The TURD's Pro-Regressive retreat from the West A.D. to the B.C. past through the Wizard's Circle

The TURD's Pro-Regressive retreat from the West A.D. to the B.C. past through the Wizard's Circle

Part 17 of 22, from Exiting the Wizard's Circle of Economics

There's something revealing in what the supreme wizard of the 'New Economics', John Maynard Keynes, said in the last paragraph of his General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936), part of which is an often repeated quote:

"...Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist...."

, which he continued on from there with:

"...Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas..."

You should keep your eye on that 'of a few years back', as it is revealing of the modernist game. Keynes concludes that last paragraph of his book with:

"... it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.”

, so that in Keyne's mind, and most others - including who's often taken as the leader of the opposition, Libertarian F.E. Hayek - it wasn't the wisdom that had stood the test of time, or even the selfish desires of those with wealth & power that they expected would determine the course of societal events, but instead, those ideas 'of a few years back' which had been learnt by men of "...twenty-five or thirty years of age...", are what would rule their minds when they came to power. They didn't expect wisdom, practical wisdom, or even their own interests to direct the course of society, they expected that direction to come from those ideas of the new 'Social Sciences', like 'economics'.

Despite the 1,936 years A.D. of expectations that the wisdom to lead society would and should be found in those men of experience who'd lived & learned more than others, Keynes thought that, in 1936, when no 'economist' had been long dead or defunct for more than a few decades, that those 'economists' were who were determining how society is, 'should', and would be, organized and run.

That's a telling reveal of how swiftly and thoroughly the new academic regime, which the Idealists had given birth to shortly after the opening of the 1800s (our colleges today bear almost no resemblance in either form or content, to those our Founding Fathers attended), had been able to utilize its new field of 'Epistemology' to divert society's attention away from the classical Western considerations of "What is" & "What follows", and "What should be done". Instead, those 'ideas of a few years back' were informing the new TURDS that since we kant know reality as it really is, 'they' should rely instead upon 'experts' to tell them what 'works best'.

Naturally, those deemed and certified to have that expertise, came from the new Social Sciences of 'Education', Social Studies', and 'Economics', which expertly traded away that broad understanding which had traditionally marked a person as being educated, for training in a very specific set of skills. These Idealists - subjectivists and empiricists - having traded away History for Social Studies, Philosophy for Economics, as well as transforming the high regard that people had for Logic, into its being perceived as either a tedious verbal parlor trick or the apparently meaningless hieroglyphics of symbolic logic - had implicitly and explicitly discarded the very basis of the Greco/Roman-Judeo/Christian culture's form of knowledge and understanding. And as an encore, having made the foundations of Western society dissappear before our eyes, they planted their Utopian (no place) flag in its place, and have successfully convinced and compelled We The People, year after year, decade after decade, to send our children to absorb their 'New Ideas!' of nothingness.

The Misosopher King's position atop wAcademia's lofty new heights, was well suited for further convincing people that old fashioned ideas like 'individual rights', 'property', and GOLD fer gawdsakes, were little more than 'barbarous relics' of pre-modern ethnic preferences, which shouldn't be allowed to stand in the way of the modern scientific understanding of 'The Economy'. Naturally, control of such matters should be left in the hands of experts, and for those experts who followed in the footsteps of the latter 'Classical Liberals', and Fabians, all such 'economic' matters, as a matter of course, have been analytically reduced to measures of utility and profit & loss, so as to scientistically calculate (with not a little bit of wand waving) the Greater Good. And of course as they were sure that such modern ideas would need to be managed like sophisticated clockwork, through central banks and specialized departments of experts in the field, for the 'common good' of all who are a part of that economy, the individual could not be permitted to stand in the way of their progress, and so while they assured us that they'd of course 'respect' our 'human rights', in any conflict between individual interests and the Common Good, it was only right that the latter 'should' prevail.

The fundamental values which underlie the systems and macro perspectives of 'Economic Thinking', are what mark it out as being truly Pro-Regressive, as it is those collective sensibilities that are found on the far side of The West's dividing line between the years B.C. and A.D., that modernity most embraces. Now matter how otherwise admirable, it is true that however foundational the ideas and institutions of the West B.C. were, and are, the Greco/Roman without the Judeo/Christian - as expressed by the Greek dramatists, and Plato, and even with Aristotle and Cicero - presumed the individual to be utterly inconsequential in the face of the interests of society. It was only after the Greco/Roman had merged with the Judeo/Christian, that the individual came to be recognized in the West A.D., as a uniquely valuable person, each created in the image of God and recognized as not only having value as an individual, but as being on an equal footing in the eyes of justice with all other persons, no matter their social & political standing.

We forget today how truly revolutionary that view was, and still is, and how completely it is that our *modern* 'economic thinking' rejects and rebels against it.

Those moderns yearning for the B.C. worldview, needed a means of pivoting away from the A.D. understanding of the Greco/Roman-Judeo/Christian West, in order to pro-regress back to the B.C. view where the individual served the collective. And the needed to do so without anyone noticing that they were being turned away from the foundations of the West, which required progressive efforts across centuries of time:

• Machiavelli tried to go against the A.D. tide, but his efforts were too obviously and easily called out.
• Bacon & Hobbes made a less direct assault upon the culture as well, but their notions tended to be thought of as additions - as 'reality adjacent' - rather than challenges to it.
• Descartes & Rousseau began to move the needle,
• it wasn't until the evolution of 'Economics' as a 'Social Science', that the TURDS were able to sidestep outward concern for individual rights and virtue, by promising to manage what had recently been considered an actual evil (the violation of individual rights & property under the law), in such a way as to promote the 'greater good' (rather than a mere singular Good).

It would be difficult if not impossible to imagine the strategic deflections from reality that a person would have to become consciously accustomed to making, if classical philosophy hadn't been either ejected from or sterilized within wAcademic circles. The truth of that was essentially 'proved' by the experience of SCSR (Scottish Common Sense Realism)'s founder, Thomas Reid, who had effectively beaten Hume's skepticism back and arguably enabled America to be born, and at the last possible moment that was conceivable. Modernity's post-partum response to our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, was swift and brutal. Attacks were piled upon every aspect of SCSR, as it was verbally derided from every quarter of wAcademic circles by 'Classical Liberals' from Kant to J.S. Mill, and by the latter 19th century, they'd succeeded in reversing popular opinion about the common sense of Common Sense.

The philosophical reverses which The West has suffered since then, couldn't have occurred, certainly not in less than a century, if the populace hadn't been simultaneously 'educated' into the cultural and institutional amnesia, which 'Economics' has proven itself so well suited to inducing in us.

It's difficult to overstate the willfully unseen presumptions involved in how that pivot is still being carried out in headlines such as:

"... The Wall Street Journal reports that GDP was up last quarter, and though the Chairman of the FED noted that the inflation rate has only slowed .03%, jobs numbers are expected to increase..."

, as it smoothly evades and conveys what our society has explicitly come to accept as being 'reality', and by our wearing those shaded lenses, we enable 'Economics' to assume the authority that it has assumed in our lives, with the confidence we once would have looked to religion and philosophy - or at the very least to law or politics - for advice on the *wisest* course of action to follow in our day-to-day lives.

The expectations of, and nearly invisible utilization of power that is conferred through the materialistic leviathan of 'Economic Thinking', eager to take whatever actions may be deemed necessary to 'help the common good', has necessarily entailed abandoning our earlier understanding of what was finally coming to be recognized as uncommonly good. Shorn of the foundations of The West, thanks to the 'epistemology' that modernity's misosophers such as Bacon, Descartes, Rousseau, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Marx, etc., established to suppress our regard for reality, 'Economics' has had little or nothing to fear from the wisdom of those classical philosophers who've been safely memory-holed away from popular opinion.

No matter how at odds their various economic ideologies ('Capitalism, 'Marxism', 'Socialism', 'Libertarianism', etc.,) might appear to be with each other on the surface today, they only really have to contend with the 'long dead economists' opinions of 'a few years back', as they all share in the opinion that their views are a more than sufficient replacement for the traditional western understanding of metaphysics, causality, ethics, literature, law, and political reasoning.

With Economics freed by its votaries in and out of Government & wAcademia, it's been free to engage in Social Science experiments (what do you think 'public education' is?) that utilize We The People as an efficient means of generating the data ('privacy?! Ha!) it needs for forming and reforming its ever new & improved theories on how 'best' to drive policies which usurp whatever power (governmental, financial, and social) it claims to need for the benefit of the 'common good'.

You should *should all over yourself*

Do not forget that the goal of 'economics' (and its fraternal twin in 'Education') is to mold you, your life, and that of your community, into the vision that the TURD's 'who know best' have concluded is best for you. The common thread running through plans like Agenda 21, 'The Great Reset', 'Agenda 2030', is that your life should [Should...?!] serve the 'common good' for the 'greater good', where 'you will own nothing and be happy'. The words roll right off their teleprompters without the interference of pesky traditional concerns over what is or isn't wise and good, which frees 'Economics' to serve those ends the TURDS claim will serve the 'greater good', for which they cheerfully *should all over themselves*, and upon you, without even a second thought.

That is the awesome social and political power that we've gone along with conferring upon 'economic thinking', so that where Political Economy once observed reality in order to understand what would be most just, and therefore most effective and good for all, 'economic thinkers' now read their indexes and curves as technological tea leaves to tell them how they should correct our course into the future, free from the 'wrong' actions of 'old fashioned' thinking. It's almost as if the positions of 'Priest & King' in society, which modernity loves to pat itself on the back for progressing past, were alive and well under the modern guise of 'defunct economists'.

Next time you hear the Economic news that cannot be avoided today, you should think of the magician up there doing his magic act on stage, and remember that he performs no magic there - none! - he only stylishly and theatrically uses his costume, top hat, and wand, and of course his attractive assistant, to distract the audience (of which you are seen as but a small part of) into being convinced that they magically did what you know they didn't do... to thunderous applause.

If you do pay attention, you'll notice there are three components of the economic stagecraft that its magicians use to keep the audience's attention filled with 'Ooh!'s and 'Ah!'s:

1. Economics is not about reality, it's about spinning up a semblance of one (jobs#'s, unemployment %'s, average income), which you are expected to treat as if it were real. It isn't... and by stepping into its circle, you risk being lost to it.
2. The Economically minded use terms such as 'Rights!' and 'Fair' not because they're meaningful to them - their every use is self-contradictory and without being rooted in metaphysics & ethics, Economics is fully blind to those concepts that even 'fair' is derived from - but for the effect the narrative produces in the audience, which furthers their aspirations of gaining power over 'this, that, and the other thing'.
3. Economics operates through a dialectical simulacrum of language fused with abstruse mathematics - Economics Speak - not to communicate, but to both cow and corral the populace with, as they tweak their miniature models of reality.

But by far the most important point of the magic tricks performed by the 'economics' of 'defunct economists', is that they aren't intended to make a rabbit disappear, they're intended to make an aspect of you disappear, into the collective audience.

If you keep your eyes on the magicians other hand, you might notice that 'economics' incessantly evades metaphysics & ethics, through its wand waving of diversionary references to aggregate market conditions, income brackets, fields of management, labor disputes, information management, so that it can use your income, cost of living, and the rising prices that you experience, to reduce you into references to percentages and anecdotal concerns that are 'too miniscule' to warrant the concern of TURD's who're focused on the 'big picture'. Be careful as the pretty assistant dressed in the tight skirt of NEWS & current events, winks and curtsies at you, or you might miss how your concerns are being efficiently handled as issues of 'micro-economics', whose mountains of carefully gathered data of GDP, CPI, etc., makes your cost of living yield to the societal concerns of the collective, which only they are prepared to manage, and which the individual must yield to, for the 'common good'.

Just keep in mind that there is no magic. Keep in mind that neither reality nor our Common Sense A.D. ability to understand it, have been made to vanish. Keep in mind that their magic consists of nothing more than distractions, and that all such magic tricks require tangible tools to distract you with, which is what we'll turn to next.

What 'Economics' buys you is Tyranny on a budget

What 'Economics' buys you is Tyranny on a budget

Part 16 of 22, from Exiting the Wizard's Circle of Economics

With the awareness that metaphysics, causality, ethics should be the backdrop to your normal frame of mind, and aware that that understanding remains actively involved even when left unseen in discussions concerning an economy, you're now in a position to begin noticing the numerous issues that 'economics' routinely leaves unseen (and excluded), such as what I've been referring to over and again, which repeatedly goes unseen, and left unasked, and is actively evaded in economic schemes, which is the meaning of: 'Should'.

They use the sound of the word 'should', but not its meaning, and as you listen to them sounding hte word out it is important to notice that 'Should' is not an 'economic' term. Is 'Should' something that can be calculated from mathematical equations? [spoiler alert: No]. 'Should' is a term of ethics - what is or could be ethical about distant persons and powers deciding that person X 'should' be deprived of some of their property and rights, and that person Y should receive some of that property? When considering Ethics in a societal context of taking actions that affect the lives of entire populations, its scope is more directly referencing that other subset of Ethics, which is the field of Justice, which 'Economics' is but the ethical stepchild of.

Is Justice something that is found in, contained by, or that somehow should take its cues from, economic indicators, indexes, and curves? Spoiler alert: No.

Despite their heavy use of the word that they spelled as 'should', and 'Justice', 'Economics' operates by dialectically substituting what is 'useful' for what you should do, and the 'greater good' for what is good, in their descriptions of 'what is...'s, and 'need to...'s - they don't refer to what actually is Good, but only to what's most useful to them and to their economy.

The truth is that questions of what 'Should' is and should be, are determined by philosophy, not by 'Economics', which points out the fundamental problem with treating Economics as an authority over the operations of society, and it's worth pointing out again, that Economics doesn't begin with Economics.
'Economics' is not a primary standalone field.
'Economics' is not a secondary field.
'Economics' is not even a third level field.

'Economics' claim to the authority to order & reorder society, as an idealized means of social control which the likes of J.S. Mill & Karl Marx both envisioned, is only possible when the traditional branches and roots of philosophy (and reality) are at best ignored... on the way to their being reversed.

Simply recognizing metaphysics (covering the 'which is...?'), leads to an epistemology of causality (what 'follows') and logic (validating the hows') within ethics (covering the 'shoulds'), and emphasizes the fact that 'Economics' is much less than simply a subset of Ethics, as it is necessarily defined by, beholden to, derived from, and subordinate to, those traditional fields of thought. Happily for 'Economics', the moderns' new 'fourth branch of philosophy' which they labeled 'epistemology', enables and requires that traditional respect for reality to be ignored.

"... The popularity of the Cartesian method is not the consequence of a desire to remove metaphysical doubt, and find certainty, but precisely the opposite: to cast doubt on everything, and thereby increase the scope of personal license, by destroying in advance any philosophical basis for the limitation of our own appetites. The radical skeptic, nowadays at least, is in search not so much of truth, as of liberty - that is to say, of liberty conceived of the largest field imaginable for the satisfaction of his whims...."
pg. 6, "In Praise Of Prejudice - The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas" - Theodore Dalrymple

And what you begin to see the importance of that ignorance of traditional philosophy (as Mao assaulted 'the four olds'), when you take note of the low place in the regard of ideas that economics held in traditional philosophy, which, as Say noted, 'Economics', 'oikonomy',

"...From οικος a house, and νομος a law; economy, the law which regulates the household. Household, according to the Greeks, comprehending all the goods in possession of the family..."

, it originally was limited to the management of household decisions, and was so because 'economic thinking' is truly suited only to first-hand experience, and can and should extend no further than that. As such, 'Economics' is in reality situated as a lower level (the lowest) subset of the field of Politics... which is itself a philosophical subset that's contained by the second level subset of the field of Law, which is in turn contained under and within Justice, which is in turn a subset of Ethics.

IOW, 'Economics', is a third-level subset of the third branch of philosophy, and from that backwater position, its managers have dared to claim the power to determine, dictate, and manage our lives. They've gotten away with evading the ground floors of philosophy by insisting that people perform feats of philosophical parkour to 'engage' with them, because we have allowed it to usurp the authority of those fundamental fields that are the proper avenues for even considering such issues.

Because we've allowed 'those who know best' and the TURDS to tell us that 'Economics', for all intents and purposes, replaces Philosophy (and even Religion) in our day-to-day lives, and to do so openly, it presumes to make decisions upon such matters for us, even as it proposes its various policies and distribution curves which blatantly ignores and even violates the very principles that are fundamental to those fields it's rightly subordinated to.

Because the 'Economic good' cannot recognize what is 'good', it cannot determine what 'should' be done, and accepting that and acting on that, means that you become de-moralized - not in the sense of feeling glum, but in the sense of no longer being able to recognize what is good, right, true. That's not just a problem, that's a description of the 'Ouroboros' (the snake eating its own tail), and it is the means by which 'Economics' buys us a tyrannical reality, on a political and philosophical budget.

Do you begin to see why 'economic thinkers' don't want you thinking about metaphysics, causality, and ethics?

It's as if a newly hired retail store manager suddenly began assuming the power to issue orders setting worldwide policy and practices for the company, based upon his local concerns - and then the entire company management began abiding by it. If you were a stockholder of that company, wouldn't you be asking what's going on here? Shouldn't every stockholder be doing so?!

If this is true (and it is), if 'Economics' is as out of place, empty even, as I'm saying, then how has it been made to become such a real factor in our lives?

My reply to that comes from a phrase that, even keeping in mind the philosophical overview above, will likely be seen as an outrageous claim, and though to the best of my knowledge neither James Lindsay nor Stephen Coughlin have said it in this context, it fits the phrase they've utilized in connection with gnosticism and dialectics, and seems to me to fit exceedingly well here, which is 'stepping into the Wizards Circle'.

It is important for us to notice that 'Economics' begins by excluding metaphysics, causality, ethics. With that accomplished, it swaps out the quality of Good, for those quantities of utilitarian pleasures which then seem especially alluring to those who've accepted its invitation to take the economical and very consequential step into an alternate reality, a 'copy world' of 'transcendental' ideas, that have little to do with what is or can be real and true, but which is so clearly empty and meaningless to those who haven't.

...Ouroboros image from The Palmer Worm

The portentous step that 'Economics' invites us all to unwittingly take, is one of praxis - that of putting into action without conscious thought, your implicit consent to violate the principles that America was founded upon because they were understood to be truly good, and it leads us into doing so in service to the 'greater good' which is a further denial of them. Once that step is taken, that immersive ideal is what will then seem to be real to you, while what actually is real and true, will appear from this new perspective to be as crooked as an arrow does when refracted through water.

That misleading nature is something that I think is more than hinted at, which Niall Ferguson, an historian & economist, partly exposed in his quip on economists' in thrall to, on John Maynard Keynes veiled quip:

"...even the most practical man of affairs is usually in the thrall of the ideas of some long-dead economist"

More on that, next.

Summing up by returning to the Questions that should precede Hazlitt's 'Economics in One Lesson'

Summing up by returning to the Questions that should precede Hazlitt's 'Economics in One Lesson'

Part 15 of 22, from Exiting the Wizard's Circle of Economics

The reason for this *diversion* into abstractions of metaphysics, causality, and ethics, was to highlight the importance of keeping the reality in mind which we've been 'educated' to ignore, which we can do by simply making a routine of asking questions like:

• Is this rooted in what I know to be real and true? - metaphysics
• What consequences are most likely to follow from this? - causality/logic
• Are those consequences justifiable? - ethics

, and by doing so we keep what is real and true in mind, and the pretense that reality is irrelevant, is itself made to disappear.

Those who aren't in the habit of conforming their thinking to what is real and true, will have no foundation for opposing the 'economic thinking' which views our judicial system as nothing more than a 'complex' Rule of Rules, and who believe that so long as TURDs (The Umpires of Reasonable Discourse) have the skills to manage its technicalities, there's no 'reason' why they shouldn't manipulate it (us) to do whatever it is they want to get done.

Those who do have that foundation, OTOH, are going to have a visceral response to those 'economic actions' that are proposed to manipulate 'the economy' (society), which are incompatible with the judicial standards and principles that our system was founded upon, and each proposal will, and should be, met with a response:

• A Proposal: "...Imo rentiers have to be eliminated through policy so that productive investment, circulation and stability is promoted..."
  A Response: Does targeting someone based upon their status, rather than their actions, solve an actual problem, or is it fabricating an Ideal to disrupt an existing standard?
• A Proposal: "... Just laws" depend upon consideration of the public welfare and not simply of individual rights in discerning ..."
  A Response: That is reframing the law by reversing its relation to the individual rights of the citizenry, to target the rights of those of them who are 'rentiers', which is assaulting the rights which they all hold in common, and so will degrade the welfare of all.
• A Proposal: "...competing rights claims require Law that has the Common Good as an end..."
  A Response: Reducing 'law' and 'rights' to meaningless labels so as to mask positions that excuse taking actions for the 'common good!', puts an end to a 'common good' and solidifies the power of those already in power, and it's all downhill for the rest of us from there.

It is only by keeping questions of metaphysics, causality/logic, ethics, present in our mind, that we are able to be exceedingly aware of the consequential nature of the Rule of Law, and so have the presence of mind to insist that its principles that were derived from Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Coke, will be considered as being of primary, rather than of secondary importance, in all such matters.

If and only if the proposed 'economic action' can be shown to neither directly nor indirectly violate the rights and property of the citizenry, should consideration of the proposal be allowed to move on to considering whether government - the force of law which exists to uphold and defend the individual rights and property of its people - can be entrusted to use its (We The People's) power to take the proposed actions, without violating its reason for existing.

Those are the questions and concerns that must be satisfied before moving on to considering the longterm results and primary and secondary consequences of any proposed 'economic action', which was what the focus of Henry Hazlitt's 'Economics in One Lesson' was, and if we fail to keep that order, we will have already surrendered to utility, and the fall into 'economic thinking' that must follow.

If the proposed action survives those tests, then it's a question of whether government - the force of law - should be engaged in that action - because it can, doesn't mean that it should.

Setting weights & measures, yes, that's both necessary and appropriate.

Assigning values to those monetary weights & measures? Ooh... the wisdom of that was questionable, and led to much unnecessary confusion & corruption (see silver & gold exchange rates). Printing currency? Establishing a 'bank' to... No. Stop! Too few questions were either asked or answered, or they use their questions to arrive at answers which are irrelevant to the issue at hand.

We need a lot less thought about what 'good' government can do for us all, and a lot more consideration of what mayhem government can wreak in our lives in the name of the 'common good'. A Thomas Jefferson said:

"...in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution..."

It is up to us to keep that We The People's power, bound down by the fewest possible laws, and to see to it that they are written with the greatest possible clarity, and that too requires an attention to metaphysics, causality/logic, and ethics.

These are not questions that should be considered lightly, and the fact that they are rarely considered at all, is a direct result of how extensively 'economic thinking' has permeated our society, and why it must be expunged.

"But Van! Are you seriously rejecting all of the modern science of Economics?! Why not clamp down on what's 'bad' and keep what's 'good'?"

I'll answer that with an illustration - picture this if you will:

You find yourself confined within a casino, and you've come to realize that every game is being rigged by the house.
You discover that some players have figured out how to manipulate the House's manipulations to their own benefit, even though it adds additional burdens to the other customers who're either unaware that they're being conned by the House, or unable to do anything about it.
Would you:

• align yourself with the corrupt House (say hello to The Fed)?
• align yourself with those scheming to take advantage of the House's corruption (say hello to George Soros)?

Did you pick A or B?

Did you notice that the appearance of there being only two options, pushes the reality that there are other choices and questions, out of mind? That's called an Affordance Trap, and it's best not to fall for it.

While I do think that the casino example is representative of our situation, the lack of options is not - we have multiple options, not least of which is to refrain as best you can from participating in, or legitimizing either of the options provided. Also, don't allow the options being offered to distract you from the most important aspect of the scenario, in that the true value being won or lost in that casino's games isn't money, it's your ability to live your own life, which the house is taking from you by limiting what decisions and actions you're allowed to make in your own life. Don't play along with that.

Affordance Traps

I'm not encouraging or suggesting that we should go all 'mah principles!' and refuse to involve ourselves in the economy, and IMHO I think you should question any 'knowledge' that leads you into taking ignorant actions. Economics has a large number of observations and 'laws' which are undeniably valid and important to be recognized, and there are a large number of good economists who both understand them, and value liberty - Thomas Sowell & Henry Hazlitt come to mind - and who also warn of how economic issues threaten the very basis for a productive economy. Don't delude yourself with those 'principles!' that are principles-in-name-only. Recognize that trade-offs are often the best we can hope for, and that insisting upon an unattainable 'perfect solution' can easily cause us to lose out on an attainable least bad option, which is sure to be quickly filled by one that's much worse.

Nevertheless, the social science known as 'Economics', is a field that was established in order to evade and undermine those philosophic concepts and principles which make our Founders' era understanding of liberty possible, and it does so by focusing attention upon those aspects of our lives and activities which it improperly quantifies, so as to justify the unprincipled use of 'better policies' for imposing power over an entire society.

Beware of the Affordance Trap of 'these are our only choices!', especially as the habit of thinking that's been drilled into us in our schooling, politics, and of course economic thinking, is especially susceptible to that.

Be aware that most of the magician's tricks, count on your unwittingly cooperating with their tricks - following along with the magician's waving wand, watching the pretty assistant, and later repeating their performance of 'GDP is down!' or 'Inflation is up!' - that's not 'economic analysis', that's Praxis, repeating what is ultimately meaningless as if it mattered. The secret to the magician's trick, is that it's not necessary for their theories to be consciously learned and understood, so long as the audience repeats the patterns of action performed for them, people will absorb it through their own routine actions, without ever having consciously noted or accepted the details of whichever theory that particular magic act was performing.

And they're able to count on audience participation in their praxis, because we've all learned in our schooling to scan & cram truly meaningless facts to 'get good grades and get a good job', we've learned by practice the habit of seeking out and accepting the answers of authorities, regardless of whether we've understood their lessons or not. And the dirty little secret behind those grades, is that both the 'good students' who did their work and passed their tests, and those students who didn't do their work and failed most of their tests, both thoroughly learned the praxis of the lessons being taught (someone else has the answer and you don't know it), and both become useful game pieces in the necessary patterns of 'economic theory'.

The 'Economic' choice is a dialectical action that involves you in not thinking of what is real and true, in favor of a fabricated idea of what is seemingly 'useful', which substitutes a narrow 'how' for the 'what'. All 'Economic' ideologies ignore and implicitly deny those more important considerations, in order to advance a narrative that rationalizes the substitution of a 'Greater Good', for 'the pursuit of happiness', and when you fall into the affordance trap of 'Capitalism vs Socialism', what you are thinking of are 'economic issues', 'economic liberty', 'economic justice', etc., and what you are not thinking of, are those metaphysical, ethical, and moral issues, that would interfere with the carefully laid trap of 'economic thinking'.

The nature of what the 'Economic' choice of 'Capitalism vs Socialism' involves you in putting into practice (praxis) - which both sides of the same economic coin are urging you to make - is that by getting you to think of your society as an Economy, you are no longer thinking of it as a society!

'Capitalism', it must be remembered, was not a term that Adam Smith referred to or used in his writings - that was a little discussed technique of finance which Karl Marx seized upon as a label that'd be useful for disparaging Adam Smith's understanding that Natural Liberty was the real 'The Wealth of Nations'. By tarring Liberty with 'Capital'/'Money'/'the root of all evil', Marx succeeded in using 'Economic Thinking' to lure popular opinion away from the Political Economy of our Founders' era, and their understanding that individual rights and liberty were inextricably intertwined with a sound understanding of Property, and that an objective rule of law is and must be dedicated to upholding and defending them.

That understanding, and liberty, made clear that it was vital for a person to have the liberty to act on their own judgement, as that was the key to not only their own wealth and prosperity, and that of the entire nation as well. Modern misosophy, ideology, and that which Marxism concerns itself with, redirected popular understanding towards reframing the narrative's focus upon money and techniques of finance, control, and 'individualism'.

The fact that we don't have an immediate solution to the problems we face, is no reason to not recognize what the problem is, and in fact, simply recognizing the issue for what it is, being aware of the magicians' tricks, is a huge part of the solution, and is the means of breaking out of the praxis of 'economic thinking'.

Recognize that. Become aware of the reality they so desperately need you to not see, and alert others to it as well.

Realizing that, breaks it. There is another way, and it only requires your attention and willingness to consider and pursue questions to objective answers. Help others to see it too.

The truth has consequences. Recognizing that what is true, matters. Those who'd prefer to view you as Human Capital, know that too, and they fear it.

So now, with those cautions and points in mind, we can continue on and return to the post already in progress....

The 233rd Birthday of what we today are most dived over today: The Bill of Rights

233 years ago today, December 15th, 1791, our states united in ratifying the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America! How weird is it that many of the individual rights protected by these amendments as being essential to living in liberty - freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freeing religion from government interference - are what We The People are most divided over, and by, today? 

We should all pay especially close attention to the preamble that I've put in bold below - IOW: if our Founders didn't trust govt led by the Founding Fathers themselves... why should we trust the bunch we've got in our government(s) today?!

It's a convenient turn of providence that the first two amendments originally proposed, weren't ratified at the time (one of those two was ratified in the 1990's), because the keeping of government out of religion and its practice, and barring it from tampering with the freedom of speech, the press (which, BTW, doesn't exclude you), the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances should be the first set of individual rights protected from abuse by governmental powers (even and especially if the We The People are urging it to 'do something!' about something), followed immediately, as it now is, by the right to keep and bear arms in their defense, as the 1st & 2nd Amendments do. 

If you too would like to see our Bill of Rights enjoy many more birthdays, I strongly suggest that you click the links below, and read some of what was in our Founder's minds, when they proposed, debated, and ratified them.

Proposed Amendments and Ratification
1789 Elliot 1:338--40

Congress of the United States;

Begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday, the 4th of March, 1789.

The conventions of a number of the states having, at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added; and as extending the ground of public confidence in the government will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution;--

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the legislatures of the several states, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all or any of which articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said legislatures, to be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution, namely,--

Articles in Addition to, and Amendment of, the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the Fifth Article of the original Constitution.

Art. I. [Not Ratified] After the first enumeration required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than one hundred representatives, nor less than one representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of representatives shall amount to two hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred representatives, nor more than one representative for every fifty thousand.

Art. II. [Not ratified... for two centuries, now the 27th amendment] No law varying the compensation for services of the senators and representatives shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened.

Art. III.[1st] Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Art. IV [2nd]. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Art. V [3rd]. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner prescribed by law.

Art. VI [4th]. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue, but upon principal cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Art. VII [5th]. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service, in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject, for the same offence, to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

Art. VIII [6th]. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right of a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law; and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.

Art. IX [7th]. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reëxamined, in any court of the United States, than according to the rules in common law.

Art. X [8th]. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Art. XI [9th]. The enumeration, in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Art. XII [10th]. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states, respectively, or to the people.

FREDERICK AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

JOHN ADAMS, Vice-President of the United States,

and President of the Senate. 

Attest. John Beckley
Clerk of the House of Representatives.
Samuel A. Otis, Secretary of the Senate.
Which, being transmitted to the several state legislatures, were decided upon by them, according to the following returns:--

By the State of New Hampshire.--Agreed to the whole of the said amendments, except the 2d article.
By the State of New York.--Agreed to the whole of the said amendments, except the 2d article.
By the State of Pennsylvania.--Agreed to the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th articles of the said amendments.
By the State of Delaware.--Agreed to the whole of the said amendments, except the 1st article.
By the State of Maryland.--Agreed to the whole of the said twelve amendments.
By the State of South Carolina.--Agreed to the whole said twelve amendments.
By the State of North Carolina.--Agreed to the whole of the said twelve amendments.
By the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.--Agreed to the whole of the said twelve articles.
By the State of New Jersey.--Agreed to the whole of the said amendments, except the second article.
By the State of Virginia.--Agreed to the whole of the said twelve articles.
No returns were made by the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Georgia, and Kentucky.

The amendments thus proposed became a part of the Constitution, the first and second of them excepted, which were not ratified by a sufficient number of the state legislatures.


The Founders' Constitution
Volume 5, Bill of Rights, Document 12
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/bill_of_rightss12.html
The University of Chicago Press
Elliot, Jonathan, ed. The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution as Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. . . . 5 vols. 2d ed. 1888. Reprint. New York: Burt Franklin, n.d.

"Letgo of that Republic!' Gimme that...!"

"Letgo of that Republic!' Gimme that...!"

Part 14 of 22, from Exiting the Wizard's Circle of Economics

It wasn't long after Ben Franklin said that the Constitutional Convention had delivered:

"A Republic, madam, if you can keep it!"

, that some people began working to ensure that we would not be able to keep our republic, or the state of mind which makes one possible. That absence of mind is what the pro-regressive haters of wisdom (Misosophers) have been seeking after, and the fields of Education and Economics are what they saw as being the most effective avenues for loosening our grasp upon it, so as to separate us from what is real and true.

That alternative understanding is what John Dewey was describing and arguing for throughout his "Liberalism and Social Action" (and most everything else he wrote and 'taught'):

" Because the liberalism of the economists and the Benthamites was adapted to contemporary conditions in Great Britain, the influence of the liberalism of the school of Locke waned. By 1820 it was practically extinct. Its influence lasted much longer in the United States. "

, and he goes on to describe how through the efforts of Jeremy Bentham (Utilitarianism), J.S. Mill (Classical Liberalism), Comte (Positivism/Social Science), that slowly, progressively, changed:

"...Gradually a change came over the spirit and meaning of liberalism. It came surely, if gradually, to be disassociated from the laissez faire creed and to be associated with the use of governmental action for aid to those at economic disadvantage and for alleviation of their conditions. ..."

, and,

" Organized unity of action attended by consensus of beliefs will come about in the degree in which social control of economic forces is made the goal of liberal action. The greatest educational power, the greatest force in shaping the dispositions and attitudes of individuals, is the social medium in which they live. The medium that now lies closest to us is that of unified action for the inclusive end of a socialized economy."[emphasis mine]

, so that:

"The notion that organized social control of economic forces lies outside the historic path of liberalism shows that liberalism is still impeded by remnants of its earlier laissez faire phase, with its opposition of society and the individual. The thing which now dampens liberal ardor and paralyzes its efforts is the conception that liberty and development of individuality as ends exclude the use of organized social effort as means. Earlier liberalism regarded the separate and competing economic action of individuals as the means to social well-being as the end. We must reverse the perspective and see that socialized economy is the means of free individual development as the end."

What we who hope to keep our Republic need to understand, is that what lurks behind phrases such as: "... that socialized economy is the means...", are the ideas of Hume & Kant, which deliberately distance us from reality, through our own thoughts, thoughts which requires that any meaningful understanding of Individual Rights, must be evaded and denied at all costs, in order for it to be possible to urge that 'some' must be deprived of what is rightfully theirs. The results and purposes of such thoughts is nothing less than the means of weakening the good of all.

We need to understand that Liberalism (Liberty in practice) became the 'LINO' (Liberal in name only) of the modern Left, by dialectically paralyzing itself through its equivocating use of the 'greater good' in place of what is Good, that turned The Law into a means of depriving some of what is rightfully theirs as a sacrifice to the benefit of a partial 'all', which is in direct contradiction to the American understanding of individual rights, and as contradictions cannot exist, such unprincipled actions ensure only that the more consistently brutal will win out.

'Education', as led by the likes of John Dewey, was the person to person means, and 'Economics' as led by the likes of J.S. Mill, was the 'practical' means, of giving TURDS (The Umpires of Reasonable Discourse) the influence and authority to use governmental power to impose that 'change' which would progressively drain and undermine the moats and battlements of liberty that had been formed from our understanding of and respect for reality, individual rights, and the Rule of Law, so as to manage our lives 'for the greater good' (of the TURDS).

Similarly for the notion of 'individualism' when portrayed as a 'lone wolf' mindset (as advanced by both J.S. Mill and John Dewey), which is no more valid an alternative to, or in truth much different from, that of 'collectivism'. A coherent society can only be formed by multiple individuals consciously acting in concert with others, on the strength of what they've agreed to establish as the shared concepts, understanding, and recognition of what is real and true. That shared understanding is what makes it possible for them to form a system together, and is what makes living together in liberty possible, for all in that society.

It is important to recognize that a 'diversity' of antithetical principles, is far from being 'our strength', and is much closer to being a recipe for desolation and destruction. Likewise, society must recognize that tolerance should only be extended to those whose actions are tolerable - when those whose Common Sense has been so corrupted as to have made their behavior unfit to live in accordance with even a minimum of such expectations, they cannot and must not be tolerated. An is of behavior, must be recognized as leading to a justifiable ought.

At the risk of belaboring the point, Liberty by its very nature, cannot be whole or complete, until those common societal defenses are formed and maintained as the basis of accepted norms for its judicial system, which is entrusted to render justice in a manner that becomes durable across time, with reliable systems and rules for preserving and defending its people's lives, property, and rights, and resolving whatever disputes might arise over them, within laws that a civil society can prosper within. The effectiveness of those actions is limited by how well or poorly We The People observe and abide by what is real and true, while at the same time so long as they don't forcibly interfere in another's rightful choice or peace of mind, they remain at liberty to choose it.

No function can be legitimate - no matter what 'benefit' it promises - if it originates in the idea of taking actions that violate that liberty which is common to all - there can be no 'good' that can be served by that (or a 'right' to promote it without consequences).

Every additional feature added onto a society's form of government that might be prompted by conditions of either peril or prosperity in times of war or natural disaster, is and can only be legitimate so far as it passes that test, be it courts, legislators, police, military, school, etc. And no, the circumstances and actions required in legitimate emergencies, are not in conflict with a full and proper understanding of what is good for the individual and for the community, so long as that understanding is hierarchical and integrated, rather than the flattened spreadsheets of complicated and dis-integrated and mis-integrated lists that typify utilitarian positions and which are blind to both height, breadth, and depth of thought.

King of what goes unseen, is the question of how can those who know best, know best if they don't even know what you know about what's of value to you?! How do T.U.R.D.'s know better than you, your reasons for setting a price for your labor or product, or to decline what another is offering? 

And if they don't know your reasons, can they know any better the individual reasonings of those making up entire industries?

Can the words 'being certain' have any meaningful part in such goals, when 'certainty' is used to close off questions? And by what authority do they silence your right to set that price?

"Van? What do you mean by 'Silencing you'? Setting limits on 'fair wages & pricing' is not an issue of free speech!"

Oh really? When I say "It's not worth it to me to do X for that much", is that not expressing my judgement in words of what I've judged the value of an item presently is within the context of my life and interests? What is meaningfully changed by expressing that in an abbreviated form with a $ attached to it, so as to communicate the value it might have to you?

Your decision to set a price, is not only your statement of what in your judgment is a fitting value for a product or service, it's also an invitation to others to join in a discussion with you in order to come to an agreement over it. That mutual freedom of thought and action - liberty - is cancelled when you are both forbidden from doing so (see everything from 'minimum wage laws', to limits on stock trades).

How is forbidding you to give and defend your legitimate judgement, not silencing you? In forcing you to conform to the judgement of another - a bureaucrat or regulator no less - can be nothing but the deepest afront to Franklin's "This sacred Privilege is so essential to free Governments, that the Security of Property, and the Freedom of Speech always go together;"?!

The only answers that 'Economics' can offer, are necessarily utilitarian, and at best come down to 'Letting people do what tends to lead to productivity', which unavoidably comes down to ignoring or rejecting that revolutionary understanding which had formed our Founders' understanding of property, liberty, and the Rule of Law. Those concepts which were fundamental to their understanding of how our system would serve the 'Common Good', are being reverted back to the earlier seedy assertions of 'state craft', by disregarding the understanding of Political Economy that Jean Baptiste Say, and Frederich Bastiat (deTocqueville had some fine observations as well) had clarified.

The 'economic thinking' that blithely advocates for the social and governmental power to nudge, impose, force, every individual's actions to comply with what 'experts' have decided from the ignorance of a distance that's blind to what you can see firsthand, is of value, and insist instead that you should do [... Should...?] as they say, in regards to what is of concern to you in your life, is a thoroughly revisionist conception (and corruption) of the 'common good'/'greater good'. I identify that as being Pro-Regressive, as it necessarily entails a process of eliminating the unity of virtue, morality, ethics, and recognition and respect for reality, individual rights, and property, from consideration, so as to reduce matters to a transaction of quantities of usefulness as assessed by those TURDS in power.

To that, and to all other such acts of barbarity, I'm personally a hard 'Hell No!' on. And of course what makes that important, and why it's deliberately left unseen by 'economic thinkers', cannot be explained under the label of 'Economics'.

What is obviously seen in a moral, ethical, and judicial understanding, remains unseen to the economically minded, in that no systems - political, economic, or otherwise - can have a 'liberty' to deny the liberty of an individual who has not (criminally) violated the liberties of others, and no amount of calculated usefulness or efficiency or other diversions into complexity worship, can justify such unjust activities - and yet that is what is implicit in every aspect of 'economic thinking'.

The reality is that a common good must be common to all.

The reality is that a common good must be common to all.

Part 13 of 22, from Exiting the Wizard's Circle of Economics

So in this metaphysical whirlwind of a tour of how a respect for what is real and true can lead to well ordered and prudent thinking, we've also glimpsed how easily it can be undone. Those who do manage a sound philosophical framework, are better equipped to imagine living in a civil society, and begin conceiving of what would be required for such a society to sustain and maintain itself across time, without it at the same time becoming a powerful threat to them.

Man is a political animal. We naturally want to live in society with others, while at the same time we also want reasonable boundaries of separation between us and them; those who do care about what's real and true and about each other as well, are a people whose thoughts will bring them around to the idea of Individual Rights.

By focusing on the essentials, we can thumbnail how the reality of what is real and true, reveals and defines the concept of Individual Rights. Because it's rooted in the nature of being human (an expanded version of this here, and here), growing out of those actions which the reality of living as a human being requires a person to choose to perform. We must be able to engage in:

• thought,
• speech,
• association,
• action,
• the developing of convictions and abilities needed to identify what you value,
• the need to defend what you value against those adverse conditions and predators that may arise

, no one could be expected to live a fully human life without the ability to take such actions.

That is not only an undeniable truth, it's one that is true here, there, and everywhere there are human beings, and everywhen across time, and it is so because they are human beings first. It's true in the same way, for everyone, regardless of their environment or circumstances.

IOW: The need to take these actions is a central fact of Human Nature, that is expressed through an uncorrupted Common Sense.

What does vary by place and circumstance, is how well people recognize and respect these realities, , and whether we differentiate a sound we all hear as being only noise, or have developed the ability to identify that sound as C or C# Minor, both are done so with respect to what is real and true for all. Yet however that might be reflected in a society, the fact remains that human nature requires people to be able to take those actions that the nature of being human demands of them. To deny and/or deprive someone of the ability to do so, is at the very least, immoral, and it will foolishly deprive them of the 'Wealth of Nations'.

Shorter version: Individual Rights are what results from recognizing the logical consequences of creatures employing their Free Will in a rational respect for reality and the value of each person which was the gift of Judeo-Christian religion, truth and understanding will be recognized as the most vital tools of survival.

As that becomes understood, the reciprocal nature of individual rights becomes self-evident, and for that to be followed, we must apply it as a principle:

Individual Rights must be recognized and respected for every member of a society, or else no one can have a reasonable expectation of enjoying them.

Far from being the random whims of popular fancies or the privileges of a powerful few, each person has a responsibility to recognize that their own individual rights depend upon their respecting the same of everyone else in their society. Valuing the ability to live your own life, requires abiding by the principle of not treading upon another in exercising their rights, and also not advocating for or tolerating those of your fellows - friends or not - doing so to others you don't like. Unless those who constitute your community are committed to respecting and upholding the principle of individual rights for every individual in that community, then everyone will soon find themselves back to being only as free as their own muscles 'tooth & claw' can manage by force to keep the predators - animals or human - at bay - which is the norm that those who seek power, truly crave - across time.

That understanding is and must be a common understanding and highest value in a society - an actual Common Good - if that society is expected to be of value to its people.

To repudiate human nature, turns your own nature against yourself and humanity.

To effectively practice that principle requires two other features, because simply understanding that cannot provide the means of sustaining that sentiment in the face of the disagreements - honest and otherwise - that are sure to arise amongst people. Communities first need to establish a reasonable system for justly resolving the disputes and deliberate violations of those rights that may arise between individuals. Doing so requires a clear set of rules of engagement between people, that will be recognized and enforced by the people as a whole, and that is the basis of a Rule of Law, within a system for formulating and implementing them, which is the role of a Judicial System.

To go beyond an authoritarian sense of 'maintaining order', that system needs to have a deserved reputation for ensuring that all parties to a dispute will have the opportunity to make their best case, and have it honestly considered, according to written rules that are clear, reasonable, and applied equally to all without prejudice or preference, so that each party can agree that a judgement was fairly made, even when it goes against them.

While living in society naturally provides us with neighbors, it is only from orderly thinking that is centered around a respect for what is real and true, that the idea that 'good walls build good neighbors' will emerge, which is what the idea of the Rule of Law is meant to embody. The Law enables society's individuals to unite into one body politic, while upholding and defending the Individual Rights of all its members, provides the separation which preserves them as Individuals within that society, and as with 'Good walls make good neighbors', a healthy sense of individualism simultaneously recognizes the separation that individual rights affords them, and at the same time embraces the community which makes that possible.

It should be equally self-evident that for such a system to be practical, the people of the community must have the manners, morals, understanding, respect and reverence for what is real and true, that is necessary for sustaining it, which is what's behind John Adams comment that:

“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Our inalienable rights have and can only have real substance, by forming a community of people who have the manners, morals, and knowledge that equips them to understand their importance. Only in such a society that values each person, individually and in society together, can the concept of Liberty begin to arise, or long remain.

The 'lone wolf' image of liberty, is not only hogwash, it is a dialectical attack upon both Individuality and Liberty as such.

The third item required (in addition to law and morality), is one additional component - or rather recognizing its presence in the first two - that's needed in order to tie those abstractions of morality and law into the reality of day-to-day life, and that's the concept of Property, as understood in James Madison's brief essay on it.

The ability to respect another person's property - what they have property in - is what results from the people of a moral and lawful society recognizing and upholding the individual rights of its people. That tripartite awareness strengthens the bonds of trust between them, both protecting and encouraging their ability to make individual decisions within society, which enables them to enjoy living lives worth living.

Those are the blessing of liberty, and that is what enables happiness to become a normal aspiration in society, and a sound respect for law, morality, and property, are indispensable to that.

Liberty is a result of all of its working parts. That is the understanding that formed the bedrock of anglo-American law, which Lord Coke had expressed as :

"Everyman's home is his castle!"

, it's what enables it to have meaning, and it does so because the manners and morals of the people and their respect for the inseparability of individual rights/property rights, enables their laws to form the walls & battlements of each person's castle - but those battlements can only be as sound and sturdy as their understanding of the principles they rest upon.

It's at that level that those actions necessary for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are understood to be inalienable rights in our Declaration of Independence, and why our Bill of Rights forbid our government from making any laws - no matter their intent to aid or protect - that would infringe upon our individual ability to take those actions or to be secure in the property and relations that are the fruits of them (see the bullet points above... or James Madison's veto message).

For that reason I do not agree with a recently popular notion, especially popular amongst libertarians, that our Declaration of Independence would have been improved if Thomas Jefferson had used the phrase 'life, liberty, and property', instead of 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. Indeed, if our society, or any other, attempted to begin with (or revert us back to) the denuded notion of 'property' as an empirical factoid denoting physical possession alone (as utilitarians and 'classical liberals' like J.S. Mill would have it), rather than its being that crucial point which integrates the intersection of thought, action, and consequence, without which that society would be unlikely to lead to anything more than a crude and glittery form of barbarism which might blaze brightly, and briefly, but would surely burn itself out soon enough.

Liberty is not simply 'Individualism' (which in its narrow sense views human nature as being just as malleable as collectivism does, but on a smaller scale), and it's damn sure not 'Collectivism', it is what results from recognizing how individuals are able to live together in liberty, as a society which they all share in. Healthy individualism, simultaneously involves recognizing how people being able to act on their judgement, contributes to their community ('The Wealth of Nations'), and recognizes how the individual depends upon the community protecting their ability to do so - just as 'good walls make good neighbors', walls and neighbors give meaning and definition to each other - and in that sense, Liberty, is what results from a philosophical, societal, and religious union, of the proper relationship between individual and community - the one in the many.

The thoughtless savage - whether a Rousseauian savage, or J.S. Mill's savage 'individualist' - due to the paucity of their own conceptual development, never has and never will be able to engage in liberty, for as Edmund Burke said, 'their passions form their fetters'. They can know nothing more than the sparsest freedom of the moment, a moment that's always in peril, for if like Hume, they too cast their abstractions into the fire, then fire and strife becomes their sole destination.

That, all of that, is the basis for that real Good which a legitimate government should exist to uphold and preserve a judicial framework for. That sense of good is what is and should be common to all, and intentionally depriving some people of any part of it, diminishes the good - weakens the fortifications of everyone's castle - and cannot be 'for' a common good, or any 'good' at all.

Nothing can be said to be for the 'common good' or for the 'Greater Good', which begins by undermining, denying, ignoring or eliminating, the fundamental principles which make it possible for what is good, to become the common baseline which that society exists to preserve.

From that realization, should come a redoubled respect for what is real and true, and recognizing how central Truth must be to the enjoyment of liberty, comes additional reverence for it, which puts down sturdy roots for morality and conforming 'the pursuit of happiness' to them. There should also come a redoubled anger towards those who'd push the passive aggressive assault upon what is real and true that is relativism - 'your truth isn't my truth' - you should recognize the violent attack upon all you hold dear, which such sentiments as that undoubtedly are.

...notations from The Palmer Worm

That Common Sense view is not only the worldview that our Founders founded America upon, it is the worldview that enabled our Founders to found it. That worldview is what we need to fight to restore our understanding of, so that our society, laws, and governance, can endure - as Franklin said: 'A Republic, madam, if you can keep it!'.