sábado, 20 de mayo de 2017

Here are this weeks Mises Wire articles, covering a wide array of topics


The Latest from Mises.org


The Week in Review: May 20, 2017



The tsunami of government spending and easy-money monetary policy shows no sign of letting up. In spite of many claims of strong economic growth, the world's central banks refuse to do much at all in terms of scaling back their huge balance sheets or their rock-bottom interest rates. Not coincidentally, household debt has now returned to pre-recession levels in the US while government spending on everything from firemen to foreign wars continues unabated.

And not surprisingly, well-funded governments have all the money they need to put more non-violent people in jail, as AG Jess Sessions wants to do, and expand the drug war even over the protests of the states themselves.

The Mises Institute is excited to return to Seattle this weekend, discussing the "House of Cards: Has the US Economy Recovered?" Our terrific lineup of speakers include: Doug Casey, Tom Woods, Walter Block, Bob Murphy, and Jeff Deist. 

If you can’t attend the event in person, watch it live at Mises.org/live.

And in case you missed them, here are this weeks Mises Wire articles, covering a wide array of topics including libertarianism, US household debt on the rise, entrepreneurship, Venezuela's decline, net neutrality, behind the doors of our fire departments, the war on drugs, and the absurd laws governing paddleboarding.

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A world where humanity relies on a giant machine to provide their needs ...



No Ghost in the MachineThe global cyber-attack poses questions about our modern helplessness.



Image result for “The Machine Stops,” by E. M. Forster

It doesn’t take a concerted cyber-attack for Britain’s National Health Service to cancel operations: a neighbor, an 86-year-old lady, has so far been called to the hospital three times to have her hip replaced, only for the operation to be postponed at the last moment each time, while she remains in obvious agony. Nevertheless, the cyber-attacks affected the NHS, as well as large companies around the world. And even if they turn out to have been less devastating than the headlines initially suggested (at the turn of the millennium, airplanes were going to fall from the skies because of computer failure, but never did), the fear they evoked brings to mind a remarkable short story, “The Machine Stops,” by E. M. Forster, published in 1909.

One normally associates Forster with the trembling of genteel emotions rather than with apocalyptic visions. But in this story, set at some unspecified time in the distant future, Forster brilliantly intuited certain modern developments in the life of our species. In Forster’s dystopian tale, everyone lives in underground cells, on his own. Everything one needs is delivered on electronic command, by the simple press of a button; all food is highly processed. The air-flow is controlled and invariant. There is no need or desire to leave one’s cell and no contact with the world of nature, which is viewed with horror.

People have a horror of personal contact and communicate with one another purely by means of electronic screens. They can isolate themselves by turning their screens off; they can choose to communicate with a single person, or with many, who are their “friends.” They have a terror of silence; music is pumped into their cells. Attention spans have declined, so that a ten-minute broadcast lecture seems exceptionally long. People have no religion, but they regard the Machine that brings them everything they need, the operation of which they do not understand, and which appears to be self-reparative, with an almost mystical veneration. There are various anonymous levels of administration of the Machine, which appear to be in control of it, but which in reality are not.

Then the Machine starts to break down. At first, relatively minor malfunctions occur, but before long, the Machine falls apart completely. Panic and death ensue because no one knows any longer how to do anything for himself—not even where to find water.

How far from this situation are we? We often hear that the supply chain of food for modern cities would last only three days in the event of a serious interruption. A surveyor recently came to my house in France to map out a new chemin communal (right-of-way footpath) on my land. He did it entirely by satellite, and was young enough never to have learned how to use tape measures or theodolites. When the computers went down for three days, he had nothing to do.

Does the Machine exist, and if it does, could it break down? If it broke down, what would happen to us? It is an oddity that we all love apocalyptic visions, though not apocalypses themselves.

Theodore Dalrymple is a contributing editor of City Journal and the author of many books, including Not with a Bang but a Whimper: The Politics and Culture of Decline.



"The Machine Stops" is a science fiction short story (12,300 words) by E. M. Forster. After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review (November 1909), the story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. 

After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthologyModern Short Stories.[1] 

In 1973 it was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.

The story, set in a world where humanity lives underground and relies on a giant machine to provide their needs, predicted technologies such as instant messaging and the Internet.


Source: en.wikipedia.org/



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The decline in priests is pronounced in Europe, while Africa is viewed as hub of future priests


NEW VATICAN REPORT: GLOBAL DECLINE IN PRIESTS
by Trey Elmore


The decline is pronounced in Europe, while Africa is viewed as hub of future priests

Recently published documents out of the Vatican are painting a bleak picture for the growth of the Church, showing an overall decline in the number of seminarians, priests and women religious all over the world. The documents, known as the Pontifical Yearbook 2017 and the 2015 Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae, were published by the Vatican's Central Office of Church Statistics on April 6.

Globally, the Catholic Church lost 136 priests between 2014 and 2015. Localized trends by continent are negative for Europe, highly positive for Africa and Asia, and slightly positive for America and Oceania (what the Vatican calls Australia and other islands of the central Pacific Ocean). There has been an upward trend in priests globally since the year 2000, making this decline, though slight, the first reported global decline of the 21st century.

The report correctly identifies the places that are the hardest hit as the Americas and Europe, while Africa is a hot spot for future vocations: "The sole exception remains Africa, which does not yet seem to be affected by the crisis in vocations and is confirmed as the geographical area with the greatest potential."

The number of seminarians reported by the Vatican, however, has been in decline since 2011, although the 2014–2015 difference of 96 fewer is shallow compared to the 2,000-a-year drop that has been the pattern from 2011 to 2014. Taking into account what the 2015 trends look like relative to previous years since the turn of the century, raw numbers of priests and seminarians from year to year show fewer and fewer priests available to serve Catholics.

The Vatican highlights this bigger picture: "Taking into consideration the relationship between the number of baptized Catholics present in the various continental areas and the number of priests, it can be seen that, while in 2010 an average of 2,900 Catholics were attributed to each priest, in 2015 this ratio rises to 3,091."

The Vatican report goes on to point out what it calls a "clear decline" in the number of both men and women religious. The number of religious sisters in the world dropped by more than 50,000 from 2010 to 2015. Africa and Asia are observing increases in sisters, while every other continent is witnessing decline. The report describes the trends in Europe, North America and Oceania as "sharp declines." In February, Church Militant reported on a six-year flatline of religious vocations in the United States.

Focusing on the United States, Church Militant has published a series of pieces highlighting how the priest shortage and attendant decline in sacramental participation is coming home to roost in dioceses across the country. Dioceses are hurting, including Pittsburgh, Sioux City and, most recently, the diocese of Hartford, which announced a round of parish closings on May 7. On May 16, the diocese of Scranton announced its plans to sell its seminary facility to the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.

While the number of baptized Catholics has grown, the number of priests being ordained out of that growing pool of baptized Catholic men has not only stagnated, but dropped. According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown, while the number of Catholics connected to a parish has grown to almost 70 million, the number of diocesan priests has droppedby 10,000, from approximately 35,000 nationally to approximately 25,000.





PRAYER FOR PRIESTS


  • Lord Jesus, you have chosen your priests from among us and sent them out to proclaim your word and to act in your name. 
  • For so great a gift to your Church, we give you praise and thanksgiving. 
  • We ask you to fill them with the fire of your love, that their ministry may reveal your presence in the Church. 
  • Since they are earthen vessels, we pray that your power shine out throught their weakness. 
  • In their afflictions let them never be crushed; in their doubts never despair; in temptation never be destroyed; in persecution never abandoned. 
  • Inspire them through prayer to live each day the mystery of your dying and rising. 
  • In times of weakness send them your Spirit, and help them to praise your heavenly Father and pray for poor sinners. 
  • By the same Holy Spirit put your words on their lips and your love in their hearts, to bring good news to the poor and healing to the brokenhearted. 
  • And may the gift of Mary your mother, to the disciple whom you loved, be your gift to every priest. 
  • Grant that she who formed you in her human image, may form them in your divinee image, by the power of your Spirit, to the glory of God the Father.

Amen

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The Benedict Option does not have the substance, unity, and goal of the Benedictine ideal that set the world on fire with the love of God.

"The Imaginative Conservative" 

Essays of the Week

by John Horvat
One of the problems with the Benedict Option is that it is "Benedict lite." If there was someone who did not exercise the Benedict Option, it was Saint Benedict himself. The Benedict Option does not have the substance, unity, and goal of the Benedictine ideal that set the world on fire with the love of God. It does not aspire to the grand objectives that made the Benedictine model the center of culture and the foundation of Christian Europe. It is merely an option, or rather many options, one can entertain inside the storm. In postmodern terms, it represents the unraveling of a dominant metanarrative into many fragments and shards... 
[MORE]
by Christopher Morrissey
It is Roger Scruton’s challenge to modern architecture not only to provoke, but also to persuade. One considerable merit of Sir Roger’s devotion to beauty lies in his ability to get people to actually perceive their environment, as if for the first time. They have been living among ruins, and yet, for the most part, have been blind to its entirely unnecessary ugliness. The aesthetic vocabulary that would preserve a connection with the nature of things is abandoned in modern architecture. Thoughts about higher things are not easily enabled by an environment crassly utilitarian or transgressive. No such thoughts can take wing when the forms in which we dwell embody far more of the temporary than of the permanent...
[MORE]
by Bradley J. Birzer
Robert A. Nisbet believed that the primary purpose of the university was “strictly intellectual, but beyond this it is a mission of disseminating intellectual values to the widest possible audience, to the largest possible public.”The manifestation of genius in the university is simply an added benefit, not a primary purpose of the institution. Instead, the purpose of the university is to preserve the great ideas of the past and to introduce the present generation to timeless conversations, thus preserving such wisdom for countless and unknown future generations...
[MORE]
by Glen A. Sproviero
The genuine conservative is not motivated by fear, avarice, or power. The very constitution of his being is directed toward the perfection of his soul, yet he does not hesitate to distill his principles into judgments regarding public affairs. Rejecting the promises of false idols and the prophets of a decadent culture, he confronts the conjurers of political turmoil with imagination and hope. He does not retreat from the battle of ideas, for he knows, with Edmund Burke, that “when bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle”...
[MORE]
by John Willson
The theme of Man of the House is that the Great Progressive Fallacy—the individual is the moral center of the culture, and that the state is the individual’s protector—serves only the forces of destruction. The author would not argue with the notion that the immortal soul is the unit of salvation. But the individual personality is not, therefore, the end of life as we live it this world that is falling apart. Things that are important start, rather, in the household—things like liberty and happiness and virtue—and it is, therefore, critical that we are taught and later teach what constitutes the kind of household most likely to achieve important results...
[MORE]
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La prima Camera di Commercio gay friendly, per volontà di un gruppo di imprenditori gay e imprenditrici lesbiche


Propaganda gay: nasce in Italia la Camera di Commercio delle imprese gay friendly

da Luca Romani


La propaganda gay, come è noto, agisce su più livelli: giuridico, sociale, politico ed anche economico. L’ultima iniziativa riguarda infatti proprio il settore delle imprese con il lancio in Italia di Iglbc, sigla indicante la prima Camera di Commercio gay friendly, sorta per volontà di un gruppo di imprenditori gay e imprenditrici lesbiche.

L’idea di base, come si legge nel comunicato, è che “le discriminazioni sessuali sul lavoro non solo siano in giuste, ma anche antieconomiche: la perdita può arrivare infatti anche all’1,7% del PIL di un Paese. Ecco perché ora anche in Italia il mondo dell’impresa si apre al coming out e alla manifestazione dell’identità, sulla scia di esperienze analoghe nel mondo”.

L’iniziativa italiana segue l’esempio di altre realtà internazionali come l’americana NGLCC (National gay and lesbian Chamber of Commerce), alla quale aderiscono soggetti importanti come Facebook, Jp Morgan ed altri.

L’obiettivo è quello di mettere in campo una vera e propria azione di lobbying volta a promuovere le istanze arcobaleno.

Tra gli ispiratori figurano Justin Nelson, imprenditore gay statunitense, ideatore del movimento negli Stati Uniti e Angelo Caltagirone, promotore dell’iniziativa italiana già presidente di Edge, come si legge sul sito “la prima lobby italiana di professionisti, imprenditori e manager GLBT per il riconoscimento della ricchezza nella diversità“.

Fra i servizi offerti dalla Iglbc, si apprende sempre dal comunicato, vi saranno “la certificazione anti-discriminazione, una piattaforma di business interattiva, servizi di training, consulenza legale e fiscale, fino ad un progetto di incubatore per start up“.

Il piano di normalizzazione dell’omosessualità allarga dunque, ulteriormente, i propri tentacoli andando a costituire un network di imprese unite tra loro più dagli obiettivi ideologici che da quelli di business.


Leggi tutto: www.osservatoriogender.it

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    La réalité de l’influence maçonnique: son identité, son fonctionnement, son but et certaines de ses techniques à l´œuvre


    L’influence de la franc-maçonnerie sur l’élaboration de la norme sous la Vème République

    Lire ici le document

    C'est une thèse de droit de plus de 400 pages accessible en ligne, soutenue le 7 décembre 2016 à l'Université Paris II par Diane-Marie Palacio-Russo. Dans son résumé, elle écrit :


    "Les lois relatives à la contraception, à l’interruption volontaire de grossesse ou encore, plus récemment, à la bioéthique ou à l’interdiction du voile intégral sont pourtant toutes réputées avoir reçu le soutien de la franc-maçonnerie. De la pure et simple rédaction dans des loges d’un texte voté ultérieurement, à la fameuse coalition parlementaire, sans oublier les innombrables ministres réputés maçons, l’influence des obédiences prendrait des formes diverses.

    Ce travail a pour objet de démontrer la réalité de cette influence tout en en déterminant les spécificités : son identité, son fonctionnement, mais aussi son but et certaines de ses techniques la distinguent des autres auteurs d’influence. Ensuite, cette recherche s’attache à vérifier l’adéquation de la qualification de groupe d’intérêt que revendique la maçonnerie. 

    La démarche adoptée emprunte aux outils proposés par la sociologie juridique, l’influence de la maçonnerie apparaissant comme un phénomène social, comptant parmi les causes de ces lois. 

    En outre, le recours aux données statistiques, comparatives, historiques, à l’entretien, ainsi qu’à la légistique a permis de pallier les lacunes qu’auraient laissées les seules recherches bibliographiques."

    Et en voici la conclusion :


    "La première question à laquelle notre étude nous imposait de répondre était celle de la réalité de l’influence maçonnique. Ainsi, après avoir identifié la maçonnerie comme un véritable auteur de pressions, disposant d’outils uniques mais non moins efficaces, nous avons démontré la cohérence de son œuvre législative. Celle-ci apparaît entièrement dévouée au service de la promotion de l’idéologie du progrès. Ensuite, une analyse des travaux préparatoires des principaux textes auxquelles elle a contribué, a permis de distinguer ses techniques spécifiques d’influence.

    Ensuite, se posait la question de la qualification de cette influence dont la réalité ne pouvait plus être contestée. A cet égard, nous avons pu constater qu’elle revendiquait elle- même la qualification de lobby. Les causes de cette revendication résident essentiellement dans l’évolution qu’a connue cette pratique, passant d’un statut ingrat, teinté de suspicion, à un véritable facteur de légitimité de la présence d’acteurs externes aux côtés du législateur. La justification d’une telle affirmation devait donc être vérifiée. Nos développements nous ont permis de déterminer que si la maçonnerie n’apparaissait pas comme un auteur « classique » de pressions, elle appartenait néanmoins à la catégorie, croissante dans son importance, des lobbyistes idéologiques. L’enjeu de cette qualification aurait pu paraître dérisoire il y a quelques années, mais le besoin, toujours plus pressant, de transparence a donné naissance à un corps de règles applicables aux auteurs d’influence. Néanmoins, l’analyse qui précède aura permis de mettre en exergue, outre son caractère embryonnaire, l’inadéquation de ce régime à cette pratique particulière du lobbying.

    La démonstration de la réalité d’une influence de la maçonnerie sous la Vème République et de son rattachement à la catégorie des groupes de pression à caractère idéologique gagne en intérêt si celle-ci ne fait pas que s’inscrire dans l’histoire. Or c’est là une question que soulève l’intérêt que la maçonnerie s’est toujours attachée à défendre. Une fois les grands chantiers qu’ont représenté la libéralisation sexuelle, les lois de bioéthique ou encore l’interdiction du port des signes religieux à l’école achevés, quelles conquêtes s’ouvrent encore à la maçonnerie ? En réalité, il apparaît que le législateur n’a pas toujours, sur ces points, totalement satisfait les maçons. En effet, alors que la question de lafin de vie est à nouveau débattue devant les assemblées, la maçonnerie souhaiterait que des dispositions plus libérales soient adoptées. La laïcité, également, ne semble pas totalement achevée. Certains territoires constituent des enjeux avoués de la maçonnerie actuelle, à l’instar de l’Alsace-Moselle, soumise aujourd’hui encore au Concordat, ou de Mayotte, où, comme l’écrit le professeur Michel VERPEAUX, « La départementalisation [...] organisée sur une longue période de vingt à trente ans [...] ne peut être assimilée à une sorte de coup de baguette magique qui transformerait la citrouille en carrosse. Des efforts d’adaptation sont nécessaires, qu’il s’agisse de l’établissement d’un état civil fiable, de l’extinction de l’activité judiciaire des cadis, de l’enseignement et de la maîtrise de la langue française [...] et de la place de la femme dans la société mahoraise. ». Pour arriver à ses fins, elle devra surmonter un obstacle majeur, sa diversité, qui l’a parfois empêchée d’adopter une position unique, comme lors du débat relatif au mariage pour tous. En effet, bien qu’elle se vante de pouvoir livrer une réflexion échappant aux contingences politiques (immédiateté, fidélité à la ligne d’un parti...), elle est parfois rattrapée par ses clivages."


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    Le pape émérite Benoît XVI a rédigé une post-face pour la prochaine édition de "La Force du Silence" du cardinal Sarah.



    Benoît XVI : "Avec le cardinal Sarah, la liturgie est en bonnes mains."

    Nous devons être reconnaissants au pape François d'avoir nommé un maître spirituel à la tête de la congrégation responsable de la célébration de la liturgie dans l'Église. 

    Traduction de Benoît-et-moi :


    "Déjà quand je lisais les lettres de saint Ignace d'Antioche dans les années 1950, un passage de sa lettre aux Ephésiens m'a particulièrement touché: «Il est préférable de garder le silence et d'être [chrétien] que de parler et de ne pas l'être. Enseigner est une excellente chose, pourvu que l'orateur pratique ce qu'il enseigne. Maintenant, il y a un Maître qui a parlé et c'est arrivé. Et même ce qu'il a fait en silence est digne du Père. Celui qui a vraiment fait sienne les paroles de Jésus peut également entendre son silence, afin qu'il soit parfait: afin qu'il puisse agir par son discours et être connu par son silence» (15, 1 s). Qu'est-ce que cela signifie: entendre le silence de Jésus et le connaître par son silence? Nous savons par les Évangiles que Jésus a fréquemment passé des nuits «sur la montagne» en prière, en conversation avec son Père. Nous savons que son discours, sa parole, viennent du silence et ne peuvent mûrir qu'en lui. Il est donc conforme à la raison que sa parole ne soit correctement comprise que si nous entrons aussi dans son silence, si nous apprenons à l'entendre par son silence.

    Certes, pour interpréter les paroles de Jésus, la connaissance historique, qui nous enseigne à comprendre le temps et le langage à cette époque, est nécessaire. Mais cela seul n'est pas suffisant si nous voulons vraiment comprendre le message du Seigneur en profondeur. Quiconque lit aujourd'hui les commentaires de plus en plus épais des Évangiles reste finalement déçu. Il apprend beaucoup de choses utile sur cette époque et beaucoup d'hypothèses qui ne contribuent finalement en rien à la compréhension du texte. En fin de compte, vous sentez que, dans l'excès de mots, il manque quelque chose d'essentiel: entrer dans le silence de Jésus, dont naît Sa parole. Si nous ne pouvons pas entrer dans ce silence, nous entendrons toujours la parole uniquement en surface et nous ne la comprendons donc pas vraiment.

    Tandis que je lisais le nouveau livre du cardinal Robert Sarah, toutes ces pensées traversaient à nouveau mon âme.Sarah nous apprend le silence - être silencieux avec Jésus, un véritable calme intérieur, et de cette manière il nous aide à saisir de nouveau la parole du Seigneur. Bien sûr, il ne parle que peu de lui-même, mais de temps en temps il nous donne un aperçu de sa vie intérieure. En réponse à la question de Nicolas Diat: «Parfois, dans votre vie, avez-vous pensé que les mots devenaient trop encombrants, trop lourds, trop bruyants?», il répond: «Dans ma prière et dans ma vie intérieure, j'ai toujours ressenti le besoin d'un silence plus profond et plus complet.... Les jours de solitude, de silence et de jeûne absolu ont été un grand soutien. Ils ont été une grâce sans précédent, une purification lente et une rencontre personnelle avec ... Dieu. ... Des jours de solitude, de silence, et de jeûne, nourri par la seule Parole de Dieu, permet à l'homme de fonder sa vie sur ce qui est essentiel». Ces lignes rendent visible la source dont vit le cardinal, ce qui donne à sa parole sa profondeur intérieure. De ce poste d'observation il peut alors voir les dangers qui menacent continuellement la vie spirituelle, des prêtres et des évêques aussi, et ainsi mettent en danger l'Église elle-même, dans laquelle il n'est pas rare que la Parole soit remplacée par une verbosité qui dilue la grandeur de la Parole. Je voudrais citer une seule phrase qui peut devenir un examen de conscience pour chaque évêque: «Il se peut qu'un prêtre bon et pieux, une fois qu'il a été élevé à l'épiscopat, tombe rapidement dans la médiocrité et s'inquiète du succès mondain. Accablé par le poids des tâches qui lui incombent, inquiet de son pouvoir, de son autorité, et des exigences matérielles de sa charge, il s'essouffle rapidement».

    Le cardinal Sarah est un Maître spirituel, qui parle des profondeurs du silence avec le Seigneur, de son union intérieure avec lui, et a donc vraiment quelque chose à dire à chacun de nous.

    Nous devons être reconnaissants au pape François d'avoir nommé un maître spirituel à la tête de la congrégation responsable de la célébration de la liturgie dans l'Église. Avec la liturgie aussi, comme pour l'interprétation de l'Ecriture Sainte, il est vrai qu'une connaissance spécifique est nécessaire. Mais il est vrai aussi de la liturgie que la spécialisation peut passer à côté de l'essentiel, à moins qu'elle ne soit ancrée dans une union profonde, intérieure avec l'Église en prière, qui constamment apprend du Seigneur lui-même ce qu'est l'adoration. Avec le cardinal Sarah, maître du silence et de la prière intérieure, la liturgie est en bonnes mains."



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    Venezuela: "equality" was imposed by fiat over the cries of the "neoliberal" opposition. The rest is silence ...


    Why the Left Refuses to Talk About Venezuela

    by Ryan McMaken


    During the 2016 presidential election, Bernie Sanders refused to answer questions about Venezuela during an interview with Univision. He claimed to not want to talk about it because he's "focused on my campaign." Many suggested a more plausible reason: Venezuela's present economy is an example of what happens when a state implements Bernie Sanders-style social democracy.

    Similarly, Pope Francis — who has taken the time to denounce pro-market ideologies for allegedly driving millions into poverty — seems uninterested in talking about the untrammeled impoverishment of Venezuela in recent years. Samuel Gregg writes in yesterday's Catholic World Report:
    Pope Francis isn’t known as someone who holds back in the face of what he regards as gross injustices. On issues like refugees, immigration, poverty and the environment, Francis speaks forcibly and uses vivid language in doing so.
    Yet despite the daily violence being inflicted on protestors in Venezuela, a steadily increasing death-toll, an explosion of crime, rampant corruption, galloping inflation, the naked politicization of the judiciary, and the disappearance of basic food and medical supplies, the first Latin American pope’s comments about the crisis tearing apart an overwhelming Catholic Latin American country have been curiously restrained.

    This virtual silence comes in spite of the fact that the Catholic bishops who actually live in Venezuela have denounced the regime as yet another illustration of the "utter failure" of "socialism in every country in which this regime has been installed."

    Thus, for many Venezuelans, the question is: "Where is Pope Francis?"

    As with Sanders, it may very well be that Francis has nothing to say about Venezuela precisely because the Venezuelan regime has pursued exactly the sorts of policies favored by Bernie Sanders, Pope Francis, and the usual opponents of market economics.

    It's an economic program marked by price controls, government expropriation of private property, an enormous welfare state, central planning, and endless rhetoric about equality, poverty relief, and fighting the so-called "neoliberals."

    And, as Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has helpfully explained, "There are two models, the neoliberal model which destroys everything, and the Chavista model which is centered around people.”

    The Chavista model is simply a mixture of social democracy and environmentalism which is easily recognizable as the Venezuelan version of the hard-left ideology espoused by a great many global political elites both in the United States and Europe. Neoliberalism, on the other hand — as I've noted before — is a vague term that most of the time really just means a system of relatively free markets and moderate laissez-faire.

    Indeed, no other regimes in the world, save Cuba and North Korea, have been as explicit in fighting the alleged menace that is neoliberalism.

    For this reason, as Venezuela descends into chaos, we are hearing a deafening silence from most of the left, as even some principled leftists have noticed.


    ..............


    Read more: mises.org
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    Fake history has established the foundation for fake news: lionizing extremists, making victims into oppressors and oppressors into victims, and omitting important historical statements


    “Fake History” is More Dangerous Than “Fake News”
    by William Jeynes


    Donald Trump and others have complained a great deal about the pervasiveness of “fake news.” What is less commonly spoken about is that for decades professors have also taught a good deal of “fake history.” Fake history promotes false narratives, twists the facts, or omits certain key facts altogether. And it is this fake history that has established the foundation for fake news.

    There are three respects in which the spread of fake history has been particularly dangerous and served as the foundation for attempts to spread fake news:

    - First, some historians and political thinkers present extreme leftists as heroes worthy of emulation. 

    - Second, these same people too often twist history in order to present victims as oppressors and oppressors as victims. 

    - Third, these individuals often conveniently omit key statements by the nation’s founders and other historical figures.

    Lionizing Extremists

    First, pushers of fake history present extreme leftists as heroes worthy of emulation. Why do so many liberals in academe, politics, and leading non-profit organizations have so much tolerance for socialism and communism? These systems have been responsible for more civilian deaths than any other political system that has ever existed. Many American academics are quick to condemn the horrendous actions of Adolf Hitler, but they are much more reticent in discussing comparable behaviors by Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong.

    Most of those who lived through the height of the Cold War would cringe at the thought of leftists lionizing Mao Zedong as a political philosopher and hero. Yet, Anita Dunn, the communications director of the Obama administration, stated during a high school graduation ceremony at Washington National Cathedral that Mao Zedong was one of her favorite political philosophers and one of the two people that she turns to the most.

    Mao Zedong should be revealed for who he really was. Even Nikita Khrushchev believed that Mao Zedong was mentally unstable and acted irrationally. Calling the United States and its nuclear weapons “paper tigers,” Mao seemed unafraid of the prospect of nuclear war, musing that at “worst, half of the world’s population would die, but the other half would live. Imperialism would be annihilated, and socialism would prevail all over the world.” This is literally one of the most insane statements ever made by a political leader. Brushing such statements under the rug and presenting Mao as a hero keeps contemporary Americans from understanding the dangers of communism.

    The Soviets had intended to provide China with an atomic bomb complete with full instructions. After realizing how dangerously unstable Mao was, Khrushchev rescinded the agreement he had made, later regretting that he had gone to such lengths to please Mao. As Zhisui Li observes,
    In retrospect, Moscow’s second-guessing about Mao’s mental stability was not unreasonable. The emotional and irrational nature of Mao’s policy conduct during the second strait crisis became quite clear in his talk with his personal physician right after his confrontational meeting with Khrushchev. Mao rhetorically asked, Khrushchev “wants to improve relations with the United States? Good, we’ll congratulate him with our guns. . . . Let’s get the United States involved, too. . . . Chiang Kai-shek wants the United States to use the [atomic] bomb against us. Let them use it. Let’s see what Khrushchev says then.”
    When one reads these quotes, it is hard for one to conclude that Mao Zedong was a mentally stable man. Yet the “fake history” presentation of Mao Zedong is that he was a commendable communist leader and political philosopher, who had some sound ideas, whether or not one chooses to agree with him.

    Victims and Oppressors

    Second, purveyors of fake history often twist history so that they make victims into oppressors and oppressors into victims. It used to be that historians divided up nations into aggressors and those that were attacked. Generally, those that started wars and initiated the attacks were viewed as the aggressors and those who were hurt by them were the victims.

    This approach sounds logical and fair enough. However, after the Vietnam War, historical revisionism became a much more popular exercise than had been the case previously. Those who were angry at various aspects of the nation’s involvement in Vietnam began to see the United States as the villain in nearly all of its other armed conflicts as well. Even World War II was revisited when Hitler’s diary was supposedly found. It took some time to realize that it was a forgery written by an impoverished neo-Nazi. The revisionist accounts go as far back as the War of 1812, conveniently omitting the fact that the conflict started primarily because the British forced nearly 10,000 American merchant sailors to serve in the Royal Navy.

    In the process of this historical revision, the definition of aggressor and victim was often changed to “winner” and “loser.” Using this definition, it does not much matter who fired the first shot or who dropped the first bomb, but rather who won the war. The winners of wars and successful nations of the world are, by definition, the guilty ones and the aggressors. In contrast, the losers and struggling nations of the world are the victims.

    It is true that sometimes nations that win wars are “successful” because they take advantage of others. Yet it is equally true that, in the end, virtue often prevails. The United States is far from a perfect nation, but many American schools, politicians, and leaders appear to have forgotten that immigrants desire to come to our country in such numbers largely because they view it as a beacon in the midst of an otherwise often oppressive world.

    Omitting Important Historical Statements

    Third, those who promote false history often omit key statements by the nation’s founders and other historical figures. For example, many now interpret the Constitution’s protection of our freedoms as meaning a person can do almost anything that he desires. However, this was not the founders’ intent, nor does it reflect their understanding of the nature of freedom. George Washington, for example, warned of an unbridled democracy, one that has gone out of control, in which citizens take their liberties as license. Nevertheless, he was confident that this could be avoided if moral education was taught in the schools.

    One of the most blatant misinterpretations of the nation’s founders is the weaponization of the phrase “separation of church and state.” Polls indicate that most Americans believe that this phrase occurs in the US Constitution. It does not. Sadly, those who promote this form of fake history often leave out the fact that it was American churches, particularly in Virginia, that insisted on the inclusion of freedom of religion in the First Amendment.

    Instead, secularists persistently take Thomas Jefferson’s use of the phrase totally out of context. It originates in his letter to the Danbury Baptists, a religious community that was concerned that the United States government was going to name a national church as the country’s official denomination. Jefferson wrote his letter to ease their fears, not to advocate the removal of religion from the public square. In fact, in the letter he states, “I reciprocate your kind prayers.” Jefferson emphasized the power of the state government as opposed to the more limited federal government. In his second inaugural address, for example, he stated that “religious exercises,” such as calls for days of fasting and prayer, should be “under the direction and discipline of the state or church.” He affirmed this belief elsewhere as well, including in a letter that he wrote to Samuel Miller in which he stated “religious matters” were “reserved to the states.” This is why Jefferson called for days of fasting and prayer, while he was governor of Virginia.

    In our current climate, it is often difficult to distinguish the true from the false or unjustly biased. It seems that our news often takes the form of propaganda, and “facts” are not always factual. To be sure, “fake news” is dangerous. However, it is vital to remember that often, liberals are only able to promote “fake news” because they had already developed “fake history.” Only by returning to primary sources and immersing ourselves in accurate historical accounts will we be able to equip ourselves with the tools to determine the real from the fake.

    William Jeynes is professor of education at California State University, Long Beach.


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