Culture Determines Progress of Racial Groups, Not Genes

In the face of neo genetic determinist tendencies it's important to revisit an extensive study from 1984 in which Dr. Thomas Sowell showed culture matters in determining the progress of racial groups

Dr. Thomas Sowell illustrates how and why culture matters in Tony Brown's Journal (1984).

How much of a racial group's economic fate is determined by the surrounding society it lives in, and how much by internal patterns that follow that same group around the world? Using an international framework to analyze a group of differences, Sowell has pioneered a new approach for pursuing this important study, utilizing historical experience and empirical data. The results are fascinating and sometimes surprising. For instance, he finds that the social and economic patterns among Italians in Australia and Argentina are similar in many respects to those of Italians in Italy or the United States. And, though blacks have not faced the same massive and rigid oppression in Brazil as in the United States, economic differences between blacks and whites are significantly greater in Brazil.

Management: Motivated by Profit Or Purpose?

In the video bestselling author of "Drive," Dan Pink is exploring and identifying the personal qualities and essential drives that motivate people. He distinguishes profit from purpose. But that isn't the whole story. There are more essential principles at work that we must try to understand or the consequences can be dire. 

RSA animation illustrating the difference between profit and purpose motive. Full lecture.

In above animation management and business author Dan Pink (site) discovers the difference between the profit and the purpose motive. Conclusions of research into motivation conducted by MIT indicate that even when minor cognitive skills are involved, the results no longer match the rewards. The contradiction rests on two misunderstandings: the theory of behaviorism rooted in the idea that man is no different from any other animal; and the straw man argument that man is motivated by greed. Both prepositions are untrue as we shall demonstrate. It also explains why motivational techniques developed by coaches work very well in sports, but the analogy is stopping short for people involved in mental achievement. 

Debunk: Why Anarcho-Capitalism is a Rationalistic Hoax

The Anarcho Capitalist argument was refined in the late '60s by Objectivist-influenced anarchists, such as Morris and Linda Tannehill, and the late Roy Childs. On its surface, it seems seductively simple and attractive. But on deeper analysis the fallacies become apparent. It's a rationalization. 

Cartoon: Anarcho Capitalist theorist, Stephan Molyneux. 

The "anarcho-capitalist" (AC) argument was refined in the late '60s by Objectivist-influenced anarchists, such as Morris and Linda Tannehill, and the late Roy Childs (who later changed his mind). On its surface, it seems seductively simple:

EUROPE NEEDS US STYLE FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Is man determined by external forces, or does he have free will? This is the vital difference between Europe and the United States. The divide therefore goes to one of the most fundamental philosophical questions known to man. And explains why Europe must be "saved," time and again. 

Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, helped by hate speech laws in every way imaginable.

Why Censoring Speech Creates Extremists And Causes Atrocities Instead Of Stopping Them 

By Joshua Goldberg

First posted on November 19, 2014

In the 1920s, the National Socialist German Workers Party was banned by the government of Weimar Germany. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Nazis were prosecuted numerous times for “hate speech”. Rather than hinder the Nazis, this merely helped them in every way imaginable. Through the courts, the Nazis were given a platform to spread their views to a far wider section of the public than they otherwise would have had access to. Through their prosecutions, they were able to cultivate an image of themselves as martyrs and political prisoners, drawing people to their side in droves. Today, Europe is making the exact same mistake that it made with the Nazis.

WHY MUSLIMS ARE PRIORITIZED OVER CHRISTIAN REFUGEES

Unbelievers are being oppressed all over the Middle East, specifically in countries destabilized in 'Arab Spring' type revolutions and in the territory under the control of the Islamic State. No one in the West is lifting a finger to prevent these genocides.

Why U.S. Christian Groups are Prioritizing Muslim Refugees over Christian Ones https://t.co/iA6DoO5HDr via @TheIRD

— Cherylyn HarleyLeBon (@HarleyLeBon) December 12, 2015

UPDATE: They are from some of the oldest Christian communities in the world, from lands where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah walked, and where Jonah called the people of Ninevah to repentance. But today these Christians have been targeted for death, sexual slavery, displacement, cultural eradication and forced conversion by ISIS. The U.S. government’s response has been woefully inadequate — neither helping them defend themselves and stay, nor providing them asylum to leave. And now, to add insult to injury, they are casualties of the agencies contracted to resettle refugees in America. (...) The blame is not just with the United Nations and the Obama administration. U.S. organizations who resettle refuges are also to blame. This includes Christian groups that resist any focus on Christian victims of ISIS, and oppose actions by Congress to welcome not just economic migrants but also Christians and other religious minorities victimized by ISIS. (..) (Source)

Democracy Is Waning With American Power

Power is economic in nature; power by force is merely a short cut that usually doesn't last. China just overtook the United States as the largest economy in the world. Geopolitically this fact will not remain without consequences. In Africa democracy is already retracting. 

Democracy without the root of liberty: some world leaders have managed to stay in office well past their constitutionally mandated expiration dates.

Democrats are lamenting, democracy is waning in Africa. It is because African strongmen "rule with an iron fist" and "manage to stay on passed their constitutional expiration dates". (Source) But that conclusion betrays a very limited understanding of what democracy really is. In this case we can say with confidence that 'the' democracy does not exist. The USA is a democracy, but so are Russia and Iran. It all depends on your definition. To some socialists, democracy is even synonymous with their ideology. But what most people actually mean by democracy, is Liberty.

Fighting an Existential War With Demoralized Leaders

"Islam has nothing to do with terrorism, Jihad or the Islamic State", "no religion condones terrorism"... we know the politically correct libations to the gods of multiculturalism all too well. But what is really behind this obvious nonsense?



Not Ayn Al Arab nor Kobani, it became Ayn Al Islam. ISIS latest video. With English translation. - H/t @HananShamounNL

The Islamic State has produced a 20 minute film, including an English translation. It's a must see for every student as it may lead to specific insights that can easily be missed watching events from the same Western conceptual framework. For those who are prepared to see it, interviews with American military brass touch the essence of the problem. In any war, but especially one which is existential, the equation couldn't be worse. A lack of weapons would have been preferable to demoralized leadership. 

Lexicon: the Second-Hander 1/5

 -  Robert Douglas as Ellsworth Toohey in
"The Fountainhead" (1949) - Wiki  -

Isn’t that the root of every despicable action? Not selfishness, but precisely the absence of a self. Look at them. The man who cheats and lies, but preserves a respectable front. He knows himself to be dishonest, but others think he’s honest and he derives his self-respect from that, second-hand.

STRATEGY (1): SUN TZU, THE ART OF WAR

War is an art. War is deception. War is the will to win. War is convincing the enemy he cannot win. War is more than breaking things and killing people. War is philosophy, psychology and brain power.

Oct. 5, 2021 The Art of War by Sun Tzu (Entire Unabridged Audiobook).

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise that is attributed to Sun Tzu (also referred to as "Sunzi" and "Sun Wu"), a high ranking military general and strategist during the late Spring and Autumn period (some scholars believe that the Art of War was not completed until the subsequent Warring States period. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it is said to be the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time, and is still read for its military insights. The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy in the world.

The Bitter Fruits of Immoral Monetary Policies

On October 9th the Greek Libertarian economist Dr John Charalambakis spoke on the recent crises, the drama of the euro and the tragedy of Greece in a lecture organized by the Austrian Economics Center

In "Fear the Boom and Bust", economists Keynes and Hayek come back to life to attend an economics conference on the economic crisis. H/t EconStories.TV

Charalambakis: We should have left the banks die

by Federico Fernandez and Raoul Kirschbichler

Crossposted from the Austrian Center

The role of the central bank

The mere existence of central banks raises two very important questions:

1) Do we need a central bank? Why should a central authority dictate the price of money? Can’t the market solve this problem as it does with many other prices?

2) What is the relationship between the bubbles from the past twenty or thirty years and central banks?

Are the Fed, the ECB, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan to blame for them? The overextension of money supply and the overextension of credit create bubbles.