Discussion about this post

User's avatar
fiendish_librarian's avatar

The applicability - and enduring relevance - of the cynical yet universal insights of Goering, Goebbels and many of that lot remain confounding to me. Strip away the "taboo" of reading the diaries and memoirs of senior Nazis from that period and you open yourself to an array of political and social acuity that everyone should arm themselves with. Goebbels, in particular, provides a master class on modern media manipulation (recall that the man had a PhD).

Sarah Thompson's avatar

I wrote an article recently about the founding of the American Medical Association. (Lew Rockwell published it: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2024/05/no_author/to-cure-or-not-to-cure/) and it’s about the fact that medicine is a profession like any other, and there will always be a cohort that, when threatened by (superior) competition, circles the wagons and to hell with the customer.

The limited hangout on institutions is ALWAYS “it got corrupted! Reform!” That’s bullshit, no punches pulled.

Government is the enemy. The founders knew that, but thought it could be useful if constrained, perhaps because they worried what would fill the void otherwise. But they were trying to cage the beast.

Spooner makes the case that, whether by design or deficiency, they failed, and if *they* failed, what they were trying to do simply cannot be done.

We can argue about whether these institutions are necessary, but there should be no argument about whether they are the enemy, always and everywhere, amoral and self-serving at best, eternal mindless golems in perpetual pursuit of perpetuity.

166 more comments...

No posts

Ready for more?