Most of these videos are short, less than fifteen minutes each. They all appear on YouTube and of course we don't know how long they will be up there, but we hope they are up there long enough for people to see them. At the outset, despite our present differences as regards solutions, we commend Bill Still's tremendous contribution to our understanding of the problems. He has been both dogged and diligent. We would certainly welcome his input. All of the comments in this, as in the other similar series, are of course mine.
David Burton
2009-10-26: #1 The Still Report on the Economy
From Yosemite, Bill announces the award for his documentary The Secret of Oz at the Yosemite Film Festival. He claims that the symbolism in L. Frank Baum's books relates to the current monetary system. The renowned 1939 motion picture starring Judy Garland was a mere glyph on this book, so perhaps it's time to read it in full, and perhaps the other books in Baum's series as well. Still then goes on to describe the role of North Dakota's state bank. Of course we regard state banks as a statist solution that is more of a stop gap measure than a real permanent solution which only the ideas of E. C. Riegel provide.
Homework:
L. Frank Baum- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
2009-11-1: #2 The Still Report on the Economy
Still reports Wilbur Ross's dire economic forecast in commercial real estate. There are plenty of empty shopping malls and strip malls since then, buildings and property falling into decrepitude, and yet the building boom seems to be ongoing in places like Manhattan. Yet the bankers and investors want more, their claims to gains on idle money without creation of value must be maintained in support of the fiction that capital can be grown without effort. The 1896 conspiracy of bankers before the 20th century began is restated so that more may know about it. Yes, there are real conspiracies in this world and they mostly originate with bankers who maybe should be referred to more widely as usurers.
2009-11-8: #3 The Still Report on the Economy - HI REZ
Still starts with unemployment, debt and the truth concerning the government's inability to solve the economic problem. He knows that only production can bring us out of current problems. He agrees with Jefferson that the government should NEVER borrow money. We'll state right here that eventually all national debts worldwide will be repudiated, and it will be very bad for bankers who have led us down this path. Still agrees with Milton Friedman, that without removing fractional reserve banking and national debt, there is no solution moving forward, a position in which we solidly concur. Friedman was not without his faults, but he always tended to side with liberty and opposed repression. I sincerely doubt he had ever heard of E. C. Riegel.
2009-11-16: #4 The Still Report on the Economy
More bogus unemployment statistics, once more proving that the government cannot be trusted to report these figures accurately. People tend to believe numbers are true, when they are almost always merely a smokescreen to obscure reality. Robert Reich is mentioned. We'd also like to extend an invitation to Reich to contact us and discuss monetary policies with us from an E. C. Riegel perspective. Part of William Jennings Bryan's speech is recounted. We of course do not think the government should be in the banking business, nor the banks in the governing business. Our other features on this blog question many of the basic assumptions people still hold concerning the worthiness and legitimacy of government interventions. More monetary history is recounted. A Quaker, Elizabeth Phillips invented the Monopoly board game to demonstrate the evils of monopoly. Woodrow Wilson's touting of J. P. Morgan is also recounted. Current research reveals the kind of man Wilson really was and for whom he really worked.
2009-11-21: #5 Special Edition
Secret of Oz is banned from Amazon. Amazon's CEO is revealed as a billionaire from Wall St. A former Bankers Trust VP. That company was sued for derivatives fraud, etc. No coincidences.
2009-11-22: #6 The Still Report on the Economy
More unemployment figures but the mainstream media still reports a recovery that hasn't started yet, causing further confusion. Since then, quantitative easing has been used to stave of the inevitable. We believe this will end in a tidal wave of debt or hyperinflation, or they just wont lend governments any more money and then things will get very bad. Again the national debt issue is raised. Gold backing, as we have already pointed out, is not the solution either. Still doesn't think so yet, but state banks are not the solution either.
2009-12-12: #7 The Still Report on the Economy
The Secret of Oz is back on Amazon after public protest. So public protest is effective sometimes. More report on the real national debt. The debt's interest is mentioned, in the billions of dollars PER YEAR, recall they do use compounding. In the meantime, the stock and bond markets have been kept afloat by quantitative easing and other stimulus measures, all supported by debt based money, the creation of more debt. Higher taxes will surely follow. The 1836 war between Nicholas Biddle and Andrew Jackson is reviewed. Ron Paul's efforts were of course futile, as are any of the usual solutions.
2009-12-31: #8 The Still Report - December 31, 2009
The Obama healthcare reform bill is passed. What they don't mention is that behind it was more debt to foreign banks and a few wealthy individuals to keep the government solvent. Those interests expect to collect from higher taxes that shall follow. Where will people get the money to pay those taxes? Obama of course cannot do anything about it as he, and everyone else in DC, is beholden to the banks. Still is correct, there isn't enough money ever, because of the interest owed on it which as E. C. Riegel pointed out, was never created, is therefore always taken from that which was created, eventually causing inevitable bankruptcies; the “musical chairs” economy; foreclosures and seizures of hard assets by those who have no right to them; in plain English, thievery by the bankers. Still says he loves gold, and wants to see it used in exchange for real things, including copies of his documentaries. We have no problem with this as it falls into the category of straight barter. We'll cover the true nature of markets in a future paper.
2010-1-1: #9 January 1, 2010 Still Report - revised
Reducing Federal spending will not restore prosperity, because it doesn't do anything about the growing debt. Austerity measures have never worked so why expoect them to work again? Insanity. Nathan Martin understands that the world economy as currently structured cannot be maintained. What will be offered to replace it? He mentions only two solutions. We of course have a third and it is really the only solution. Still should contact us and learn what we have discovered and work along with us to restore true liberty throughout the world.
Gold bars with tungsten cores reveal that sometimes gold is not as good as gold and we further have an indication of one reason the Vietnam war was really fought, because Vietnam has a lot of tungsten which has the same specific gravity of gold so it can mimic gold's weight and density, the perfect substance with which to perpetrate a great heist. Once you understand the conspiracies of the money masters, many secrets of history open before your eyes. Still figures out the Ft. Knox scandal but hasn't drawn the appropriate connections. Yes, Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, probably did know about it. Vietnam, tungsten, gold, theft on a massive scale, again by those at the top behind the scenes. More details are presented. There really are people like Goldfinger. Other discrepancies are shown, involving more adulteration of gold with copper (plum or rose gold) which is not as clever as using tungsten.
2010-1-9: #10 January 9, 2010 Still Report
Still maintains that the key issue is who controls the quantity of money. He reviews the history of money in England back in the middle ages. The first and greatest conspiracy against the public by the few was by the goldsmiths who did not invent but carried on debt based money creation which had been handed down to them by the ancient Babylonians. A few out there will understand a great mystery once this connection is comprehended. Still maintains that the opposite of plutocracy is a democratic republic. We're way beyond him in this respect. As Wes Bertrand has demonstrated, even a democratic republic is a tyranny. Only complete liberty will suffice and E. C. Riegel's ideas for (the or an) VEN are the only solution compatible with complete liberty long term.
However, Still's comments concerning gold backed money and economies are absolutely correct. Our proposal is that gold and silver be used only as a means of exchange between Riegels and other currencies. In the process we contend that eventually the price of gold and silver will fall as their use for exchange diminishes over time and Riegels take over as the universal money worldwide. More monetary history is reviewed. Still would like Congress to issue debt free money, but we contend that that only benefits interests beholden to the government, not every individual human being. Still really needs to read Riegel's works and join with us.
Homework:
Wes Bertrand- Complete Liberty
David Astle- The Babylonian Woe
2010-1-17: #11 Why Government is Good - v. 2.0
Oh boy, does Still need to get with us and drop out of politics altogether. He contends that debt free issuing money is the only answer because he hasn't read Riegel or any of the liberty related literature. We have an alternative that beats government issue and literally places government back into the hands of the people and dethrones forever the power of bankers and plutocrats with their usury based frauds. Still goes back to ancient Rome for a monetary lesson worth repeating as Rome switched from a republic into an empire and then slowly imploded. We are literally repeating history right now, have passed the zenith of our empire and are in decline. Still recounts England's march toward freedom, but he is apparently unaware that even at the beginning the parliamentarians served without remuneration and therefore were drawn from the rich and well connected. His take on the gold holding cartel is correct and accounts for wide differences in wealth between the rich and everyone else in most societies worldwide. He's right, we do not need the present banking system to continue, but his ideas concerning involvement in government are at this point utterly mistaken. Still hasn't read Lysander Spooner either, otherwise he'd understand what the US Constitution really is and what it isn't.
2010-3-14: #12 Media Hits & Misses, March 15, 2010.mov
Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, according to Still were both in favour of monetary reform and did not support the Federal Reserve system set up in 1913. The true value of gold is always fictitious. It only has value as everything else used as money is devalued, but even then as Still has already reported, gold isn't even always as good as gold. Without a permanent measure of value that stands independent from everything else, the precious metals are the best we have, but they aren't good enough.
We contend that it isn't just the quantity of money that's generated, it's who gets to issue it that counts. No government should ever be allowed this privilege as this natural and inalienable right (directly associated with the right of personal property ownership) has been stolen from each and every human being. Natural rights do not stem from governments, this too is another widely held but never critically evaluated misconception. Still, like us, wants a reduction in the power of government. Only a Riegel solution accomplishes this. Serfdom didn't mean just that you worked for a lord, or for the government, it also meant that you could never leave the land, your freedom to travel was impaired. Does that sound familiar to you? Look at current events.
Still has also correctly surmised that von Mises and the Austrian school, gold bugs all, are also wrong. They never did attack usury by the way and therefore their ideas should be soundly rejected. We'll no doubt get into that in further papers. More monetary history is reviewed involving J. P. Morgan's fantastic bank note swindle, indicating that who gets to issue money is of crucial importance. Neither banks nor governments should ever be allowed the privilege of issuing money or credit.
2010-3-31: #13 NASA and Big Banks
NASA's constellation program, our manned space flight program to replace the space shuttle program was sacrificed so the money could be spent to prove the man made global warming scam, backed by the financial interests to bully the world into accepting their carbon taxation and world government scheme. Let that sink in really well. We know more about this scam than most and will never subscribe to it, not today, not tomorrow, NEVER! We do not accept the ... sanctity of academic science and know beyond a reasonable doubt that scientists are bought and dumped, just like any other resource, by those ruthlessly intent on achieving their long term goals of world domination. We know who is behind it, it's traceable right back to the very top of the banking community, not just in America, but in Europe and in the UK as well. NASA's loss is our loss because once the technical expertise is dispersed it will never be able to recover. Meanwhile China presses on with a manned space program and may be the next nation to attempt a moon landing.
Still covers the public bond scandal, which allows towns and cities to spend like drunken sailors, while the long term winners are, you guessed it, the bankers (municipal bonds were once rock solid as conservative investments, but began to fall apart in mid 2007). Still's figures on these bonds reflect compound interest, which would never be allowed in a Riegel based system. None of the inevitable losses are necessary. Still of course loves the North Dakota state bank model as a solution. Well it's one thing for a small state with slightly more than 600,000 inhabitants to be using it, but how about one of the five biggest states? Not a chance. He'd love for the NASA manned space program be fully funded, and so would we, but how such endeavours are funded matters greatly, and Still does seem aware of this.
2010-6-15: #14 Sweden
At one point in their history, the king of Sweden issued debt free money to fund a war against Russia. Yeah, I know, insane, right? This is why governments should not be permitted to issue money of any kind for any purpose. Still always falls back on the notion of a “public good” but he has never critically evaluated this concept. It cannot be backed up by real history. Still thinks this experiment worth trying again, simply because the quantity wasn't restricted in Sweden's case but he assumes could be in our case. Really? Want to bet?
Still notes that of course the king of Sweden who started this debt free money experiment and the war with Russia was assassinated by a money lender. That too is a frequent historical pattern (it certainly figures in the history of the United States), as these people do not appreciate competition, are ruthless and will stop at nothing to attain their goal; world government and universal enslavement of mankind.
Still reviews the community banking system that started in Sweden and was exported to North Dakota, and served as a basis for the state bank there. Still mentions the local control and the 100% reserve banking (now being instituted by Iceland), but he hasn't gotten to understanding all this as E. C. Riegel observed it. Still needs to read and absorb Riegel and then he'd know; his enlightenment would probably be similar to mine a few years back as when I encountered Riegel's work, all other economists seemed hopelessly backward in comparison. My discovery, arrived at after almost 20 years of relentless research prompted me to begin this blog.
2010-6-27: #15 Iceland
Iceland has a population of 315,000 and according to Still, an economy of $12 billion. The private bankers of course started a huge economic bubble there, which is what they always do. These things can't happen under a Value Unit system for a number of reasons all related to fractional reserve banking. Still's report here is spectacular and a must listen for all those who study geopolitics and real politik. The Icelandic system went through the same problems we are going through. The whole boom and bust cycle was quick for Iceland, being a small economy, the process takes longer for the largest economies like the United States, but is just as certain. The Icelandic people decided to shove the proffered solutions of eurozone membership and more debt away and take back their money system. At the time of this report Iceland actually wanted to use the North Dakota state bank model. There is never enough money to cover debts, but only E. C. Riegel saw exactly why this is so and he was a self taught (autodidact) economist, which if you have been following along should also tell you something.
2010-7-1: #16 Denninger 1-YouTube sharing.mov
The spirit of America is reviewed. Over the history of the United States, approximately one million Americans died, not for the freedom Still thinks, but for the profit of the bankers and their corporations, particularly those who support the military through government contracts; Eisenhower's military / industrial complex in a pattern that David Astle traced all the way back to ancient Babylon. Once that point sinks in, I'm quite sure that the mood of the average American will change dramatically, especially among the armed forces, patriots in the intelligence communities and law enforcement. It needs to, because they are also prisoners of the same financial system that enslaves us all.
Still's guest, Karl Denninger, directly points out the debt problem. He's of course correct. When the next financial crisis comes, If the government reacts by cutting Social Security and Medicare, then expect revolution as it will naturally and certainly come.
Only a Value Unit based system will ever be viable long term, so we might as well try and start setting one up now even if we are at present forbidden to put it into practice. Remember that a Value Unit system is by nature voluntary, but it will be open to all once a set of simple rules are established, agreed upon and promulgated.
Denninger's read on inflation is also correct and long term deflation will become the rule, because that's what always happens when there isn't enough money in an economy. There is an end to bubbles, but we haven't reached it yet, we didn't in 2011 or in 2012, but that doesn't mean it's never going to be reached. Recall that even now the US economy is better than a hundred times larger than Iceland's. The US economy has contracted significantly over the past six years, but It will take longer to fall, that's all. The near term solution for most people is gold and silver bullion coins, which take purchasing power out of circulation and attempt to preserve liquid capital. But as we say, long term the value of gold and silver will also trend downward.
Denninger's comments concerning credit aggregates and population are certainly important and he would be the kind of thinker who might likely be interested in contributing to a Value Unit based monetary system. Denninger favours a 100% reserve banking system, but we may have some other ideas concerning replacements for current financing models as well. In the long run, simplicity of operation and fairness related to rational and objective value will succeed, as nothing else will.
2011-2-1: #17 Ireland
Ireland had an opportunity that it didn't take and that was probably due to the same shenanigans that plague elections in every country. Most people take it for granted that their votes are cast securely and that elections are fair. This is a grand illusion, because there are factions in place behind the scenes with far too much at stake ever to allow their opponents to succeed to power and oust them. The situation in the eurosone is directly similar to the case of the United States before the Civil War; those who run things in Brussels and Frankfurt cannot allow a single nation to leave else the whole edifice would collapse. Well it will anyway, because the debt is simply not repayable and as more people understand this and that they simply have no future in the present system, more will take concerted action. It's inevitable.
Karl Denninger comments on Iceland's situation in regard to Ireland. Iceland's economy, not widely reported, is on the rebound. Ireland of course went with the eurozone and is still falling apart. The same thievery that occurred in Iceland happened in Ireland but the Irish were bullied into accepting more of the same. Unsound loans originate with the financial institutions themselves, because they have always understood that unpaid loans result in seizure of real assets that as has been said before do not rightfully belong to them, as is happening in Greece right now and will shortly take place in Italy, Spain, Portugal, even France (poor France!).
The euro is fatally flawed, Denninger doesn't see it survive. Germany, which remarkably accounts for half the productivity of the entire eurozone wants out right now. Of course they haven't yet, so they will suffer until they do. Each country will probably set up its own currency without contending with the real causes of problems; debt based money, fractional reserve banking, limited liability public corporations, rigged securities markets, etc.
Denninger's understanding of things, which are valid as far as they go, rests on assumptions that simply will not hold up under a Value Unit based system, beginning with limited liability public corporations, which would largely cease to exist, as none could be funded without fully disclosed risk assessment. The world of the future will value labour much higher than it is valued today and prices for everything will rise relative to present values. Average standards of living will then rise once again but probably more slowly and naturally without bubbles, because the basis for creating them will simply not be allowed. Everyone that participates in a Value Unit based system will have a far more honest chance of success then is presently possible. The plutocrats of course will be politically and socially defeated in the process and of necessity forced to live more normal lives, giving up their grandiose collectivist schemes for enslaving everyone else, as none of that will have any basis in funding under a Value Unit based system, where only the exchange of real value will count. Institutions will fall and new ones will take their place, as has happened in Iceland and will be seen elsewhere in time. The charade cannot be sustained indefinitely.
2011-6-21: #18 Iceland Ireland
Karl Denninger and Bill Still start their political action with staffers working for US Senators. They thought the economy would collapse in 2011. It didn't and hasn't and wont likely in 2012 either. Iceland began arresting bankers for massive theft. The Icelandic people were threatened but they didn't back down and by a 60% to 40% margin supported these arrests and did not bail out the bankers. Still reported that most mortgages were restructured and their economy is stabilizing and even rising. A five step plan was presented for Ireland that was not followed so Ireland is still economically sick.
Homework:
Karl Denninger- Leverage; how cheap money will destroy the world.
2011-7-24: #19 U.S. Debt Limit
We went through this one, there wasn't a default, due to the 14th Amendment. Still pushes his position that the government should issue debt free money or give it to the banks without a third option, the Riegel option which Still obviously does not know about. The debt ceiling was indeed raised and most of the government debt was sold to the central bank, the Federal Reserve. The reasons Still's proposal wont fly are two; 1) the bankers wont allow it and they hire henchmen to FORCE their way on everyone else and 2) the American people, as well as everyone else in the world, know that they cannot trust their government representatives to act for them in “the public interest” and finally Still has not critically examined this “public good” concept through the liberty literature. We sincerely hope he does soon.
2011-7-25: #20 The Debt Ceiling Debate
The game of chicken if the debt ceiling was not raised was played out and of course the game was allowed to continue. Still recommended paying off the current debt with minted coins which are not debt bearing. A little heavy but it would work, or we could print up a bunch of non interest bearing US Government notes, as Lincoln did. See where it got him? The bankers hated his greenbacks and any time they got any destroyed them and replaced them with their own issued banknotes right up until the Federal Reserve was set up with the monopoly it has had for nearly a century. Lincoln's greenbacks, when you can find them are now collector's items and trade as if they are works of art. A lot of 19th century American money is in the same category; beautiful and interesting designs and out of circulation as money.
Homework:
Bill Still- No More National Debt
INTERMISSION
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
#0 Bill Still - The Global Monetary System and Mega Trends by Bill Still
Bill Still's remarks before the 3rd Annual World Conference on Riba, posted on 11 December, 2012. This is presented here for basic information related to much we have and will discuss on this blog. Still still favours state issue of money, Lincoln's solution, therefore like it or not, he has sided with the statists and Constitutionalists. Nevertheless, we feel quite strongly that he might be won over to E. C. Riegel's ideas that each and every one of us have the inalienable right to issue our own money. We encourage him to contact us as we value his research and understanding of money.
Still's two extant documentaries are The Money Masters and The Secret of Oz both currently viewable on YouTube. .
Sunday, December 9, 2012
#14.6 School Sucks Project Podcasts 102 thru 117
This is basic material for this course. What is this course about? Yes, it's about education, about becoming autodidactic (self teaching), but that implies it's also about thinking. This series is about becoming aware of the structure of argument all around us. Brett begins to mention the Trivium: grammar, logic and rhetoric. (The Quadrivium, which follows from the Trivium, is Mathematics – really Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music – so of course I'm going to be interested in becoming a teacher of music -specifically the piano- as part of the whole basis of being an “educated” person. Hint, blind as I may be, I'd really like meeting someone who would trade knowledge of Astronomy for knowledge of Music.)
2011-7-24:
#103 Discovering Doublespeak: (Part 2) The
Cacophemism
The opposite of a euphemism is basically a bunch of revolting noise. It's just as affective at distorting rational discourse as the eupemism. Most cacophemisms are ad hominem attacks; intentionally harsh language used to destroy the argument, or perhaps attacks on groups of people, a kind of casual casting of blame in some attempt to get someone to agree with you, which it usually doesn't.
2011-7-27: #104 Discovering Doublespeak: (Part 3) Legalese v. Curiosity
Core material! The emphasis in this episode is jargon, used in conversations with others to impress and confuse them. Proceeding from there, the discussion gets into basic legal ideas. Listen to this one a few times for greater effect.
2011-8-6: #105 Two-Year Anniversary Unplugged Mom Roundtable [no longer available]
As it turns out, I am one who has made it so far though all his podcasts. This is a relatively long episode -over 2 hrs- that is basically a discussion of course related issues.
2011-10-19: #106 A Young Person's Guide to Politics (Appendix A) Ron Paul
A watershed: this episode is singularly impressive in that one of the characters, Stephanie Murphy, makes it really clear why E. C. Riegel was correct in his assessment of the value of political activism; it is both a waste of time and of one's resources, including one's emotional resources, therefore it is worthless as a basis for working toward a solution. Ethical problems with trying to make the government into something that it is not, are reviewed.
This is likewise the case when people (from whatever political persuasion) empower a government with the primary right to create money (and destroy it too) whether that be by the Constitution or through some guaranteed monopoly (the Federal Reserve system). Rather than working where we are, and confronting the prospect that each of us is entitled to make our own means to trade with everyone else (money) and leaving the government, as far as possible, out of our daily business, we are habituated to using the crutch or useless promises of government and it gets us nowhere.
The depersonalization of violence is one of government's current byproducts; politics is an outlet for something else, for adults who have not resolved aggression done to themselves to carry it out against others, whether invented enemies of monopolists or otherwise. Many aspects of the frankness of politics are expressed, especially concerning taking money from future generations, through taxes extracted by FORCE, to purchase benefits packages, etc. for unionized state workers (including or especially including teachers). They also describe the whole lawmaking process in gory details.
Two prominent political perspectives are addressed: Liberalism is characterized as giving off the impression that you are about saving the world as long as you don't have to personally lift a finger. Conservatism (not characterized) is a fantasy attempting to preserve what has long since been lost or stolen, again by not having to lift a finger. They characterize this side as self-serving in any case. The panel discuss politics and personal identity as issues.
Homework:
Wes Bertrand- Complete Liberty
Bertrand started creating and posting podcasts before April 2008. The first ten are missing so the podcasts assembled on his website begin with episode 11. (I am slowly reviewing these as is my habit, from episode 11 forward. Frankly, these are excellent as sources for more detail on the path through the philosophy of liberty.)
Stefan Molyneux- Freedomain Radio
Molyneux is probably the longest posting podcaster of the bunch, with well over 2,100 podcasts to date. Stefan's significance as a teacher / presenter is in the all too neglected field of philosophy.
2011-11-18:
#107 Free Talk Radio College
Discussion [no longer available]
Mark Edge, Stephanie Murphy and Brett discuss college. It's amazing how much of this discussion relies on euphemisms; stereotypes about how the country used to function better in the past, when it really didn't, etc.
2011-11-18: #108 (Supplemental): Free Radical Radio with John Kurtz
Homework:
Dr. Stanley Monteith- Liberty Radio
2011-12-1: #109 Homeschool Oversight and Regulation?
Laurette Lynn and Brett (and later Dr. Kunzman) engage in a spirited discussion on various issues from child abuse, arguments from authority, social conditioning, to home schooling. Brett draws a comparison between government intervention and starting a fire based on the inevitable overreach or unintended consequences of government action. Laurette confuses the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence regarding “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as a basis for defining criminality but I would adamantly agree that it is each state's responsibility to define what exactly constitutes child abuse, regulation of education, etc. There is likewise going to be a similar perspective regarding (the or an) VEN; they must be based on what each locality decides within certain universally understood and simple principles.
Homework:
Robert Kunzman- Write These Laws on Your Children: Inside the World of Conservative Christian Homeschooling
2011-12-10: #110 School Sucks At the Movies (#1) – The Cartel
This is certainly a must if you are interested in teachers' unions, charter schools and vouchers. The ultimate debate certainly concerns who is entitled to money extracted from the public by FORCE. It has nothing to do with the welfare or education of children whatsoever. Brett reviews all the fantasies about government. You'll notice how weird some of this gets.
Homework:
Bob Bowdon- The Cartel
2011-11-10: #111 (School News #7): Community Outraged By Teacher Who Tells Kids the Truth
This episode was about some second grade teacher (in New York) telling her class there was no Santa Claus. As far as I know, Santa is a comparatively recent invention of commercial interests intent on turning a religious holiday (putting it redundantly) into a profit making occasion, derived from some nice guy who gave gifts to little children back in the middle ages named St. Nicholas, whose feast day is December 6th not Christmas, and that 200, 300 years ago, the “spirit of Christmas” had more to do with Jesus Christ than Santa Claus. No matter. My kids pretty much decided that Santa wasn't real before they were old enough to go to school. Had I been a parent of a child in that teacher's class, I would have applauded.
I personally despise commercialized Christmas, along with Black Friday, etc. but no matter, people are complacent about a lot of patent illusions, most of which have to do with governments. Just call me Scrooge. Bah! Humbug! On second thought, no, Scrooge was basically an accountant in league with usurers.
No really, why do adults start out dealing deceptively with their own children? Maybe they're just passing along their own deceptions. People usually need some deception to live by else they would soon wake up to the gravity of their personal situations. Tell us lies, tell us sweet pretty lies, instead of the cold hard truth. That's where most people are, which makes them “sheep for the slaughter,” of course.
Brett mentions Zeitgeist, the “spirit of the times,” a movie that was funded by some rich guy as a solution to our problems, as he said in the movie a dictatorship like nature itself. As I said earlier, Zeitgeist is NOT the direction people interested in liberty, or the ideas of E. C. Riegel would like to be going, as their solution has nothing whatsoever to do with liberty and amounts to another empowerment of government to keep doing things for us and giving us things, just like Santa Claus.
This episode closes with some brilliant satire.
2011-12-31: #113 Punished By Elves?
For those who want to know, this episode begins with Reading Time With Pickle by Regina Spektor. You can read the whole thing here.or look it up on YouTube, you'll find it there.
Brett gets into some future plans, some conversations with family members, kind of a follow up of the last episode. He plays an “elf on the shelf” ad. This is a further elaboration on the weird directions illusions can take. How is this “spy on the shelf” any different from what the would-be world leaders, and those who plan on working for or with them, have in mind? This episode gets into some core material, dealing with the role of illusions vs. the facts of life as they currently exist.
Homework:
Alfie Kohn- Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes
2011-12-31:#114 Discovering Doublespeak! (Part Four) - Greenspan's Gobbedygook
Dr. Who vs. Alan Greenspan, fantasy vs. well yes, reality. We know, some of us who have bothered to read E. C. Riegel, that interest rates are basically an unlawful fantasy practised by the shisters who run our current money system, based on the proven fallacy that one cannot extract from what was never created in the first place, the entire “earning money from money” fallacy, etc. in a name, usury, without inevitably destroying the host economy. So, when you're caught having to explain yourself and you have something to hide, as all bankers do, the best thing to do is to use the most confounded language you possibly can to obscure your iniquities from the credulous public. So this episode is largely about parsing gobbledygook, training to catch deceptions, etc.
2012-1-4:
#115 School Sucks At the Movies (#2) - Charlie Bartlett
This is a group discussion about the movie. I decided to see it, it made many good points. The Charlie Bartlett character even plays a Steinway as a prop. I felt however that when the climax of the movie comes and Charlie is confronted by the principal, his fallback assertion that he is after all only a kid is a real cop out because obviously with action bears responsibility, whether awareness is foremost or needs to be demonstrated in the fact of the action. Charlie's activities directly lead to the principal's personal losses and he can't have not been aware of this fact.
This is a group discussion about the movie. I decided to see it, it made many good points. The Charlie Bartlett character even plays a Steinway as a prop. I felt however that when the climax of the movie comes and Charlie is confronted by the principal, his fallback assertion that he is after all only a kid is a real cop out because obviously with action bears responsibility, whether awareness is foremost or needs to be demonstrated in the fact of the action. Charlie's activities directly lead to the principal's personal losses and he can't have not been aware of this fact.
2012-1-7:
#116 (Keys Installment #7): Dale J. Stephens and the Uncollege
Movement
This episode considers basic facts concerning college in a discussion with Dale J. Stephens. There are some problems with the audio here, headphones help. More uncritically held and unnoticed assumptions are challenged. It may be noticed by some that (the or an) VEN would have the most benefit to and interest among those who decide to choose this route for their education.
Homework:
Dale J. Stephens- http://www.uncollege.org
2012-1-15: #117 (Supplemental): Brett On Porc Therapy With Stephanie Murphy
There is a lot of contact information in this episode. If you've wondered whether there is commerce associated with the liberty movement, here it is.
INTERMISSION
Sunday, December 2, 2012
#14.5 School Sucks Project Podcasts 83 thru 101
The
title is a bit facetious. This is a kind of rant about the current
education bureaucracy which should be of special interest to
teachers. Brett happens to mention exactly why I personally decided
that I would never become part of such a system, despite my desire
and probably a little of my personal conviction as well, that I could
be a pretty good school teacher, not because I have anything to
teach, but because I am interested in getting others to learn
whatever it is they want to learn. But that's not the point of
public education as it currently stands, that's also not the point of
government as it currently stands, so therefore this blog is one way
that I have, small as it is, for trying to awaken people everywhere
to the kind of world in which they are living.
We are living in domination systems, where commonly perceived truth is inseparable from authority; FORCE to back it up, just as ... another lifetime ago, when I was working for a huge corporation, one of my co-workers from China asked me how something could be true with no FORCE to back it up. Can you imagine? Truth, as I said to her then would be truth regardless of any FORCE used to compel political acceptance.
There are all kinds of ways people try to fit themselves into this domination matrix, acquiring as they imagine, significance, importance, etc. What are the results? Often the very worst human personality traits are forced to the top of the bureaucratic hierarchies. Is this what we want? I hardly think so. But what happens when you speak up? Brett talks about conditional encouragement. This is something running rife through society everywhere in the advanced and not so advanced world. Do we want this? Perhaps we'll finally reach some tipping point where something else can happen, maybe. In the meantime, recognize the truth; we all live in fancy gulags, “the wall” as Brett calls it.
We are living in domination systems, where commonly perceived truth is inseparable from authority; FORCE to back it up, just as ... another lifetime ago, when I was working for a huge corporation, one of my co-workers from China asked me how something could be true with no FORCE to back it up. Can you imagine? Truth, as I said to her then would be truth regardless of any FORCE used to compel political acceptance.
There are all kinds of ways people try to fit themselves into this domination matrix, acquiring as they imagine, significance, importance, etc. What are the results? Often the very worst human personality traits are forced to the top of the bureaucratic hierarchies. Is this what we want? I hardly think so. But what happens when you speak up? Brett talks about conditional encouragement. This is something running rife through society everywhere in the advanced and not so advanced world. Do we want this? Perhaps we'll finally reach some tipping point where something else can happen, maybe. In the meantime, recognize the truth; we all live in fancy gulags, “the wall” as Brett calls it.
2011-3-13:
#84 Seeds (2 of 2) Bullying, Way Up In the
Tree
A continuation of the last episode containing a webinar from the New Hampshire education bureaucracy (originally from the US Dept. Of Education) concerning the subject of bullying. I really like Brett acting like a commentator with questions, comments, etc. This is very powerful stuff.
2011-3-15: #85 Free Talk Live – Stephanie Murphy and I Discuss Teacher Unions & Wisconsin Students
A recorded Free Talk Live show with Stephanie Murphy. She interviews Brett. There were protests in Wisconsin at the time as the governor was attempting to bust their union, etc. The theme is developed which is basically one of the oldest natural tendencies known; capital will always outrun labour. Public unions have access to other people's money because there are no market signals; public schools are a near monopoly created and supported by government FORCE, therefore there really is no upward limit to remuneration, whereas unions representing workers in private structures eventually reach a tipping point where if they demand more their jobs go elsewhere or the business goes away; they are out of a job because they have priced themselves out of the market. Corporations vs. labour unions is a false dichotomy as both sides tend to use government FORCE to impose their will on others. More related topics are discussed and some interesting tidbits emerge; how political conventions are partially funded by taxpayers as “educational.”
There are a number of remedial actions possible, but for us who are interested in applications of the ideas of E. C. Riegel, we want to look at where the money is generated, who gets to create it (and destroy it) and how money passes through the economy. Wouldn't things be quite different, including where jobs are created or destroyed, whether or not labour unions are really necessary, etc. if there really were Value Units and a fully operational VEN? Here then are a wide range of possible topics and anyone who wishes may submit papers on these subjects for posting here on this blog, after all, I really never intended this to be exclusively my own creation.
2011-3-18:
#86 Can We Blame the Students? (A Conversation With a College
Professor)
Washington State University professor, Alex (last name given but not intelligible) is Brett's guest. He's a music teacher which is of some interest to me. He wanted to write about the situation in Wisconsin. He wanted to change the focus from teachers to students, many of whom show disinterest or do other things instead of attending to classes or homework, etc. He also complains about teacher evaluation being difficult to measure. Brett brings up market forces, but they really do not have any effect on public schools. Alex's main point seems to be lack of passion on the part of students. The bigger issue is that in American society, education is entirely based on the financial benefits of it. (Florence King said that Americans have great faith in education but loathe the educated.)
Alex
discusses modern idols who have material wealth and nothing else.
Since life has been loaded with extrinsic motivators, carrots and
sticks, and the idea of making as much money as possible with as
little effort as possible. He also cites the absurdity of students
determining how much a teacher knows about his/her subject. A better
question might be how well a teacher communicates their information;
poor teachers are poor communicators. As Alex describes what he
considers good teaching, he bases it on something very close to the
Trivium; they show that they have gone through all the steps required
to arrive at great teaching rhetoric that communicates the subjects
in a thorough, natural and un-FORCE-ed way.
Brett
brings up the fact that by college, most students have acquired a
poor attitude toward education because they have come through the
meat grinder that is the public education system. So all the passion
is gone and all they want is the piece of paper that might entitle
them to go out and earn six figures with as little effort as
possible. If we have been following along, none of us can reasonably
suppose that things would be any different.
The
subsidization of education has a disconnect in it; students do not
directly pay the teachers, it's made to look as though it's free.
Here's a lesson for all of us; that which is not paid for is not as
highly valued, it is taken for granted. Alex makes the point that
older students are better students. He affirms my long held
contention that people shouldn't go to college right after high
school and that the idea that everyone should go to college should
probably end as well. A college education isn't for everyone. Most
people have no idea of the real cost of an education, that knowledge
has intrinsic value, that anything else but college (or the military)
can be as valid as a life's path and that furthermore (and I have
actually encountered this) that a person without a college degree can
and should be as respected as one who has one, and when it comes to
the heavy crafts industries where people are exposed to potentially
dangerous situations, the remuneration should compensate them for
their risks.
Brett is very good on the subject of FORCE and how it infects and ruins everything, even something like music which I may add at this point is part of the Quadrivium defining what a true liberal education is supposed to be. (I feel quite sure that I will be diving into that subject within a fairly short time.) Alex inveighs against specialization; degrees in one subject, etc. That too was a result of the Prussianization of education, including higher education, during the 19th century. There's much more that is discussed.
Brett is very good on the subject of FORCE and how it infects and ruins everything, even something like music which I may add at this point is part of the Quadrivium defining what a true liberal education is supposed to be. (I feel quite sure that I will be diving into that subject within a fairly short time.) Alex inveighs against specialization; degrees in one subject, etc. That too was a result of the Prussianization of education, including higher education, during the 19th century. There's much more that is discussed.
2011-4-7:
#87 Keys (Instalment #5) Unplugging and Activating – A Show For
Parents
Brett's guest is Laurette Lynn. Her website is here. They discuss the terms “normal” and “alternative” and how the latter term is pejorative. Laurette's “red pill experience” happened when faced with her husband's poor medical diagnosis, that affected her family. He was cured of something very serious from alternative methods which led to questions whether the medical profession really had a monopoly on the answers. Their rising awareness mirrors many of our own, being subjected to “health nut” jeers, etc. This affected everything about them politically and socially. They discovered that they were living outside the mainstream and they were expected to conform. Her story is by no means unique. Those who are “members of the choir” who have already awakened to the reality of the situation will really enjoy her story. Her underlying message is that if you want to change society and the world, start changing the way you raise and educate your children. But be advised that as you change your life you may likely lose friends, and of course you'll gain others. That's just the way things are. Her description of how this affects her in terms of think through everything you end up doing is like what the Trivium exposes one to; accepting truth.
Homework:
http://www.unpluggedmom.com
Ayn Rand- Anthem
2011-4-14: #89 (School News #6): Force Feeding ... For the Children [no longer available]
Ayn Rand- Anthem
2011-4-14: #89 (School News #6): Force Feeding ... For the Children [no longer available]
This one came with a disclaimer, or rather a warning that this episode was an explosive rant and contained ... objectionable language. Ah, it wasn't that bad. Apparently around this time a Chicago school banned homemade lunches! Wow! There were unforeseen consequences; students didn't eat lunch at all. He ties this into a similar Federal regulation that amounts to “eat what we offer you or go hungry.” This is symptomatic of the wider problem.
Homework:
Healthy
Mind – Fit Body
2011-4-29:
#90 Teachers Unions 101 – This is what hypocrisy looks like.
As Brett said, for the record, a show on teachers unions, probably the beginning of a series. Those who discover the philosophy of liberty usually experience anger as a result, attack those who exposed it to them, etc. Since the philosophy of liberty is so obvious (it has been there like an unexplored continent, like America before Columbus), you'd think other people would see it as you do, but they just don't and wont, because they're so busy defending a failed system. Then usually comes a period of quiet and reflection, and then you decide that perhaps only a few out there who have seen what you have seen can ever understand you. So truth often makes one lonely. One is lucky if one has plenty of imagination so one can be one's own best friend and keep company with oneself. Don't some of the foremost proponents of enlightenment down through the ages caution against attachments? Yes, and it was well that they did so. Meanwhile economic insecurity dictates everything. One must do what one can to get by.
Brett brings up sustainability. Let me be perfectly frank about that word. It is used by those who already have far more than they'll ever need to justify why those who have next to nothing wont get even that, based on the facts of enforced and usually artificial scarcity, which benefits certain people at the expense of all others. Every time I hear the word sustainability, I cringe, grit my teeth and depending on my mood I might even get really angry and excuse me if you don't often lose it yourself.
But E. C. Riegel's insights about money turn all this on its head. Those who see this understand that at long last they might have a means of turning it all around. But even in this episode dealing with labour unions, one should become aware of the degree to which people's minds are clouded by collectivist thinking, deluded into thinking that there are no concerted efforts, plans, conspiracies way above their heads that determine the course of events that are seemingly beyond their control and they are themselves the victims of lifelong bullying and conformism into believing that someone else is supposed to look out for their basic interests, which is on its face irrational.
Brett makes it clear, without even saying it, that all this teachers union business boils down to money. The rest is pure hypocrisy because none of the other slogans thrown around have any basis in fact or reality and merely obscure the obvious facts that public employee unions determine how much of other people's money (through taxes) they will be able to “pull down” to maintain their, let's be honest, often rather meagre lifestyles.
People have no idea how much teaching costs or should cost because all that has been obscured by the system. None of the students subjected to “the education process” have any idea either. It's about time we found out and made up our own minds about what courses to take for remediation in education as well as everywhere else in society. I assert that Riegel's ideas would make this all very easy as everyone would set one's own monetary value to one's own work and therefore be forced to compete for competence and ability, not with the whole world of labour as some might suggest, but with those in each locality with similar skills. Then we'd find out what's really sustainable.
2011-5-16: #91 (Supplemental): Liberty Cap Talk Live Interview [no longer available]
This episode begins with a commercial about Porcfest sponsored by the Free State Project in New Hampshire (something I wouldn't mind attending in future years). The balance is taken up with part of an interview which covers some of the history of public schools. This is a pretty hard hitting interview.
2011-5-25:
#92 Osama bin Laden – Any Questions?
Brett
is brilliant at capturing the nonsense / horror of the times in which
we live. He ties it all back to the lust for power and authority as
it is expressed in the latest incarnation of that lust that extends
back for thousands of years, the public schools. When people can't
think critically, they use the argument from authority ... or the
equally stunning fallacy of argument from public opinion. This
episode contains basic core subject matter of the course.
2011-5-30: #93 (video) Brett on Adam vs. The Man
2011-5-30: #93 (video) Brett on Adam vs. The Man
Brett on Russia Today (RT), which is (ironically for some Americans) becoming a widely circulated alternative news source.
2011-5-30:
#93 (audio) Adam vs. The Man – School's Out for Summer Special
This
is the complete audio version. Included is more discussions on the
same subjects with Stefan Molyneux. There are some breaks in the
audio stream. Prison and school are compared.
Homework:
Alison
Gopnik- The Philosophical Baby
Ron Paul- Liberty Defined
Ron Paul- Liberty Defined
http://trueworldhistory.info
The Thrive Movement is featured on this website. If you decide to view this, please pay close attention to how this documentary, Thrive, presents the money issue. It gets the causes right (usury, compounding interest and fractional reserve banking), but when it offers a solution, IT'S ALL WRONG from E. C. Riegel's perspective because it empowers government rather than each one of us; they fall for the odious fallacy that governments should issue money. Apparently the producers of Thrive are themselves statists and cannot imagine a world without government meddling. Likewise they completely fail to recognize the ruinous practices of running huge international “public” corporations under Limited Liability laws, under which no simple entrepreneurial business could successfully operate. This gives corporations an unfair advantage over local or regional businesses, limits competition and stifles innovation as well as understating true costs of operation. Corporations are by their nature usually too large to be efficient or responsible.
The Thrive Movement is featured on this website. If you decide to view this, please pay close attention to how this documentary, Thrive, presents the money issue. It gets the causes right (usury, compounding interest and fractional reserve banking), but when it offers a solution, IT'S ALL WRONG from E. C. Riegel's perspective because it empowers government rather than each one of us; they fall for the odious fallacy that governments should issue money. Apparently the producers of Thrive are themselves statists and cannot imagine a world without government meddling. Likewise they completely fail to recognize the ruinous practices of running huge international “public” corporations under Limited Liability laws, under which no simple entrepreneurial business could successfully operate. This gives corporations an unfair advantage over local or regional businesses, limits competition and stifles innovation as well as understating true costs of operation. Corporations are by their nature usually too large to be efficient or responsible.
2011-6-3:
#94 Brett & Laurette Make Trouble (Unplugged Mom
Radio) [no longer available]
Some really frank discussion about public education, parenting, motherhood and society. Laurette clearly understands that tyranny is based on bankers' debt. She quickly runs through the history of this problem. TAXES DO NOT PAY FOR WHAT MOST PEOPLE SUPPOSE. There is nothing patriotic about paying taxes, in fact, though of course it is never discussed in public school American history classes, our own revolutionary war against Great Britain was a tax revolt against the Bank of England and indirectly against the East India Corporation whose flag we used as a basis for our own. Laurette really wraps up the whole thing; central banks run governments which run education, under which people are prepared for what? Those who bubble to the top are scooped up by government, corporations or universities. What ever happened to starting your own business? No one is trained for it, or allowed to suppose that they can succeed as “free enterprisers” Corporations do not like competition and tend toward monopoly, which leaves people out as a “musical chairs” phenomenon associated with a debt based, artificial scarcity economy and other neat tricks associated with bank financing, the calling in of loans, which results in the foreclosure and seizure of property that strictly speaking does not belong to them; theft. Merger and acquisition is another more massive kind of organized thievery.
Laurette
also squarely gets the Social Security trap without indicating that
governments (and central banks and corporations behind governments)
require subsidies for the “losers” else they would incur violent
revolution. The E. C. Riegel solution to Social Security and all
other forms of state socialism is to return the issuing of money to
the individual person where it rightfully belongs. Laurette didn't
get into it further, but actually these transfer payments are
necessary in order to compensate the recipients, not for their own
failures to save for their retirement (indeed how many could actually
do this under the system as it presently exists?), but to recompense
all that the privileged factors in society (banks and corporations)
have STOLEN from the recipients, who during their lifetimes were not
adequately remunerated for their labour.
Parenthetically,
I get real tired of hearing the super rich (anyone with $100 million
of more in personal assets and that figure might be much less)
complain about redistribution of their wealth, assuming as they
always do that their money was earned honestly, when it was not.
Redistribution happens as a matter of course, for those who really
bother to study history, when some tipping point is reached beyond
which people say “we've had enough, no more” and then these
redistributions usually occur in a haphazard manner accompanied with
much violence and disintegration of average living standards. It has
happened before and since none have considered exactly why and taken
steps to counter the natural trend, it will happen again. It might
sincerely be hoped that in this 21st century, we could
make the redistribution process happen peacefully and rationally by
setting up at each local level (the or an) VEN to run in parallel
with the present system, but I frankly doubt this can be done
peacefully, power and corruption being what they are.
Probably the people we most need to convert and bring over to our side are law enforcement and the military, who are being cynically used by the no goods at the top to prevent the people from revolting. This could be done by getting to know each of these “peace officers” as people first, when they are not wearing their official costumes, and convincing them that they have far more in common with us than with the powers that be, who largely being psychopaths, really do not care about them as people at all. Then we can point out to them how unlawful their affiliations really are. Want to stop a war? Stop those who would be sent to fight in one, whether that be domestically or in some other country where they are not welcome or wanted. Above all, as individual people, these peace officers are entitled to our help just as is everyone else when it comes time to set up (the or an) VEN.
Probably the people we most need to convert and bring over to our side are law enforcement and the military, who are being cynically used by the no goods at the top to prevent the people from revolting. This could be done by getting to know each of these “peace officers” as people first, when they are not wearing their official costumes, and convincing them that they have far more in common with us than with the powers that be, who largely being psychopaths, really do not care about them as people at all. Then we can point out to them how unlawful their affiliations really are. Want to stop a war? Stop those who would be sent to fight in one, whether that be domestically or in some other country where they are not welcome or wanted. Above all, as individual people, these peace officers are entitled to our help just as is everyone else when it comes time to set up (the or an) VEN.
Brett
uses a pyramid to symbolize substantiating critical thinking. Like
it or not, he's referring to the Trivum, encountered in the Peace
Revolution podcast series.
2011-6-13: #95 Free Talk Live – Collectivism and Constitution Worship [no longer available]
2011-6-13: #95 Free Talk Live – Collectivism and Constitution Worship [no longer available]
This episode starts out by stating for all who would hear and understand that the US Constitution does not bequeath any rights to anyone, that such rights are inalienable and exist before any document constructed by any group of men or women (or government as understood as a particular group of people) are not dependent on anyone, not another person or a government. We would add that equivalent with the right to self defence; to keep and bear arms, understood as a given inalienable right that lies beyond the law to conform or abridge anything, such restrictions are strictly speaking unlawful as is the right to free trade.
We
hold along with E. C. Riegel that the right of any individual to
issue their own money is likewise an inalienable right that cannot be
abridged or given as a monopoly to any select group of people (a
central bank).
The
Constitution was set up to restrict the growth of government. It
didn't work and no single individual is a party to it, as Lysander
Spooner pointed out over a century ago. Therefore this show starts
out by asserting that the Constitution is another idol people worship
along with the state. I noticed there was an ad for bit-coin which
is another alternative trading mechanism that started on the
internet. This discussion is very wide ranging and addresses
entitlements as likewise essentially unlawful.
All
these are arguments from authority or arguments from FORCE without
any rational basis.
2011-6-13: #96 Teachers Union 102 – Fairytale Villages and Rhetorical Bear
This episode, which could have been titled Rhetoric and the Misrepresentation of Facts, focuses on political, socio-economic myths, amounting to a major rewrite of American history, to the good. It is best to destroy idols, dispel myths, especially those which cloud perceptions. Brett discusses reactions from the “greatest generation”, many in their 80's today. He explains the unspoken and unspeakable connections; the ennobling of war, etc. He then ties this propaganda from the past to those propagandists who support teachers unions today (not too hard). Beware that numbers and statistics sound to the average person like facts, when they usually are not, but since most people are not educated to recognize logical fallacies in the arguments presented to them, they are left defenceless when faced with the most base propaganda assaults. Bret lays much of this subject (teachers remunerations and their unions) bare to the relevant conclusions. Brett explains why he's no longer on Facebook, the viciousness of the ad hominem attacks, etc.
2011-6-13: #96 Teachers Union 102 – Fairytale Villages and Rhetorical Bear
This episode, which could have been titled Rhetoric and the Misrepresentation of Facts, focuses on political, socio-economic myths, amounting to a major rewrite of American history, to the good. It is best to destroy idols, dispel myths, especially those which cloud perceptions. Brett discusses reactions from the “greatest generation”, many in their 80's today. He explains the unspoken and unspeakable connections; the ennobling of war, etc. He then ties this propaganda from the past to those propagandists who support teachers unions today (not too hard). Beware that numbers and statistics sound to the average person like facts, when they usually are not, but since most people are not educated to recognize logical fallacies in the arguments presented to them, they are left defenceless when faced with the most base propaganda assaults. Bret lays much of this subject (teachers remunerations and their unions) bare to the relevant conclusions. Brett explains why he's no longer on Facebook, the viciousness of the ad hominem attacks, etc.
Homework:
Lawrence Reed- Great Myths of the Great Depression
2011-6-20: #97 Keys (Instalment 6): Autodidacticism and Engaging the “Public”
The
importance of becoming an autodidact (a self taught person) and some
ideas / rules of engagement with others. This is a wide ranging
discussion of these and related topics among Brett and his
colleagues. It summarizes a lot of what has been covered so far.
The Trivium and pyramid of persuasion are both
referenced.
2011-6-27: #98 Porcfest Education Forum
This is a recording of a presentation at the 2011 Porcupine Festival in New Hampshire.
2011-6-27: #98 Porcfest Education Forum
This is a recording of a presentation at the 2011 Porcupine Festival in New Hampshire.
2011-6-29:
#99 Teachers Unions 103 – My First Discussion With a Public School
Teacher
INTERMISSION
Friday, November 30, 2012
#14.4 School Sucks Project Podcasts 62 thru 82
[9-5-13: links corrected]
For this next set of podcasts, there doesn't seem to be any other place but the unwieldy webpage I mentioned in the first number of this series, to get information about podcasts that might have existed, but have for whatever reason gone missing. So when a podcast doesn't exist, the numbers skip accordingly.
For this next set of podcasts, there doesn't seem to be any other place but the unwieldy webpage I mentioned in the first number of this series, to get information about podcasts that might have existed, but have for whatever reason gone missing. So when a podcast doesn't exist, the numbers skip accordingly.
2010-10-15: #62 Children of the State (Part 1) – Incentives
This is perhaps the most significant podcast in this series so far about an issue that I personally consider crucial for any future progress whatever. If this is not solved, there is no doubt that the future looks rather bleak. I expect people to get quite emotional about this subject because after all we were all children once and have our own past histories to review. Please listen to this with an open mind and an open heart.
Homework:
Howard
Zinn- A People's History of the United States
2010-10-31:
#65 Bureaucrats Are People
Too!
There
is much in this episode including where Brett understands that the
morality of normal decent people is used to hold up as support of an
organization (government) that doesn't even really support them, but
uses them for its own usually hidden agendas (he's learning, which is
what we all need to be doing).
Steve
Ressler of GovLoop, who describes himself as a third generation
public servant, asserts that people who work for government don't
suck, when in fact they are, as Brett points out, part of
organizations that DO suck out of the productive (and the
unproductive too) their property (the work of the labour) and their
lives (opportunity costs of not getting to do what they are perhaps
best at doing, or more interested in than what they have to be doing
to make a livelihood). Ressler is attempting to defend himself and
his colleagues (government workers) against published public
sentiments that they are overpaid, lazy, etc.
Brett
sharpens his critical pencil point: psychopaths who seek public
office or jobs in “public service” so they can impose their will
on others using the FORCE of law are one thing, the majority of
government employees may have no interest or direct knowledge of
what's going on and who may really care about what they do, are
another. This is probably mostly true about public school teachers.
Brett points out that the basic problems with government deal exactly
with their use of FORCE for everything, especially funding, saying
they can't get a job done without more and more money, more power
(more laws allowing them to use more FORCE on the rest of us) etc.
Then Brett makes it clear that there are private organizations as well (we'll label them here as limited liability public corporations) that get from the government (through bail outs, etc.) the same advantages to operate like the government (as criminal gangs). For those of us who would attempt to set up (the or an) VEN, the issue of funding certain organizations is a key issue that we shall address in future posts.
Ressler remarks that where there are monopolies (natural ones like water, police and fire fighting services in local communities) that he wants competence, etc. Brett squares the argument that all that may be fine, but that central planning, etc. doesn't work very well (being polite). Brett gets back to the foundations of liberty as they need to be reasserted; rather than wasting time and energy worrying about the top of their structures, we should be busy constructing something else from the bottom up (exactly what we advocate based on E. C. Riegel's observations). Ours is not a struggle with other people, but with ideas that once revealed widely to enough people for the monstrosities they are, will cause more people to distance themselves from the organizations these ideas represent (corporations and governments).
Then Brett makes it clear that there are private organizations as well (we'll label them here as limited liability public corporations) that get from the government (through bail outs, etc.) the same advantages to operate like the government (as criminal gangs). For those of us who would attempt to set up (the or an) VEN, the issue of funding certain organizations is a key issue that we shall address in future posts.
Ressler remarks that where there are monopolies (natural ones like water, police and fire fighting services in local communities) that he wants competence, etc. Brett squares the argument that all that may be fine, but that central planning, etc. doesn't work very well (being polite). Brett gets back to the foundations of liberty as they need to be reasserted; rather than wasting time and energy worrying about the top of their structures, we should be busy constructing something else from the bottom up (exactly what we advocate based on E. C. Riegel's observations). Ours is not a struggle with other people, but with ideas that once revealed widely to enough people for the monstrosities they are, will cause more people to distance themselves from the organizations these ideas represent (corporations and governments).
2010-11-5:
#67 A History Teacher Walks Away from Government School (1 of 2)
Preparation for
citizenship
This episode begins with the reading of a letter Brett got from a former history teacher (Rich Nastro?) who wanted to come on as a guest and explain his experiences. There's much more in this episode.
2010-11-9: #68 A History Teacher Walks Away from Government School (2 of 2) Is Anyone Learning About Economics in School?
This episode begins with the reading of a letter Brett got from a former history teacher (Rich Nastro?) who wanted to come on as a guest and explain his experiences. There's much more in this episode.
2010-11-9: #68 A History Teacher Walks Away from Government School (2 of 2) Is Anyone Learning About Economics in School?
The
episode begins with a news piece from just before the year 2000. We
have our own ideas concerning the topics discussed; that it does
matter how the money is created and who gets to create it, that
trading stocks in limited liability “public” corporations in a
rigged market has little to do with real economic development or
growth. We are treated to more news stories along the path to
destruction. The interview with former history teacher, Rich Nastro
continues. Much is discussed which is pertinent to what this blog is
about. They talk about what happens when and if government money
stops flowing; violence and confusion. We all hope for a smooth
transition, but what we're about on this blog is setting up something
that can be set up to replace the current system which we regard as
terminally broken. What passes as expertise from a small government
point of view from 2008 (Ben Stein) closes out the episode. We note
that he, nor anyone else, gets to the heart of the matter; who gets
to create and destroy the money.
2010-11-13: #69 A History Teacher Walks Away ... (Addendum)
A Thanksgiving message. Spotlights Rich Nastro's comments on economics and what really goes on in school from the interview for the previous two episodes.
2010-11-19: #70 What You've Been Missing
2010-11-26:
#72 Children of the State (Part 2) – The Treatment
Trough
This too is a core podcast in the course, the episode starts with the medication of children with amphetamine derivative drugs. So when your system fails, because it's ill conceived, belongs to a former era in another country (totalitarian Prussia) or just doesn't work to train people how to think, etc. you give em drugs, and oh by the way for all the other drugs they don't want kids (or adults) to use they have a Federal agency, the DEA, wasting people's lives and money. A “stream of consciousness” look at related topics follows, forming a very powerful episode. Brett really expresses himself well on all points and what he is describing is a form of Hell. Think how many problems could be solved by the VEN solution. Of course those in charge, being evil, regardless of whether they are aware of it or not, have no intention of allowing competition. Anyone with half a brain knows where all this will go eventually.
This too is a core podcast in the course, the episode starts with the medication of children with amphetamine derivative drugs. So when your system fails, because it's ill conceived, belongs to a former era in another country (totalitarian Prussia) or just doesn't work to train people how to think, etc. you give em drugs, and oh by the way for all the other drugs they don't want kids (or adults) to use they have a Federal agency, the DEA, wasting people's lives and money. A “stream of consciousness” look at related topics follows, forming a very powerful episode. Brett really expresses himself well on all points and what he is describing is a form of Hell. Think how many problems could be solved by the VEN solution. Of course those in charge, being evil, regardless of whether they are aware of it or not, have no intention of allowing competition. Anyone with half a brain knows where all this will go eventually.
2010-12-17:
#74 School News (#5) Police State Pupils – Acquiescence and
Aggression
Brett starts with a few stories breaking at the end of 2010. He's speaking to those who have been able to wake up to their situation and hopefully to the ideas of liberty. Were we expecting some other reality when we grew up? Listen to people wilfully accept TSA searches! He continues to read some outrageous news stories about strip searches in schools that most of us would never have imagined possible when we were children. Awareness of these things begins with knowledge of them. The SCOUS has apparently given the nod to these outrageous practices. This was the level we had slid to as of late 2010. There's no reason to believe things have not gotten a lot worse since.
Brett starts with a few stories breaking at the end of 2010. He's speaking to those who have been able to wake up to their situation and hopefully to the ideas of liberty. Were we expecting some other reality when we grew up? Listen to people wilfully accept TSA searches! He continues to read some outrageous news stories about strip searches in schools that most of us would never have imagined possible when we were children. Awareness of these things begins with knowledge of them. The SCOUS has apparently given the nod to these outrageous practices. This was the level we had slid to as of late 2010. There's no reason to believe things have not gotten a lot worse since.
There
are people out there who desperately want power over others for
whatever reasons and many are attracted to government positions, many
to public schools. Deny this if you wish, we'll stand with those who
are abused by the system and say that there is NO REASON WHATEVER for
any of this to continue. Nevertheless, the mass awakening seems
unlikely. Brett suggests that the time or opportunity for this kind
of mass awakening has come and gone. All the media needs to do, and
they have so many helpers among the entrenched “professionals,”
is to JEER anyone who doesn't go along, complete with a cache of
rationalizations to try and rationalize everything that is being
done.
My own position regarding jeering is to let the jerrer know that he/she is using a jeer to dispute what you or someone else says, writes or thinks (turning the other cheek). After that the next jeer from the same person deserves something stronger, like writing them off your list of friends, shunning them, etc. If anyone wants to jeer, let them be advised that we will take note of their jeers, may even reproduce them for others to see. We will not stand for jeering to go unpunished. It starts there. Have you no integrity, no self respect? Don't you want it? Don't you deserve it? What do those who jeer you into silence and compliance deserve?
Wake up then, you are living in a prison that other people working for the government have made for you. You are not free. Those behind the government, those who run the money, are the only people in society who can be considered free in any sense. If you have been paying attention, you must know that they would never allow a competitor (the or an VEN) to emerge. Anyone with half a brain knows exactly where this will end up.
My own position regarding jeering is to let the jerrer know that he/she is using a jeer to dispute what you or someone else says, writes or thinks (turning the other cheek). After that the next jeer from the same person deserves something stronger, like writing them off your list of friends, shunning them, etc. If anyone wants to jeer, let them be advised that we will take note of their jeers, may even reproduce them for others to see. We will not stand for jeering to go unpunished. It starts there. Have you no integrity, no self respect? Don't you want it? Don't you deserve it? What do those who jeer you into silence and compliance deserve?
Wake up then, you are living in a prison that other people working for the government have made for you. You are not free. Those behind the government, those who run the money, are the only people in society who can be considered free in any sense. If you have been paying attention, you must know that they would never allow a competitor (the or an VEN) to emerge. Anyone with half a brain knows exactly where this will end up.
Meanwhile
consider what Brett is reporting about what is allowed in public
schools (and probably a few private ones too) and extrapolate it to
other areas of society, you'll find them everywhere. By the way, if
you notice that all this that Brett is reporting is simply wrong,
also realize that NO ONE is making any complaints against it, in fact
they are DEFENDING it! Consider what this does to people, if you
can. If you think they'll never do this to you, go right ahead and
live in your nice pretty illusions, perhaps you'll be lucky and never
encounter any trouble. But when they begin doing it to everyone (as
they have in other countries and at other times in the past), will
you then wake up? Maybe by then it will be too late. Nice gulag
they are running already, getting children and adolescents prepared
for the larger adult gulag that awaits them. The attraction of
aggression is dealt with quite well too; Brett clearly understands
some of the most fundamental psychological patterns. This stuff is
real, it's real bad, real ugly and until it is raised to the level of
mass consciousness (somehow) the evils associated with it will
continue ... and get much worse.
It's not new, Brett closes it out with some propaganda (from 1943) about paying taxes. Better save your money (their money) so you can pay your taxes and continue to imagine that you are really free. Pay your taxes so your government can keep making guns and planes and ships (and send people overseas to get killed) while others make money on this war as they have on every previous war.
It's not new, Brett closes it out with some propaganda (from 1943) about paying taxes. Better save your money (their money) so you can pay your taxes and continue to imagine that you are really free. Pay your taxes so your government can keep making guns and planes and ships (and send people overseas to get killed) while others make money on this war as they have on every previous war.
2010-12-21: #75 Kids Are Not Defective (#10) Gender Roles and Pigeon Holes
There might have been a #9 in this series that I didn't catch. In any case, this one is in sequence and after all this effort is attempting to provide a complete listing. Jason Osborne is mentioned again. Here is a trailer for the movie Chartarum. Here is another trailer.
This episode is asking why there are about 19 times more men than women involved in the liberty movement (and by the way anything having to do with E. C. Riegel or the or an VEN is definitely associated with this movement). Stephanie Murphy of Ladies of Liberty Alliance (LOLA) and Wes Bertrand are Brett's guests. Their discussion builds on the previous episode; acquiescing for women, aggression for men, each being defining roles.
2011-1-7: #77 Children of the State (Part 3) – Trapped
Non violent communication is mentioned. That is the objective. Brett talks about having conversations with those who either disagree or may have difficulty seeing things differently. He's discussing the state of public education and he uses the analogy of a discussion between a creationist and an evolutionist. The creationist has suppositions built into his loaded questions which cannot be answered by the evolutionist therefore the evolutionist looses the argument. (The analogy which can easily be understood by most people is unfortunate in that it shows the dialectical nature of such arguments which do not allow for a 3rd, 4th or 5th possible explanation. Creationism and evolutionism may both be inadequate explanations for a number of reasons that were well known to natural scientists of the 18th century and before, whose perfectly logical causal explanations were thrown to the side during the 19th. This analogy is boxed in a dialectic which tosses all other possible explanations to the curb. Of course there is the other possibility no one likes to talk about; that there is no simple explanation, or even worse we just do not know.)
I bring these ideas to the forefront here to make a universal point about the nature of dialectic; the probability that all such arguments lead to being hung on the either or horns of a dilemma (some say is a prehistoric animal) and never arriving at anything instrumental in discerning the truth. As now for instance education, if you have been following along, the one scenario that is never even brought up is the little red one room schoolhouse run by the school-marm. In such an environment where students are drawn from wider ranges of ages, real learning did and still can take place. What's the universal solution? There is none, and the framing of the question is itself misleading, expecting the impossible; a one size fits all program that leaves no child left behind, a meat grinder that is not supposed to produce people who can think, but people who can follow orders and attack when given the order, enforcing a Prussian police state model for society. Why else would people be universally dumb, shallow or otherwise incapable of thinking independently of the cultural symbols and messages broadcast through the mainstream media? It's what the central planners in all their evil psychopathic desires to rule over others have decided. It's time to wake up!
Brett reads a report about indigent families and SSI it's relation to marked impairment diagnoses of their children. This is a huge mess, leading to perhaps unforeseen consequences. All these programs are funded through debt, which empowers certain other people and of course all those prescription drugs, the sale of which benefits certain other people, etc. Parasites and predators? Most people can't even see them. That's part of the unenviable job set forth for anyone who does, to try and get others to wake up.
2011-2-14: #79 Youth Bashing – A Generation Ago and Beyond
The history of growing up, factory workers, how children were treated by adults a century and more ago, as slaves or pets. If the former, as soon as one was able to have some independence, one was dragooned into forced labour for little or no money (any of which might have ended up in the hands of the family grown-ups). Some still view children this way today.
The
new attitudes toward children changed during the 20th
century. Brett describes the making of children out of adults;
adolescence. This is again a core episode full of observations which
still affect us today. He makes mention of marketing; how 2 groups
of people can be depended upon to want more than they can really use;
children and addicts. The implications are discernible. Brett fills
out the rest of this excellent episode with media slants that obscure
truth rather than revealing it for the usual reasons, to support the
favoured solutions.
Homework:
Homework:
Robert
Epstein- The Case Against Adolescence
2011-2-25:
#80 Persuasion, Prussia and the Purpose of Education (SAT Writing
Class Rant)
This episode is largely derived from a m SAT writing class.
This episode is largely derived from a m SAT writing class.
2011-2-27:
#81 John Holt – Instead of Education (Freedom Book Club Discussion
Part 1 of 2)
This and the next episode features Stefan Molyneux and a cast of people from around the world. There is also an update on Scholars' Academy in New Hampshire featured in School Sucks podcast #40. The state plunked down some money for charter schools and people went for them so this promising private alternative school is now gone.
Homework:
John Caldwell Holt- Instead of Education
2011-3-2:
#82 John Holt – Instead of Education (Freedom Book Club Discussion
Part 2 of 2)
Begins with a quote from John Holt's book.
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