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The implication for would-be helpers is to become conscious of social economics and the social theater that we all live in, to think clearly about the helper role in the various situations in which they may find themselves, and to assess
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“The auction proposes what the envy test in fact assumes, that the true measure of the social resources devoted to the life of one person is fixed by asking how important, in fact, that resource is for others. [The auction] insists that the cost, measured in that way, figures in each person's sense of what is rightly his and in each person's judgment of what life he should lead, given that command of justice.”
― Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality
― Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality
“...our low regard for nostalgia often seems not to rest on some substantive standard of excellence, in light of which a preference for the past is seen as missing the mark, but rather expresses idolatry of the present. This kind of “forward-thinking” is at bottom an apologetic species of conservatism, as it defers to and celebrates whatever is currently ascendant.”
― The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction
― The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction
“it was Böhm-Bawerk who defeated them so effectively with economic theories and critiques such that Marxism did not take root in economics to the degree that it has in other professions, such as sociology and history.10 Using impeccable logic, Böhm-Bawerk showed that the workers who are employed by the entrepreneur are paid immediately for the “full value” of their labor, so long as that value is correctly calculated by including the time element. After all, in most production processes the input of labor hours doesn’t immediately yield a finished good.”
― The Dao of Capital: Austrian Investing in a Distorted World
― The Dao of Capital: Austrian Investing in a Distorted World
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.”
― Bird by Bird
― Bird by Bird
“The appeal of magic is that it promises to render objects plastic to the will without one’s getting too entangled with them. Treated from arm’s length, the object can issue no challenge to the self. According to Freud, this is precisely the condition of the narcissist: he treats objects as props for his fragile ego and has an uncertain grasp of them as having a reality of their own. The clearest contrast to the narcissist that I can think of is the repairman, who must subordinate himself to the broken washing machine, listen to it with patience, notice its symptoms, and then act accordingly. He cannot treat it abstractly; the kind of agency he exhibits is not at all magical.”
― The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction
― The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction
Political Philosophy and Ethics
— 6542 members
— last activity Aug 10, 2026 08:10AM
Study and discussion of the important questions of ethical and political philosophy from Confucius and Socrates to the present. Rules (see also the ...more
Nick’s 2025 Year in Books
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