Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

The Left Should Defend Classical Education A book review from a socialist magazine. My father was a doctor, and got the usual education of a doctor in his day: pre-med in university, med school, internship, residency, etc. He did not get a liberal arts education, and missed it. Later in life he made up for the lack.

He advised his children that if one does not know what one wants to do for a living, one should take a liberal arts education. Regardless of what you do for a living, a good liberal arts education will help you do it. That turned out to be good advice. For example, I learned in philosophy classes about boolean logic. Only many years after I left university did I put that to good use working with computers.

The author of the review is quite correct: a classical education is not just about making a living. It is about making life worth living. As Socrates put it, the unexamined life isn’t worth living.

And in other news, neocon ideologue Max Boot has officially resigned from the neocon movement. He now calls himself “an ex-neocon—a neocon mugged by reality”. He explains why in an article for Foreign Affairs, probably the most prestigious journal on foreign policy, What the Neocons Got Wrong: And How the Iraq War Taught Me About the Limits of American Power. “In retrospect, I was wildly overoptimistic about the prospects of exporting democracy by force, underestimating both the difficulties and the costs of such a massive undertaking. I am a neocon no more, at least as that term has been understood since 9/11.”

“In hindsight, I am amazed and appalled that I fell prey to these mass delusions.” Welcome to the club, Max. Don’t forget that you used your own weapons of mass delusion.

“No matter how powerful or well intentioned, outsiders can barely understand local societies, much less manipulate them successfully.” Hell, I don’t think Washington understands Wyoming, never mind Iraq or Vietnam.

After 70 years of disastrous foreign wars and disastrous domestic stupidities (not least its education policies), the country might just be easy pickings for the roving eyes of Vladimir Putin or Xi Jin Ping.

In This Issue

This week’s motto comes from the would-be autocrat of Turkey, who seems to think that standard economic theories (never mind the Austrian School’s theories) don’t apply to Turkey. This week’s ‘toon is an apt, if pessimistic, response.

L. Neil Smith on trusting the government and media, post September 11, 2001.

Antônio F. Oliveira continues his “The Artificial Intelligence Revolution in Social Media: How State Power and Algorithms Can Threaten Humanity: with Section 2: Data and real examples. Speaking of not trusting the government, media or social media.

Sean Gangol responds to more of the tired old arguments anti-gunners make.

Would the Golden Rule make a good basis for a decent society? asks Steve Heller.

Events

Feb 15 – April 1, 2023: Libertarian Solutions 3.0 online learning course: How to Share the Libertarian Message with Just About Anyone.

Your event here? Let your editor know!

Links! Have we got Links!

The corruption of California Bribery is the only way to get things done. Life in the California “party-state”.

The battle to control America’s mind What have the Twitter files and the war in Iraq got in common?

How many lives will gender ideology ruin? What I saw inside the Tavistock

Is The Greater Idaho Movement A Model For National Divorce From The Political Left?

Voting with your feet, Russian style. It is the only worthwhile form of voting left in Russia these days. The Russians Fleeing Putin’s Wartime Crackdown Resisters are leaving Russia because the country they worked to build is disappearing—and the more people who leave, the faster it vanishes.

Remember the Shitty Media Men list? The anonymous accusations, with no evidence, of rape, that ended careers. Remember that? The saga seems over. One can hope. The ‘Shitty Media Men’ Legal Saga Comes to a Close

In this day and age of cancel culture, social media rage, etc., it takes ovaries to apologize. Dear Conservatives, I Apologize My “Team” was Taken in By Full-Spectrum Propaganda — Dr Naomi Wolf. The article is well worth reading, as it brings up in detail the connection between the Bonus March (in 1932), other historical events, and the January 6 events.

Silicon Valley Bank seized by officials after imploding: How this happened and why 2023, just like 2008. Wait, weren’t we told that the Federal Reserve Act would end bank runs?

US House reps, staff health data swiped in cyber-heist The word “schadenfreude” comes to mind.

Cop warrant orders Ring to cough up footage from inside this guy’s home: Don’t say you weren’t warned. “One Ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them”? Yet another reason to not keep data in the cloud. Or to use gadgets that keep data in the cloud. And this brings up the question of: Whose data is it really, if the cops can get it by serving a search warrant on a third party, like your cloud server. Or your income tax preparer, or your bank.

‘Sent there to be meat’: Why Russian draftees are suddenly publishing so many video pleas to Putin

Silicon Valley Bank was a Big Green Government Ponzi Scheme