No Treason

Hubris.

Whether it is a mate thinking they can change their companion and make them something they are not, or an arrogant boss who takes a bad employee under his wing as a reclamation project, hubris undoes us.  All of us.

The latest examples of hubris come from the Ron Paul delegates at the RNC.  The Massachusetts and Nevada delegations not only sold out the principles and ideals of Ron Paul, they wasted the thousands of votes, man hours and dollars invested by Ron Paul supporters to get them to the RNC to represent a faction opposed to the war mongering and Jingoism of John McCain.

As much as we would like to be creatures of rational action and thought, we’re still susceptible to irrationality whether it comes in the guise of emotionalism, patriotism, nationalism, compromise or fanaticism.

I’m certainly guilty of arrogance at times.  In hindsight, I can usually pick out my hubris as a root cause for failure.  But in real time, the ego is difficult to check.

Which is why I suppose I like Ron Paul so much.  The man seems to have almost no ego.  Now that doesn’t mean he is free from error, however he is free from many of the errors I make each day, trying to look good in the eyes of others (external validation), or tying the nobility of my mission directly to my self-esteem (self-aggrandizement).

There is a great power in being able to lead by following.

Fundamentally, it is the difference between being guided by an ideology, and guiding an ideology.

I think that instinctively, the remnant can discern the difference between the two.

Two good channels I have found. One is Libertarian, the other is more current events and politically oriented.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CauseAndEffectPost

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRealNews

To the videos,

Mohammed: The Libertarian?

American Imperialism: Enemy of Freedom (Lew Rockwell)

Who Killed The Constitution (Tom Woods)

Ron Paul and civil liberties – a debate

Ron Paul says it’s time to end the empire

Related Blogs

• Blogs Related to civil liberties
• WANTED: For criminal assault and violation of civil liberties

• Blogs Related to ron paul
• Photos from Ron Paul’s “Rally for the Republic”

On the Mises forum, Majevska wrote,

The majority of people start to hate libertarians when they are humiliated by them. You may be 100% correct in your logic, and if so you will probably make the other person feel defeated and humiliated and all you accomplish is making yourself into an object of hatred and discomfort.

This reminded me of something I read in “Mises and Austrian Economics: A Personal View” by Ron Paul.

“No one should expect that any logical argument or any experience could shake the almost religious fervor of those who believe in salvation through spending and credit expansion”

That’s from Ludwig Von Mises, “Stones into Bread : The Keynesian Miracle” Planning for Freedom 1974 p. 63

I’d like to add, the humiliation is not always a result of the approach. I think many people feel shame when they realize they have never critically thought about what they believe, let alone that they may be totally wrong. They cannot defend their position, which makes it seem like more of a beating.

Someone also wrote in the discussion that no one likes finding out Santa doesn’t exist.

Worse than that, no one with any modesty likes finding out that they were believing a lie. It is very embarrassing.

I want to be upfront. I like Ron Paul. I like his approach, his character and his message. It’s not perfect, but it is active and it is encouraging people to discover Mises, Rothbard, Lysander Spooner amongst other libertarian heroes.

That said, his staff during the political campaign for President was not considered very good by the people following Ron Paul. There seemed to be a distinct lack of organization and expertise.

Now that Paul has wound down his political campaign, and has started the “Campaign for Liberty“, he’s held over some of his staff, and brought some so-called “grassroots leaders” on board as well. Unfortunately, thus far the results are similar to what happened with the Presidential Campaign.

For example, Jesse Benton, and the organizers of the Rally for the Republic, apparently are not aware that guest speaker and former Paul surrogate Barry Goldwater Jr. has sold out to support partisan politics and John McCain. Surely it will not do for a John McCain endorser to be a headliner at the shadow convention, and yet Benton on a recent satellite radio interview, was unaware that Goldwater had come out for McCain some time ago, stumbling to respond to the host.

Then take the recent Ticket Bomb, in which half of the tickets were sold for the shadow convention, to be held at the Target Center in Minnesota. This was typical campaign thinking, they would create, manage and discharge the bomb. The only use they had for supporters was to do some word of mouth promotion, possibly paste up a banner or three, and buy tickets.

Continue reading Ron Paul Ticket Bomb = Fail