#13.6 Peace Revolution Podcasts 46 thru 50

Episodes 46 through 50 – Basic applications of the course
 

2012-1-17: #46 Liberty is Life / Practical Applications of Rationality

This episode could be considered a cornerstone of the entire course.

2012-1-21: #47 Slavery is Death / Practical Applications of Irrationality

#46 and #47 are really two episodes that are connected, the introduction for this episode is included within that for the previous episode. In the previous episode, we've looked at the positive side, now here's the negative.

We start with Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Here, we have a lopsided definition of what money is, with all usury and compounding deliberately written out of the narrative. Rand, like a number of others on her side of the equation, succeed in gaining followers by merely not reporting the whole truth. Rand was in my opinion (as was Friedrich Nietzsche before her) a worthy representative of all that “the powers that be” believe in, therefore everyone should study her work, not because it is right, but because it is an apt description of the misanthropic viewpoint from which much else that is truly evil stems.

I would also note that where various words like “fool” are used in this excerpt, we can lay the blame for the production of fools squarely on the educational system and the economic models used by the corporations as we have seen in past episodes. At the bottom of it all is the idea that certain people who presume to be as virtuous as they are wealthy can take advantage of everyone else as if they were animals, specifically cattle, while they imagine themselves as the good, the worthy, the entitled to rule, etc. when in fact they and everything they have done down through the corridors of time has been criminal in the extreme.

Then we have a section where Alex Jones describes the state tyranny that is in place and planned so that those Rand described can maintain their power over the rest of us believing as they do that vast wealth = vast virtue, when as history clearly demonstrates (and even the Bible reiterates) vast wealth usually comes from exactly the opposite of virtue. Jones advocates political activism which E. C. Riegel decried as useless, and we agree. Start with the bottom, not the top. Start with each local community, and within cities, each neighbourhood. That's where (an or the) VEN will have to begin and become a real solution.

Dave Emory then reads from “They Thought They Were Free” by Milton Mayer. This book is about the people who lived under Hitler's regime. We include this source in the homework for this episode and if you haven't already done so, reading or re-reading 1984 by George Orwell should provide some sense of where we are in history and time. The separation of government from the people has been a deliberate and gradual process maintained and financed by the elites against the rest of us. In the process, the government, which in the United States at any rate, was supposed to be of, by and for the people, has been transformed into a machine owned by certain people to represent and support their interests against the rest of us.

Then hear Disney's war propaganda; pay your income tax! With what we know now, especially about where income taxes really go, this should really make us all sick.

Then the first 3 or so chapters of “The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation” by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn are presented. It's probably time to read this whole book too as it is still relevant.

Homework:

Ayn Rand-

Atlas Shrugged
The Fountainhead

Milton Mayer- They Thought They Were Free
George Orwell- 1984
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn- The Gulag Archipelago
http://www.thechristianidentityforum.net/downloads/Gulag1.pdf

2012-1-30: #48 The Philosophy of Life / This is John Galt Speaking

This episode is sort of a collage concerning current issues and technology, starting with a brief statement by the late American Indian leader Russell Means where he says that the US Constitution is based on Indian law. The theme of this episode would be information censorship in this day and age. Richard Grove calls it “exiting the gulag” and as usual, his remarks are clear, sharp and square on the mark. Ayn Rand's John Galt speech (from Atlas Shrugged) is featured though we are acknowledging that her particular brand of Aristotle's philosophy, Objectivism, is an “ism” that we do not uncritically accept. Rand's reliance on the concept of authority is her fatal flaw which warps her entire outlook and philosophy and makes it irrational, however that flaw does not seem to colour John Galt's speech, so we can all learn something from even those we dislike or even detest. We also look favourably on Larken Rose's remarks concerning government and would like rational and sensible feedback on his points as regards any implementation of (the or an) VEN.

Homework:

I'm placing this link here, John Galt's speech in print, just in case any out there wish to follow along as it is being read during this episode.
http://amberandchaos.com/?page_id=106

2012-2-12: #49 The Fallacy of Authority / The Most Dangerous Superstition

An excellent episode which does not rely on the usual bromides concerning authoritarianism or authoritarian personality as postulated by the usual elitist representatives of collectivism; the Frankfurt School, etc. Rather, the message is quite different and even more important; authority is a monstrous illusion, repugnant to natural law, against reason which relies on clear cause and effect.

Homework:

Larken Rose- The Most Dangerous Superstition

2012-2-26: #50 How to End Slavery in the 21st Century (and Beyond)

A wide ranging discussion of aspects of the course. Almost halfway through is a discussion of belief in authority and the cult of “avoiding negativity”, another widespread concocted philosophical fallacy that allows people to act and behave irresponsibly by ignoring problems and waiting for some authority to deal with it instead of themselves. Autonomy is rationality, giving up one's volition to some make believe authority is irrational.

Mentioned in this discussion, the argumentum ad verecundiam: (argument from authority) is usually defined as the fallacy of appealing to an authority operating outside its professed expertise. Everyone has opinions and advice; the fallacy supposedly only occurs when the reason for accepting an authority's conclusion is based on that opinion or advice lying outside the authority's claimed area of expertise. Why quibble? ALL arguments from authority are potentially false and under the discovery of the principles being developed here, including respect for the truth at all times and places; so thereby to improve the accuracy and reliability of our thoughts and actions, ALL ad verecundiam arguments are ALWAYS open to dismissal.

Many incredible instances in history, where ad verecundiam arguments played a part, are traversed leading right into the present. Included is a natural law statement directed at all American military personnel, especially those currently stationed overseas or operating as combatants in any number of endless wars for the profit of some (international bankers) while other father's sons and daughters die, the refrain of history. All war of any kind is of this character; it requires money (usually loaned at usury) and blood. Meanwhile individuals make choices. Individuals form groups and they act in concert, but the solidarity of the group relies on its individual's decisions.

Another fallacy that is torn down is a form of group think that might be called group ad hominem, the sweeping generalization. Arguments that profess to blame groups for wrongs, etc. are all thrown down as no matter how many groups one may simultaneously belong to, one is always oneself, an individual who makes decisions. In this regard, filtering data as part of the grammar process in the trivium, allows one to pick up diamonds from dung heaps, so to speak.

This episode concludes with James Corbett's program on the Magna Carta (1215 at Runnymede, England); basic grammar.

Homework:

Stanley Milgram-
Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View

The Individual in a Social World: Essays and Experiments
Television and Anti-social Behavior: Field Experiments
Psychology in Today’s World

INTERMISSION