All Ideologies bind and blind. They end up sacrificing the Innocent Individual to the Coercive Idea. As a Voluntaryist, I value the flesh-and-blood fact of the Innocent (etymology, do no harm) Individual over the Coercive Ideologies, those parasitic memes of the immature, enslaved Mind. Until and unless you choose to value the Innocent Individual over then the Coercive Ideology (gods, gurus, governments, etc.) then you are part of the problem no matter how much you believe you are Saving the World with your preferred Savior.
ROBERT HIGGS INSPIRES INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE GALA ATTENDEES Independent Institute, Nov 19, 2011. VIDEO 3:59
Higgs 0:28> “Frightened people clamor for a savior, a leader who will relieve them of responsibility for their personal security and economic well-being. This temptation we must resist if we are to preserve and ultimately to enlarge our liberties. If we do not resist the legions of frightened citizens, political and economic opportunists and would be demagogues, will carry the day; and the boundaries of our Liberty will be constricted further with each episode of crisis.”
Higgs 3:19> “If a nation values security more than freedom it will lose that too. If we value security more than freedom we will be neither free nor secure. Without freedom all is truly lost.” END
Robert Higgs Inspires Independent Institute Gala Attendees,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1ApHKYfltg
IDEOLOGY—A LENS WITH BLINDERS Independent Institute, Robert Higgs, March 25, 2016
Every ideology has its Great Satan and a supporting cast of demons. These serve as all-purpose targets of blame and of the hatred that animates the ideology’s adherents. Ideology is not simply the distorted belief system of one’s political enemies. In accordance with the “inclusive” conception that I have employed in my writing for more than thirty years, everyone who is not completely apathetic about politics and the state has an ideology. Having one is not necessarily a bad thing—individualist, private-property anarchism, for example, is in my estimation a noble and respectful (of people’s natural rights) set of beliefs and commitments—yet every ideology puts blinders on its adherents, narrowing their vision and keeping certain aspects of social reality out of sight. We would therefore be wise never to forget that we are all the prisoners, as it were, of our overarching belief system about social relations. This remembrance also helps us to humanize ideological opponents whom we might otherwise cast, if only rhetorically, into outer darkness.
https://blog.independent.org/2016/03/25/ideology-a-lens-with-blinders/
NEITHER LIBERTY NOR SAFETY--FEAR, IDEOLOGY, AND THE GROWTH OF GOVERNMENT Independent Institute, Robert Higgs, 2007
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety,” wrote Benjamin Franklin. Attempting to gain security by sacrificing liberty is also a foolish action because it only increases the potential for harm. In Neither Liberty Nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government, economist and historian Robert Higgs illustrates the false trade-off between freedom and security by showing how the U.S. government’s economic and military interventions reduced the civil and economic liberties, prosperity, and genuine security of Americans in the 20th century. Extending the theme of Higgs’s earlier books, Neither Liberty Nor Safety stresses the role of misguided ideas in the expansion of government power at the expense of individual liberty. Higgs illuminates not only many underappreciated aspects of the Great Depression, the two world wars, and the postwar era, but also the government’s manipulation of public opinion and the role that ideologies play in influencing political outcomes and economic performance.
https://www.independent.org/store/book.asp?id=68
MY COMMENT:
Thanks, Robert, for your consistent, principled, courage that always places the Innocent Individual above the Coercive Ideology--a non-negotiable NO for any sacrifice of the Individual to a Collective "Greater Good".
No one rules if no one obeys.
Stay free, stay safe.
TEN REASONS NOT TO ABOLISH SLAVERY Mises Institute, June 19, 2024
Slavery existed for thousands of years, in all sorts of societies and all parts of the world. To imagine human social life without it required an extraordinary effort. Yet, from time to time, eccentrics emerged to oppose it, most of them arguing that slavery is a moral monstrosity and therefore people should get rid of it. Such advocates generally elicited reactions ranging from gentle amusement to harsh scorn and even violent assault.
https://mises.org/mises-wire/ten-reasons-not-abolish-slavery
A PSYCHOLOGY OF IDEOLOGY: UNPACKING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF IDEOLOGICAL THINKING National Library of Medicine, Leor Zmigrod, July 2022
ABSTRACT The psychological study of ideology has traditionally emphasized the content of ideological beliefs, guided by questions about what people believe, such as why people believe in omniscient gods or fascist worldviews. This theoretical focus has led to siloed subdisciplines separately dealing with political, religious, moral, and prejudiced attitudes. The fractionation has fostered a neglect of the cognitive structure of ideological worldviews and associated questions about why ideologies—in all their forms—are so compelling to the human mind. Here I argue that it is essential to consider the nature of ideological cognition across a multitude of ideologies. I offer a multidimensional, empirically tractable framework of ideological thinking, suggesting it can be conceptualized as a style of thinking that is rigid in its adherence to a doctrine and resistance to evidence-based belief-updating and favorably oriented toward an in-group and antagonistic to out-groups. The article identifies the subcomponents of ideological thinking and highlights that ideological thinking constitutes a meaningful psychological phenomenon that merits direct scholarly investigation and analysis. By emphasizing conceptual precision, methodological directions, and interdisciplinary integration across the political and cognitive sciences, the article illustrates the potential of this framework as a catalyst for developing a rigorous domain-general psychology of ideology.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9274788/
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CONSERVATIVE? PT 1. STEVEN YATES, Navigating the New Normal, June 04, 2024 (Article)
Maybe not what you think.
https://stevenyates.substack.com/p/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-conservative
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CONSERVATIVE? PT 2. STEVEN YATES, Navigating the New Normal, June 06, 2024 (Article)
5. Back to Basics: Eight Conservative Principles.
If they try, conservative thinkers can articulate the basic values that motivate them to write. They can answer the question, what are we trying to conserve? and in a way not tied to current controversies such as whether to support Trump or not.
Russell Kirk tried to do this, and the result was Ten Conservative Principles. I thought some of his were a bit obscure, so I’ve settled on eight items as of major importance (we can always supply add-ons later).
https://stevenyates.substack.com/p/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-conservative-616
TEN CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES RUSSELL KIRK (Article)
https://kirkcenter.org/conservatism/ten-conservative-principles/
UNDERSTANDING CONSERVATISM: KEY FEATURES, BELIEFS, AND CONTROVERSIES Easy Sociology
https://easysociology.com/sociology-of-ideology/understanding-conservatism-key-features-beliefs-and-controversies/
THE CONSERVATIVE ATHEISTS Harvard Political Review, July 28, 2015
https://harvardpolitics.com/conservative-atheists/
AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE ATHEISTS, PAST AND PRESENT Medium, July 6, 2023
https://shimmeranalysis.medium.com/american-conservative-atheists-past-and-present-383db2e72e3e
SHEEP, WOLVES, AND SHEEPDOGS, BY LT. COL. DAVE GROSSMAN The Expositor, Jan 26, 2013
https://www.theexpositor.tv/blog/sheep-wolves-and-sheepdogs-lt-col-dave-grossman/
LIBERATION LIBRARY [4] BLOOD MAKES THE GREEN GRASS GROW: CONDITIONING SOLDIERS TO KILL Vital Dissent with Patrick MacFarlane, Dec 21, 2017 51:04
Liberation Library [4] Blood Makes the Green Grass Grow: Conditioning Soldiers to Kill,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct2iJltvbx8&t=2184s