Paradocracy

In his book Intellectuals and Society , economist Thomas Sowell writes, "There has probably never been an era in history when intellectuals have played a larger role in society than the era in which we live."  For most of history, mankind has worked under autocratic governments, at the behest of kings and emperors, where public opinion was of precious little consequence. With the democratization of political systems, those societies have simultaneously witnessed the (albeit limited) democratization of information, power and influence; however, this is not to suggest that information, power and influence are equally sought after among the people who comprise those civilizations.  On the contrary, just as most workers in the developed world have become specialists in their own respective fields, so too have they sought out guidance from so-called specialists and intellectuals to advise them and mold their understanding of public affairs and political issues. Despite their convi

Much fanfare surrounds the long-held lies and mystic mythologies which have hypnotized the public conscience: those of equality , the minimum wage , and the so-called "living" wage  are but a few examples of the fashionable notions which have blatantly betrayed better judgment for their expedience on the political battlefield, where the casualties invariably number as high in human lives as they do in inconvenient truths.  Just as with every history ever officially reported, the economic value of man has been broadly politicized and thoroughly distorted, buried under emotional feelings and preconceived notions that prevent the public from ever truly grasping the gravity and implications of their convictions. In the heat of the moment, the parade proceeds inexorably without caution, with the confidence that righteousness measures in the strength of their numbers and the intensity of their voices. Meanwhile, the truth lurks quietly out of sight and out of mind, conveniently rel

 An American author once wrote, “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” It’s just too bad that so few Americans today even have the vaguest idea of what it means, and what it has meant, to be an American, let alone what it has cost to defend their country and preserve that precious bounty for those who have inherited it.  Of course, that precious bounty is a form of freedom, a disposition on rights, which is uniquely American. It’s incredible, really, just how indifferent most Americans today are toward freedom, such that many of them casually invoke European examples of statism as an endorsement of its institution in the United States. Remarkably, these people seem unaware of the fact that the United States was founded and framed around the institutions of limited government, maximal liberty and state and personal sovereignty.  The case of the United States has indeed been the case for a form of freedom unknown to the rest of civilization: a form

It is the mission of the Left to condition its constituency to believe that all success has been unmerited and all wealth ill-gotten, that they can remedy this problem by insisting that every last misfortune is corrected and every minority is made successful and wealthy on the basis of one’s minority status alone. This means that, assuming that people’s respective stations in life have been the consequence of privilege not merit, the Left intends to remedy the problem by insisting that their stations are merited not by their performance but by their respective ethnicities and relative misfortunes  —  or presumably those of ancestors whom they've never even met. Of course, this isn’t merit at all, but rather a specific type of political privilege which indiscriminately, and without due process, wrongs those who’ve committed no wrongs themselves in order to offset the purported wrongs of those who were never tried in a court of law.  Who then will offer reparations to those wrongfull

Part of the problem in modern America is the stubborn refusal to entertain honest dialogue. Here’s a testimony from a Paradocracy reader:  “A relative of mine visited me recently. As she sat on my front porch, she commented on the deterioration of our neighborhood: the shattered glass by the curb, the number of unkempt houses, and the prostitutes, graffiti and loud music down the street. I told her that it’s sad what has happened to the neighborhood, as it used to be such a quiet and peaceful place. She asked me what had changed, so I explained as delicately as possible that prior generations have sold or otherwise rented out their homes to people who simply don’t care about the neighborhood. In terms of demographics, I explained that I’ve noticed that most of the renters are blacks (or African-Americans) who, according to my friend at the Housing Authority, occupy the properties through Section 8. As if on cue, she immediately called me a racist.”  Where factual findings lead to racia

When the international gold standard officially ended in 1971 with the Nixon shock and the invalidation of the Bretton Woods system, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rallied from an average close of $884.87 to that of $891.14 in 1980 and $4,494.28 in 1995, apparently marking a 407.9-percent rise; measured against gold, however, which itself enjoyed gains of 1,837 percent between 1971 and 1980, or 1,016.83 percent between 1971 and 1995, this translated to an average close of 25.28 ounces in 1971 and 1 ounce of gold in 1980 before an average close of 9.88 in 1994, before it would finally recover into the double-digit range again, after twenty-four years, with an average close of 11.70 ounces in 1995, a level 53.7-percent below the high water mark previously set in 1971. Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average stands at 13 ounces of gold, after trading above 42 ounces back in August of 1999 and above 22 ounces of gold in September of 2018. While far above the dreaded sing