The Truth We Must Face - from Mises

[Bryan]

As Barack Obama continues to cry and stomp his feet over his inability to spend trillions of dollars at whim, those who consider themselves libertarians face the interminable conflict between optimism and pessimism. Wendy McElroy recently addressed this subject and concluded the best course is to opt out of the debate altogether, "because I am tired to death of caring deeply about matters over which I have no control."

A number of Mises Institute folks have made the case for optimism, specifically that the current economic situation will lead to a revival of Austrian thought. Even if that's the case, it will come far too late to prevent a collapse that has already begun. Ron Paul will not pull some Austro-libertarian rabbit out of a hat and reverse the centuries of decay brought about by the Government of the United States. Individuals who've constructed their entire lives around the lies of Keynesian mythology and American imperialism won't have an epiphany and renounce their ways. They will continue marching themselves - and the rest of us - into economic and political hell.

Continued:
http://blog.mises.org/archives/009410.asp

[ForLiberty-RonPaul]

true blog, true blog. didn't realize it until recently but I've been there for years. ....... freakin sux

[RickyJ]

Individuals who've constructed their entire lives around the lies of Keynesian mythology and American imperialism won't have an epiphany and renounce their ways.

Who are these people?

I can understand getting on the wrong track now and then, but who stays on it despite knowing it is a dead end?

I think the problem is much deeper than a mere wrong economic policy here. We have a moral problem of great magnitude in America. That is what is killing the USA more than anything else.

[Primbs]

Sometimes it takes great pain, to awaken the American people.

[LittleLightShining]

That was a depressing bunch of crap. Thankfully the comments were encouraging.

[Truth Warrior]

Woot for Wendy! ;)

[sevin]

That said, there's certainly a valuable role for organizations like the Mises Institute and libertarianism in general - but it's to preserve certain ideas for the benefit of future generations that survive the current collapse. But make no mistake about it - almost everyone reading this blog will be dead before any tangible benefits will be realized.

Most depressing paragraph I've read all year. :(

It makes me feel like I should get refocused on my preparations for when TSHTF.

[Conza88]

^ woah, that paragraph is fcked.

And I think the blogger needs to check themselves. Seriously. Wth. Get a grip, c'mon now.

Shits about to get messy, but this is no time to back down.

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore, everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hangs on the results. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the greatest historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us." – Ludwig von Mises

[MsDoodahs]

"It is a matter of temperament how we shape our lives in the knowledge of an inescapable catastrophe. In high school, I had chosen a verse by Virgil as my motto: Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito. [Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it.] In the darkest hours of the war, I recalled this dictum.... I would not lose courage even now. I would do everything an economist could do. I would not tire in professing what I knew to be right."

- Ludwig von Mises

[georgiaboy]

I think the problem is much deeper than a mere wrong economic policy here. We have a moral problem of great magnitude in America. That is what is killing the USA more than anything else.

Please elaborate.

[RonPaulR3VOLUTION]

"I am surprised at the suddenness as well as the greatness of this revolution… It is the will of Heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever. It may be the will of Heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting, and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case it will have this good effect at least. It will inspire us with many virtues which we have not, and correct many errors, follies, and vices which threaten to disturb, dishonor, and destroy us. The furnace of affliction produces refinement in states as well as individuals. And the new Governments we are assuming in every part will require a purification from our vices, and an augmentation of our virtues, or they will be no blessings. The people will have unbounded power, and the people are extremely addicted to corruption and venality, as well as the great. But I must submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe." –John Adams, Letter to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776 in The Works of John Adams, vol. 1, p. 230 (C.F. Adams ed. 1856).

"Is not the change we have seen astonishing? Would any man, two years ago have believed it possible, to accomplish such an alteration in the prejudices, passions, sentiments, and principles of those thirteen little states as to make every one of them completely republican, and to make them own it? Idolatry to monarchs, and servility to aristocratical pride, was never so totally eradicated, from so many minds in so short a time."

http://books.google.com/books?id=kdDRJLxBhl4C&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=%22Is+not+the+change+we+have+seen+astonishing%2 2&source=web&ots=aTe14K8vYT&sig=qBqRnIKfCbqYWHohcrmquuTxlWI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002651

[Agent CSL]

We create our own truth. I accept that I may be dead before the constitution is revived, but I am not going to give up based on that. Realizing the truth and being dictated by the truth are two different things.