Write and Bleed

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master." With that said he added :-), "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

Government according to Fitzgerald's character Anthony Patch

A partial paragraph from F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 novel THE BEAUTIFUL AND DAMNED, Book One, Chapter 2 - Portrait of a Siren, when Anthony Patch contemplates his unproductive as well boring state of affairs then imagines possible endeavors to disparaging conclusions...

"He tried to imagine himself in Congress rooting around in the litter of that incredible pigsty with the narrow and porcine brows he saw pictured sometimes in the rotogravure sections of the Sunday newspapers, those glorified proletarians babbling blandly to the nation the ideas of high school seniors! Little men with copy-book ambitions who by mediocrity had thought to emerge from mediocrity into the lustreless and unromantic heaven of a government by the people---and the best, the shrewd men at the top, egotistic and cynical, were content to lead this choir of white ties and wire collar-buttons in a discordant and amazing hymn, compounded of a vague confusion between wealth as a reward of virtue and wealth as a proof of vice, and continued cheers for God, the Constitution and the Rocky Mountains!"

Though the novel's story-line commences in 1913, I rather doubt Mr Fitzgerald had in mind nor understood the ill ramifications of three congressional passages still plaguing this country presently; 16th and 17th Amendments as well the Federal Reserve Act. For nowhere mentioned were these issues among the characters' many conversations on pop-culture or current concerns of the 1910s. I would assume, like most artists/writers of the time (as it is today), he mindlessly supported trendy ideas seen as "progressive" with no thought to the unavoidable causality.

With that said, Fitzgerald's use of language is brilliant, regardless of intent (if any). So while taking a bit of liberty here, superimposing my intent for a brief moment, I may have written a similar critique of government, less skillfully of course. :-)

Note:
A 1919 photograph of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre, later married the following year.

Frank Chodorov (1887-1966), We talk a lot about freedom these days

In his 1962 collection of essays Out of Step, in this case pertaining to one's FREEDOM and SELF-RESPECT, Frank Chodorov (1887-1966) brilliantly wrote, indicting American society then, of course applicably more so today...

"We talk a lot about freedom these days. When you dig to the bottom of this talk you realize that, first, very few know what freedom is and, secondly, still fewer want it. The fact is that what is generally called freedom consists of increases in wages (or handouts), more profits (or subsidies) and a bottomless abundance of privileges. For such things we—particularly the more affluent among us—are ready to lay freedom on the line. The essence of freedom, which is an inflexible respect (and responsibility) for oneself, is being bartered every day for such trifles... When freedom submits to a formula it rids itself of responsibility, the responsibility to one's own axioms. To check one's thought and behavior against the dictates of one's conscience may prove unflattering; to chart one's course by such a check-up requires a powerful will; it is to avoid such revelation and responsibility that people are prone to hide behind rituals, committees, flags and by-laws. But, flight from individual responsibility amounts to abandonment of freedom. You are not free when you refuse to make choices in your own name. You enslave yourself when you take refuge from the consequences of your decisions in an organization, a nation or any collective fiction."

It could be rightly said of this country for quite a while, "land of the free and home of the brave" we are not.

Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.

Another Quote by Frank Chodorov (1887-1966)

THE WEAKNESS OF THE STATE lies in the fact that it is but an aggregate of humans; its strength derives from the general ignorance of this truism. From earliest times the covering up of this vulnerability has engaged the ingenuity of the politician; all manner of argument has been adduced to give the State a suprahuman character, and rituals without end have been invented to give this fiction the verisimilitude of reality. The divinity with which the king found it necessary to endow himself has been taken over by a mythical fifty-one percent of the electorate, who in turn ordain those who rule over them. To aid the process of canonization, the personages in whom power resides have set themselves apart by such artifices as high-sounding titles, distinctive apparel and hierarchical insignia. Language and behavior mannerisms (called protocol) emphasize their separateness. Nevertheless, the fact of mortality cannot be denied, and the continuity of political power is manufactured by means of awe-inspiring symbols, such as flags, thrones, monuments, seals and ribbons; these things do not die. By way of litanies a soul is breathed into this golden calf and political philosophy anoints it a "metaphysical person."

Frank Chodorov (1887-1966)

Note:
Quote taken from the essay On Doing Something About It, as part of his 1962 book of essays Out of Step.

Quote by Frank Chodorov (1887-1966)

"If we assume that the individual has an indisputable right to life, we must concede that he has a similar right to the enjoyment of the products of his labor. This we call a property right. The absolute right to property follows from the original right to life because one without the other is meaningless; the means to life must be identified with life itself."

Frank Chodorov (1887-1966)

Note:
Quote taken from his article (see below link) originally published in 1947 as a pamphlet, reprinted in 1962 as part of a collection of essays/lectures entitled Out of Step: The Autobiography of an Individualist.

https://mises.org/library/taxation-robbery

TAX WITHOUT CONSENT is THEFT

Logically hence ethically, TAX WITHOUT CONSENT is THEFT, consequently, subsidies are the victors' spoils. For democracy, like oligarchy, serves as no better guard against such thievery and spoilage, merely necessitates a larger gang of well-armed robbers disguised as empathetic politicians and fellow citizens.

Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.

1913

Why was THE YEAR 1913 detrimentally pivotal in United States, hence the subsequent and inevitable ill effects still gravely felt today...

1. 16th Amendment, by empowering the Federal government total access to personal income, unrestrained by lack of limits on tax increases and regularity thereof.

2. 17th Amendment, by empowering the Federal government upon eliminating the last remnant of sovereignty held by state governments, by transferring the appointment of US senators to popular vote, thus gravely altering the constitutional frame per reduction of check-and-balances.

3. Federal Reserve Act, by empowering the Federal government and politically favored bankers with complete monopoly of currency and control of monetary policies, endowed further by allowing secrecy of decisions and activities.

...and ill effects will continue to decline the economy therefore society until these three (at least) are rescinded. Logic by empirical evidence dictates the unfortunate certainty.

Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.