“I’ve seen kids making guns with their bare hands. In Caves.”
Very interesting look at the tribal areas of north west Pakistan. John Taylor Gatto – Weapons of Mass Instruction
His book, Weapons of Mass Instruction, is essentially a rant outlining his hatred of forced public education. It’s compelling and resonates with many of my personal experiences, for example read Are Universities Destroying the Economy. Even if you disagree with the conspiracy element of his hypothesis (public schools were not institutions created with the intent to educate, but to condition people to become obedient consumers and workers) you must take his opinions seriously, because they have the ring of truth. Watch his 1991 documentary, Classrooms of the Heart. The last greatest hope: technology
I was shopping for a new computer and office chair a few weeks ago and was struck by how absurd prices have become. I bought a fully loaded quad-core PC for about $500 and was stunned to find the best office chairs cost even more! What kind of crazy world do we live in? Consider all the research, engineering, design, manufacturing, assembly, shipping from the four corners of the earth… required to build a computer, then compare that process to a few pieces of plastic/metal with a cushion wrapped in some cloth or leather. Are you kidding me? That’s an astounding testament to the incredible productivity of the technology sector and those who work in it. Every other industry sucks in comparison, you heard me. Overview of America
The documentary is from the John Birch society. It’s a bit extreme on some fronts, but an interesting perspective. part 1 Is Keynes the true father of the Venus Project ideology?
Arthur Keynes is the man largely responsible for creating the economic theories that justify our current form of big government capitalism. He is the man most commonly cited to defend fiscal stimulus and bailout packages and is followed by most modern economists, but is he the true father of abundance, and the current economic collapse the attempt to create abundance has created? You are a slave to the government
This video looks to be a few decades old, I have no idea who this guy is. Irrationally Predictably Irrational – Part 4
The power of self-selection The reason people enjoy moneyless events like Burning Man is likely because those who attend are those most likely to find meaning in its message. Obviously, people are attracted to things they like and pursue positive re-enforcement of ideas they already hold. It’s called the confirmation bias, and its the same reason actors uproot their lives for a chance at glory in Los Angeles, or high-tech entrepreneurs network in San Jose, or retirees gather in Florida. People with means are willing to re-locate (temporarily or permanently) to areas more suitable to the lifestyles they wish to live and values they hold dear. It’s usually counter-productive trying to convert an actor into an engineer, or convince a committed socialist to accept libertarian principles, or force a square peg through a round hole, let people discover and explore, let them be. Irrationally Predictably Irrational – Part 3
Continuing the discussion, how long do these social norms last? Even Dan, I’m sure, is aware there are limits to this phenomenon. People may help move a couch for free, but they won’t move 100 couches for free, no matter how loyal. He describes a pleasant experience at Burning Man, where money is prohibited and people exchange goods and services in a barter-like economy — all he demonstrated is that without money people still expect some form of compensation. While acknowledging he probably couldn’t live at Burning Man forever, he did leave with a new respect for moneyless societies; however, that in itself is an irrational conclusion. The admission that he couldn’t survive in that environment permanently is a damning indictment of its failure as an ideology in theory and practice. |
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