Liberty Summer Seminar - Huddle in the Hinterland

LSS 2011 under the tent

Last weekend I had the privilege of learning about liberty in the country side of Southern Ontario. Just under 100 people, Canadians, Americans, even a few Europeans, all with a deep appreciation of liberty, gathered in the woods near Orono. It was the Eleventh Annual Liberty Summer Seminar (LSS) sponsored by the Institute for Liberal Studies.

This years edition of the LSS was in jeopardy at one point. Some local politicians were determined to close it down because of arcane bylaw regulations. Thanks to widespread support, legal help from the CCF, and a municipal election that ultimately turfed out most of the offending politicians, the 2011 LSS went ahead.

From a personal point of view it's always reassuring to be in the company of other libertarians, sure there are still arguments, but they seem much more productive and satisfying.

In many ways this seminar is like an annual renewal for those attending. Friendships are renewed, ideas are exchanged, passion and determination are refreshed, and the annual downpour has a cleansing effect. It did pour, but not for long.

My plan is, to post several times over the course of the next week or so, highlighting some of the speakers and stories that were observed during the 2011 LSS, and the first one will be about a debate - "Should libertarians become involved in politics?" 

The Cassandra Syndrome

The Procession of the Trojan Horse in Troy
by Domenico Tiepolo (1773)

A comment by an economist with apparent Austrian School leanings, has prompted this posting.That economist was frustrated because he says he can explain the current economic malaise/crisis in Austrian terms, but no one either believes or listens to what he is saying. He likens his plight to that of Cassandra, of Greek mythology.
Cassandra of course foresaw the destruction of Troy and the death of Agamemnon, commander of the Greek army, but no one believed her. In the current context it's a situation that many of us can sympathize with and it has been named the Cassandra Syndrome. The Urban Dictionary defines Cassandra Syndrome as:
1) The condition of speaking the truth and having no one believe you.
2) The condition of being able to predict the future, be it the outcome of a particular event, or the reactions of others to the same event, and having no one believe your prophecy until it transpires.
3) Being able to see or understand things long before others, often resulting in them coming to the same conclusions long after your own initial analysis.
This morning, CBC Radio News reported on the FOX sponsored Iowa Republican Party nominees debate. In that report, Michelle Bachmann was mentioned, Mitt Romney was mentioned, and so on, not a word about candidate Ron Paul of course. To be fair most of the other candidates were not mentioned, but Ron Paul exemplifies the meaning of Cassandra Syndrome exactly. He is the only candidate that calls for peace, liberty, and limiting the power of government. He needs to be heard, to be listened to, and to be supported. Watch and listen to his answers, a Cassandra if ever there was one.

   

Freckles on the sun

Astronomy was one of my first loves. The wonder of it is how much we don't know and are still finding out. There are far, far, more planets around distant suns than you or I can imagine..........watch.

Crash....and reboot!

Disturbing..........

Your life after death.....digitally.

So what happens to our digital life after we are gone? Adam Ostrow, a journalist, argues that we all have one thing in common, we will all die. Then what? Will our blogs be erased? Will our status updates on Facebook indicate the moment of death? Will we live on as part of the ever growing "cloud?" All good questions, a bit morbid maybe, but interesting.

What should be cut?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about "The curse of the spendthrift legislators." Governments everywhere in the 'first world' have racked up huge debts, primarily because they have ventured into areas they do not belong. Governments at all levels have some legitimate functions in libertarian philosophy. Most of these proper functions can be classified broadly as protecting our rights without impinging on our liberties, including economic freedoms.
So now that the government spending pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction everywhere, how can it be reversed?  As an example on a smaller scale, the link above mentions that the City of Toronto has a budget shortfall for next year of three quarters of a billion dollars. So city councillors are faced with cutting costs or raising taxes....a lot. What to do? One of the many suggestions in a report produced by KPMG for the city was to cut library services. You might imagine the hue and cry and that was elicited from the statist community for that one.
Realistically there is no way city government (or any government) will revert to the libertarian ideal in the near future. Our only hope is that government makes moves in the direction of more liberty. Two articles by Larry Solomon of the National Post suggest how this may be done. The first here, deals with the KPMG report and its effect on services. The second here, addresses the library questions and the perception that the cuts will somehow encourage widespread ignorance. Both articles offer interesting alternatives.   

Triple-A reality check

Today stock markets around the world resembled that ship over there, and that was after last week, a bad week. Standard and Poor's downgraded US credit on Friday after the markets closed, and all weekend media types were waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, it's dropping, but maybe not yet completely dropped.
The media are portraying this as a debt crisis, POTUS Obama calls it a crisis in political will. No matter, things won't start improving until and unless everyone agrees that this is actually a spending crisis. It didn't start with Obama, or Bush 2, the problem  is chronic and widespread across the planet at all levels of government. Spending at a greater rate than income creates debt, its very simple, any household is aware of this reality. Why governments have the right to spend more than they have, is a great question, maybe for another time.
Canada lost its Aaa rating in 1992, and it was not reinstated until years later, after the Chretien-Martin Liberals actually downsized the Canadian Federal government. This downsize, that began about 15 years ago, is the reason most commentators say that Canada is doing so much better than the US and the other G7 economies at the moment.
So the reality is that a country functions better when it's spending is under control, and when its government shrinks giving the population more of its own discretionary income. Job creation is better, the monetary system is better and the future is brighter. That is the reality. 

Hyperinflation by fiat

Fiat currency or money, is money that has value only because of government regulation or law. That means there is no tangible commodity that the money can exchanged for, except its equivalent value in other denominations. So, one American dollar will get you four quarters made of some base metal combination, which at least has some heft to it. That is the law in the U. S., but once an American dollar was worth a pre-determined amount of gold, and then things changed.
The bill pictured is 1 x 10 to the 14th Zimbabwean dollars - one hundred trillion Zim dollars. Today, that bill is worth about $5.00 Canadian/US, as a collectors item. In 2008 that amount would purchase a cart of groceries, while 700 Billion Zim Dollars bought a loaf of bread. That's what happens when a currency collapses and hyperinflation ensues.
As posted here, the average life expectancy of a fiat currency is 27 years and as Stefan Molyneux explains in a recent posting below, the world's current reserve currency, the U. S. dollar, may be nearing the end of its life expectancy.

"Our genes talking"

Humans are successful because we have developed "social learning" and have used language to impart that learning to others.
Language is used to unite us, and divide us, and it has transformed humanity more than anything we possess.

Your government = your mommy

Don't touch those potato chips! Put down that can of soda pop! The government KNOWS whats best for you, trust them.
Seems to me, with all the things government is expected to do, chastising people for bad habits is one less thing it should be doing. Come to think of it, with the huge debts being accumulated by all levels of government on our behalf, there are too many things governments are doing. People should be responsible for themselves as much as possible, don't you think?