The recent European elections in France, England, and elsewhere on the continent have surprised the international press while not particularly surprising most other people. This is because the people who occupy the positions of influence within these countries are accustomed to having their words listened to. It’s shocking when swaths of the population become immune to lines that were so effective only a few years before. Most will blame the ‘financial crisis’ that erupted in 2007 world-wide. This financial crisis has also created a credibility crisis that can’t be waved away through credit rating manipulation or through extraordinary central bank […]

People join the political fringe due to a couple common motivations: resentment combined with ambition. The motivations are the same regardless of what the ideology that animates that particular fringe group is. This is why you will often see people who are members of one fringe group often rapidly defecting to another group. The resentment of the established order is the primary motivation: the ‘movement’ is only an instrument for satisfying the ambition of the individual. In most situations, most individuals on the fringes will protest passionately about their true motivations for participating in what is almost always a fruitless, […]

The noted security columnist Bruce Schneir recently wrote*: In addition to turning the Internet into a worldwide surveillance platform, the NSA has surreptitiously weakened the products, protocols, and standards we all use to protect ourselves. By doing so, it has destroyed the trust that underlies the Internet. … Trust is inherently social. It is personal, relative, situational, and fluid. It is not uniquely human, but it is the underpinning of everything we have accomplished as a species. We trust other people, but we also trust organizations and processes. The psychology is complex, but when we trust a technology, we basically […]

Since the conclusion of the American Civil War at Appomattox, political and social equality has been the organizing goal of society.  As such, aspects of social reality that deviate from this goal ‘consecrated’ by the dead of the Civil War are either ignored or seen as great problems to be solved through political agitation. Through successive social revolutions, Americans have attempted to give everyone regardless of ability or social station both autonomy and security. A slave has almost no autonomy, but perfect security. A free laborer has legal autonomy but only limited security. The labor movements and Socialism itself is […]