Ayn Rand – channeling Aristotle – tried to get people to see the principle underlying seemingly disparate things; her purpose (and his) being to encourage people to think in terms of principles in order to get them to see that seemingly disparate things are often the same things.
Theft, for instance. The defining principle is the taking of another’s property; this taking does not become not-taking by calling it “taxes” rather than theft. Once this is understood, much else follows.
People are not taught to think in such terms for the obvious reasons. If – as in our example – a person thinks “taxes” are somehow different than theft, because the taking (by force or its threatened use) of someone else’s property is called something else, then he will accept and even endorse the theft.
There are people who understand the sameness – and people who see a false difference.
The two are at odds, for obvious reasons. But there is an important difference. Those who see that taking someone else’s property is theft – no matter what the people doing (and endorsing) the taking call it – are the ones who do not want to have any part, either directly or indirectly, in the taking of other people’s property.
But the people who think it’s ok – that it’s right – to take other people property aggressively defend and advocate for the taking of other people’s things. They consider it criminal to resist such depredations. A person who keeps his money, for instance – rather than hand over the portion he supposedly “owes” to people he’s never met nor incurred any debt obligation morality would require him to meet – is styled a “cheat.”
People are regularly sent to prison for this “crime” – by people who are criminals, if the word has any moral meaning/validity. Which it can’t have if the thing that defines “criminal” is nothing more than failing to obey the law as opposed to not engaging in such activities as taking other people’s property, which is immoral because it entails theft.
Which necessarily entails violence as well as deception (etymological as well as otherwise).
Those who do not see it as such will never see that it is – so long as they are able to call it something else, which enables them to feel right about doing what is wrong – to those who are wronged by the doing of it.
This gets us to to the fundamental nature of the dilemma besetting us. On the one hand, people who wish only to leave others alone – so long as their actions cause no one else any harm. On the other, those who think it’s right to not leave others alone – and to take their property – whenever they think it’s justified, which justification is entirely up to them to confect.
And for the victims to accept.
It is not possible for the one to agree with the other. It is only possible for the one to submit to the other.
But – mark this – it is always the one that must submit to the other; never that the other is left alone. Such a contest can never have other than one outcome: The submission of the one to the other. The only way to stave off this submitting is not to submit – but that (up to now) has rarely been understood as the only way to deal with people who demand submission. So – instead – there has been a long-drawn-out process of continual submission, which has resulted in near-total submission.
This inevitability is one the Left has long understood. It is one those opposed to the Left have for a long time failed to comprehend. The latter have acted – in naive good faith – on the presumption that a reasonable accommodation is possible with the Left. It is not. At best, such accommodations are temporary abeyances, like the respite enjoyed by the frog in the process of being swallowed by the snake. His head is still not engulfed by the reptile bent on consuming him, so the frog thinks he isn’t consumed just yet. And that – maybe – he can reach some accommodation with the snake.
There are also some snakes – such as Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Mike Pence – who operate on behalf of the snake while pretending to be allies of the frog. Just be reasonable, they say. Let’s all work together.
But it only works one way – and with the same (inevitable) result.
Recognition of the fact that we cannot agree to disagree with people who will never let it go at that is the first step toward understanding that there is only one way forward, that being to separate ourselves from those who will never agree to disagree and leave it at that. They will say we are “hateful” and that we are a “threat” to what they style “our democracy” but what they really mean is we must be made to agree – and to submit. That we must accept and abide whatever they impose. Our heartfelt wish to agree to disagree – and leave it at that – will never be tolerated.
After the realization of the fact comes the practical problem of how to act on the fact. The first step is obvious. We give no ground in our minds – or our hearts. We abide no etymological legerdemain. We do not accept any obligation to “work with” people who view “working with” as submitting to.
The choice is binary – and must be seen as such.
Then comes the harder step, which becomes even more necessary once the nature of our predicament is understood. Once they understand we understand, to put a finer point on it. At that point, they will no longer event pretend to play nice – and we are seeing that already. The balled up fist is no longer shod by the velvet glove. Things will wax oppressive, even more so than they already are. Because it is inevitable. Because it follows – as per Aristotle (and Rand).
At that point, the task – for us who wish to be set apart from those who will not abide agreeing to disagree – will be to figure out the ways and means of separating ourselves physically, having already done so emotionally and intellectually.
It will probably not be easy. But it is existentially necessary. Because there is no other way to deal with those who will never agree to disagree – and leave it at that.
. . .
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The politicians do this….
Start a limited company in your name…John Smith LLC……then leave it dormant….
Claim your name….there is benefits to doing this…….it protects you in a number of ways…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iR-LyQKP6U
Democracy for the slave owning control group on the top…
The slaves on the bottom?…..no rights….
Maybe one of the reasons there is no slave revolt, is the slaves have been given the idea they have rights…to pacify them….
This video is about diving into this rights thing…..
….You are not a person, or part of the body corporate.
…….The Government tells you this….. that it isn’t you….. in their own Acts and Statutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZXE7Iz0lxY
The slaves aren’t fighting back because 1. they don’t know who the real enemy is (this is beyond politics, religion, etc.) and 2. they don’t know who they are. (To paraphrase Sun Tzu)
The enemy are dark occult psychological wizards who’ve been ‘managing’ their ‘livestock’ for thousands of years. They’ve successfully inculcated the population with a lesser degree of their own mindset:
Egotism: It’s all about me, me, me
Moral Relativism: do whatever the hell you want, might is right, everyone has ‘their own truth’
Social Darwinism: we need a ‘structure’ to society with different levels, we need ‘guberment’, vote harder, the Orange Man is going to save us…while I sit on my arse and vegetate.
Eugenics: we gotta get them Arabs, oh, the Russians are bad, oh, let’s shoot all the illegals, and on.
“do whatever the hell you want,”
The control group are satanists…so this is what they preach…
the slaves….”they don’t know who they are.”….
that is the slave’s downfall….they don’t write anything down….have no history…the control group does write everything down…has a history going back 6000 years….
“we need ‘guberment”….either a republic or an absolute monarchy….
Right….the parasite class….. the control group….has brainwashed the slaves into believing that they need these parasites… parasiting off them….and….a lot of the slaves will defend that evil system to the death…because it is all they know….useful idiots….traitor slaves….
“The slaves aren’t fighting back because 1. they don’t know who the real enemy is”
right…the control group does a great job of selling the slaves the narrative that they are a benevolent, protector, santa claus…saving mankind…they even believe they are the new gods…running the planet…
the control group is a malevolent monster thief…but they keep it well hidden….blaming scapegoats for their crimes….
Another principal difference between “us” and “them” is that “we” could get along well without “them”. Conversely, not so much.
Another switch is Thou Shalt Not Kill has become Thou Shalt Not Murder. I hadn’t heard the latter until about 10 years ago. When I questioned those that spouted it I was told that killing in “war” isn’t murder, making it OK.
Stealing on behalf of The State is not stealing. Killing on behalf of The State is not killing. The verbal gymnastics of that perpetrate these acts on behalf of The State means little to the victims.
Thou shalt murder is the original text. Killing someone in self defense, for example, is not murder.
As you point out, stealing and murder by the state is still stealing and murder.
It’s also important to note that ancient Israel was stateless for 450 years until King Saul came along. Right after God warned them to not make anyone a king.
That would be 1 Samuel 8
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%208&version=NIV
Cancer. You cannot tolerate cancer, you cannot compromise with cancer, you cannot ignore cancer, you cannot hide from cancer. You cut it out, or burn it out, or cancer will kill you.
Exactly, Griff!
You either kill the cancer – or it kills you.
The young initiate asks his guru, when I come to the fork in the road, which way should I go? The guru says, “take it”. It does not matter if you go left or right, and let me explain why.
Civilizations follow a life cycle. They start with hard work, thrift, inventiveness, heterosexuality, large families, strict moral codes – they end with homos, trannys, inflation, debt, immoral behavior, war, greed, etc.
Amerika got rich and jealosy leads to Communism – the poor welfare class adn the corporate welfare class, found ways to tap into the wealth. The bankers are the worst – using debt inflation to transter the wealth from the 99% to the 1%. Currently Amerika is being raped to death by Jewish wars in Israel and Ukraine. Zelensky just bought a 20 million dollar home in UK.
So does it really matter if you went Left or Right? The empire is following a cycle, and regardless of whet you do on a personal level, the cycle will continue its inevitable course.
Amerika is clearly in the declining phase – nut still alive and kicking. I read Lew Rockwell every day. In my younger years I studied Ayn Rand and read all of her works, I had the Ayn Rand Lexicon on my bookshelf. But who reads intellectual works? A tiny minority. Turn on the TV – what do you see? Jerry Springer and welfare sluts fist fighting over some dodgy male cheating on them.
I will tell you what matters – survival. The Laws of Nature orbit around one main principle – survival of the specie and the genes. Hot house earth became Ice Age earth. Animals transformed from lizards to mammals. So what matters is that you survive. The imperative is that you must survive.
Nature does not care if you get it wrong. Any animal not fit is eaten and removed from the gene pool. Likewise you live in a swamp full of snakes, RINOs, hyenas, money grubbers, war mongers, liars, false flaggers, etc. You are literally surrounded by scum – that could get you killed. Every week some beautiful young white woman is killed by some ugly illegal immigrant. And it is rampant and never reported.
Crime in Sweden, London, Germany is through the roof – from importing violent thugs from third worlds. Politicians did this for votes – and every Jewish organization funds and assists it because they want to destroy the white race. You are the victim if you allow it or not be aware of it.
Do not live in a Liberal/Jewish controlled city. Do not live where guns are prohibited. Make plans to leave the United States if WW3 starts to involve us. WW3 can escalate into nuclear war – and a sudden plunge into darkness and deprivation. Most people will die from radiation sickness and starvation – not from the initial blast.
And if it happens, you can read Ayn Rand in your basement by candle light. Imagine a situation where walking outside in the day can get you sniped. No gas for you car, no electricity for your Tesla. Markets are closed, people trade in real things and precious metals. In post WW3 people will return to the old ways. Gays and trannys will not be tolerated. The old moral codes will be enforced, and after decades of extreme hardship society will rebuild. So did it matter if you were Left or Right? It only matters if you survive and were prepared.
Excellent Jack,
Minor correction – Zelensky paid 20 million British pounds, so it’s over 30 million USD$. Might as well grift big time when the opportunity presents.
And where is Zelensky getting 30 million for his flat? Straight out of our pockets – obviously the war is good for him and he has his fallback position in posh mansions, because he also bought a Swiss Chalet and a South Florida coastal mansion.
“Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska spent $1,100,000 on Cartier jewelry and got a salesperson fired in the process during a visit to the U.S. with her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in September 2023.”
What I am counting on is the Ukraine patriots catch him and his wife and give them the Trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu- up against the wall and shot dead after a quick court martial (to make it legal, LOL).
Romania is next to Ukraine, not the similarity of the wifes names – execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu was held on 25 December 1989 by an Exceptional Military Tribunal
Buh Bye
Oh, but you get something in return! Look at the roads! Look at the way you don’t have roving gangs of thugs… er… and how there’s a social safety net!
The real crime isn’t necessarily the taxes, it’s that in return for paying for government we get so little in return. And what we do get seems to be of poor quality. Even transfer payment recipients only get about 1% of the actual money budgeted for the welfare program, much of the “cost” used for internal accounting and other “management” expenses. What a way to run a railroad!
Now we’re at the point where one of the biggest state budget items is the employee pension fund. Partially due to it not being properly funded to begin with, more due to the Greenspan put and artificially low interest rates, more of the annual budgets will be going to pay out the guaranteed pension funds, something most private sector employees can only imagine.
The slave owner control group says….we are taking up to 50% of your income for taxes….they tell the slave the money will be spent helping them…lol…plus many more taxes and fees….
where do taxes go?
67% goes to the vatican…via the city of london…the financial district….the crown in england ….which is owned by the vatican….. owned by the vatican since about 49 AD…..
23% goes to the private bankers who own the federal reserve ……….
10% goes to tax system owners as collection fees……
https://yewtu.be/search?q=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FnZZEPlCeZws
‘Theft, for instance.’ — eric
Which is closely related to gouging, as in monopoly pricing power. This chart, showing the electric power monopolies’ remorseless price hikes, is the death knell for EeeVees:
https://tinyurl.com/4mh6payy
Remember three years ago, when EeeVee pushers were touting how cheap electric power was compared to filling up at the gas pump? Well, their sponsors — grasping, gouging electric utilities — have cranked prices by over 28% since then. Just as they were doing in the miserable, inflationary 1970s.
EeeVees and their costly green-energy infrastructure are a gov-sponsored bubble that’s been well and truly punctured. Now, hair afire, it’s plunging to earth like the Hindenburg.
Oh, the kakistocracy!
You can bet your bottom dollar that Eric would not agree to an extra guest for a month or so draining his beer stash, grabbing food from the fridge, watching TV and making a nuisance of themselves, the unwelcome mode would start in about less than two minutes. Might not work out so well.
I would darken his door with a couple cases of good beer and 500 dollars in cash to help out the mission, hang around for less than an hour and then shuffle along.
Don’t want to impose, just lend a helping hand.
If 100,000,000 readers would donate 10 dollars, Eric would have 1,000,000,000 dollars to save for a rainy day.
The IRS would be knocking on Eric’s door. Elon needs another 500 million of taxpayer money. Another 499 million for the MIC, 1,000,000 dollars left, state taxes will be 500,000 dollars, 500,000 dollars in an account that can be confiscated at any time.
Less than one percent for you, more than 99 percent for those who can steal it all. Trans Am might be gone too.
Dot gov would turn 100,000,000 donors into saps. AI will have no mercy, Lavender is in control.
Eric might disagree, however, the IRS would make sure he agrees or else.
People who screeched “My body, my choice!” for years when it came to abortion got angry when people used that same argument to decline taking the experimental mRNA jabs. Those who supported MANDATORY VACCINATION FOR ALL argued that pregnancy wasn’t contagious like COVID was, but that argument crumbled to dust when it became too obvious the “vaccines” neither prevented infection NOR stopped the spread.
A little off topic, but the snakes in the government & media may use bird flu to scare the masses once again (like they did with the dreaded ‘Rona that had a survival rate of 99%+ for healthy people under 70) AND manipulate the upcoming election…..
https://thehighwire.com/editorial/is-bird-flu-the-pandemic-of-choice-to-exploit-the-2024-election/
Toughen up. The 2031 edition is the real thing.
I try to treat everyone with kindness upon first contact. That’s the world I want to live in. This comes easy for me because I am naturally good natured and laid back. I get the feeling that you are too, Eric.
The personal mental training I require of myself is to be able to recognize malice and “flip the switch” to beast mode, instantly when necessary, because this goes against my genetically inherited good nature. It’s a blessing and a curse.
I have, in my personal life found myself in the situation of the frog halfway in the snake’s mouth, giving the snake the benefit of the doubt about his intentions. I was bitten, but not consumed. Some lessons must be learned the hard way.
It took me well into my adult life to realize the horrific reality that there are those who are not like me, who wish death and destruction upon everyone and everything, pure evil.
May God give me the wisdom to recognize this evil before it wreaks it’s havoc on me and mine.
“All men are created equal” and its gaslight companion verse, “We hold these truths to be self evident”.
What a crock.
Same here. I’m 35, and I’m also just now realizing that the world we live in is just plain evil. True, there are a relative handful like us, who wish to live and let live. But unfortunately, the majority are too miserable and egotistical to allow such a thing.
What do the slave owners have planned for the tax/debt slaves?
Stock market looks worse today…losing altitude….where is the PPT?
Real Estate flat to down…
Last 7 weeks gold, silver and VIX are up about 20%….hedging?…insurance?…..
Inflation up…interest rates staying higher…
You can’t refinance your house to pay off credit cards and loans for cars and toys anymore?….squeezing the debt slaves?
You will own nothing through inflation?
https://finviz.com/futures.ashx
So when does the shooting start? Oh of course it’ll never start.
Hemingway said it best…”slowly at first, and then all at once”…
It’ll start…give it time…it’s already beginning, here and there, if you’re willing to pay attention.
Although he was referring to bankruptcy, it applies to us, just like it did to the end of Roman Civilization.
I prefer the line from “Braveheart: “Lower your flags, and march straight back to England, stopping at every home you pass by to beg forgiveness for a hundred years of theft, rape, and murder. Do that and your men shall live. Do it not, and every one of you will die today.”
OT or maybe not. I was reading the local website’s police blotter and saw that 4 blacks were pulled over for a “registration violation” and each was found to be in possession of a handgun. One was a felon and another had weed on him. It wasn’t really clear if one or all had altered their handguns to be fully automatic. Then I read the list of charges. Each was charged with “possession of a weapon of mass destruction.” I’m like, WTF, did these guys have some pipe bombs or yellowcake uranium on them too? Nope. NC law was changed ’22 to define fully automatic firearms and sawed off shotties as “weapons of mass destruction”, subject to significant additional criminal penalties. Vaccine…Safe and Effective…Tropical Rainstorm…Weapon of Mass Destruction…
Yeah, Funk Doc, forget F-15s and ICBMs. What you need to truly rain down Hell upon ’em are some pistols and a bag of weed.
Also, a full-auto handgun is a quick way to waste all of your ammo.
Remember how in ’03 W invaded Iraq because Saddam was in possession of a full auto pistol?
“How strangely will the tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!” – Samuel Adams
BTW, all 12 comments on the article were high praise for the troops keeping us safe. My questioning comment, ethered.
Of course. The populace was saved from the ruthless terrorists who peacefully pulled to the side of the road instead of letting loose with their WMDs. Heroism at its best.
Just to keep the record straight, they published my comment an hour ago after “moderation.” The comments on what these guys might have been up to are too much. It was a motley crew for sure but there was no victim involved. The registration thing, as picayune and ridiculous as Eric always emphasizes, seemed simply pretextual because it wasn’t one of the charges. Says a lot about where people’s heads are at these days.
FDS, when W commanded the attack on Iraq, Baghdad gun stores were selling arms at a brisk pace. Even NPR took note:
https://www.npr.org/2003/01/15/921058/iraqi-gun-sales-soar
I pointed out the irony to my fellow newsroomers that the capitol of Iraq had gun stores and DC had gun bans…how ironic. I just got blank stares in return.
‘Some snakes – such as Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Mike Pence – operate on behalf of the snake while pretending to be allies of the frog.’ — eric
Brilliant! This insightful quip forms a Far Side cartoon image in my mind, of anthropomorphised snakes and frogs, just acting out their nature.
Which brings us to this week’s struggle to ‘legalize’ patently unconstitutional FISA Section 702 mass surveillance. Yesterday 19 House Republicans (including my rep) joined ALL the Democrats to shoot down a procedural motion for an expedited vote. This sent the R-party reptiles into a tizzy, in a closed-door caucus meeting featuring plenty of posturing and expostulating. As The Hill put it,
‘Rule votes historically have been predictable affairs, with the majority party voting in favor and the minority party against, regardless of how lawmakers plan to vote on the underlying legislation. That’s changed in this Congress, with conservatives repeatedly using procedural votes to protest legislation leadership has brought to the floor — but even so, 19 “no” votes shocked — shocked — many in the Capitol.’
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4587023-gop-rages-fisa-702/
This same dynamic is going to play out soon on $60 billion of aid for the beleaguered Uuuuuukies. Spook agencies and Romneyite snakes are hell-bent on steamrollering it through Clowngress at all costs, since the whole crumbling ‘world’s only superpower’ illusion depends on it.
Like Eve tempted by the serpent, fresh-faced Speaker Mikey Johnson has ‘grown into’ his role (as the snakes put it) by compromising every principle on behalf of business as usual, putting his job at risk. If he brings Ukie aid to the floor, I will advise my Freedom Caucus rep to PULL THE PLUG on him — even if that means a DemonRat speaker succeeding him.
Do the right thing, and damn the consequences.
Well, I’ve decently accomplished the physical separation. Now, if I can only keep the “democracy” off my property while I increase my self-sufficiency.
You may not be interested in “democracy.” But democracy is very interested in you. 🙁
Always seems that way, and when “democracy” gets involved, I seem to always lose.
Also, Jim, is Eric aware of that Local Motors company? That Rally Fighter they produced looks positively righteous. They seemed to be the right idea, but I’m guessing that too few people knew of it.
Can’t speak for Eric … but I went searching for ‘open-source auto design’ and Local Motors turned up in the results — thus proving that anything one can imagine already exists on the internet.
Complexified, proprietary, thousand-chipped vehicles are headed for a fall. Our task is to have a plan on the shelf to pick up the pieces.
A guy down the street has a Meyers Manx clone — a fiberglass tub on a once-ubiquitous 1967 Volkswagen chassis. What is today’s analog to such a vehicle, if it exists at all?
Jim,
I believe I read Eric’s article on the Manx a little while back. There are no true analogs for such things. Maybe all the “UTVs” that people drive around these days?
But the proper exit is just what you’re after. There needs to be a bona fide resurgence of the creative American engineer. Local Motors was a good example. An unencumbered vehicular springtime, in which green leaves of automotive innovation burst forth from a land scorched by regulatory burden and malfeasance, should be the product.
I’d like to look into the Local Motors business model, and see if they found a loophole in the regulations by limiting the number of each model of vehicle. That would be one avenue.
Another, of course, would be Vehicular Sanctuary States. But if the country-wide fissure widens and a following secession occurs, I guess that will be implicit in the half which embraces liberty.
‘Maybe all the “UTVs” that people drive around these days?’ — BaDnOn
Could be — UTVs have far fewer chips than Govco ‘light vehicles,’ and looser regulation as well.
Start basic, and work back up from there.
The only way out, is through?
See also: ‘If Any Out There Want Freedom, You will Have to Take It!’
“… the time has come for all good men to take their freedom from this heinous State that was created, and now run by, criminals, thieves, and murderers, and do so without reservation. This is not a call for violence or aggression, it is a call for self-defense against all who would attempt to control and exercise power over any individuals in the name of the State.” …
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/04/gary-d-barnett/if-any-out-there-want-freedom-you-will-have-to-take-it/
It’s not even as honest as theft.
It’s more like a protection racket, but even the mafias have to provide some protection, governments do not.
It’s most like the “submission” of the mohammedans.
HEAR HERE!