3 Libertarian Concepts that Help Us Understand Proverbs

Last Friday night I got a short opportunity to speak to a group of men about the essence of reading Proverbs. Guessing something about their familiarity with political ideological cultures in America, I decided to use three Libertarian concepts as gateways into Solomon’s understanding of life.

They were Anarchism, Self-Ownership, Individualism

Strategy for Change: Pretend to be Wise

Here are a couple of Proverbs that have more impact (to me anyway) when placed together:

“Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent” (Proverbs 17:28 ESV).
“Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 29:20 ESV).

So does anyone really think Solomon wanted to teach a fool how to disguise his folly? Or did he want to comfort a fool to think there was someone worse than him–an “ultra-fool” who talked too much?

The Appeal of the Past

Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
Ecclesiastes 7.10

How can Solomon make such a blanket statement?

The past almost always produces in our perceptions the illusion of stability.

What if every age is an age of transition?

Jordan Peterson & the Economics of Christmas

I still plan to blog more about Jordan Peterson’s book, but here is column I wrote for Townhall.com that the book inspired”

In his book, “Twelve Rules for Life,” Jordan Peterson ties in the ancient practice of ritual sacrifice to the basic economic practice of delayed gratification.

“When engaging in sacrifice, our forefathers began to act out what would be considered a proposition, if it were stated in words: that something better might be attained in the future by giving up something of value in the present. […] Prosaically, such sacrifice—work—is delay of gratification, but that’s a very mundane phrase to describe something of such profound significance. The discovery that gratification could be delayed was simultaneously the discovery of time and, with it, causality (at least the causal force of voluntary human action).”
p. 164

While I’m not convinced by Peterson’s secular evolutionary narrative explanation, he is right to see a relationship between the religious ritual of sacrifice and basic economic thinking. In Exodus and Leviticus, sacrifice to God, tribute to God, redemption, and repayment with money all go together. See, for example, Exodus 30:11-16, where silver coins were given to God as a “ransom” and “atonement” for the lives of the men of Israel. Or Deuteronomy 14:22-27, where it is acknowledged that one can sell the items that one owes God, bring the money to God’s sanctuary, and buy the things to offer to God. Sacrifice is a kind of investing in the future.

Integrity & Love in the Intro to the 2nd Book of Proverbs

Proverbs 10.1-5 form an introduction to the second book in Proverbs, which begins with the inscription “the Proverbs of Solomon. Those verses lay out foolishness and wisdom as basic choices related to whether one will plunder or produce. The next seven verses are a second stage introduction which adds to the choice between plunder and productivity the issue of speech:

6 Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. 7 The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.
- 8 The wise of heart will receive commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin.
  - 9 Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.
- 10 Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool will come to ruin.
11 The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. 12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

Blast From the Past: Four reasons to memorize Proverbs

I wrote this post on my personal blog back in the summer of 2012:

Credentials to speak on the subject:

Until recently, I worked as a truck driver. Not really. I was a sanitation engineer. Not really. I was a portapottie guy.

But it involved driving a truck at about forty minutes at a time. And it had a CD player.

Using CD burning tech on my computer, I went into the truck with Proverbs 10, then 11, and 12. I memorized all three chapters so I could say it all in order from start to finish.

#ICYMI New Year’s resolutions that don’t plan for failure will fail

I originally wrote this piece on January 8, 2019 about forgetting to make New Year’s resolutions. Here it is with minor changes and updates for before the commencement of 2020!

Here’s the key point: if your resolution doesn’t have failure built into the plan then you will probably fail to keep the resolution.

Some people make New Year’s resolutions and others don’t. Some forget their New Year’s resolutions before February comes. Some realize two weeks into January that they forgot to make any resolutions and feel they missed an opportunity.

The Anti-Dominion Mandate

[This was originally posted at Townhall Finance.]

Star Parker recently wrote that “Marriage and Family Reduce Crime.” According to Parker,

There’s a general assumption in public policy discourse that economic policy and social policy are separate universes.
When economic policy is the topic, we think about taxes, government spending, business, jobs, etc. When social policy is the topic, we think about marriage, family, children, abortion, etc.
But, in reality, the line between economic policy and social policy is ambiguous, if it exists at all.

She cites a study that suggests that pregnancy is an amazingly effective intervention reducing the parents’ propensity for criminal behavior.

Other studies have shown similar correlations. And some have pushed back against such studies. A couple of years ago, The Federalist published an essay, “Why It’s Cruel and Stupid to Politicize Marriage and Hard Work as ‘Racism.’”

“Overture” to The 12 Rules for Life”

I’ve taken more time to do this series than I intended. One reason has been the chaos of life (one small consolation: that has included getting my manuscript closer to publication).

Another reason is that I didn’t realize how much I hate reading and note-taking at the same time. It seems similar to a parent who misses “being there” with his children because he is too busy taking pictures. Alternatively, reading the book is more pleasant than figuring out how to best write about it. So I haven’t, up to now, gotten past the introduction and one chapter, even though I’ve read into Rule 6.

Homestead Yourself

[Originally posted at TownHall Finance.]

Some Libertarians like to talk about how each person is a “self-owner” and then derive political (or anti-political) conclusions.

I don’t agree with that method of deriving political ethics, but the model of self-ownership can be useful. Consider another piece of Libertarian theory: homesteading. The idea is that a territory becomes your personal property once you “mix your labor” with it. When you have transformed a field by working it, then anyone who tries to take over that field is a robber violating your rights.