Philosophy

Philosophy articles feature reflection and analysis about public life, values, ethics, and morals.

All philosophy articles at Brownstone Institute are translated into multiple languages.

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lockdowns abundance

Did Lockdowns Signify the “End of Abundance?”

By / / , / 22 minute read / Articles
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Locking down the population and subjecting it to draconian restrictions is, for some reason, absolutely central to their vision of changing “what it means to be human.” Bill Gates and other influential elites have pointed to the Covid-19 response as their template for addressing future challenges, and have even floated the possibility of future climate lockdowns (no, sadly this is not a conspiracy theory).

Did Lockdowns Signify the “End of Abundance?” Read Journal Article

Who Ultimately Wins in a Society of Flash Mob Moralists? 

By / / / 9 minute read / Articles
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While it may make a lot of people feel good about themselves at the moment, it will only further corrode trust in the rule of law— a shift that always favors the powerful—and take valuable energy away from the urgent task of fighting massive and systematic government and corporate assaults on our dignity and freedom.

Who Ultimately Wins in a Society of Flash Mob Moralists?  Read Journal Article

Only Experts Can Fill Ice Cube Trays 

By / / / 8 minute read / Articles
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Those simple instructions are comforting, now that our lives also come with their own set of instructions. Those superiors who somehow missed their destinies in writing instructions for plastic ice cube trays now work in public health. Pay no attention to the accumulated knowledge from prior generations. For goodness sake don’t read for yourselves, despite virtually everything being available online. And at all costs remember that children do not deserve special attention. 

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The Long Road Ahead

By / / , , / 5 minute read / Articles
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The reality is that people do still vote for their captors. They really do not want to admit the damage they have been party to, even if that damage is to their own children, their own businesses, and their own communities. The big takeaway is that what Charles MacKay said in 1841 really does hold: “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” Recovering senses takes years, not months. 

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They Want Us to Hate Each Other

By / / , , / 10 minute read / Articles
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Human beings are tribal by nature. We instinctively divide the world into an “us” and a “them”. It’s a mental shortcut. It relieves us of any responsibility to engage in deeper discernment. It protects us from risk. If we just stick with our own people, — or so the argument goes, — then we will be safe.

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The School of Friendship

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What passes today for ideological convictions, in our supposedly terminally divided country, are nothing of the sort, but rather labels to which many quickly and lightly affix themselves precisely because they haven’t really thought deeply about what they believe and why, but don’t want to be seen as being out of step, or of not having really done their homework. 

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What Happened to the Idea of Progress?

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Like people, paradigms get tired, mostly because the humans that work within them, as Kuhn suggested, increasingly lose touch with the problems that originally elicited in them the intense and sacrifice-laden drive to create urgently desired new things. But humans aren’t always very good at recognizing when they have begun going through the motions. This is especially so with those in the thrall of a purely linear vision of time in which the perennial reality of intellectual and spiritual regression is afforded no legitimate space. 

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The Selfish Collective

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A truly prosocial approach would not shut out all other goals and insist on one way forward. It would take into account the different priorities and viewpoints of various factions or individuals, approach them with respect, and ask how to best facilitate some sort of harmony among their needs. Instead of prescribing behavior onto others it would advocate for dialogue and open debate, and it would celebrate differences of opinion. 

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Osterism Won’t Prevent March 2020 From Happening Again

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Oster’s implicit claim that next-to-nothing was known about SARS-CoV-2 – and therefore all the pointless, unethical, and illegal things people were forced to do are understandable – isn’t the pathway to healing, because it’s dishonest. Inexplicably, she denies that, from the get-go, we knew Covid’s stratified risks and the harms of coerced interventions.

Osterism Won’t Prevent March 2020 From Happening Again Read Journal Article