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War Is A Racket: A Few Profit, the Many Pay

4/1/2022

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In the 1930s, a retired Marine Corps General made a speaking tour of America. His message? War is racket. This was unusual enough that it created quite a stir at the time, and General Smedley Butler's message is so important and revealing that it is still often discussed, especially among anti-war and critical thinkers, almost 100 years later. 

Smedley Butler was one of the most decorated generals in American history, having served during the Mexican Revolution and World War I. He won 15 medals, including five for heroism, and the Medal of Honor twice. 
Butler's moral courage was a match for his physical courage. When he retired from the military, he took the unusual step of pointing out that war is a racketeering scheme in his 1935 book, War is a Racket. What did he mean by this?

I have been planning to write this post for for several years, but it seems especially timely now with the war in Ukraine happening. In what follows, I will break down Butler's message and explain why it is the key to understanding the deeper reasons (with rare exceptions) that nations go to war, along with the true costs of war to regular people.
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This One Idea Explains Most of What is Wrong With Politics

9/21/2020

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Why do governments tend to become more corrupt over time? It turns out that the best answer to this question may have been floating around for over 100 years, and I think everybody should know about it. 


“Who says organization, says oligarchy," states Robert Michels, a German historian who produced one of the most scathing assessments of government ever written. He argues that bureaucracy and democracy don't mix. Michels is best known for the ingenious Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy, published in 1915. The book positively begs us to examine the maxim that power corrupts, and to seriously consider if democracy is nothing more than a idealistic impossibility. 
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Oligarchy is defined as rule by an elite or privileged few. Today people often use the word oligarchy to refer to a leadership class of corporate plutocrats, but what is less understood is how oligarchies form. Oligarchy is rule by a few to be sure. However, the concept of oligarchy in Michels' lexicon - the “Iron Law of Oligarchy,” - is both an explanation for how oligarchies originate, as well as a compelling critique of the inherently flawed structure of all forms of democratic government itself.  
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Read These 5 Books For a Deeper Understanding of Politics

7/31/2020

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This being an election year in the United States, and given the dismal state of political discourse, I felt inclined to share this list of 5 books that have changed my perspective on politics. 

These books​ are part of the reason that I stopped looking at politics in partisan terms. (The other reason is that I've worked to develop a more Socratic temperament where I try to look at the other side(s) of any argument.)

​A partisan perspective is actually a severe handicap when it comes to examining politics, because partisanism creates a false dichotomy where we tend to ignore alternative or conflicting information. When we think that "This is my party/preffered media outlet and I agree with what they do and say," this mindset compels us to just scratch the surface of what is really going on.

​If we want a real understanding of politics, we need to dig deeper, and that's where this list comes in. Here are the best 5 books to read for a deeper understanding of politics: 



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