We can’t be right about everything all the time, and we can’t be disciplined about everything all the time. Mistakes will be made. Blind spots will appear. Complacency will happen.
We need to constantly remind ourselves that life requires discipline in many areas. Without discipline, life can and probably will get worse. Sometimes it sneaks up on us slowly, other times it comes suddenly. We need to avoid procrastination. We need to be attentive. This means continually pursuing truth, and keeping the record straight. It means being introspective, so we don’t become the problem. It means building and maintaining a self-defense to protect our property and our rights.
We can’t outsource all of this to others. We can’t specialize as much as we would like to. We are stuck being generalists to a certain extent, especially with regard to certain fundamental responsibilities. We need to protect ourselves from our protectors. This means knowing how to throw a punch and knowing how to shoot a gun.
We need to guard against bureaucracy and monopoly of our schools. This means knowing the fundamentals of history, science and economics. It means creating new schools and freer educational markets.
We need to defend against ignorance in other tribes, and within our own tribe; upholding the truth, questioning their beliefs, and our own beliefs. It means maintaining a culture of freedom of speech in all of our organizations.
It means being personally accountable.
We can never forget our tribal nature. Bad times will come. We’ll feel drawn by the incentives of capitalism, to move to the city, to specialize, to pursue greater comforts, greater status, but we need to be careful. There are other tribes in that city - in that densely populated melting pot. Bad times will come and that city will go downhill. It may become unsafe or unlivable. We might need to move. Our history books and scriptures remind us of this. Our place of residence and our choice of neighbors is crucial. We can’t change our neighbors easily, so we need to be ready to leave. Staying and maintaining a fortress is costly.
Bad times will come. Will you have the skills to adapt in time? Will you want to maintain that Iron Dome?
I appreciate America now more than ever. We have more freedom than any other people in the world. It’s not enough, but our First and Second Amendments are to be celebrated for they far exceed what any other country has. Our location in the world brings peace of mind; separated from our ideological enemies by oceans and ice caps.
We welcome the people of Israel here. We have something called freedom of religion. You can help us maintain it. It’s better than maintaining an Iron Dome.
There is also a tendency for people to think that if they've learned the previous lessons of the past that future problems won't hurt them. I've read that Louis XVI of France studied a lot about Charles I of England in an attempt to avoid the latter's fate of Beheading. This didn't work out for him.
It may be that humans have a hard time seeing problems directly in front of them, and Today we often think that since we have access to a lot of information we know what's going on, but it's an illusion of knowledge.
I'll also add a hint of hope, your addendum ends warning us that the bad times will come. And that's true but they won't last.
Russ, thank you for continuing to record Econtalk and write your essays during what must be a heartbreakingly stressful time for you and the college.
We can’t be right about everything all the time, and we can’t be disciplined about everything all the time. Mistakes will be made. Blind spots will appear. Complacency will happen.
We need to constantly remind ourselves that life requires discipline in many areas. Without discipline, life can and probably will get worse. Sometimes it sneaks up on us slowly, other times it comes suddenly. We need to avoid procrastination. We need to be attentive. This means continually pursuing truth, and keeping the record straight. It means being introspective, so we don’t become the problem. It means building and maintaining a self-defense to protect our property and our rights.
We can’t outsource all of this to others. We can’t specialize as much as we would like to. We are stuck being generalists to a certain extent, especially with regard to certain fundamental responsibilities. We need to protect ourselves from our protectors. This means knowing how to throw a punch and knowing how to shoot a gun.
We need to guard against bureaucracy and monopoly of our schools. This means knowing the fundamentals of history, science and economics. It means creating new schools and freer educational markets.
We need to defend against ignorance in other tribes, and within our own tribe; upholding the truth, questioning their beliefs, and our own beliefs. It means maintaining a culture of freedom of speech in all of our organizations.
It means being personally accountable.
We can never forget our tribal nature. Bad times will come. We’ll feel drawn by the incentives of capitalism, to move to the city, to specialize, to pursue greater comforts, greater status, but we need to be careful. There are other tribes in that city - in that densely populated melting pot. Bad times will come and that city will go downhill. It may become unsafe or unlivable. We might need to move. Our history books and scriptures remind us of this. Our place of residence and our choice of neighbors is crucial. We can’t change our neighbors easily, so we need to be ready to leave. Staying and maintaining a fortress is costly.
Bad times will come. Will you have the skills to adapt in time? Will you want to maintain that Iron Dome?
I appreciate America now more than ever. We have more freedom than any other people in the world. It’s not enough, but our First and Second Amendments are to be celebrated for they far exceed what any other country has. Our location in the world brings peace of mind; separated from our ideological enemies by oceans and ice caps.
We welcome the people of Israel here. We have something called freedom of religion. You can help us maintain it. It’s better than maintaining an Iron Dome.
Explains why I always fly Southwest.
There is also a tendency for people to think that if they've learned the previous lessons of the past that future problems won't hurt them. I've read that Louis XVI of France studied a lot about Charles I of England in an attempt to avoid the latter's fate of Beheading. This didn't work out for him.
It may be that humans have a hard time seeing problems directly in front of them, and Today we often think that since we have access to a lot of information we know what's going on, but it's an illusion of knowledge.
I'll also add a hint of hope, your addendum ends warning us that the bad times will come. And that's true but they won't last.
I think you misuse the terms "zero tolerance" and "deterrence".
Zero tolerance means responding with force to each and every rocket...not simply swatting them out of the sky.
Deterrence means a credible threat to the enemy that is so costly they don't dare to shoot the rocket in the first place.