I posted this at Lew Rockwell last week:
“There are two ways to approach the world.
In one, the popular one now, you try to control the bad actors. You create laws to trip them up before hand, or round them up after. You rely on regulations and regulators.
Nothing wrong with that, except that we already have lots of regulators and it didn’t help.
Why?
The reason is so obvious you question the intelligence of anyone who can’t see it. It’s simple. People willing and able to scam the system are going to be willing and able to game the regulations too.
In a fight between regulators and scammers, my money’s on the scammers. They’re usually richer and nastier.
In the second approach, you don’t overlook the bad actors. You hope they get what they have coming to them. But you don’t rely on laws or lawyers because you’re old enough to have figured out that bit about the bad actors being bigger and nastier than the good ones.
So what do you do?
You focus on getting out of the way of the bad guys. You limit the damage they can do to you. And most of all, you figure out how to avoid them in the first place.
Here are five warnings I wish I’d heeded more:
1. Be careful whom you deal with
Don’t lie down with a dog and you won’t get up with fleas. Delousing yourself is much harder than not getting loused up in the first place.
But delousing is what we do a lot of these days. It’s practically the only thing going on in the economy now. Right now there are people all over the country delousing the SEC.. and the Congress… and the banks…and the hedge-funds. There’s even a global delousing effort going on. The fumigators are at work. Pest control is in full force and the exterminators are crawling over the baseboards in the cellar. There’s an international delousing effort at the BIS, with headquarters at Switzerland and local shops all over the world.
A Bug Czar has been crowned and fleas have been declared insecta non grata.
There – that should do it, eh? Any bug with a classical education should figure it out.
Which is another way of saying none of this will work. Or if it works, it won’t work the way you want it to.
The fact is, lice and ticks are at home on a dog. It’s R & R for them. Holiday Inn, Bed & Breakfast, and a luxury spa combined. Get them to leave? Good luck. Much better, don’t take your dog to bed in the first place. Much better, if you have a dog, let him drool in the kennel, not on your pillow.
The short version of all that is we do jack-ass things and then wonder who’s braying.
I say jack-ass with no disrespect. Some say that those who get conned “deserve what they get.”
That is the New Testament of the confidence man and the Sunday sermon of the predator.
As financial doctrine, it occasionally makes sense. As moral insight, it’s almost always junk. Very often victims are only weak, naive, or ignorant. The kind of people who wouldn’t know malice if they saw it in the dollar-bin with a white tag tied to its toe. They’re people who follow the rules, thinking other people follow them too. They’re honorable, so they believe in the honor of their fellow man.
Now, not only is being honorable not wrong, it’s the way things should be. But doves should learn not to coo at snakes, and beautiful souls have to wise up to what goes on in the rest of the world… or expect an ugly life.
So, rule number one. Research the people you plan to make your associates. And don’t dismiss your research. When you find out your prospective partner filed for bankruptcy six times in the last ten years, don’t tell yourself it will be different this time, because it won’t. One bankruptcy is a financial failure. Three is a losing streak. Six is a career decision. Follow your gut instinct.
If your boss conducts business with a wink and a leer, don’t pass it off as southern charm. He’s not Dagwood Bumstead looking for a lump of emotional candy. He’s a creep, and you’re a pawn in his narcissistic chess game. Ask for a transfer about two minutes after that. If you’re out of a job, so be it. There’s no guarantee you won’t be out of one, if you put up with it.
2. Never stop learning
Ignorance kills, as a lawyer friend of mine likes to say. Don’t be ignorant. Learn as much as you can about as many things as you can. Do your research. Know what you’re dealing with. With the internet, it’s much easier. You can do a google search on anything or anyone. You can go into google news archives and find newspaper articles and information from as far back as the 1980s.
So start reading.
Project Gutenberg has thousands of classic books online. PubMed allows you to access medical journals. LexisNexis will allow you to research law. Edgar will show you company filings. You can search houses for sale on Realtor.com and look up where a house is on Google Earth. You can go to WhoIs to find out about domain names and IP address. You can find out how well a website is doing by looking up Technorati or Alexa rankings. The Way Back Machine lets you look up old magazine articles, even when they’ve been pulled off the current site. Some sites like Zabasearch collect people’s information and put it all in one spot. That’s free information. If you pay, you can get much more.
Mind you, I find data sites downright creepy, especially when they’re online, and especially when they’re centralized and can be accessed with a key-stroke. If people have paid for their sins, why not let them start fresh? There may be a recording angel, but surely he lives farther north than DC.
On the other hand, just because the technology is already out there, it pays to keep up with what’s being done with it. Because if it’s out there, your business partner… or your employer… or your enemies ….or your friends.. probably know about it already. They might even have mined it for information to deploy against you. Shouldn’t you be prepared?
3. Limit what people know about you. Many of us from small towns grew up around trustworthy people. Our friends and our neighbors knew everything about us, and we didn’t mind, because no one was malicious enough to hurt anyone else.
The big world isn’t so nice. People who have things to hide themselves will be only too anxious to find something on you, attack being the best form of defense in their minds. If they can’t find anything wrong, they’ll hit you with whatever else they can, even a silly thing you said casually. They’ll dig out what your crazy cousin did fifteen years ago. Or perhaps you saved your husband’s latest rant about his mother online. Don’t be surprised if you wake up one morning to find it in the New Yorker.
So, keep things to yourself, even among close friends and relatives.
That’s a hard one for me. I’m a verbal person. I write, I talk, even if it’s only to myself. Leave me next to a blank wall and I’ll strike up a conversation. And it will be two-way.
Fortunately, most people are unlikely to hurt you. But occasionally you’ll run into a psychopath who will. And if you work in politics, the media, or in business, psychopathy is practically the norm.
So keep track of what’s being written about you on the net with Google alerts. Write to sites that aggregate information and ask for your name to be removed from their lists. You might have to repeat that every year . Put yourself on the national do-not-call list so that your telephone number’s out of the reach of marketers.
And then limit the information you give out, even to your lawyer.
It’s taken me half a lifetime to figure out that any questionnaire shoved under my nose doesn’t automatically deserve to be filled in. Leave things blank unless you’re told it’s mandatory to fill it in. Or become creative. Develop fictitious personalities, throw-away mail addresses, exotic, non-existent addresses. Use another name when doing business. Avoid registering products or filling out questionaires in your own name. Use fake birth-dates and vary them according to a system that you, and only you, know. Change your passwords every few weeks, using a system to keep track. Write them down broken up in alternate pages in a notebook, without anything to signify what the numbers mean. If the book is lost, no one will be able to make use of the information. Neither will you, of course, but losing a little time is better than losing your savings.
Hacking email, spying on private business, blackmailing and outing people, it’s all fair game these days. Attacking the privacy of public figures has become a national pastime – witness the Letterman case. But it’s not just public life. Private business is a circus of outing and shaming too. Corporations spy on and threaten each other, as well as their employees. Employees write tell-all books.
We live in a spy state, where every half-wit believes it’s his divine right to nose into anything, no matter how little it’s his business. So, these days not only is it wise to keep your own secrets, you might be wise to keep other people’s secrets.
But what should you do if inspite of that, you become a target of an attack on your privacy?
Often, nothing, unfortunately.
I’ll give you the example of an aunt of mine who didn’t want anyone to know she was sick, in case it would prejudice employers against hiring her. A colleague not only hacked her email but forwarded details about her illness to dozens of people. A frail, sensitive woman, her health broke down under the stress.
I’ll give you the advice I gave her. Say your piece once in private, and say it once in public. Then forget about it. Move on. You’re not the first person to have been screwed over and you won’t be the last. Innocent people are constantly being ruined by the powerful and the unscrupulous. That’s the ugly truth of our system. Reputations are often lost, unjustly. Our salvation is to worry less about our reputations and more about our consciences.
What we do where no one can see and none can retaliate is the test of who we are.
As for what others think, the world is a large place. Move far away, if you need to. As for the system, stop trying to reform it. It’s beyond reform.
4. Learn to say no
Telling someone no doesn’t come naturally. We’re trained to go through life being agreeable. In fact, learning to say no might be the hardest thing you learn. But it might also be the most important, and once you learn it, it can become good sport.
Speaking for myself, I’ve come to relish saying no to pests. And the nay-saying that gives me the greatest pleasure of all is nay-saying to internet marketers. It’s not that I’m ever rude to one. I never hang up. My malice is much deeper. I let them prattle on, even asking polite questions. Then I stop them courteously and ask them why they think they have the right to call me on a weekend and waste half-an-hour selling me something I didn’t ask for. Occasionally, when they’re especially pushy, my toying becomes cruel. I turn the tables on them. Instead of selling me things, they find themselves signing petitions or supporting causes or accepting market analysis or invitations to baby showers or anything else at hand.
Can I call you, I ask. Tonight? Tomorrow? I press them to reply. Can you buy two? Now? Pretty soon, they’re begging to hang up.
Try it and see. It’s balm in gilead.
I advise you to use this technique on rude or uncooperative colleagues too. Give them a taste of their own medicine, and do it generously. Let their cup run over. You will get something better than love. You’ll get respect.
5. Learn how to retaliate
Despite all the myths propagated about forgiveness, I’ve learned that submitting meekly to injustice usually breeds weakness, resentment, and ill- health. There’s nothing that drives up your self-respect as much as socking it back to bullies. I’m not advising being unduly aggressive. Try a friendly approach as long as you can. But when that doesn’t work, time to get tough. Throw some metaphoric crockery. Thumb your nose and thumb it publicly. Turn on the spotlight and watch the cockroaches run.
In other cases, all you may need to do is wait. Time has a knack of delivering even the biggest fish to a patient angler…and when that moment comes, don’t flinch. Yank that line and watch your target flop and wriggle on the sand.
Watch with a smile. Defy the received wisdom and develop a healthy conscience about revenge. It’s highly moral. Only our wimpy but violent age derides its feline nobility.
The uncomfortable truth is the New Testament is meant for people on the same moral level of development….for family.. and for friends. But in the big, dirty world, the Old Testament works much better.
Gandhi said an eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind. I say an eye for an eye, and after the first blind man, everyone else’s eyesight gets better in a hurry.
Become a moral vigilante. Why waste time going through the system if you can get better results outside of it? Use the law to warn, to shame, to threaten. But don’t labor under the delusion that a court case always helps. Your enemy will pour his time and money into creating mushroom clouds of paper. He’ll drown you in verbiage and “accidentally-on-purposes.” He’ll postpone and prevaricate and petition. He’ll appeal and block and delay…. and hide behind a fog of corporate black ink like an injured squid.
Instead, if you’re obliged by professional ethics to speak up, consider other channels of actions besides the court. Try mediation or arbitration. Perhaps you’re better off complaining to the Better Business Bureau. Or posting on a consumer forum.
Monetary compensation is often not the best justice either. It can make you look like an extortionist. Try going public. Give the bully a taste of his own medicine. Post the hacker’s private information on a website. Put him on the run. That might not make you rich, but the moral satisfaction is tremendous.
Of course, it could also be dangerous. You risk violating the law yourself. In that case, you might be best off to leave your job. Maybe even leave town. Leave the thugs to the mercies of the universe. It sometimes does a better job of retribution than it’s given credit for. Villains do not always go to jail. And if the skeptics are right, they might never go to hell. But they often get dragged into divorce court, which is a good deal worse, from all accounts.
And meanwhile, there are all those other ways the wicked verily get their reward.
Envious rivals cut their throats; the tax man cometh, and the SEC with him; and then cometh old age, failing libido, dead-beat in-laws and brain-dead grandchildren. The inheritance get squandered and the sycophants and courtiers vanish with the money. The trash-mouth gets acid reflux, the glutton gets dyspepsia and the aging lecher ends up alone, romancing his own hairless skull and wrinkled hide.
Then at the end comes the greatest punishment of all for persisting in evil deeds. You stare into the mirror and evil stares back at you, looking not so much devilish as hollow and bewildered, less like a fiend from hell and more like a Goldman CEO at a Congressional hearing.
Hannah Arendt taught us about the banality of evil. It was left to our age to practice the evil of banality. Habit, laziness, gullibility, ignorance, vanity, greed, fear, cowardice, bravado. We are duped not by heroic evil, but by humdrum vice.
The greatest and best defense we have against the charlatans and knaves who brought our society to its knees is not the law.
It is self-knowledge and discipline.”
I disagree about the NT ethic. I don’t think it was meant for criminals or bullies but for dealing with an overwhelming and oppressive state. It was an alternative to terrorism.
In the end people preferred an insurrectionist and murderer (BarAbbas; their “son of the father”) to Jesus.
But Jesus predicted time and again that their terrorism was going to produce their own destruction at Roman hands. He thought that it was preferable to deal peacefully with the Romans rather than foment a rebellion.
A few pieces of evidence (most easily gleaned in Luke but in all the gospels; even John shows that feeding the 5000 was dangerous and almost got Jesus roped into a rebellion):
Luke 13:
There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish [also die at the hands of Roman soldiers]. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish [i.e. also die under falling masonry].”
Luke 19
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Luke 23
26 And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green [i.e. if the Romans crucify me for rebellion though I am innocent of the charge], what will happen when it is dry [how many of your rioting children are going to be crucified as rebels]?”
FWIW
Hi Mark –
Actually – you take the words out of my mouth.
The reference I made in the article to the NT ethic was only casual..and half tongue in cheek.
But I’ve made the same point in relation to the Gandhian ethic – see “Little Eichmanns and the Harijan” at Counterpunch, 2005. My thesis then was the same as yours – which is that Gandhi was using non violence as the only possible weapon in a struggle against overwhelming force – the terrorist state.
He was usurping the moral high ground and appealing to his enemies’ consciences through public opinion.
This is a kind of 4th gen war, as I noted in the piece.
Even Nietzsche recognized that.
But is that possible today?
I wonder..
You write good. Maybe you should consider it as a vocation :).
“Doves should learn not to coo at snakes.” So true. It reminds me of all the scientists that are springing out of the woodwork after Obama — noble beautiful creatures — begging to get hold of the gun, from the snakes. Poor doves.
(Have you ever considered writing fiction … a novel or something .. a modern day Randian book, but less starchy, more like Vonnegut? I mean, if you can make non-fiction so interesting, I can only imagine how gripping your fiction would be :].)
Well, thanks..but let me fess up.
I’m a poet first, fiction writer second..and finance is a career failure for me actually.
I’d rather be writing scripts..
But you know, can you beat a script like this?
Subject: Intellectual Self-Defense for Libertarians
From: “F Hoischen”
Date: Wed, November 4, 2009 9:33 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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Dear Mrs. Rajiva,
A great article again! And some very good advice. All you describe is true and
corresponds with my own life-experience of 59 years. It´s a pleasure reading each
and every of your articles.
Best regards
F. A. Hoischen, Sweden
FAH
Subject: Your article – Intellectual Self-Defense for Libertarians
From: “T Gibson”
Date: Wed, October 28, 2009 1:35 pm
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Cc:
Priority: Normal
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Lila, I caught your article “Intellectual Self-Defense for Libertarians” on
Lew Rockwell. It was such relevant stuff that I’m going to have my teenage
kids read a shortened version and present it for our next speech night
(after dinner entertainment).
One of my family members has a moral view that you have to tell the truth,
all the time no matter what – for example falsifying your birthdate on a
survey would be a mortal sin. Hopefully your writing will plant a seed of
doubt in her mind about her ethical obligation to anonymous strangers.
I’m new to your writing, will look at some of your other pieces. Keep up the
good work!
Tim
subject: Self defense article
From: “r campbell”
Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 5:26 pm
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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Dear Ms Rajiva,
I am soory to be bothering you but it is hard to tell if the quote
The greatest and best defense we have against the charlatans and knaves
who brought our society to its knees is not the law.
It is self-knowledge and discipline.
is from you or Ms Hannah Arendt. Could you please clear up my confusion?
Thank You,
Best Regards,
cousin lucky
r campbell
—
Tu Ne Cede Malis, Sed Contra Audentior Ito!!
Subject: Re: Self defense article
From: “r campbell”
Date: Tue, October 27, 2009 5:48 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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Would you mind if I put it into the thought section of my website
under your name, please?
On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 8:29 PM, wrote:
> Alas –
> just me.
>
>
Subject: RE: Intellectual Self-Defense
From: “S Evans”
Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 2:08 pm
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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Lila:
“The greatest and best defense we have against the charlatans and knaves who brought
our society to
its knees is not the law.
It is self-knowledge and discipline.”
I think you’ve just coined what will eventually become one of the most enduring
libertarian quotes
of all time.
Thank you for yet another informative and thought-provoking article (LRC, Monday,
October 26).
S D. Evans
A Loyal LRC Reader
Tucson, AZ
Subject: Feedback to “Intellectual Self-Defense for Libertarians”
From: “B Hanson” Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 7:53 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
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Lila:
I recently read your article at
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rajiva/rajiva29.1.html and you are correct
about the limitation of lawsuits. Nine years ago I suffered the partial
loss of my vision due to bad refractive surgery. The doctors and
company that did it, lied and lied to me claiming that I had wonderful
results, and refused to honor their advertised promises to provide a
“Lifetime Commitment”. I decided the best thing to do would be to put
up web sites. Their response was to blow themselves up in public by
telling the media they were going to sue me. That just generated more
attention and motivated more patients to put up additional web sites
complaining of broken promises.
Their stock used to trade at about $75 a share, now it’s down to about
.25 cents a share. The company has a debt of about $150 million they
can’t pay, as they can’t find enough customers.
B Hanson
http://www.lasikfraud.com
Subject: Re: Lew Rockwell Today – Self Defense
From: “Gadget42”
Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 7:50 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
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very well done!
– —
just a quick note of thanks for your continued great contributions!
please help us promote Starving The Monkeys before it is banned!
seriously, if there was one current book that could be handed out to everyone…this
is it…
oh the shrieks of sheer horror and terror as the Mobocracy Looter Minions read about
“their” loot and booty gravy-train
ending soon…very soon…
by the time we were just a few pages into it we ordered a whole case of 24 from Tom
and over half are gone already
we’ve asked those obtaining the book to also do the same if they feel so inclined
and surely many will
again, keep up the great work!
– —
Brothers and Sisters in Liberty, Sons and Daughters of Liberty!
Sincerely,
Rob
http://www.starvingthemonkeys.com/
http://voluntaryist.com/fundamentals/introduction.php
Atlas Shrugged, Owner’s Manual For The Universe!(tm)
________________________________________________________________
Tip of the Day:
“The Philosophical Maturity found as a Student and Advocate of the Non-Aggression
Principle is so simple it’s almost too
good to be true. When one begins to understand that each person is an Individual
Sovereign Human Being with Basic
Inherent Inalienable Irrevocable Human Rights the world as we know it is cast in a
totally new illumination. Much the
same as we acknowledge blue, red, and yellow as the primary colors, we also
acknowledge the Right to Life, the Right to
Liberty, and the Right to Property as our primary basic human rights.”
Read Atlas Shrugged Today!
________________________________________________________________
From: “P Brennan”
Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 4:26 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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Some cheery thoughts to get readers out of bed on a Monday morning? Wow!
PB
Subject: “Intellectual Self-Defense for Libertarians”
From: “D Mills”
Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 3:52 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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Dear Ms. Rajiva:
Enjoyed this piece you sent to LewRockwell.com. I think I had probably read your
material before on this same site, that I visit daily, but was particularly
impressed with this. As I read this, the word, succinct, came to mind.
If time allows, please let me know how you pronounce your name.
Please keep up the good work, and best of health for you and yours.
D. Mills
Subject: “Intellectual Self-Defense for Libertarians”
From: “M. B. Moon” Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 8:27 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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” But in the
big, dirty world, the Old Testament works much better. ”
Lila
Hi Lila,
First, I am a friend not a foe. But I find the Old and New Testament
very consistent contrary to popular belief.
Enemies:
Exodus
23:4
If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering
away, you shall surely return it to him.
Proverbs
24:17
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;
Proverbs
25:21
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
Kindness:
Proverbs
3:3
Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Proverbs
14:22
Will they not go astray who devise evil?
But kindness and truth will be to those who devise good.
Proverbs
19:22
What is desirable in a man is his kindness,
And it is better to be a poor man than a liar.
Proverbs
31:26
She opens her mouth in wisdom,
And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
Vengeance:
Deuteronomy
32:35
‘ Vengeance is Mine, and retribution,
In due time their foot will slip;
For the day of their calamity is near,
And the impending things are hastening upon them.’
Romans
12:19
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath
of God, for it is written, ” VENGEANCE IS MINE,
I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.
Hebrews
10:30
For we know Him who said, ” VENGEANCE IS MINE,
I WILL REPAY ”
And again, ” THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.”
The Old Testament is extraordinary, I highly recommend it. I am
not an expert but I try to read it every day. Please forgive if my
correction is not perfect.
Best wishes,
Steven
Subject: because people care
From: “Robert”
Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 3:26 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
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http://www.henrymakow.com
http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com by dr day
against the NEW WORLD ORDER
http://www.drtenpenny.com
http://www.infowars.com
people need to wake up
From: “A Cabot”
Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 2:27 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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great stuff. thanks, a.cabot
Subject: Totally Brilliant!
From: “R Slobins”
Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 2:26 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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Dear Lila:
The piece you wrote, which is on today’s Lew Rockwell, is probably one of
the best essays on that site I have ever seen.
I have to tell you this: The American psychopathic disease has gotten into
the Czech Republic.
I read that as a country, “United States” is the best selling brand name on
the planet, despite what it has been doing for decades. The most popular
foreign language to learn here is English. Businesses sell themselves with
US-derived names: “Uncle Sam”, “New Yorker”. We have KFC, Burger King,
Avon, ReMaxx and McDonalds. (I am still recovering from the food poisoning
I got after eating a McDonalds burger three weeks ago.) Burger King is
marketing its “Angry Meals” here in Prague, which is interesting because
being angry is a moral felony in America. Citibank is here still pushing
credit cards on the Czech population.
What is amazing, twenty years after the Velvet Revolution and the
disappearance of communism, is the plethora of American corporation in
Prague that may pay well relative to the usual rates here, but operate like
Stalinist dictatorships, as a friend of mine said. (This friend worked in
former Soviet republics, especially Ukraine before and after its color
revolution.) I have heard plenty of stories from others who worked for
American organizations in Europe and have been exposed to the expected heavy
dose of psychopathy.
The result is that my ability to work in the IT profession is gone. This
has nothing to do with my record or ability to do the work. It has nothing
to do with money. It has everything to do with power. The American
attitude of demanding perfection of others is of course avoiding one’s own
responsibility in the relationship. (Perfect results is not an objective
here.) It has destroyed my financial viability.
I have written that it is totally insane to refer to the United States as
having an economy. If you are interested in my reasoning, please let me
know and I will forward the reports.
I will cite you in this morning’s report.
Regards,
R Slobins
Subject: great, great article on necessary steps for libertarians
From: “F. Nicholson”
Date: Sun, October 25, 2009 9:59 pm
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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This might be the most beneficial article I have ever read. Thank you, and please
keep writing (and take care).
Farrell N
Subject: Intellectual Self-Defense for Libertarians
From: “m wax”
Date: Sun, October 25, 2009 9:44 pm
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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You’re a mean one, Miss Tagrinch.
but if Billy B vouches for you, I guess yer alright
Subject: Intellectual Self-Defense for Libertarians
From: “Steve ‘Poots’ C”
Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 12:03 pm
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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Lila,
I enjoyed your post on Lew Rockwell.com today.
Your item 5. (Learn how to retaliate) reminded me of an old line from
Star Trek. I don’t remember if it was the TV show or a movie, but I
think it was a Klingon saying that went something like:
“Revenge is a dish that’s best served cold.”
Works for me too…
Regards,
Steve ‘Poots’ C
—
“…In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn’t merely try to train him
to be semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility
of becoming partly a dog…” – Edward Hoagland
“…Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and
your dog would go in…” – Mark Twain
Subject: Intellectual Self-Defense for Libertarians
From: “Mark Nameroff”
Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 10:41 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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You wrote: “The uncomfortable truth is the New Testament is meant for people on the
same moral level of development… for family… and for friends. But in the big,
dirty world, the Old Testament works much better.”
Right on. Cheers.
Mark Nameroff
Allyn, Washington
Subject: Intellectual Self-Defense for Libertarians
From: “Mark R. W :: Systems Admin, Level II, III Technical Support” Date: Mon, October 26, 2009 2:42 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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Lila,
I just finished my reply to your article… I hope it is helpful.
Mark W
Lisle, IL
Attachments:
Attachments:
response-to-intellectual-self-defense-20091026.pdf Download