Our Guns in the Hands of the Murderous State

Yet another peace keeper has been caught on video murdering a member of the public. It seems like an increasing trend. Perhaps it is. Or perhaps there are just more cameras. Either way, people (especially black people) are getting angrier and angrier about death sentences carried out in the American streets. The "journalists" at FoxNews tell me there is a war on police. Unfortunately, the average American citizen is majorly outgunned in this contest.

The police at home have become more militarized as the U.S. Empire has sought ever more Muslim dictatorships to topple abroad. A veritable jihad is being waged in the name of the Goddess of Democracy. As difficult as it is to build a democratic republic from the inside, it has proven nearly impossible to build them from the outside. The likes of Stalin, Mao, and Osama bin Laden all realized that the best way to deal with ideologically impure recalcitrants is to stop their defiant hearts from beating. And so it goes for any who attempt to thwart the Western plan for the new Middle East. So far, this has included hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Nearly 28 unintended people are killed for every person targeted in drone strikes. It is estimated that more than 170 children have been killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan alone. The United States recently bombed a hospital in Afghanistan. Barack Obama, mafioso that he is, has even ordered hits on American citizens abroad who were deemed guilty of using speech to incite terrorism. I don't know about you, but I am not at all comfortable with the seeming ease with which our government, whether in Chicago or in Mosul, lethally disposes of its armed and unarmed opponents alike.

Now I know a lot of left wingers will agree with the above points. They despise police brutality as much as they detest the so called War on Terror. They want a peaceful world. They want a world where diplomacy is praised instead of denigrated. And then a man like Robert Dear comes along and murders three people with a rifle. The left wing is appalled that so many in America care more about their precious guns than the lives of their fellow man. More regulations are called for. Banishment of firearms in general is touted as a realistic solution.

Of course there immediately arises a logic problem to be overcome or, at the very least, ignored. Gun violence is bad. So, we need to get rid of the people's guns. But how can we make them hand over their beloved weapons? We will need to have more guns than they. The solution to our problem is superior firepower. We must make use of gun violence. We will solve the problem of domestic gun violence by placing all of our guns in the hands of the murderous State.

They who would suffocate a man for illegally selling cigarettes, they who would throw a flash grenade into an infant's playpen, they who blow up schools in Afghanistan, they who dropped atomic weapons on innocent people, they who sow violence across the globe and gun down their own citizens in the streets are to be trusted with everyone's weapons and charged with protecting us.

They can fuck off.

War and Freedom

This year, as every year, the people of America will be using Veterans' Day as a reason to celebrate and worship the federal government's mighty war machine. Here in Grant County, they've decided that one day of jingoistic propaganda will not be sufficient. We will need an entire week. The Chronicle-Tribune has taken its normal position as head cheerleader and promoter of such local celebrations of chauvinism. I find this all to be concerning enough, but what is especially troubling is the paper's promotion of the old canard that our soldiers are sent to distant lands in order to protect freedom at home. The truth is that these wars actually decrease our liberty.  But don't take it from me. Here is a short list of quoatations of admired and respected people who realized that war is the health of the tyrannical State and the enemy of free peoples everywhwere. You might want to pay special attention to what James Madison, the author of the Constitution, had to say on the matter.

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." -James Madison

"All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it." -Alexis de Tocqueville

"Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty." -George Washington

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." -James Madison

"A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny." -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"How far can you go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?" -Dwight D. Eisenhower

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. " -James Madison

"We seek peace, knowing that peace is the climate of freedom." -Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other." -James Madison

"Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing." -Ayn Rand

"It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad." -James Madison

"No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country." -Alexis de Tocqueville

Happy Armistice Day!

Special thanks to humblelibertarian.com

The Laborer

A laborer in Indiana awakes to the alarm on his iPhone. The amazing little device was manufactured more than 7,000 miles away by Chinese laborers. He goes to his closet and selects a long sleeved t-shirt that was produced in Bangladesh. Of course, our laborer does not know or care where the garment was made. Nor could he locate Bangladesh on a globe. He just wanted a plain black shirt to wear to work. His job is to operate the rubber injection molding presses at a nearby factory. The presses churn out rubber components for use in automobiles all over the world.

After putting on his jeans (made in Vietnam) and his socks & work boots (both made in China), he grabs a couple of bananas (grown in Honduras) from the kitchen and heads to his truck (assembled in Mexico). He stops to fill his gas tank with fuel that was refined in Texas and to purchase some cigarettes which were packaged in Virginia. Back in his truck, he turns on the radio. The man on the AM station is terrified of a "nuclear Iran". He says such a "rogue nation" wouldn't hesitate to use nuclear weapons against civilians. He says it will mean the end of Israel. The laborer from Indiana has a vague idea about where these places are. He wonders aloud to himself why we don't just nuke the sons of bitches. The irony of this thought does not occur to him.

Shortly after arriving at the factory, our laborer makes his way to the break room. From the vending machines (which were made in West Virginia) he buys some potato chips that were processed in Wisconsin and, to wash them down, an energy drink that was bottled in California. He sits down at a picnic table that was built in Iowa and peruses the newspaper that is lying on top of it. He begins to read an article that is proclaiming an end to the "Great Recession". The article says that Janet Yellen has performed admirably in her short time as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The author says that the tricky part now will be to avoid the inflation that could result from higher wages. The laborer from Indiana has never heard the phrase "price/wage spiral". He doesn't know that the theory was debunked long ago. Neither does the Washington economist who wrote the article.

A much younger man joins him at the table. It isn't long before our laborer is regaling the lad with tales of the good ol' days. He tells how he used to get paid so much more for doing so much less. He had worked in a union shop for more than 15 years. But eventually, they shut the doors in Indiana and reopened them south of the Rio Grande. He curses Bill Clinton for implementing NAFTA, but he doesn't really know what NAFTA is...or was. He isn't sure if it's still a thing. But he will still hold it against Hillary. He hates Hillary.

His shift has yet to begin, but he is already ready for it to be over. After work he has plans to go fishing with his new (Korean) fishing rod. Beside the lake, he will not contemplate the way capitalism has connected him, across space and time, to millions of other people. He will not consider that less political barriers to trade would mean a bigger bounty of goods for himself and others. He will see no connection between such barriers and the wars which are fought to preserve them. Perhaps, if it had been explained to him long ago, he could have grasped all of this. But it's too late now. He has no time to reflect on such trivial matters. He has to work. He has to live.

As he heads out to the floor to relieve 3rd shift, he adjusts the hat he is wearing which depicts a bald eagle and an American flag. It was made in Taiwan.

The Five Worst Presidents of All Time

Every year in America, George Washington's birthday is used as an opportunity to close the banks so that we may all take time to honor any and all of the scoundrels who have ever been elected to the highest office in the land. I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to compile a list of the five worst men to ever "serve" in that capacity. Coming up with such a list wasn't easy. The 20th Century alone provided a rogue's gallery of contestants (indeed, 4 out of the 5 on my list hail from the 1900s). But I'm reasonably satisfied with the chiefs I have chosen. Before we go any further, I would like to give special mention to two men who did not make my list: George W. Bush and Barrack Hussein Obama. Each of these men are likely tyrants in their hearts and I do believe they mean harm. But in my opinion they have really under abused the power that has grown in the executive office compared to how the men who did make the list would have abused the same power. God forbid a man like Harry Truman ever comes to office in this day and age. Speaking of Harry...

5. Harry S. Truman

Truman's political career really got underway once Kansas City crime lord Tom Pendergast recognized Harry's "talents" and decided that he should be senator. Eventually he was selected as vice president to a man that ranks higher on this list of miscreants, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and took charge of the federal government after FDR finally gave up the ghost. Truman wrapped up WWII by choosing to become the first (and so far only) person to ever drop atomic weapons on civilians. He killed 129,000 people in those two blasts alone. The Japanese, of course, were already finished at that point. They thought they could force the U.S. to accept a conditional surrender. They underestimated both Truman's cold blooded ways and his desire to display those cold blooded ways to Stalin. He later opted to jettison the Constitution and ushered in a new era where American presidents could choose, with no war declaration, to send troops into "police actions". The "non-war" in Korea resulted in more than 36,000 Americans dead and more than 3 million civilian casualties.

4. Lyndon Baines Johnson

Perhaps we will never know whether or not LBJ truly was the architect of the murder of John Kennedy (or the eight previous deaths of political opponents he has been linked to), but even so his legacy merits his inclusion on this list. Johnson was a sociopath who was, as his biographer Robert Caro put it, "unencumbered by even the slightest excess weight of ideology, of philosophy, of principles, of beliefs". All he cared about was power. Assisted by cronyism, voter fraud, and a vicious demeanor, Johnson finally made his way to the Oval Office.  Once there, he expanded the welfare/warfare state with his "War on Poverty" and his military escalation in Vietnam. He lied to the American people so that he could fight communists in Southeast Asia as he fought for more and more socialism stateside. In short, he dramatically increased the federal government's role at home and abroad. The results have been disastrous.

3. Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson felt that God had brought him to power in order to make the world a more democratic place. In order to accomplish this divine mission he was going to need a lot of money and a lot of draftees. Aside from bringing the twin evils of The Federal Reserve Act and the Federal Income Tax into existence which have been wreaking havoc on our economy ever since, Wilson led the United States into Europe's Great War in hopes of reshaping the world more to his liking through a league of nations. The entry of the U.S. into the war arguably prolonged the conflict and American support of the British blockade led to Germany signing the Treaty of Versailles which guaranteed an even bloodier sequel to the first world war. Wilson claimed that he didn't support that treaty. But that didn't stop him from what he felt was his obligation to travel to promote it. So the man responsible for the Fed, the income tax, and 116,500 dead American soldiers only comes in at number three. But I truly feel the next two entries have done even more to damage the best ideas of the founding generation.

2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Franklin Roosevelt was perhaps the ultimate charlatan (though he has stiff competition from number one on this list). Entire books have been written about his chicanery, dishonesty, and incompetence. His unprecedented massive economic interventions turned a typical panic into the greatest depression in the history of the country. Under his watch, livestock and crops were purchased by the federal government and then destroyed in order to prop up prices for farmers even as a great number of starving people were in need of low priced food. He implemented a strategy of a sort of targeted socialism that aimed to provide benefits and jobs to people in tightly contested political regions. He tied the millstone of Social Security around America's neck by selling it as insurance to the American people and as a tax to the Supreme Court. Speaking of the Supreme Court, FDR was greatly irritated that they kept striking his unconstitutional programs down. But he found them to be much more compliant after he threatened to pack the court with justices more inclined to accept his collectivist agenda. By refusing to redeem dollars in gold and by establishing the FDIC, Roosevelt guaranteed that the fractional reserve banks could inflate the money supply to their advantage with no fear of bank runs to dissuade them from doing so. He increased both federal taxes and federal regulations. On top of all that, he aggressively provoked Japan in an attempt to open a "back door" to war with Germany. Once he succeeded in that endeavor, he rounded up Japanese, German, and Italian Americans and placed them in internment camps. Along with Winston Churchill, he promoted the idea of unconditional surrender being the only surrender to be accepted from Germany or Japan. This caused both axis nations to dig their heels in to the bitter end, making the war even more lengthy and savage. The world would have been a much better place had he succumbed to polio much sooner.

1. Abraham Lincoln

Less than 100 years after the United States had seceded from Great Britain, several Southern states once again found it necessary to dissolve the political bands which connected them to another people and decided to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitled them. But they weren't dealing with George III this time. This time they were dealing with a ruthless tyrant who would see a veritable ocean of American blood drench the land before he gave up his power to rule over it. Lincoln aggressively shut down hundreds of newspapers, imprisoned those whose speech he disliked, erected an income tax, and sanctioned all out war on civilians in order to keep the South within his taxable jurisdiction. He introduced conscription to America and forced the poor to go die for his great vision. Of course, conscription is the act of forcing someone to do a job that they would rather not. The penalty for desertion was often death. It is slavery. This is ironic if you believe in the myth of Lincoln waging war on the Confederates in order to end slavery. But as he said in his first inaugural address, slavery was to be a protected institution as long as he was in charge: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." In the same speech he pointed out that it was tariffs for which he was willing to fight: "The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion". More than 620,000 military deaths (and an untold number of civilian deaths) later, the Jeffersonian idea of states' rights was forever eliminated from the "Land of the Free". Honest Abe's ultimate victory paved the way for the other four despots on this list who inflicted irreparable harm around the world as well as here at home. He truly is number one.

Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death!

I'm beginning to think that coffee just might be the greatest of all beverages. This is exceptionally high praise coming from someone who savors every delicious drop of bourbon or ale with the relish of a man at worship. In the morning (or more often, the afternoon) when I awake, I sometimes feel downright miserable. There is absolutely no good reason to remove myself from the bed. Nothing awaits me but the world's problems, responsibility to take care of my share of those problems, and certain failure. Woe is me and woe unto the universe. But I know I must get up. I must go to work. I must pay for the roof over my bed.

I make my way into the living room and open the blinds that obscure the sliding door that leads to the balcony. I am greeted by a view of the cold grey sky and the indifferent brick walls of the nearby elementary school. I then open the blinds in the window of the dining area. I watch an indebted driver slowly navigate the icy asphalt in his economy car. Normally, he would need to be wary of the police cruisers that almost constantly patrol the school zone in search of revenue. But the bone chilling wind has eliminated that obstacle for the day. I step into the kitchen and go directly to the coffee maker. I dispose of the previous day's filter and replace it with a new one. I put in a few scoops of the cheapest coffee I could find at the store and then add water to the Cuisinart I had originally purchased as a Christmas gift for someone else. Stainless steel, just as she had requested. At that time, I had yet to develop my appreciation for the heavily caffeinated elixir.

My parents were not and are not coffee drinkers. Growing up, my mom and dad's main sources for caffeine were Coca-Cola (especially for Mom) and very very sweet tea (for Dad). The buzz inducing aroma of coffee beans was ever absent in my childhood home, but each morning it was ever present in the kitchen of my grandmother. Along with cooking bacon and eggs for Grandpa, it's how she began every day. It was in her kitchen that I recall drinking coffee for the first time. Every year she would invite her grandchildren to all spend the Saturday night before Easter with her and then accompany her to the annual pageant that took place at the old Marion Coliseum. Each year, we children would invariably stay up the entire night and then fall asleep during the pageant (always awaking to the simulated thunderstorm that accompanied the crucifixion of Christ). One year, a cousin and I decided that this time we would not fall asleep during the performance. We were determined to witness the entire speechless ode to the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior. He suggested coffee . The mugs were filled and then heavily sweetened. It seemed to me that there was not enough sugar on Earth to make this black potion palatable. Furthermore, it also failed in its mission to keep my sleep deprived body from being lulled by a performance which was every bit as boring as it was elaborate. Coffee was not for me, I decided.

Fast forward a handful of years and I am on a coffee farm in the mountains above San Pedro Sula in Honduras. My uncle and aunt are missionaries in this land. My father made the trip there to help repair a generator for the school at which my uncle and aunt are involved, and he has allowed me to travel with him to this third world civilization located in paradise. Before we made our trek up the steep mountainside on which the coffee plants are grown, my aunt had admonished me not to refuse a cup of coffee when it was offered to me. These people have nothing, she reminded me. They would be very offended if someone were to turn their nose up at their greatest offering of hospitality. Inside the cinder block home, I am prepared to sacrifice my taste buds in the name of politeness. I take the coffee that is offered. I tentatively take a sip. To my surprise, it is delicious. I stop drinking it out of politeness and start drinking it for enjoyment. Why the change? Had my taste buds changed as I had gotten older? Or was it because it was superior coffee freshly brewed on a Honduran farm? Either way, I didn't consider investigating it any further when I returned to the States. I still wasn't interested in coffee.

My affinity for coffee didn't really begin to blossom until some years later. My daughter, who had just turned a year old, spent a month or so in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital after complications from the rather daunting open heart surgery she had just come through. They kept her sedated for the majority of this time. From time to time, her mother and I would need to get out of the room for a bit to grab something to eat. The hospital provided a common area on the floor for the parents of all the patients in that unit. In this room there was a television, a refrigerator, a microwave, and a coffee machine. The coffee was free and available 24 hours a day. The price was certainly right, so I decided to get a cup. I liked it. I continued to get a cup whenever we would go to that room. It wasn't long before I started taking advantage of the Starbucks that was offered downstairs in the cafeteria. At first, I preferred it with sugar. But after we returned home with our daughter, I began to prefer to drink it black. As black as your heart, dear reader. I drank it at home. I drank it at work. I loved the way it made me feel. I somehow felt better able to grasp the monetary theories I studied if I had a styrofoam cup from which to sip the scalding black liquid that fueled both my body and my brain.

Back at my apartment, I flip the stainless steel Cuisinart on. I then go to the living room closet and pull out the rolled up yoga mat. As I do my daily abdominal exercises, I can hear the bubbling and churning of the machine. On the days that it signals me that the coffee is ready with a beep before I have completed my final set, it becomes much more difficult to focus on the task at hand. Yes, I want ripped abs. But the coffee is literally calling for me. Perhaps it needs me as much as I need it. I roll up the yoga mat and put it away. I return to the kitchen and grab a mug with the words "END THE FED" printed on it. This mug was an impromptu gift to me from the woman who no longer felt she needed the Cuisinart as much as I did. I fill it to the brim.

Before I can even get halfway through that mug, things start to seem better. The apartment seems bigger and brighter. My debts seem more manageable; my job, less tedious. The women I know seem less complicated. I am downright excited about the future. I go to the book shelf and grab a collection of essays championing a return to the gold standard. I take another sip and read Rothbard's complaints about Hayek's theories. Life is good.

Vous êtes un étatiste

The libertarians hate the security state but don't get that their open borders policy invites the people who murder us. #JeSuisCharlie - Charles C. Johnson

The above quote was taken from the Twitter feed of the editor of GotNews.com, Charles C. Johnson. As you can see, Johnson has here decided to use the murderous assault on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo as a platform for attacking libertarianism and promoting "the security state". He makes it specifically about the borders. There is so much wrong in this little tweet that I just couldn't resist writing about it.

Johnson is too smart of a man to be saying such stupid things in a public forum. I actually own a copy of his book, Why Coolidge Matters. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it to anyone interested in the former president or the era. Johnson does shade his work with opinion, and I don't always agree with his opinion, but I wouldn't consider that a criticism. In the book, unlike this tweet, he comes off as very thoughtful when it comes to the subject about which he is writing. I'm seriously baffled how such a man could stuff so many ignorant and bad ideas into one sentence.

Who are "the people" who murder "us"? Clearly, he is referring to Islamic militants who would like to murder all Americans. Apparently, the only thing keeping them from doing exactly that is our current immigration policy. If only France were more picky about who they let in. Johnson's tweet which immediately preceded the one I quoted above read, "The only way to stop Muslim terrorism is to stop the mass settlement of Muslims. Wake up. #JeSuisCharlie". Yes, and the only way to stop black on black crime is to get rid of the blacks. The only way to stop white child molestation is to banish white people. And the only way to stop idiotic statements from red-headed journalists is to eliminate red headed journalists. Wake up.

I wonder if Charles knows that there are anywhere between 2 million and 7 million (depending on the source you use) Muslims currently living in the U.S. I wonder if he knows that this is not the first generation of Muslims to call America home. I wonder if he wonders why they haven't long ago started strapping bombs to their children and sending them to school to blow "us" up.

It was very disconcerting to find so many people in my Twitter feed, such as Johnson, laying these crimes at the collective feet of all Muslims. These, of course, were all people of a conservative bent. They don't always rush to blame billions of people for the actions of a few. When young white men shoot up an elementary school or a movie theater, there are no calls to reduce the white population. They even resist the left wing's arguments that taking guns out of the hands of these people will reduce gun violence. But put that same gun in a Muslim's hands, and they are ready for sweeping regulations from Big Brother. They want to know why Obama hasn't done more. They thirst for big government. They love it.

Johnson is right about one thing. Libertarians do indeed hate the security state. We hate the incessant unwarranted spying of the NSA. We hate the constant abuses and molestations carried out by the TSA. We hate the militarization of local police. We hate the CIA's policy of torture. We hate that the President of the United States has claimed that it is legal for him to use lethal force against American citizens who he considers a threat to the state (I wonder if Johnson is okay with that since Obama has only used this policy to murder American Muslims).

As fear grows, so does the government. Individual liberty was once the highest ideal of western civilization. Now the doltish electorate of Democracy's greatest empire unceasingly clamors for more tyranny to protect them from the savagery of a war that Washington itself has courted. As Randolph Bourne said, war is the health of the state. The bigger the threat, the bigger the cry for bigger government. The more frightened you are, the more money they will take.

I wanted to reply to Johnson's tweet with all of this and more. But you can only use 140 characters. So instead, I responded with this:

@ChuckCJohnson your enemies are inside the tower, Quasimodo

Improve Society By One Unit This Year

Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows that I don't normally adopt a tone of optimism in my posts. When it comes to economics and politics, I see the constant growth of the State as the greatest enemy to society and the welfare of mankind. From a philosophical standpoint, though, I can't see why it would matter whether or not man improves himself anyway. I don't believe in rewards or punitive measurements that will be doled out in an afterlife. And in the realm of ethics I feel that my unceasing impulse to do right by my fellow man actually puts me in a vulnerable position in my daily dealings. On top of that I also deal with the kind of morosity that Charlie Gordon faced when he was just smart enough to know that he wasn't very bright at all.

But I actually am feeling very optimistic about 2015. It's not that I think the U.S. government will stop printing money or dropping bombs. And I hold out slightly less hope that human beings will suddenly reach enlightenment. But I'm feeling optimistic nonetheless. Why? Because there is no reason not to. About 5 years ago I began, really for the first time, to try and make myself a better man. I wanted to be more knowledgeable about politics. I wanted to understand all of the economic theories I had read about. I wanted to be a better husband and father. I even wanted to dress better, speak better, and think more clearly about everything. I wanted to eat healthier. Hot Pockets, Pop-Tarts, and Coca-Cola were eliminated from the grocery list. My reading increased greatly. I read economic treatises from the early 20th century along with many of the classic novels I had ignored earlier in life. I even convinced my supervisor to let me have his philosophy textbook when his class was finished. I was truly an autodidact. I began to watch less television and listened to more classical music. I ironed my pants and was seldom seen without a tie. My (now former) wife and I kept a tight budget. We spent our extra money on medical debt instead of luxuries. I felt like I was improving nearly every day and I was very proud of my efforts and results.

Then, early last year, all of this progress came to a stop. I learned a rather harsh lesson that temporarily blotted out all desire to improve myself in all of the above mentioned fields. It was the kind of realization that comes to the protagonist in a movie when he finds out that his supposed ally was actually his biggest foe all along. It was the sock to the breadbasket while you're guarding your face. I was gasping for breath and clawing at anything to help me up. Every bit of knowledge I had gained in the preceding years was completely useless to me as I was sent reeling into the shadowy depths. The Devil had my ear. He was making a very persuasive case for taking a shortcut to the final destination. There were a couple of areas in which I did manage to improve. I began working out and stuck to my routine with a religious fervor. And I also learned to play a handful of songs (poorly) on my long neglected Stratocaster. But mostly I had lost my desire for self betterment. I did read some. I read a lot of O. Henry and H.L. Mencken. But it was very slow going. Not near the voracious pace I had set in the previous years.

What I discovered was that my motivation for improving myself had actually been lying outside of myself. All of my efforts were made in an attempt to make things better for others. This is what you call hubris. To alter yourself for another human being with the expectation that you'll receive appreciation as your remuneration is pure folly. I was overestimating my importance and assumed everyone shared the over inflated view I had of myself. The truth is that there is no being residing in the heavens or walking on the earth that has the ability to appreciate you in the way you would like to be appreciated. The only opinion you should concern yourself with is your own. Nobody else has to live inside your head and feel the pangs of your doubts. Nobody else can share equally in your personal satisfactions. They don't know what it's like to hear Beethoven through your ears. They can't relate to the way reading Mises affects you personally. It's not their fault. In fact, it's not a fault at all. It's just the way it is. You can no more appreciate them than they can you.

2015 for me will be the first full year that I embark upon self improvement for the sake of self improvement. I will continue my efforts in strengthening my mind and body. I will keep up the never ending quest for understanding. I will continue writing these posts. If other people are benefited from my thoughts, good. If not, so be it. Leonard Read was fond of saying that you can only improve society by one unit. That's exactly what I intend to do this year.