Aaron Briley: We Can’t Fight Racism by Engaging in Racism
Philosopher Aaron Briley at TOS remarks on America's race fixation in "We Can’t Fight Racism by Engaging in Racism":The desire not to be viewed as racist is prompting people to fixate on race—even though doing so harms all involved.In the current climate, the mere appearance of being racist can cost a person dearly. People who are presumed to be racist can be and often are fired from their jobs, banned from social media, even subjected to death threats. The upshot: Instead of being rationally color-blind, people and institutions are putting undue focus on race. That is, instead of judging people not by “the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” they are doing just the opposite. They are judging people by the color of their skin—and acting accordingly—in order to not appear racist.Of course, judging people differently because of the color of their skin is the very essence of racism. And such patent racism is sweeping through our institutions.[...]Consider an increasingly popular policy regarding minority criminal suspects: More and more, police departments are omitting race when describing suspects, especially black suspects, even when divulging it clearly would help to ensure public safety.
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An illustration of this "color-washing" is CNN's report of black children slaughtered over the July 4th, 2020 holiday weekend, titled "At least 6 children were killed by gun violence across the nation this holiday weekend." Apparently, according to CNN, a bunch of guns decided all on there own to go celebrate independence day by causing some violence. (Obviously, guns are inanimate objects, that had nothing to do in causing the violence, as only human beings possess free-will.)From the CNN article:In every case, where a description is available the perpetrator is black, though you would not know this from the CNN article. The most we get is that they were "persons":At least six children were killed in shootings across the country over the holiday weekend, sparking calls from officials to end the gun violence plaguing their communities. The children, ages 6 to 14, were all shot and killed while doing everyday things -- riding in mom's car, walking in a mall, and playing in a yard with their cousins. [ "At least 6 children were killed by gun violence across the nation this holiday weekend"]
"A suspect has been arrested on charges, and police have released additional surveillance images of several persons of interest they are seeking in connection to the child's death."Going to the police press release of the shooter -- and the suspects -- we see they are all black. (It is also chilling that the police report does not describe them as black either). Or, from the same article reporting on another shooting:
A group of children were playing in the yard in Chicago's Austin neighborhood when three suspects exited a light colored vehicle and fired shots at a group gathered outside a home on the 100 block of North Latrobe Ave, police said.[...]"As a city we must wrap our arms around our youth so they understand there's a future for them that isn't wrapped up in gun violence."At least we know the shade of the suspect's vehicle.Now compare this to another shooting report and take a look at CNN's description when the perpetrator is white and the victim is black:
"...a White officer firing seven times into Jacob Blake's back in front of the 29-year-old Black man's three young sons."And later in the same article where the perpetrator is white:
"...Confusion also spread about the shooting during the protests, with critics asking how the White teenager armed with a military-style rifle, ..."
James Stock: Government Must End Ban of Cheap Rapid Response COVID-19 Antigen Tests
Writing in the FInanical Post, James H. Stock on why Lockdowns are too blunt a weapon against Covid makes three key points:1. "[E]conomic lockdowns are neither necessary nor sufficient to suppress Covid-19"
[E]conomic lockdowns are neither necessary nor sufficient to suppress Covid-19. But the concerted use of largely non-economic interventions can suppress the virus and set the stage for the recovery of demand and employment in restaurants, travel and other high-contact sectors. ...economic lockdowns alone are a blunt, costly and only partially effective instrument of public health.
2. Less expensive measures though individually not effective, when combined together become highly effective
There are many less expensive measures that, when deployed together, can be highly effective. These include working from home and setting rules to make the workplace safe. Taking special steps to protect the elderly, reopening the lowest-contact economic sectors first, banning the highest-risk activities such as bars and large social gatherings, wearing masks, social distancing and enhanced testing, quarantine, and contact tracing are already familiar. If they are seriously adopted, together they can suppress the virus without resorting to a new round of economic lockdowns.
2. The most important measure is wide use of frequent, cheap, rapid screening tests
Most important, testing for the virus remains grossly inadequate....Rapid screening tests need to be widely available...My colleague Michael Mina argues persuasively that the government should fast-track approval and production of cheap paper-strip antigen tests that would alert the newly infected of the need to isolate.Screening tests need not detect every infection. Mathematically, rapid testing and isolation acts like herd immunity: by reducing the chance that a susceptible individual comes into contact with an infected one it can drive the basic reproduction or “R” number below one. Even if a testing regime pulls only a fraction of the infected out of circulation, that — along with other measures such as widespread mask usage and targeted bans of potential superspreader events — can suppress the virus, bring down deaths to very low levels and set the stage for a strong recovery.
Ray Girn: The Individual Life Fully Lived is Sacred
"The individual human life fully lived is an end in itself." - Ray GirnEducation innovator, Ray Girn, one of the world's foremost experts in scaling Montessori education gives a moving speech on the importance of creating conditions to optimize a child's environment so that they may live a life that is "fully lived." Must listen.Andrew Bernstein and Aaron Briley on Racism
"You know no one ever questions why a black student studies African-American studies but they do when he studies Aristotle, unfortunately."- Aaron Briley"The subject of racism has gradually snowballed over recent years, and exploded into mainstream culture over the past month. Brands are declaring their commitment to fight racism, several organisations have launched mandatory diversity trainings—even the Oscars have recently introduced certain diversity requirements for eligibility for the award. Individuals are making and denying accusations of racism in droves, and the terms ‘white fragility’, ‘systemic racism’ and ‘complicity’ have been used liberally and passionately. In order to make sense of, judge and properly respond to this new wave of events, it is essential to philosophically unpack it. What is racism? What is not racism? Is racism best countered by governmental action, organisational policy, or something else entirely? Andrew Bernstein is a philosopher and novelist. He is the author of several books, including The Capitalist Manifesto, Capitalism Unbound, and the recently-published Heroes, Legends, Champions: Why Heroism Matters. Aaron Briley, Ph.D., is a philosopher who promotes life-enhancing cultural values to black Americans, with the ultimate goal of bringing about a Black Renaissance of education, achievement, and fulfillment. He is a fellow/research associate Objective Standard Institute on race relations, cultural improvement, individualism, clear thinking, and freedom." Video made available by the Ayn Rand Center UK.
Thomas Sowell: A Legend at 90 Examines Charter Schools and Their Enemies
https://youtu.be/9boQrCPwMwsThe day before this show was recorded, Dr. Thomas Sowell began his 10th decade of life. Remarkably on one hand and yet completely expected on the other, he remains as engaged, analytical, and thoughtful as ever. In this interview (one of roughly a dozen or so we’ve conducted with Dr. Sowell over the years), we delve into his new book Charter Schools and Their Enemies, a sobering look at the academic success of charter schools in New York City, and the fierce battles waged by teachers unions and progressive politicians to curtail them. Dr. Sowell’s conclusion is equally thought provoking: If the opponents of charter schools succeed, the biggest losers will be poor minority children for whom a quality education is the best chance for a better life.
C. Bradley Thompson: Correcting Myths of The Founding Fathers and Trump’s Attack on The “Deep State”
Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to the author of America's Revolutionary Mind, C. Bradley Thompson (Professor, Clemson University) about the origins of the Declaration of Independence, myths about American slavery and the founding fathers, why 1765 was possibly a more important year than 1776 for the American Revolution and why Donald Trump is one of the few presidents to ever challenge the deep state. Issues covered include:- Myths about slavery in America at the time of the founding fathers. He talks about the founding fathers beliefs in universal truths, human rights, and equality. He discusses the complexities of the founders regarding their different and changing views on slavery and why it is far more complicated than 1619 project from the New York Times would have you believe. Some founders like John Adams and Sam Adams were never slave owners, others like Benjamin Franklin formally owned slaves, others like George Washington who owned slaves and freed them on their death, and others like Thomas Jefferson owned slaves and did not free them upon their death.
- The founders conflicting actions and beliefs about the abolition of slavery and why it is far more complex then we have been led to believe.
- The philosophical origins of the Declaration of Independence. He believes the year 1765 was far more important than 1776 because this was the year that the American mind was born. He tells the story of why Americans suddenly made liberty, freedom, and natural rights their priorities that would eventually be enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and fought for during the Revolutionary War.
- Donald Trump’s unique accomplishments, taking on the deep state. He feels that Donald Trump is the first president in 70 years to wage war against the deep state in it’s entrenched political class, but also in the mainstream media.
- Is Donald Trump a moral person and if morality and virtue are personality traits we should expect in a president.
- America's Revolutionary Mind by C. Bradley Thompson
Democrat Rep. De John Berry Powerful Speech Against The BLM Riots
Rep. John Deberry Jr. channels MLK and states that the "protests" are not peaceful but are self-destructive to the black Americans in particular and America in general."If we don’t start standing for something don’t you know that the people that are looking at what’s happening in Washington, in Detroit, in Portland, in Seattle, they’re getting emboldened because we act like a bunch of punks. Too frightened to stand up and protect our own stuff. You tell me that somebody has the right to tear down property that Tennessee taxpayers paid for? That American taxpayers paid for? And somebody has the right to destroy it, deface it, and tear it down? What kind of people have we become?""Peaceful protests ends peacefully, anarchy ends in chaos. What we see happening right now, any of us with any common sense, any common sense whatsoever, know that what we see is not peaceful. So we can continue to fool ourselves and mix with words and use rhetoric and public relations in order to frost this stuff over and put a nice picture on what we see that is frightening."Well said, sir. Well said.
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In May of 2020, the Tennessee Democratic Party’s State Executive Committee voted to remove DeBerry from the Democratic primary ballot after 26 years in office, because according to one committee member who voted to remove him DeBerry wasn’t “exemplifying the basic Democratic principles.Said Berry: "I was kind of blindsided because I have run as a Democrat since 1995 and I have won 13 elections as a Democrat," DeBerry said. "... My views have always been conservative. The people in my district know this. And even though I've had opponents who have hammered me over and over about my stance on abortion, about my stance on the family and my stance on education, [voters] have overwhelmingly elected me 13 times."Berry will be running as an independent.
Lando Calrissian: Uniquely Individual
“Lando is not black or white, he's just Lando. Above and beyond the arguments or discussions of bygone eras, he is of the future....I love Lando! He is simply Lando Calrissian: swashbuckler, gambler, entrepreneur, and survivor. Handsome, interesting, romantic, iconic, and uniquely individual." -Billy Dee WilliamsQuoted in the introduction to Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back. New York: Marvel Comics. p. 4. comic book adaptation.
Reisman’s University Lectures on Capitalism Now Downloadable For Free
From George Reisman:Recently, a reader of my book Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics, told me that he believed that he had been able to get more out of my book and do it more easily because he had listened to a series of lectures I had delivered over the years 1967-2007.On the basis of my discussions with him, I’ve decided to release recordings of the lectures I delivered in my courses in my final year at Pepperdine University, 2004-05. These lectures are very closely related to my book, which was the main text for the courses.Try reading a chapter and then listening to the lectures related to it, or vice versa, whichever works best for you.There are two 4-unit courses, which, in order to follow convention, I labeled “micro” and “macro” respectively.Each of the courses had 13 sessions (not counting exams), typically recorded in two parts of more than an hour and a half each.The chapters in Capitalism assigned in the “micro” course are the Introduction, 1-11, and 14. The chapters assigned in the “macro” course are 12, 13, and 15-19. In both courses there are also some supplementary readings as well.All of the lectures are available on Google Drive and can be downloaded to your hard drive without charge. Here is the link.Consider these lectures as a work in progress in that I intend to make various revisions and additions over the next year or so.Downloads for the courses include a syllabus and eight detailed syllabus supplements that describe the content of each of the lectures.The book Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics is available on Amazon.com in Kindle, hardcover, and paperback formats. Go to here to order it.Download link for course.
Fauci: No Reason People Cannot Vote in Person
The science "experts" tell us that those who break curfews, do not socially distance, and do not wear masks, are responsible for COVID-19 deaths, which is why the economy, churches, and schools should remain closed. (For a proper approach to handling pandemics click here.)These same priests of "science" also tell us that if one carries BLM Inc. signs, harasses policeman, and blocks traffic, one is exempted.Now in a similar vein, the political talking heads, continue that these same "protestors" are unable to vote in polling booths in person because of the dangers of COVID-19, and therefore an untested new system designed by the DNC of nationwide mail-in voting must be implemented at the last minute, that goes beyond the present system of absentee ballotting (where a potential voter is verified before they cast a mail-in ballot).Is their concern really over COVID-19 or to enable election fraud on a nationwide scale?As for the dangers of in-person voting Dr. Fauci sets the record straight:TheJason Hill: Nihilistic Attempts to Abolish History and Grammar
https://youtu.be/9dmc1db5KeUProfessor Jason Hill, author of We Have Overcome, mostly channeling Ayn Rand, made this important statement:"What we’re seeing in the educational system is systemic nihilism. So let us go back a step further. A couple weeks ago Rutgers University declared that grammar was racist. Now grammar is the science that deals with the proper method of oral and written communication. When you attack grammar you attack language, which is the method of cognition. You attack man’s mind, you attack his ability to reason. So you attack man’s mind, which means you leave us on the level of grunting farm animals, so you leave us incapacitated to reason, to think. And then you take away his history, you take away human history, our Constitutional rights, our Bill of Rights, our Second Amendment, our First Amendment, or time-worn principles that we use to defend our way of life. Our Judeo-Christianity. Your looking at sysemtic nihilism. You are looking at the Anti-Christ as far as I am concerned. You’re looking at a bunch of nihilists and anarchists that want to destroy the system and replace it with nothing – nothing at all. They want to destroy the good for the sake of it being the good. I have been warning about these post-modern nihilists that started back in the 1960s, when we had these fake disciplines attacking reason, valorizing feelings as the only criterion for adjudicating disputes – one’s feelings and one’s feeling of being offended as the only criteria for adjudicating disputes – and dispensing with reason, objective reality, and logic as the construct of imperialist, racist, white men. That’s what we’re seeing today, and so you dispense with history altogether."
The History of Protest in Hong Kong (Days Before the Dawn)
"Days Before the Dawn" is the first chapter of a documentary series about the Hong Kong protests produced by Trevor Klein. Chapter 2 will be released soon and will cover the 2019-2020 protest movement. https://youtu.be/VrkIjTrtlHA
Critical Thoughts on Matt Ridley, Individualism, and Innovation as a Collective Process
Some thoughts on Matt Ridley's take on individualism and the collective from his discussion with Adam Mossoff on his book How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom:
- Innovation as a collective process is not a knock against individualism as Ridley's "lone-wolf" conception of individualism makes it. Ridley sees "individualism" as doing things entirely by oneself. I see "unrugged individualism" as a straw-man. Individualism means one takes an independent, first-hand attitude in one's thinking and decision-making. It means not bowing down to others when one's mind thinks otherwise, and willing to "stand-alone" when one's mind determines this is the best course of action. In any group or collective under-taking, it is the "individualist" who is willing to buck the trend and think differently, which provides the intellectual "mutation" for the development of new ideas.
- To say there is a "collective brain" is not reality, but a metaphor, much like Adam Smith's "invisible hand." I think both conceptions, though poetic, can hide the operations of the market rather than explaining them. This is why methodological individualism, favored by Professors Mises and Hayek, the latter that Ridley so approvingly quotes is so important.
- A group, or collective (whether association, society, corporation, etc.) is not fundamental. A group is made of individuals. It is individuals that exist. A collection is a collection of something. The unit is the individual. The problem with political "collectivism" is that that it entirely forgets this.
- In any collective undertaking, different individuals perform different actions towards the achievement of a commonly agreed-upon goal. Each individual is making an individual contribution that advances and builds on the work of others - and more often than not some, individuals contribute more than others and some less.
- The "heroic" inventor does not exist in a vacuum, but one needs to be careful not to slip into the "You didn't build that!" attitude popularized by political collectivists like President Obama. Innovators do rely on the efforts and knowledge of those before them ("stands on their shoulders.") What makes them heroic is the results they do produce by their efforts, as individuals, which in turn contributes to the process. The success of a group undertaking is that such individuals are able to coordinate their individual efforts together toward a shared goal.
- Ridley states that knowledge is not stored in individual heads, but knowledge is stored between them. I think a more accurate formulation would be: knowledge is conceptualized and stored inside an individual's head and is shared between them. (It can then be stored in that wonderful innovation: the book).
- This is not to disagree that knowledge is dispersed, but to point out that it is dispersed among the minds of various individuals, which is why free markets -- where individuals are left free to disagree and act against the desires of others so long as they do not violate their rights through the initiation of force and fraud -- are so important as a coordinating mechanism for knowledge. As philosopher Ayn Rand has observed a free-market is a corollary of a free-mind.
Objectivists and The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election
This post has been significantly updated and has moved to a new location. Click here.
Intellectual Property and Innovation: Adam Mossoff Interview with Matt Ridley on “How Innovation Works”
Adam Mossoff, Chair of the Forum for Intellectual Property, Hudson Institute interviews Matt Ridley on "How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom."
Adam interviews Ridley on the role of innovation in a free economy, and the two end up having a fascinating discussion on the role of intellectual property and its relationship to innovation. Ridley sees an overall negative correlation between innovation and intellectual property empirically today, and Adam an unequivocally positive one.Ridley takes a utilitarian justification of patents ("made to be shared" to benefit society) and Adam takes a property rights justification (made to benefit the patent owner's intellectual work).Adam sees the creation of intellectual property rights, such as patents, as similar to the initial creation of physical property rights in land (such as via the Homestead Act), where those who develop the land, that was once in the commons, first get title to the land. Brilliant.As to Ridley's concerns over copyrights being the life of the author plus 50 (or 70) years, I think that it makes a lot of sense if you release a book later in your lifetime -- say in your 70's. You can sell the publishing rights to the book now, for the 50 plus years to someone else, who can pay you a lump sum for the expected future sales after your death, in the present. That would not be possible if copyrights ended with the death of the author. Whereas if copyright ends at your death you would not get much for your efforts for selling the rights to a book at 70. Or, imagine if copyrights ended at the author's death and you were J.K Rowling who just released the final book in the fantastic Harry Potter series.I'm still digesting Adam's thoughts -- which also gave Ridley some pause to mull over -- which I will post on later.The two end the conversation with:
Recommended Reading: "How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom" by Matt Ridley
"I've probably learned more from you than you have from me but it's it's always interesting to do that." -- Matt Ridley"I learned a lot from your book and I really appreciated the the depth of research and effort that you put into it I really hope it has a wide readership." -- Adam MossoffIt's always heart-warming that two great minds who disagree, on what can be a cantankerous issue in other circles, can discuss issues in such a collegial manner.
Energy: When Green Is Not So Clean
As some policymakers push to include “green energy” initiatives as a key feature of economic recovery, a new Manhattan Institute report by senior fellow Mark Mills offers a sobering reality check. Any large-scale shift to using so-called green energy technologies instead of oil and gas as primary energy sources would require an unprecedented increase in the mining of key minerals across the globe.Building wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicle batteries is far more resource-intensive than building hydrocarbon-fueled machines. These green technologies require, on average, more than ten times the quantity of materials to deliver the same amount of energy. If widely implemented, this will require far more mining, mainly in foreign countries, often with questionable environmental and labor practices. And while essentially all hydrocarbons America uses are produced domestically, nearly all green energy materials and the components of green machines are produced overseas. An aggressive green-energy path will exacerbate foreign supply-chain vulnerabilities at a time when many policymakers are considering the benefits of reshoring supply chains.Among the report’s key findings:- A single electric car contains more cobalt than 1,000 smartphone batteries; the blades on a single wind turbine require more plastic than five million smartphones; and a solar array that could power one data center uses more glass than 50 million smartphones.
- A single electric car battery weighing 1,000 pounds requires extracting and processing some 500,000 pounds of materials to obtain the key “energy minerals.” Averaged over a battery’s life, each mile of driving an electric car “consumes” five pounds of earth. Using an internal combustion engine consumes about 0.2 pounds of liquids per mile.
- As recently as 1990, the U.S. was the world’s number-one producer of minerals. Today, it is in seventh place. even though the nation has vast mineral reserves worth trillions of dollars, America is now 100 percent dependent on imports for some 17 key minerals, and for another 29, over half of domestic needs are imported.
- Oil, natural gas, and coal are needed to produce the concrete, steel, plastics, and purified minerals used to build green machines. The energy equivalent of 100 barrels of oil is used in the processes to fabricate a single battery that can store the equivalent of one barrel of oil.
- By 2050, with current plans, the quantity of worn-out solar panels—much of it nonrecyclable—will constitute double the tonnage of all today’s global plastic waste, along with over 3 million tons per year of unrecyclable plastics from worn-out wind turbine blades. By 2030, more than 10 million tons per year of batteries will become garbage.
Source: Manhattan Institute
Ronald Reagan’s Love Letter To Immigrants
In one of his speeches towards the end of his office as President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, 40th president of US (1911 - 2004) said these words in the State Dining Room at the White House:And since this is the last speech that I will give as President, I think it's fitting to leave one final thought, an observation about a country which I love. It was stated best in a letter I received not long ago. A man wrote me and said: ``You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.''Yes, the torch of Lady Liberty symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the compact with our parents, our grandparents, and our ancestors. It is that lady who gives us our great and special place in the world. For it's the great life force of each generation of new Americans that guarantees that America's triumph shall continue unsurpassed into the next century and beyond. Other countries may seek to compete with us; but in one vital area, as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that draws the people of the world, no country on Earth comes close.This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America's greatness. We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people -- our strength -- from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation. While other countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe life into dreams. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow. Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we're a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.A number of years ago, an American student traveling in Europe took an East German ship across the Baltic Sea. One of the ship's crewmembers from East Germany, a man in his sixties, struck up a conversation with the American student. After a while the student asked the man how he had learned such good English. And the man explained that he had once lived in America. He said that for over a year he had worked as a farmer in Oklahoma and California, that he had planted tomatoes and picked ripe melons. It was, the man said, the happiest time of his life. Well, the student, who had seen the awful conditions behind the Iron Curtain, blurted out the question, ``Well, why did you ever leave?'' ``I had to,'' he said, ``the war ended.'' The man had been in America as a German prisoner of war.Now, I don't tell this story to make the case for former POW's. Instead, I tell this story just to remind you of the magical, intoxicating power of America. We may sometimes forget it, but others do not. Even a man from a country at war with the United States, while held here as a prisoner, could fall in love with us. Those who become American citizens love this country even more. And that's why the Statue of Liberty lifts her lamp to welcome them to the golden door.It is bold men and women, yearning for freedom and opportunity, who leave their homelands and come to a new country to start their lives over. They believe in the American dream. And over and over, they make it come true for themselves, for their children, and for others. They give more than they receive. They labor and succeed. And often they are entrepreneurs. But their greatest contribution is more than economic, because they understand in a special way how glorious it is to be an American. They renew our pride and gratitude in the United States of America, the greatest, freest nation in the world -- the last, best hope of man on Earth.Click here for the text of the full speech.