I just spent an hour listening to a terrific monologue by Bill Whittle who gives us hope and solutions for what to do next after the election. If you are feeling down and powerless, listen to it, it will lift you up and help put you back in control.
I just spent an hour listening to a terrific monologue by Bill Whittle who gives us hope and solutions for what to do next after the election. If you are feeling down and powerless, listen to it, it will lift you up and help put you back in control.
Very good point he made. The big governments that plague Western societies are a creature that can only grow and thrive in the ecological niche provided by the Industrial Revolution. As America passes into the Post Industrial Age, they are as obsolete as the Selectric typewriter he mentions while telling the tale of the 04 October Surprise.
The one flaw I see in his plan is the Government is increasingly regulating and monitoring the Internet to make it more manageable by themselves. We live in an age where much of the law and regulations that govern our lives are created by unelected agencies populated with zealots dedicated to our destruction. Wouldn’t they simply outlaw competition and arrest competitors?
Not that will prevent the various nanny-state governments from failing. Tipping point two comes when the wagon pullers are too few in number to pull the wagon up the grade. (Tipping point one being when the free riders have a majority and can vote to order the wagon pullers around, which we passed yesterday or maybe in 08.)
A serious question is; will we have an Internet or G4 system after government fails? I know they didn’t create it, whatever Algore may think, but they can pull it down with their final Godzilla like thrashing.
Dr. H, You are more than right about that. Whittle is terrific in that 90 minutes. Can’t recommend it enough. People really need to put in the time to listen to this one. Far and away the best reaction/commentary around today or, really, any day.
I like Bill Whittle. I like him a lot. He’s extremely intelligent.
What he’s talking about here is essentially complexity theory. It’s the next wave of science which holds that dynamic systems self-organize into an emergent whole, which is greater than the sum of its parts. Component parts or elements interact to form a cohesive entity that act as one at a higher level of organization. Atoms form molecules, molecules form cells, cells form organisms, organisms form populations, populations form ecosystems, and so on.
And he’s right, we can’t get rid of government, we have to pay taxes and follow the rule of law. But we can self-organize into a parallel system at a higher level through the internet.
I would quibble with him though about space travel. It’s unfeasible. Definition of life: it metabolizes energy, grows, develops, and reproduces. That requires some form of food, water and air, none of which exists in space. The sheer volume of nutrients required to sustain life on an extended space flight is so large that the vehicle would have to be so enormous, and the propulsion required to exit the atmoshere so powerful, it’s simply not possible.
Yeah, we went to the moon. That’s possible. Maybe we could make it to Mars, but it’s unlikely. Anything beyond that is, to any reasonable person, is out of the question.
Sub-orbital space flight is achievable and would probably make for a profitable tourism industry. But, seriously, our space program should focus on launching satellites for communication and military purposes.
Oh, and by the way, in my stamp collection, I have the moon landing stamp. It’s on a commemorative enevelope, marked first day of issue and day of landing. That’s extremely rare. In fact, it may be the only one in the world. I also have all the stamps for the American Revolution, the Bi-Centennial, and the Space Program, all on commerorative envelopes, marked first day of issue. It’s quite an impressive collection, a gift from my grandmother.
Yeah, Whittle is excellent.
Whittle is excellent.
Whittle is a good guy.
Bill’s points are valid, however, you cannot just ignore 50% of the population. After the election result, you have to ask yourself, why is this happening?
We on the Right ( conservatives, libertarians, etc), I think, have missed a fundamental shift in our society. We have concentrated on freedom, and rights and missed the big picture in the changing nature of work.
Bill remarks that the Information revolution will be our liberation. However, a quiet revolution, for which our side has not responded, is in progress. This revolution is the ultimate result of free-market economics. This is the Automation revolution. Businesses always attempt to reduce costs. In the late 70′s and early 80′s vast numbers of jobs were outsourced to other countries. Our side of politics has no answer to this, other than to double down with NAFTA and tough luck, hope you get another job in some other industry. The problem is that soon THERE WILL BE NO JOBS. Automated factories are being built that will do away with millions of jobs.
At least the left recognise this and say, yes you can have your automation, but you have to pay higher taxes so that we can support those who no longer have a job. We have no answer to this. Furthermore, the market strategy is doomed to failure. Eventually there will not be enough people with money to buy the goods produced in the automated factories.
We have to face the fact that the market and business CANNOT address this problem. Only government can provide a solution.
The solution I propose is that we are now so close to being able to provide any good for just about nothing, that we do exactly that. We undertake a policy to provide goods to all for free. Access to cheap energy and automated assembly line factories can just about deliver the goods. Who wouldn’t vote to receive free goods.
It’s about time we ditched the 18th and 19th century concepts of goods and services and applied our knowledge to deliver free goods for all.
Thank you
I listen to the first 30 mins
I find Bill Whittle’s proposal very exciting and motivating. As he himself fully admits there are many things to work out. Though as some have pointed out, how would this idea survive 1) The ever-increasing regulatory state 2) Collapse.
To wit, I was just now reading, “The people have spoken…and must be punished” by Marc Thiessen. If the following is true, it surely puts a crimp in Mr. Whittle’s plan. Heck, if only some of this is true…
1. Obamacare will now become a permanent feature of the American political landscape. It will never be repealed.
2. The unprecedented levels of spending in Obama’s first four years will become the new floor, as America sets new records for fiscal profligacy and debt.
3. Job creators will face massive tax increases, and more Americans will come off the tax rolls—resulting in fewer citizens with a stake in keeping taxes low and more with a stake in protecting benefits.
4. Government dependency, already at record levels, will continue to grow.
5. Four lost years in dealing with the entitlement crisis will become eight—digging us into a hole from which we may not be able to emerge.
6. Obama, unworried about the impact of gas and electricity prices on his reelection, will finally wage the regulatory war on fossil fuels the Left demands.
7. He will unleash the Environmental Protection Agency to impose crushing new burdens on U.S. business.
8. His administration’s assault on religious freedom will go on and expand to new areas.
9. The Defense Department will be gutted, with cuts so deep that America will no longer be a superpower.
10. Obama will almost certainly have the opportunity to appoint more liberal Supreme Court justices, possibly replacing conservatives on the high court — ending the Roberts court in all but name for a generation.
I wish there was a way that I could listen to an hour of Bill every day during my commute.