– Pete Seeger
For this entire year, I am going to try something a bit different, at least by intent, if not format. Each week, I am going to offer an essay/lesson in a 50-part series, 48 of which will be substantive. This Introduction, and the Conclusion, will bookend the meat of the “course,” such as it is. I’ve never tried to write for a specific demographic before, but my intended audience is my children’s generation. Given that all of my daughters range in age from 31 to 18, I believe I am writing for the millennials (as the term du jour goes).
The reasons for why I am addressing this cohort are numerous and worthy of some discussion, as they are tied directly to my purpose in putting this course together: it is my intended purpose to transmit cultural values that will, if adopted, ultimately end in the teardown of the current System. I will come back to what the current System is, and how we got here, as I go along, but for the moment, we can leave that aside. As a general matter, a big part of fixing a problem is first identifying what it is, then understanding its nature, after which one may attempt solutions. A large part of the first stages of this course will consist in making the case for what that system is, from whence it came, and how it can be overcome. Folks my age or older have been, like the proverbial frog, boiled slowly and now have a vested interest in perpetuating the current status quo. That is problematic as I intend to destroy the statist cancer on our public and private lives that has metastasized into a full-blown socialist police state.
Lest I sound like a paranoid lunatic, as just one small example, please consider that the Social Security “trust fund” is no such thing. That money has long ago been spent and as you begin your working career, the money taken from your paycheck for Social Security is not going to be sitting in some fund drawing interest awaiting your retirement at age 60+. No, it is already spent. Your taxes are going to fund the massive entitlement system that is also in hock. The United States is currently $18,996,453,603,000.00 in debt, more than 100% of our yearly Gross National Product. That is, in words, just shy of Nineteen Trillion dollars. That does not include debt of the individual States (look it up yourself – the States are broke, too). Nor does it include agency debt. Nor does it include unfunded liabilities, such as what has been promised in social security, medicare, and the like, as I just noted. It is the ugly, unspoken, open “secret” that not a single politician will touch – because the political class has no solution. Nor do they care. That debt will not be solved, even during their (excessively long) terms of office. They, most of whom are millionaires, care only about being pandered to by other millionaires, whom they squeeze at every turn with the threat of more regulation or the promise of fewer, in return for contributions. It’s known as “lobbying” in the United States, but it is essentially institutionalized extortion.
1. Thus, people my own age or older are most likely a lost cause. And I do not say this with any degree of ageism or pessimism. It’s an understandable phenomenon and thus a conscious editorial choice on my part.
- Older folks will likely reject what I am about to say out of hand. This is because much of what I will say likely clashes with the “knowledge” and conventional wisdom that they received from the Public Indoctrination (Education) System and it is likely to make many extremely uncomfortable. By the time you’ve reached middle age, you’re firmly ensconced in your life, like it or not. While I have had the great fortune to find a meaningful career, doing something I truly enjoy, plying my craft alongside my friends – people I respect, admire, and love – with a great deal of discretion and autonomy as to how I do it, this is not the norm. It is also not a “right,” which in the current parlance has come to mean an entitlement that someone – namely government – must give to me. Try to talk to older folks – even thoughtful and concerned ones – about entitlement reform for the sake of the younger generation and see how that goes if you want some sense of the phenomenon.
- Additionally, as a general observation on the human condition, the older you are, the more set you become in your ways and the harder it is to change. This is also a byproduct of a very ancient, and understandable, cultural phenomenon. There is an instinctual or evolutionary tendency to ignore or diminish the acquired knowledge of those younger than ourselves. Long before there were universities or schools providing education, our only means of inter-generational practical learning – and hence survival – was experiential. In our distant pre-historic past, famine, disease, exposure, war, rape, murder, and predators – just to name a few – would have combined to make it the exception for a man to live long enough to be a graybeard. You still see this in tribal societies. By way of illustration, when I first got to Afghanistan, I recall being told that the average life expectancy was in the late 30’s. A quick web search yields 44 with a very good explanation of why. Whatever the number, it isn’t very high. As a result, men with gray beards are referred to in Pashto as “spin-” – literally “white beard” – but the term includes an implication of wisdom and respect. In fact, the common word for a “wise man” is the same. This makes perfect sense when you consider it. Where living long enough to have a white beard is to beat the odds, anyone who makes it that far is automatically considered to be possessed of some knowledge that the younger generation would do well to heed. Thus, my father and his father, by natural instinct, would have a hard time taking advice from me on general principle and I must confess to having the same natural inclination. If some twenty-three year old young man presumes to tell me about the wisdom of his experience, I am instantly inclined to skepticism. Education, especially a specialized or technical one, eliminates some of this tendency, but not all of it. I will listen attentively to a twenty-three year old tell me how to play guitar or Halo, but I have to suppress my urge to scream when he starts holding forth on what communism really means and why socialism really is the best form of government or that Bernie Sanders really can make college “free” for everyone.
- Even those who agree with me, however, are likely bound to the System and to support it, even unwillingly. This is what it is designed to do. If this seems rather cynical and even a bit paranoid, I ask only for the indulgence to read, to check the links, and to challenge yourself. An open mind will be essential.
2. My four daughters’ have attended schools ranging from Department of Defense schools on base, to Private Catholic schools when we could afford it, to public schools – across a range of states and countries – and thus I think I’ve had a sufficient sample to offer an opinion on what is being taught. Moreover, I am a product of that same System – 19 years and then some. I need not trot out all of the usual, dismal stats about the United States’ education system that you always hear when teachers’ unions and educators (not the same thing, nor with the same goals) and parents are all arguing about whether Common Core teaches math correctly or not. Those arguments are like fighting over the arrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic – a distraction in the face of obvious and certain doom. Consider this year-long essay/course an attempt to both point to the flaws in content and structure, to show why we continue to fall despite ever more spending, and what can be done to fix it.
3. I address myself to the younger generation because it is you who will bear the entirety of what I believe is an insuperable burden. When the system breaks, it will not be old farts like me or your parents or grandparents who bear the full force of it – it is always and forever pushed onto the next generations. I am just now in the process of finding this out myself and the awesome magnitude of it is why I have forsaken my own generation and those before me, who are largely responsible for this mess, some intentionally, most by default. As another not-so-small but undoubtedly close-to-home example, if you are young enough to have just graduated college, or are going to college, or preparing to go, ask yourself this: who it is that holds that massive amount of debt that you have just signed on to repay? In other words, to whom will you be beholden as a debtor until you can pay off said college loan?
There is an old nautical joke about being in the ocean after a ship sinks: when help comes, after someone has been helped aboard, a sailor will look back at the remaining folks in the water and say: “Rope’s up, I’m aboard” and then pull up the rope that is dangling into the water for the rest of those bobbing around in the water. I have been on the wrong end of this joke a few times and left to bob around in the ocean for a bit until one of the knuckleheads on the ship decides to drop the rope back into the water. I have to admit, even now, I find it funny. It’s like that old joke of pulling forward a few inches just as your friend goes to grab the door handle. I can’t think of a time that hasn’t been funny. Even better, the angrier the person on the receiving end gets, the funnier it is. Notwithstanding my certainty about the moral and ethical system to which I ascribe, which compels that I have absolutely zero legal or moral obligation to the next generation, I have decided to commit to this most ambitious writing project of my life because I deeply care about what will be left after me. The reasons for that are too numerous to delve into you now, but suffice it to say that I should hope my legacy has little to do with what I might have accomplished during my time here for my own benefit.
4. Finally, I offer this “course” up to the world, but as I’ve noted, my particular audience is one that can make a difference. If you are an “older” person and agree with the substance of what is offered here, my challenge to you would be to come along for the ride, but bring someone younger with you. That will be the greatest gift you could give me in return for what I’m going to put forth here.
The course will be on a host of relevant and timely topics, principally in Economics and Philosophy, but with a large dollop of Law and Jurisprudence, U.S. History, Business, Political theory, Religion, and a host of other topics. There may even be Math. A few rules of the road:
- First: Leave your ego at the door, as the Brazilian jiu jitsu saying goes. You can’t learn while constantly reacting to what’s written as if it were a personal attack on your values or beliefs. I know – I used to do the same thing. If I could offer a technique for dealing with those moments – which will undoubtedly occur – the instant you find yourself with that “feeling,” ask yourself why you’re uncomfortable with those words. Many times the unease is related to an underlying value or belief that you’ve not yet fully explored. Identify it and explore its limits. Ex: Why do you think an inanimate piece of metal is inherently evil? (I’m talking about a gun). Do you feel the same way about spoons? Okay, how about knives? Do you feel that way only if there in certain people’s hands? Only in certain circumstances: if so, which ones? Is it okay for military folks to use guns to kill “bad people?” If so, why them? Is it only people who have been trained on their use? Okay, then perhaps it’s really not about “guns” per se, etc.
- Second: the precautionary principle applies. Challenge everything I say in your own head. Disbelieve. Be skeptical; challenge anyone attempting to convince you of anything with an appeal to authority. A big part of this exercise, the subtext but an explicit goal, is to teach you something that is entirely missing from most educational curricula – teaching you how to teach yourself. There is no more valuable skill to possess than how to teach yourself. This is to encourage you to begin the real process of self-education.
- Third: Let me respectfully suggest that the education you have been given has been mostly useless and in many ways has been designed to get you to believe a complete fallacy. You have been told by the Progressive indoctrination system that this is the “path to success!” You have been lectured and proselytized to about the absolute necessity of a college degree, by administrators, guidance counselors, and even your very well-intentioned parents. Some of these good people actually believe this and have not a bit of malice in their hearts. They are true believers. After all, they’ll say, look at us! “If you just learn X, (where X is whatever major, specialty, branch of knowledge, or job is currently in vogue), then you’ll be ‘all set,’ as long as you work hard and apply yourself – and then you’ll be able to get a good ________ (fill in the blank with job/career, house, car, spouse, etc.) and live happily ever after.” Let me be the first to tell you that this is bullshit. A huge, steaming pile. On the surface it seems entirely unobjectionable, but I am hoping to offer something else entirely: the Red Pill.
Oh, come on, Dale, you’re thinking. The Matrix? Morpheus quotes? Sure. Why not? Consider me your own personal Morpheus. What have you got to lose – some hours reading, following some links, and thinking on your own.
If that’s not the kind of pill you can swallow, let me offer something a bit more eloquent.
It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. All the power it has is what society gives it, plus what it confiscates from time to time on one pretext or another; there is no other source from which State power can be drawn. Therefore every assumption of State power, whether by gift or seizure, leaves society with so much less power. There is never, nor can there be, any strengthening of State power without a corresponding and roughly equivalent depletion of social power.
Albert Jay Nock, Our Enemy, the State, p. 1.
- Fourth, I am going to do something that very few of these people have done and treat you like an adult – a real, no-bullshit adult, far sooner than the rest of this Country ever will; and not a pseudo-adult with college administrators telling you when you can have guests over to the residence hall, or when you should be at class, in your seat, and raise-your-hand-before-asking-a-question, or where the safe spaces are or aren’t. I should also note that if you are one of those young adults who believes that you have a “right” to a “safe space” lest your feelings be hurt, you should assuredly quit reading now. What I intend to offer in the next 48 weekly installments is the Red Pill. Unlike Morpheus, however, I’m offering it in smaller doses. It’s taken me 46 years to have my eyes opened and I’m offering you the benefit of my twenty-five years of post Boston University Bachelor’s degree. Call this an opportunity for a “life hack,” if you will.
- Fifth, I’m soliciting your input. A pure didactic course would be intolerable to my disposition and go against the natural human spirit of inquiry and inquisitiveness, the same spirit that has been systematically crushed out of you over the course of 12 or more years of “education.” The comments section is open and I am going to attempt to answer thoughtful questions either there or roll them into lessons as we go. Call this a “responsive syllabus” model of education. While I have a rough map of where we’re going, I don’t mind stopping to smell the roses along the way and explore ideas.
- Sixth, NO BOOKS TO BUY!! I’ll link to source materials here. As a tip for how to read these essays, I would suggest clinking on links as you see them. They should open in a new tab or window each time. Take a quick look at the length of the link. If it’s longer than a page or a minute or two if it’s a video, then simply pass by it for now. I’ve likely cited it as a source for a particular proposition, but first time through you can simply accept it on faith for the purpose of maintaining the narrative flow of the essay and its larger point. Next time you read through it, stop and investigate it. See if you can find a better link. See if you can find a contradictory one, but please, no quibbling. Ex: if I link to a site that shows that police killed 1199 U.S. citizens in 2015 for the proposition that if there was a “war on police” as many Chiefs have claimed in the media, please don’t waste your time or mine if you find a site that shows that the number is really 976, especially when the number of police killed was only 42. You haven’t at all changed the point – you’ve merely proved that you have an agenda, are a pedant, and have no intention of learning anything. Let’s disagree over whether the underlying point is valid or not, not how many angels dance on the head of a pin. As a practical matter, I will likely ignore those kinds of points. They don’t further the discussion in the least and rather distract from the limited time I have to do this.
- Finally, related to my last point, I have a day job as Counsel for a multinational, multimillion dollar, unique corporate undertaking. I also have a wide range of hobbies, four kids, two kittens, and I travel a lot. Try to cut me some slack. I will do my level best to be responsive, but I’m on my own time and my own dime. And, on this, if you think this course is of value, please don’t be afraid to click the “Donate” Paypal button I’m going to set up and drop me some coffee money. My time is all I have and I have precious little of it. Time spent writing here is time NOT spent doing other things. Remember this number: 168. If I can convey nothing else to you in this course I hope I will be able to convince you that we all – rich or poor, big or small, tall or short, smart or not – are equal in the most important respect. We all get one resource to spend, time. There are one-hundred sixty-eight hours in every week. When you get done subtracting out meals and other basic biological functions, commuting time to get around, time with family or friends, and most of us have at best 80-90 hours or so in a week to work with. Use them wisely. They’re all you have and they are gone much faster than you think they ever will be.