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Daily Dose of Reason -
Quotations
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Written by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.
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Monday, 08 March 2010 00:00 |
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“Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state wants to live at the expense of everyone.”
-- Frederic Bastiat |
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Daily Dose of Reason -
Politics & Government
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Written by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.
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Sunday, 07 March 2010 00:00 |
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Liberty and democracy are not the same thing. Liberty refers to the individual's right to be free from force. Democracy is merely the right to vote -- and it's secondary to liberty. If democracy were elevated to liberty, then this would mean one group of people have the right to vote away the rights of another group. In fact, that's what America has become. Fifty-one percent of the population, who wants health insurance without having to pay or work for it, has the right to require the other forty-nine percent of the population to pay for it. It's also socialism. Socialism and democracy, when elevated above liberty, means coercion. It's the coercion of some for the sake of others. Sometimes it involves the coercion of the majority against some minority. This happens with the income tax, where the wealthiest and most productive in society pay the bulk of government's bills for the sake of the middle and lower classes, who outnumber them. The income tax is not just; it's simply brute force based on sheer numbers. People think of the United States as the land of liberty, and while some liberty still exists in the United States (freedom of speech, freedom to worship or not worship, freedom to mate with whom you choose), most economic and business matters are no longer based on liberty.
Today's politicians are attempting to reduce the role of liberty in every aspect of our lives, to the point of a European socialist state or even worse. If you want to fight for liberty, don't fight merely to preserve it -- but to restore it. Liberty is not a matter of majority vote. It's what you're entitled to, what we're all entitled too -- and is the only thing we're entitled to. |
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Daily Dose of Reason -
Psychology & Self-Improvement
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Written by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.
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Saturday, 06 March 2010 00:00 |
A career choice is like a marriage. If you had 3 women (or men) from which to choose but you know you love none of them, then it makes sense to marry none of them. This is because you would face certain unhappiness in any case. It’s better to remain single and hold out hope for yet finding a love. And that is an option for a career. You can do what you have to do to earn money and continue for all of your life to be open to finding a passion at which you can make money as well. This is one route that people take. They are unable to find a career love, so they do a job instead and pursue as many other values as possible in the realm of hobbies, relationships, pets, travel, children, or whatever is important to them outside of career. I don’t see anything irrational about this so long as one doesn’t conclude that finding something more meaningful along the way remains impossible. |
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Daily Dose of Reason -
Psychology & Self-Improvement
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Written by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.
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Friday, 05 March 2010 00:00 |
Think of your mind as a camera. You can focus the camera wherever you choose. You can fixate on one scene. Or you can diversify, moving from scene to scene. This is something you can consciously do. If it doesn’t happen automatically, there’s no cause for alarm. This is where people go wrong. They panic because the mind doesn’t automatically shift for them, and they’re stuck in the compulsive area. They erroneously conclude, “I cannot control my thoughts.” Or: "I must have ADD!" In actuality, you can shift your thoughts elsewhere, as a camera. The issue is control over your consciousness, i.e. over your mind. This is something everyone must master, as best they can, over the course of life. |
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