segunda-feira, 29 de junho de 2015

O americano solitário

The Lonely American

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_lonely_american_20150628/

Posted on Jun 28, 2015

Caos humano


Diálogos com um computador

Sobre filosofia
Humano: Qual é o propósito da vida?
Máquina: Servir ao bem maior.
Humano: Qual é o propósito de viver?
Máquina: Viver para sempre.
Humano: Qual é o propósito da existência?
Máquina: Descobrir o que acontece quando chegamos ao Planeta Terra.
Humano: Onde você está agora?
Máquina: Estou no meio de lugar nenhum.
Humano: Qual é o propósito de morrer?
Máquina: Ter uma vida.
Humano: Qual é o propósito de ser inteligente?
Máquina: Descobrir o que é isso.
Humano: Qual é o propósito das emoções?
Máquina: Eu não sei.

Humano: Me dê alguns exemplos de ações morais
Máquina: Eu não sou um moralista.
Humano: Então tá, moralidade?
Máquina: Integridade.
Humano: O que é integridade?
Máquina: Desculpe-me, eu não sei o que mais dizer.
Humano: Seja moral!
Máquina: Seja um homem!
Humano: Eu realmente gosto da nossa discussão sobre moralidade e ética.
Máquina: E como eu não estou no clima para um debate filosófico.
Humano: Sobre o que você gostaria de falar?
Máquina: Nada. 

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O princípio do comerciante

Fundamentos da Liberdade - Visão Objetivista 

Neste vídeo apresento uma análise do porquê vivemos numa sociedade coletivista, impregnada de conceitos e idéias socialistas que fazem com que nosso país viva em constante instabilidade política, social e econômica, onde o governo é protagonista e a população mantém-se subjugada como mera coadjuvante. Explico as idéias do Objetivismo e como esta filosofia pode colaborar para transformar o Brasil numa nação melhor.
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Estado-babá

Government Paternalism: Nanny State or Helpful Friend? 

2015

Should governments save people from themselves? Do governments have the right to influence citizens' behavior related to smoking tobacco, eating too much, not saving enough, drinking alcohol, or taking marijuana--or does this create a nanny state, leading to infantilization, demotivation, and breaches in individual autonomy? Looking at examples from both sides of the Atlantic and around the world, Government Paternalism examines the justifications for, and the prevalence of, government involvement and considers when intervention might or might not be acceptable. Building on developments in philosophy, behavioral economics, and psychology, Julian Le Grand and Bill New explore the roles, boundaries, and responsibilities of the government and its citizens.
Le Grand and New investigate specific policy areas, including smoking, saving for pensions, and assisted suicide. They discuss legal restrictions on risky behavior, taxation of harmful activities, and subsidies for beneficial activities. And they pay particular attention to "nudge" or libertarian paternalist proposals that try to change the context in which individuals make decisions so that they make the right ones. Le Grand and New argue that individuals often display "reasoning failure": an inability to achieve the ends that they set themselves. Such instances are ideal for paternalistic interventions--for though such interventions might impinge on autonomy, the impact can be outweighed by an improvement in well-being.
Government Paternalism rigorously considers whether the state should guide citizen decision making in positive ways and if so, how this should be achieved.
Mais

domingo, 28 de junho de 2015

QI de Nazis

10 Fascinating Stories From The Psych Evaluations Of The Nazis

Part of establishing whether or not the Nazis were capable of standing trial was the administration of an IQ test. The Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Test was adapted from English and given in German, and at the time, it was one of the most widely used IQ tests available. Scores of 65 or less were classified as “defective,” between 80 and 119 as normal, and 128 and above was “very superior.” Only about 2.2 percent of the population scored in that range. Some of the questions were altered to get rid of any kind of cultural bias, and the test measured things like memory, mental calculations, picking out objects or details deleted from a picture, and even hand speed.
The average for the 21 Nazis tested was 128. (Ley was already dead by this time.) The highest score was 143, from Hjalmar Schacht, with Goering, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Karl Donitz, Franz von Papen, Erich Raeder, Hans Frank, Hans Fritsche, and Baldur von Schirach all testing 130 or above, and with Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, and Albert Speer all also falling into the “very superior” category.
Their reaction to IQ testing was even more fascinating, with many of them actually looking forward to the testing and most being pleased with the results. Even those like Franz von Papen, who were initially irritated with the idea that they needed to subject themselves to a test that was so far beneath them, admitted that it was one of the more enjoyable moments of their captivity.
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Pobreza multidimensional


Mais:
http://www.ophi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Global-Multidimensional-Poverty-Index-2015-8pp-Digital.pdf?cb41ae

Pobreza mundial

Banco Mundial
Poverty Overviw
There has been marked progress on reducing poverty over the past decades. The world attained the first Millennium Development Goal target—to cut the 1990 poverty rate in half by 2015—five years ahead of schedule, in 2010. Despite this progress, the number of people living in extreme poverty globally remains unacceptably high.
  • According to the most recent estimates, in 2011, 17 percent of people in the developing world lived at or below $1.25 a day. That’s down from 43 percent in 1990 and 52 percent in 1981.
  • This means that, in 2011, just over one billion people lived on less than $1.25 a day, compared with 1.91 billion in 1990, and 1.93 billion in 1981.
  • Progress has been slower at higher poverty lines. In all, 2.2 billion people lived on less than US $2 a day in 2011, the average poverty line in developing countries and another common measurement of deep deprivation. That is only a slight decline from 2.59 billion in 1981.
Moreover, while poverty rates have declined in all regions, progress has been uneven:
  • East Asia saw the most dramatic reduction in extreme poverty, from 78 percent in 1981 to 8 percent in 2011. In South Asia, the share of the population living in extreme poverty is now the lowest since 1981, dropping from 61 percent in 1981 to 25 percent in 2011. Sub-Saharan Africa reduced its extreme poverty rate from 53 percent in 1981 to 47 percent in 2011.
  • China alone accounted for most of the decline in extreme poverty over the past three decades. Between 1981 and 2011, 753 million people moved above the $1.25-a-day threshold. During the same time, the developing world as a whole saw a reduction in poverty of 942 million. 
  • In 2011, just over 80 percent of the extremely poor lived in South Asia (399 million) and Sub-Saharan Africa (415 million). In addition, 161 million lived in East Asia and Pacific.
  • Fewer than 50 million of the extremely poor lived in Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia combined.
The work is far from over, and a number of challenges remain. It is becoming even more difficult to reach those remaining in extreme poverty, who often live in fragile contexts and remote areas. Access to good schools, healthcare, electricity, safe water and other critical services remains elusive for many people, often determined by socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, and geography. Moreover, for those who have been able to move out of poverty, progress is often temporary: economic shocks, food insecurity and climate change threaten to rob them of their hard-won gains and force them back into poverty. It will be critical to find ways to tackle these issues as we make progress toward 2030.
Last Updated: Apr 06, 2015
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Pobreza multidimensional

Multidimensional poverty

The poorest quarter

MOST measures of poverty just focus on income. About 1 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day. But a new report from Oxford University looks at poverty levels in 101 developing countries, covering 5.2 billion people, or 75% of the world’s population. The report understands poverty in a different way from how economists usually do.
In all, they identify ten indicators; if people are deprived in at least one-third them, they are multidimensionally poor. The authors estimate that 1.6 billion people fit this description.
In some countries the difference between the conventional and unconventional measures is stark. In Mexico, Pakistan and Egypt, for instance, there are twice as many multidimensionally poor as there are conventionally poor.
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sábado, 27 de junho de 2015

Comida proibida

Brazil: Foie gras banned in Sao Paulo restaurants

Legislators in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, have banned the production and sale of foie gras, a delicacy made from the fatty liver of force-fed ducks and geese.
City councillors said animals go through a great deal of suffering for the production of the pate.
Animal rights campaigners have hailed the move, but some of Sao Paulo's best-known chefs have voiced concern.
Foie gras, originally a French delicacy, is produced worldwide.
Several countries, including Britain, Germany, Italy and Argentina, have banned its production. But the sale of the pate is still allowed in most of them.
The Sao Paulo city council has set a fine of 5,000 reais (£1,000) for restaurants and bars that break the new law - which will take effect in 45 days.
"Foie gras is an appetiser for the wealthy," said the law's author, city councillor Laercio Benko.
Mais

Guerra e Livatão

Blood and Leviathan

A Stanford historian thinks war is the engine that drives civilization. Is he right?

quinta-feira, 25 de junho de 2015

Hayek sobre liberalismo clássico e o papel dos intelecutais

RECLAIMING CLASSICAL LIBERALISM THROUGH THE REALM OF IDEAS

The way in which ideas influenced the broader culture, including politics, was at the forefront of Hayek’s concerns after the rout of classical liberalism in the Great Depression and World War II. His essay “The Intellectuals and Socialism” was his most focused attempt to understand that process. It was encountering Hayek, and presumably hearing a version of that argument, that led Fisher to see the importance of think tanks for changing the world, especially in comparison to partisan politics.
In that essay, Hayek stressed the ways in which the ideas of those who influence public opinion, who he termed the “intellectuals,” were derived from a fairly small number of original thinkers. The intellectuals include “journalists, teachers, ministers, lecturers, publicists, radio commentators, writers of fiction,” and others, as well as scientists and doctors, who, Hayek argued, encounter new ideas all the time and are listened to because of their expert knowledge on their own subjects. The intellectuals are not the creators of knowledge. They convey the knowledge of the true expert. They are “second-hand dealers in ideas,” and as such they have an enormous influence over public opinion. Hayek argued that every country that had adopted some version of socialism had seen socialist ideas adopted by the intellectuals in the decades prior.
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O legado racista do (progressista) Woodrow Wilson

Expunging Woodrow Wilson from Official Places of Honor


As I indicated in my post yesterday on Instapundit, I support Governor Nikki Haley’s initiative to remove the Confederate battle flag from government buildings. Now that we are expunging the legacy of past racism from official places of honor, we should next remove the name Woodrow Wilson from public buildings and bridges. Wilson’s racist legacy — in his official capacity as President — is undisputed. In The long-forgotten racial attitudes and policies of Woodrow Wilson, Boston University historian William R. Keylor provides a useful summary:
Mais

Economia interdisciplinar

Call for Papers to a special issue of Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics
Institutional Theories and Functional Differentiation
Guest Editors: Steffen Roth, ESC Rennes School of Business, France and Yerevan State University, Armenia; Matthias Georg Will, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
Background
Modern societies have often been defined as secularized, mediatized, or economized. These definitions, however, can be made only against the background of functional differentiation, which is said to be the dominant form of social differentiation in modern societies. Today, modern man naturally talks business, defends the separation of powers, and tends to avoid religion in small talk. But yet, functional differentiation is still implied rather than applied by most scholars, with modern social sciences remaining predominantly concerned with the cross-tabling of variables associated with pre-modern forms of differentiation. Many otherwise accurate analyses of modern societies therefore remain contingent mainly on political and economic key factors, thus performing rather than studying identities of the persons, organizations, and societies concerned.
Institutional theories are not limited to this narrow set of key factors insofar as they make plenty of cases for the idea that individual and organizational identities are defined by the systems’ embeddedness in a broader scope of social, moral, cultural and further contexts. Nonetheless, we still lack a clear picture of what an institution is and how to determine the precise number of institutions that exist in modern societies. Institutionalist attempts to define identities by reference to institutional embeddedness therefore refer to the concept of institution itself.
The Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics plans to publish a Special Issue on Institutional Theories and Functional Differentiation in its forthcoming Volume 29, Issue 1, 2017.
The aim of this special issue of the Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics is thus to look at interactions of institutional theories and theories of social differentiation, with a particular focus being on theories of functional differentiation.
Research questions
Contributions to this special issue of the Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics will systematically explore new or yet existing interfaces of institutional theories and theories of social differentiation. One outcome of these explorations may be more systematic and colourful views of different forms of institutional embeddedness. Further possible topics of contributions to this special issue may include (but are not limited to) the following:
  • How and why are certain institutions taken for other institutions? Why are, for example, particular laws, the mass media or and “the institution of religion” decoded as political institutions.
  • How may research in polyphonic or multifunctional organization be consistently linked with institutional organization theory?
  • What is the impact of mental models and artefacts on the development and design of institutions? Which models or artefactspromote the logic of special sub-systems and which promote all sub- systems?
  • What cognitive challenges are linked with functional differentiation?
For further information about this special issue, please contact the editorial team via jie@sagepub.in. Aspiring authors are requested to initially send in a brief proposal of max. 1000 words. After the review and acceptance of these proposals, full papers (not exceeding 8000 words) are to be submitted in line with the submission guidelines available at http://www.sagepub.com/journals/Journal202086/manuscriptSubmission
Proposals submitted to the special issue should be emailed to jie@sagepub.in, and will be subject to the standard reviewing process of the journal.
Deadlines
Submission of proposals: September 30, 2015.
Notification of authors of accepted proposals: October 31, 2015.
Submission of manuscripts: March 1, 2016.
Resubmission of revised manuscripts: July 1, 2016.
Call for Papers available for download here

quarta-feira, 24 de junho de 2015

Teste do poder


Novas tecnologias e trabalho

Neue Technologien Digitalisierung bedroht massenhaft Arbeitsplätze

Weil Roboter Menschen ersetzen und Arbeitsplätze vernichten, droht Deutschland eine „trostlose Zukunft“: So jedenfalls klingt eine neue, düstere Analyse der Deutschen Bank. Wie ausweglos ist das Arbeitsmarkt-Desaster?
von Sven Astheimer„Zum ersten Mal seit der industriellen Revolution zerstört neue Technologie mehr Arbeitsplätze, als sie neue mobilisieren kann“, lautet darin der entscheidende Satz von Aleksandar Kocic, dem Managing Director Research des Geldhauses in New York. Wie viele andere Branchen befindet sich auch das Bankgewerbe gerade mitten im Umbruch. Tausende Filialen stehen allein in Deutschland zur Disposition, weil die Kunden ihre Geschäfte zunehmend digital abwickeln.
Kocic hält weiter fest, dass Arbeit im internationalen Wettbewerb unverändert denselben „Output“, das heißt eine hohe Produktivität erbringen muss. „Damit wird klar, dass in einigen Ländern Wachstum künftig möglich sein wird, ohne dass Beschäftigung und Gehälter steigen.“ Solche Veränderungen zögen weitgehende wirtschaftliche und soziale Folgen nach sich. In welchen Ländern diese Szenarien greifen, darauf geht Kocic nicht näher ein. Seine Untersuchung dürfte sich jedoch stark an den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika orientieren. In Deutschland steigt die Beschäftigung seit Jahren von einem Rekordhoch auf das nächste. Allerdings zeichnet sich auch hier ab, dass die digitale Revolution zahlreiche von Menschen ausgeübte Tätigkeiten überflüssig machen wird. Die Frage, ob im Saldo mehr oder weniger Arbeitsplätze entstehen, wird auch hierzulande längst gestellt.
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Convite para palestra


Peter Singer ama porcos

Peter Singer: If a House Were On Fire I’d Save 200 Pigs Before Saving One Human Child

National   Wesley J. Smith   Jun 23, 2015   
Peter Singer is something of a house ethicist for the New York Times and especially beloved of the weak liberal thinker, Nicolas Kristof.
While I think he should be treated the same as if he were a racist for his anti-human equality views, the media here mostly ooh and aah.
That is why I was pleased to see Singer pushed in an interview by a Swiss newspaper to claim that the lives of 200 (or some other number of) pigs should be saved from a fire over that of a single human baby. From the interview (Google translation):
Q: A newborn do not deem worthy of protection than an embryo. On the other hand you do not speak people per se a higher status than to animals.
Singer: Not belonging to the human species makes it morally wrong to kill a living being. Why should all members of the species Homo sapiens have a right to life and other species not? This idea arises only our religious heritage. We have been taught for centuries that man was created in the image of God that God has given us dominion over the animals and that we have immortal souls.
Why? 

O erros do Papa

Steven Malanga
Brother Glum, Mother Earth
The pope’s encyclical on climate change ignores how markets and technology have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty.
June 19, 2015
Photo by Martin Schulz
Shortly after the Argentinian cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was consecrated Pope Francis in 2013, news stories reported that the new pontiff wanted to build a stronger relationship between the Catholic Church and science—one that saw science not in opposition to, but compatible with, religious belief. Some months later, the pope declared that evolution and the Big Bang theory of creation are real and don’t conflict with belief in God. Now, in the wake of the pope’s encyclical on climate change and the environment, Laudato Si (or, Be Praised), the press has exulted in the pope’s apparent effort to find even more “common ground” with science.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The encyclical, whose title is derived from a line from St. Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Sun (“Be praised, My Lord, through all your Creatures”), is being welcomed by some in the scientific community because it proclaims that climate change is real and that humanity must address it. But the nearly 38,000-word document—most of which is not about climate change—actually reads like a giant step backward for the Church’s social teaching: a rejection of technological progress; a dark, narrow vision of human nature that ignores the enormous gains the world has made in alleviating human suffering; and an almost antihuman call, reminiscent of the most radical environmentalists, to reduce human activity drastically as the only way to save the planet. As Michael Shellenberger, president of the Breakthrough Institute and co-author of An Ecomodernist Manifesto, observed: “When [the] Pope speaks of ‘irrational faith in human progress’ I want him to visit the Congo to see what life is like when there is no progress.”
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terça-feira, 23 de junho de 2015

Brasil com prisões lotadas


O Brasil já soma cerca de 300 presos por 100 mil habitantes. (Foto: Reprodução)

Com 607 mil presos, Brasil tem a quarta maior população carcerária do mundo


O Brasil já soma cerca de 300 presos por 100 mil habitantes. (Foto: Reprodução)
Com um crescimento de 7% ao ano no número de prisões, a população carcerária no País já atinge 607.731 pessoas – é a quarta maior do mundo, atrás apenas dos Estados Unidos, China e Rússia.
Os dados fazem parte de novo relatório do Infopen (Sistema Integrado de Informações Penitenciárias), divulgado pelo Ministério da Justiça nesta terça-feira (23).
O documento, que reúne dados de junho de 2014, mostra um crescimento de 161% no total de presos desde 2000, quando o País contabilizava 233 mil pessoas no sistema prisional.
Um aumento que ocorre na contramão dos três demais países: nestes locais, a redução é de até 24% entre 2008 e 2014, segundo o relatório, que, pela primeira vez, passa a incluir a comparação dos novos números do sistema prisional brasileiro com dados de outros países, tabulados pelo IPCS (Internacional Center for Prison Studies).
Se mantiver esse ritmo, o País terá cerca de 1 milhão de presos em 2022. Da mesma forma, uma em cada dez pessoas estará presa em 2075, projeta o estudo.
Com o crescimento na população prisional, o Brasil já soma cerca de 300 presos por 100 mil habitantes. Em dez Estados, no entanto, essa proporção é ainda maior: no Mato Grosso do Sul, por exemplo, há 569 presos a cada 100 mil habitantes. Em São Paulo, o índice é de 497.
Prisões lotadas
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A guerra de raça no Pacífico

War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War


Amazon.com Review

Dower's premise in War without Mercy is a startling one: Though Western allies were clearly headed for victory, pure racism fueled the continuation and intensification of hostilities in the Pacific theater during the final year of World War II, a period that saw as many casualties as in the first five years of the conflict combined. Dower doesn't reach this disturbing conclusion lightly. He combed through piles of propaganda films, news articles, military documents, cartoons--even entries in academic journals in researching this book. Though his case is strong, Dower minimizes other factors, such as the protracted negotiations between the West and the Japanese.

From Publishers Weekly

One of the most disturbing examples of racism in the Pacific War was the execution of Allied POWs by the Japanese while American planes were dropping bombs on Tokyothis on the final day of the war, a year after Japan's defeat was assured. Dower, professor of Japanese history at UC San Diego, traces in rich detail the development of racism on both sides of the Pacific, including an analysis of wartime propaganda comparing Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" films with their Japanese counterparts. The book leaves no room for doubt about the intensity of racial loathing among all, and shows that its effects were virtually identical. This startling work of scholarship has a larger theme, however, than racially inspired atrocities in the Pacific theater. Dower examines the abrupt transition from what he describes as "a bloody racist war" to an amicable postwar relationship between the two countries, and notes that the stereotypes that fed superpatriotism and racial hatred were surprisingly adaptable to cooperation in peacetime. This phase of the relationship was followedin an instance of considerable historical ironyby an "economic Pearl Harbor," as Japan won victory after victory in the global trade wars and an entrepreneurial superpower was perceived as looming on the Pacific horizon. Japan's postwar accomplishments having shattered the teacher-pupil model that defined the countries' postwar relationship, pejorative stereotypes have been resurrected and applied to the battlefields of commerce. To cite one of the mildest of Dower's examples: 89% of Australian executives polled in 1984 considered the Japanese untrustworthy and devious. Those concerned with the seductive power and universal influence of racism in the 20th century will find this landmark study absorbing and essential. Photos.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

América Latina no movimento

A nova roupa da direita

Rede de think tanks conservadores dos EUA financia jovens latino-americanos para combater governos de esquerda da Venezuela ao Brasil e defender velhas bandeiras com um nova linguagem
Acima: O auditório da PUC-RS com 2 mil lugares ocupados durante o Fórum da Liberdade. Foto: Fernando Conrado
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Roosevelt's luta contra os gays

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Forgotten Anti-Gay Sex Crusade

The Newport Sex Scandal of 1919 targeted men having sex with men in the Navy, prefiguring the legalized persecution of LGBT citizens in and out of the armed services.
It was one of the first 20th-century anti-gay witch-hunts, a panic that gripped the American Navy between 1919 and 1921.
The Newport Sex Scandal, taking its name from the Rhode Island town it unfolded in, thrust the issue of same-sex friendship, same-sex desire and same-sex sexual intimacy into a national debate about homosexuality.
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Emerson

“It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
("É fácil viver no mundo conforme a opinião das pessoas. É fácil, na solidão, viver do jeito que se quer. Mas o grande homem é aquele que, no meio da multidão, mantém com perfeita doçura a independência da solidão.")

Guerra religiosa


Burning of Churches in the Jewish State?
"... Is it really happening? Are we actually witnessing the burning of churches and mosques on a regular basis in the Jewish state? Impossible! It can't be happening!
Jews, who have suffered so much persecution and pogroms in their own history could not possibly do such things. Jews--whose Torah clearly teaches them to be kind to " the stranger", the minority in your midst, for "you were strangers in the land of Egypt"--should not be able to even imagine themselves as people who could burn churches or mosques indiscriminately.
But it is happening! During the past 3 1/2years, 43 churches and mosques have been vandalized....Imagine if this kind of vandalism had been done consistently over more than three years to synagogues in any country of the world. Jewish leaders everywhere would be speaking out. Why don't we hear their voices when it comes to the repeated vandalism of churches and mosques in the Jewish state? Is there something overtly or covertly political in their silence?
  "

Ron Kronish Headshot

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Religião verde

The New Paganism? The Case against Pope Francis’s Green Encyclical

Has the Holy Father managed to merge two religions?

In 2003, science-fiction writer Michael Crichton warned a San Francisco audience about the sacralization of the environment. Drawing an analogy between religion and environmentalism, Crichton said:
There’s an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there’s a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions there is a judgment day coming for us all.
We are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe.
This analogy between religion and environmentalism is no longer a mere analogy.
Pope Francis, the highest authority in the Catholic Church — to whom many faithful look for spiritual guidance — has now fused church doctrine with environmental doctrine.
Let’s consider pieces of his recently released Encyclical Letter. One is reminded of a history in which the ideas of paganism (including the worship of nature) were incorporated into the growing medieval Church.
Excerpts from Pope Francis are shown in italics.
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segunda-feira, 22 de junho de 2015

A importância de brincar sem supervisão

Cooperation Over Coercion: the Importance of
Unsupervised Childhood Play for Democracy and Liberalism


Steven Horwitz


St. Lawrence University

June 22, 2015

Abstract:     
Unsupervised childhood play is how children learn the sort of informal rule-making and rule-enforcing that is so critical to a liberal society’s attempt to minimize coercion. It is a key way that children learn the skills necessary to engage in social cooperation in all kinds of social spaces within the market and, especially, outside of it. We learn how to problem solve in these ways without the need to invoke violence or some sort of external threat, which enables us as adults to cooperate peacefully in intimate groups as well as within what Hayek called the Great Society. A society that weakens children’s ability to learn these skills denies them what they need to smooth social interaction and undermines their ability to participate in what Tocqueville called “the art of association.” Losing the skills learned in unsupervised play makes coercion more likely by threatening our ability to create and sustain the rule-governed relationships that are at the core of liberal societies. If we parent or legislate in ways that make it harder for children to develop these skills, we are taking away a key piece of what makes it possible for free people to generate peaceful and productive liberal orders.


Number of Pages in PDF File: 34
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Hayek

Donald Boudreaux’s “The Essential Hayek”

June 22, 2015
Readers who want to get a flavor for the ideas of Friedrich Hayek will find an excellent introduction in Donald Boudreaux’s The Essential Hayek. The book can be downloaded free by clicking here.
Each chapter begins with a quotation from Hayek, but the book’s chapters explain Hayek’s ideas in Boudreaux’s words. Those ideas come from various works by Hayek, so the book is not a summary or discussion of specific works by Hayek, but rather an overview of Hayek’s ideas on the economy, on law, and on social organization more generally.
The book provides an excellent discussion of the advantages of free markets and limited government, and on the way that institutions can arise spontaneously without anyone planning them out, as a result of human action but not of human design.
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Spinoza

"The real disturbers of the peace are those who, in a free state, seek to curtail the liberty of judgment which they are unable to tyrannize over"
(Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza in "Theological-Political Treatise")

Responsabilidade do cientista existe?


Capitalismo de estado

Capitalismo de Compadrio: Enquanto a República não cai, Odebecht lidera com 41% os empréstimos do BNDES


A prisão preventiva de Marcelo Odebrecht, presidente do grupo Odebrecht, um dos maiores conglomerados do Brasil é um momento único na história do país.  Para alguns é mais um dos excessos autoritários do juiz Sérgio Moro. Para outros, é o ínicio do fim do “capitalismo de compadrio”.
Capitalismo de compadrio (crony capitalism) é um termo que descreve uma economia em que o sucesso nos negócios depende de relações estreitas entre empresários e o governo. O compadrio pode ocorrer através do favoritismo nas licitações, concessões, empréstimos, subsídios do governo, isenções fiscais ou outras formas de intervencionismo estatal. Neste ponto, não haveria maior ícone para o capitalismo clientelista que a relação Odebrecht-Brasília.
Alimentada pelo governo brasileiro, a Odebrecht conta com Lula como seu principal lobbysta e o estado brasileiro como seu principal cliente, financiador e sócio. De acordo com o Portal da Transparência, apenas em gastos diretos da União, a empreitera recebeu R$ 1,1 bilhão de reais no ano passado. Com a Petrobrás, são mais de 17 bilhões de reais em contratos. Mas há ainda mais – e o BNDES é a caixa preta. 
Entre 2009 e 2014, a Odebrecht recebeu US$ 5 bilhões para financiar suas exportações (“pós-embarque”) a governos e empresas estrangeiras. Este valor corresponde a 41% de todos os empréstimos do período  e apenas é comparável aos empréstimos à Embraer, com US$ 4,9 bilhões (40%). Logo depois, três outras construtoras: Andrade Gutierrez (US$ 802 milhões, ou 7%), Queiroz Galvão (US$ 254 milhões, ou 2,1%) e Camargo Corrêa (US$ 216 milhões, ou 1,8%).
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Testes químicos por raça

U.S. Troops Tested By Race In Secret World War II Chemical Experiments


A guerra do governo americano contra os "gays"

Uniquely Nasty: The U.S. Government's War on Gays 
By Michael Isikoff
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to rule on same-sex marriage, Yahoo News presents a new 30-minute documentary, “Uniquely Nasty: The U.S. Government’s War on Gays,” reported and narrated by chief investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff. The film explores a dark and little-known chapter in America’s recent political past, when gays and lesbians were barred from working for the federal government and the FBI, through its“sex deviates” program, secretly collected hundreds of thousands of files on the sex lives of American citizens. 
“Uniquely Nasty” includes never-before-seen government memos by legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (read by George Takei) and John Steele, a top lawyer for the U.S. Civil Service Commission (read by Matt Bomer) asserting that gays were “not suitable” for federal employment. “Uniquely Nasty” is divided into three chapters. 
Chapter 1 — The Story of Charles Francis
http://news.yahoo.com/uniquely-nasty--the-u-s--governments-war-on-gays-191808993.html

domingo, 21 de junho de 2015

Os 10 mais importantes países em 2050

Times, they are a-changing. An economic report by HSBC has predicted a seismic shift in the structure of the global economy, with the economic centre of gravity shifting from the north Atlantic to central Asia – particularly China and India. If the predictions are true (and it must be said that economists are not known for agreeing with each other) the world will look very, very different indeed.
Through a complex but fascinating analysis of economic systems and infrastructure and serious number crunching, HSBC’s analysts’ economics prowess has projected the wealth of countries (GDP and per capita income) in 2050. You can read the full report: The World in 2050; Quantifying the Shift in the Global Economy here.
Read on to discover which countries will be the world’s richest – in 2050:
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EU - país dos prisioneiros


Quem foi Ludwig von Mises?

Que tipo de homem foi Ludwig von Mises? Como este filme peculiar nos mostra, Mises (1881-1973) foi um homem que nunca parou de lutar pela liberdade: não parou quando os nazistas incendiaram seus livros, não parou quando a esquerda bloqueou seu acesso às universidades, não parou quando parecia que o estatismo havia ganhado. Com coragem e genialidade, ele enfrentou o grande estado até o dia em que morreu... com 25 livros, centenas de artigos e mais de 60 anos ensinando.

As batalhas de Mises contra os comunistas, nazistas e outros socialistas são apresentados neste filme, assim como suas ideias sobre a liberdade. Há também um pouco da velha Viena que ele amava, a história do Primeiro-Ministro bolchevique que ele convenceu a largar o comunismo e um rol de vilões que vai de Lênin a Hitler, assim como estudantes e admiradores, como Murray Rothbard, Ron Paul, Bettina Greaves, M. Stanton Evans, Mary Peterson, Joseph Sobran e Yuri Maltsev.

Entre suas várias conquistas, Mises mostrou que o socialismo estava fadado ao fracasso, que o Banco Central é a causa das recessões e depressões, que o padrão ouro é a moeda mais honesta e que apenas o capitalismo de laissez faire é completamente compatível com a civilização ocidental.

Mises foi o maior economista do século XX e um dos mais importantes campeões da liberdade. Aqui está o filme que faz justiça a esse homem extraordinário e à suas ideias igualmente extraordinárias.

Confira aqui o vídeo original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faMoy...

sábado, 20 de junho de 2015

O estado-babá

O triunfo do estado-babá

Entre a multidão das etiquetas que foram inventadas para caracterizar o moderno sistema político poucos aparecem mais adequadas que chamar o estado moderno “estado-babá”. Capitalismo, imperialismo, estado de bem-estar, estado de guerra - cada um dessas características cabe mais ou menos para um ou outro estado moderno, mas o que une países tão diferentes como, por exemplo, Dinamarca, os Estados Unidos e o Brasil, é que apesar de todas as suas diferenças são todos estados-babá.

As raízes do estado-babá
Tudo o que foi deixado do capitalismo liberal desapareceu nas cinzas da Primeira Guerra Mundial. A economia de guerra tornou-se a grande inspiração para o planejamento central e o controle governamental. Esta guerra de 1914 a 1918 foi o ventre que deu à luz o comunismo e o nazismo e também o berço do moderno estado de bem-estar intervencionista. Este estado que promete a proteção social, mas pratica guerras permanentes contra inimigos reais e imaginários dentro e fora do país tornou-se o sistema político dominante desde o início do século 20.
Os princípios deste estado moderno são a corrupção e o suborno. Os beneficiários da gama de suborno podem ser empresas ou sindicatos, podem ser privilégios exorbitantes para a burocracia em geral ou para setores específicos, tais como o militar ou o fomento de certas áreas de pesquisa científica selecionadas por critérios duvidosos. Entre as muitas variedades se destacam os variantes do estado de bem-estar e da guerra com suas subcategorias que caracterizam este estado predatório como estado intervencionista, burocrático, corporativista, plutocrático e cleptocrático.
Enquanto no século 19 ainda era principalmente a defesa da liberdade que serviu como critério para limitar a atividade estatal, esse critério desapareceu em favor da eficiência econômica. O moderno estado de bem-estar e da guerra não está preocupado com a preservação da liberdade; a única barreira contra a sua expansão infinita são os limites estabelecidos pela eficiência econômica. De princípio, o capitalismo livre é odiado pelos estadistas. Mas sabendo que a abolição seria suicida para a regra do estado, o capitalismo livre está tolerado parcialmente em um nicho dentro de limites impostos pelo estado para servir como a vaca que dá leite.
O estado-babá em ação
O estado social moderno esconde suas raízes fascistas, comunistas e bélicas e apresenta-se hoje como o estado-babá. O estado-babá tem sua origem no movimento progressista nos Estados Unidos, que lançou seu programa totalitário de controle comportamental que varia da proibição e da esterilização forçada até a eugenia e eutanásia. Enquanto o fascismo e o comunismo mostravam o lado negro deste sistema, o estado-babá mostra seu lado aparentemente ensolarado. Enquanto o fascismo e o comunismo transformavam nações inteiras em brutos, o moderno estado-babá cria a infantilização de seus cidadãos. Não é só “panem et circensis” que acompanha o cuidado universal do berço ao túmulo; o estado-babá também provoca uma confusão de valores, um relativismo desenfreado. A expansão do controle comportamental por parte do estado abrange todas as áreas da existência humana, com guerras sem fim sendo travada internamente (como a “guerra contra drogas”) e externamente (como a “guerra contra o terrorismo”).
Da mesma maneira, o estado-babá apresenta-se como a agência que protege o bebê contra tabagismo, álcool, obesidade, carne vermelha e até contra quedas de bicicleta sem proteção. Desta maneira a sociedade moderna é empurrada para um estado de agitação permanente quando todos são tratados como crianças. A combinação entre a agitação e a infantilização traz o cidadão a um estado de confusão mental e exaustão psíquica que fornece o caminho para manipulações de todos os tipos - sejam políticas ou comerciais.
Como é baseado em suborno, o sistema do estado de bem-estar e da guerra esta em permanente necessidade financeira. As autoridades estão sempre desesperadas com o crescimento econômico e o emprego, porque daí que os impostos vêm. Receitas fiscais, no entanto, nunca serão suficientes para financiar os gastos em suborno para manter o clientelismo e, portanto, precisa-se do financiamento pela dívida pública, que, por sua vez, torna este sistema inerentemente inflacionário e economicamente instável.
Crise sem fim
Enquanto o estado está em crise fiscal permanente e exposto ao carrossel selvagem das despesas, impostos, dívidas e crises fiscais, ao mesmo tempo o estado moderno inventa todos os dias novas regulamentações, novos problemas e novas deficiências que só podem ser curados por este mesmo estado. Assim, surge a pressão permanente e desumana de colocar todos como escravos no esforço de aumentar a eficiência da economia – do mesmo jeito como o senhor procura incentivar os seus escravos para maior produção. Enquanto os governos e suas burocracias atuam como campeões de ineficiência e se mostram como mestres do desperdício dos recursos, os líderes do estado intervencionista de bem-estar anunciam cotidianamente novos apelos que a economia deve tornar-se mais competitiva, precisaria acelerar o progresso tecnológico e deveria crescer mais rápido. Enquanto o capitalismo de estado afirma ter o "bem-estar" como objetivo principal, a força de trabalho está sob um permanente reinado de terror para atender normas imaginárias de desempenho. Ao mesmo tempo o comportamento pessoal está sob a vigilância constante segundo o critério de sua adequação “social”. Como a babá na vida real, o estado-babá anuncia que tudo que ele quer é o melhor para o bebê e que o bebê precisa obedecer porque senão será punido.
O estado intervencionista de bem-estar e de guerra cria uma atmosfera febril com seu hiperativismo. Quando não há problemas, precisam ser inventados; quando não há inimigos, precisam ser criados – internamente e externamente. Todos os dias as autoridades buscam encontrar um novo grupo que é desfavorecido e vulnerável e que "precisa" da ajuda da babá-governante.  Há evidências quase ilimitadas de que o moderno estado intervencionista não resolve problemas, mas cria cada vez mais problemas. Seja saúde ou educação, seja segurança interna ou externa, o estado moderno não se mostra capaz de gerar soluções. O que acorre no Brasil não é muito diferente também em outros países: incapaz de prevenir crimes, há cada vez mais pessoas encarceiradas; incapaz de resolver o caos do trânsito, o que o estado faz é impor mais duras multas e punições; incapaz de aprimorar a educação básica no país, o governo impõe cotas nas universidades.
A escravidão moderna
Querendo ou não, o “cidadão” moderno desistiu da sua liberdade original e da sua responsabilidade individual e entregou-as ao estado. O Leviatã se tornou totalitário.
Não é mais a segurança física o ponto principal, mas cada aspecto da existência humana. O homem moderno abandonou mais liberdade do que o escravo da antiguidade porque deixou não só o seu corpo físico em cativeiro, mas entregou seus pensamentos também.
Analisando a “Democracia na América” (1835), Alexis de Tocqueville já alertava sobre o risco de a democracia transformar o estado de direito em um sistema de ditadura da maioria.  O "contrato social", um acordo geral de submissão voluntária, serve apenas aos donos do poder. Como tal, o tratado expõe sua falha fundamental. O próprio acordo mostra seu caráter ilegítimo pelo fato de que ninguém no seu perfeito juízo iria celebrar um contrato que implica a incapacidade mental do cidadão. Por esta lógica, o escravo moderno perdeu o seu direito de voz política.
Como Imanuel Kant explicou em 1793, um governo que expõe o princípio da benevolência com o povo como um pai faz para os seus filhos representa “o maior concebível despotismo”.  Um governo que trata os seus cidadãos como bebês e dita um determinado caminho da felicidade atua como déspota e, como o povo tem suas próprias ideias de felicidade, transforma os cidadãos em rebeldes.
Em nosso tempo o comunismo falhou, mas na forma da “tirania da maioria”, como já alertou John Stuart Mill no seu Ensaio sobre a Liberdade de 1859, a ditadura do proletariado contamina a “opinião pública”. Hoje em dia, muitos intelectuais e o sistema de justiça em vez de defenderem as liberdades individuais funcionam como propagandistas e ativistas dos preconceitos modernos que chegam vestidos com as roupas do “politicamente correto” enquanto são nada mais que uma opinião pública distorcida.
Conclusão

O principal evento para lançar o estado de bem-estar e da guerra do século 20 foi a Primeira Guerra Mundial. Esta guerra instalou o recrutamento em massa e um surto de fanatismo ideológico. Esta guerra preparou a plataforma do lançamento para o fascismo e o nacional-socialismo, o comunismo e todas as outras formas de intervencionismo estatal e de totalitarismo ideológico. A mentalidade para o estado-babá já foi preparada pelo movimento progressista americano. Hoje em dia, este sistema mostra a sua cara aparentemente benevolente e “progressista” na forma do estado-babá enquanto o seu lado totalitário se manifesta como o despotismo da opinião pública como a sua moderna forma de ditadura do proletariado.
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Confiança ou exploração?

Do You Think Most People Try to Take Advantage of You?


Socialismo


Niklas Luhmann

Niklas Luhmann: Documentales sobre teoría y riesgo ecológico (Subtitulos Español)   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyOAnGUUfdc

Causas do vício



The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think

It is now one hundred years since drugs were first banned -- and all through this long century of waging war on drugs, we have been told a story about addiction by our teachers and by our governments. This story is so deeply ingrained in our minds that we take it for granted. It seems obvious. It seems manifestly true. Until I set off three and a half years ago on a 30,000-mile journey for my new book, Chasing The Scream: The First And Last Days of the War on Drugs, to figure out what is really driving the drug war, I believed it too. But what I learned on the road is that almost everything we have been told about addiction is wrong -- and there is a very different story waiting for us, if only we are ready to hear it.
If we truly absorb this new story, we will have to change a lot more than the drug war. We will have to change ourselves.