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Hard Times Create Strong Men…
I saw this on Facebook this morning. I thought it might be oversimplified or exaggerated — I went to ask a Roman what he thought, but I couldn’t find any. So I’ll ask my friends on Ricochet — do you think this is true? If so, is it inevitable? How can this be avoided?
Published in General
Well, that’s just the thing. Many people were (and remain today) unconvinced that the Central Powers did represent an existential threat to the United Kingdom.
Perhaps the argument can be made that an unnecessary war (or, at least, a war that is perceived as unnecessary) is often the source for great social disruption.
Afternoon Mist,
My Victorian go to is Gertrude Himmelfarb, it is from her book “Poverty and Campassion”. The work of Charles Booth and others provides a block by block account of London around 1900, Himmelfarb’s second chapter covers Booth’s work and is titled Life and Labour of the People in London.
Afternoon Mist,
My go to person on Victorian England is Gertrude Himmelfarb. The info on London comes from her book “Poverty and Compassion”. In the second chapter, Life and Labour of the People in London, she covers the work of Charles Booth and others who as the first demographers did a block by block analysis of London, especially the East End.
Really? I would think building a home from scratch constitutes some “hard time”. And the government isn’t always around. And sometimes famine or flood leaves you without food until the next train comes in from the east.
I dont know… seems like hard living to me.
Edited to add: these people perhaps experienced ultimate freedom – more so than the east did. Most colonies had a present government in place when they first arrived, but the west was unlimited for the most part.
But also part of that freedom was the ability to succeed on one’s own merits, depending solely on God and self. They were willing to go without in order to make what they did get worth it.
Afternoon Mist,
Sorry about the double post. Concerning WWI, the Great War is a tragic confusion, the staggering losses, the men just running into machine gun fire, the delusion that it would be a quick war all make generalizations hard. However the men going into WWI did not debate whether they would die for God or country, one thing that is emblematic of the Victorian time is that even if one doubted in God or Victorian morality one’s sense of duty dominated and directed one’s choices.
“Artistic talent” is relative. In 1800 America, an artist/craftsman could be the equivalent of a low-level graphic designer today. Not a world class celebrity artist, to be sure, but still making a living creating decorative pieces for people’s homes.
Does “hard living” equal “hard times”?
In eras of history where everybody endured “hard living”, did they not still have “good times” distinguishable from “hard times”?
The “seven years of plenty” that preceded the “seven years of famine” in the Book of Genesis still required hard work.
I’m going to go back to my first comment on what I think builds character (strong men) – it’s being able to go without… not that it is necessarily unavailable.
For a very poor person, that looks different than for a wealthy person. But the widow’s mite still matters.
Hard Living and Hard Times produce similar results.
If the Fed doesn’t “pay” for their pensions, their old people will have to be turned into Soylent Green.
I never cease to be increasingly amazed at the stupidity of government actuarial systems, discretionary central banking, and the political choice to centralize governance and power. It’s unworkable in most places.
The EU and the EMU are a perfect example. (To be fair, a lot of that happened undemocratically.)
Why in the hell didn’t they put hard actuarial stabilizers into that stuff?
Just eight years into Medicare, the Senate bipartisan-ly recognized it was a fiscal fiasco. That’s how the CBO got started. It never would’ve passed CBO scrutiny.
The other thing is, the mistakes that caused and prolonged the depression suppressed tremendous human capital and financial capital t gains and improvements hat got unleashed at that time. It was both.
Then LBJ had to have “guns and butter”. Swell.
See Dr. Joseph Selarno: “Mises and nationalism”.
Government Is How We Steal From Each Other™
It will be interesting to see if the 50 guy kleptocracy known as China actually works out. The Big Brother stuff they are enacting is wild. Then throw in all their debt. They may just force it all to work.
I say it requires a certain kind of value system. A Judeo-Christian culture. Or Taoist. Discuss.
We’re Living in the Age of Capital Consumption
Mises.org is right about everything.
George Bragues On How The Financial Markets Are Influenced By Politics
Mises.org is right about everything.
Bill Whittle: Why a Flat Tax would be the End of Leftism. 10 minutes.
It is being discussed in several threads as a result of Goldbgerg’s book, Suicide of the West. This one is probably the longest, most in-depth one http://ricochet.com/518256/suicide-of-the-west-ideas-are-not-enough/#comments
I agree a common value system is needed, but I’m not convinced it needs to be Judeo-Christian.
I know jack about this, but along these lines, some people are sort of obsessed with Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore for some reason.
Here’s my guy lol:
Hans-Hermann Hoppe: Why Democracy Fails
10 minutes.
He wants to go back to a monarchy. lol
Stalin was a strong man. Hard times followed. so it is not so simple. Strong men still have to be “good” for good times to follow — by “good” I mean guided by morality even if imperfect.
Jonah says all we need is gratitude? When and where did he say that?
No, they won’t. But they’ll have the military might to make it look like it does until they can ride off into the sunset.
Jonah has basically zero gratitude. I concur.
I think you’re missing the point. Those men were strong without state intervention. They just wouldn’t have won the war without being strong. It wasn’t the war that made them strong.
I think that is a valid insight, too.
I think there could have been solutions that allowed a better transition from Empire to Commonwealth while maintaining Britain’s military power. But then I blame Wilson’s crippling the British Navy for a lot of the evils that came afterward.
delete
Pretty freaking civilized, truth be told. Been to Carnuntum?
https://www.carnuntum.at/de
Or taken the Roman York tour?
https://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/exhibition/roman-york-meet-the-people-of-the-empire/
That Roman in-floor central heating? It’s amazing, even by today’s standards.
Morning Painter Jean and dnewlander,
Jonah often has said that politics follows culture. However Jonah has not written books on how culture is influenced, he writes about political philosophy and history. So we should be grateful about the “miracle” of the Western world with the unique level of personal freedom and unique property ownership. Fine, how do cultures inspire the next generation to be grateful, teach gratitude like sex ed, in school?
For example from 1890 until 1940 the marriage rate for blacks was higher than the marriage rate for whites, by 1965 and Moynihan 25% of black children were born out of wedlock. Just as the economic situation for blacks was improving this disastrous destruction of the most important part of culture was beginning. Was it economic, AFDC, or changes in minimum wage, or did the sexual revolution of the 60’s effect the black community earlier than the white, if so, why. Politics and progressive policies may have played a part, if so, show how and show how we could use counter policies to reestablish marriage.
Jonah does not research cultural change, and show how government policies reflect cultural change or speed cultural change. Personal and civic responsibility may be influenced by governmental policies;\, but there are non-governmental forces which influence personal and civic responsibility, Jonah does not examine these forces. If we are in a leaky lifeboat, we do not need a history of lifeboat design, or a lecture saying we should be grateful for lifeboats, we urgently need to know how to maintain and repair the boat we are in. Of course Jonah is not alone in his indifference to the basics of cultural change, none of our conservative thinkers have told us how cultures have designed good lifeboats and how they preserved them.