As the economic conditions deteriorate, more and more blogs that I post as a guest begin to censor me.
One such –
http://scotterb.wordpress.com
…a political science professor, now has begun deleting my posts … those, of course, that have demonstrated the failure of the State, and those that have shown his analysis of the circumstances to be … well, flawed.
All to be expected. Been here before, so nothing really shocking about this – it merely demonstrates the stages of truth so articulated by Gandhi.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Freedom flies a Black Flag 
August 8, 2011 at 6:28 pm |
You know how it is Flag, you make sense in what you speak so naturally, they don’t want to hear it.
August 8, 2011 at 8:32 pm |
I had the same thing happen to me today. I know when they start deleting your posts it shows they are scared.
You’ll never be deleted at my blogs.
August 8, 2011 at 10:09 pm |
Likewise here, Kent.
All I ask is civility of posters, and so far only one that has had to be warned…..
August 9, 2011 at 2:13 pm |
It happens in casual conversation. You get shouted down if you persist in speaking the truth, When it all goes down I will struggle to have compassion for those who treated me most rudely.
August 31, 2011 at 3:29 pm |
You know who else they laughed at? Bozo the Clown.
September 2, 2011 at 7:46 pm |
Wow! I couldn’t make this up if I tried. But it’s real.
Sort of.
Tomorrow an asteroid strikes the earth, followed by the extinction of the dinosaurs. Then things get hairy.
September 3, 2011 at 6:05 am |
Modesty,
Allegorically, you hit the nail on the head.
September 3, 2011 at 9:27 am |
I have a theory. My theory is that at a certain age most people decide what they are going to believe. After that age, we spend most of our time no longer evaluating these beliefs but searching for justifications/rationalizations/reasons to keep on believing as we did.
Some people do change their beliefs as they get older, but not many, not very often, and loudly proclaiming that they are not changing their beliefs even as they do so.
As an empiricist, I think the real world exists. This morning I woke up in my bed on the large island where I live, sniffed my wife (she smells very nice), got up, let the chickens out, went in for breakfast, eating scrambled eggs (laid by our chickens) and blueberry pie (baked by my wife with blueberries we grew).
Empirical laws exist. If I walk into a fence post or into the side of our house, I will not walk through the wall (and in fact, feel pain which nobody else can feel but is real enough for me). On the other hand, science tells me that solid objects are made up of atoms, that atoms (neutrons, electrons, and so on) mostly consists of space. When I think about this level of abstraction, I wonder why I can’t just walk through a wall.
So abstract thinking is powerful, but our powerful and very limited human minds easily go astray wen we navigate abstractly.
September 3, 2011 at 9:51 am |
Modesty,
Well said.
To further your analogy of atoms and space:
It is true that most of atom is empty – 99. (and a thousand more ‘9’ to go) empty … of matter.
But just like life, most of the atom that appears empty of matter is full of something else — energy.
We can’t walk through a fence or walls – not because we hit something hard like matter, but because the non-matter, invisible energy between the matter that prevents us.
With enough energy, you can go through walls …. like this car.
September 3, 2011 at 9:53 am |
When I was young, I valued freedom quite a bit. Ideas such as anarchy and libertarianism (vocabulary I learned a while after I read Ayn Rand) appealed to me. I read a very sweet and gentle anarchist and libertarian science fiction story called “And Then There Were None” by Eric Frank Russell. It’s still available on the Internet and worth a read (if nothing else than for the sake of nostalgia). I was very taken with his slogans of F–IW (Freedom–I Won’t) and his vocabulary of the “ob” (an obligation, a concept replacing both paper and metal money).
http://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.php
Of course, in Russell’s anarchistic utopia on another planet there were no Nazis or Communists to bother them. My ancestors were Eastern European Jews. As far as I know, none of my ancestors died in the Holocaust (though it’s quite possible that some did), but I did as a child hear tales from grandparents of Cossacks and pogroms.
However, I also learned about historical events such as the French Revolution and the Communist Revolution where anarchism turned into terrible tyranny and brutality. I encountered evangelical Christians who considered themselves libertarians, which struck me as quite odd, given that Rand was hardly religious.
So the anarchistic utopias of theory went very sour in practice. As far as I know, there are no libertarian nation states in existence anywhere in the world. In fact, the kind of world you seem to envision, in which government withers away to be replaced by self-reliant, hardworking business people…How do we get there from here?
Well, I’ve gummed up your works for enough. I will go out and dig vigorously so my wife can move some flowers and the chickens have fresh bugs and weeds to eat (or they may refuse to lay eggs for me). They know which side their beak is buttered on. Actually, they don’t know who electrifies their fence so the raccoons won’t eat them. They don’t know who (laboriously and not very competently) built their hen house and put mesh over their heads to keep the eagles and hawks and owls from eating them. If the chickens were capable of abstract thinking they would probably worship us as gods.
September 19, 2011 at 4:42 pm |
Black Flag,
Scott hasn’t deleted me yet, he just ignores me when I get to him . I do venture to a lot of much farther left blogs where they have actually outright banned me. They are not tolerant of any opposition. The farther left you go the more of an echo chamber the blogs are . I’ve been banned from one recently where it is almost a cult figure talking to his children .
September 20, 2011 at 7:38 am |
HI BF, hope all is well for you. The following was posted in a financial blog, please read and comment on it. The topic is disturbing and I’d appreciate your thoughts. C
September 20, 2011 at 7:38 am |
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2011/09/ayn-rand-leading-light-for-generation.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JessesCafeAmericain+%28Jesse%27s+Caf%C3%A9+Am%C3%A9ricain%29
the link would probably be helpful …
October 11, 2011 at 4:57 pm |
Black Flag,
I decided to post the link to the other board I mentioned, about global warming and green energy, here on your board. I have my reasons for not posting it where I first brought it up .
http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/fighting-global-warming-would-save-energy-cost-less-and-create-jobs/#comment-159968
Hope to see you there .
October 12, 2011 at 12:50 am |
So this is where Alan Scott dredged up his Flat-Earther reinforcements. Nice echo you’ve got in here.
October 12, 2011 at 5:29 am |
Pangolin
It appears the only argument you have is ad homenin.
Sad.
October 12, 2011 at 1:47 pm |
Scaly edentate with a suboptimal brain- “Flat-Earther reinforcements”? You are confused. It is not we who are running around spouting the ancient (and thoroughly disproved) myth. The State is the flat-earth myth you cling to in spite of thousands of years of contrary evidence. Liberty is the scientific reality you are trying to ignore and hide from.
October 15, 2011 at 5:45 pm |
Unless you’re Bozo the Clown.
Or John Wayne Gacy.
Or just not funny.
October 16, 2011 at 11:16 am |
Ed Darrell,
Good to see you on this board. You, Pangolin, and Black Flag are the only three I’ve come across who like to argue as much as I do .