 20 Century Fox Video games opened discussions ostensibly to buy RomLabs only to be stopped by their own Chapter 7 filing - Their CEO later admitted having tried to buy RomLabs to window dress themselves for a bankruptcy-avoidance sale, but ran out of time. AT&T sent a team in November to investigate RomLab's technology, found it working as advertised, but suffering from "not invented at AT&T", and in any case Coleco, their partner, was busy shutting down the videogame business as rapidly as possible before it would take down the whole toy company (Coleco exited electronic consumer products in 1985 and went back to making dolls, Cabbage Patch Dolls, with great success).<br />
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1984 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas<br />
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As the market deteriorated, RomLabs looked forward to January and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) the yearly industry extravaganza where the participants could meet the big players without having to fight through telephone switchboards and executive assistants. At CES the big companies always went looking for what was coming out of garages and often deals were started that way. RomLabs committed to a <a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/141.html">minuscule booth</a> and counted on their system's <a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/071.html">cost effectiveness </a>to speak for itself. Between September and January it was the best shot the company had.<br />
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At CES RomLabs discovered its competition: <a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/141.html">Xante </a>a startup funded by a Texas-oil millionaire and <a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/251.html">Cumma Technology</a> funded by money-no-longer-an-object Nolan Bushnell founder and former CEO of Atari and <a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/271.html">Romox</a> reputedly funded by Intel's founders. <a href="http://safetnetconsulting.com/romlabs/131.html">RomLabs</a> was clearly lightly armed for the contest, but the collapse of the industry would make it all immaterial. In less than nine months there would be no more games to distribute as the industry imploded.<br />
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Making lemonade is so hard to do<br />
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No one had planned for one last surprise: RomLabs' single angel investor who had committed to make his investment in three installments, pulled out after the first one. With no understanding of the industry or the technology RomLabs had developed, he only saw a quick kill in the beginning and made funding commitments he could not honor, betting that a quick success would obviate the need for his follow-on payments. As soon as the company was faced with delays, he folded his hand and left the company in a lurch. Companies need due diligence as much as investors if not more so - caveat venditor or caveat investor is as necessary as caveat emptor.<br />
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RomLabs was thus left running on fumes while exhibiting at CES and seeking a buyer. Its limited-budget debutante gown probably showed it. It mattered little as the whole industry went on to implode. Within nine months, not a single company was still producing video games or consoles. Eventually, Nintendo reinvented the industry keeping good control of games releases, supply and demand, etc. just as Nolan Bushnel had done. They ushered-in the industry we know today.<br />
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In a few months RomLabs was closed, the inventors, broke (and in one case facing a divorce) went on to invent other devices, but, tapped of all their resources, they could not effectively go to market. Their inventions included: a) a peer-to-peer local area network (LAN) technology, years later emulated by 10Net and Microsoft that could not compete with limited funds against the emerging dominance of Novell (the first LAN provider); b) the first rollerball controller (stationary mouse replacement where the ball is spun in place of moving the mouse), c) a solid state memory portable storage that was a precursor to today's portable USB memory devices.<br />
More importantly, in those days filing patents was not as easy as today and very expensive. Thus, no patents were filed for a multitude of inventions and devices later introduced and marketed by other companies (e.g. Hayes, Lantastic, 10Net, Microsoft, USB memory makers, etc.). Their consolation was to compare notes with another inventor, Tim Paterson, who had invented QDOS and sold it for a song to Bill Gates and Microsoft.<br />
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The only business the two partners could start with no capital was consulting on the design and installation of accounting systems, using the knowledge they had acquired at RomLabs. Demand for that expertise was strong because of the market traction of the newly introduced PCs and LANs (IBM PC was introduced in 1982 and Novell LAN in 1983). But that is the story of Fenix Technology. A story for another day.<br />
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Take away lessons<br />
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John Chambers, CEO of CISCO and Jack Welch have commented that more is to be learned from a company's failure or near death experience than from great successes. If so RomLabs is a cornucopia of learning experiences. In a separate post we will analyze those experiences through the template I recommended elsewhere (www.angelpitchguy.com) for due diligence. It works for post mortems as it does for forward-looking due diligence. Check back for the next posting or register and we'll let you know when we are ready. Thanks for reading this far.<br />
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Marco MessinaMarcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-6785998713050108092015-09-29T20:23:00.000-06:002017-05-22T13:12:06.673-06:00Ryan Scobby - Musician<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7DuTz0kW2lz7t_zMirwcOLsodtglHy9jZX2UM1EJI0n-hiRKdBv7sZA4L9q9r-XHEtOrqYHT-j2klggKvdO0kNrAm8WRZtR7G0PuiPxiFtaE18-DFrLDlV3yDk-KkrHSvkOVFcCOkUq0e/s1600/20150924_153535.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7DuTz0kW2lz7t_zMirwcOLsodtglHy9jZX2UM1EJI0n-hiRKdBv7sZA4L9q9r-XHEtOrqYHT-j2klggKvdO0kNrAm8WRZtR7G0PuiPxiFtaE18-DFrLDlV3yDk-KkrHSvkOVFcCOkUq0e/s320/20150924_153535.jpg" width="320" /></a>We had waited a long time for our son Ryan to find time and means to come and visit us in Park City. <br />
Finally, hurrah! he came. It was to be a visit of learning and discovery.<br />
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Let's start with the learning part: shortly after his arrival I jokingly asked Ry if he had already found a hook up in town using Tinder.<br />
[Side bar: That was my opening to tell him what I had read about Tinder in a <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/08/tinder-hook-up-culture-end-of-dating">post on Vanity Fair</a>, <br />
which presumably would make me look current and well informed. I had read the story describing the users of Tinder and the fast hook up culture in NYC, which, shared with my late middle-age women friends at a recent party, had generated great surprise, curiosity, laughs and, for some, horror]<br />
<a href="https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMK7DQRqHCC4QJC00BVukTQX4ESESJk_MANfylP"></a><br />
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To my surprise Ry said: "Yes I did and found a couple of connections that I am going to meet". I could not resist following with some sophomoric jokes about whether he was planning to score twice the same day he arrived either before or after dinner. My joke, however, fell almost flat and I was informed that while perhaps the population density of the Big Apple makes the app work as described by Vanity Fair, in reality in most smaller communities it cannot. Furthermore one can use it just as well for hooking up or for finding company to hike a mountain trail or get into the music scene.<br />
Over the next several days I could only be amazed by the speed with which a young man, new in town, could connect with fellow musicians, hikers, yoga practitioners, etc. to suit his interests. Surely, it all started with a photo and a text message, but beyond that any resemblance to Vanity Fair was over. In no time Ry was well connected in Park City and Salt Lake City with other birds-of-a-feather for whatever activities he enjoyed.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivTgB9Ph8bwWRlToP67OXeTB2_Qokls2eu7sEh6AeXCQzCOXtKn_VvBFUfrqQ0Xk53mdOmglb4Sx5_q6tX6Gxsr4jaIbIWUfHFBpeDNN3P6CYOMnLm4mkYiDKIEmEUb7hFr5tGbJ3NZ4Sl/s1600/20150919_201806.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivTgB9Ph8bwWRlToP67OXeTB2_Qokls2eu7sEh6AeXCQzCOXtKn_VvBFUfrqQ0Xk53mdOmglb4Sx5_q6tX6Gxsr4jaIbIWUfHFBpeDNN3P6CYOMnLm4mkYiDKIEmEUb7hFr5tGbJ3NZ4Sl/s320/20150919_201806.jpg" width="180" /></a>To my eyes, suddenly, not only the world has been shrunk by globalization, but society has shrunk to the size of a village where everyone (that you care to know) knows and connect instantly to those that you care to know. It was a learning lesson about social dynamics that felt like stepping into a parallel universe. I may have to try this Tinder thing.<br />
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As a result of making the above contacts in the music community, Ry ended up jamming with new found friends in SLC and in Park City. Here he was invited to go to Monday Night Open Mic at The Cabin, I am told, the current hot local hang out for musicians. And that is where the discovery part of the visit came in: I had not heard Ryan playing his guitar in many years and my memories of the last event justified the expectations of being at an elementary-school recital where pride barely exceeds embarrassment. It was to be quite a surprise. The Cabin was indeed crowded with very accomplished musicians who in turn, and in ad hoc groups filled the night with great music. One in particular, <a href="http://www.mikerogerspianoman.com/">Mike Rogers</a>, a professor of music, seemed to instantly and effortlessly match seamlessly with his keyboard any musician that wanted his accompaniment (envy unbound). Enjoying the show, I must admit that my apprehension about Ry's upcoming performance only increased and then...<br />
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... and then I found that my worries were unfounded, Ry, over the years had mastered his music and developed into a competent performer with an easygoing stage presence that the audience clearly enjoyed. His mother, in the audience, was in Heaven and I was never happier to stand corrected. What a night! It was the first time in years out at 1:30am and totally stoked by what we had seen. Thanks for the memories Ry.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNewiiTVIEtKcb7GWMoSkvndggNLCK3AjoQ2ZjP7pUZMsYrltZeDYq_Ioyo3T21-hIIQFfgImOg8SWOl4JDkG0WAB7G_4Lxj5E6vUhfntoX5sXwTwf2iUuE4_yG2SsLVIUENF2urjw6mCQ/s1600/20150922_001010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNewiiTVIEtKcb7GWMoSkvndggNLCK3AjoQ2ZjP7pUZMsYrltZeDYq_Ioyo3T21-hIIQFfgImOg8SWOl4JDkG0WAB7G_4Lxj5E6vUhfntoX5sXwTwf2iUuE4_yG2SsLVIUENF2urjw6mCQ/s200/20150922_001010.jpg" width="112" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiuT5Ru_htsAYNCQFftnE-LkNKWRDsNxsBU42NxyCENLhFhYOe9KAX5e4HXZL5iaEvIVxFOFoWGo3DgamsqGfgfXVmOioI7Xy4YJR4JuRpsgVt_vC_drkWGgwP90Cwvkm4mmvoP1YaBPMg/s1600/20150922_000947.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiuT5Ru_htsAYNCQFftnE-LkNKWRDsNxsBU42NxyCENLhFhYOe9KAX5e4HXZL5iaEvIVxFOFoWGo3DgamsqGfgfXVmOioI7Xy4YJR4JuRpsgVt_vC_drkWGgwP90Cwvkm4mmvoP1YaBPMg/s200/20150922_000947.jpg" width="111" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQZxyvQ-BK9D8WGNMY02eOWDrI0pJe4ilykJcCWsRLb4z10N9yaWTaBxTKABoal5VWn3MlP4xNYAzRH23PxypFHb1juQPO_Uhj38lUdrCWf1r5VBAp5x_kvr76e0CwBrUKNCCegp4Ppo3e/s1600/20150922_001016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQZxyvQ-BK9D8WGNMY02eOWDrI0pJe4ilykJcCWsRLb4z10N9yaWTaBxTKABoal5VWn3MlP4xNYAzRH23PxypFHb1juQPO_Uhj38lUdrCWf1r5VBAp5x_kvr76e0CwBrUKNCCegp4Ppo3e/s200/20150922_001016.jpg" width="112" /></a></div>
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Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-40153461877002429672015-09-19T11:55:00.000-06:002017-05-22T13:01:19.185-06:00Can we learn to die purposefully?Read this article. <a href="http://site.macleans.ca/longform/alzheimers/index.html">"Slipping Away"</a> It is a terrifying life log of a young man with an incurable disease. See yourself in one of the two main roles of the story. Take a very long breath. Hope that your life will not make you live either role, then read my thoughts born out of imagining that nightmare.<br />
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Naturally, genetically we are programmed to live, almost at any cost. We spend all our life even before day one practicing staying alive. In most culture the "will to live against all odds" is glorified. If one said "life is overrated" one would probably be judged either suicidal or mentally unbalanced. But, perhaps, could we learn to be less attached to our own life to be better people, better siblings, parents, children to our counterparts in those relationships? If we could learn to value our lives less for ourselves and more for them? <br />
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It is lost in the darkness of history and of the history of phylosophy, forgotten in our modern cultural make up, but this is not a new idea. The Stoics beginning in the 3rd century CE elaborated a concept of a "virtuous life" where self sacrifice is ethically appropriate under specific, objectively definable circumstances.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 26.4px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism">(From Wikipedia)</a> The Stoics accepted that </span><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #5a3696; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 26.4px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Suicide">suicide</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 26.4px;"> was permissible for the wise person in circumstances that might prevent them from living a virtuous life.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-marietta153_22-0" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #252525; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism#cite_note-marietta153-22" style="background: none; border: 0px; color: #5a3696; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="background: none; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[</span>22<span style="background: none; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">]</span></a></sup><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 26.4px;"> </span><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarch" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #5a3696; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 26.4px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Plutarch">Plutarch</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 26.4px;"> held that accepting life under tyranny would have compromised </span><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_the_Younger" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #5a3696; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 26.4px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Cato the Younger">Cato</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 26.4px;">'s self-consistency (</span><i style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #252525; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 26.4px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">constantia</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 26.4px;">) as a Stoic and impaired his freedom to make the honorable moral choices.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #252525; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism#cite_note-23" style="background: none; border: 0px; color: #5a3696; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="background: none; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[</span>23<span style="background: none; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">]</span></a></sup><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 26.4px;"> <u>Suicide could be justified if one fell victim to severe pain or disease</u>,</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-marietta153_22-1" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #252525; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism#cite_note-marietta153-22" style="background: none; border: 0px; color: #5a3696; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="background: none; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[</span>22<span style="background: none; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">]</span></a></sup><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 26.4px;"> but otherwise suicide would usually be seen as a rejection of one's social duty.</span><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-irvine200_24-0" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #252525; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', Arial, 'Liberation Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism#cite_note-irvine200-24" style="background: none; border: 0px; color: #5a3696; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="background: none; border: 0px; color: #5a3696; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;">[</span><span style="color: #5a3696;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; white-space: nowrap;">24</span></span><span style="background: none; border: 0px; color: #5a3696; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;">]</span></a></sup></span><br />
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In this context, is it moral for us to "use" another person's life to our advantage as "loving caretaker" if we cannot live a normal life without imposing a change of life to someone for the continuation of our own?<br />
Of course, the "caretaker" may gain from the relationship a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction of a love commitment, BUT that is their perspective. And surely no one but us are entitled to recommend what we should do with our life. <br />
BUT for our judgement of ourselves and of our "virtuous life", is it ethical, is it moral to depend on others to the point of upending their life for our continuing existence?<br />
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One thing is to understand, and even agree, with a philosophical argument, it's all another to live by it, let alone to die by it.<br />
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So, the question is: Is there a way to mentally train for Stoic Living/Dieing if a circumstance as the one in the post referenced above occurs? How could we develop the stoic character and mental lucidity to exit the stage of our life <u>before</u> we lose the ability to independently take action? Before we become burdens to our loved ones? Many US states and EU countries have "death with dignity" statutes, but hell may set in for the "caretaker" long before the "end of life" parameters of the laws permit action.<br />
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This is no idle question if we consider that <a href="https://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p25-1138.pdf">the old-age dependency ratio sees a rapid increase between 2010 and 2030, from 22 to35</a>, and <a href="http://www.alzheimers.net/2013-12-11/alzheimers-global-epidemic-by-2050/">Alzhainer's will be a global epidemic by 2050</a> We owe our children and spouses to consider this matter. When all other diseases like cancer, ALS, MS, etc. are included, the odds that we may become bombs waitng to explode (slowly) next to our loved ones are far from trivial. Ask yourself how may instances of family and friends that have cared for terminal lovedone have you heard of in the last year or two? Which of two hells would prefer to be in: sick one or caretaker? Why not you? Why not me? Of course it can happen, easily enough. What is the ethical thing to do?<br />
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In reality the loving caretaker (you?) has very little psychological latitude to walk away unless the relationship was busted to begin with. So, that leaves the "terminal patient" in charge of selecting the outcome. That is why to Stoics this would be a moral and ethical issue: should one impose his life priority onto another?<br />
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So much for philosophy. In practice, how can one train in advance to look at one's own life with sufficient detachment to call it quits when subsistence at someone elses cost becomes the only option? <br />
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Firemen and policemen train to take enormous chances to save lives knowing that they may lose teirs. Soldiers frequently show the willingness to take a bullet to save their buddy, secret service do it daily for POTUS and First Family members, missionaries and aid personnel take a risk for a cause. All train to take a high risk to lose their life for a highher purpose. None actually get to the point of purposefully and coldly sacrifice themselves for another's quality of life, not life, quality of life. Yet that is what I think we need to train for - before, perhaps long before, we become totally dependent, when we can still evaluate clearly the impact of our existence upon others, that's when we must be able to open the exit door and serenely walk through it for a higher purpose.<br />
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My father, in 2008, was diagnosed with leukemia and was told that to stay alive for any length of time to fight it, he had to get on kidney dialysis first, which would have made him an invalid dependent on my mother. For her sake he refused and died in 48 hours. I never got to ask him how he trained to become able to make such a decision so calmly and objectively. I was there to watch him go, supremely calm and sure about his decision. I just don't know how he got to that state of mind.<br />
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Perhaps he got it from studying the behavior and culture of Inuit, Eskimos (and probably other cultures) who take it for granted that when the time is reached where the individual can no longer "contribute" to their social group (family, clan) then it is time to go sit on the ice in the night and let one's spirit go. Are the end of the ability to contribute and the beginning of dependence one and the same?<br />
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As a society with ever increasing life expectancy we also must prepare for the consequences (diseases) of old age and what they can do not to us but to our loved ones. Should we start steeling our nerves for it, as the Inuits, long before that crucial time comes?<br />
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With a subject where there cannot be answers right for all, all comments are necessary and welcome in the search of a little wisdom. I look forward to your comments.<br />
<br />Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249446399780006146.post-29217795596769090822015-07-22T19:08:00.003-06:002017-05-22T13:00:22.760-06:00I feel like a total idiotI am here at my laptop reading the usual daily dose of posts on science, technology, medicine genetics, food science, etc. that make me the eternal optimist that I am. Earlier I finished my daily reading of geopolitics, global economics, Grexit, Iran, ISIS, Middle East, oil shortages, famines, US Presidential Elections, etc. that sorely test my belief in optimistic outcomes.<br />
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Along the way, with whatever I read, I code posts for subject, interest, and whatever keywords may help me find the post at some later date. I've done it for years. Unable to remember correctly all details I encounter, I resort to coding all I read for retrieval to recall and quote correctly. Some friends think I have a great memory - I wish. I just have a retrieval system designed to support my curiosity of virtually anything that the internet provides. That's a lot. But, I just found a simple system that helps my mediocre memory look smart to those that do not look behind the curtain.<br />
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Today I came across news of IBM's Watson http://www.businessinsider.com/ibm-watson-and-ted-talks-2015-5 and http://www.businessinsider.com/ibms-watson-may-soon-be-the-best-doctor-in-the-world-2014-4 and many more. Simpy put, I am wasting my time. I am deluding myself about any ability to harvest or categorize knowledge. I am just human and the machine has won. <br />
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Along the way I even made the mistake to read how <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ibms-supercomputer-can-now-analyze-your-personality-based-on-a-writing-sample-heres-how-you-try-it-2015-7?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Business%20Insider%20Select&utm_campaign=BI%20Select%20%28Wednesday%20Friday%29%202015-07-22&utm_content=BISelect">Watson can analyze personality</a> and then fed one of my posts into its "analytical input box". My wife and my mother would have not been more spot-on except for being perhaps kinder in their delivery - Watson is a cold brained objectivist for sure.<br />
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So, where are we going with this? The pessimists and Luddites will scream at the machine. Instead I see a day when Watson will be in my cell phone, a kind friend (marketing will require a friendly machine-human interface) that will factually answer my questions not only with facts but with insight. Who knows, Version 2.0 may even answer socratically to lead me along a path of learning. All questions will be answered with zero effort and immediately. The only limit to learning will be our individual curiosity, the last human frontier that no analytical machine will touch. We may discover that curiosity rests where our soul does, one and the same, the truly only-human trait.<br />
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Marco Messina 7/22/2015Marcohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203594874028924357noreply@blogger.com0