Two big ideas have been the source of endless strife and much debate throughout the ages: “God” and “the State”.

I have not yet posted my work on “the State” because it requires explaining minor modifications of published frameworks. However, our present global predicament pushes me to explain here how these ideas are intrinsic to our personal functioning. We can then consider the consequences for our societies.

Given today's world, a world riven by war both declared and undeclared, we should strive to understand what is happening. More...

I appreciate politics is tough. Even so, it is hard to find kind things to say about politicians in recent times. What do you make of a recent candidate for the US presidency now in court facing 30 years in jail and $1.5 Million in fines? Jack Ashley was cut from different cloth.

Lord Ashley, as he became, stood out from the pack. I realized that all would-be politicians could learn something from him when I read his obituary today.  What an extraordinary person he was—probably far too good for his own good. More...

The tax system is over-complicated and unfair. What is the simple solution?  What is the new start that is required?

The Glass-Steagall Act associated with the Great Depression was just 37 pages long.  It did the obvious thing of separating deposit-insured banks from firms taking investment risks.  It worked fine for decades.  The repeal of this Act in the late 1990s was the trigger-cause of the global financial crisis.  It was the step too far by the political-financial elites that was 100% predictable in THEE's schema.

Without it there would still have been a crisis of government debt or some other catastrophic malfeasance intrinsic to vested-interest plutocratic pluralism, but we would not More...

I just read about a new tax scheme that has had over $20m of research expenditure.  It's basically a good scheme but, frankly, the research was mostly a waste of money.  It would be simpler to see that taxation has gone wrong and wronger as an aspect of political manipulation.  We experience the effects of bad choices in the past. The misuse and abuse of the tax system has had little concern for the well-being of the country: at least any country that claims to be a democracy.  The bad choices were made because the focus was on election campaigns.  If you stop viewing taxation as an ideological issue of higher or lower taxes, you may start to see some easy solutions.

Many social issues have simple easy solutions.  Especially if the problem seems complicated and overwhelming.  The mess is so extreme because it is the effect of bad choices.  The issues then become overwhelming because of political factors. 

Exactly the same thing happens in people's lives. More...

Politics is a mess.  No doubt about that.

But let's put it into perspective.

The origins of politics are to be found in the early civilizations.  Politics were further developed following the dark ages in Europe, but with mainly social changes.  The essential feature at all times was rule by a King who was divine, or was there by divine right, and who could do no wrong.

This is crazy.  So politics was psychotic. But people accepted it.

Crazy rulers like that still exist.  They operate by whim and their own personal power.  They are surrounded by unproductive people: always secret police and a military.  In the past, there were also More...