Sunday, February 15, 2004

I have yet to meet the person with whom I agree 100 %.

I have to come clean here folks. I've let it go on this long so as not to embarrass Joe Bendelman (Oops! Sorry, Joe! That's "Gandelman") .or the guy from The Insight. I care about them and their credibility, and I want them to succeed in their endeavors. The joke has gone on long enough. The fact is, I'm hardly a Buddhist. I'm a Lutheran.
I am conflicted about the teachings of Ayn Rand as against those of Jesus, but for life in this world I think Ayn Rand was closer to right. However, unlike Rand, I don't see Jesus as a complete fool. I wouldn't be a Lutheran if I did. My only, and I emphasize only, problem with Jesus, is his apparent (according to the preachers I've heard) lack of emphasis on economic matters. St. Paul's teachings outright contradict the teachings of the great economists, as do some of the books of the Apocrypha. Bastiat provides something like a compromise. As does Lord Acton. That is why I endorse them. Bastiat's book is 76 pages long. The Law is, that is.
After reading everything Rand had to say (published as of 1997, there's more now) I was ready to write my own book. Then I read Bastiat's The Law and discovered that it had already been written. Anybody who has read The Law will recognize hubris in that statement, unless I qualify it with the addendum: better than I could imagine. Only Henry Hazlitt has managed to improve on Bastiat. I've recommended Sowell without reservation; Hazlitt and Bastiat also belong in that crowd.
Natural Law is to me a more inspiring concept than anything any preacher ever espoused. The clearest expositions of it I've found have been the the Declaration of Independence and the teachings of the Acton Institute and Ayn Rand. And Murray Rothbard.
Just so we're clear on this, I think Bentham is a hose monkey.

All that aside, I wish to strongly encourage anyone to cling to a belief-system, or religion, that promotes peaceful exchange, honest dealing, helpful cooperation and the pursuit of personal excellence.

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