Imposing Freedom on Others

In 1776 a minuscule portion of the North American inhabitants opted to separate from England and become independent.  Estimates are that the population of the colonies was around 800,000. Perhaps as many as 1000 inhabitants had an interest in independence.

A unique set of individuals occupied the country. Rugged individualism was necessary in order to survive. In many rural areas law was completely informal. Government was not all that relevant. Fighting for many was a way of life. Signing up for the army and being paid to fight was a lot more reasonable then than it is today. Very few Americans had any interest in the agendas of the leaders in the states in which they lived. By the end of the war for independence, the number grew but may have never been as high as half.

Freedom was what the founding fathers wanted and they imposed freedom on everyone else.  Freedom is best for everyone. Rights are good for everyone. But, ordinary people don’t seek freedom. As I have written many times before, it is human nature to bargain freedom away in return for comfort. That is natural behavior.

The evolutionary psychologists tell us that human behavior comes down do doing those things that cause our genes to get passed to the next generation. The brain is not a freedom seeking organ. The brain finds the best way to survive. The evolutionary psychologists are right about this.

At any time other than a crisis period, seeing ourselves as better than we are and explaining our behavior in the loftiest terms does little harm. When long standing political agendas mature and a reckoning is in order, seeing the world as different than it is is very harmful. That is in the situation we are in today.

In schools today we teach children a different and highly comforting version of history. Teaching children the truth is a completely uncomfortable task. A highly palatable alternative history is taught instead. That puts us all in a difficult place when a crisis hits.

I talk as if a crisis as if it is already here. When it hits full force, how much freedom we keep as individuals will depend on how much freedom a few will be willing to impose on the majority who will opt for a different path.  History has never known a situation where an overall population has insisted on being free.
People are hardwired  to do the opposite.

Here is a brand new Curbside Jimmy tune. It is timely and yes Washington D.C. is mentioned.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/z-T7C-_TBBI/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEjCNACELwBSFryq4qpAxUIARUAAAAAGAElAADIQj0AgKJDeAE=&rs=AOn4CLDPGQt7QzKaTmtqzzFOY0KRzEouAg

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About Fantasy Free Economics

James Quillian independent scholar,free market economist,and teacher of natural law. Who is James Quillian? Certainly I am nobody special, Just a tireless academic and deep thinker. Besides that, I have broken the code with respect to economics and political science. Credentials? Nothing you would be impressed with. I am not a household name. It is hard to become famous writing that virtually no one in the country is genuinely not in touch with reality. But, if I did not do that, there would be no point in my broking the broken the code. If you read the blog, it is easy to see that there are just a few charts, no math and no quantitative analysis. That is not by accident. Given what I know, those items are completely useless. I do turn out to be highly adept at applying natural law. Natural law has predominance over any principles the social science comes up. By virtue of understanding natural law, I can debunk, in just a few sentences , any theory that calls for intervention by a government. My taking the time to understand the ins and outs of Keynes General Theory is about like expecting a chemistry student to completely grasp all that the alchemists of the middle ages thought they understood in efforts to turn base metals into goal. Keynesian theory clearly calls for complete objectivity. Government can only make political decisions. Keynesian techniques call for economic decisions. So, why go any further with that? Fantasy Free Economics is in a sense a lot like technical analysis. Technical analysis began with the premise that it was impossible to gain enough information studying fundamentals to gain a trading advantage. Study the behavior of investors instead. Unlike technical analysis, I don't use technical charts. What I understand are the incentives of different people and entities active in the economics arena. For example, there is no such thing as an incentive to serve with life in the aggregate. In the aggregate, only self interest applies. It is routinely assumed otherwise. That is highly unappealing. But, I am sorry. That is the way it is. I can accept that because I am genuinely in touch with reality. Step one in using Fantasy Free Economics is for me to understand just how little I really know. A highly credentialed economist may know 100 times what I do based on the standard dogma. Compare the knowledge each of us has compared to all there is to know and we both look like we know nothing at all. There is always more than we don't know than what we do know. I am humble enough to present myself on that basis. Why? That is the way it is. I am not bad at math. I have taught math. What I understand is when to use it and when to rely on something else. Math is useless in natural law so I don't use it. While others look at numbers, I am busy understanding the forces in nature that makes their numbers what they are. That gives me a clear advantage.