Steve:I find one of the most difficult subjects to tackle is democracy. Does anyone have a good way to go about this without sounding crazy to most people?
I'm going to post this in the naive hope this doesn't turn into another left/ right discussion, and any such replies will be deleted.
I think the best way is to draw from Hoppe and compare the incentive structure for a monarch and a democratically elected leader. Keep in mind monarchy has, correctly, been discredited for many, many years now. If you can convince somebody that monarchy is superior to democracy, the same reasoning will leader them to anarchism.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"
Bob Dylan
I'm being serious here: run for local office. If you're a good speaker and have the other necessary attributes I think this is a good idea. You will never win, but with a large enough fan base you can reach some people.
Ron Paul much?
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I think an emotional intelligence test should be optional, to see if one is capable of arguing without throwing an intellectual hissy fit about people not agreeing with them. Stickers & badges should be awarded out to those who can demonstrate this, both within and outside of the libertarian communitie(s).
WARNING: This signature violates Rule 5. Stay classy!
I think an emotional intelligence test should be optional, to see if one is capable of arguing without throwing an intellectual hissy fit about people not agreeing with them.
GOD, SHUT UP!
krazy kaju: I think an emotional intelligence test should be optional, to see if one is capable of arguing without throwing an intellectual hissy fit about people not agreeing with them. GOD, SHUT UP!
NO U xinfinity GOSH
I would like to stress the importance of educating ONESELF! I was loosely "pro free market" even ten years ago. But out of lazyness, only recently have I read the key works of Mises and understood the brilliant elegance of the free market. To promote the message, I intend to summorize Misean economics in a few sentences. People won't even recognize it as economics (since there's no +/-% in it). It will simply be declaration of why individual liberty obviously is what they actually want, morally and practically. I think that this message is best spread by stone facing it as the matter of fact which it actually is, between four eyes. We don't have to fight "opinions". It's they who have to fight nature and logic in order to oppose us.
I cannot stop promoting this book (which still hasn't been dugg by anyone!!!) http://mises.org/econcalc.asp I mean, it has been logically proven that non-capitalism is impossible in the post-hunting/gathering society. How important isn't that? Sure, Gallileo found moons and stuff, but THIS logic actually conerns us all everyday!
OT section:
liberty student:But if you do it again, there will be trouble. I might have to hurt a bunny rabbit. And you don't want that on your conscience.
You are a very dangerous person!
(Can we use that kind of argument to promote freedom? No, I guess not...)
jason4liberty, your signature:
"One hundred TRILLION Zimbabwe dollar note"
Oh no! My big number avatar has been inflated into oblivion. What comes after trillion? They used to call large number "astronomical". Now we should say that the distance to the galaxes can only be described by "monetary" numbers...
It's not fascism when the government does it.
“We must spend now as an investment for the future.” - President Obama
If you got the dough, you should buy books like "Economics for Real People" and "Economics in One Lesson" in bulk and donate them to numerous public libraries. When someone with a passing interest in econ sees those books, s/he might borrow them, giving them a good intro to the Austrian school.
krazy kaju:If you got the dough, you should buy books like "Economics for Real People" and "Economics in One Lesson" in bulk and donate them to numerous public libraries.
This.
The Mises store has Econ in One Lesson at a bulk discount. I think that was the intention behind the pricing structure.
Another good target group are home schoolers. There may be some segments of the population that we ignore because we assume they are already on the same page as us.
If you find something evil that wobbles, push it. - Gary North
krazy kaju: If you got the dough, you should buy books like "Economics for Real People" and "Economics in One Lesson" in bulk and donate them to numerous public libraries. When someone with a passing interest in econ sees those books, s/he might borrow them, giving them a good intro to the Austrian school.
I think we should go further on this strategy. I think we should take advantage of developing streamlined versions of assorted texts, both in possibly length (i.e. deciding on which chapters are pertinent enough to get the conversation going and/or the individual to think or question), & in the means of production, such as developing a shortened version of the book made with cheaper, less costly materials that are allow for more bulk purchases at less of a loss for the process of proliferation as a whole. However, copyright & such would have to be addressed for such to occur. I think that shortened, cheaper made (materials wise) versions of vital texts could also take advantage of the latest Creative Commons License, Creative Commons Zero (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/zero/1.0/ ), which essentially a more radical version of the BSD license, in that it pretty much says "do whatever you want with this material and/or item, no strings attached". Relieving the worry of copyright could make the cost, both socially & physically, of spreading the material essentially free, & free is pretty hard to compete with when you are talking about spreading ideas in volumes. Each copy could also have a notice such as "Like what you've read? Visit :blah blah blah: for the actual books, and mention the below coupon to get a sizable percent off of your purchase!". Just as free is hard to compete with, so is the possibility of getting a good deal off of a purchase.
There are also two more perspectives I don't think we're hitting heavily enough upon.
The first is developing content for different mediums. When it comes to video, the liberty movement as a whole is fantastic, but the non-LvMI official stuff is woeful. There is very little austrian or libertarian content coming from this end of the grassroots. And since most of you are young people without Masters degrees, maybe you could make yourselves useful and engage YouTube without preaching to the crowd but to the masses.
The second is, America is dying. I think there are tremendous NON-english opportunities to spread the liberty message to Asia and Africa. Particularly Asia, which is going to be the center of economic and political power very soon. No disrespect to my American brothers, but if you can see beyond your life time, then it seems quite apparent to me, that while we're all interested in our local paradigm, the ability to reach whole populations without this knowledge could be more powerful than convincing your neighbor to turn off the Green Bay Packers for an hour to talk about Rothbard.
This is of course, unless you have a Masters degree, in which case, keep focusing on forum argumentation.
A deck of cards each with a different public school myth on them.
A small quiz pamphlet about the presidents or wars - something that taunts them like "How smart are you?"; that gets main stream folks.
I'm Still looking for a best of collection of mises MP3s - I've begun downloading ones that I think hit particularly hard, but are less offensive, and speed them up..
On a side note, I've had 1 republican say that Mises.org has really made him question some of his views. I posted a John Denson mp3 about war on facebook on president's day.
I think, also, making mises mp3s available with appropriate titles on torrents and on p2p networks might catch a few people looking for educational material.
*edit* forgot one: Mail a collection of Mises review articles to local social studies teachers - perhaps the one about James Watt: Monopolist, I particularly like the strategy of introducing people to Dr. DiLorenzo's *defense* article of _The Real Lincoln_. Perhaps a CD with LeFevre's Industrial Revolution talks on it.
Saiphes:A deck of cards each with a different public school myth on them.
That seems like a good idea. It would even reach out to those who don't care about politics at all.
liberty student: Steve: Steve:I find one of the most difficult subjects to tackle is democracy. Does anyone have a good way to go about this without sounding crazy to most people? I'm always met with silence when I bring it up. I tend to equate it to all of the mob rule injustices (genocide in germany, iraq war, electing Bush for dems, electing Obama for republicans). I don't have a good tactic for it yet.
Steve: Steve:I find one of the most difficult subjects to tackle is democracy. Does anyone have a good way to go about this without sounding crazy to most people? I'm always met with silence when I bring it up. I tend to equate it to all of the mob rule injustices (genocide in germany, iraq war, electing Bush for dems, electing Obama for republicans). I don't have a good tactic for it yet.
I'm always met with silence when I bring it up. I tend to equate it to all of the mob rule injustices (genocide in germany, iraq war, electing Bush for dems, electing Obama for republicans). I don't have a good tactic for it yet.
I think the joke goes:
"What are the two most historically important people to Western Civilization? Arguably, but agreeably - Socrates and Jesus Christ. Who killed Socrates and Jesus Christ?Democracy did."
I think Hoppe, or someone at least mentioned it in a lecture.
In terms of building a Libertarian community, I've just recieved a Ron Paul shirt and will be wearing it around Campus. Hopefully I can flush out those who are not online much, but know of him. So advertisements - broadcasting the message, clothing wise.
I've had an urge to pick up the Rothbard "Enemy of the State" Tee... even though I usually don't wear Tees. I love the resemblance to various Gene Hackman characters especially. I wonder if that was intentional.
The Rothbard "Enemy of the State" tee definitely looks good. I'm not too hot about the other ones though. In any case, I'm not sure if wearing a t-shirt is the right way to go. I doubt anyone will see a Ron Paul or a Rothbard t-shirt and then decide to debate you and/or go home and google them. The more traditional door-to-door pamphlet and/or DVD idea seems like a better plan to me.
Conza88: I think the joke goes: "What are the two most historically important people to Western Civilization? Arguably, but agreeably - Socrates and Jesus Christ. Who killed Socrates and Jesus Christ?Democracy did." I think Hoppe, or someone at least mentioned it in a lecture.
Does that mean Hoppe belives the Jews killed Jesus? (Sorry for sidestepping again, but khmm...)
GilesStratton: I'm being serious here: run for local office. If you're a good speaker and have the other necessary attributes I think this is a good idea. You will never win, but with a large enough fan base you can reach some people.
Get yourself an appointment to the Lords!
Marko:Does that mean Hoppe belives the Jews killed Jesus? (Sorry for sidestepping again, but khmm...)
Jeesh, someone didn't go to Sunday school. Remember how Pontius Pilate put Jesus and that other dude in front of the crowd and let them choose which one will die? Pontius Pilate even fought to keep Jesus alive.
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