Quote of the Day: The Person Who is Best Qualified to Govern You is You

From self development and libertarian author Robert Ringer at his website: (italics original)

All this by way of saying that because of the way our political system operates, it makes it a certainty that the scum will always rise to the top. And why not? Getting into politics is the easiest and quickest way known to mankind to become rich and powerful. How can a larcenous person resist such an opportunity?

As early as the mid-nineteenth century, the great individual anarchist Lysander Spooner put it simply when he explained that when someone says that a certain type of government is best, that does not mean it’s a good government. It simply means that it’s the least bad of all other forms of government.

The challenge, then, is to find a way to educate the public so it understands that government, by its very nature, is inherently evil. Generations from now, if the United States starts to rise from the ashes of its criminally controlled bread-and-circus existence, perhaps some social genius who is a firm believer in liberty can come up with a much better system of government than a “republic” or democracy.

Whenever some slick-tongued politician says something “patriotic” like, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” it takes an enlightened mind to understand the truth in Samuel Johnson’s observation, “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” Which means that virtually all presidential candidates, this year or any other, are scoundrels.

No system will ever be perfect (even the Founding Fathers failed at that), but the only hope for a morally based society is one that is rooted in Thomas Jefferson’s words that “That government is best which governs least.”

If ever a majority of citizens come to believe this, we may finally find a way to invent a government that governs so little that it becomes almost invisible. The fact is that criminal politicians have no qualifications to govern you. As you labor through the next seven-plus months of political theater, always keep that in mind and remember that the person who is best qualified to govern you is you.

Quote of the Day: Is Man Wolf or Sheep?

So, which is it? Is man wolf or sheep? Paradoxically, it seems he is both. He’s a wolf to his fellow man, but a sheep when it comes to obeying other wolves. Perhaps this explains why so many notorious school bullies are themselves victims of bullying.

Unfortunately, the very nature of sheep is that they lack principle and courage. They want to avoid thinking about the fact that the wolf is a killer who can be restrained from devouring sheep only through the use of force. As a result, history has been written in blood and violence. 

Against this backdrop, it takes a strong individual not only to hold convictions that are in opposition to the majority, but to stick with those convictions and ignore the lemming parade as it passes his door. The sad truth is that such an individual can’t do much to put an end to the brute force that is used time and again to bend man’s will.

But what he can do is use his free will to stick to a personal moral code of nonaggression and refuse to go along with the evil actions of others — including, and especially, those of institutional leaders. Through his exercise of free will, he can choose to be vigilant about not allowing himself to become a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

If you are among the minority who are able to accomplish this on a consistent basis, I congratulate you for your heroic efforts. We each have to save our own souls before we can begin to figure out a way to save the masses from the wolves.

This excerpt is from an article of self development author Robert Ringer at his website

Quote of the Day: Differentiating Principle from Opinion

While it’s true that everyone perceives reality differently, reality could care less about our perceptions. Reality does not change to adapt to our viewpoints; reality is what is. Reality is fact. Reality is truth.

Reality, however, is not always a known, which is where perception of reality comes in. While reality is a fixed factor in the equation of life, perception of reality is a variable.

This is why it is so important to learn to differentiate between a principle and an opinion. The most significant aspect of a principle is that it can neither be created nor altered. Thus, a principle is the essence of reality. It is what it is, and it’s up to us to discover it.

The problem arises when people refuse to accept the reality that principles can only be discovered, and instead choose to believe they can create their own principles. Which means they believe they can create their own reality, a belief that can lead to disastrous consequences.

This excerpt is from self development author Robert Ringer at his website.

Robert Ringer: A Warrior Lives by Acting

Make a difference, act now. Self development Robert Ringer explains

There are two basic kinds of actions. One is proaction, which puts you on the offensive and, all other things being equal, gives you a great deal of control over events. The other is reaction, which puts you on the defensive and relegates you to an inherent position of weakness.

An interesting way of looking at inaction is that it’s really just a negative form of action — a sort of black hole of action that sucks energy away from you much the same as the black holes of the universe pull matter into the deep recesses of their cosmic bowels. This is why inaction often yields consequences by default. If you wait for something, or someone, to act on you, you likely will be unable to control the consequences.

Homeostasis, a trait that all human beings possess to one extent or another, is (in psychological terms) the tendency to live with existing conditions and avoid change. Which is ironic, because resistance to change defies both the laws of nature and the laws of the universe.

The earth, the universe, and life itself are in a perpetual state of change, and so, too, is secular life. Weather changes, laws change, the economy changes, the reins of power change, technology changes, and, perhaps most significant of all, your age changes every second of your life. In addition, with the generation and dying of cells in our bodies, each of us is in a constant state of change physiologically, from birth to death.

Homeostasis is the ultimate defense against taking action, which is why most people stubbornly resist change, particularly major change. Outwardly, of course, we fabricate excuses that attempt to justify why we aren’t able to take action just yet, the most common one being that “the time is not quite right.”

Through the years, my own experience has convinced me that the time is never “right.” There’s always something that’s in the way of taking action. If you’re looking for excuses not to take action, you don’t have to go very far, because life is fraught with so-called problems — and they follow us wherever we go.

The truth is that, with few exceptions, the best day to take action is today. You can make a sales call today. You can start working on that important project today. You can start preparing to move to the city of your choice today. You can begin to pick up the pieces and start a new life today.

Please read the rest here.

Robert Ringer: Don’t Buy into their Fakery

Self development author Robert Ringer warns against believing in fakery or non-financial bubbles (bold mine)

The “experts” seem to be in agreement on the cancer risk associated with eating farmed salmon. If you eat a thousand pounds of farmed salmon a week, you have a slightly higher risk of contracting cancer than a person who eats only salmon “caught in the wild.”

I love salmon, but the word cancer always gets my attention. So, for some time now, I’ve been searching for a package that says “Salmon Caught in the Wild.” And the other day, I finally found one.   Perusing the seafood section at Whole Foods, the following wording caught my eye: “Cold Smoked Wild Sockeye Salmon.” At long last, wild salmon!

But a funny thing happened on the way to my salmon fix: When I got home, I started reading the small print on the back of the package. To my amazement, it explained that the salmon I was about to devour was raised in a tightly controlled farmed environment. Farmed? Huh?

I checked and, sure enough, the word “wild” definitely was on the front of the package in large letters. I then read the small print further, and there it was: “Retains the deep red color and natural flavors characteristic of wild salmon.” Doh! Fooled again by words purposely intended to mislead consumers.

Pouting, I turned on the TV and, wouldn’t you know it, there she was — none other than Kim Kardashian, giving her insights into life. It was at that moment that it occurred to me there is a striking similarity between Kim Kardashian and the “Cold Smoked Wild Sockeye Salmon” I had bought earlier in the day: The success of both relies on naïve souls like you and me continuing to buy into their fakery. 

And, giving us our due credit, we’re very good at it. In fact, we buy into lots of fakery every day. Why? Because we set our brains on autopilot too often. We are not fools caught in the wild, mind you, but farmed fools. And those who make a living with fakery need farmed fools in order to survive.

Most people, of course, make light of the fakeries that surround them. Which, in my view, is a mistake. When fake people babble on about everything from spirituality to formulas, systems, and secrets that lead to success, they are helping us see the worst in ourselves. They remind us to look in the mirror and ask tough questions like:

Why am I so gullible? Why do I allow myself to be so easily manipulated by the media? Why am I so insecure that I would even listen to the opinions of knucklehead celebrities? Why am I so bored that I would watch idiots pontificating on subjects they know nothing about?

The underlying problem is that we live in a wild-salmon world — a world that is phony and contrived. All the wrong things impress us — things like money, status, and puffery. When we allow ourselves to be awed by those who are perceived to be rich and powerful (and, more often than not, there is a great difference between the perception and the reality), deep down inside it makes us feel unclean. But we are careful not to allow our true feelings to bubble to the surface, lest our peers look upon us with scorn.

When we watch someone rise, virtually overnight, from being a nonentity to a celebrity blowing kisses to an adoring army of paparazzi — without producing anything of value — our intellect tells us that what we are witnessing is not real. The part of our brain that isn’t in a reality-TV mode twenty-four hours a day fully understands that the phenomenon we are observing is nothing more than manufactured nonsense.

Read the rest here

Quote of the Day: Dealing with Delusions

Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try, most of our perceptions of people will be misguided a significant percentage of the time. It’s one thing to be off target occasionally, but quite another to be consistently wrong. That’s because the foundational principle of all other success principles is having an accurate perception of reality. Which means that great achievements are virtually impossible if one’s perception of reality is perpetually faulty.

The best antidote to this potentially fatal condition is to pay more attention to what people say than to what they appear to be. In other words, don’t be taken in by credentials, demeanor, or reputation. Hey, you can’t get much better credentials than being emperor of Rome, and just about everyone got misled by Caligula.

Likewise, just because someone doesn’t have great credentials doesn’t mean he doesn’t possess skills or wisdom. Some of the best insights I’ve heard over the years have come from “no name” people.

There is no magic way to sort out worthwhile information from junk. The truth of the matter is that it’s up to you to weigh the content of people’s words and make good decisions about them. And to do that, you have to be vigilant about not becoming mesmerized by superficial appearances or credentials.

In the words of Buddha, “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” It’s something to ponder as you go about trying to deal with the delusions that are being offered up by politicians, media talking heads, and so-called experts on a daily basis.

This is from libertarian and self development author Robert Ringer at his website

7 Ways to Protect Oneself from the Media Circus

Based on the Donald Sterling controversy, self development author Robert Ringer at the LewRockwell.com writes: (bold mine) 

Personally, whenever there’s a big media blitz about some perceived wrongdoing, I prefer to ignore the hysteria and think about what I can learn from the situation that could be useful to me.  Off the top of my head, following are a handful of lessons that I believe are worth gleaning from the Sterling media circus — lessons that you can use to improve yourself and your own life.

1. People say negative things behind your back all the time.  If you don’t already know that, wake up!  If you do know it, don’t let it bother you.  Whenever I hear that someone has said something unflattering about me, I opt to take the rationally selfish approach and do my best to ignore it — especially when I know it’s patently false.  I hope, for your sake, that you do the same.
2. Don’t buy into the hate-speech scam.  People have opinions, some of which you may like, some of which you may not like.  Best to leave all that nonsense up to the PC Police, who achieve mental orgasms by harassing (perceived) evil speakers.  You don’t have time to get bogged down in group protests if you’re interested in bettering your life.
3. “They” say that hate speech is bad, but what’s worse is the idea that someone actually believes he has the moral authority to decide what constitutes hate speech in the first place.  Of course, if someone hurls a remark directly at you, and you, in your sole judgment, consider it to be “hateful,” that’s your prerogative.  As an individual, you have a right to make a determination about speech that is aimed specifically at you.  But before you get yourself all worked up over it, remember what mom taught you about sticks and stones.
4. Learn to reject hypocrisy and hypocrites.  In the Sterling saga, the hypocrisy is so thick it’s stifling, as you already know if you’ve been following the story at all.  The world is full of hypocrites, especially in politics (which is really what hate speech is all about).  Best you focus on policing yourself to make sure that you are not guilty of hypocrisy.
5. Never forget that friends and sweethearts have a way of becoming enemies.  Make sure your mouth understands that.  Talk is not cheap.  On the contrary, it has proven to be quite capable of destroying lives.  Think before you open your mouth.
6. In the same vein, be vigilant about not making The Big Mistake.  We all make little mistakes on a daily basis, but be careful about making a mistake so big that it can threaten your very survival.In Donald Sterling’s case, maybe he’s a terrible person — I have no idea — but I suspect his remarks (which, while not nearly as bad as those that have been made by some of his most vocal critics) were nothing more than the angry rants of an old guy who was mad at his middle-school girlfriend.This is where mom’s advice comes in handy again:  If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.  There’s a reason why aphorisms like this have been around forever:  They’re true.  Instead of wasting time fretting over Donald Sterling’s remarks, concentrate on what comes out of your mouth.
7. The best protection against becoming Sterlingized (a form of sterilization performed by the loud crowd) is to follow a simple rule:  Live every moment as though the whole world were watching and write every e-mail as though the whole world were going to be reading it — something politicians never seem to learn.

Finally, of course, never — EVER — try to persuade people to change their fundamental beliefs, no matter how misguided you may think they are.  Why?  Because you will fail, and you’ll waste a lot of valuable time in the process.  It’s called opportunity cost. [to my experience this observation is so very relevant. Thanks Mr. Ringer—Benson]

Use your time to focus on your own life.  The only person over whom you have total control is you.  Put your efforts into purifying your own life, and forget about the Donald Sterlings of the world and the rabble-rousers who live for the thrill of trying to destroy them.

Read the start of the article here

Quote of the Day: People of the Lie

Do you really believe the teller of The Big Lie is going to respond to your presentation of the facts by saying, “Gee, I hadn’t really thought about it that way before. I guess I was wrong.” Forget it. People of the Lie thrive on telling The Big Lie; it’s what they live for. 

This quote is from self development author Robert Ringer at his website.

Quote of the Day: The desire to impress others is one of the most painful forms of mental imprisonment

The desire to impress others is one of the most painful forms of mental imprisonment.  It not only requires a great deal of time and energy, it eats away at a person’s self-esteem as well.  There is nothing more degrading than knowing, whether or not it is consciously acknowledged, that you are saying something, doing something, or buying something with the primary purpose of impressing others.

Unfortunately, at one time or another, everyone says and does things that are motivated by the desire to elevate his status in the eyes of his peers.  Even the most forthright among us are “on stage” more than we would like to admit, whether or not we are consciously aware of it.  As with everything in life, however, when the desire to impress others gets too extreme, it can be debilitating — even fatal — to the professional purveyor of puffery.

This is from self development author and writer Robert Ringer on the travails of the status seeker

Robert Ringer: The Curse of the Lottery

Free lunch has always been a seduction. Yet people hardly realize that there are always consequences to every action. This includes free lunch. Take for instance, in winning the lottery, the public sees only the 'winning' side, while ignoring the costs from such events.

The prolific self development author Robert Ringer explains

Here we go again, another centimillionaire via the Mega Millions lottery — $173.8 million after taxes.  The winner was fifty-six-year-old Ira Curry, who bought her ticket at an Atlanta newsstand.  A second winner, who bought his/her ticket at a gift shop in San Jose, California, had not yet come forward as of the time this article was being written.

Let’s hope that Ms. Curry doesn’t follow in the footsteps of the vast majority of past mega-lottery winners, whose lives became totally unraveled as a result of their newfound wealth.  In this regard, perhaps West Virginian Jack Whittaker is the poster man for past lottery winners.

Back in 2002, Whittaker was the winner of $315 million in the Powerball multi-state lottery.  Since he opted to take a one-time payout, Whittaker actually received “only” a little over $113 million after taxes.

The first reality of sudden wealth that Whittaker was confronted with was an endless parade of people with requests for money.  Some folks didn’t even bother to ask for a handout in person.  They just sent letters — fifty thousand of them! — telling him they needed some of his green stuff as soon as possible.

Whittaker forked over about $50 million before he came to his senses.  But when he backed away from his role as year-round Santa Claus, the mooches became angry.  A number of them even threatened him.

When their threats failed, many of the good folks in West Virginia started suing Deep Pockets Whittaker for a variety of alleged torts.  In fact, he’s counted about four hundred legal claims against him since he won the lottery.

Confused and intensely unhappy, Whittaker began carousing, drinking, and propositioning young gals in strip clubs.  His wife of forty-four years threw him out and, after giving away millions, he found himself with no friends.

But there was one glowing light in his life — his beloved granddaughter, seventeen-year-old Brandi.  Whittaker gave her four new cars and an allowance of $2,000 a week.  It was a real-life Beverly Hillbillies saga, only played out in West Virginia instead of California.

As one might have predicated, having that kind of cash in her pocket led Whittaker’s granddaughter to drugs.  Soon after that, her boyfriend, Jesse Tribble, died of a drug overdose in Whittaker’s home in September 2003.  Then, a little over a year later, Brandi, too, was found dead of an overdose.

Since then, things have only gotten worse for Whittaker.  Stating the obvious in a tearful 20/20interview, he said, “Money is not what makes people happy.”  Of course, every half-sober, mature adult already knows that.  But it’s important to understand that money also doesn’t automatically saddle a wealthy person with unhappiness.

As popular as the aphorism may be, money is not “the root of all evil.”  And, in fact, that’s not what the source of those words — the New Testament (Timothy, 6:10) — actually says.  Rather, it states, “For the love of money is the root of all evil.”  (My emphasis.)

Read the rest here.

This has not just been an isolated case, here is a list of 19 lottery winners who blew their winnings; some of them endured wrecked lives. 

This just shows how free lunches distort on people’s incentives by magnifying on the winner’s short term priorities or the quest for short term or instant gratification. Such collapse in self-discipline results to money taking over their lives. As a result, such windfalls in many occasions have led to adverse outcomes.

And to think of it, in many countries governments endorse or even operate lotteries

Quote of the Day: Most People Can’t Handle the Truth

I’ve written a great deal over the years about the subject of truth, which is why this particular line from A Few Good Men caught my attention.  The truth can often be harsh.  The truth can be scary.  The truth can be embarrassing.  The truth can be costly.  Yes, for all these reasons, and more, most people can’t handle the truth.

And because they can’t handle truth, they learn to hate it.  That’s right, instead of loving truth, most people try to make true that which they love.  They much prefer the comfort of self-delusion to the pain often associated with truth…

In politics, for example, any newcomer quickly discovers that if he is totally committed to truth, he will likely find himself on the outside looking in.  Because a majority of voters can’t handle the truth, politicians believe they have no choice but to lie.  And if they refuse to do so, they usually — and quickly — become ex-politicians.

This is from self development and libertarian author Robert Ringer

Quote of the Day: Social Engineering is about Unequal Justice

Understand that social engineering, by its very nature, calls for a double standard. Under social engineering, blacks with night sticks at voting stations are given a pass. Union thugs beating up a black Tea Party member is no problem. Killing more than a million unborn (and some born) babies a year is okay. Make no mistake about it, social engineering is not about equal justice. It’s about unequal justice. It’s about the power thugs having it all their way.

This is from self help and libertarian author Robert Ringer at his website discussing implementing socialism via social engineering.

Quote of the Day: Human freedom means freedom for everyone

When freedom is subjectively defined by each individual, it is reduced to a meaningless abstract.  The only way freedom can be rationally viewed is in its pure, no‑compromise form:  human freedom — the freedom of each individual to do as he pleases, so long as he does not commit aggression against others.

Politicians love to talk about freedom, even while telling us how they intend to further enslave us.  They do this by manufacturing “rights” out of thin air.  The problem is that all artificially created rights are anti-freedom, because in order to fulfill one person’s rights (read, desires), another person’s rights must be violated.  That is precisely what is meant by the infamous statement, “Someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so someone else can have more.”

The reality is that those who harbor such twisted thinking are actually opposed to freedom.  Often, they are individuals who are unable to achieve success in a free society, thus they yearn for an external force (government) to “level the playing field” and equalize results.  These are the people whose votes the liberal fascists in Washington have cleverly locked up.

True freedom means freedom for the “poor,” freedom for the “rich,” freedom for the “weak,” and freedom for the “strong.”  Human freedom means freedom for everyone.

This is from entrepreneur, motivational speaker and self help author Robert Ringer at his Voice of Sanity website

Happiness: A Worthwhile Purpose in Life

Experts would like to make us believe that there are objective standards in attaining happiness. From such premise, they come with all sorts of math-psychology based models or methodology, e.g. Happiness economics, to ascertain happiness. They attribute happiness mostly to well-being and wealth, from which they justify institutional coercion to supposedly attain such goals.

The fact is that happiness is subjective. Happiness comes from within us, as individuals. Happiness is distinct from person to person. As a state of mind, Happiness revolves around our preferences, value scales and ideals as expressed through expectations, goals and corresponding actions.

This means that happiness have not just been about material things, or about social acceptance or social status but of having a worthwhile purpose in life.

Libertarian author Robert Ringer explains at the Early to Rise 

Happiness has been defined in myriad ways over the centuries by some of the world’s greatest thinkers.  Aristotle described happiness as a condition rather than a destination.  Ralph Waldo Emerson referred to it as a journey.

But I think Viktor Frankl got to the heart of the matter even better when he explained that if there is a reason for happiness, happiness ensues.  Happiness, said Frankl, is a side effect of having a purpose in life.

In his book Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl explained, “What man needs is not a tensionless state, but rather the striving and struggling of some goal worthy of him.”  In other words, man’s purpose in life is not to achieve goals, but to constantly strive toward them…

Why people look for issues to represent them:

Regardless of whether protest marches have to do with world peace, eradicating poverty, or saving whales from extinction, the reality is that they do not fill the void inherent in a meaningless life.  If man were to succeed in ridding the world of all disease, poverty, pestilence, famine, and war, what then would be the purpose of his existence?

As the struggle for man’s day-to-day survival has increasingly subsided, an important question has emerged:  survival for what?  In other words, just having the means to live is not enough; a person must have something to live for…

Finding your life’s purpose:

And if there is no purpose to an individual’s life — no meaning — then there’s no reason even to get out of bed in the morning, no reason to be alive.  In the words of the great Albert Einstein, “The man who regards his life as meaningless is not merely unhappy, but hardly fit for life.”

The more I reflect on the question, and the more I draw from my own experience and the experiences of others, the more convinced I am that striving toward goals is not a means to an end; striving is an end in itself.  Those who wish their lives away in anticipation of achieving some long-awaited goal do themselves a grave disservice…

The fact is that it’s possible to achieve all your goals in life, yet miss out on life itself.  And the best insurance policy against that happening is to have a worthwhile purpose in life and live in the present.

Read the full article here

Quote of the Day: Differentiating Reality from Perception of Reality: Principle versus Opinion

While it’s true that everyone perceives reality differently, reality could care less about our perceptions.  Reality does not change to adapt to our viewpoints; reality is what is.  Reality is fact.  Reality is truth.

Reality, however, is not always a known, which is where perception of reality comes in.  While reality is a fixed factor in the equation of life, perception of reality is a variable.

This is why it is so important to learn to differentiate between a principle and an opinion.  The most significant aspect of a principle is that it can neither be created nor altered.  Thus, a principle is the essence of reality.  It is what it is, and it’s up to us to discover it.

The problem arises when people refuse to accept the reality that principles can only be discovered, and instead choose to believe they can create their own principles.  Which means they believe they can create their own reality, and that’s a belief that can lead to disastrous consequences.

This is from author, entrepreneur and motivational speaker Robert Ringer at the EarlytoRise.com, discussing the apriorism of human action

Quote of the Day: The True Job Creators

Citing the success of Apple, libertarian author Robert Ringer points out that the genuine source of productive job creation, that leads to economic prosperity, comes from entrepreneurs.

Mr. Ringer writes,

Apple’s ingenuity and marketing skills are so good that its sales in China not only are skyrocketing, but playing a major role in its meteoric growth. Imagine — a U.S. company so good at what it does that even the Chinese are rushing to buy its products.

How could Apple accomplish such amazing feats without a government bailout or government “investment” in its technology? Because it had an entrepreneur at the helm who had the creativity, marketing savvy, personal ambition, and drive to bring the company back from the dead. No other help needed, thank you.

It is more than just a bit ironic that Steve Jobs’ last name is a testament to how entrepreneurs, when left to their own devices, are the true job creators. It also highlights the arrogance of politicians, particularly those who have never created or marketed anything, who believe they somehow have the ability — let alone the right — to take money from private citizens and “invest” it in technologies of their choosing.

Unfortunately the public does not recognize the true heroes, and at worst, have been bedazzled by the voodoo of politics.

Quote of the Day: Hidden Cost of Regulations

The truth is that there is no way to calculate the real cost of more regulations, more taxes, and more government control. It’s sort of like Obama insisting that his policies have “saved jobs.” How in the hell does anyone prove he saved jobs? He can’t. It’s a statement carefully crafted for idiots. No rational person with an IQ above 60 would take seriously such an absurd claim.

Likewise, you can’t prove what the cost of a government monstrosity like Obamacare will cost, because it’s impossible to know how many companies it will put out of business, how many jobs will be lost, how much it will destroy the economy, how high interest rates will go, and how bad the coming hyperinflation will be.

The truth is that the cost could be in the trillions of dollars, but no one can ever know for sure because most of the costs are hidden. And the biggest cost would likely be the loss of what is left of our freedom and of the country that was once known as the United States of America.

From libertarian author Robert Ringer

Mega-Success, Downfall and Sentimentalism

Libertarian columnist Robert Ringer writes,

Seems like we’ve been here before … many, many times. Whitney Houston’s tragic death is the latest in a long string of drug- and alcohol-related celebrity deaths, going back to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin in 1970, Jim Morrison in 1971, Elvis in 1977, Andy Gibb and John Belushi in the eighties, and, of course, Michael Jackson in 2009. And these are just a few of the names that come quickly to mind.

When a show-business icon dies prematurely, we tend to focus on his/her death rather than the life that led to that death. In the case of Whitney Houston, her travails were in the news so much over the years that even I — not a frequent showbiz reader — was aware of them. Anyone who watched the evening news couldn’t help but know about her bouts with drugs and alcohol, and, perhaps even worse, her fifteen-year marriage to a man who physically abused her.

Mr. Ringer says that immaturity (from youth) compounded by loneliness, rather than mega-success brings about the typical downfall of many celebrities.

In my view, mega-success and too much expectations of one’s value to the world can exacerbate ‘immaturity’, aside from inability to adjust to realities. In the average person, wisdom usually supersedes immaturity as people age. So if age doesn’t usher in maturity, then there must be something else wrong.

And possibly intractable egotism bloated by mega-success can be a factor in one’s downfall (not necessarily limited to celebrities). Again the inability to adjust with changing times could bring about loneliness and frustrations.

Of course, all the above depends on the individual’s value scales. This means that while some celebrities fall for the above traps, many others don’t.

But there is another factor I would like to point out. While I lament the loss of many artists of my generation, I usually get miffed at the excessive sentimentality expressed by many to recently deceased celebrities.

For me, this represents an action inconsistent compared to when the celebrity lived. Then, nobody seems to given a whit to what the celebrity did (most especially when they were down). Somewhat like schadenfraude, death becomes an opportunity for credit grabbing, promotion of shows and for social signaling.

Yet this seems part of how public opinion gets molded.

Quote of the Day: Paradigm Restriction

From Robert Ringer,

Metaphorically speaking, we are all restricted by our unique mental paradigms. It’s difficult to comprehend ideas and circumstances we are not accustomed to hearing and seeing within the invisible parameters that surround our lives.

Thus, one of the causes of our differing perceptions of reality is that we all start from our own set of assumptions. To break through one’s Paradigm Restriction requires a willingness to let go of comfortable, long-held beliefs and look at the world the way it is today rather than the way it was ten or twenty or thirty years ago.

In short, paradigm restriction is a close mind or a tunnel vision.

Landslide Win by Ron Paul on the GOP NBC Debate Poll

From prolific libertarian author Robert Ringer

According to a poll conducted by NBC News Political Unit Poll, the guy whom Bill O’Reilly referred to prior to Wednesday’s Republican debate as “a loon” and Dick Morris dismissed as the only candidate who had no chance of winning, 174,354 Americans not only believed Ron Paul won the debate at the Reagan Library, but did so in a landslide.

As of 4:00 pm Thursday, 54 percent (94,096 votes) voted for Ron Paul, with Mitt Romney a distant second at 15.8 percent (27,523 votes). Rick Perry, the supposed front runner, was at 13.2 percent (23,065 votes), Jon Huntsman at 6.5 percent (11,411 votes), and the rest of the field below 5 percent.

This is downright embarrassing to the Republican Party, whose establishment wishes Paul would just go away and rejoin the Libertarian Party. Left-wing moderators Brian Williams (NBC) and John Harris (Politico) did their best to diminish Paul in two ways. First, they asked him very few questions, and, second, the questions they did ask him were aimed at painting him as an extremist.

If the media cover-up regarding Paul’s popularity continues, establishment Republicans may just get their wish — at least partially. I don’t think Paul would run on the Libertarian Party ticket, but he might just form a third-party, which would probably end any hopes the Republicans have for taking back the White House.

Despite media bias against Presidential aspirant Ron Paul, the poll reveals that the trend following on classical liberalism, which Mr. Paul champions, seems to be snowballing.

Here is The Daily Show host Jon Stewart's hilarious take on the latest GOP debate

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