A Philosopher's Warning

financialsense.com ^ | February 18, 2011 | JR Nyquist

[Texas Fossil]

Adversity employs great talents; prosperity renders them useless and carries the inept, the corrupted wealthy and the wicked to the top

May they bear in mind that virtue often contains the seeds of tyranny

May they bear in mind that it is neither gold nor even a multitude of arms that sustains a state but its morals

May each of them keep in his house, in a corner of this field, next to his workbench, next to his plow, his gun, his sword, and his bayonet

May they all be soldiers

May they bear in mind that in circumstances where deliberation is possible, the advice of old men is good but that in moments of crisis youth is generally better informed that its elders

Denis Diderot

Apostrophe to the Insurgents, 1782

[SatinDoll]

You’ve got to read this - it explains a helluva lot.

[Cicero]

I’m afraid that this makes a lot of sense.

And although he doesn’t say it, it’s pretty clear where Obama stands and what he represents.

[rlmorel]

I think this is very good overall, but I disagree very strongly with this statement: "...One of the factors that has brought about this change, with its highly corrosive consequences in the daily lives of Americans, was the fashionable ‘neo-liberalism,' which saw the business world as a self-regulatory power, able to override morality, religion, and culture and to dictate standards of conduct based on the supposedly miraculous power of market laws..."

Morality flows outwards from individuals, not the other way around. This is not to say that people don't engage in group mentality, but it all boils back down to the individual responsibility and the knowledge of right from wrong.

Just as you cannot legislate morality, business cannot provide moral structure. If people running a business have a moral compass, the business as a whole will have a good moral structure.

If those people do not have any moral compass, no business is going to supply one.

[Yet_Again]

Carvalho has his own insights into the causes of moral and intellectual deterioration in America: “One of the factors that has brought about this change, with its highly corrosive consequences in the daily lives of Americans, was the fashionable ‘neo-liberalism,' which saw the business world as a self-regulatory power, able to override morality, religion, and culture and to dictate standards of conduct based on the supposedly miraculous power of market laws. What made the greatness of America was not just the free market economy, but a synthesis of this with Christian morals and with a culture that included love of country and family. Separated from these regulating forces, the capitalist economy becomes an engine of self-destruction, which is exactly what is happening today.”

Absolutely 100% correct. People on the right spend a lot of time complaining about why the socialists and communists have an audience in America, and this is why.

[microgood]

I think the takeover of society by the lawyer class has contributed mightily to this decline. Any political discussions you see on TV anymore involve both sides lying with impunity even when it is clear to everyone they are lying.

We need to replace spin with the truth and start calling people liars when they lie.

[SatinDoll]

You’ve got to read this; it isn’t what you think it is by just reading the first two or three paragraphs.

In the fourth paragraph this fellow goes into detail about how the Russians and Chinese are destroying the U.S. at home and abroad. By the time I finished reading it felt like ice water running in my veins - I believe it to be the truth.

[LucyT]

You’ve got to read this; it isn’t what you think it is by just reading the first two or three paragraphs.

In the fourth paragraph this fellow goes into detail about how the Russians and Chinese are destroying the U.S. at home and abroad. By the time I finished reading it felt like ice water running in my veins - I believe it to be the truth.

Thanks SatinDoll and Cicero.

[trubolotta]

I guess I didn’t interpret that the same as you did. He wasn’t saying the business world provided morality, he said that neo-liberals believed it would, and of course, it didn’t. The belief became a convenient excuse to do as you please and then claim that market forces would impose an appropriate morality.

What you are saying I absolutely agree with and I don’t see Carvalho contradicting that.

[NoGrayZone]

I remember quite some time ago, that while the US is so involved in their own civil war, the Chinese will invade and attack.

It was eons ago and have no idea where I read it. Seemed far fetched back then....not so much now.

[Earthdweller]

It’s really not a mystery why things seem different in America than 30 years ago...it is called ‘demoralization’. Socialists have been covertly promoting demoralization through movies, music, arts and politics across the globe for decades now to bring about “change”.

[Sherman Logan]

This is, of course, the libertarian philosophy, that freedom always and inevitably leads to morality.

IMO the free market is like the scientific method and biological evolution in that it is a very effective method to reach an efficient result, but it is inherently amoral.

[newheart]

What made the greatness of America was not just the free market economy, but a synthesis of this with Christian morals and with a culture that included love of country and family. Separated from these regulating forces, the capitalist economy becomes an engine of self-destruction, which is exactly what is happening today.

And that, in a nutshell, is why Ayn Rand style objectivism leads ultimately to the state of affairs as socialism/communism. Rand's "heroic" human being is merely a softer-edged version of the super-man espoused by Nietszche and Shaw. Ultimately someone always thinks they know better than everyone else and exercises all available power to impose their will. The end of human will, unfettered by Christian values, is almost always totalitarianism.

[griswold3]

I heard Tom Wolfe say that we lost this country when we removed the Ten Commandments from the town square.
Since then we’ve become a society of lies.

[thecodont]

Thanks for the ping, LucyT.

The Chileans seem to be more aware of the dangers surrounding them. We should learn from their example.

[Misterioso]

There’s that pesky “freedom” again, messing up everyone’s lives. Didn’t the Founding Fathers warn us about “liberty?”

[Misterioso]

Who is Tom Wolfe...You can’t go home again?...or something like that?

[griswold3]

‘Bonfire of the Vanities’

[Sherman Logan]

They warned us that liberty unbalanced by morality can lead to very bad results.

As Franklin said, they gave us a republic, if we can keep it. IMO we’re well on the way to losing it.