There are fundamentals that apply to everything you do. Learning the fundamentals is the responsibility of anyone attempting to accomplish any result, from playing the piano, analysing statistics, building a swimming pool.
There are different models of learning the fundamentals. It is my belief that books are written so that we need not discover certain fundamentals for ourselves. We can read and take advantage of the work of those who have traveled before us. This type of learning is not currently in vogue, as evidenced by our state's and nation's government types. Normative goals have replaced the cold analysis of fundamentals, and the interplay that results from actions that ignore earlier "discovered truths." In the American experience, the best example of discovered truths was elucidated by American inventor and technology pioneer, Thomas Edison. I would not be surprised to learn that Edison's famous line, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” is no longer taught in American schools. This line of thinking runs against the meme that "it will work this time." The goal on the Left is to protect "us" from the harshness of the world. Whether it's capitalism, property rights, investment, hard work, industry, resource utilization, or a myriad of other sins committed daily by individuals seeking simply to better themselves, their lives, and the lives around them, the Left views the actions and activities of those who seek to create, produce, supply, grow and succeed as deriving an unfair benefit from the infrastructure provided by society's governance. Since we have public water systems, public highways, airports, police and firemen, the outcome of wealth must be a direct product of all the care and regulation provided by government, therefore wealth and productivity must be the result of
unfair rents.
Since the government provides the necessary infrastructure, it becomes, Q.E.D., only just that government take, as its rents, the proceeds of the economic activity of those who succeed as a result of that public investment. Recently, additional claims are made against those who succeed, as a result of their assertion that wealth occurs as a result of an unfair appropriation of the
Commons.
It doesn't matter what previous forms of failure which have occurred that disprove the fundamental assumptions of these thinkers; whether it's mercantilism, Marxism, socialism, communism, the central planning authority of the fascist or the environmentalist all pale in comparison to the claims made upon the productive, successful members of our society by those who seek to achieve the goal on the Left, to protect "us" from the harshness of the world. Such harshness as gravity. Yep. Simple gravity.
Ride a bicycle? Well, you can't without protective gear. Seems that you may not know this, but given gravity, your ride could result in your injury. Solution? Mandate protective gear, since we are unable to determine for ourselves the probable effects of the application of the forces of gravity on the activity of such sublime danger, riding ones bike.
Recent examples of this concern to protect "us" from the world are exhibited almost daily from our governments. This exemplified by increasing banking regulation, credit regulation, oil and gas exploration and development regulation, etc. That all of these increases in regulation have concomitant costs associated with them is imperturbable to the Left. These increased costs are the just due of the rents associated with increased government responsibility to assure us greater protection against the harshness of the world.
That is, at every step, as we move away from a model of individual responsibility and authority, it is logical that the costs associated with moving away from the model of individual responsiblity and authority should bear the brunt of the costs that are associated with protecting us from ourselves.
Costs which, I aver, could be handled with a sound grounding in the fundamentals of the reality of the world having a certain harshness, but not in the Walt Disney way of thinking. Gravity, I can assure you, does not hold a certain animus against you. It exists without an awareness of your existence. Seems rude, I suppose, but there you have it. Like most of what you experience in your day-to-day existence, life, the theater, the World Cup will all proceed whether it matters to you or not. If you fall off your bike and break your arm, all the helmets in the world cannot alter that outcome. (Is there a reason why racers wore helmets on the track, before they were mandated by the government?)
Fundamentals are important. To prove it, you just need to view the 67th minute of today's match between Mexico and Uruguay. Fucile, Mexico's left back, violated the premier rule of defense; he goes fishing on the ball. He violated the rule and ended up with a yellow card.
What happens when you go fishing? (Or, dipping your toe in, or testing the waters, etc.?)
You lose the ability to move. You must necessarily plant all of your weight on your back foot, locking yourself out of an abilty to move either way. You, in essence, remove yourself from being able to perform your job. Compounding the error, Fucile goes on to provide a hard foul on the man who beat him, resulting in the yellow and a one-game suspension. Not only has he failed in this single instant, he has removed himself from play in the next match.
What was he thinking?
It's a venerable question. I ask it nearly every day when listening to the policy proposals of our state and federal governments. What are they thinking? The current level of regulation and oversight weren't enough to protect us from the harshness of the world, so instead of recognizing that government regulation and oversight aren't enough to protect us from the harshness of the world, we instead need more regulation and oversight? Let's think through this again.
Under existing regulation and oversight, those who were charged with the regulation and oversight were unprepared to deliver on their agencies' responsibilities to provide regulation and oversight, so, in order to fix this failure of agencies to provide regulation and oversight, our solution is to further regulate, to further mandate oversight?
Who was it who said, "“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work"?
Beats me.
