Learn from Sally

October 21, 2009 – 12:52 pm

Our Dear Friend and Contributor, Sally, is a prolific and thoughtful Author. Here is a sampling of her work we thought our readers would enjoy

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My Reaction to David Brooks. Wherein I blast Brooks for supporting Obama during the 2008 campaign and wonder why it took him so long to wise up:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12865121/My-Reaction-to-David-Brooks

A Message to the Proponents of the Abundant Society. Wherein I take a group of socialists to task for assuming capitalism is blocking us from achieving their dream of the Abundant Society. Actually, I insist, it’s our comparatively low level of technological mastery that stops us. Socialists have always dreamed of such a society, but it can only be achieved through technological advances that are generated by free enterplrise:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/11799713/A-Message-to-Proponents-of-the-Abundant-Society

Why I Am Not a Liberal. Wherein I take on a liberal point by point, and by so doing, express conservative beliefs in (what I believe is) a clarifying way:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/7794844/Why-I-Am-Not-a-Liberal

Why I Am an American Conservative. Wherein I distinguish American conservatism from other forms of conservatism around the world, explain why Hayek didn’t believe he was a conservative, distinguish varieties of American conservatisms, describe fundamental beliefs we American conservatives hold in common, and explain how these lead to American conservative stands on various specific political issues.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/7792584/Why-I-Am-an-American-Conservative

Is Democracy Fair? Wherein I deal with the fact that democracies are not made up of people who are fully equal in power. I illustrate this with my hypothetical presidentail campaign needing to finance its operations. I conclude that fairness is not the same thing as absolutely equal access to power, influence and dollars.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3944316/Is-Democracy-Fair

Free Universe, Free Society, Free Minds Here’s a controversial one. This is where I argue that religion in of itself is resolutely opposed to free societies, and are especially allergic to capitalism. Free societies can modify this, America certainly has. But in that case the free society changes the religious believers, not the other way around.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3943594/Free-Universe-Free-Society-Free-Minds

The Only Known Cure for Racism. Wherein I insist the government programs won’t do it, PC, won’t do it, only American individualism will do it.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3941120/The-Only-Known-Cure-for-Racism

This one is probably less controversial than a religious believer would expect. I describe a very interesting and amusing encounter between the Papal Nuncio (Ambassador from the Vatican) and Ben Franklin in Paris. The “cultural shock” induced thereby into the Nuncio is illustrative of the vastly different mindsets Americans had already achieved in the 18th century as compared to Europeans on matters related to church-state relationships. When I found this story on the Internet, and turned it into this essay, I realized I had discovered an extraordinarily important source of the American character and American freedom.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3940266/The-Curious-Case-of-America-Ben-Franklin-and-the-Papal-Nuncio

Of Robots, Empires and Pencils This essay has generated almost 3,000 hits with absolutely no promotion carried out by me. It deals with Isaac Asimov’s famous Foundation Trilogy and his robot stories, contrasting the inherent statist assumptions Asimov made in them with the Leonard Read’s very famous essay about a conscious and knowledgeable Number 2 pencil who walks us through the very Hayekian concept of a free, unplanned, unguided, no mastermind economy. I forced an encounter between these very famous written works in order to illustrate self-organizing economic systems in an easily understood, unforgettable way.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3302001/Of-Robots-and-Empire-Asimov

And finally, The Grassroots Society. This is my sequel to the much more science-focused The Grassroots Creation (also posted on Scribd), in which I describe numerous examples of self-organization within human societies. I reference the following in the essay:

Ervin Laszlo’s book on evolving systems, specifically his chapter on societies.

The tail end of Richard Dawkins’ famous “The Selfish Gene,” in which he introduced his concept, the “meme,” or very basic idea. He thereby gives us the cultural version of the biological “gene,” and gives believers (like me) in self-organizing systems a means by which cultural evolution can be analyzed scientifically.

Edward Harrison’s book, “Masks of the Universe,” is not only appropriate for analyzing our scientific models of the universe, but it also helps analyzing our mental models of societies.

John Pfeiffer’s “The Creative Explosion” shows how cultural evolution began very early, how societies grew in size and in power, handling greater and greater amounts of information.

Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” has an honored place in this essay. I insist that his “Invisible Hand” is a metaphor for self-organization in the economic sphere. He was waaaaay ahead of his time.

Michael Novak’s “The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism” is also featured. The Catholic theologian has mastered free economics and describes the underlying character of a people needed for them to be successful at it.

Jane Jacobs’ “Cities and the Wealth of Nations” shows us how wealth creation occurs in waves of creativity and trade.

Hernando de Soto describes how even unfree people in Peru created amazing amounts of wealth by cooperating in the “informal” economy.

I couldn’t ignore the Federalist Papers, perhaps America’s greatest contribution to political philosophy. I describe how the writers defended the Constitution and how the Constitution provided a framework for the growth of a massive, powerful, free society.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3263584/The-Grassroots-Society

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