Something Worth Committing Oneself To

I have just learned that there is apparently a dangerous storm headed in the direction of New Jersey, New York and southern New England. This, of course, worries me, and I wish all the inhabitants of the endangered regions that no harm comes to them. However, what worries me even more is that if, unfortunately, the storm does cause some damage, numerous individuals proclaimed as the finest contemporary minds by the representatives of today's coercive power structures will likely announce that the seeming catastrophe is actually a blessing in disguise, capable of stimulating a failing economy back into prosperity.

If any of my readers would not regard such an announcement as a display of vulgar nonsense, let me just refer him or her to two names: Bastiat and Hazlitt. For the rest, a further observation: just as the deflationary effect of productivity growth can offset, and thus conceal the inflationary effect of manipulating interest rates via fiat money creation, an unprecedented advancement in natural sciences, technology and material welfare can divert one's attention from an abysmal retrogression in understanding the logical reality of human action, the kind of retrogression that plunged the 20th century into totalitarian barbarism and can certainly do likewise with the 21th.

What remains is to quote the ever prophetic words of the man: "No one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result." This task might be easier today than ever before. There is the Internet and there is a growing distrust for the kind of "knowledge" offered by coercion-wielders. Thus, let us not miss the opportunity to make logic and commonsense the only game in town again.

Ideas Good and Bad: A Subjective Listing

If I were to name what I consider to be the ten most destructive and pernicious doctrines ever conceived that still retain various degrees of popularity, those would make the list (roughly in order of malignancy): Marxism, Keynesianism, welfare statism, coercive democratism, nationalism, militarism, postmodernism, positivism, scientism, anti-religionism. I am quite convinced that ridding the world of their influence (which could happen only as a result of their voluntary, conscious rejection) would make it an unprecedentedly humane and civilized place.

Fortunately, there are also what I consider as salutary and beneficial counterparts of the abovementioned malignant forces, among which I would single out the following ten: classical liberalism/libertarianism, rationalism, individualism, causal realism, marginalism, non-interventionism, Christianity, scholasticism, secessionism, abolitionism.

I would contend that the progress or regress of human civilization depends on which of these sets of ideas prevails. For the time being, I remain cautiously optimistic about the matter.

London Riots No Surprise

Combine decades of promoting welfare parasitism, institutionalized indolence of the statist police, victim-disarming gun control legislation, and the widespread advocacy of the attitude of disrespect for property rights, businesspeople, and entrepreneurs by the mainstream media and educational establishment, and what you get is a social time bomb waiting to explode. Try to delay the explosion while preserving the explosive elements, and the eventual blast gets all the more deadly.

Europrognoza sprzed trzech lat

W świetle np. tego zachęcam do wejścia tu (audycja w Trójce z 16 września 2008) i posłuchanie fragmentu od 7:50 do 9:16. Tyle w ramach mojego wkładu medialnego w austriackie przewidywanie przyszłości.