Thanks Nate, for a great deal of wisdom in your Reality Party video. The view that once basic needs are met, the important things are free, echoes, consciously or not, Epicurus - I think you two would have got along well! There is a snag unfortunately: one of our basic needs is shelter, and certainly here in the UK , that is prodigiously expensive, partly because we view it as wealth, much more than a means of survival (in harsh English summers!).
On partisan politics; a lot of my knowledge of the USA came from listening to Alistair Cooke's weekly Letter from America radio broadcast (he did them for over 60 years). Cooke was a spellbinding storyteller, and I remember him quoting a congressman: "I never learned anything from anyone who agreed with me". Much wisdom there too - sad it's from a bygone age.
I also remember him explaining the origin of the right to bear arms, in the Second Amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed". The founding fathers, with the mistakes and excesses of Britain and Europe fresh in their minds, had decided against a standing army, in favour of the militia model. A regular peacetime army was first established as early as 1784, but the Amendment has remained untouched, though I've yet to hear an American-born person recite it in full!
I wish you would publish your slides. I wrote down all 15 points on the Reality slide so I can annotate them from the show notes, and any that don't have show note citations, I'll find some. It's as close as anyone has ever come to an elevator pitch on the Nature of the Present Reality. And I urgently need an elevator pitch. Thanks again and again!
Thanks Nate, for a great deal of wisdom in your Reality Party video. The view that once basic needs are met, the important things are free, echoes, consciously or not, Epicurus - I think you two would have got along well! There is a snag unfortunately: one of our basic needs is shelter, and certainly here in the UK , that is prodigiously expensive, partly because we view it as wealth, much more than a means of survival (in harsh English summers!).
On partisan politics; a lot of my knowledge of the USA came from listening to Alistair Cooke's weekly Letter from America radio broadcast (he did them for over 60 years). Cooke was a spellbinding storyteller, and I remember him quoting a congressman: "I never learned anything from anyone who agreed with me". Much wisdom there too - sad it's from a bygone age.
I also remember him explaining the origin of the right to bear arms, in the Second Amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed". The founding fathers, with the mistakes and excesses of Britain and Europe fresh in their minds, had decided against a standing army, in favour of the militia model. A regular peacetime army was first established as early as 1784, but the Amendment has remained untouched, though I've yet to hear an American-born person recite it in full!
thanks Ian. Yes - the calling of the day is wisdom in tandem with cleverness. We're going to need both.
I wish you would publish your slides. I wrote down all 15 points on the Reality slide so I can annotate them from the show notes, and any that don't have show note citations, I'll find some. It's as close as anyone has ever come to an elevator pitch on the Nature of the Present Reality. And I urgently need an elevator pitch. Thanks again and again!