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The Individual Is Rising - A Book Excerpt
A Book Excerpt in Two Parts
From
The Individual Is Rising
By Joe Withrow
Part two of this book excerpt can be found exclusively at TwoIceFloes.com
To subscribe to ‘Dispatches’, a periodic newsletter from Cognitive Dissonance and TwoIceFloes Creations, please click here.
(Cognitive Dissonance – While I edited this book for Joe I am not participating in any revenue from the sale of this book. However I did purchase several copies for personal use as well as to give to family and friends.
In fact if you are looking for an inexpensive, easy to read explanation of what is going on in the world, where it is headed and ways to prepare for the inevitable change, all in a compact form you can hand to family and friends, this just might be the book for you.)
From Chapter Four - A New Paradigm is Forming
From the American perspective, one does not have to go back very far in history to recognize that the fundamental principles underlying our society have dramatically changed. The American spirit was once firm on the principles of personal liberty, property rights, free markets, and non-intervention. This is the spirit that attracted immigrants from all over the world to flock to American shores. Freedom was quite popular.
That spirit has been dulled over the past one hundred years and the principles underlying American society have shifted drastically.
Personal liberty was gradually traded for “the greater good for the greatest number” and the illusion of government provided security. Property rights gradually became subject to all manner of governmental rules and regulations. Free markets were destroyed by constant government intervention as America accepted the Keynesian/socialist notion that it was, and is, the role of government to centrally plan the economy.
But the future is calling and the paradigm is rapidly shifting. They won't mention this shift on the television or in the major publications, however, so those still mired in the 20th century way of thinking do not yet realize that it is happening. But if we look around our world we can quite clearly observe the shift in motion.
Look at the explosion of alternative media resources on the Internet. While estimates suggest that only five companies (Time Warner, News Corp, Viacom, Bertelsmann AG, Walt Disney) control more than three quarters of all major media properties (television, cinema, book publishers, magazines, newspapers), there is now a myriad of alternate media sources working diligently to provide unfiltered news and information. The Internet has allowed alternative media to flourish, and people are beginning to see that most mainstream ‘news’ is little more than state propaganda.
Look at the explosion of books and documentaries based on the principles of personal liberty and free markets. More and more people are waking up to the reality of what has happened over the past century and they are trying to spread the message as best they can.
The deterioration of popular support for the corrupt political system and the equally corrupt and enabling mass media is becoming too obvious for even the ideologically blind to ignore. Support for politicians is at an all-time low in modern history and people are starting to realize that it is the entire political system that is corrupt rather than one or the other political party. For example:
- Michelle Obama recently cancelled a speech she was scheduled to give at a Kansas high school after nearly 2,000 people signed a petition in protest of her appearance.
- Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently cancelled her scheduled speech at Rutgers University as faculty and students publically protested her appearance citing her “efforts to mislead the American people about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”
- Attorney General Eric Holder cancelled his speech at a police academy graduation due to protests asserting that he was an ironic choice given his “tactics of obfuscation and redirection of blame”.
- Former Vice President Dick Cheney had to cancel multiple appearances in Canada because it was “too dangerous” for him.
- Former President George W. Bush had to cancel a speech at a Jewish charity gala in Switzerland because he was worried about possible legal action against him for alleged torture.
Read the comments sections on mainstream financial articles that suggest the economy has recovered and the Federal Reserve is the hero – people just aren't buying it anymore. To counter the teetering support for the political and financial systems, the mainstream media has been working hard to paint the status-quo in a positive light. Many people aren’t buying the rhetoric and they are actively calling the bluff.
Additionally, it is remarkable how many localities are pushing for secession throughout the world. Northern California, Texas, Colorado, Vermont, Scotland, Belgium, Bavaria, Catalonia, and Venice are all areas in which residents have voiced support for secession in some capacity due to the ills of government interventions.
Look at the explosion of support the Ron Paul Revolution attracted during his presidential campaigns of 2008 and 2012. Ron Paul’s efforts awoke a legion of young people dedicated to carrying the message of liberty forward. The seeds of liberty have been firmly planted in the minds of these young people and those seeds have only begun to blossom. We will truly witness the historical significance of Ron Paul over the next several decades as these young people develop into principled leaders with a clear understanding of personal liberty and free market economics.
As Ron Paul so often said: “The Revolution is alive and well…”
History has shown, repeatedly, that the human spirit cannot be conquered. You may be able to suppress the human spirit for one hundred years or so, but never forever. The human spirit will always rise.
History has also shown that the collectivist tyrants will do everything in their power to suppress the human spirit and maintain power, and the present day situation is no different. There are now cameras on every stop light and federal taps on every cell phone for this reason. Federally funded SWAT teams are now operational in nearly every town and city, and heavy duty military vehicles and equipment are deployed in every major metropolitan city for the same reason.
The PATRIOT Act, which effectively repealed the 4th amendment, was passed for this reason. The National Defense Authorization Act, which declared the United States a battleground and every American a terrorist suspect, was passed for this reason. The Department of Homeland Security has purchased millions of rounds of hollow point ammunition, which is illegal under international law, for this reason. The REAL ID act, which requires States to upload every single American's photograph into a federally monitored facial recognition system, was implemented for this reason.
The power elite are not content to go quietly into the night, to be filed away into the dustbin of history's mistakes so seamlessly.
Instead, they are prepared to use force to maintain their lordship over the individual. They are prepared to meet the individual on the battlefield. What has completely gone over their head, however, is that the individual does not fight on the battlefield of force, but rather the battlefield of thoughts and ideas.
Victor Hugo once said "No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come."
Our time has come.
The revolution is already in motion. It is a peaceful and intellectual revolution - not one of violence or force, and that is why it will succeed. The collectivist power elite are ill-prepared to fight on the intellectual battlefield because the results of their ideology are in: they failed and they can no longer convince the individual otherwise.
Brushfires of liberty are burning in the minds of men once again. And what is so amazing is that this liberty revolution is not constrained to America this time; it is world-wide. Not only are Americans awakening to the long-forgotten principles of liberty, but so are individuals all over the world. There is a fierce anti-Euro, anti-collectivist movement sweeping all of Europe as these words are being written. Meanwhile, much of Asia is becoming more free-market oriented by the day.
History has demonstrated that dying paradigms are sometimes capable of holding on for much longer than anyone can believe. But they can never last forever. The current paradigm may be able to linger for a while longer, but make no mistake about it - a major paradigm shift is currently underway.
And make no mistake about it - the individual is rising.
Joe Withrow
aka ZH's joegalt
- advertisements -
We may all be Calvary, but we are waiting for the cavalry... :)
Pet peeve of mine, and probably yours, too.
Calvary is the hill where Christians believe Jesus died.
Cavalry is a bunch of mounted soldiers, whether on horseback, driving tanks, or flying Apache helicopters.
"caval" has its roots in the Latin word for horse.
Two posters in a row. I couldn't help myself...
I don't see the rise of the individual so much as a cult of individuality, very superficial, highly media driven. I see it everywhere I look, frankly.
Tatoos are the perfect example. In the not so distant past, tatoos were a sign of low intelligence. Today they're an expression of "individuality" which of course is why everyone has to have one!
Thinking for yourself is good, but frankly, I don't see a lot of that going on - just a whole lot of people who think they do, all the while desperately trying to keep up with the latest trend (which is why this book will probably be a best seller...heh).
"I don't see the rise of the individual so much as a cult of individuality, very superficial, highly media driven. I see it everywhere I look, frankly."
I see this as well. It is just the herd wearing new clothes. But I do see individuals beginning to awaken, slowing no doubt, but the process has begun. You will not see them identifying themselves within the herd nor will they be mentioned in the MSM.
But they are they and they are growing in numbers. Every avalanche starts out with one snow flake and that avalanche is eventually triggered by one snow flake.
With the likes of wristband revolutionaries like Russell Brand tattooing numbers on himself when it comes time for "the number of a man" tattooing will go down much easier... an expression of individuality... your "individual" numbering. I think Russ is 33.
With ALL due respect CD the individual is rising from a full belly crawl to its knees ( depending on their height that's 12-18 inches in the last 100+ years ) and to my liking that's way too slow for the desired freedoms to materialise. Personally at this stage I would hope to be discussing REPARATIONS with the FAB FOUR ( USSA UK FRANCE & GERMAN ) CENTRAL BANKS. If we consider the MARSHALL PLAN as a base then 1000 fold times that and that's looking at this WHOLE CHARADE in financial/economic terms only. The 30 Trillion or so aggregate current DEBT will NEVER be repaid and therefore I am not holding my breath for crimes perpetuated against the WORLD to be SETTLED. Yes there is greater access to information BUT NOTHING NEW HAS BEEN WRITTEN FOR X (FILL IN YOUR OWN NUMBER ) YEARS. This said if REPARATIONS were a topic placed on the table ( lets call it ' THE Z/H PLAN ' for posterity ) I would be comfortable to have you, GW, WB7 & Tyler seated on this TRIBUNAL. The HAGUE would be toooo small a venue to deal with the GUILTY.
"With ALL due respect CD........"
No respect is due me since I did not write this book.
".....the individual is rising from a full belly crawl to its knees....."
It is a process that might take generations. Why is it that we expect solutions to have immediate impact when the dis-ease set in over decades? This is a movement, not a magic cureall.
"Why is it that we expect solutions to have immediate impact"
To me, this is a far more interesting area of study, i.e. the shift in time preference/perception from the old ways to the new, courtesy of instantaneous information.
For example, I'm *talking* to you - a near stranger - and gradually painting as picture of what I *think* you're about, which is a completely new phenomenon compared to actually meeting you and sharing a conversation.
Teenage girls texting each other from opposite ends of the food court captures the effect, and of course there's The Matrix (now iconic), where no one knows what's real and what isn't, including the audience if they could just step outside the *real* Matrix, which most are incapable of doing. So, hidden irony there.
At this point I'm convinced the new media are altering the chemistry, and perhaps even the structure of the brain in ways we have yet to understand. From that standpoint, the "rise of the individual" is just one of many figures viewed against the ground of instantaneous awareness.
We're at a unique jucture in history, one which most of us are only dimly aware of, even when staring right at it.
"Additionally, it is remarkable how many localities are pushing for secession throughout the world. Northern California, Texas, Colorado, Vermont, Scotland, Belgium, Bavaria, Catalonia, and Venice are all areas in which residents have voiced support for secession in some capacity due to the ills of government interventions."
here I have to make a distinction, too. I can't speak for the American areas, but the mentioned European areas that want secession... note from what. their old national unions. not from the EU. and they often want a different kind of government intervention, not a stop to government intervention
certain comparisons simply don't translate well across the Atlantic
You are right Ghordius, this is a very broad statement. The anti-Euro movement takes a nationalist flavor and the small secession movements in California and Colorado are more about seceding from the respective state government rather than the federal government.
So on the surface these aren’t movements that are congruent with the ideas discussed in the book on an absolute level, but it is the trend that I am attempting to highlight. The trend seems to be shifting towards decentralization and I think this trend will continue to gain steam as the Ponzi continues to unravel.
"certain comparisons simply don't translate well across the Atlantic"
I tend to agree. BUT it is the movement Joe is highlighting and not the actual specific application. Any new-to-a-group idea takes times to gestate and be accepted. Joe is not talking about a fully formed movement, he is discussing the early stages of a paradigm shift.
"There is a fierce anti-Euro, anti-collectivist movement sweeping all of Europe as these words are being written. Meanwhile, much of Asia is becoming more free-market oriented by the day."
a too broad brush, in my opinion
specifically, the anti-EUR movement is generally speaking nationalist. the whole point of regaining a national currency is to use it for national purposes, which are... "collectivist" and for sure not "free-market" oriented, to use your jargon based on a very American political assumption that nationalism and socialism are "the same" and "free markets" translate automatically in "free international trade"
remember that the pro-EUR crowd is part the pro- european common market crowd, which champions the Four Freedoms in the EU
"a too broad brush, in my opinion"
First let me say that this is a book except, not a completed essay.
However when I began to edit the book I had a similar discussion with Joe about several items. He reminded me that the book is targeted towards those who are not quite as knowledgeable or aware as the typical ZH reader/commenter is. And thus they need a broad brush initially rather than 500 pages of specifics and counter arguments. As well, you are reading this excerpt from Chapter 4. Many of these thoughts are expanded upon in later chapters.
Give it a try. You might be surprised. I think it is a great easy-to-read, relatively short book for those in your family or friends who are curious, but don't wish to be bogged down in detail. What have you to lose but less than $10?
One can only hope.
This author presents his conclusions without revealing the facts behind those conclusions.
Let's look at some REAL history. Under the Washington administration, some of the first acts passed were called the "Assumption" and "Funding" bills. In the "Assumption" act the U.S. government unconstitutionally assumed liability for all states' debts associated with the revolution. However, most southern states had already paid off their debts, so the bill was in fact a political GIFT to the northern states and the bankers.
Under the "Funding" act it was decided that CURRENT HOLDERS of government bonds, etc. would be paid off in full, even though the ORIGINAL purchasers were the people who took the real risk that the revolution would succeed After the revolution it was presumed that such bonds and scrip were worthless, but SOMEONE was buying them up! It turns out that Alexander Hamilton spread the word among the wealthy merchants and bankers that the U.S. would redeem them at FULL VALUE. Even Congress got into the act, with many Congressmen and Senators taking out huge loans to purchase these "worthless" bonds and scrip.
WHY would Hamilton allow such corruption? Because Hamilton believed that it was more important that the new U.S. government gain the full political support of the wealthy merchants and bankers - and what better way to gain their support than to owe them money!!! The wealthy class now had a REAL stake in the success of the U.S. government - MONEY !!! The dispute that erupted between Hamilton, Madison and Jefferson was so heated that it led to the creation of POLITICAL PARTIES in America.
That is the REAL history of the U.S.: Corruption from the beginning.
A great book on this subject is: "The Origins of the American Party System" by Joseph Charles (1956)
"This author presents his conclusions without revealing the facts behind those conclusions."
I don't know if you noticed but this is book excerpt, not a complete essay. So to complain that the author left something out is just silly. I selected the excerpt, not the author. So if anyone is to 'blame' it is me. Since the author decided he needed 129 pages to express his opinion how are the two or three pages I selected going to represent his opinion or be complete?
Jack, please capitalize South and Southern, we Southerners would appreciate it. Thanks.
and thus Hamilton handed over the Republic to the Bankers. Planting the seed of cronyism. A weed that has regrown whenever cut down by the lovers of liberty.
Socialists worship Hamilton , just as your comment shows. , and thus as the Hamilton was the bankers BFF, so are the socialists the bankers useful idiot BFF (SUIBBFF)
OOPs, the barbs were meant for the progressives I know, not the comment I replied to .
This is a nonsense article.
ALL of the protests cited were the result of collective action, not some John Galt fictional "rugged individualist" going it alone.
I used to have some respect for CD, but not now that he has gone off on some libertarian fantasy.
We are a social species and have always depended on each other, even if, these days, the ignorant masses and idle intellectuals believe that they can, for instance, 'simply' press a switch to have their lights go on, or 'simply' drive on a road in a car, neither of which those like CD really have a clue about.
It is all theoretical spin from a person who has never, apparently, worked in a factory or done anything much productive.
As for myself? I have worked in factories and on farms and many other things. The only way that ALL business functions is because of co-operatve effort, NOT some mythical "individualism".
But you completely misunderstand the concepts of individualism and collective action as though the two are incompatible. There is a difference between collective action and collectivism. Under a collectivist system, rights of the individual are nullified for the supposed good of the collective. For example the prior restraint argument against the second amendment is often used by collectivists as an excuse to end that individual right. Because you might commit a crime your right to bare arms should be forfeited for the supposed good of the collective. They've even extended this argument to if someone else commits a crime, your individual right must be forfeited. Of course this is complete authoritarian non-sense. Collective action is just prudent like the fire department, factories, farms and other civic organizations. The difference is they are not used to curtail individual rights. I often see arguments made for socialism or collectivism (same thing) using examples of fire, police etc. as though that is collectivism. It is most certainly not. This seemingly subtle difference is the key to human freedom and saddens me that it is lost on so many.
I couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you.
Setarcos, you're absolutely right. Elsewhere, the word individualism means everybody has a voice in a social debate whose purpose is to make the collectivity progress for the common good.
In America, it's about a guy loading himself with guns and ammunitions and going it alone, because he's scared and hateful of everyone else.
"Elsewhere, the word individualism means everybody has a voice in a social debate whose purpose is to make the collectivity progress for the common good".
Authoritarian bull shit.
"In America, it's about a guy loading himself with guns and ammunitions and going it alone, because he's scared and hateful of everyone else".
Yea, under collectivism you're not allowed to defend yourself...for the good of the collective you must die. Self defense is hate. Besides, in this collectivist utopia there are no bad people and your overlord really cares about you as he rides around on a pink unicorn blasting all that would harm others with rays of love. And of course you needn't arm yourself against your benevolent overlord because he would never ever become tyrannical.
It's one thing to disagree but something entirely different to misrepresent arguments as you have. Anyone who tells you that the negation of individual rights is good for the collective is lying to you. Anyone tells you that collectivism and collective action are the same is lying to you. Or horribly ignorant, makes little difference to me. Euros just don't get us yanks.
The common good, dear progressive Lea, is individuals going about their lives producing things that are of benefit to themselves and mutually to others, without coercion.
And the thing you hate & fear are individuals with arms for the protection of themselves and others, now why would that be? You saying the collective (aka government) has your best interests (and everyone elses) at heart even knowing what you know now?
Do you pack a commode plunger to force your shit down others' threats?
America grew so quickly, not because of any philosophy, but because everything was free or almost free. After we took the land away from a bunch of illiterate naked savages who couldn't even grasp the concept of the wheel, it was ripe for the taking. Land was free. Minerals and timber were free. Crops were grown cheaply with slaves or cheap immigrant labor from Europe. Nobody really had to get along with their neighbor; they could just move farther away. They called this individualism. Now we have run out of free land and cheap stuff. We can no longer just expand indefinitely. We must cooperate. It is not our strong point. It will be our downfall.
"... a bunch of illiterate naked savages who couldn't even grasp the concept of the wheel,"
Sarcasm?
I'm pretty sure that even savages could and in fact did envisage such concepts. For example, crop rotatation based on climatic changes, and medicine wheels. Even more ubiqitous concepts such as karmic wheels, a sense of intrinsic knowledge and transcendental existence. In my view, the fact that people chose not to mass-manufacture buggies, extract fossil fuels, nor follow a path of ever-increasing technological complexity as a means of manipulation, create extreme hierachial power structures and devise ultimate enslavement, is wise, not savage.
They chose not to build Las Vagas in a desert, build high-rise rabbit hutches, economies based on debt. Nor build a legal framework so complex that it is necessary to write volumes of reference books, in an attempt to synthesize a seemingly orderly society, from what was essentially a self-regulating society. Yet, we fool ourselves into believing we have made progress. The Egyptians and Chinese were in fact the earliest civilizations to write, yet few today can understand the depth and brevity of their thinking.
Now, we all wear sneakers, but let's not kid ourselves. Maybe it's savage freedom that we lack, not more space.
"I'm pretty sure that even savages could and in fact did envisage such concepts"
They had the concept down, they just didn't have any roads to drive on.
.
the concept of "ownership" vs. the concept of that which is shared through respect is what your "free"-dumb is describing, the concepts believed that include a white man-ifest destiny of theft, exploitation, ownership. . .
that another "tribe" is currently doing exactly that to "you" even today is merely a form of historical repetitive karma.
exploiting YOU as their resource, own'd. free-dumb.
Well said,
No it's not. It's wrong on its face.
The 'savages' did not spring from the soil of Utah, Maine or Florida. They came here from other lands than North America, just like those that followed from European countries, the Caribbean, and Asia.
To say that the savages had the land taken away from them is pure bullshit, PC crap.
Everyone born in this country is a Native American. This hijackikng of the language is a linguistic trick to pervert the truth. Just as "Anti-Semite" was appropriated by the Jews. All sons of Shem are Semites, not just Jews. Including the very people they have fought with for a thousand years and counting.
Wow! Somehow you twisted this into a rant against Semitism or anti-semitism. I didn't know the natives who were when Europeans arrived were Jews. Thanks for educating me.
No rant against either. It's language and attitude about what the Indians endured. They are not any more or less Native than you and I are. The perversion of language is an ongoing tactic of so-called progressives who are appropriating traditions and words to include themselves, like camels looking under the tent.
The most recent assault by progrssives in the Gay community to hijack Marriage for a union that couldn't be any more unlike a marriage, which is a sacrament, befouled by the legalization of buttfucking, a filthy disease ridden practice responsible for HIV, and AIDS.
"I didn't know the natives ""who were when"" Europeans arrived were Jews. Thanks for educating me".
You need more than an education. What on earth does that mean?
"Buttfucking" is no more responsible for hiv-aids than anything else. Homosexuality has a long and storied history, for example, the ability of higher status males in greek city states to "buttfuck" any person of lower status anytime they wanted- including in public on the streets. The Catholic Church comes to mind as well. Still, Hiv-Aids is a recent phenomenon many experts associate with certain drug habits in combination with the exchange of bodily fluids.
As sacraments go, it was made a sacrament for the purpose of keeping boys from "buttfucking" each other to the exclusion of women with whom they could procreate and grow the religion.
Yes, the American Indian is no more native than we are (just ask the mound builders), however, we were pretty deceitful regarding treaties and SCOTUS decisions which were ignored at the request of white land promoters. It is hard to see anyone use the term savage for any society before ourselves.
So-called progressives are the flip side to so-called conservatives. Get too invested in the game and you will end up blind to the real warfare going on around you...
1) The Homo lobby has been very successful in rewriting the narrative that held the practice of Buttfucking was not responsible for the contraction and spread of AIDs/HIV.
Only the most PC of readers would buy that. IT's a testament to how many homos are in media that the lies about how it originated and spread were able to be told and all truthful opposition suppressed. While anecdotal the only people I know who contracted and died from AIDs got it from buttfucking multiple partners. And yes, Arthur Ashe did not, but I don't know him.
2) Whatever purpose 'marriage' originated from it didn't originate in the Homo community.
They should have their own civil ceremony and call it by a name THEY originated, because there is no way the vast majority of the world's population is going to EVER think that two men taking some kind of vows equate to marriage. Legal, yes, ridiculous yes, PC, yes, Absurd, most definitely.
It's just an in your face "we Won"! nah-nah-nah-nah-nah at the 'breeders' and nothing else but the ability to file a joint return and has enriched ambulance chasing lawyers looking for another income stream first thru the fight, and then thru the inevitable divorces to follow.
damned button..
From what I've read beyond the indoctrination of PC educators, the Indians were lower forms of life than the most predatory of animals.
Do you have any idea what they did to members of other tribes?? The humiliating, torturing, raping and other atrocities that only an animal could concoct to utterly tear to pieces their brothers in blood simply because they treaded on their territory or had dreams of empire and obliterated those tribes who were peaceful and could not defend themselves?
With the vastness of the North american continent, these indians couldn't find a way to co exist with their red skinned brothers in peace?
To then slam the Cavalry for their own heinous acts is just a bit disingenuous. To note their atrocities, and leave out the ones of Geronimo, and Sitting Bull among others, is the height of hypocrisy.
I have no trouble using the term Savage for the indians. They were worse than that.
good to point out the real history of label-words, in order to gain a more full perspective. . .
fingers pointed at each, other'd.
distractions working as intended.
Short version: You fuck me, I fuck you.
As old as the hills, as constant as the sun and wind.
TPTB can fuck us over for a while, but after a while they will get it back.
I guarantee.
Thanks Joe and CD: I bought your book and anxiously waiting for it to arrive (Tuesday I hope). I want to read "The Rest of the Story" as an old friend would say.
The future of humanity is cooperation, not individualism.
That is to say, the future of humanity is exactly like its past.
Humans evolved in cooperative social groups. The recent (10,000 years ago) advent of agriculture and private property represent 5% of the evolutionary history of anatomically modern homo sapiens.
Private property and "individualism" -- especially the virulent and unhealthy idea that every man is on his own, and must survive only on his own merits -- is a plague on humanity. We will either defeat the plague, or it will defeat us. What is clear is that in 500 or 1000 years, if civilization exists, it will have become more socialist and cooperative, not more individualistic and barbaric.
You completely misrepresent what individualism really is. You're mixing concepts. Collective action and collectivism. Individualism simply means you as an individual have natural rights that cannot be rescinded. Collective action does not negate rights for the good (lie) of the collective. As this at every point in history turns to tyranny. We are no longer small nomadic tribes where collectivism was more appropriate. What you espouse is the real plague on mankind. A backwards, ignorant view of humanity. Hell, you can't even grasp the differences in concept.
.
Exactly.
"If we don't hang together, we will surely be hung alone".
This book may be well meaning but only the most rugged, antisocial, nature loving, people hating individualists would subscribe to its premise.
One less book to read.
State run socialism is the ultimate in individualism.
The individual getting a check in the mail does not need community for sustenance or security. Voluntary institutions of mutual aid and community are systematically destroyed by state forced socialism.
Social cooperation is a choice that many make under freedom.
The social oorder in the open source movement is the shining example of free market voluntary social organization.
State run socialism tends to concentrate power to those individuals who can convince the majority of sheep that they speak for the majority of sheep.
Thus socialism is inevitably the means of centralization of authority, usually in the one individual who best convinces the sheep that he cares for them.
Wrong.
True cooperation springs from individualism.
Coordinated socialism ensures cooperative mediocrity and mendacity.
This is not a political argument, but one based on realism, truth, and common sense.
If you take care of you and yours, and have something to offer, I will trade with you.
If all you have to offer is a demand for something based upon work you did not do, I will not trade with you.
The current system is based upon parasitic behavior, a pretend world where the productive individual is punished for the sake of parasitic individuals and groups backed by a cabal of parasitic organizations (Wall Street/Washington).
The problem is crony capitalism paired with socialism and a fascist police state. It rewards the parasites, the moochers, the cronies, the mandarins, the law breakers never arrested for breaking the rule of law.
The sad fact is that mediocrity is not something that most people would ascribe to themselves.
But all it takes is a visit to the grocery store, a ride down the highway, a long look at the culture from a bird's eye view, or a reading of a few blogs dealing with current events, (forget history) to know that mediocrity maybe a too generous assessment of ourselves and our fellows.
Any glance at governors voted in by the public term after corrupt term is another confirmation of below mediocre human beans.
Well social ecology, genetics, and anthropology among others prove you wrong but I give you a simple alternative scenario:
- Take all of the tools you want but try to survive on your own or with your just immediate family over the course of a winter in a totally isolated environment where it is cold and ability to forage is limited/nonexistant. If disease/cold doesn't take you, starvation likely would.
There is a good reasons that homo sapiens nor any of even our most distant relatives in the Great Apes family tree evolved as largely solitary animals.