The Way does not mourn the paths untaken,
but knows they were part of the choice.
To walk one road is to leave behind a thousand others—not with sorrow, but with clarity.
What is not chosen still shapes the meaning of what is.
The sage sees the unseen cost, not as a burden, but as the shadow that gives form to light.
Without the paths untaken, the one you walk would hold no shape
Michael Matulef
MichaelMatulef@nostrplebs.com
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Know Thyself | Everything Voluntary✌️ | Follow the Tao
Water does not think about how to flow - it just moves, and in moving, it finds its course.
The fact which we must face is that nearly all of us come to the study of economics with very strong views on subjects which we do not understand. And even if we make a show of being detached and ready to learn, I am afraid it is almost always with a mental reservation, with an inward determination to prove that our instincts were right and that nothing we learn can change our basic convictions. Though I am verging dangerously on preaching, let me nevertheless implore you to make a determined effort to achieve that intellectual humility which alone helps one to learn. Nothing is more pernicious to intellectual honesty than pride in not having changed one’s opinions – particularly if, as is usually the case in our field, these are opinions which in the circles in which we move are regarded as ‘progressive’ or ‘advanced’ or just modern. You will soon enough discover that what you regard as specially advanced opinions are just the opinions dominant in your particular generation and that it requires much greater strength and independence of mind to take a critical view of what you have been taught to be progressive than merely to accept them.
- Friedrich A. Hayek
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Always enjoy listening to @Guy Swann rant after reading @allen
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Bitcoin Audible • Read_887 - A Half Baked Thesis on Stablecoins • Listen on Fountain
There are libertarians who are indeed hedonists and devotees of alternative lifestyles, and that there are also libertarians who are firm adherents of “bourgeois” conventional or religious morality. There are libertarian libertines and there are libertarians who cleave firmly to the disciplines of natural or religious law. There are other libertarians who have no moral theory at all apart from the imperative of non-violation of rights. That is because libertarianism per se has no general or personal moral theory.
Libertarianism does not offer a way of life; it offers liberty, so that each person is free to adopt and act upon his own values and moral principles. Libertarians agree with Lord Acton that “liberty is the highest political end” – not necessarily the highest end on everyone’s personal scale of values.
You cannot model meaning. And without meaning—without ends and values—you do not have economics, you have pseudoscientific astrology in disguise.
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Bitcoin Audible • Guy's Take_100 - You Already Own Nothing, Are You Happy? • Listen on Fountain

The myth of the State as protector is the most dangerous superstition - it is not your guardian, but your master.


Fountain
The Tom Woods Show • Ep. 2655 Everything You've Been Taught About the State Is a Lie • Listen on Fountain
From the time we were in school, we've been led to believe that the state is something other than it is. Sponsors: Go to OmahaSteaks.com to shop de...

War has always been the health of the State—but today, war wears many masks. It’s not just fought with guns, but with fear campaigns, financial controls, censorship algorithms, and endless 'emergencies.' Each crisis—real or manufactured—is a pretext for expanding power, deepening surveillance, and tightening the noose around peaceful people just trying to live freely.
As the old systems crumble under their own contradictions, the State grows more desperate—more authoritarian—cloaking its decay in patriotic slogans and moral crusades. But no amount of control can replace what it never had: consent. Those of us who believe in liberty must not get swept up in the calls to ‘unite and obey.’ Our revolution is not one of blood and flags—it’s of withdrawal, refusal, and the quiet building of parallel systems rooted in voluntary exchange and human dignity.


It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society
- Murray Rothbard
Life, as they say, has its ups and downs. At times, the waves may taunt you, tossing you in their swells. But take heart. It's hard to stick with it and make it on your own. But even a couple of losers can survive most things if they're together. So listen, take some advice and have children as soon as you can. Children are the best reasons for riding out life's storms. Nowadays, people say child-rearing is challenging and difficult, but we've done it from time immemorial. Children grow even without parents. So hold them close to your heart as they crawl, then walk. They'll be fine.
Okay, three, two, one
Let's Ribs

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SEATBELTS · COWBOY BEBOP (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) · Song · 1998


Our mind is one of acting persons. Our mental categories have to be understood as ultimately grounded in categories of action. … It is through actions that the mind and reality make contact.
Existentialism stares into the abyss. Taoism sits down beside it and watches the clouds go by.