Socialism cannot be stopped for the reasons briefly touched on in Understand Everything Fundamentally. Attempts at education will also fail in the short term because the fundamental economic forces favor socialism. Socialism is pushing us towards centralized global government which while inefficient is decisively more efficient then multiple feuding centralized nations.
In my multiple debates with Anonymint I recall one instance when he decisively got the better of me. It was a discussion regarding socialism and I was arguing it should be opposed. His handle was iamback at the time.
Because you will waste time and effort that could have been used to actually achieve it without being slave (dependent) on what the State does. And you will not stop the State from spiraling into the abyss, because the majority is going to demand expropriation. You can't suddenly change the situation of the majority. The majority has no other option and all the (political or even violent) fighting you do can't give them another option.
The economic reality and trajectory was written into stone decades ago. It can't be altered. The economic reality is what it is.
My advice to everyone is pay off all your debt because in a deflationary collapse that is underway (see oil under $50 today!) the government can take your assets and leave you with debt to pay but no assets to pay with. And debtor's prisons are returning. Even though I was reduced to near pauper, I prioritized paying off my credit card debts in 2014 and did pay $20,000 of it off for less than $10,000 by accepting best offers for negotiated settlement. I only have about $2000 of debt remaining (except that my ex took out a $25,000 student loan recently and I don't know if the USA will try to pin that on me).
Also radically reduce the risk to unjust IRS audits and assessments, because these will become more common.
Also radically reduce the risk to lawsuits, because these will become more common as westerners get desperate.
Then the next priority is to align your vocation with the Knowledge Age and so you have income even during global economic collapse and your skills are transportable to any location you might choose to move to as the chaos takes form.
Anonymint's advice was correct but incomplete. When you couple a mechanism of progressive and increasing dependency (socialism) with a fundamentally unsustainable financial system (fractional reserve fiat) the probable result is a system who's declared role is helping the poor but who's insolvency dictates policies geared towards sterilization. Such a result requires a certain degree of cognitive dissonance and a government who believes it is helping you while it works to ensure you do not reproduce.
Add to this data the very real possibility of more direct government action. The Catholic church in Kenya has accused the government of secretly injecting young women with an anti-fertility vaccine disguised as a tetanus vaccine. Either the Catholic bishops are lying or the Kenyan government is.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/01/19/kenyan-bishops-call-for-no-more-tetanus-vaccines-until-further-tests/
The situation can be looked at abstractly as the sudden and dramatic restoration of extreme selective pressure on mankind. Unlike our ancient history when we were subjected to violence, starvation, and disease the new pressure comes in the form of dependence, hedonism, and sterilization. As a species we have never been subjected to this kind of pressure before and are likely to be highly susceptible. Halting the reimposition of selective pressure is economically impossible and perhaps even inadvisable for it is the restoration of selective pressure that will ultimately prevent 'mouse utopia'. Astute individuals can avoid 'government help' by actively working to avoid dependency a task that will become increasingly difficult with time. Intellectual adaptability alone is not enough. It is also necessary to resist the decadence, hedonism, and social decay peddled by modernity. In Atheism and Health I argued that faith provides the best chance of success but other strategies may also be viable. Socialism will burn itself out gradually over time. Until it does the best course of action is avoidance of the inferno. It is the ashes of socialism that will pave the way for the knowledge age outlined in The Rise of Knowledge. When dealing with the proponents of socialism the proper emotion is not anger but pity.
The evolution of the social contract appears to be a progressive climb to higher potential energy systems with increased degrees of freedom. The state of nature begat tribalism. Tribalism grew into despotism. Despotism advanced into monarchy. Monarchies were replaced by republics. I suspect that in the future republics will be consumed by world government, world government will evolve into decentralized government, and decentralized government will finally mature into a shared consensus among individuals with limited or no government.
Each iteration has a common theme for each advance increases the number of individuals able to engage in cooperative activity.
Each iteration has a common theme for each advance increases the number of individuals able to engage in cooperative activity.
In my multiple debates with Anonymint I recall one instance when he decisively got the better of me. It was a discussion regarding socialism and I was arguing it should be opposed. His handle was iamback at the time.
In what way are these mutually exclusive? Provided one does not neglect personal decentralized self-sufficiency why shouldn't a rational actor in our current environment also participate in the local collective and attempt to restrain said collective. To do otherwise is to yield the floor to those who will make decentralized self-sufficiency more difficult to achieve.
Because you will waste time and effort that could have been used to actually achieve it without being slave (dependent) on what the State does. And you will not stop the State from spiraling into the abyss, because the majority is going to demand expropriation. You can't suddenly change the situation of the majority. The majority has no other option and all the (political or even violent) fighting you do can't give them another option.
The economic reality and trajectory was written into stone decades ago. It can't be altered. The economic reality is what it is.
My advice to everyone is pay off all your debt because in a deflationary collapse that is underway (see oil under $50 today!) the government can take your assets and leave you with debt to pay but no assets to pay with. And debtor's prisons are returning. Even though I was reduced to near pauper, I prioritized paying off my credit card debts in 2014 and did pay $20,000 of it off for less than $10,000 by accepting best offers for negotiated settlement. I only have about $2000 of debt remaining (except that my ex took out a $25,000 student loan recently and I don't know if the USA will try to pin that on me).
Also radically reduce the risk to unjust IRS audits and assessments, because these will become more common.
Also radically reduce the risk to lawsuits, because these will become more common as westerners get desperate.
Then the next priority is to align your vocation with the Knowledge Age and so you have income even during global economic collapse and your skills are transportable to any location you might choose to move to as the chaos takes form.
Anonymint's advice was correct but incomplete. When you couple a mechanism of progressive and increasing dependency (socialism) with a fundamentally unsustainable financial system (fractional reserve fiat) the probable result is a system who's declared role is helping the poor but who's insolvency dictates policies geared towards sterilization. Such a result requires a certain degree of cognitive dissonance and a government who believes it is helping you while it works to ensure you do not reproduce.
Toxicity of the Modern World
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley envisioned a future where the masses were rendered infertile and controlled with pleasure and drugs. Is that the world we live in now? Anyone over that age of 25 may not realize how far traditional courtship and dating has been undermined by modernity. The tinder generation is being conditioned to swipe right on their onscreen app and meet up later for random sexual gratification. This phenomena has been described by Vanity Fair as nothing less than a dating apocalypse.
In Colorado long acting implantable contraceptives which a render women infertile for up to 10 years and require a doctor’s visit to remove have been implanted in 26% of young women age 15-24 as of 2013.
In 2015 an advisory body to the US Department of Health and Human Services recommended that Medicaid examine how often doctors are using “most effective” or “moderately effective” contraception. Only contraception deemed “highly effective” or “moderately effective” (Long acting implantable or long acting injections) would be included in the proposed measurement. Doctor’s with a low percentage of young patients using such contraception would presumably be rated as giving lower quality care.
We appear to be living in a “Utopia” of declining fitness and capability. An age of existential exhaustion manifested by an ageing, hedonistic society characterized by declining marriage, and near zero children.
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley envisioned a future where the masses were rendered infertile and controlled with pleasure and drugs. Is that the world we live in now? Anyone over that age of 25 may not realize how far traditional courtship and dating has been undermined by modernity. The tinder generation is being conditioned to swipe right on their onscreen app and meet up later for random sexual gratification. This phenomena has been described by Vanity Fair as nothing less than a dating apocalypse.
In Colorado long acting implantable contraceptives which a render women infertile for up to 10 years and require a doctor’s visit to remove have been implanted in 26% of young women age 15-24 as of 2013.
In 2015 an advisory body to the US Department of Health and Human Services recommended that Medicaid examine how often doctors are using “most effective” or “moderately effective” contraception. Only contraception deemed “highly effective” or “moderately effective” (Long acting implantable or long acting injections) would be included in the proposed measurement. Doctor’s with a low percentage of young patients using such contraception would presumably be rated as giving lower quality care.
We appear to be living in a “Utopia” of declining fitness and capability. An age of existential exhaustion manifested by an ageing, hedonistic society characterized by declining marriage, and near zero children.
Add to this data the very real possibility of more direct government action. The Catholic church in Kenya has accused the government of secretly injecting young women with an anti-fertility vaccine disguised as a tetanus vaccine. Either the Catholic bishops are lying or the Kenyan government is.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/01/19/kenyan-bishops-call-for-no-more-tetanus-vaccines-until-further-tests/
The situation can be looked at abstractly as the sudden and dramatic restoration of extreme selective pressure on mankind. Unlike our ancient history when we were subjected to violence, starvation, and disease the new pressure comes in the form of dependence, hedonism, and sterilization. As a species we have never been subjected to this kind of pressure before and are likely to be highly susceptible. Halting the reimposition of selective pressure is economically impossible and perhaps even inadvisable for it is the restoration of selective pressure that will ultimately prevent 'mouse utopia'. Astute individuals can avoid 'government help' by actively working to avoid dependency a task that will become increasingly difficult with time. Intellectual adaptability alone is not enough. It is also necessary to resist the decadence, hedonism, and social decay peddled by modernity. In Atheism and Health I argued that faith provides the best chance of success but other strategies may also be viable. Socialism will burn itself out gradually over time. Until it does the best course of action is avoidance of the inferno. It is the ashes of socialism that will pave the way for the knowledge age outlined in The Rise of Knowledge. When dealing with the proponents of socialism the proper emotion is not anger but pity.
