Sir Francis Bacon Part Two

A few days ago The Rainmaker published a discussion of a very short but interesting set of propositions by Sir Francis BAcon, politician, statesman, poet, author, philosopher and enthusiastic promoter of the scientific revolution. That post was inspired by our correspondendent Diana. As promised in that post our reactions will be provided to both Bacon's "Stumbling-Blocks to Truth," and Diana's points to ponder. Diana's material is highlighted in Bold, the original text of The Rainmaker's original post will appear in italics and today's text will look just like this.

As a thinking society, what can we learn about ourselves from assessing Sir Roger Bacon's 'Stumbling-Blocks to Truth?'

All The Rainmaker really knows about Roger Bacon is that he was a pretty amazing dude...The Rainmaker had never heard of these four stumbling-blocks to groking the truth. An Aside: "Grok" is a term from Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land," the first libertarian book The Rainmaker ever read (almost 40 years ago...ouch!) and the term "grok" means "to know completely." Obviously the definition of "grok" has been grossly simplified for brevity but any fundamentalist Heinlein fans will have to bear with this for now. It's still a great read after all these years.

Back on track: Here is what Peter's email for Diana said about Bacon's blocks in full: (The Rainmaker's comments are inserted into Diana's text in regular type.)

Four very significant stumbling-blocks (are) in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom and truth. (Circa 1214-1294)

They are:

1) submission to faulty and unworthy authority

The Rainmaker agrees that Sir Robert nailed the problem pretty concisely yet compreshesively and suspects that Machiavelli would consider #1 above to be an Oxymoron.

2) long-standing continuance of custom

The Rainmaker suspects that Hobbs would disagree the #2 is always an obstacle. The Rainmaker can almost anticipate George Wills column to refute this proposition.

3) popular prejudice and regard to the opinion of the unlearned

4) concealment of ones own ignorance while exhibiting wisdom"

The Rainmaker strongly suspects that Sir Roger Bacon would be glad he didn't live in the era of Congressional hearings, spin doctors and cable news networks as those pertain to items #3 and #4.

The Rainmaker is no philosopher but sees nothing to disagree with in the four statements. All four are indeed stumbling-blocks in the way of grasping the truth.

The foregoing was obviously, at least to The Rainmaker Bacon's material. The following is from Diana by way of her spouse Peter P.

"We seek truth to analyze problems and to avoid making similar mistakes in the future yet in our politically charged world we find intellectual dihonesty and purposeful chaos.

We ask ourselves:

1) Are these stumbling-blocks to truth and wisdom being used against us?

Yes, and The Rainmaker believes they are being used with malice aforethought. Search for this website featuring the "Money as Debt" movie and invest 45 minutes, then let The Rainmaker know if you agree or disagree with this answer.

2) Who in government is telling us the truth?

Only those with their mouths shut who are not writing anything. Seriously The Rainmaker believes one can trust that government which is closest to home most and hold that government more accountable. The closer one gets to the center (a state capital or Washington) the less trustworthy and the less accountable the politician or bureaucrat.

3) Does the media use it's medium to keep us from obtaining the truth and wisdom?

The media is a medium of obfuscation, interest group propaganda, sensationalism and entertainment. The media will keep us from obtaining the truth only if we allow it to do that. In the Rainmaker's opinion we are each on our own hook when it comes to becoming informed and wise.

4) How are the candidates using deception to sway our thinking?

In every way they can conceive of in order to obtain their respective real objectives, which are almost universally applicable to any candidate for any office:
*To be elected;
*To grow (pick at least two) powerful, wealthy and famous at public expense;
*To maximize their personal perogative's and perks;
*To use their power to peddle influence in order to lavishly fund their reelection campaigns;
*To be reelected often at any cost, which usually means don't rock the boat and go along to get along;
*To conceal "their own ignorance," confusion, uncertainty and insecurities while exhibiting apparent "wisdom" that in reality is merely conventional wisdom;
*To maximise their own perceived power and privilege;
*To leave a "legacy" of honor purchased at the taxpayer's cost and the soldier's life, both spent as necessary to furthur the politicians self interest; and,
*To do the right thing for the country, its citizens and the world if it doesn't conflict with any of the preceeding objectives.

The Rainmaker believes that if asked, any politician will answer that his or her objective is the last one listed and further, that being masters of "Cognitive Dissonance" politicians and bureaucrats have usually convinced themselves that is in fact the case. However, it is the Rainmaker's opinion that the previous eight objectives are pretty much listed in the real world order of importance.

5) How did we get into this economic crise?

The Rainmaker believes the United State's monetary system is inherently dishonest. As the monetary system is the medium in which a society functions, when it is poluted it will eventually do to society what dirty water eventually does to a fish--kill it. There has never been a paper money, debt money system that has managed to survive 100 years. Ours is about 94 years old.

Therefore since the medium in which society functions is dishonest--no matter how well meaning and personally honest most people in a society might be and usually are in their day to day lives--the society itself is tainted. Periodic economic dislocations are probably inevitable in any society, but the dislocations experienced by a society function with dishonest money are more frequent, more severe and ultimately fatal. That is The Rainmaker's observation regarding Diana's final point.

The Rainmaker offers the following support of this observation. That support is in the form of three books.

The first is "Money and Debt" by Thomas Greco. It can be found at a website called "Reinventing Money" in the "library" on that site and can be downloaded for free (it's only a 65 pages). It comes in three parts (meaning separate pdf files).

The second is "Debt Virus" by Dr. Jacques Jaidaran M.D. and it can be found at most online booksellers. "Debt Virus" is excellent although longer and a more expensive option than "Money and Debt.

And if really ambitious, read "Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt," written by an English Nobel Prize winning physicist Frederick Soddy. It was written about 80 years ago and reads that way. But it is well worth the effort.

Just something to ponder...

Obviously The Rainmaker's hot button was pushed by Diana's material. Hopefully you will find some value in all of this. Even if it is only value equal to a dime, it is 30% more in terms of intrinsic worth than the paper and ink we call money. This is because a dime is actually worth more regardless of the denomination of the bill the paper and ink comprise. That's right the intrinsic value (the worth of each bill, be is $1.00 or $100.00) is about $0.07.

Sir Francis Bacon

Today The Rainmaker received an email sent by Peter P. on behalf of his spouse Diana. The subject line was "Only For The Intellectually Curious."

The first reaction was "Yeah, right." But then The Rainmaker started to read. Even a blind squirrel can find a nut once every now and then. And The Rainmaker is grateful to be the squirrel that decided to read Diana's insightful thoughts, questions and observations. She might have been Socrates in a former life!

The Rainmaker is really happy to have invested the time to read and ponder Diana's observations on Bacon as well as her wise questions. Hopefully you won't be dissappointed that to have this material inflicted on yourselves.

The email begins by asking the question:

"As a thinking society, what can we learn about ourselves from assessing Sir Roger Bacon's 'Stumbling-Blocks to Truth?'"

All The Rainmaker really knows about Roger Bacon is that he was a pretty amazing dude who lived about the same time as a fellow named Shakespeare was alleged to have lived. There is an emerging consensus (although still significant doubt) that if Shakespeare didn't right his material Bacon is a very likely suspect to be ghost writer. The Rainmaker had never heard of these four stumbling-blocks to groking the truth. An Aside: "Grok" is a term from Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land," the first libertarian book I ever read (almost 40 years ago...ouch!) and the term "grok" means "to know completely." Obviously the definition of "grok" has been grossly simplified for brevity but any fundamentalist Heinlein fans will have to bear with this for now. It's still a great read after all these years.

Back on track: Here is what Peter's email for Diana said about them in full:

"Four very significant stumbling-blocks (are) in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom and truth. (Circa 1214-1294)

They are:

1) submission to faulty and unworthy authority
2) long-standing continuance of custom
3) popular prejudice and regard to the opinion of the unlearned
4) concealment of ones own ignorance while exhibiting wisdom"

The foregoing was obviously, at least to me Bacon's material. The following is from Diana by way of her spouse Peter P.

"We seek truth to analyze problems and to avoid making similar mistakes in the future yet in our politically charged world we find intellectual dihonesty and purposeful chaos.

We ask ourselves:

1) Are these stumbling-blocks to truth and wisdom being used against us?
2) Who in government is telling us the truth?
3) Does the media use it's medium to keep us from obtaining the truth and wisdom?
4) How are the candidates using deception to sway our thinking?
5) How did we get into this economic crise?

Just something to ponder..."

The Rainmaker commented on the Bacon material and responded to Diana's thoughts and points to ponder. Rather than be a typical media outlet The Rainmaker will give you some time to ponder these points on your own before poluting your thought process with Rainmaker opinion, suposition and prejudice. In a day or two, perhaps longer another post will explore the already written observations, thoughts, conclusions, rants and, hopefully, provide the occasional insight.

Until then, hasta la vista!

Interesting Times

Earlier today I spoke with my friend Greg Fossedal on the telephone and we agreed that the election is over but for the counting. Obama is opening a lead over McCain that has been expanding ever since the financial crises caught our attention. Neither of us can imagine a scenario that wins the election of McCain. Of course this is the year of the unexpected and our expectation of the electoral outcome smacks of conventional wisdom, which is usually wrong.

Then a gentleman with whom I correspond but who I have never personally met, Peter Poranski (obviously an Irishman), made a comment in an email, which I found fascinating. Peter said that if we elect McCain we'll be a Socialist country in two years, but if we elect Obama we'll be there in six months. So, that leads me to ask, if we are ending up in the same place either way, why vote for the cheap imitation? Clearly "We are the change we have been waiting for!" Obama is the "The Man!"

Nevertheless, all is not well. I write this tonight on my balcony, having watched the sunset over the Potomac, the monuments and, I fear, the Republic.

Today the White House is occupied by a man who pays lip service to Free Markets but then tells the Secretary of the Treasury to do what needs to be done, regardless of the politics and candidate McCain echos that after the Bailout's initial defeat in the House but adds, regardless of the law!

A similar point of view led his predecessor Lyndon Johnson to create the diabolical twins Freddie and Fanny in an effort to hide the financial implications of financing the war in Viet Nam. In 1965, LBJ also brought us the blessings of Medicare, which goes into the red on a cash flow basis in 2010 and depletes it's unfunded Congresional IOUs in 2018; falling 20% short of breakeven thereafter.

Another President, FDR, created another Ponzie Scheme known as Social Security to show "progress" and buy votes in the midst of the Great Depression. This piece of financial sleight of hand goes into cash flow negativity in 2017 and exhausts its unfunded Congressional IOUs in 2042; falling 30% short of returning the "contributions" made by employees thereafter.

Imagine paying into a health insurance plan or savings account and discovering that when you need the money back you should forget about any return on investment at all and will only receive back 80 or 70 cents, respectively on these two entitlement programs, on each dollar of principle you deposited into the system?

Imagine that the consensus solution to put these trains back on the track is to raise the payroll tax, the most regressive tax imposed on Americans, as much as 50% while cutting benefits to close the 20% Medicare and 30% Social Security shortfall.

In other words, all that money we paid into the Medicare and Scoial Seurity surpluses between the 80's and now simply evaporates. Meanwhile we have the satisfaction of knowing the money stolen from each or our pachecks every payday by that bandit FICA has helped fund a solvent and robust Federal Thrift Savings Plan for Federal Employees and Congress Critters, featuring those dreaded personal accounts the rest of us can't be trusted with. FICA has also paid for series of wars, weapons systems and boondogles like the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere." Doesn't all that make you proud to be an American?

Wow, if Wall Street did that we'd all be howling that those greedy capitalists should be sent off to jail. Yet your elected leaders over at least 40+ years have done exactly that. My friends (with apologies to John McCain) we have been taken for a ride. Neiher Senator Status nor Senator Quo, as my friend Greg Fossedal calls Obama and McCain, will change this scenario if elected President this November.

As the old Chinese curse says, "May you live in interesting times." We are well and truly cursed.

OZ on the Potomac

The monuments of Washington, DC are beautiful tonight, well lit reminders of what was once the last best hope of the planet. OZ is indeed visually impressive. Yet, OZ is rapidly becoming an empty facade where the streets are paved in worthless greenbacks. The wheels of America's government still turn smoothly, its entitlements, earmarks and various and sundry wars, humming like a fine tooled machine fueled by endless debt. And, the weather is delightful tonight, crisp, clear and cool. It's after midnight and we are safe for at least a few hours, Congress has adjourned for the evening and the Wizard sleeps.

However, the fate of the nation hangs in the balance. Financial markets are in turmoil. Tomorrow Congress will continue to debate the terms and conditions of the "Mother of all Bailouts."

OZ, this mythical bastion of Capitalism and free markets, has become something akin to a National Socialist State. Consider on the one hand the "Storm Troopers" of the Department of Homeland Security using fear to justify tyranny who are a matched pair with thousands of SWAT teams intent on imprisioning more people in both absolute and per capita terms than any other nation on earth in a futile effort to win a "War on Drugs." America has become a police state. Meanwhile, on the other hand, companies deemed "too big to fail" are being taken over by a government and thus insulated from the consequences of their mistakes and their corruption. The "Land of the free and the home of the brave" has become a phantom or a figmant of imaginative spin doctors.

Nobody knows how the masters of our universal debt, America's creditors, will react. If the Asians, Indians, Arabs and Europeans don't approve of the terms of the "Mother of all Bailouts," they could sell their multi trillion dollar currency stash and call their multi trillion dollars in government notes; dumping their assets like so much sand into the fine tuned gearbox of America's debt based Empire and dismantling the "shining city on the hill." Of course the resulting disorder might consume them as well. That consideration might yet preserve the status quo for a time. Where will it all end? Who can know?

Meanwhile those who contend to become the new Wizard stalk the countryside. What to they think? Not much. What do they really say? Even less. They would rather talk about something else; almost anything else. The current financial melt down is beyond their comprehension. One calls for "Change," yet represents the status quo of a generation of failed policies. The other is comitted to the maintainence of Empire and continuation of the never ending war, while confessing he doesn't understand economics. The focus of the race has devolved to identity politics revolving around the race of the Presidential nominee of one party and the sex of the Vice Presidential nominee of the other party. America's media, political elites and the vast majority of American voters really have no clue as to what really matters.

It is said that when Rome burned Nero played the fiddle. One doubts that any of the national candidates who would be the new Wizard have enough musical talent to emulate him. Yet make no mistake, OZ is engulfed in financial flames lit four score and fifteen years by the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913; creating a fiat currency inspired insanity. The consequences of those decisions can't be avoided much longer.

The moral of this story is: Buy precious metals.

The Three Mysteries of Partisan Politics

We are 50 days (plus or minus) from the next election. It is mysterious to The Rainmaker how so much "Sound and Fury" could signify so little. The political communication seems empty, meaningless and without value.

Consider just these two examples:

First: The financial markets seem to be imploding and the candidates are AWOL, failing to even mention the $50 trillion dollars of current debt on the books, which doesn't begin to account for unfunded liabilities such as Social Security, Medicare, pensions and such.

Second: The candidates abhor the failure of the health market but basically pander to voters promising universal coverage and affordability to all while somehow missing the fact that Medicare is going cash flow negative at some point within the first term of the winning candidate.

Those two examples merely typify the disconnect between the candidates and reality. This disconnect can be attributed to the lust for power and glory silencing any meaningful dialogue while we debate the meaning and significance of lipstick, pigs and lipstick on pigs.

The three mysteries are even more troubling.

The first mystery is the Democratic Mystery. While the Democratic Party champions personal freedom of speech, association, sexuality and religion it cares little for economic freedom and property rights. In other words you are free to do whatever you want but what is yours is ours if it is necessary to win a few votes.

The second mystery is the Republican Mystery. While the Republican Party champions economic freedom it stifles individual liberty in most respects. In other words, your ownership of property is sacrosanct but your body is not your own.

The final mystery is the Statist Mystery. The slavish and rabid devotion to the health, well being and primacy of the State is totally incomprehensible. The founders believed the individual to be sovereign. But while both major political parties purport to celebrate individual liberty, both seem to have forgotten two pillars of limited government included in the Bill of Rights.

The 9th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says:

"The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says:

"The Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people."

Over the past couple of centuries we have ceased to be personally sovereign and have become chattel of the State. How else can one explain the reality we experience in our day to day lives.

Imagine Ben Franklin being forced to remove his shoes and coat and subject his luggage to search in order to travel, foregoing his right to be secure from search and seizure guaranteed to him (as well as to you and me) in the fourth amendment to the Constitution.

Indeed it was Franklin who said, "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." Consider this the next time you transit an airport. Do the buffoons of the TSA really accomplish anything beyond making a silly show of officious pseudo security?

Enough of the digression, the Rainmaker will return to the underlying point.

The bottom line is the current reality is nonsensical to the point of absurdity. The government of the United States of America does a poor job of securing the inalienable rights invoked in the Declaration of Independence that include "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

What exactly are you going to do about that? Probably not enough!

A Slow Day in Arlington, Virginia

Today while walking to the market to provision for the weekend your faithful Rainmaker witnessed a fascinating episode. Wilson Blvd. is a one way street passing through the Roslyn neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia. Some poor soul had apparently gotten discombobulated and driven the wrong way on that street. Her car headed east on the one way west bound bound Wilson Blvd., was pulled over to side of the road at about the 1600 block of Wilson adjacent to the Red Hot and Blue restaurant. Obviously this was a major infraction for the driver who appeared to be a soccer Mom (sans lipstick) had the attention of two police cars, a fire truck and ten "public safety employees" who parked their vehicles helter skelter across the street slowing rush hour traffic. While one of their number, obviously the one with the least seniority, wrote the hapless soccer Mom a ticket the other nine guardians of public order and fire protection stood around having an obviously grand old time discussing who knows what but probably "life, love and the neon rainbow."

Walking back from the market almost 25 minutes later the situation remained unchanged. The Rainmaker recognizes that in the wake of the 9/11 events it is impossible for local governments to rein in these police and fire fighters, heroic paragons of America's first line of defense in the neverending "War on Terror." Nevertheless the deployment of resources witnessed in the 1600 block of Wilson Blvd. this afternoon gives pause. Obviously there wasn't much going on. If 10 public employees respond and nine spend at least 30 minutes watching the tenth write a ticket then there must be a lot of excees capacity in the system.

The Rainmaker focused on this minor traffic accident for two reasons. First, the dissproportionate resource allocation, sending 10 officers/firefighters to deal with a non injury traffic infraction. It must have been a slow day in Arlington, Virginia. Second, this seemed a perfectly good example of what in part caused the typical small town such as Vallejo, California to declare bankruptcy last year.

It turns out that Vallejo has a police and fire force that can earn (or rather collect) over $300,000 each in a give year for keeping the city safe for democracy, truth, justice and the "American Way." In Vallejo, 74% of the city budget was devoted to providing "fair" compensation to the public safety sector of teh town's budget. A police officer or fire fighter can earn $300,000 annually in Vallejo.

The Rainmaker wonders how much longer these inequities can continue before the system finds itself in a state of collapse.

Who am I and why am I here?

It was a mere sixteen years ago that the imortal words, "Who am I and why am I here?" were uttered by Admiral Stockdale, Ross Perot's running mate in his Vice Presidential debate with Al Gore and Dan Quayle. The quote earned Stockdale an ill deserved spot on Saturday Night Live where he was mercilessly parodied.

No, this is not a conversation about Vice Presidential nominees, however tempting that might be especially in light of what perhaps appears to be developing as Senator McCain's "Eagleton Moment." Eagleton of course refers to the sequence of events thirty-six years ago when George McGovern's ill fated choice of Tom Eagleton as his running mate effectively destroyed any hope McGovern might have had to win the Presidency. Is this a--not quite--instant "Palin Replay" of the Eagleton fiasco? For the record, The Rainmaker believes that Ms. Palin will ultimately be a net positive to the McCain campaign.

But all this is merely a digression and a distraction.

Actually Stockdale's bungled opening line is the ultimate question each of us faces in our life, "Who am I and why am I here?"

Are we merely a fluke of the Universe? Or is there some significant purpose to our life? Honestly, most of us don't know. Those of us to think we know can't really be sure until that "turn out the lights, the party is over..." moment when we breathe our last breath.

"Who am I and why am I here?" In that context, it's really a pretty good question. Perhaps it really is the ultimate question.

In Douglass Adams' "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy," the "ultimate" question was submitted to "the" super computer that chugged and calculated away until the answer, "42" was delivered. But, the actual "ultimate" question was unknown and perhaps unknowable so the answer "42" is essentially meaningless. Obviously the underlying or "ultimate" question is very important.

Whatever the question was that resulted in the answer "42," it surely was not, "Who am I and why am I here?"

So, what is the answer to the question: "Who am I and why am I here?" Each of us spends a lifetime finding out. But the answer isn't always the same when we ask the question over time.

Actually as we pass through a lifetime of experiences, the answers are typically pretty pedestrian and not at all profound. We seem to take refuge in the superficial external characteristics of our lives to answer this ultimate question, "Who am I and why am I here?"

As a child we answer that question by saying, "I am my parent's daughter or son, here to either please or rebel."

As a teen we are what apparently what we see in the mirror. We are a thug or a geek or a nerd or a scholar, an athelete, a cheer leader or a confused, zit covered kid. Most of us are the last most of the time. We are ultimately all about self gratification at that stage of our lives.

As a young adult we are an extension of our group. Perhaps we are a soldier, or a college student , a member of a sports team, an accountant, a truck driver, a cowboy, an activist, a farmer or even a competitor in a beauty contest. We seek to attain status within the context of the group.

Eventually most of us are defined or define ourselves by our families, our jobs, our positions and how much money we have. Some of us assume the identity of an organization, perhaps a religious, advocacy, political, corporate, labor, national or ethnic group. We strive to support and advance the interests of our families, our companies, our nation or our world.

Ultimately at the end of our lives we leave this world with exactly what we brought to this world, ourselves. Then ultimately we finally come to define, whether we want to or not, the answer to the qusetions, "Who am I and why am I here?" What exactly is my "self?"

We recognize at some point that we are defining who we are and why we are in what are actually pretty superficial measures of our selves. Most of these definitions are externally measured and really have nothing to do with who we really are or why we are really here. Who is the "I" who my Mother delivers into the world? Who is the "I" who breaths my last breath? Is it the same "I?" Why did "I" experience all of that over the course of my life?

Or, is there ever even really an "I?" Perhaps the Buddah is right and the "real world" is all an illusion..."Maya." But what if "I" am also an illusion?

Now that is something to think about.