[Dawie Roodt]

Somebody send I nice youtube link about some prof talking of all sorts of positive things. Can somebody pls resend link?

Dawie Roodt Chief Economist e: dawie...@efgroup.co.za t: 087 944 7999 / 087 057 0540   |    c: 082 456 0204   |    VCard 81 Dely Road, Hazelwood, Pretoria, 0081 - View Map View our Disclaimer

[Stephen van Jaarsveldt]

I think it might have been Jordan Peterson talking about this year being the best year ever for most humans... but I searched on Youtube now and couldn't find it anywhere, so I might be mistaken.

Anyone else remember what video that was ? I know Leon has talked about it at length... but in the media, this is all I could find https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/opinion/sunday/why-2017-may-be-the-best-year-ever.html

S.

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[Stephen van Jaarsveldt]

Oh, could it have been Steven Pinker ? I found this, but I think that video was much longer than this one... https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence

S.

[Frances Kendall]

Bill Gates & Barack Obama also often talk about this being the best time ever.

Sent from Frances iPhone

On 02 Jan 2018, at 11:56, Stephen van Jaarsveldt <sjaar...@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh, could it have been Steven Pinker ? I found this, but I think that video was much longer than this one... https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence

S.

On 2 January 2018 at 02:27, Stephen van Jaarsveldt <sjaar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think it might have been Jordan Peterson talking about this year being the best year ever for most humans... but I searched on Youtube now and couldn't find it anywhere, so I might be mistaken.

Anyone else remember what video that was ? I know Leon has talked about it at length... but in the media, this is all I could find https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/opinion/sunday/why-2017-may-be-the-best-year-ever.html

S.

On 1 January 2018 at 10:07, Dawie Roodt <dawie...@efgroup.co.za> wrote:

<RSImage.jpeg>

Somebody send I nice youtube link about some prof talking of all sorts of positive things. Can somebody pls resend link?

Dawie Roodt Chief Economist

e: dawie...@efgroup.co.za t: 087 944 7999 / 087 057 0540   |    c: 082 456 0204   |    VCard 81 Dely Road, Hazelwood, Pretoria, 0081 - View Map View our Disclaimer

<RSImage.jpeg>

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[Hügo Krüger]

Dawie, it was Steven Pinker, he is releasing a new book called Enlightenment now which comes into print on the 29th of February. I have read two of his previous books: The better angels of our nature (how violence is declining) and the blank slate (the modern denial of human nature). In the latter he gives a good argument that we are in the age of psycology and the Flynn Effect. This is why we take hypothesis more seriously, are able to get moral arguments without thinking twice why human beings have in general stopped dumb practices such as slavery, infantacide and racism.

[Hügo Krüger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-28etfOLUw

It will be interesting to see his data when it comes out next month. 

2018-01-02 11:03 GMT+01:00 Frances Kendall <fken...@mac.com>:

[Dawie Roodt]

Thanks all   I needed it in an argument with a socialist economics prof. Funny how socialists are such a negative bunch! Or am I mistaken?

Dawie Roodt Chief Economist

e: dawie...@efgroup.co.za t: 087 944 7999 / 087 057 0540   |    c: 082 456 0204   |    VCard 81 Dely Road, Hazelwood, Pretoria, 0081 - View Map View our Disclaimer

From: li...@googlegroups.com [mailto:li...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Hügo Krüger Sent: Tuesday, 02 January 2018 12:20 PM To: li...@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [Libsa]   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-28etfOLUw   It will be interesting to see his data when it comes out next month.

2018-01-02 11:03 GMT+01:00 Frances Kendall <fken...@mac.com>:

Bill Gates & Barack Obama also often talk about this being the best time ever. Sent from Frances iPhone On 02 Jan 2018, at 11:56, Stephen van Jaarsveldt <sjaar...@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh, could it have been Steven Pinker ? I found this, but I think that video was much longer than this one... https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence   S.

On 2 January 2018 at 02:27, Stephen van Jaarsveldt <sjaar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think it might have been Jordan Peterson talking about this year being the best year ever for most humans... but I searched on Youtube now and couldn't find it anywhere, so I might be mistaken.   Anyone else remember what video that was ? I know Leon has talked about it at length... but in the media, this is all I could find https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/opinion/sunday/why-2017-may-be-the-best-year-ever.html   S.

On 1 January 2018 at 10:07, Dawie Roodt <dawie...@efgroup.co.za> wrote:

<RSImage.jpeg>

Somebody send I nice youtube link about some prof talking of all sorts of positive things. Can somebody pls resend link?

Dawie Roodt Chief Economist   e: dawie...@efgroup.co.za

t: 087 944 7999 / 087 057 0540   |    c: 082 456 0204   |    VCard 81 Dely Road, Hazelwood, Pretoria, 0081 - View Map View our Disclaimer

<RSImage.jpeg>     --

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[Stephen vJ]

That’s true. Adam Smith saw all sorts of positive developments in man’s future, while Marx expected apocalypse and revolution. It seems to be near universal for socialists to be negative while free marketeers are either positive or conspiracy theorists.

S.

Sent from an electronic device.

On Jan 2, 2018, at 09:59, Dawie Roodt <dawie...@efgroup.co.za> wrote:

<RSImage.jpeg>

Thanks all   I needed it in an argument with a socialist economics prof. Funny how socialists are such a negative bunch! Or am I mistaken?

Dawie Roodt Chief Economist <RSImage.jpeg>

[Leon Louw (gmail)]

Are you familiar with Marian Tupi's www.humanprogress.org?

He used to live here and is a good friend of SA and local libertarians.

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[Dawie Roodt]

No, thanks for this.

Dawie Roodt Chief Economist e: dawie...@efgroup.co.za t: 087 944 7999 / 087 057 0540   |    c: 082 456 0204   |    VCard 81 Dely Road, Hazelwood, Pretoria, 0081 - View Map View our Disclaimer

From: li...@googlegroups.com [mailto:li...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Leon Louw (gmail) Sent: Tuesday, 02 January 2018 8:39 PM To: Libsa (googlegroups) <li...@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: [Libsa]   Are you familiar with Marian Tupi's www.humanprogress.org?   He used to live here and is a good friend of SA and local libertarians.

On 2 January 2018 at 11:27, Stephen van Jaarsveldt <sjaar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think it might have been Jordan Peterson talking about this year being the best year ever for most humans... but I searched on Youtube now and couldn't find it anywhere, so I might be mistaken.   Anyone else remember what video that was ? I know Leon has talked about it at length... but in the media, this is all I could find https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/opinion/sunday/why-2017-may-be-the-best-year-ever.html   S.

On 1 January 2018 at 10:07, Dawie Roodt <dawie...@efgroup.co.za> wrote:

Somebody send I nice youtube link about some prof talking of all sorts of positive things. Can somebody pls resend link?

Dawie Roodt Chief Economist   e: dawie...@efgroup.co.za

t: 087 944 7999 / 087 057 0540   |    c: 082 456 0204   |    VCard 81 Dely Road, Hazelwood, Pretoria, 0081 - View Map View our Disclaimer

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[Hügo Krüger]

Peter Hitchens (the brother of Christopher Hitchens) who used to be a communist and is now something of a British conservative used to remark that revolutionaries would like to change the world, because they want to change something within themselves. 

This is very common, the people who supported Hitler were not very happy with their own lifes as well. If you think of it, a socialist philosopher can basically only get a job at a University, a bad think tank or if he is lucky a trade union. Who else is going to hire him? This is not really something that I wanted to do as a 5 year old. 

Karl Marx as a poor angry failed journalist, Hitler was a bad painter, Stalin was to dof to become even a priest. If you look at all of these guys then you find a lot of inner anger and then they blame it at society, but the truth is that they anger should be directed at themselves. Our society is not burning, the world is actually getting better. I really recommend Steven Pinker to anyone that believes that the world is burning, he made me more of an optimist and convinced me that reading the news will only fuel my anger. He is also not a libertarian, but something closer to a believer in liberal democracy. I can settle for optimistic writers. 

Virus-free. www.avast.com

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[Dawie Roodt]

Excellent Hugo. Who would hire a socialist!

Dawie Roodt Chief Economist e: dawie...@efgroup.co.za t: 087 944 7999 / 087 057 0540   |    c: 082 456 0204   |    VCard 81 Dely Road, Hazelwood, Pretoria, 0081 - View Map View our Disclaimer

From: li...@googlegroups.com [mailto:li...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Hügo Krüger Sent: Wednesday, 03 January 2018 12:35 AM To: li...@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [Libsa]

Peter Hitchens (the brother of Christopher Hitchens) who used to be a communist and is now something of a British conservative used to remark that revolutionaries would like to change the world, because they want to change something within themselves.

This is very common, the people who supported Hitler were not very happy with their own lifes as well. If you think of it, a socialist philosopher can basically only get a job at a University, a bad think tank or if he is lucky a trade union. Who else is going to hire him? This is not really something that I wanted to do as a 5 year old.    Karl Marx as a poor angry failed journalist, Hitler was a bad painter, Stalin was to dof to become even a priest. If you look at all of these guys then you find a lot of inner anger and then they blame it at society, but the truth is that they anger should be directed at themselves. Our society is not burning, the world is actually getting better. I really recommend Steven Pinker to anyone that believes that the world is burning, he made me more of an optimist and convinced me that reading the news will only fuel my anger. He is also not a libertarian, but something closer to a believer in liberal democracy. I can settle for optimistic writers.

Virus-free. www.avast.com

2018-01-02 19:53 GMT+01:00 Dawie Roodt <dawie...@efgroup.co.za>:

No, thanks for this.       Dawie Roodt Chief Economist   e: dawie...@efgroup.co.za

t: 087 944 7999 / 087 057 0540   |    c: 082 456 0204   |    VCard 81 Dely Road, Hazelwood, Pretoria, 0081 - View Map View our Disclaimer

From: li...@googlegroups.com [mailto:li...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Leon Louw (gmail)

Sent: Tuesday, 02 January 2018 8:39 PM To: Libsa (googlegroups) <li...@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: [Libsa]

Are you familiar with Marian Tupi's www.humanprogress.org?   He used to live here and is a good friend of SA and local libertarians.

On 2 January 2018 at 11:27, Stephen van Jaarsveldt <sjaar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think it might have been Jordan Peterson talking about this year being the best year ever for most humans... but I searched on Youtube now and couldn't find it anywhere, so I might be mistaken.   Anyone else remember what video that was ? I know Leon has talked about it at length... but in the media, this is all I could find https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/opinion/sunday/why-2017-may-be-the-best-year-ever.html   S.

On 1 January 2018 at 10:07, Dawie Roodt <dawie...@efgroup.co.za> wrote:

Somebody send I nice youtube link about some prof talking of all sorts of positive things. Can somebody pls resend link?       Dawie Roodt Chief Economist   e: dawie...@efgroup.co.za t: 087 944 7999 / 087 057 0540   |    c: 082 456 0204   |    VCard 81 Dely Road, Hazelwood, Pretoria, 0081 - View Map View our Disclaimer       --

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[Stephen vJ]

A few years ago, we had some discussion on this forum about the psyche of the socialist, if I recall correctly as a result of two books I read... the one was “The making of modern economics” by Mark Skousen (still one of my favourite books ever) and another I don’t recall the name of. In short, there is some evidence to suggest that communists & socialists typically have bad relationships with their mothers, libertarians have very good relationships with their mothers and anarchists either good or absent mothers. Adam Smith stayed with his mother until her death, while some other socialist economist who’s name I also now forget, shoved his mother down a flight of stairs, just as two examples. JJ Russouw is one notable exception, since he had sex with his mother while his wife was pregnant and then proceeded to give away the child and its subsequent five siblings... and that was just two of his many despicable deeds... so much for the author of the social contract. You have to be a real sicko to think up crap like that and he was.

S.

Sent from an electronic device.

On Jan 2, 2018, at 15:35, Hügo Krüger <hkrug...@gmail.com> wrote:

Peter Hitchens (the brother of Christopher Hitchens) who used to be a communist and is now something of a British conservative used to remark that revolutionaries would like to change the world, because they want to change something within themselves. 

This is very common, the people who supported Hitler were not very happy with their own lifes as well. If you think of it, a socialist philosopher can basically only get a job at a University, a bad think tank or if he is lucky a trade union. Who else is going to hire him? This is not really something that I wanted to do as a 5 year old. 

Karl Marx as a poor angry failed journalist, Hitler was a bad painter, Stalin was to dof to become even a priest. If you look at all of these guys then you find a lot of inner anger and then they blame it at society, but the truth is that they anger should be directed at themselves. Our society is not burning, the world is actually getting better. I really recommend Steven Pinker to anyone that believes that the world is burning, he made me more of an optimist and convinced me that reading the news will only fuel my anger. He is also not a libertarian, but something closer to a believer in liberal democracy. I can settle for optimistic writers. 

Virus-free. www.avast.com

2018-01-02 19:53 GMT+01:00 Dawie Roodt <dawie...@efgroup.co.za>:

<RSImage.jpeg>

No, thanks for this.     Dawie Roodt Chief Economist <RSImage.jpeg>

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<RSImage.jpeg>

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[Stephen vJ]

I would hire a socialist ! He would work according to his ability and cannot accept any pay, since he wouldn’t be in favour of property rights... or at the very least, he should let me keep a large portion of his wages for administrative overhead and then distribute the rest amongst the other workers. His colleagues will love him !

S.

Sent from an electronic device.

On Jan 2, 2018, at 20:29, Dawie Roodt <dawie...@efgroup.co.za> wrote:

<RSImage.jpeg>

Excellent Hugo. Who would hire a socialist!

Dawie Roodt Chief Economist <RSImage.jpeg>

e: dawie...@efgroup.co.za t: 087 944 7999 / 087 057 0540   |    c: 082 456 0204   |    VCard 81 Dely Road, Hazelwood, Pretoria, 0081 - View Map View our Disclaimer

<RSImage.jpeg>

[Hügo Krüger]

Stephen, usually they are not of very high ability. You are just going to frustated yourself, the staff will constantly be demotivated and a pool fellow will join a union as soon as you try to reprimand him for being lazy.

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[Stephen vJ]

As long as we don’t vote on it, he will wait in vain for the demise of capitalist pigs like me. Unions are on the decline, but if he does join one, I will ask so many questions (why do they take membership fees if they are against capitalism, why do they apply a division of labour in the union, etc.) that he will regret it soon enough.

S.

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[Stephen vJ]

Oh, and socialists are not lazy. Inefficient, sure, but they are the ones screaming for more labour, more jobs and more employment. They clearly want to work. Us capitalists on the other hand are super lazy. We want to make things more efficient, so that we can get more from less work. We invent all sorts of machines, gadgets and devices to save labour and reduce effort... like toasters and microwave ovens and cars and indoor plumbing and iphones (rather than homing pigeons) and so on... all so that we can have more stuff and more time to enjoy it. The peak of laziness.

S.

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On Jan 3, 2018, at 01:11, Hügo Krüger <hkrug...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Hügo Krüger]

ah yes, but they are indeed lazy thinkers. I must say though, the French people claim to be socialist, but everything that they tell me is so counter socialism. The unions over here would like to see the company make more profit for example, they are not opposed to new technology and would like to see more investment coming into France. The only thing that keeps them socialist is their investment in public works and infrastructure. They love their trains and maintenance and to be honest I like reading in the trains in the morning. 1 hour to work allows me to get to all those books that I always wanted to.

France also had a very interesting way of solving their socialist problem at Universities. During the 1970's they had major protests in the countries, especially at the famous Sorbonne University. Then they decided to get clever, the french politicians realised they only a certain type of student will be likely to strike. Usually they are the ones in the humanities. 

So what did they do? They broke up their Universities, essentially making every faculty a university. The socialists are still striking every now and then, but they aren't bothering the scientists, lawyers and engineers who are at their own colleges. I would say quite a brilliant solution to a social problem.