Fellow Investor,
Please—whatever you do—don’t be fooled by China’s charge that the U.S. economy is no more than a Ponzi scheme.
China is the biggest profiteer of U.S. debt and ONLY wants to see the U.S. print more dollars and sink deeper in the red.
Here’s why:
They habitually buy cheap U.S. dollars hand over fist and then invest them in Treasuries to hold down the value of the yuan currency.
The result adds billions to their trade surplus, continues to keep the dollar artificially low, and sends jobs directly to China.
That’s why as the U.S. struggles with its the debt crisis, cash registers are ringing with glee all over China.
The reason is simple.
That’s why the smart money is flooding into China at light speed as the dollar falls, where investors will profit not only from the country’s sizzling 10% GDP but also from currency appreciation and domestic spending as the dollar continues to spiral south and the U.S. debt shock wave continues to ripple across the U.S.
The chain reaction will enrich those investors who understand that capital ALWAYS flows to the highest return in good times and safety in bad times …
…and are taking this opportunity to scoop up world-class China assets at fraction of their future wealth in advance of the U.S. fallout.
That’s why it’s crucial that you add our top China stocks to your holdings now and why I’ve sent you this Special Alert.
If you can buy our top stocks today—while they’re still bargains—you could be looking at 30% to 50% gains in the next 12 months as the flight to safety lands squarely in China.
Details in tonight’s China Strategy.
What the Government Isn’t Telling You Could Send You to the Poorhouse…
…Or Make You Wall Street’s Next Millionaire
I’m Robert Hsu, and as you’ve suspected, you’re not getting the full story on the continuing debt crisis from the U.S. government, the financial media or the politicians.
Everything is not OK, my friend, and raising the debt ceiling and keeping interest rates low for the next two years isn’t the economic savior they want you to believe!
The shocking truth is that Obama’s monetary policy has flattened U.S. economic growth like a mud hut in the middle of a hurricane.
The long term-results are so disastrous for U.S. markets, their only option is to raise the debt ceiling, which will ultimately crush the dollar, raise interest rates, panic investors, and cut corporate profits and earnings.
This is why America’s top corporations, investors, and hedge fund managers are heading directly to China because they know that’s where the biggest profits will be found—not just during this current crisis but also for the next 10 years.
Mark my words….
Investors Who Ignore What’s About to
Take Place Will Lose Their Shirts
This tale of two investors shows what the future holds for those who take action now… and for those that don’t.
If you want to see what your financial future will look like as the U.S debt crisis grows and its investment rating inevitably declines, my friend, you need only look at the past performance of these two competing Chinese and American state-of-the-art Internet travel companies since 2004.
Act Now
Just look:
“Investor A” invested $10,000 in Expedia, America’s largest and most profitable travel website right smack dab in the middle of Wall Street’s greatest growth period.
“Investors B” invested $10,000 in CTRIP, an upstart travel website to serve the needs of China’s growing middle class and one of our top- performing investments at China Strategy.
Today, Investor A’s $10,000 investment in Expedia has grown to a paltry $10,200… while Investor B’s stake has mushroomed to $100,000!
That’s not the only example I can offer you that shows what the great profit divide will look like when China surpasses the U.S. as the world’s No.1 economy.
You need only look at the profit performance of America’s search engine juggernaut Google compared with its Chinese counterpart, Baidu, over the past five years.
A $10,000 investment in 2006 in Google is now worth a piddling $13,500 while the same amount invested in Baidu (and another top investment here at China Strategy) is now worth—hold on to your hat—more than $200,000!
That’s a 35% total return verses a 1,900% windfall coming in just five years.
These are just two of hundreds of examples that point out with crystal-clear clarity how China’s companies will outperform their U.S. counterparts over the next five years, as China emerges as the world’s No. 1 economy, the U.S. dollar continues to fall, U.S. debt crisis grows, corporate profits shrink and China continues to grow.
If this doesn’t scare you as an investor, it should.
Because the end result of the U.S. debt crisis will be a future of declining U.S. corporate profits that will drive U.S. stocks down… while the Chinese economy and their stock market thrives.
That’s why Apple is expanding there, Microsoft is expanding there, McDonald’s is expanding there, Kentucky Fried Chicken is expanding there as is IBM, Caterpillar and Ford…
…along with the French, Italians, Brits, Russians, Indians and nearly every major institutional investor in the U.S. Even Mary Kay is there—all to grab their share of profits as the Chinese economy surpasses the U.S for good.
Most investors will miss the next wave of profits, but you won’t when you join me now, here at China Strategy.
A Rare Opportunity to Turn Another $10,000 Into $100,000—But Most Investors Will Miss This
I can tell you this because I have invested in China for 20 years, and I fly between L.A. and Shanghai at least four times a year, tour factories with my analysts and meet with CEOs and government officials personally. And I have used that knowledge to double our readers’ money eleven times in six years.
And at the speed in which I see pension funds and institutional investors loading up on China stocks because of the U.S. debt problems, it’s clear you should be following their lead if you want to save your future.
The reason is simple:
The gap between U.S. growth and China’s growth will NEVER be smaller. Furthermore, in the next five years, China will not only take the lead as the world’s most powerful economy but keep it.
That’s why so many big money insiders have plunging into our A-rated China stocks on the heals of this shocking new IMF economic report.
That’s also what makes this opportunity so rare for investors as you’ll never ever get a second chance at this great growth period once China becomes No. 1 and expands its lead every year after that.
Tragically, most U.S. investors don’t know that China will overtake the U.S. by 2016 and become the world’s most powerful economy or about the great wealth-building opportunity that awaits you there as China rises and the U.S. falls.
Don’t Miss Out
The reason is simple:
1. Because the U.S. media is only reporting on the political battle and not telling you where you can make money
2. The news reports you do get out of China are all shading the truth, and
3. The big money insiders are keeping all the profits for themselves.
You need only take an extra five minutes to compare the negative front-page China news stories with the positive back-page economic and earnings reports to know you are not getting the straight story.
“China is heating up too fast.” “Inflation will ruin everything.” “The real estate market is about to collapse.” “You will lose your shirt.”
None of this is true.
“Apple’s Earnings Soar on China Sales” sums up the truth.
Come visit Beijing with me, accompany me when I grill CEOs, walk through factories with me, have your CPA go through the financial statements we audit, and you will see this with your own eyes:
The big money is buying up the best companies for pennies on the dollar and hoarding all the profits, selling them to you six months down the line after the insiders have already banked 200%, 300%, or 400% profits or more.
Better yet, come out to dinner with me—I’ll pay—and you’ll see table after table of hedge fund guys from all over the world cutting deals with China’s top deal makers. You might even see Warren Buffett or Bill Gates at the next table.
Why?
Because that is where the money is, and the big money insiders want to keep it all to themselves. Goldman’s recent Facebook deal limiting investment to foreign clients is continuing proof that the inside game is alive and well and living in China.
What You’re Not Being Told Is Keeping You Out
of the Most Profitable Investments in the World
Here are the two simple truths you are not being told:
1. The U.S. financial problems will only get worse no matter what happens with the U.S. debt ceiling.
2. China is a goldmine and the insiders are keeping to themselves.
That’s why you will only see fear-based stories of currency manipulation, rising inflation, and the potential of the real estate, banking, commodities, travel and every other sector collapsing.
You won’t read one word on how the Chinese economy will ultimately overtake the U.S. economy, and how mutual fund insiders and institutional investors are buying up the China’s top companies for pennies on the dollar.
arrow This is why Warren Buffett dropped $200 million on a Chinese car company in an unstable nation filled with liars and thieves.
arrow This is why McDonald’s is opening a new store every three days.
arrow This is why Amazon.com opened nine new warehouses this year.
arrow This is why Apple is manufacturing their iPhone, iPod, iMac and iPads there—all in anticipation of the huge profit wave that will come from new China sales.
Despite what the financial media wants you to believe, China is a future goldmine.
Its Internet industry is a future goldmine. Its telecommunications industry is a future goldmine. Its energy industry is a future goldmine. Its travel industry is a future goldmine. Its manufacturing industry is a future goldmine.
Warren Buffett knows this. Steve Jobs knows this. Bill Gates knows this. Larry Ellison knows this. The hedge fund people know this. The insiders know this. The IMF knows this. We know this. Even Mary Kay knows this. Now you know this.
My China Strategy advisory will help you grab your share of the profits—or you won’t pay a dime.
A Critical Choice
Make no mistake about it.
The U.S. debt crisis and China’s emergence as the world’s No. 1 economy will divide Wall Street—and much of the world, for that matter—by income, wealth and power.
The winners and the losers will seem worlds apart separated by an economic wedge that will be driven directly through the heart of U.S. investors.
Find Out More
Which side will you end up on?
You know, it doesn’t take any special genius to end up on the profit side.
All it takes the wherewithal to accept the fact that China WILL surpass the U.S. as the world’s most powerful economy in the next five years and invest accordingly now.
This Is How We’ve Doubled Our Money
Eleven Times in Six Years
This is how we plan to double our money another 11 times in the next six years.
All by investing in China’s fastest-rising and top-rated companies—as China surpasses the U.S. to become the most profitable economy in the world.
We wouldn’t have made a dime listening to the financial media!
That’s what makes this opportunity for you so rare—as few individual investors in the U.S. truly understand the profit opportunity that’s yours for the taking.
However, by acting now—and adding our top-rated China stocks to your holdings while the majority of investors are looking the other way—you, too, will gain the opportunity to own the next Ctrip.com or Baidu before they turn $10,000 into $100,000, $150,000, or as much as $200,000!
That, my friend, is the profit opportunity that is staring you smack dab in the face—and not the rathole the financial media wants you to believe!
By simply taking action today and adding China’s top companies to your holdings NOW…
arrow You will profit from China’s 457 million Internet users as they continue to spend billions each year.
arrow You will also profit from China’s 800 million cellphone users spending billions annually.
arrow You will profit from China’s rising auto industry as they sell another 18 million cars again this year.
arrow You will also profit as China sells another 115 million TVs and 180 million computers again this year.
arrow You will profit in the energy sector as well, as the country spends another $1.5 trillion on energy in the next five years.
arrow You’ll also profit in the solar sector, as China continues dominate world’s solar cell production.
All as U.S. companies continue to decline on the world stage as China emerges as the world’s No. 1 economy.
This Is the REAL CHINA
You Are Not Being Told About
The REAL CHINA that global investors are fleeing to at light speed.
The REAL CHINA that is creating a new millionaire every day.
The REAL CHINA that needs to build 11 New York-sized cities by 2030 to handle the rising population.
The REAL CHINA that is the world leader in wind energy, auto production, and energy usage.
The REAL CHINA that has the fastest bullet train, the first mass-produced plug-in hybrid, and now the world’s fastest supercomputer.
The REAL China where our readers have doubled their money 11 times since 2005 … that I will bring you when you join us here at China Strategy.
Join us today at a special introductory price.
It’s Clearest Path to Wealth You Will Find
Our five-year, $4-to-$1 market-beating results continue to prove this out.
This is no time to take a “wait-and-see” approach.
Five years ago, we sent our readers an amazing blueprint of what was about to take place… with matter-of-fact specifics about the coming China wealth boom and how you could profit using our inside knowledge.
It told of new cities the size of Philadelphia that were being built each month … how copper, nickel, iron ore, oil and aluminum prices would skyrocket because of it.
It explained how the Chinese communists were transforming themselves into capitalists and that they would create more small businesses than the U.S. over the next five years.
It forecast how the rise of the Chinese Internet and Chinese consumer class that would trigger a travel boom of epic proportions …
…and that computers, cellphones, TVs and dishwashers would be as common as bicycles in China…
…and that China would one day surpass Japan as the world’s No. 1 economic power …
…and that hedge funds, institutional investors, and deal makers around the world were beating a path there …
…and—MOST IMPORTANT—it connected the dots to the most profitable stocks to own, including Ctrip (+340%), Baidu (+314%), China Offshore Oil (+281%), China Aluminum (+285%), New Orient Education (+232%), Yingli Green Energy (+125%), China Southern Airlines (+170%), Apple (+118%), China Mobile (+109%), and Yanzhou Coal (+100%).
Join Now
If you had the foresight to join us back then, you would have doubled your money nine times and beaten the market by $4-to-$1 by investing in our recommendations.
If you did not join us, it was not your fault. The year 2005 was a different place. The U.S. was in the midst of its own growth boom.
Chances are you would have viewed these predictions with a lot of skepticism. The smart money was telling you that China stocks were penny stocks and warning you away from them …
… while the insiders were buying with both hands to keep the big money for themselves.
The same lies that were spread back then are being repeated now—only they are bigger and bolder because the profits now are bigger and bolder.
All because China holds all the financial cards in the world’s deck.
How the Small Investor Can
Get Rich Safely in China Now
Join us here at China Strategy.
We’ve proven we know China better than anyone else.
We proved you can double your money spotting the trends early, selecting the right stocks and holding on for the ride.
We’ve made it our business to be ahead of our time: to connect the dots from the sweeping changes cresting over China to the companies most likely to profit.
The bold predictions we made in 2005 have not only happened…
…the China Internet boom… rising commodities and energy prices… the green energy movement… the wireless frenzy… the travel and education booms…
…but have already paid off—doubling our readers’ money 11 times while beating the market by $4-to-$1.
We continue to get China right because we are right there—inside Beijing with inside contacts throughout China that continue to feed us the advanced information you can profit from.
If you have not seen China Strategy, I guarantee you will find nothing like it or more profitable.
Global in scope, detailed in nature, yet squarely focused on the profit opportunities that emanate from China today—from the inside—with fully researched economic forecasts on the level of major think tanks such as the Hoover Institution, along with specific unhedged recommendations brought to us directly from our team of analysts and researchers.
The advantage this offers our readers is huge, and something few advisories offer: accurate firsthand intelligence on China as well as specific profit opportunities that continue to pay off.
I guarantee it will bring you weekly what the financial media may never bring you for years: a fresh perspective on China from the inside and how you can profit.
You can try it risk-free here.
This Is Your Invitation to
Join Us and Save $299
Subscribe to my China Strategy advisory for $99.95 (regularly $398, but on this offer you save $299). As a bonus, I’ll send you my 2011 annual profit forecast, “China Insider’s Guide to Prosperity and Wealth.”
Like our 2005–2010 forecast that doubled our readers’ money 11 times, this year’s forecast not only gives you precise predictions for where the Chinese economy is headed…
…why the commodities bull run will continue… why inflation will continue to rise globally… why homegrown Chinese companies will continue to beat global giants… where interest rates are headed… what you can expect from the Chinese government on the yuan… how the continuing eurozone collapse will boost profits for Chinese companies… why the aging China population could deliver your biggest profits.
…but also connects the dots to the companies more likely to profit and that we believe will double your money nine times in the next five years, including:
* The aluminum manufacturer whose fortune continues to grow as China continues to invest billions in infrastructure
* The fertilizer company whose earnings growth doubled last quarter and is set to double again as food inflation sweeps across the country
* The incredible oil play that’s been backstopping the market’s free fall with 198% gains to date
* The medical device company that is profiting from China’s fast-growing aging population
* The leading beneficiary from the rising Chinese craze for European luxury status-symbol goods
Insider's Guide Cover
Your free copy of “China Insider’s Guide to Prosperity and Wealth” brings you the full story on my latest recommendations. All of which are profiting from the trends sweeping China.
I guarantee it will give you a fresh perspective on China’s future and how to profit from it.
What’s more, it will also lay the foundation for every recommendation I will bring you in the months ahead and show you how to profit safely and easily, without leaving home, along with our philosophy of investing in China’s best American-listed stocks.
Join now and get your copy free.
I Guarantee 50% Gains
or You Pay Nothing
That’s a big claim, I know.
But not when you consider how we’ve doubled our readers’ money eleven times in six years and have beaten the market by $4-to-$1 along the way.
Act Now
So if you don’t like what you see in the next six months, just cancel and I’ll refund every penny you paid—no questions asked.
That way you can see for yourself—on your own terms—the kinds of profits my China Strategy advisory can bring you… without risking a dime.
As a China Strategy Reader, Here’s
What You Can Expect
* Every month, you’ll get our economic overview and specific investment recommendations direct to you from our on-the-ground contacts in the heart of China’s financial and manufacturing districts.
* Every week, you’ll get updates on our recommendations and how the past week’s events will affect our holdings long term.
* Every day, you’ll have my entire staff working on your behalf—and available by phone to ask questions—researching new opportunities, touring factories, interviewing CEOs and auditing financial statements of the companies we recommend.
* Every time we spot a new opportunity or danger, we’ll send you an immediate email and post a Flash Alert on our website to give you the specific action to take.
No other investment advisory I know of brings you precise predictions for where China is headed or how to profit—with specific buy, sell, and hold recommendations and a detailed rationale for every one of our moves.
I guarantee it will be the most eye-opening and profitable investment advisory you’ll ever read or your money will be promptly refunded.
Join me now and see for yourself. You risk nothing.
With My 100% Money-Back Guarantee,
There’s No Way You Can Lose
The bottom line here is this:
If you ever feel that we aren’t helping you foresee and profit from the changes sweeping across China—just let me know, and I will refund your money.
NO questions asked.
Insider's Guide Cover
Cancel in the first six months for a complete refund. After that, it’s pro rata just like professional-level institutional research publications.
You may keep your FREE copy of China Insider’s Guide to Prosperity and Wealth no matter what you decide, as our thank you for taking your time to learn about us and the investment-grade research and recommendations we will bring you 365 days a year.
But You’ll Have to Say “Yes” Today
The big gains our China stocks have made since 2005 are simply a sneak preview of what’s headed your way over the next few years with China profits now expected to hit $15 trillion U.S. over the next 10 years and the U.S. economy slows.
That’s why I’m sending you this SPECIAL offer to join us at our special low anniversary price.
So if you want to profit from the China’s next big surge, NOW is the time to join us.
Act now, and you have my promise that you will profit, or you won’t pay a dime.
So is it a deal? I hope so.
Don’t Miss Out
Because tomorrow, the price on my China Strategy service will revert to $398 and the window of opportunity to join me at our special anniversary rate will be shut.
Sincerely,
signed: Robert Hsu
Robert Hsu,
Editor, China Strategy
P.S. Remember, with my personal money-back guarantee you risk nothing.
Even if you decide to cancel, we’ll promptly refund your money. And you may keep your FREE copy of China Insider’s Guide to Prosperity and Wealth and all the issues we send you without further obligation.
It’s our way of thanking you for taking the time to learn about the fresh perspective and profit opportunities China Strategy can bring you.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Horrendous Consequences of the Debt Deal For Middle Class America
The debt "deal" will immediately slash nearly one trillion dollars from federal budgets, sink our economy, cost thousands their jobs, and doesn't ask for a cent from the very rich or corporations.
But here's the bad news: things could get worse. The deal sets up a bi-partisan committee to find trillions more in cuts, and you can bet they'll be targeting vital services and our pensions and pay instead of multi-millionaires.
There's still a chance legislators will make fair decisions if we turn up the heat right now. Members of Congress are home throughout August, traveling their districts and listening to constituents. We need to show them that Americans are engaged, enraged, and demanding a fair deal – so we're joining with partners to hold events throughout the month.
At rallies, picnics, and town hall meetings, we're going to stand up and fight to protect the American dream. Will you join us at an event near you?
Look up an August "We Are One" event near you and RSVP today.
The debt ceiling deal is bad for our economy and bad for working people like you and me. Our pensions have survived this round, but given what lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said, it will be a tough road going forward.
Take a stand and let your decision-makers know that the American people will not stand by while our future is undermined so that the extremely rich in this country can buy another yacht.
Outraged? We should be.
We need to show as much public outcry as possible, so please take a look at events today. And if there's no event near you, you can organize your own!
Show your lawmakers that the debt deal is not acceptable. Join an event near you.
Thanks again for everything you do.
Sincerely,
John Gage
AFGE National President
For the latest updates on pay freezes, budget cuts, and other news, text "NoCuts" on your personal phone to 225-568.
But here's the bad news: things could get worse. The deal sets up a bi-partisan committee to find trillions more in cuts, and you can bet they'll be targeting vital services and our pensions and pay instead of multi-millionaires.
There's still a chance legislators will make fair decisions if we turn up the heat right now. Members of Congress are home throughout August, traveling their districts and listening to constituents. We need to show them that Americans are engaged, enraged, and demanding a fair deal – so we're joining with partners to hold events throughout the month.
At rallies, picnics, and town hall meetings, we're going to stand up and fight to protect the American dream. Will you join us at an event near you?
Look up an August "We Are One" event near you and RSVP today.
The debt ceiling deal is bad for our economy and bad for working people like you and me. Our pensions have survived this round, but given what lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said, it will be a tough road going forward.
Take a stand and let your decision-makers know that the American people will not stand by while our future is undermined so that the extremely rich in this country can buy another yacht.
Outraged? We should be.
We need to show as much public outcry as possible, so please take a look at events today. And if there's no event near you, you can organize your own!
Show your lawmakers that the debt deal is not acceptable. Join an event near you.
Thanks again for everything you do.
Sincerely,
John Gage
AFGE National President
For the latest updates on pay freezes, budget cuts, and other news, text "NoCuts" on your personal phone to 225-568.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Stop Hiring Discrimination Against the Unemployed
"Help wanted."
For millions of unemployed Americans, these two words are a beacon -- a light at the end of a dark tunnel in which they found themselves after Wall Street speculators wrecked our economy. For the unemployed, "Help wanted" means there is hope.
But we've recently learned an outrageous fact -- many employers are discriminating against the jobless by prohibiting them from even applying for open positions. Their "Help wanted" signs come with a caveat -- if you are unemployed, you need not apply.1
For millions of U.S. workers, such discrimination is shocking and devastating. And we must make it stop.
So now we need your help. We've started petition asking major employment websites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder to refuse ads from companies that prohibit the unemployed from applying - and it's already having an impact:By signing our petition, you can let employers know that discriminating against the unemployed will not be tolerated.
Late yesterday, Monster.com responded to our campaign saying that they “strongly oppose discriminating vs. the unemployed.” But, so far, they have still not committed to refuse ads from employers who openly discriminate against the unemployed.2 Help us keep the pressure on by signing the petition and spreading the word.
It's outrageous enough that 14 million Americans are out of work. But discriminating against jobless people who just want to feed their families and stay in their homes?
Employers should not penalize applicants for a job status that they cannot control, especially when prohibiting the unemployed from applying only compounds the issue.
We need to get America back to work. By signing our petition, you can let employers know that discriminating against the unemployed will not be tolerated.
Sincerely,
Drew Hudson
USAction/TrueMajority
1 -- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/business/help-wanted-ads-exclude-the-long-term-jobless.html
2 -- http://insideusaction.org/aggprog/?p=409
For millions of unemployed Americans, these two words are a beacon -- a light at the end of a dark tunnel in which they found themselves after Wall Street speculators wrecked our economy. For the unemployed, "Help wanted" means there is hope.
But we've recently learned an outrageous fact -- many employers are discriminating against the jobless by prohibiting them from even applying for open positions. Their "Help wanted" signs come with a caveat -- if you are unemployed, you need not apply.1
For millions of U.S. workers, such discrimination is shocking and devastating. And we must make it stop.
So now we need your help. We've started petition asking major employment websites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder to refuse ads from companies that prohibit the unemployed from applying - and it's already having an impact:By signing our petition, you can let employers know that discriminating against the unemployed will not be tolerated.
Late yesterday, Monster.com responded to our campaign saying that they “strongly oppose discriminating vs. the unemployed.” But, so far, they have still not committed to refuse ads from employers who openly discriminate against the unemployed.2 Help us keep the pressure on by signing the petition and spreading the word.
It's outrageous enough that 14 million Americans are out of work. But discriminating against jobless people who just want to feed their families and stay in their homes?
Employers should not penalize applicants for a job status that they cannot control, especially when prohibiting the unemployed from applying only compounds the issue.
We need to get America back to work. By signing our petition, you can let employers know that discriminating against the unemployed will not be tolerated.
Sincerely,
Drew Hudson
USAction/TrueMajority
1 -- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/business/help-wanted-ads-exclude-the-long-term-jobless.html
2 -- http://insideusaction.org/aggprog/?p=409
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Renew the call to end corporate rule at the 1st National Democracy Convention Aug.24-28,2011
Join us in Madison from August 24 to August 28; early registration and lodging discounts end Wednesday!
Wednesday July 27th is the deadline for discount room reservations and early registration for the Democracy Convention, August 24 through 28 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Don't miss out! Room rates will go back to regular price after Wednesday. The discount rate of $85 a night books you a room with two queen or king-size beds at the Madison Concourse, the city's only union hotel. After the 27th, rates will go up by at least 50% more. Make your hotel reservation now online, or call the Madison Concourse Hotel at 1-800-356-8293.
Wednesday is also the deadline for early convention registration discounts of up to 25% if you register and pay at the same time. Regular registration is $50 to $100, sliding scale. If you'd like to take advantage of the discount, click here.
Join us in Madison! The systemic issue behind all those that the Alliance and you work on is corporate personhood and corporate constitutional rights, the cornerstone of corporate rule and power of the corporate oligarchy.
The Democracy Convention hosts multiple conferences on earth democracy, constitutional reform, and education for democracy, media, economic democracy, racial justice and more. Each conference will have workshops, panels, and plenary sessions, with speakers drawn from labor, student, anti-militarism, anti-racism, sustainability, local economy and environmental justice movements.
Confirmed speakers include Tom Hayden, Gar Alperovitz, Margaret Flowers, Riki Ott and Ted Glick, as well as many organizers from Move to Amend. Musician Michelle Shocked headlines the conference celebration.
The Alliance is pleased to be one of the convention convenors, as well as key organizer for the Earth Democracy conference.
The Democracy Convention is where we will come together to:
* learn from each other about grassroots projects and actions
* engage with national action campaigns that bring communities together on the same issue
* build our capacity to enact alternatives that advance the well-being of all people and for the rights of nature.
Please support AfD’s participation in the Democracy Convention by renewing your membership or making an extra donation.
Your financial support is critical as we plan for this event. Help get Alliance activists, materials, and the message—“end corporate personhood, end corporate rule”—to Madison by giving as generously as possible.
Click here to give online or mail your tax-deductible contribution to Alliance for Democracy, PO Box 540115, Waltham, MA 02454. And thanks!
We hope to see many of you in Madison, especially those of you from the midwest. There will be time in the convention agenda for organizational gatherings. Send an email to Barbara Clancy in the office to let us know you will be attending.
Meet with us to build a vibrant democracy that inspires us to renew governance to meet community needs, preserve ecosystems, and establish justice for all (non-corporate) people!
See you in August,
Nancy, Ruth, Jim, Bonnie and Barbara
Want to keep our online community growing? Our Facebook page is an easy way to share AfD news with friends and help spread the word about grassroots alternatives to corporate rule.
Wednesday July 27th is the deadline for discount room reservations and early registration for the Democracy Convention, August 24 through 28 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Don't miss out! Room rates will go back to regular price after Wednesday. The discount rate of $85 a night books you a room with two queen or king-size beds at the Madison Concourse, the city's only union hotel. After the 27th, rates will go up by at least 50% more. Make your hotel reservation now online, or call the Madison Concourse Hotel at 1-800-356-8293.
Wednesday is also the deadline for early convention registration discounts of up to 25% if you register and pay at the same time. Regular registration is $50 to $100, sliding scale. If you'd like to take advantage of the discount, click here.
Join us in Madison! The systemic issue behind all those that the Alliance and you work on is corporate personhood and corporate constitutional rights, the cornerstone of corporate rule and power of the corporate oligarchy.
The Democracy Convention hosts multiple conferences on earth democracy, constitutional reform, and education for democracy, media, economic democracy, racial justice and more. Each conference will have workshops, panels, and plenary sessions, with speakers drawn from labor, student, anti-militarism, anti-racism, sustainability, local economy and environmental justice movements.
Confirmed speakers include Tom Hayden, Gar Alperovitz, Margaret Flowers, Riki Ott and Ted Glick, as well as many organizers from Move to Amend. Musician Michelle Shocked headlines the conference celebration.
The Alliance is pleased to be one of the convention convenors, as well as key organizer for the Earth Democracy conference.
The Democracy Convention is where we will come together to:
* learn from each other about grassroots projects and actions
* engage with national action campaigns that bring communities together on the same issue
* build our capacity to enact alternatives that advance the well-being of all people and for the rights of nature.
Please support AfD’s participation in the Democracy Convention by renewing your membership or making an extra donation.
Your financial support is critical as we plan for this event. Help get Alliance activists, materials, and the message—“end corporate personhood, end corporate rule”—to Madison by giving as generously as possible.
Click here to give online or mail your tax-deductible contribution to Alliance for Democracy, PO Box 540115, Waltham, MA 02454. And thanks!
We hope to see many of you in Madison, especially those of you from the midwest. There will be time in the convention agenda for organizational gatherings. Send an email to Barbara Clancy in the office to let us know you will be attending.
Meet with us to build a vibrant democracy that inspires us to renew governance to meet community needs, preserve ecosystems, and establish justice for all (non-corporate) people!
See you in August,
Nancy, Ruth, Jim, Bonnie and Barbara
Want to keep our online community growing? Our Facebook page is an easy way to share AfD news with friends and help spread the word about grassroots alternatives to corporate rule.
Monday, July 25, 2011
In Defense of the American Empire
Reckoning from Vancouver, British Columbia...by Bill Bonner
Oh my, the young man accused of killing 93 people in Norway, isn't the man Homeland Security and the Pentagon hoped for.
But we'll come back to that...first the world of finance.
Republicans and Democrats are under pressure. They need to keep up appearances. Both sides want to make a debt deal – so as to give the impression that US authorities know what they are doing and are in control of the situation.
Undoubtedly, it will be like the European deal...too little and too late to make any real difference.
Meanwhile, stocks fell 43 points on the Dow on Friday; no big deal, in other words. Bonds went up – showing that investors aren't particularly concerned about the debt ceiling problem. And gold rose back over $1,600.
So, let's move on...back to the future of the US empire.
As an empire matures, every opportunity to expand becomes a matter of national defense. (In America, the word "empire" is never mentioned.)
Ever since 9/11 "defense" industries have been peddling the idea that Islamic terrorism is a threat to national security. Their spirits must have lifted when they first heard the news from Oslo over the weekend. Finally, after 6 years of relative quiet, here comes more evidence that there really are some Islamic terrorists!
But now we discover; he isn't an Islamic terrorist at all. He's a Christian terrorist; he thinks he's defending Christendom from the Islamic Threat.
Oh la la...the valiant knights of the military industrial complex now have Christian terrorists on the right...and Islamic terrorists on the left. Or vice versa.
But wait, their story was that they were defending the USA and its empire against Muslim bad guys who want to destroy it. Are they also defending the empire against Christian bad guys who want to protect it?
Ay yi yi...what a tangled web we weave...
And more thoughts...
"Bill, you're telling only a part of the story. I mean, the story of how America became an empire and what it means."
The speaker was a weekend visitor, from Washington, DC, a man active in conservative politics.
"First, winning the Cold War was the biggest setback of our lifetimes. There was probably nothing we could do about it, but it unleashed 3 billion people to compete against us.
"But then, the US was still in a position to protect itself. We were providing a protective umbrella to Europe and Japan. Basically, we guaranteed their safety...with our nuclear arms. We also guaranteed their access to oil.
"We did this without getting anything in return. When the Europeans proposed to put up an airplane company that could compete with Boeing, we were still in a position to stop it. But the US was told that unless it went along with the Airbus program, NATO would be a dead issue. NATO was the means for the US to project power in Europe. Rather than let the empire go, the US gave up much of its aircraft industry.
"Same thing in Japan...and now in China. In order to finance the empire's spending, the US had to give up its own manufacturing industry. That was the imperial bargain. 'We'll protect you and let you sell stuff to us...but you have to finance our empire.'"
"Are you saying the US shouldn't allow foreign cars or foreign-made planes to be sold in the US," we asked?
"No, I'm just saying that an empire is not a free market enterprise. It makes deals. The deals it made in Europe and Asia doomed its own manufacturers to failure and doomed its middle classes to poverty.
"All I'm saying is that this is part of the story of the empire. Yes, the zombies have taken over, as you put it. But it's really an empire story. That's the important part.
"It didn't matter who was in the White House, Republican or Democrat. Liberal or conservative. They all did the same thing. They followed the imperial agenda. There were stupid leaders, such as George W. Bush. And there were smart leaders, such as Barack Obama. The stupid ones liked sending troops to Iraq, for example, and sent them. The smart ones didn't like sending troops, but they sent them too. They all do the same thing. Because their real mission – whether they realize it or not – is to build out the empire.
"All of them do what they need to do. As you say, 'people come to think what they need to think when they need to think it.'
"And now the conservatives are faced with an historic choice. I've attended those Tea Party meetings and the meetings of CPAC, the conservative political action committees. There are two currents of thought.
"But first you have to understand what has happened in the conservative movement. The Tea Party has shaken things up. But it's just beginning. And the Tea Partiers don't quite know what they think. Their reactions are emotion, not well thought out. Not always coherent or logical.
"There are the principled, old conservatives – people like Ron Paul, who are consistently against expanding the power of government and consistently in favor of reducing the cost of it. And there are the new conservatives, much of the religious right, and the neo cons.
"Both groups say they are in favor of the same things – basically cutting big government down to size. But conservatives have to decide what this means. The obvious and fastest way to balance the federal budget is to renounce the imperial agenda. It costs about $1.2 trillion a year to maintain troops all over the globe, to run Homeland Security, participate in 3 wars...and all the other things that go into being an empire. Congress and the president could simply announce that they no longer believed the empire was a worthwhile project. Presto, the budget would be balanced. Problem solved.
"And I'm not talking about undermining national defense. I'm just talking about eliminating spending on things that actually make the nation less safe. That's what an empire does. By involving itself in everyone else's business, it makes enemies.
"I know a gal who lives part of the year in Morocco. She told me that she had a friend who is tall, with curly blond hair. Apparently, he's always getting attacked on the streets because people think he's an American.
"And it's no wonder. Bush didn't tell Americans the truth about the terrorists. They were over here because we were over there, not the other way around. I mean, we're not over there because they were over here.
"And when I talk about cutting the Pentagon budget and the costs of running an empire, I'm just talking about the part of the defense and other budgets that have nothing really to do with providing real security. They're just about imposing US authority on the rest of the world.
"There's always a trade off. It's either politics or markets. You see that in the business world too. There are people who want control. And there are people who are trying to provide a good service or product at a profit. The politicians in a business care more about controlling things. They'll ruin a business if you let them.
"Either you're letting people work out their own problems...between willing buyers and sellers. Or you're telling them what to do. Politics, especially, imperial politics is all about controlling the rest of the world.
"Trouble is, politics is expensive and unproductive. The more of it you have – either at home or abroad – the poorer you become...until you can no longer afford it. That's the situation we're in now. We're already way beyond the point of no return...the point where the debt depresses growth. It's only a matter of time before we can't go on.
"The real question is whether we do something about it now...bringing our spending in line with our ability to spend...or whether the market forces us to do it. As Ayn Rand said, you can ignore the market. But you can't avoid the consequences of ignoring the market. Now, we're facing the consequences.
"And what I'm proposing is to eliminate the deficit by renouncing the empire. Of course, this would come as a huge shock to the public. They thought the Pentagon was defending them from something. They don't even realize that we have an empire. They have no idea what it costs, what it means, or what might happen if we didn't have one. We've never had that debate. Woodrow Wilson launched the nation directly on the path of empire, but there was never any discussion of it. No debate in Congress was ever held. Instead, every time we went further and further away from real national defense – such as when Wilson sent troops in WWI – it was always justified in defense terms. Even then, we were supposedly 'making the world safe for democracy.'
"But that's just the way it works. Every empire transforms its own expansion into self defense measures. Germany invaded the Sudetenland, and then Poland largely to secure its own frontiers. Japan marched down Southeast Asia to secure its lifeline of resources. Britain conquered half the world to protect its manufactures....and Napoleon invaded Russia to remove the threat on the East.
"The US didn't have any real enemies – after the Soviet Union folded up – so it had to invent this whole terrorism thing. Now, we have our forces all over the Mideast and now North Africa, to protect the USA from terrorism. That's what they say.
"And here's the scary thing. In all the many examples of empires, none...not one...ever backed up. None ever renounced its imperial destiny. None ever thought better of it. Instead, they all went headlong...forward...until they finally got their butts kicked.
"Some people in the Tea Party...and even in the Republican Party...see what has happened. They understand how the nation has become addicted to cheap credit, cheap money, and to expensive imperial adventures. They are afraid that if they don't get control of it now, it will soon be too late.
"And my hope for the nation is that they will be successful. I believe there is hope. I think that if we can make the link clear – between the imperial, big spending, big credit, big government project...and the coming bankruptcy of the nation...we might be able to turn the country around.
"At best, it will be a close run. Because the military is about the only institution in America that people still trust. They don't trust Congress or the banks...or the political parties...or the rich...or the big corporations. And we have no national church, they might trust.
"So, when push comes to shove, the Tea Partiers – like everyone else – are likely to back the military and the empire. There seems to be a knee-jerk reaction; when you're faced with adversity, you back your military, no matter what they're doing. Even when it brings you close to extinction. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Tea Party get mixed up and hijacked by the neo-cons and the big- government imperialists in the conservative movement.
"Just the other day, I heard Rush Limbaugh make the argument. He said we should give the Pentagon our full support, because it was the only institution we can still believe in. A lot of Tea Partiers feel the same way. They don't make the connection between central planning, big budgets, unlimited credit and the big, imperial agenda.
"So, I know I might lose this fight. The Tea Partiers will probably choose the Empire over the Republic...they'll probably prefer politics to markets. They'll probably back the troops...and let the country go broke. But if I'm going to live in the United States of America I've got to take a stand...I've got to do something. And this is all I can do."
Regards,
Bill Bonner,
for The Daily Reckoning
-------------------------------------------------------
Here at The Daily Reckoning, we value your questions and comments. If you would like to send us a few thoughts of your own, please address them to your managing editor at joel@dailyreckoning.com
American Public Policy and Government Accountability
Oh my, the young man accused of killing 93 people in Norway, isn't the man Homeland Security and the Pentagon hoped for.
But we'll come back to that...first the world of finance.
Republicans and Democrats are under pressure. They need to keep up appearances. Both sides want to make a debt deal – so as to give the impression that US authorities know what they are doing and are in control of the situation.
Undoubtedly, it will be like the European deal...too little and too late to make any real difference.
Meanwhile, stocks fell 43 points on the Dow on Friday; no big deal, in other words. Bonds went up – showing that investors aren't particularly concerned about the debt ceiling problem. And gold rose back over $1,600.
So, let's move on...back to the future of the US empire.
As an empire matures, every opportunity to expand becomes a matter of national defense. (In America, the word "empire" is never mentioned.)
Ever since 9/11 "defense" industries have been peddling the idea that Islamic terrorism is a threat to national security. Their spirits must have lifted when they first heard the news from Oslo over the weekend. Finally, after 6 years of relative quiet, here comes more evidence that there really are some Islamic terrorists!
But now we discover; he isn't an Islamic terrorist at all. He's a Christian terrorist; he thinks he's defending Christendom from the Islamic Threat.
Oh la la...the valiant knights of the military industrial complex now have Christian terrorists on the right...and Islamic terrorists on the left. Or vice versa.
But wait, their story was that they were defending the USA and its empire against Muslim bad guys who want to destroy it. Are they also defending the empire against Christian bad guys who want to protect it?
Ay yi yi...what a tangled web we weave...
And more thoughts...
"Bill, you're telling only a part of the story. I mean, the story of how America became an empire and what it means."
The speaker was a weekend visitor, from Washington, DC, a man active in conservative politics.
"First, winning the Cold War was the biggest setback of our lifetimes. There was probably nothing we could do about it, but it unleashed 3 billion people to compete against us.
"But then, the US was still in a position to protect itself. We were providing a protective umbrella to Europe and Japan. Basically, we guaranteed their safety...with our nuclear arms. We also guaranteed their access to oil.
"We did this without getting anything in return. When the Europeans proposed to put up an airplane company that could compete with Boeing, we were still in a position to stop it. But the US was told that unless it went along with the Airbus program, NATO would be a dead issue. NATO was the means for the US to project power in Europe. Rather than let the empire go, the US gave up much of its aircraft industry.
"Same thing in Japan...and now in China. In order to finance the empire's spending, the US had to give up its own manufacturing industry. That was the imperial bargain. 'We'll protect you and let you sell stuff to us...but you have to finance our empire.'"
"Are you saying the US shouldn't allow foreign cars or foreign-made planes to be sold in the US," we asked?
"No, I'm just saying that an empire is not a free market enterprise. It makes deals. The deals it made in Europe and Asia doomed its own manufacturers to failure and doomed its middle classes to poverty.
"All I'm saying is that this is part of the story of the empire. Yes, the zombies have taken over, as you put it. But it's really an empire story. That's the important part.
"It didn't matter who was in the White House, Republican or Democrat. Liberal or conservative. They all did the same thing. They followed the imperial agenda. There were stupid leaders, such as George W. Bush. And there were smart leaders, such as Barack Obama. The stupid ones liked sending troops to Iraq, for example, and sent them. The smart ones didn't like sending troops, but they sent them too. They all do the same thing. Because their real mission – whether they realize it or not – is to build out the empire.
"All of them do what they need to do. As you say, 'people come to think what they need to think when they need to think it.'
"And now the conservatives are faced with an historic choice. I've attended those Tea Party meetings and the meetings of CPAC, the conservative political action committees. There are two currents of thought.
"But first you have to understand what has happened in the conservative movement. The Tea Party has shaken things up. But it's just beginning. And the Tea Partiers don't quite know what they think. Their reactions are emotion, not well thought out. Not always coherent or logical.
"There are the principled, old conservatives – people like Ron Paul, who are consistently against expanding the power of government and consistently in favor of reducing the cost of it. And there are the new conservatives, much of the religious right, and the neo cons.
"Both groups say they are in favor of the same things – basically cutting big government down to size. But conservatives have to decide what this means. The obvious and fastest way to balance the federal budget is to renounce the imperial agenda. It costs about $1.2 trillion a year to maintain troops all over the globe, to run Homeland Security, participate in 3 wars...and all the other things that go into being an empire. Congress and the president could simply announce that they no longer believed the empire was a worthwhile project. Presto, the budget would be balanced. Problem solved.
"And I'm not talking about undermining national defense. I'm just talking about eliminating spending on things that actually make the nation less safe. That's what an empire does. By involving itself in everyone else's business, it makes enemies.
"I know a gal who lives part of the year in Morocco. She told me that she had a friend who is tall, with curly blond hair. Apparently, he's always getting attacked on the streets because people think he's an American.
"And it's no wonder. Bush didn't tell Americans the truth about the terrorists. They were over here because we were over there, not the other way around. I mean, we're not over there because they were over here.
"And when I talk about cutting the Pentagon budget and the costs of running an empire, I'm just talking about the part of the defense and other budgets that have nothing really to do with providing real security. They're just about imposing US authority on the rest of the world.
"There's always a trade off. It's either politics or markets. You see that in the business world too. There are people who want control. And there are people who are trying to provide a good service or product at a profit. The politicians in a business care more about controlling things. They'll ruin a business if you let them.
"Either you're letting people work out their own problems...between willing buyers and sellers. Or you're telling them what to do. Politics, especially, imperial politics is all about controlling the rest of the world.
"Trouble is, politics is expensive and unproductive. The more of it you have – either at home or abroad – the poorer you become...until you can no longer afford it. That's the situation we're in now. We're already way beyond the point of no return...the point where the debt depresses growth. It's only a matter of time before we can't go on.
"The real question is whether we do something about it now...bringing our spending in line with our ability to spend...or whether the market forces us to do it. As Ayn Rand said, you can ignore the market. But you can't avoid the consequences of ignoring the market. Now, we're facing the consequences.
"And what I'm proposing is to eliminate the deficit by renouncing the empire. Of course, this would come as a huge shock to the public. They thought the Pentagon was defending them from something. They don't even realize that we have an empire. They have no idea what it costs, what it means, or what might happen if we didn't have one. We've never had that debate. Woodrow Wilson launched the nation directly on the path of empire, but there was never any discussion of it. No debate in Congress was ever held. Instead, every time we went further and further away from real national defense – such as when Wilson sent troops in WWI – it was always justified in defense terms. Even then, we were supposedly 'making the world safe for democracy.'
"But that's just the way it works. Every empire transforms its own expansion into self defense measures. Germany invaded the Sudetenland, and then Poland largely to secure its own frontiers. Japan marched down Southeast Asia to secure its lifeline of resources. Britain conquered half the world to protect its manufactures....and Napoleon invaded Russia to remove the threat on the East.
"The US didn't have any real enemies – after the Soviet Union folded up – so it had to invent this whole terrorism thing. Now, we have our forces all over the Mideast and now North Africa, to protect the USA from terrorism. That's what they say.
"And here's the scary thing. In all the many examples of empires, none...not one...ever backed up. None ever renounced its imperial destiny. None ever thought better of it. Instead, they all went headlong...forward...until they finally got their butts kicked.
"Some people in the Tea Party...and even in the Republican Party...see what has happened. They understand how the nation has become addicted to cheap credit, cheap money, and to expensive imperial adventures. They are afraid that if they don't get control of it now, it will soon be too late.
"And my hope for the nation is that they will be successful. I believe there is hope. I think that if we can make the link clear – between the imperial, big spending, big credit, big government project...and the coming bankruptcy of the nation...we might be able to turn the country around.
"At best, it will be a close run. Because the military is about the only institution in America that people still trust. They don't trust Congress or the banks...or the political parties...or the rich...or the big corporations. And we have no national church, they might trust.
"So, when push comes to shove, the Tea Partiers – like everyone else – are likely to back the military and the empire. There seems to be a knee-jerk reaction; when you're faced with adversity, you back your military, no matter what they're doing. Even when it brings you close to extinction. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Tea Party get mixed up and hijacked by the neo-cons and the big- government imperialists in the conservative movement.
"Just the other day, I heard Rush Limbaugh make the argument. He said we should give the Pentagon our full support, because it was the only institution we can still believe in. A lot of Tea Partiers feel the same way. They don't make the connection between central planning, big budgets, unlimited credit and the big, imperial agenda.
"So, I know I might lose this fight. The Tea Partiers will probably choose the Empire over the Republic...they'll probably prefer politics to markets. They'll probably back the troops...and let the country go broke. But if I'm going to live in the United States of America I've got to take a stand...I've got to do something. And this is all I can do."
Regards,
Bill Bonner,
for The Daily Reckoning
-------------------------------------------------------
Here at The Daily Reckoning, we value your questions and comments. If you would like to send us a few thoughts of your own, please address them to your managing editor at joel@dailyreckoning.com
American Public Policy and Government Accountability
Sunday, July 24, 2011
On The Idea of America - July 4th
Whiskey & Gunpowder by Gary Gibson July 1, 2011 Geneva, Florida, U.S.A.
The Fourth of July is upon us again and a couple hundred million people in the middle latitudes of the North American continent are going to celebrate the birth of the United States. Most of them assume that this means they'll also be celebrating being American, but that's not necessarily so.
The United States is a political thing, one heir to the typical failings of politics, and the almost imperceptibly slow decay of republican virtue into nanny statism and imperial hubris.
America, however, is something different. It is not the same thing as the United States that seek to overlay it and to smother it. America is an idea that precedes the U.S. and, we like to believe, both transcends the nation-state and will outlive it.
As Thomas Paine says:
"Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise."
The new version of The Idea Of America: What It Was and How It Was Lost collects in one volume the greatest essays about what America means. It is something undeniably anarchist, resolutely independent and demanding of personal liberty no matter the cost in inconvenience and even in the face of mortal danger.
As stated before America precedes the U.S., but from the founding of the political version of the nation, a dozen generations have sequentially sacrificed more liberty, more of the uniquely American independence for perceived expedience, convenience and security.
"The desire for material ease long ago vanquished the spirit of '76," writes American Anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre.
The Idea Of America co-editor Bill Bonner adds, "People in the land of the free and the home of the brave will go along with almost anything. They are perfectly willing to give up almost every trace of freedom as long as they have security and economic comfort."
I don't know many books that can hook the reader so powerfully just with the introduction, but that is exactly what The Idea of America does.
Co-editors Bill Bonner and Pierre Lemieux start out strong. I was actually worried that there would be no way for the book to deliver on the promise offered by such a strong start. I needn't have worried. I mean, really how could you go wrong with Murray Rothbard, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and other such luminaries?
Lemieux's introduction begins the book with a tour of American history that smartly highlights how the forces of liberty have vied with those of state intervention. The book then continues with selections from Murray Rothbard, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, and Lord Acton. An entire section is devoted to selections from Alexis de Tocqueville. The rest of the book features Jefferson, Franklin, Thoreau, Mencken. This new edition also has selections from Emma Lazarus and Rose Wilder Lane. The book is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to choice quotes.
Take for example this one from Alexis de Tocqueville defining the totalitarian nanny state, devoid of outright despotism, but destructive nonetheless. From his essay on democratic despotism:
"...[T]he species of oppression by which democratic nations are menaced is unlike anything which ever before existed in the world; our contemporaries will find no prototype of it in their memories. I seek in vain for an expression which will accurately convey the whole of the idea I have formed of it; the old words despotism and tyranny are inappropriate: the thing itself is new, and since I cannot name it, I must attempt to define it.
"Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?
"...After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.
"...I have always thought that servitude of the regular, quiet, and gentle kind which I have just described might be combined more easily than is commonly believed with some of the outward forms of freedom, and that it might even establish itself under the wing of the sovereignty of the people."
Then there's Benjamin Franklin's "To Those Who Would Remove To America", as classic a description of the essence of the true American. Franklin asks of any man would start fresh in America:
"...[W]hat can he do? If he has any useful art, he is welcome; and if he exercises it and behaves well, he will be respected by all that know him; but a mere man of quality, who on that account wants to live upon the public, by some office or salary, will be despised and disregarded. The husbandman is in honor there, and even the mechanic, because their employments are useful."
Franklin also provides a lesson in capitalism, finding a need and filling it and of the economics of early America, what sort of person and skills would flourish in the new country.
In the next essay, the equally inimitable H.L. Mencken puts it so: "All our cities are full of aristocrats whose grandfathers were day laborers, and clerks whose grandfathers were aristocrats."
Ralph Waldo Emerson adds:
"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried."
"Consider what is happening in public finance," Bill Bonner asks of the reader in parting.
"An individual might say, 'This country must stop spending so much money.' But he will not want to give up his own public benefits-his Social Security, his Medicaid, all his government checks. He has no reason to give up his benefits, because it wouldn't make a dent in the problem. It is as if the whole nation had a single credit card. It does not make any sense for a single individual to take himself off the Social Security rolls. Thus, mass institutions have no way to correct their own courses; they must continue down the path to ruin."
It seems like a lost cause. As if things must simply run their course. As if the idea of America must decline and die like everything else.
There's an undeniable tragedy to this Fourth of July. The decay has become too advanced for anyone not in denial to ignore: The foreign entanglements, the innumerable tendrils of state intervention, the advancement of the police state...
As we mark the birth of the Republic this year it has never been easier to think about its death. It's no random republishing that brings this new edition of The Idea of America to us now.
I am going to give away the ending, but I think it's worth it...
Bill Bonner paraphrases Ghandi when he concludes, "America is a very good idea. Somebody ought to try it."
Who can argue with that? This book will certainly make you want to try.
Regards,
Gary Gibson
Managing editor, Whiskey & Gunpowder
On The Idea of America appears on Whiskey & Gunpowder.
P.S. We now have the new version of The Idea of America: What It Was and How It Was Lost in stock!
Click here to get your copy.
If you do so through the link provided in this letter, you will get 20% off the cover price.
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The Fourth of July is upon us again and a couple hundred million people in the middle latitudes of the North American continent are going to celebrate the birth of the United States. Most of them assume that this means they'll also be celebrating being American, but that's not necessarily so.
The United States is a political thing, one heir to the typical failings of politics, and the almost imperceptibly slow decay of republican virtue into nanny statism and imperial hubris.
America, however, is something different. It is not the same thing as the United States that seek to overlay it and to smother it. America is an idea that precedes the U.S. and, we like to believe, both transcends the nation-state and will outlive it.
As Thomas Paine says:
"Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise."
The new version of The Idea Of America: What It Was and How It Was Lost collects in one volume the greatest essays about what America means. It is something undeniably anarchist, resolutely independent and demanding of personal liberty no matter the cost in inconvenience and even in the face of mortal danger.
As stated before America precedes the U.S., but from the founding of the political version of the nation, a dozen generations have sequentially sacrificed more liberty, more of the uniquely American independence for perceived expedience, convenience and security.
"The desire for material ease long ago vanquished the spirit of '76," writes American Anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre.
The Idea Of America co-editor Bill Bonner adds, "People in the land of the free and the home of the brave will go along with almost anything. They are perfectly willing to give up almost every trace of freedom as long as they have security and economic comfort."
I don't know many books that can hook the reader so powerfully just with the introduction, but that is exactly what The Idea of America does.
Co-editors Bill Bonner and Pierre Lemieux start out strong. I was actually worried that there would be no way for the book to deliver on the promise offered by such a strong start. I needn't have worried. I mean, really how could you go wrong with Murray Rothbard, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and other such luminaries?
Lemieux's introduction begins the book with a tour of American history that smartly highlights how the forces of liberty have vied with those of state intervention. The book then continues with selections from Murray Rothbard, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, and Lord Acton. An entire section is devoted to selections from Alexis de Tocqueville. The rest of the book features Jefferson, Franklin, Thoreau, Mencken. This new edition also has selections from Emma Lazarus and Rose Wilder Lane. The book is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to choice quotes.
Take for example this one from Alexis de Tocqueville defining the totalitarian nanny state, devoid of outright despotism, but destructive nonetheless. From his essay on democratic despotism:
"...[T]he species of oppression by which democratic nations are menaced is unlike anything which ever before existed in the world; our contemporaries will find no prototype of it in their memories. I seek in vain for an expression which will accurately convey the whole of the idea I have formed of it; the old words despotism and tyranny are inappropriate: the thing itself is new, and since I cannot name it, I must attempt to define it.
"Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?
"...After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.
"...I have always thought that servitude of the regular, quiet, and gentle kind which I have just described might be combined more easily than is commonly believed with some of the outward forms of freedom, and that it might even establish itself under the wing of the sovereignty of the people."
Then there's Benjamin Franklin's "To Those Who Would Remove To America", as classic a description of the essence of the true American. Franklin asks of any man would start fresh in America:
"...[W]hat can he do? If he has any useful art, he is welcome; and if he exercises it and behaves well, he will be respected by all that know him; but a mere man of quality, who on that account wants to live upon the public, by some office or salary, will be despised and disregarded. The husbandman is in honor there, and even the mechanic, because their employments are useful."
Franklin also provides a lesson in capitalism, finding a need and filling it and of the economics of early America, what sort of person and skills would flourish in the new country.
In the next essay, the equally inimitable H.L. Mencken puts it so: "All our cities are full of aristocrats whose grandfathers were day laborers, and clerks whose grandfathers were aristocrats."
Ralph Waldo Emerson adds:
"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried."
"Consider what is happening in public finance," Bill Bonner asks of the reader in parting.
"An individual might say, 'This country must stop spending so much money.' But he will not want to give up his own public benefits-his Social Security, his Medicaid, all his government checks. He has no reason to give up his benefits, because it wouldn't make a dent in the problem. It is as if the whole nation had a single credit card. It does not make any sense for a single individual to take himself off the Social Security rolls. Thus, mass institutions have no way to correct their own courses; they must continue down the path to ruin."
It seems like a lost cause. As if things must simply run their course. As if the idea of America must decline and die like everything else.
There's an undeniable tragedy to this Fourth of July. The decay has become too advanced for anyone not in denial to ignore: The foreign entanglements, the innumerable tendrils of state intervention, the advancement of the police state...
As we mark the birth of the Republic this year it has never been easier to think about its death. It's no random republishing that brings this new edition of The Idea of America to us now.
I am going to give away the ending, but I think it's worth it...
Bill Bonner paraphrases Ghandi when he concludes, "America is a very good idea. Somebody ought to try it."
Who can argue with that? This book will certainly make you want to try.
Regards,
Gary Gibson
Managing editor, Whiskey & Gunpowder
On The Idea of America appears on Whiskey & Gunpowder.
P.S. We now have the new version of The Idea of America: What It Was and How It Was Lost in stock!
Click here to get your copy.
If you do so through the link provided in this letter, you will get 20% off the cover price.
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Thursday, July 21, 2011
The Gospel of "Saint" Ambrose, part two from "The Devil's Dictionary"
Whiskey & Gunpowder by Jim Amrhein July 20, 2011 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.
For now we direct your attention to the second installment of Jim Amrhein's review of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary. Read on below...
BIRTH, n. The first and direst of all disasters.
-- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911
In the first installment of this two-part series, I entertained you - quite fittingly, I thought, for its 100th anniversary - with the acerbic hilarity of some of the more state-skewering entries from Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary...
To me, many of these "definitions" are actually closer to being truly definitive of their corresponding terms than anything you'd find in an actual dictionary.
For instance, the latest version of the online dictionary I use most often defines "cynic" principally as:
Cynic (noun): A person who believes that people are motivated purely by self-interest rather than acting for honorable or unselfish reasons...
However, to my way of thinking, this "objective" definition falls far short of the clinical (or cynical) reality.
Evidence abounds in government, the markets, medicine, the courts, religion, the media, sports, education, marriage, friendships, and everywhere else of rampant selfishness. By and large, people really are motivated by self-interest - it's central to our survival, bred into our very DNA.
Through the lens of the real, Bierce's definition of "cynic" is the more accurate one:
CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be...
That's because his definition (which includes himself as a prototypical example) speaks not to whether people are selfish or not - but to how a society wholly comprised of selfish people regard those who point out their hypocrisy...
According to Bierce, a cynic is one who's held in contempt by society (a blackguard) for seeing it as it really is: A corrupt place ruled by the self-interested.
Like I said, dead-nuts accurate under a thin veil of humor...
Just like his Devil's Dictionary take on other institutions fundamental to a "civilized" society. Things like schooling:
ACADEME, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.
ACADEMY, n. [from ACADEME] A modern school where football is taught.
EDUCATION, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.
LEARNING, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.
And medicine - a deserving target if there ever was one...
FORGETFULNESS, n. A gift of God bestowed upon doctors in compensation for their destitution of conscience.
GOUT, n. A physician's name for the rheumatism of a rich patient.
MEDICINE, n. A stone flung down the Bowery to kill a dog in Broadway.
PHYSICIAN, n. One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well.
PRESCRIPTION, n. A physician's guess at what will best prolong the situation with least harm to the patient.
Let's not forget morality and religion - those sacred cows few ever deign to joust with in print...
CLERGYMAN, n. A man who undertakes the management of our spiritual affairs as a method of bettering his temporal ones.
FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.
IMPIETY, n. Your irreverence toward my deity.
INFIDEL, n. In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion; in Constantinople, one who does.
MORAL, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency.
PRAY, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.
RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.
RESPONSIBILITY, n. A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor.
SCRIPTURES, n. The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.
(I suppose now is the time to add the disclaimer: The views of this column are not necessarily the views of Whiskey & Gunpowder, its publishers, contributors, etc. Although some - like Bierce's thoughts on money, commerce and business - no doubt are, to one degree or another...)
COMMERCE, n. A kind of transaction in which A plunders from B the goods of C, and for compensation B picks the pocket of D of money belonging to E.
CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
FINANCE, n. The art or science of managing revenues and resources for the best advantage of the manager.
(Are you paying attention, Goldman-Sachs?)
IMPUNITY, n. Wealth.
INSURANCE, n. An ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the table.
LABOR, n. One of the processes by which A acquires property for B.
PIRACY, n. Commerce without its folly-swaddles, just as God made it.
RICH, adj. Holding in trust and subject to an accounting the property of the indolent, the incompetent, the unthrifty, the envious and the luckless.
WALL STREET, n. A symbol for sin for every devil to rebuke.
Some of Bierce's most hilariously devilish "definitions" apply to that hallowed ground, the law...
LAWYER, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law.
(Because like almost any of the lawyers in Congress can tell you, one must know the law if one is to break it to his own benefit.)
LITIGANT, n. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones.
TRIAL, n. A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the blameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors.
RETALIATION, n. The natural rock upon which is reared the Temple of Law.
But for all of his venom loosed on society's institutions in The Devil's Dictionary, Bierce saves some of the most potent for everyday life and relationships. I won't list any of them here, but they're pricelessly vicious and undeniably true...
If you're a fan of the ugly truth and timeless, sardonic wit, you simply must pick up a copy of The Devil's Dictionary for yourself - and for each of your like-minded friends. I'm fortunate enough to have the 2004 edition illustrated by the one-of-a-kind Ralph Steadman (of Hunter S. Thompson fame), but there are others out there.
However, by now you must be wondering why anyone would want to subject himself to the miserable, "nothing matters" vision of Ambrose Bierce anyway...
There's a very good reason, and it's this: If more of us were sharp-eyed, acid-tongued, outspoken cynics instead of rose-colored-glasses-wearing, social media addicted Kool-Aid gulpers, America might not be as screwed as she is right now.
The incredible hubris and hypocrisy in our government got that way over the last 200 years because we bought into the vaunted notion that they were doing what they did "for the people"...
Instead of for themselves - which is human nature, like it or not.
We let things like debt spending, entitlements, welfare programs, lax border security, and endless regulation get the better of our wallets, property, and rights because we believed it when our leaders told us they were "doing it all for us"...While they feathered their own nests and saddled America's children with the bill.
In other words, if more of us had been cynics like Ambrose Bierce - and as such, more keenly able to spot the egregious self-interest of those we've elected - we could have done more to stop the damage they've done to our republic.
Bierce himself single-handedly defeated one of the most shamelessly corrupt bills ever put before Congress, in fact. It was 1896 when advocates for numerous railroad giants slipped a bill in front of Congress without public notice or hearings...
The nature of that bill: An exemption on repayment of tens of millions of dollars borrowed from the U.S. government for the construction of the transcontinental railway. Dispatched by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Bierce traveled to Washington, investigated the deal, and penned a series of such scathing editorials on the subject that the plot was exposed and the bill roundly defeated.
We forget, we Americans, what power we wield. Not just with our pens - but with our dollars, our votes, our choices, and our passion.
And the reason we forget is that we're all hopeless deceived, distracted, deluded, or doped-up to be able to clearly see when others are acting egregiously in their own self-interest in dire conflict with our own...
Ambrose Bierce and his Devil's Dictionary remind us of the need to be more cynical for the sake of our own survival - and he does it better than anyone else can, or ever has. And the price he paid for it in life was surely one of loneliness. From the Dictionary:
FRIENDLESS, adj. Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.
I, for one, salute Ambrose Bierce as friend, wherever he is. His disappearance at age 71 remains a mystery.
My only hope is that however he went, it was doing something for himself - in his own interest - rather than in trying to add to the incredible service he rendered to this nation and the world with the simple, cynical truth.
Very Truly Yours,
Jim Amrhein
P.S. Thanks again, Whiskey-ers, for the chance to spend some time and share some thoughts with you all once again. I hope you've enjoyed my fond look back at one of history's greatest polemicists. And I look forward to keeping you abreast of the exciting goings-on at Agora Financial's "Fight or Flight" Wealth Symposium in Vancouver, the last week of July. Talk to you then... J.A.
For now we direct your attention to the second installment of Jim Amrhein's review of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary. Read on below...
BIRTH, n. The first and direst of all disasters.
-- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911
In the first installment of this two-part series, I entertained you - quite fittingly, I thought, for its 100th anniversary - with the acerbic hilarity of some of the more state-skewering entries from Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary...
To me, many of these "definitions" are actually closer to being truly definitive of their corresponding terms than anything you'd find in an actual dictionary.
For instance, the latest version of the online dictionary I use most often defines "cynic" principally as:
Cynic (noun): A person who believes that people are motivated purely by self-interest rather than acting for honorable or unselfish reasons...
However, to my way of thinking, this "objective" definition falls far short of the clinical (or cynical) reality.
Evidence abounds in government, the markets, medicine, the courts, religion, the media, sports, education, marriage, friendships, and everywhere else of rampant selfishness. By and large, people really are motivated by self-interest - it's central to our survival, bred into our very DNA.
Through the lens of the real, Bierce's definition of "cynic" is the more accurate one:
CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be...
That's because his definition (which includes himself as a prototypical example) speaks not to whether people are selfish or not - but to how a society wholly comprised of selfish people regard those who point out their hypocrisy...
According to Bierce, a cynic is one who's held in contempt by society (a blackguard) for seeing it as it really is: A corrupt place ruled by the self-interested.
Like I said, dead-nuts accurate under a thin veil of humor...
Just like his Devil's Dictionary take on other institutions fundamental to a "civilized" society. Things like schooling:
ACADEME, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.
ACADEMY, n. [from ACADEME] A modern school where football is taught.
EDUCATION, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.
LEARNING, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.
And medicine - a deserving target if there ever was one...
FORGETFULNESS, n. A gift of God bestowed upon doctors in compensation for their destitution of conscience.
GOUT, n. A physician's name for the rheumatism of a rich patient.
MEDICINE, n. A stone flung down the Bowery to kill a dog in Broadway.
PHYSICIAN, n. One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well.
PRESCRIPTION, n. A physician's guess at what will best prolong the situation with least harm to the patient.
Let's not forget morality and religion - those sacred cows few ever deign to joust with in print...
CLERGYMAN, n. A man who undertakes the management of our spiritual affairs as a method of bettering his temporal ones.
FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.
IMPIETY, n. Your irreverence toward my deity.
INFIDEL, n. In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion; in Constantinople, one who does.
MORAL, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency.
PRAY, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.
RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.
RESPONSIBILITY, n. A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor.
SCRIPTURES, n. The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.
(I suppose now is the time to add the disclaimer: The views of this column are not necessarily the views of Whiskey & Gunpowder, its publishers, contributors, etc. Although some - like Bierce's thoughts on money, commerce and business - no doubt are, to one degree or another...)
COMMERCE, n. A kind of transaction in which A plunders from B the goods of C, and for compensation B picks the pocket of D of money belonging to E.
CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
FINANCE, n. The art or science of managing revenues and resources for the best advantage of the manager.
(Are you paying attention, Goldman-Sachs?)
IMPUNITY, n. Wealth.
INSURANCE, n. An ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the table.
LABOR, n. One of the processes by which A acquires property for B.
PIRACY, n. Commerce without its folly-swaddles, just as God made it.
RICH, adj. Holding in trust and subject to an accounting the property of the indolent, the incompetent, the unthrifty, the envious and the luckless.
WALL STREET, n. A symbol for sin for every devil to rebuke.
Some of Bierce's most hilariously devilish "definitions" apply to that hallowed ground, the law...
LAWYER, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law.
(Because like almost any of the lawyers in Congress can tell you, one must know the law if one is to break it to his own benefit.)
LITIGANT, n. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones.
TRIAL, n. A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the blameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors.
RETALIATION, n. The natural rock upon which is reared the Temple of Law.
But for all of his venom loosed on society's institutions in The Devil's Dictionary, Bierce saves some of the most potent for everyday life and relationships. I won't list any of them here, but they're pricelessly vicious and undeniably true...
If you're a fan of the ugly truth and timeless, sardonic wit, you simply must pick up a copy of The Devil's Dictionary for yourself - and for each of your like-minded friends. I'm fortunate enough to have the 2004 edition illustrated by the one-of-a-kind Ralph Steadman (of Hunter S. Thompson fame), but there are others out there.
However, by now you must be wondering why anyone would want to subject himself to the miserable, "nothing matters" vision of Ambrose Bierce anyway...
There's a very good reason, and it's this: If more of us were sharp-eyed, acid-tongued, outspoken cynics instead of rose-colored-glasses-wearing, social media addicted Kool-Aid gulpers, America might not be as screwed as she is right now.
The incredible hubris and hypocrisy in our government got that way over the last 200 years because we bought into the vaunted notion that they were doing what they did "for the people"...
Instead of for themselves - which is human nature, like it or not.
We let things like debt spending, entitlements, welfare programs, lax border security, and endless regulation get the better of our wallets, property, and rights because we believed it when our leaders told us they were "doing it all for us"...While they feathered their own nests and saddled America's children with the bill.
In other words, if more of us had been cynics like Ambrose Bierce - and as such, more keenly able to spot the egregious self-interest of those we've elected - we could have done more to stop the damage they've done to our republic.
Bierce himself single-handedly defeated one of the most shamelessly corrupt bills ever put before Congress, in fact. It was 1896 when advocates for numerous railroad giants slipped a bill in front of Congress without public notice or hearings...
The nature of that bill: An exemption on repayment of tens of millions of dollars borrowed from the U.S. government for the construction of the transcontinental railway. Dispatched by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Bierce traveled to Washington, investigated the deal, and penned a series of such scathing editorials on the subject that the plot was exposed and the bill roundly defeated.
We forget, we Americans, what power we wield. Not just with our pens - but with our dollars, our votes, our choices, and our passion.
And the reason we forget is that we're all hopeless deceived, distracted, deluded, or doped-up to be able to clearly see when others are acting egregiously in their own self-interest in dire conflict with our own...
Ambrose Bierce and his Devil's Dictionary remind us of the need to be more cynical for the sake of our own survival - and he does it better than anyone else can, or ever has. And the price he paid for it in life was surely one of loneliness. From the Dictionary:
FRIENDLESS, adj. Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.
I, for one, salute Ambrose Bierce as friend, wherever he is. His disappearance at age 71 remains a mystery.
My only hope is that however he went, it was doing something for himself - in his own interest - rather than in trying to add to the incredible service he rendered to this nation and the world with the simple, cynical truth.
Very Truly Yours,
Jim Amrhein
P.S. Thanks again, Whiskey-ers, for the chance to spend some time and share some thoughts with you all once again. I hope you've enjoyed my fond look back at one of history's greatest polemicists. And I look forward to keeping you abreast of the exciting goings-on at Agora Financial's "Fight or Flight" Wealth Symposium in Vancouver, the last week of July. Talk to you then... J.A.
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