From Epictetus, Discourses, 2.2: “But if you gape open-mouthed at externals, you must needs be tossed up and down according to the will of your master. And who is your master? He who has authority over any of the things upon which you set your heart or which you wish to avoid.” What do I …
Author Archives: Purilib
On Silent Action and Argument
Or, On Conversation with Epictetus From Epictetus, Discourses, 1.19: “For what is lacking now is not quibbles; nay, the books of the Stoics are full of quibbles. What then is the thing lacking now? The man to make use of them, the man to bear witness to the arguments by his acts.” ________________________________________ Notes: Epictetus …
On suffering and healing
Currently, neuroleptics for schizophrenia, benzodiazepines for anxiety, antidepressants for depression. What have we found? The chemicals perturb the neurotransmitter systems of the brain. And the brain responds adapting to the local presence of the chemical. The easiest analogy with an engine, gas and brakes. For the depressed we found a way to add gas, fire …
State Defender. Objection: “Practical Impossibility”
Says the defender of the state: “All your idealistic theorizing is well and good. And you make some good points. But, theoretically justifiable though the private law society may be, it is just not practically possible to live without state.” The objection is of a general form. The form is something like this: “It’s too …
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Defending the state
Often, after I have presented evidence that rape, assault, theft (taxation), fraud (currency debasement), murder and other such crimes are wrong, and in particular when I have shown my spotlight on that institution for which legitimacy is claimed for some of the above acts, and if my interlocutor has known me long enough to know …
On The State,War and Family
From Cogan (2017), The Cost of Good Intenions (pg. 158) “From 1945 to 1949, the number of public assistance recipients increased by more than 50 percent…the number of children on the welfare roles more than doubled.In 1934, four out of every five recipients of state mothers’ aid programs were the children of widows. By 1948, …
On salvation: A dialogue between seeker and sage.
Seeker: “What must I do to be saved?” Sage: “Believe.” Seeker: “What does it mean to believe?” (here the question is proper, but the answer can take many forms. We will skip the disastrous but common; merely pass without comment on the catastrophic but pervasive; leave to his folly the fool and his foolishness) Sage: …
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Thanksgiving Cometh
We puritanical libertarians do utter purity first. To begin to classify and categorize the various strains of purity is one of the tasks of ethics. Thankfulness is one such strain. We puritanical libertarians hold the right to be thankful sacred at each moment of each day. Nothing wrong with a bit of worship of that …
Preserving Capital Near the State
One has to take note of the presence of the state and its addiction to taking by force. Then, one has to decide how to protect and preserve ones capital, and how to increase it through investment if investment is possible. Let us consider preservation first. Preservation has been made all the more difficult by …
On existing near the state
We are living in a time dominated by the growth of the state. The growth has already taken place in the twentieth century and can be tracked by the rhetoric of crisis and the growth required (supposedly) to respond, however poorly. WW1, the New Deal, WW2, The Great Society, The Cold War and Wars against …
Puritanical Libertarianism 