Paul Atreides

Paul is the only fictional character who I have identified with. Texas is my Arrakis. My DNA is not meant for such a harsh climate, but it makes me stronger. Paul's journey of awakening is different than mine in several ways; he starts out younger, he has dedicated royal teachers, he has mathematical abilities, a mother who is a trained witch, and a father who is royalty.

What Paul struggles with is similar to what I struggle with. We both see many different futures depending on the choices we make and know that there is a very narrow path forward to reach the best outcome. Surrounded by enemies and potential futures of disaster, every choice he makes is important. People look to him for leadership. He believes in leading people in the old way. He is not afraid to do the necessary killing of evil himself.

Paul is robbed of normalcy. He lives a carefully crafted, precisely planned life where he is groomed for power. We are different in that way, but we were both deprived of normalcy. I admire Paul because he is willing to go where no one has gone before and look in a forbidden place to look in the mind of human consciousness and awareness. His evolution in mind and the spreading of his consciousness is the defining characteristic and each day of my life has been a journey along that same line.

Philosopher King

In Plato's Republic, the question arises: can a philosopher rule as a king? Socrates answers this question by saying philosophers must rule as kings and the education of the guardian class of citizens must act as a selection process to provide the most excellent philosopher king. “Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophize, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils, nor, I think, will the human race."1 In book III, Socrates suggests that the citizens of the ideal city should be told a noble lie about the selection process of their rulers called the myth of the metals. This noble lie will serve to unite the citizens and ensure that the rulers are people who display the highest virtues of ancient Greek society; wisdom, courage, arête, patience, good judgment and physical strength. According to Socrates, the role of the philosopher in the political body is to help in the education process of the human soul.

Knowledge is information that is remembered by an individual, wisdom is the skillful application of knowledge which is used to navigate through life gracefully, to weigh the possible outcomes of decisions, to depart from cultural conventions, and for self preservation. Socrates is one of the quintessential examples of a philosopher and his most famous metaphor is the allegory of the cave. In book VII, Socrates describes how the people living in the cave can only see what is cast on the wall in front of them as shadows. The role of the philosopher is to help in the education process of the human soul which includes recognizing that all of the shadows on the wall are not real and eventually leaving the cave entirely. Once someone has left the cave, they can be exposed to the sun and the form of “The Good”. The form of The Good can illuminate all things to an individual and bring them to a level of understanding. The stages of leaving the cave represent the stages of life and the process of education. According to Socrates, a philosophers must rule, protectors must uphold the ruler's convictions and producers must focus on their trades, skills and crafts. “Neither the uneducated and uninformed of the truth, nor yet those who never make an end of their education, will be able ministers of state; not the former, because they have no single aim of duty which is the rule of all their actions, private as well as public; nor the latter because they will not act at all except upon compulsion.”2

Socrates was sentenced to death by his city and was not given the justice that he deserved. A philosopher owes no justice to any city because a philosopher grows in understanding, virtue and wisdom by traveling the world, exposing their self to other cultures and structures of government. By engaging with new people, new ideas, new places, a philosopher wrestles with questions that focus on the core of human nature and the nature of reality. Socrates' death remains an example of how a philosopher can be blamed for an entire nation's problems and misfortune when his only real goal in life was to understand life was to understand justice, virtue, truth, morality, beauty and the meaning of life. Socrates' allegory of the cave remains an important metaphor for education and the Socratic method remains as a part of higher education that is still practiced today.

A philosopher is someone who has a deep conviction to find the truth about the structure of the universe and the meaning of human life. A philosopher does not always question authority and he or she does not always have answers. Some philosophers don't fit into any mold or description, they live with the intention of defying all cultural roles, social roles and stereotypes. Some philosophers are dogmatic while others disdain dogmas and rigid thinking. Some philosophers ask questions that poke the uncomfortable areas of the human mind to stimulate thought. Philosophers can be like gardeners; watering, cultivating, and growing the minds of the people around them. Philosophers can also be like the sun; consistent, powerful, direct and energetic. A philosopher can be like a mountain; firm, unwavering, massive in their knowledge and wisdom. Some philosophers want to find the truth more than others, so they are driven to experiment with different methods of finding truth that are both scientific and non scientific. Philosophy is not an exact science, it is an art; an activity of the human mind with limitations only supplied by the philosophers themselves. 

The role of the philosopher in the city has shifted as the internet provides people with access to information about ancient and modern philosophy. Socrates' vision of the "Philosopher King" is an example of how a philosopher can create a unique solution to a problem and can improve the lives of all people.

Republic. Plato. 473 c-e

Republic. Plato. 183. Benjamin Jowett. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2000

The Road to Serfdom

Friedrich Hayek was right to worry that central planning of an economy would lead to full totalitarianism. Hayek explains in The Road to Serfdom that economic liberties and personal liberties are inseparable. Politics is the authoritative allocation of values and resources, therefore when a government controls all aspects of the economy, it controls all aspects of people’s lives.

In The Road to Serfdom, Hayek writes: “Our freedom of choice in a competitive society rests on the fact that, if one person refuses to satisfy our wishes, we can turn to another. But if we face a monopolist we are at his absolute mercy. An authority directing the whole economic system of the country would be the most powerful monopolist conceivable. It would have complete power to decide what we are to be given and on what terms. It would not only decide what commodities and services were to be available and in what quantities; it would be able to direct their distributions between persons to any degree it liked.”1 According to Hayek, the government should not have the power to decide beforehand who is going to be successful in society. The government cannot effectively plan for outcomes and when economic power is consolidated in the government, it can lead to despotism.

According to Hayek, the rule of law requires that all people follow the same rules. The role of government is to enforce the rules of just conduct. A state cannot have central planning and the rule of law because central planning limits individual freedom while the rule of law is not meant to limit freedom, but rather protect the individual. The rule of law is nullified by central planning because central planning reduces the value of the individual to a means to serve the ends of the totalitarian regime and disregards the happiness of the individual. The rule of law means nothing if the people live in a state of slavery. Hayek writes: “Although we had been warned by some of the greatest political thinkers of the nineteenth century, by Tocqueville and Lord Acton, that socialism means slavery, we have steadily moved in the direction of socialism.”2

Hayek’s view on the government helping people who have been negatively affected by economic conditions is simple: the government should redistribute wealth. According to Hayek, the government should help people, not industries, so when an industry fails, the government should not bail it out but rather let it fail. By choosing what industries to keep running, the government decides who will be successful and disregards the market. If there is no demand for an industry to continue or an industry becomes obsolete due to the emergence of a new industry, the market dictates that it should fail, and the government should not intervene.

Communism was more than just an idea to Hayek, he observed how socialism in Germany led to the full scale totalitarianism of the Nazi regime and how communism in Russia led to the totalitarian dictatorship of Josef Stalin. His view was not warped by what he saw in Germany and Russia, instead his views on economics and the rule of law were directly informed by the arbitrary administrative government led by dictators. When the government creates a plan for each person, it engages in soft despotism which creates rules that limit the freedom of the individual. When the government is controlled by a dictator, it can disregard the value of human life in pursuit of its political goals. In both cases, the freedom of the individual is restricted by the regime.

A modern day example of how central planning of an economy can fail and lead to massive social unrest is in Venezuela. When oil production, the main source of income for Venezuela, became under government control, led by the dictator Hugo Chavez, oil prices fell dramatically leading to an economic collapse. The recession in Venezuela has cause food shortages, inflation and unsustainable debt. According to Hayek, the government should have stayed out of the economic planning because it could not have predicted the fall in oil prices. Although European and South American countries continue to move towards socialist policies, Hayek would have warned them that their economic future depends on their ability to allow the market to operate on its own and only seek to prevent monopolies.

Footnotes

The Road To Serfdom, Friedrich August von Hayek, Routledge Press, United Kingdom, 1944

The Road To Serfdom, Friedrich August von Hayek, Routledge Press, United Kingdom, 1944

Being proud to speak the truth

 Never again shall we be afraid to speak the truth or afraid to upset the fragile minds of those who cannot handle the truth. Forever we shall be proud to speak the truth for it is a righteous action.

A Mask

One can study the sun and moon externally, but you have the sun and moon and God within you. We must always start with ourselves because we cannot see others through the mask they wear. Only if we know ourselves can we see another, for all people are alike inside. Others are like us, they have the same good intentions to change but they cannot.

-George Ivanovich Gurdjieff

The Wall of Society

We only bash our heads against the rocks for long enough to learn the lesson of who we are. This society provides us with many rocks for bashing. There are many dead ends for every road forward. Much of what I have learned has now become distilled down to a single distinction: the creative and the non creative. The creative must strive to exist in soil that allows them to grow. In an uncreative industry, environment or soil, someone who can see beyond what is material and has the gift of creativity can never grow.

It is useless to feel negativity towards the cogs of the uncreative machine. People may serve a purpose in this world even if they are as rigid as a stone and have a stick way up their ass. It's not for me to decide, it is for me only to not continue down the closed paths and dead ends. It is for me only to find the eternal way.