Excellent Interview on Economics

Leaving Babylon the Great

One of my fondest memories of this blog was a reaction of a reader to my discussion of food and Babylon the Great, in particular the Chick-fil-A controversy of last year. The reaction was,"Only Dennis can see Babylon the Great in a chicken sandwich, and you know he's right." 

My belief is that everything is interconnected to something else--I suppose this is my version of the six degrees of separation meme. As Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper, "Be in the world, but not of the world." The inter-connectedness of the modern world makes not being in the world extremely difficult. I suppose one could get a homestead and grow a lot of one's own food. However, unless you have some income you will lose that property to not paying taxes. Generating one's own electricity is expensive, but you can do it in many climates. However, you are still relying on a manufacturer to provide the equipment for you to do it. 

My advice is to be as independent of the system as your circumstances allow.  

This is why I blog about health.  

The US health system is broken, and the best thing you can do is to eat properly, move your body, and not eat too much. If you are healthy you may be able to reduce your use of the healthcare system. Lately we have been getting new doctors. Obviously their first question is "What is your insurance?" The second question is "Is that the ObamaCare version?" Luckily for me it isn't. What use is insurance if no one will take it?  

I did a little "back of the envelope" calculations. It appears that we could live in Russia, and quite well, off of what we spend on health insurance. You are exempt from ObamaCare if you live in the The Virgin Islands or Guam. You are also exempt if you live in any foreign country 11 months out of the year. 

The healthcare situation can only get worse as illegal immigrants flood the emergency rooms, Baby Boomers age, and the consequences of our bad choices overwhelm us. 

Emigration out of the US is not practical for most of us, so eating a healthy diet and not eating the foods of Babylon the Great is crucial. While I have been talking about these foods on past Fridays, and will talk about them on future Fridays, you already know what they are. 

As Socrates famously said,"The unexamined food is not worth eating." So review the blog post where I discuss being aware of what you put in your mouth. Knowledge of that is always the first step in any attempt to eat healthy. 

The Wild One

Intellectual Inbreeding

How does one avoid the propaganda? Ultimately you can't.

Let me give you a personal example.

I do not celebrate Christmas for religious reasons. But even though I do not, it so permeates the culture that one cannot avoid it. My daughter does not celebrate it either, but yet, many years ago, she was convinced Santa Claus existed. Where did she get this? Not from me but from the culture around her.

While Babylon cannot be avoided entirely, you can reduce your exposure to it. One way is to seek out opinions with which you disagree. In other words if you are a conservative, watch MSNBC; if you are a liberal watch Fox News. You need to hear things that annoy you. An echo chamber only leads to intellectual inbreeding. You need to understand that the techniques of propaganda are used by both the right and left heads of Babylon the Great. Yes, I am saying that both are ultimately the same, both servants of the same master. Watch nothing without a critical eye and a lifted eyebrow.

If you want a more detailed look at Edward Bernays, be sure to look at this multi-part series by Pam Dewey, the beloved Editor of the Prophecy Podcast blog. 

Dr. Strangelove

In the current world we live in, this old movie still speaks to us. 

Dr. Strangelove