Be mindful of what you read right before you go to bed. It is wise advice to not actively use your mind for an hour before you retire, and I think from now on I will heed that advice. Last night somehow in my internet travels, I came across a blog by Anthony Flood. I cannot even pretend to retrace the thread of thoughts and words that led me there. Once there, however, I learned a new word, anarchocapitalism.
I had to turn to Wikipedia to get a fuller sense of what the word means though context alone had given me a strong sense of what it espouses: “Anarcho-capitalists see free-market capitalism as the basis for a free and prosperous society. Murray Rothbard said that the difference between free-market capitalism and ‘state capitalism’ is the difference between ‘peaceful, voluntary exchange’ and a collusive partnership between business and government that uses coercion to subvert the free market.” Interesting delineation. I wonder what human fields either system would emerge from?
In Mr. Floods’ blog entry, he posted a presentation by Peter Schiff to the Austrian Scholars Conference that was over an hour of I-told-you-so about the collapse of the economy. I wish it had been an hour of here’s-what-might-work-to-repair-the economy. At any rate, it was interesting to hear the history of how we got where we are. The bottom line is: people will see what they want to see when we focus on the short-term. The systems in place seem to propogate folly in large part because everyone involved seems most interested in amassing wealth and material goods without understanding what role wealth plays in perpetuating the status quo and how long term perpetuation of the status quo affects the world and the myriad humans sharing that world.
I do think that the aforementioned gentlemen are thinking long term, though I do not necessarily agree with their viewpoints. But I am grateful that we live in a society where discussion occurs. Now if we could just get the media to participate in educating the populous rather than indoctrinating or entertaining. Entertaining indoctrination is deadly.
The bottom line is we need to stringently analyze our daily assumptions and this can only be done by listening to perspectives outside one’s own–as uncomfortable as that may be. Strident calls to muzzle opposing opinions serves no one, especially our children who will suffer mightily from our inability to do so. However, I suggest you do not engage in such activity right before bed. Quiet would better serve you–as it would have me.