The Biggest Mistake Trump Made Wasn’t This War – It Was Tariffs
Inside today’s Daily Journal…
Essay: Tariffs Don’t Create Prosperity
Oil depletion in the Middle East
A subprime lender’s AI transformation
Eli Lilly goes to China
Chart Of The Day… Coupang (CPNG)
Today’s Mailbag
In the “Mailbag” below, a dear paid-up subscriber takes me to task about not treating our revered political leaders with more respect.
He objected to my “Ms. Boozy McMumbles” literary flourish. And, like all fanatics tend to do, accused me of being unfairly prejudiced against his “team.”
How did he miss my repeated use of the popular slur “Orange Man”? Or my invention of the moniker “Obama!” almost 20 years ago? Or my adoption of the retard-inspired nickname “The Decider” during our disastrous Iraqi war? Or any of my other notorious and disrespectful critiques of our bankrupt, corrupt, vile government, and the sociopaths who populate it?
About two weeks ago, I led my analysis of our latest foreign war with an essay inspired by Eric Hoffer’s book The True Believer (1951).
I didn’t realize most of my dear, paid-up subscribers had never heard of him.
Hoffer is the greatest American-born philosopher – a man whose entire understanding of human nature was formed by our country and its development. Hoffer lived through America’s transition from a limited republic to an all-powerful, mob-ruled democracy. And he tried to warn what would happen.
Hoffer was born in New York City in 1902. When he was five, he and his mother fell down a flight of stairs. She died. He went blind. For eight years, he couldn’t see. His vision inexplicably returned at age 15. Driven by the fear he would lose his sight again, he began to read voraciously and constantly – a practice he continued his entire life.
His father died in 1920, leaving Hoffer without a family. He began a life of itinerant labor, working as a migrant farmworker, doing odd jobs around Los Angeles, and, finally, in 1943, becoming a San Francisco longshoreman. Through these experiences he observed people from all walks of American life and developed hard-won insight into human nature. He authored 10 books and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan in 1983. He led an incredible life.
If you’ve never read his books about how human nature can lead to fanatical political beliefs, I recommend The True Believer and The Passionate State of Mind (1955). These books, along with Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) and Stanley Milgram’s Obedience to Authority (1961) offer a stark warning about the world we see unfolding today.
Arendt’s study of the Nazi movement uncovered a key insight that Hoffer’s work also described: the inherent human need to belong. As Arendt explained:
