What is the purpose of the game Monopoly? To drive your opponents into poverty so that you get rich. This is the meaning of success that we all grew up on.
“how is the ultimate result of capitalism any different from the ultimate results of communism? Or fascism? Or any political ideology ever, for that matter?”
Other than the fact that capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system, while ideologies like communism, socialism, and fascism are responsible for impoverishing hundreds of millions and the worst genocides in all of human history?
I think it’s important to be able to distinguish between the evils of “crony capitalism” (which is not capitalism in any true sense) and actual capitalism, and not confuse the results of the two. To borrow from Sir Winston: Capitalism is the worst economic system, except for all of the other systems ever tried.
“There is no question that capitalist societies produce inequalities. A system based on freedom of choice with reward based on merit is bound to yield different results in different circumstances. It is this very quality that reflects capitalism’s natural effectiveness and practicality. It is the freedom to choose that makes us human. It is the profit incentive that drives us to work our hardest. It is our inherent and distinct ability to reason as individuals, not as collectives, that makes us truly free.” (Matt Barnes)
Now Sir Winston himself: “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
Thank you Karen for another well written essay. It’s so nice to find someone with a like minded worldview who can articulate and put into words as well as you do. I am grateful. This topic hits me close to home as I’m a victim of our government’s mismanagement of toxic waste from The Manhattan Project here in St. Louis and I’m one of the lucky ones. Generations of families have been wiped out by cancer. Fortunately for me I’ve only had skin cancer on my legs from standing in the toxic Coldwater Creek but I did develop a debilitating disorder called POTS. This condition often caused by radiation poisoning, toxic exposures, genetic conditions, vaccinations, and post viral. It’s been frustrating to see people develop POTS post COVID and have it called Long Covid/Hauler as if it’s a new condition. It’s been a real slap in the face to those of us who have been trying to bring awareness to this common but little known condition. Odds are good that you aren’t aware of Coldwater Creek because it was a hidden secret until a couple of women planning their high school reunion noticed an awful lot of their classmates had died of cancer and many of them from the very rare appendix cancer. This was my first experience at censorship as two documentaries were being suppressed. They are Atomic Homefront and The Safe Side of the Fence if you are interested. Looking forward to your next essay.
Oh, I am so sorry this happened to you! I will look up the documentaries. I was not aware of them. It's always great to find out new information from my readers. Working on my next essay now...
I do so enjoy your articles....I know they will be well researched, relevant and almost always come on the heels of some discussion I'm having with people in which your article is a perfect "answer" to send them! Did you know the original game of Monopoly was called The Landlord's Game and it was meant to be a "practical demonstration of the present system of land grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences". She based the game on the economic principles of Georgism, a system proposed by Henry George, with the object of demonstrating how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants. She knew that some people could find it hard to understand why this happened and what might be done about it, and she thought that if Georgist ideas were put into the concrete form of a game, they might be easier to demonstrate. Magie also hoped that when played by children the game would provoke their natural suspicion of unfairness, and that they might carry this awareness into adulthood." Funny how the game was flipped from it's original intent to, as you suggest, teach children about winning at the expense of others. Thank you for sharing your unique perspective and your excellent writing!
Haha, the history of Monopoly is fascinating! Of course, as a child, no one explained these things, we just enjoyed playing the game. I thought it was so interesting how anything can be twisted to serve an agenda and I loved how Comrade Detective demonstrated this. Always enjoy reading your comments, Thank you!
I use to enjoy and at the same time get depressed when I first came across an article of yours on Twitter but now I just enjoy because it reignites my passion to read and learn the actual truth about the world we live in. Most are blind and have chosen to not care about any of it because they would rather enjoy the circus than let the truth weigh them down but hey, what can one do? As the saying goes anyway, “you can lead a horse/donkey to the river but you can’t force water down its throat”…unless in most cases you are the government, you can do pretty much whatever you want. The best one can do for oneself is to work hard to develop a mindset of free thinking.. looking forward to the next essay as always.
So many people say the same thing. My essays are depressing and uplifting at the same time. I hope by writing all these essays when they are all compiled the result will be a comprehensive view of the times we are living through--the dark and the light.
I heard the lady who wrote,” Once upon a wardrobe”; a story with C S Lewis in it. She was talking about CS Lewis reason to write fiction. He needed to get around “ Defensive Dragons” by story to the heart and so get truth through.
I thought of your lyrical writing style as a great example of getting the truth round them dragons!
I don't know about that lady but it sounds about right. I quote C. S. Lewis a lot in my essays. I don't know where I would be without him! Thanks for reading!
Bleak! I have the tendency to look for solutions. I do not see any in your essay except to raise awareness, which you do well but a majority of Americans are asleep and Trumps administration was not successful in explaining the reasons for the moves he made to the general public.
He also allowed the distractions of race, wealth and misogyny to dominate the public narrative about him instead of explaining the situation of the REEs and China’s dominance. Nothing was made clear and his administration was unable to slow the growth of these corporate elites plans to dominate. The fact that the USA refuses to atone for past injustices and make corrections is a huge mistake. It underestimated the power that those acts alone could generate. If he plans to turn this around, that has to be done so that we the people are empowered. It has to start with disassembling the monopolies and and redistribution of the wealth back to the
people, not by stimulus money but by taxing the wealthy, eliminating tax loopholes, charging a flat tax and getting rid of the idea that corporations are individuals.
I appreciate you comment. I offer solutions but they aren't what people generally want to hear. There are plenty of people offer solutions based on policy changes and certainly that is important. However, we can change policies all we want but until we address the root causes within the nature of humanity, nothing will ever really change. Many have said my essays have helped them realize they aren't alone and that they express things they couldn't express themselves and it has helped them gain more strength. These are dark times and many people are discouraged, so if I can do that, I am really grateful. Personally, I have seen how you can change the world one person at a time, by setting an example that inspires others. You might look here to find some of those solutions: https://khmezek.substack.com/p/warriors-in-the-time-of-covid or
https://khmezek.substack.com/p/covid-and-the-greater-good: Back in the late 1990s, I don’t remember exactly what year, I was invited to the Reebok Human Rights Awards in Boston. It was an inspiring event. Someone from an African nation—I don’t remember which one—won an award for their bravery in printing a newspaper advocating freedom. By receiving the award, this person could well go back to his country and be imprisoned or killed. A woman who ministered to the mentally ill homeless in New York also received an award.
After the ceremony, a few of us went to a nearby restaurant and talked about the wonderful event. As we left the restaurant and began to walk back to our hotel, we saw a man wandering aimlessly on the other side of the street. He was naked.
It was a freezing April day, and the man was blue with cold. People passed him by quickly and without comment. They never looked directly at him, just made sure to create a wider distance as they passed.
For a moment, our group watched in stunned silence and then everyone continued to walk back to our hotel. I couldn’t join them. I thought of the ceremony we had just attended. If we could not help this man, our claims of caring about others were meaningless.
I found myself walking towards the man. It was a little frightening. He was like some alien, fallen from another world, and I had no idea how he would react to me. I took off my coat, and he paused in his muttering to watch me. When I tried to move close enough to give it to him, he drew back and cried, “Don’t come near me!” as if he were a dangerous, unclean creature, concerned he might hurt or contaminate me. He told me to put the coat on the ground and move away. This I did. He then went and picked up the coat and put it on. He thanked me, calling out a blessing that somehow was deeply spiritual and touched my soul.
The moment of our connection passed. The police drove up, got out of the car and grabbed the man to take him away. One of the officers asked me if I didn’t want my coat back. I said of course not, it belonged to the man now. She shrugged cynically, as if I was some kind of bozo, just like he was. He was put in the police car and they drove away.
I stood uncertainly for a moment. The strangers passing on the street were looking at me in the same way the police officer had done.
I began to walk back to the hotel, feeling like a fool. How could I have been so naive? Perhaps the police officer and the others who regularly traversed this street had encountered this man before—perhaps walking around naked was something he did on a regular basis. What would happen to him? No doubt the police would let him out, he would lose or sell my coat, and end up in exactly the same situation again. My gesture had been pointless.
I was a single mother, struggling to start a creative writing for incarcerated youth in Los Angeles. I’d been invited to the awards ceremony by a wealthy individual who had paid my way. I couldn’t afford another coat. What was wrong with me?
As I was about to enter the hotel, a young woman came up to me. “Excuse me,” she said. “I just wanted you to know I saw what you did. That took a lot of courage. Thank you so much. I’m a college student and you’ve really inspired me.”
My heart flooded with gratitude. Yes, I had done the right thing. I had listened to my heart. I shouldn’t have needed such reassurance, but it helped to know that my actions did indeed have consequences and had spread a little bit of good in the world.
The young woman went away and I never saw her again. But just as I had inspired her, so she had inspired me.
My point is that it’s easy to do nothing. And even when we do stand up, it’s easy to doubt ourselves afterwards. Most people will not praise you for doing the right thing. Rather, they will resent you for it. They will try to bring you down. But by standing up instead of fading into the background we encourage others to find some courage too. We may never know how big an impact we have had. But even a little bit is better than nothing.
What will we do if the day comes when we will have no choice but to comply or unplug? Noncompliance could mean our children being taken from us. It could mean being relegated to second class citizens. Called heathens. Put into interment camps.
Forced to flee into the forest like the boy in my woke fairytale.
Climb the wall, run down the hill and into the forest. No matter the cost, do not let them steal the essence of who you are. Your DNA.
Thanks for raising these important points about rare earth elements and the environmental devastation the current extraction practices bring. I wonder if there are any countries or companies that are doing this mining in an ecologically sensitive way? Is that even possible? There are many environmental practices that do not receive proper attention because so-called climate change has taken over almost every aspect of the green agenda. There are many legitimate dissenting voices that question the scientific claims about CO2 causing climate change, but they are excluded from the debate. The parallels with Covid-1984 are ominous -- the very same hijacking of science to advance a program of political control and profit. Tony Heller at Real Climate Science does a good job of debunking much of the Climate Alarmism by reference to historical climate data. Just a note about capitalism and socialism....I believe that capitalism, properly understood, is a system of voluntary exchange and decentralization that benefits from millions of creative producers cooperating to find more efficient and profitable ways of satisfying human wants. What we have in almost every Western country is a sort of corporatism, overlaid with a massive state that taxes and regulates with unintended negative outcomes for overall prosperity. Add to this the distortions caused by lobby groups, and other special interest groups, governed by an oligarchy. Angelo Codevilla did a good job of sketching the ways that the system is perverted by the elites and special interests. If we can somehow recover true capitalism (ie. free voluntary exchange) we can return real freedom and autonomy to individuals and communities....it will be a difficult challenge. Keep up the great work, I really enjoy your insights. Best, J
Yep, I agree. Humanity has some basic flaws to overcome before we can get back to true capitalism, if it ever existed, I mean, things start well, and we need to figure out a way to make them stop going bad all the time. Socialism sounds wonderful, too. It was the model for the first church started by the Apostle Paul in the Bible, but they sure had problems. Glad you enjoy the writing. I will keep at it, thank you!
Hi Karen, Thanks very much for your response. Not easy to respond to all of these comments, so don't feel obliged to respond to this. I will have to say that socialism is fine by me, as long as it is voluntary and there is a right of exit. However, all of the many socialist experiments in early America fell apart quickly, which might say something about how well they attract and retain people. Hayek (who won the Nobel Prize in economics) argued that we should distinguish between the small social order (the family, the club, the Church congregation, the tiny community) and the extended order (the country, the global financial market). In the former our small band instincts are at work, and the socialist-collectivist impulses operate effectively due to high social trust and reciprocity. But those don't hold together once we move beyond groups that are larger than a couple hundred people, which require codified moral-legal frameworks and institutions to protect us (ie. your phone company doesn't care about you, despite what they say). I personally think that a free society of mutual voluntary cooperation (that includes however much socialism or capitalism people want) is the best approach. The key is that it is voluntary and there is the right of exit. The socialist medical system in Canada, for example, does not allow the right of exit (unless you undertake the high cost of leaving the country). You must pay into the system and you cannot work to find private solutions that are based on volunteerism. The result is a really crappy health care system. Trust me on this, I have been a victim of it. It is an attempt to apply the small social order ethos to the extended order of a vast country with 38 million people. Not gonna work. The reason that the welfare state has functioned as well as it has in the Scandinavians is that those countries (small, culturally and ethnically homogeneous, descended from clan culture) have very high social capital. But now, as immigration increases dramatically, the welfare state has begun to crumble. We also need to remember that the Scandinavian countries are essentially capitalist -- with low tariffs on trade, strong legal frameworks, low corruption, law-abiding populations, stable and predictable currency, etc. So the wealth generated by the free markets can finance the welfare state. I think they would be better off with smaller welfare states, but that is another comment for another day. In your response to me you imply that we need to change people. I admire this faith in the human spirit, and I do think that we need to focus on modest improvements in individual responsibility. However, I would ask, what institutions best draw out the sorts of characteristics we want to cultivate? Deirdre McCloskey does a good job of suggesting that it is the classical liberal order that celebrates the humble bourgeois virtues of personal responsibility, hard work, thrift, punctuality, civic-mindedness, and of course, many of the Christian virtues that, I imagine, you would also seek to cultivate, like Charity, Compassion and so on. Thanks for your great essays, they are an inspiration.
Great article, Karen, thank you. Interesting take on the game of monopoly. Perhaps there was an agenda behind its introduction. I think the problem is with unregulated excesses of the natural human capability to innovate. IMHO Capitalism, socialism and other isms not necessarily bad per se but if unregulated lead to catastrophic excesses. I was once I intrigued by the the idea of having a Tesla - not any more. When they a mandated we’ll know we’ve lost but I hope that won’t happen.
The problem with capitalism is simply that the profit of the national assets sold in national trade never returns equitably to the true owners, the sovereign good people of united America for these United States.
They say they want a universal pay for people. This could easily be accomplished from profits of national assets made in trade and posited equally throughout America via U.S. Treasury direct accounts of every American national. National assets do not belong to any one individual. PERIOD!!!!
It is believed that should such equitable return on the labor exchange to produce product or production by laborers in every field of American living, will skyrocket to never heard of production output. As they say, when people can see the return for their efforts of production or invention, there is no financial limit. Only a eternal Universe awaiting for the taking honor for honor, above all else, eternal forevermore.
This is what our forefathers founded. PERIOD>
AGAIN: Time is no longer an option for unanimity, honor for honor, to labor in America's vineyard of the all-fathers eternal Creation, for restitution of things thereon.
CHOSE IN ACTION whom ye serve and may wisdom ring true and dishonor falls in discord, that liberty be proclaimed throughout our grand republic for which she shall rightly stand anchored, eternally!!!!
In closing, whatever course of action you take in regards to our efforts, always know honor for honor will always be the best foundation for all solutions.
"I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” John 17:15
Chose in action wisely & Normal Law will reign both by Golden Rule & Castle Rule and on thy day of testing, all things by divine providence and goodly spirit of wisdom, arise in honor as thy crown of living, eternal forevermore.
Whatever coin of time remains to rightly 'chose in action,' may your service in honor for honor above all else, be eternal forevermore.
Let me know how things are going and elsewise, as honor finds prudently germane.
None of the elements you mentioned, Cobalt, Niobium, or Lithium, are rare earth elements. The REE's are a group of 17 elements in a particular slot in the periodic table.
“how is the ultimate result of capitalism any different from the ultimate results of communism? Or fascism? Or any political ideology ever, for that matter?”
Other than the fact that capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system, while ideologies like communism, socialism, and fascism are responsible for impoverishing hundreds of millions and the worst genocides in all of human history?
I think it’s important to be able to distinguish between the evils of “crony capitalism” (which is not capitalism in any true sense) and actual capitalism, and not confuse the results of the two. To borrow from Sir Winston: Capitalism is the worst economic system, except for all of the other systems ever tried.
“There is no question that capitalist societies produce inequalities. A system based on freedom of choice with reward based on merit is bound to yield different results in different circumstances. It is this very quality that reflects capitalism’s natural effectiveness and practicality. It is the freedom to choose that makes us human. It is the profit incentive that drives us to work our hardest. It is our inherent and distinct ability to reason as individuals, not as collectives, that makes us truly free.” (Matt Barnes)
Now Sir Winston himself: “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
Thank you Karen for another well written essay. It’s so nice to find someone with a like minded worldview who can articulate and put into words as well as you do. I am grateful. This topic hits me close to home as I’m a victim of our government’s mismanagement of toxic waste from The Manhattan Project here in St. Louis and I’m one of the lucky ones. Generations of families have been wiped out by cancer. Fortunately for me I’ve only had skin cancer on my legs from standing in the toxic Coldwater Creek but I did develop a debilitating disorder called POTS. This condition often caused by radiation poisoning, toxic exposures, genetic conditions, vaccinations, and post viral. It’s been frustrating to see people develop POTS post COVID and have it called Long Covid/Hauler as if it’s a new condition. It’s been a real slap in the face to those of us who have been trying to bring awareness to this common but little known condition. Odds are good that you aren’t aware of Coldwater Creek because it was a hidden secret until a couple of women planning their high school reunion noticed an awful lot of their classmates had died of cancer and many of them from the very rare appendix cancer. This was my first experience at censorship as two documentaries were being suppressed. They are Atomic Homefront and The Safe Side of the Fence if you are interested. Looking forward to your next essay.
Oh, I am so sorry this happened to you! I will look up the documentaries. I was not aware of them. It's always great to find out new information from my readers. Working on my next essay now...
I do so enjoy your articles....I know they will be well researched, relevant and almost always come on the heels of some discussion I'm having with people in which your article is a perfect "answer" to send them! Did you know the original game of Monopoly was called The Landlord's Game and it was meant to be a "practical demonstration of the present system of land grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences". She based the game on the economic principles of Georgism, a system proposed by Henry George, with the object of demonstrating how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants. She knew that some people could find it hard to understand why this happened and what might be done about it, and she thought that if Georgist ideas were put into the concrete form of a game, they might be easier to demonstrate. Magie also hoped that when played by children the game would provoke their natural suspicion of unfairness, and that they might carry this awareness into adulthood." Funny how the game was flipped from it's original intent to, as you suggest, teach children about winning at the expense of others. Thank you for sharing your unique perspective and your excellent writing!
Haha, the history of Monopoly is fascinating! Of course, as a child, no one explained these things, we just enjoyed playing the game. I thought it was so interesting how anything can be twisted to serve an agenda and I loved how Comrade Detective demonstrated this. Always enjoy reading your comments, Thank you!
I use to enjoy and at the same time get depressed when I first came across an article of yours on Twitter but now I just enjoy because it reignites my passion to read and learn the actual truth about the world we live in. Most are blind and have chosen to not care about any of it because they would rather enjoy the circus than let the truth weigh them down but hey, what can one do? As the saying goes anyway, “you can lead a horse/donkey to the river but you can’t force water down its throat”…unless in most cases you are the government, you can do pretty much whatever you want. The best one can do for oneself is to work hard to develop a mindset of free thinking.. looking forward to the next essay as always.
So many people say the same thing. My essays are depressing and uplifting at the same time. I hope by writing all these essays when they are all compiled the result will be a comprehensive view of the times we are living through--the dark and the light.
Gday Karen
I continue to need to read your essays. Thankyou.
I heard the lady who wrote,” Once upon a wardrobe”; a story with C S Lewis in it. She was talking about CS Lewis reason to write fiction. He needed to get around “ Defensive Dragons” by story to the heart and so get truth through.
I thought of your lyrical writing style as a great example of getting the truth round them dragons!
I don't know about that lady but it sounds about right. I quote C. S. Lewis a lot in my essays. I don't know where I would be without him! Thanks for reading!
Wow. So glad I found you. Such fantastic views. Too bad these essays can't be publicized in our daily news.
Glad to have you here. Haha, I doubt many news outlets would want to publish my work.
Bleak! I have the tendency to look for solutions. I do not see any in your essay except to raise awareness, which you do well but a majority of Americans are asleep and Trumps administration was not successful in explaining the reasons for the moves he made to the general public.
He also allowed the distractions of race, wealth and misogyny to dominate the public narrative about him instead of explaining the situation of the REEs and China’s dominance. Nothing was made clear and his administration was unable to slow the growth of these corporate elites plans to dominate. The fact that the USA refuses to atone for past injustices and make corrections is a huge mistake. It underestimated the power that those acts alone could generate. If he plans to turn this around, that has to be done so that we the people are empowered. It has to start with disassembling the monopolies and and redistribution of the wealth back to the
people, not by stimulus money but by taxing the wealthy, eliminating tax loopholes, charging a flat tax and getting rid of the idea that corporations are individuals.
I appreciate you comment. I offer solutions but they aren't what people generally want to hear. There are plenty of people offer solutions based on policy changes and certainly that is important. However, we can change policies all we want but until we address the root causes within the nature of humanity, nothing will ever really change. Many have said my essays have helped them realize they aren't alone and that they express things they couldn't express themselves and it has helped them gain more strength. These are dark times and many people are discouraged, so if I can do that, I am really grateful. Personally, I have seen how you can change the world one person at a time, by setting an example that inspires others. You might look here to find some of those solutions: https://khmezek.substack.com/p/warriors-in-the-time-of-covid or
https://khmezek.substack.com/p/covid-and-the-greater-good: Back in the late 1990s, I don’t remember exactly what year, I was invited to the Reebok Human Rights Awards in Boston. It was an inspiring event. Someone from an African nation—I don’t remember which one—won an award for their bravery in printing a newspaper advocating freedom. By receiving the award, this person could well go back to his country and be imprisoned or killed. A woman who ministered to the mentally ill homeless in New York also received an award.
After the ceremony, a few of us went to a nearby restaurant and talked about the wonderful event. As we left the restaurant and began to walk back to our hotel, we saw a man wandering aimlessly on the other side of the street. He was naked.
It was a freezing April day, and the man was blue with cold. People passed him by quickly and without comment. They never looked directly at him, just made sure to create a wider distance as they passed.
For a moment, our group watched in stunned silence and then everyone continued to walk back to our hotel. I couldn’t join them. I thought of the ceremony we had just attended. If we could not help this man, our claims of caring about others were meaningless.
I found myself walking towards the man. It was a little frightening. He was like some alien, fallen from another world, and I had no idea how he would react to me. I took off my coat, and he paused in his muttering to watch me. When I tried to move close enough to give it to him, he drew back and cried, “Don’t come near me!” as if he were a dangerous, unclean creature, concerned he might hurt or contaminate me. He told me to put the coat on the ground and move away. This I did. He then went and picked up the coat and put it on. He thanked me, calling out a blessing that somehow was deeply spiritual and touched my soul.
The moment of our connection passed. The police drove up, got out of the car and grabbed the man to take him away. One of the officers asked me if I didn’t want my coat back. I said of course not, it belonged to the man now. She shrugged cynically, as if I was some kind of bozo, just like he was. He was put in the police car and they drove away.
I stood uncertainly for a moment. The strangers passing on the street were looking at me in the same way the police officer had done.
I began to walk back to the hotel, feeling like a fool. How could I have been so naive? Perhaps the police officer and the others who regularly traversed this street had encountered this man before—perhaps walking around naked was something he did on a regular basis. What would happen to him? No doubt the police would let him out, he would lose or sell my coat, and end up in exactly the same situation again. My gesture had been pointless.
I was a single mother, struggling to start a creative writing for incarcerated youth in Los Angeles. I’d been invited to the awards ceremony by a wealthy individual who had paid my way. I couldn’t afford another coat. What was wrong with me?
As I was about to enter the hotel, a young woman came up to me. “Excuse me,” she said. “I just wanted you to know I saw what you did. That took a lot of courage. Thank you so much. I’m a college student and you’ve really inspired me.”
My heart flooded with gratitude. Yes, I had done the right thing. I had listened to my heart. I shouldn’t have needed such reassurance, but it helped to know that my actions did indeed have consequences and had spread a little bit of good in the world.
The young woman went away and I never saw her again. But just as I had inspired her, so she had inspired me.
My point is that it’s easy to do nothing. And even when we do stand up, it’s easy to doubt ourselves afterwards. Most people will not praise you for doing the right thing. Rather, they will resent you for it. They will try to bring you down. But by standing up instead of fading into the background we encourage others to find some courage too. We may never know how big an impact we have had. But even a little bit is better than nothing.
What will we do if the day comes when we will have no choice but to comply or unplug? Noncompliance could mean our children being taken from us. It could mean being relegated to second class citizens. Called heathens. Put into interment camps.
Forced to flee into the forest like the boy in my woke fairytale.
Climb the wall, run down the hill and into the forest. No matter the cost, do not let them steal the essence of who you are. Your DNA.
Continue to speak the Language of God.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for raising these important points about rare earth elements and the environmental devastation the current extraction practices bring. I wonder if there are any countries or companies that are doing this mining in an ecologically sensitive way? Is that even possible? There are many environmental practices that do not receive proper attention because so-called climate change has taken over almost every aspect of the green agenda. There are many legitimate dissenting voices that question the scientific claims about CO2 causing climate change, but they are excluded from the debate. The parallels with Covid-1984 are ominous -- the very same hijacking of science to advance a program of political control and profit. Tony Heller at Real Climate Science does a good job of debunking much of the Climate Alarmism by reference to historical climate data. Just a note about capitalism and socialism....I believe that capitalism, properly understood, is a system of voluntary exchange and decentralization that benefits from millions of creative producers cooperating to find more efficient and profitable ways of satisfying human wants. What we have in almost every Western country is a sort of corporatism, overlaid with a massive state that taxes and regulates with unintended negative outcomes for overall prosperity. Add to this the distortions caused by lobby groups, and other special interest groups, governed by an oligarchy. Angelo Codevilla did a good job of sketching the ways that the system is perverted by the elites and special interests. If we can somehow recover true capitalism (ie. free voluntary exchange) we can return real freedom and autonomy to individuals and communities....it will be a difficult challenge. Keep up the great work, I really enjoy your insights. Best, J
Yep, I agree. Humanity has some basic flaws to overcome before we can get back to true capitalism, if it ever existed, I mean, things start well, and we need to figure out a way to make them stop going bad all the time. Socialism sounds wonderful, too. It was the model for the first church started by the Apostle Paul in the Bible, but they sure had problems. Glad you enjoy the writing. I will keep at it, thank you!
Hi Karen, Thanks very much for your response. Not easy to respond to all of these comments, so don't feel obliged to respond to this. I will have to say that socialism is fine by me, as long as it is voluntary and there is a right of exit. However, all of the many socialist experiments in early America fell apart quickly, which might say something about how well they attract and retain people. Hayek (who won the Nobel Prize in economics) argued that we should distinguish between the small social order (the family, the club, the Church congregation, the tiny community) and the extended order (the country, the global financial market). In the former our small band instincts are at work, and the socialist-collectivist impulses operate effectively due to high social trust and reciprocity. But those don't hold together once we move beyond groups that are larger than a couple hundred people, which require codified moral-legal frameworks and institutions to protect us (ie. your phone company doesn't care about you, despite what they say). I personally think that a free society of mutual voluntary cooperation (that includes however much socialism or capitalism people want) is the best approach. The key is that it is voluntary and there is the right of exit. The socialist medical system in Canada, for example, does not allow the right of exit (unless you undertake the high cost of leaving the country). You must pay into the system and you cannot work to find private solutions that are based on volunteerism. The result is a really crappy health care system. Trust me on this, I have been a victim of it. It is an attempt to apply the small social order ethos to the extended order of a vast country with 38 million people. Not gonna work. The reason that the welfare state has functioned as well as it has in the Scandinavians is that those countries (small, culturally and ethnically homogeneous, descended from clan culture) have very high social capital. But now, as immigration increases dramatically, the welfare state has begun to crumble. We also need to remember that the Scandinavian countries are essentially capitalist -- with low tariffs on trade, strong legal frameworks, low corruption, law-abiding populations, stable and predictable currency, etc. So the wealth generated by the free markets can finance the welfare state. I think they would be better off with smaller welfare states, but that is another comment for another day. In your response to me you imply that we need to change people. I admire this faith in the human spirit, and I do think that we need to focus on modest improvements in individual responsibility. However, I would ask, what institutions best draw out the sorts of characteristics we want to cultivate? Deirdre McCloskey does a good job of suggesting that it is the classical liberal order that celebrates the humble bourgeois virtues of personal responsibility, hard work, thrift, punctuality, civic-mindedness, and of course, many of the Christian virtues that, I imagine, you would also seek to cultivate, like Charity, Compassion and so on. Thanks for your great essays, they are an inspiration.
Best, Jonathan
Good morning Karen, great read, keep at it
Thanks Brian
Thanks for opening my thinking up to a whole new dimension
Thank you. Gives me the energy to write another one!
Great Article 😀
Great article, Karen, thank you. Interesting take on the game of monopoly. Perhaps there was an agenda behind its introduction. I think the problem is with unregulated excesses of the natural human capability to innovate. IMHO Capitalism, socialism and other isms not necessarily bad per se but if unregulated lead to catastrophic excesses. I was once I intrigued by the the idea of having a Tesla - not any more. When they a mandated we’ll know we’ve lost but I hope that won’t happen.
There seems to be an epidemic of "mandations" going on these days.....
The problem with capitalism is simply that the profit of the national assets sold in national trade never returns equitably to the true owners, the sovereign good people of united America for these United States.
They say they want a universal pay for people. This could easily be accomplished from profits of national assets made in trade and posited equally throughout America via U.S. Treasury direct accounts of every American national. National assets do not belong to any one individual. PERIOD!!!!
It is believed that should such equitable return on the labor exchange to produce product or production by laborers in every field of American living, will skyrocket to never heard of production output. As they say, when people can see the return for their efforts of production or invention, there is no financial limit. Only a eternal Universe awaiting for the taking honor for honor, above all else, eternal forevermore.
This is what our forefathers founded. PERIOD>
AGAIN: Time is no longer an option for unanimity, honor for honor, to labor in America's vineyard of the all-fathers eternal Creation, for restitution of things thereon.
CHOSE IN ACTION whom ye serve and may wisdom ring true and dishonor falls in discord, that liberty be proclaimed throughout our grand republic for which she shall rightly stand anchored, eternally!!!!
In closing, whatever course of action you take in regards to our efforts, always know honor for honor will always be the best foundation for all solutions.
"I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” John 17:15
Chose in action wisely & Normal Law will reign both by Golden Rule & Castle Rule and on thy day of testing, all things by divine providence and goodly spirit of wisdom, arise in honor as thy crown of living, eternal forevermore.
Whatever coin of time remains to rightly 'chose in action,' may your service in honor for honor above all else, be eternal forevermore.
Let me know how things are going and elsewise, as honor finds prudently germane.
Be wise, safe & blessed,
Arthur
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Please forgive any syntax or grammatical errors.
None of the elements you mentioned, Cobalt, Niobium, or Lithium, are rare earth elements. The REE's are a group of 17 elements in a particular slot in the periodic table.
Yes, thank you. I had edited something out earlier. So I have now made that clearer.
Just a note but there are non mRna vaccines out there. Unfortunately if you want to travel you will need to be vaxxed.
Why would anyone? Surely you're familiar with The Real Anthony Fauci?