Kevin Duffy compares the present U.S.-China cold war with U.S. vs. Japan in the late 1980s

The present U.S.-China cold war rhymes with the U.S.-Japan clash of the late 1980s, except that in many ways the roles are reversed.  Today it is the U.S. who smacks of hubris while China lacks confidence.  Ironically, the U.S. adopted many of the pillars of the flawed Japanese model, including protectionism, industrial policy (CHIPS Act), stimulus, bailouts, zero interest rates and trusting of authority.  In the battle of ideas, Japan won.

~ Kevin Duffy, "Bull in the China Shop," The Coffee Can Portfolio, December 20, 2024

Ludwig von Mises on the importance of principles to the battle of ideas

An ideological struggle cannot be fought successfully with constant concessions to the principles of the enemy. 

~ Ludwig von Mises

Lew Rockwell on the battle of ideas

Our ideas are unpopular.  We are in the minority.  Our views are not welcome by the regime.  They often fall on deaf ears of an indifferent public.  Big newspapers don't often care what we think.  In fact, they want to keep us out of their pages.  Politicians will always find us impractical at best, and threatening at worst. 

In short, we fight an uphill battle.  We must recognize this at the outset.  We are what Albert Jay Nock called the remnant, a small band of brothers who have special knowledge of theory and history and a concern for the well-being of civilization.  What we do with that knowledge and concern is up to us.  We can retreat or sell out, or we can use it as our battle cry and go forward through history to face the enemy.

~ Lew Rockwell, "The Path to Victory," The Austrian, November-December 2020

Doug Casey on speaking out and how H.L. Mencken avoided persecution during WWI and the Roosevelt years

If you believe in thinking for yourself, or if you believe in free minds and free markets, you’re in the minority.  You better be careful. 

H.L. Mencken, undoubtedly one of the greatest public intellectuals in American history and the best journalist in our history, is a cautionary example.  During World War I and throughout the Roosevelt years, he basically stopped writing or saying anything controversial because he might’ve been singled out and persecuted.

~ Doug Casey, "Doug Casey on the Dangers of the Growing “Snitch Culture” in the US," International Man, March 10, 2021

Kevin Duffy on the battle of ideas and path to liberty

This country has serious problems.  Both parties are at fault.  In fact, it's the whole rotten system. 

The overwhelming majority of us want what's best for this country.  I believe the best path forward is to return to our nation's roots of liberty.  That would actually give me a warm and fuzzy, even patriotic, feeling. 

What's happening now with the divisiveness, censorship and vindictiveness is the exact opposite of freedom.  This is where the obsession with political power inevitably leads. 

Let's face it, politicians lie.  That's what they do.  They whisper sweet nothings into our ears.  They tell us we can have the world... and somebody else will pay for it (those greedy rich people). 

Life is about trade-offs.  We can be free or we can have government masters.  We can not have both. 

More government can only lead to less freedom... and eventually destroy this great country. I have cousins from Venezuela who went down that path and watched it destroy their country.  They now live in the U.S. and are terrified.  Think it can't happen here?  It's been happening a long time, except the trend is now accelerating. 

There are no easy solutions.  Nobody is going to ride in on a white horse and save us.  Every decent person must take on their share of the burden of responsibility! 

How can we each make a difference?  The problem is the system itself.  I learned that 30 years ago. Writing letters to the president is a complete waste of time.  (He's part of the problem!)  Change can only come about if people change their thinking.  This happens (hopefully) with politely engaging others... one-on-one, one person at a time.  If I can influence someone in a positive way, they might influence others.  If it all goes viral, we can end this nonsense by next Tuesday. 

For starters, we need to question the legitimacy of our rulers.  Then we have to envision a world without rulers ordering us around.  Would chaos ensue or something very different, harmony and prosperity?  That requires imagination.  It requires education.  It requires motivation.

~ Kevin Duffy, January 22, 2021

Kevin Duffy on the battle of ideas

Ideas matter.  Progressivism, which began in the late 1800s, routed other ideologies in the 1900s. It's not even close. The Old Right died (including neutrality in foreign affairs).  Classical liberalism (aka limited government or more recently "libertarianism") was nearly snuffed out right after WWII, but a committed remnant remains and is making a comeback. 

We're on the losing side.  We're in the minority.  In a winner-take-all political system, we lose.  Our only weapon is our words.  Violence (as Wednesday's idiotic Capitol breach proved) will only backfire. 

The other side doesn't need to use reason. They have the numbers. And they know it. 

That's what we're up against.

~ Kevin Duffy, Facebook post, January 8, 2021

Capitol breach - January 6, 2021

Gad Saad on joining the battle of ideas

There are many crosses that we bear in speaking out and we all have to do our part.  All I'm saying is get engaged.  Sure, modulate the amount of risk that you're willing to bear, but simply don't subcontract your voice to the few courageous folks who are willing to put everything on the line.  You have a say in it.  Get engaged.  If we all speak out - the silent majority hates these idea pathogens [postmodernism/political correctness].  If we all speak out, we will get rid of this nonsense by next Tuesday.  If we don't speak out, it'll be a long train ride to hell.

~ Gad Saad, "How Bad Ideas Are Killing Common Sense and Rational Debate," The Tom Woods Show, November 10, 2020

Gad Saad on joining the battle of ideas

That's a concern that I often receive from people. They write to me, "Hey, professor. I really want to get engaged. But... I'm not some fancy professor. I don't have a large audience." And I tell them, "Look. It's trench warfare. Right? It's house-to-house. It's trench-to-trench. Some of us have big platforms. Great, we use that. But you don't have to have a big platform to contribute to the battle of ideas. Your professor says something that is insane, challenge them politely. Someone says something on Facebook that you disagree with, engage them politely. You hear something happening at the pub that you think you might weigh in on? Don't refrain from doing so.  And usually there's a couple of reasons why people refrain from doing so.

"Well, if I weigh in, I might lose their friendship." Well, guess what? If their friendship is not sufficiently anti-fragile - to use my friend's Nassim Taleb's point... if our friendship is not sufficiently anti-fragile that it could withstand the stressors of us disagreeing about some important point, then you know what? Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.  I don't need friends like that.  I prefer to have two really good friends that I can have deep meaningly conversations with than a bunch of cowardly castrated morons who are going to be completely triggered because I say something that is contrary to them.

~ Gad Saad, "How Infectious Ideas are Killing Common Sense," 41:15 mark, Stansberry Investor Hour, October 8, 2020

Kevin Duffy on joining the intellectual battle and using civility

Join the intellectual debate. This is a battle of ideas and ultimately our ideas are what have to win.  We have the truth on our side.  We have very powerful weapons. We have our words, we've got logic, we've got our critical thinking... I go back to Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People. We have to do that, too... We have to use civility. We can't just be fighting with people; nobody wins an argument. I think this is also part of how we're going to get these ideas across... We have to learn civility and we don't want to be like the other side. We don't want to lower ourselves to their level.

~ Kevin Duffy, Freedom Adventure podcast with David Forsyth, 22.2 mark, October 14, 2020

Sheldon Richman on the battle of ideas: "There is no shortcut to freedom"

If we want to be free of income taxation (and all the rest) we will have to effect an intellectual revolution that will convince people that no one, no government, has the right to deprive peaceful people of their lives, liberty, or property.  There is no shortcut to freedom.

~ Sheldon Richman, America's Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited, p. 95

Ayn Rand on consistency

In any conflict between two men (or two groups), it is the more consistent one who wins.

~ Ayn Rand, The Anatomy of Compromise

(as quoted by Sheldon Richman, America's Counter-Revolution, p. 10)

Alberto Brandolini on the battle of ideas and time management

The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.

~  Alberto Brandolini

Étienne de La Boétie on the natural elite

There are always a few, better endowed than others, who feel the weight of the yoke and cannot restrain themselves from attempting to shake it off: these are the men who never become tamed under subjection and who always, like Ulysses on land and sea constantly seeking the smoke of his chimney, cannot prevent themselves from peering about for their natural privileges and from remembering their ancestors and their former ways.  These are in fact the men who, possessed of clear minds and farsighted spirit, are not satisfied, like the brutish mass, to see only what is at their feet, but rather look about them, behind and before, and even recall the things of the past in order to judge those of the future, and compare both with their present condition.  These are the ones who, having good minds of their own, have further trained them by study and learning.  Even if liberty had entirely perished from the earth, such men would invent it.  For them slavery has no satisfaction, no matter how well disguised.

~ Étienne de La Boétie

Kevin Duffy on discussing ideas with progressives

Most people on the left have no interest in discussing ideas. If you disagree with them, they call you a "racist" and move on.

~ Kevin Duffy, Facebook post, June 1, 2020

Ludwig von Mises on the power of ideas

Both force and money are impotent against ideas.

~ Ludwig von Mises

Take the ideology quiz!

If your total score is 0-10, you believe the heavy hand of government is needed to restrain innate impulses of man towards chaos and depravity.  You identify ideologically as totalitarian along with people like Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler and Pol Pot.  If your total score is 91-100, you believe a free society brings out the best impulses of man towards spontaneous order and goodness, while government intervention brings out the worst.  You identify as anarcho-capitalist along with people like Murray Rothbard, Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Lew Rockwell.

~ Kevin Duffy, "Ideology Quiz," LewRockwell.com, December 13, 2019

John Maynard Keynes on the power of ideas

The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than commonly understood.  Indeed the world is ruled by little else.  Practical men, who believe themselves quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.  Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.  I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas.

~ John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory

Frederic Bastiat

The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.

~ Frederic Bastiat

Victor Hugo on the power of ideas

More powerful than armies is an idea whose time has come.

~ Victor Hugo

Murray Rothbard on economic ignorance

It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.

~ Murray Rothbard, Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature, and Other Essays