Question I want to explore together with Nostrians:
What happens with my life if I implement
- Deutsch' explanatory creativity concept
- Mises' praxeology concept
as guidelines for how I live?
Gentle reminder:
Everything isn't chaos.
We have an order we must understand and respect.
Some thing are more important than other things.
That's why civilization scales in layers, from:
- The belief system broadly speaking, in Layer 0,
- via the monetary system, in Layer 1,
- to all the other layers of active life, in Layer 2
The development of new ideas and more knowledge is the biggest growth accelator, for society and individuals alike.
Therefore, please tell me, if your objective was economic growth, should you rather spend time with and talk to someone who was totally different from you, or with someone who was almost identical to you?
Yes, a bit of a chicken and egg problem.
Provided we could speak a common language, I would see more potential value in speaking with someone very different from me than someone who was very similar to me. Because it seems more likely we both would learn something new from each other and develop something new together than if we were almost the same.
I see, but progress also comes from copying people's behavior, which express actionable ideas. You don't learn that from books, at least not very efficiently.
It might be counterintuitive to you, but the huge amount of noise in the form of lies and complaints might in fact make it easier to propagate a signal with good ideas from you (the transmitter) to more people (the receivers.)
Ideas about money is one example.
People don't learn about it in schools or at home etc,, but they depend on it and are therefore very interested in it.
If everyone else talks about the environment, corruption and high taxes, that represents a massive form of noise.
And if I then come out and say:
"The monetary system is the most beautiful social network ever"
or
"Inflation is and has always been a conscious policy by rulers"
people almost automatically tune into it, because it sticks out so much against the noise.
Same with Bitcoin, which represents many ideas, and which actually comes true much stromger as a signal the more economic noise that is produced in the form of for bad economic policies.
And it's the same with a bitcoiner, who may very well always transmit the same based/low time preference signal, but it becomes easier to receive the signal, the more society is burdened with fiat, bad economic policies and the impact these things have on non-bitcoiners.
On the other hand, if the communication channels were overcrowded with high quality ideas, adding another idea would be difficult for you to propaget from your transmitter to a high number of receivers.
The differences between the de facto economic systems in Norway and what it was like in the USSR are much smaller than people think.
That's also probably why we almost never see socialists marching in our streets - they are largely happy with status quo.
I'll show you:
Grok estimates that the black market economy in the USSR made up around 15-20% of the official GDP.
https://image.nostr.build/9cec4900feb05a73f691efc64255b798e46220291d4a993cd4b24322c7fab97e.jpg
The public sector made up most of the rest, about 80-85%, meaning that it controlled about 4/5 of the economy directly.
The public sector in Norway spent about 62% of mainland GDP last year, and in 2022 it was 66%.
https://image.nostr.build/17c10a58d0a93edaa93ef1adfe92a0cd74c44491c6dba9522d404a1a51e9aeaf.jpg
The real tax rate for the average wage earner in Norway is 68%, a number that grows even higher when you factor in a number of special taxes.
This means that the Norwegian public sector probably directly controls between 2/3 and 3/4 of the economy.
Since the amount of regulations is staggering, the indirect control of the economy is also significant.
Mandatory military service, which represents more than a 100% tax, is 19 months.
It doesn't matter whether it's left or right that has political power.
Both sides hike taxes, regulates more and more, and continuously make the public sector grow.
They're all de facto socialists.
So what on earth should Norwegian socialists protest against?
The need to replace the cross with the hammer and sickle, perhaps?
Most underrated idea:
The simplicity of what's essential with Bitcoin.
This idea drowns in the signal great many people transmit:
"You must study for hundreds of hours before you truly understand Bitcoin."
Good point.
But people struggle to understand what Bitcoin is and how it works, partially due to programming caused by "this is incredibly hard to understand and therefore you need to study it for hundreds of hours"
If the facts are:
"Bitcoin is at its core a simple concept, but it's challenging to safely store your bitcoin"
then why not say so?
I turn 52 today 🥳
As a gift to myself I want to share the following with you:
We are smack in the middle of a war of ideas, and I'll tell you why this is good.
https://image.nostr.build/e2eb02f0fc71d9f5cf9455800890e8879844938c0430ff2d1b61b9415af6c278.jpg
The battle is between us - the people - and the political class.
And winning requires that we constantly learn new, actionable ideas.
However, this isn't just an imperative.
Once we throw ourselves into the battle, we develop a passion for it.
You may have experienced it yourself:
Meeting new people and sharing and developing new ideas together with them is wonderful.
You discover that when positive, creative people get together, 1 + 1 is never 2.
When we meet, physically or digitally or we just read each others' writings, we often identify ideas that the other person didn't have before, enabling us to create new knowledge and more understanding together.
And sometimes, when you and I combine our ideas, we develop things that the world hasn't seen or heard before.
It might not be a gigantic innovation, and normally it's just a very, very small thing.
But it's our joint appreciation of the process itself that is so immensely rewarding.
Because we realize that 1 + 1 in the social and intellectual domain more often than not is 3, 10, 1000 a million or more.
Magical is the only way to describe this process, which is reserved to us alone, the humankind.
When this happens, you also realize that there isn't any limit to what we can achieve with more knowledge and understanding.
Immersing me in this form of social interaction gives me a constant dopamin rush.
I'm addicted.
Don't you ever force me into rehab.
Have a nice day ❤️
About Machiavelli and Hobbes:
https://image.nostr.build/5bfcefeeadb84b80fc19768564cefd9867d14fbf495c7a95dbe35e9e3693c20b.jpg
I asked:
What would be the single most shocking fact for people to know about what both Hobbes and Machiavelli recommended that rulers should do?
https://image.nostr.build/3247ced6c80cafdd86ff4f678a83b5b63c23050378d0a128f0565a5e191e134a.jpg
Grok answered:
"Combined Insight:
Moral Flexibility and Absolute Control:
If one were to combine the philosophies, a ruler should not only have absolute power but should also be ready to use any means, including those considered immoral or unethical by common standards, to maintain that power and ensure the state's stability.
This could involve:
Manipulation and Deception:
Regularly using lies and deceit to keep subjects in line or to outmaneuver enemies, both foreign and domestic.
Brutality When Necessary: Employing harsh punishments or even violence to quash any form of rebellion or dissent, ensuring that the fear of the ruler's wrath prevents any challenge to his authority.
Control Over Information:
Suppressing or controlling information and education to prevent the populace from questioning the ruler's authority or methods.
Ignoring Traditional Morality: Dismissing conventional moral constraints in favor of pragmatic actions that secure power, even if it means acts that would be universally condemned as evil or tyrannical.
The shock value here lies in how these recommendations starkly oppose contemporary democratic and human rights values, advocating for a form of governance that prioritizes stability and power over individual freedoms and moral integrity."
Does this sound familiar for you today?
If it wasn't for the concept of money, economics would be just another social science among all the others.
But due to the very special nature of money, economics becomes the most important of all social sciences, perhaps of every form of science.
Despite this fact, we learn almost nothing about money and economics in the education system, that is, if you don't take very specific courses, and even then you don't learn to understand money properly.
The valuable idea related to this fact, is that most people don't have a significantly distorted understanding of money.
Instead - it's "tabula raza" / a blank slate.
Therefore, once you introduce people to this important concept called money, they seem to understand it almost intuitively.
Even economists get it :-)
Many interesting comments in this thread on what made people "wake up" - something which obviously means different things for different individuals:
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Bergen, 10.september kl. 18:
Foredrag og samtaler om frihetskamp, pengesystemet og utdanningssystemet ++ med Rune Østgård og Martin Thaulow, samt minikonsert med Heidi Lambach og Det Skandaløse Orkester.
Norway leaves the cortisol-dominant room of neverending complaints to a dopamin-pumping sphere where everything is possible and we implement actionable ideas on how to fight for freedom.
https://image.nostr.build/211c325e71d4c88d4809caa802793b4ee5b1f296a3c7f0ce28bbb7f44023586c.jpg
It all starts next Tuesday, 10th of September, on LouLou nightclub in Bergen, with talks by me and Martin Thaulow and a mini concert with our friends Det Skandaløse Orkester and Heidi Lambach.
("Sunt opprør" means "sound rebellion")
Sound riot is dope.
And discovering great ideas about freedom fighting is super-dope.
Exit whining.
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Thx - Bregdan was onto something incredibly important (I read Humankind). He didn't understand the role of money. We build on his insight in one of ouf upcoming projects.
The idea that human beings by nature are wicked is the mother of all evil.
The first offspring you get from this concept is the idea that we need a state, because we are rabid beasts bound to kill each other if nobody gets a monopoly on the use of violence.
The next offspring is deception in the form of a monopoly on money production, in past times argued to be "necessary to promote trade," nowadays argued to be necessary because "we need some inflation to grease the wheels of the economy."
Once the monopoly in money production has been put into place, the state can create money out of nothing and thus be in a position where it always can win the competition for all sorts of scarce resources, including bread, brains and bullets.
People who disagree with me on this should read Hobbe's Leviathan and the writings of most of today's academics within the social sciences - then ask themselves who these court scribblers have inspired.
When the three aforementioned evil ideas
1. man is by nature wicked
2. someone must have a monopoly on use of violence
3. this someone must have a monopoly on production of money
are allowed to dictate the evolution of the social order, everything that happens to be positive for the citizenry is in view of the de facto rulers either just a necessity for staying in or increasing power or an unintended and unfortunate consequence.
Therefore, it's utterly foolish NOT to expect that it's a decently high probability that all politics, including elections, imply some level of "rigging," or should we say, neverending "stacking" of cards in favor of the political class and against the citizenry.
Everything else within the domain of political science, economics and sociology is in my opinion details of minimal importance.
In conclusion:
It's the idea that humankind by nature is wicked that we must cleans out of people's hearts and minds..
To achieve this we must come up with a superior idea.
And the only superior idea is that human beings are by nature kind, and that it's bad incentive structures put in place by someone posing as 'protectors' that make people act badly.
The idea that human beings by nature are wicked is the mother of all evil.
The first offspring you get from this concept is the idea that we need a state, because we are rabid beasts bound to kill each other if nobody gets a monopoly on the use of violence.
The next offspring is deception in the form of a monopoly on money production, in past times argued to be "necessary to promote trade," nowadays argued to be necessary because "we need some inflation to grease the wheels of the economy."
Once the monopoly in money production has been put into place, the state can create money out of nothing and thus be in a position where it always can win the competition for all sorts of scarce resources, including bread, brains and bullets.
People who disagree with me on this should read Hobbe's Leviathan and the writings of most of today's academics within the social sciences - then ask themselves who these court scribblers have inspired.
When the three aforementioned evil ideas
1. man is by nature wicked
2. someone must have a monopoly on use of violence
3. this someone must have a monopoly on production of money
are allowed to dictate the evolution of the social order, everything that happens to be positive for the citizenry is in view of the de facto rulers either just a necessity for staying in or increasing power or an unintended and unfortunate consequence.
Therefore, it's utterly foolish NOT to expect that it's a decently high probability that all politics, including elections, imply some level of "rigging," or should we say, neverending "stacking" of cards in favor of the political class and against the citizenry.
Everything else within the domain of political science, economics and sociology is in my opinion details of minimal importance.
In conclusion:
It's the idea that humankind by nature is wicked that we must cleans out of people's hearts and minds..
To achieve this we must come up with a superior idea.
And the only superior idea is that human beings are by nature kind, and that it's bad incentive structures put in place by someone posing as 'protectors' that make people act badly.
I read most of her books and was on my way to becone an objectivist.
And 20 years later I conclude that both logics and experience dictate that she had this one wrong.
John Steinbeck got it right, IMO, in East of Eden.
And he was just as much as a thinker as Ayn was.
In fact I think he understood human nature way better than her.
Ayn also lacked a proper understanding of money.
She adored the gold standard, if I remember correctly, but should have embraced monetary freedom.
This is what John wrote:
Steinbeck monster evil
"I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. Some you can see, misshapen and horrible, with huge heads or tiny bodies; some are born with no arms, no legs, some with three arms, some with tails or mouths in odd places. They are accidents and no one's fault, as used to be thought. Once they were considered the visible punishment for concealed sins.
And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?"
These poor souls are IMO the exceptions.
Incentives rule.
Steinbeck wrote in East of Eden:
"I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. Some you can see, misshapen and horrible, with huge heads or tiny bodies; some are born with no arms, no legs, some with three arms, some with tails or mouths in odd places. They are accidents and no one's fault, as used to be thought. Once they were considered the visible punishment for concealed sins
And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?"
I concur.
But the overwhelming majority of human beings are born kind and with an instinct for cooperation.
My experience confirms this, and I think it's logical.
But when evil men are allowed to design institutions that dictate incentives, mosg people also have the capability of acting in malevolent ways.
That's also logical and in line with my experience.
Now, I'm not going to discuss this with you.
You might find something useful in Bregdan's book.
At least it won't hurt you.
And it's well written
You're welcome, you have encountered my kind self tonight. Let's catch up later, see if we agree on something too.
No hard feelings. Didn't want to say stupid thing to you, but you craved it so much, so I thought I would just have to give it to you.
Not content with taking everything away from its people, the European and US clown elite's politics increasingly looks like a schorched-earth strategy, no?
Freedom = Absence of coercion
If you define it as something else then you constantly run into contraditctions. With this definition, it becomes possible to unite in many types of freedom fights.
How to become free = Play it, it's a game!
One can only learn the rules of the game by playing it. Fuck around and find out (FAFO).
Winning = Becoming a better player
The fact that it's a indefinite game and that you win by becoming a better player means that you can win more often than you lose, and that you can win without me having to lose.
Summary:
Freedom is an indefinite plus sum game where every player can win without anyone having to lose.
The Freerider syndrome is why people lose their freedom.
https://image.nostr.build/08f366e42e6103ac2678eb843d02e6746e0a1aa190481685598a7b8e43ea10d6.jpg
Most people complain these days, but if you judge people's actions, they at the same time signal very clearly that others must do the work for them.
Forn many, this kill all motivation for them to do something.
"Why should I do all the hard work alone for freedom that everyone benefits from."
There you have it.
The Freerider syndrom kills people's motivation to fight for Freedom.
So, rule No. 1: Quit being a Freerider
Thx for your zap🧡
- freedom: If you define it as something else than absence of coercion it becomes meaningless because you constantly run into contraditctions. But with this definition, it becomes possible to unite in many types of freedom fights
- how to get there: It's a game, and one can only learn the rules of the game by playing it. FAFO.
- winning is the same as becoming better at playing it, because it's a never ending process. This is great, because it means that you can win much more than you lose, and I can win without you having to lose.
I have a maturing idea for a book about this.
Happy with the other books I've written, but this one I'm really looking to start working on 🔥
The family is the link between corruption of the whole society and the freerider mentality where people leave it to a minority to fight for freedom.
It goes like this:
"I know what my employer does is wrong, but I do what I'm being told because I have an obligation to feed my family.
"I cannot join the freedom fight, because I risk losing my job, which would be a violation of my duties to my family.
"Besides, I know other people fight even if I don't.
"Yes, I know it makes me a freerider...
"I don't want to talk about it...."
***A few months later***
"Why does the world come crashing down around me?"
***
"Why did I lose everything?"
***
"Have you seen my family?" https://image.nostr.build/08f366e42e6103ac2678eb843d02e6746e0a1aa190481685598a7b8e43ea10d6.jpg
Scream about infringements on free speech -> posts goes viral.
Remind people about who's ultimately responsible for defending freedom 👇 -> few care to read it.
This is the cancer we deal with.
And the screaming is mainly about signalling that others must fix things for them.
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