Reading Lew Rockwell this morning.

“I have written a number of articles for which I have received little response about the horrible mistake humanity has made by entering into the digital revolution and the AI it spawned.  These disastrous developments are now being institutionalized in all societies.  They bring the end of human autonomy, independence, control, objective truth, freedom, and awareness of reality.” — https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/11/paul-craig-roberts/the-destruction-of-reality/

I have great respect for the insights promoted by Paul Craig Roberts, but no sympathy for the fact that he has received “little response” to his offerings. The fact of the matter is that, virtually wherever I have seen his postings, there has been absolutely no possibility to respond–no email address, no comments allowed, etc. It’s almost as if he is talking to the wall and then gets miffed when the wall just sits there. My advice to him: open up the channels of communication and you will be surprised at the response you get.

————————————————————

“If people can’t make enough money to get by then they should get better-paying jobs. If people don’t like getting kicked around by an abusive status quo then they should climb their way into a socioeconomic strata that isn’t getting kicked around as much. If someone doesn’t like being the nail then they should become the hammer.” — https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/11/no_author/in-capitalism-they-tell-you-to-become-the-hammer-if-you-dont-like-being-the-nail/

I respect Caitlin Johnstone for her tenacity. She sees things which are wrong and goes after them full-force, most especially the morally disastrous catastrophe happening in Gaza. Yet, I simply cannot align myself with her viewpoint on capitalism, which she routinely and often maligns without ever getting to the root of the problem. It is easy to blame “capitalism”, however, in our own way, every single one of us is a capitalist.

 “The fundamental premise of capitalism is that all exchanges of property between economic actors are voluntary. No one is forced to make an exchange against their will; and no one is forcibly prohibited from making an exchange with another willing actor. Freedom of association and freedom of contract are inherent to capitalism. Without them, whatever system is operating is not capitalism, whether supported by private business owners or not.” — https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/11/tom-mullen/jim-crow-laws-were-anti-capitalist-and-the-free-market-killed-them-long-before-the-government-showed-up/

Capitalism, at its root, is the everyday acting out of every single individual using what he has at his disposal to make his own life better, whether financially, socially, emotionally, or spiritually. What Johnstone decries, yet does not distinguish, is that when power (force, violence) is brought to bear on society, there is no longer free capitalism, freedom of choice, but a contrived system in which individuals are no longer able to decide for themselves, but must submit to the will of others.

What is capitalism, indeed, if not the ability of one person deciding where and how to “invest” his own capital, regardless as to the amount, so that he reaps a reward at some indeterminate time in the future? Did not Jesus extol this practice, as seen in The Parable of the Talents, i.e, putting the money which has been entrusted to you to profitable use? (Matthew 25:14-30)

————————————————————

“We tell ourselves that violence is like a coat that you can put on and take off when you choose, but that’s a tragically mistaken way of thinking. Violence works its way into your body, even into your soul. Then it festers there, eating away at your capacity for being human — your longing for loving, honest relationships; your care for yourself and others; and your deep connection to other living beings. Even worse, in a culture that glorifies violence and has made it into something sacred, such dynamics are excruciatingly hard for us to see clearly.” — https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/11/no_author/military-moral-injury-violence-and-the-parable-of-the-guinea-worm/

An honest, soul-searching inquest into the repercussions of organized violence and our acceptance of it. 11/11 used to be known as Armistice Day, the celebration of the end of war, but it has transmogrified into the celebration of the worship of violence and those who practice it, without ever recognizing the consequences which follow such action, i.e., the destruction of our own souls.

In today’s modern world, I am an oddity. I say this because I gain most, nearly all, of my information from reading. I rarely watch videos. This is a deliberate choice. I have found over the years that I can get more out of an article, essay, pamphlet or book in less time than it would take to equal that by watching a video. Most videos, in my opinion, are at least 50% longer than they need to be due to the inevitable advertising, hemming, hawing, and general waste of time over virtually nothing at all. Training and teaching videos which get right to the point and stay on track may be different, but a very large part of what is produced and disseminated today is “stuff” for which I have no time.

Many people today probably don’t understand that and, as time goes on, less and less time is spent on readership and critical thinking about the language and wording of the text, which is rationally and logically based. Videos provide an artificial boost emotionally because the viewer can literally see and hear the facial expressions and hear the tonal inflections of the speakers, which written words are not able to do without an active imagination. Images provided add to the “heat of the moment”, in whatever the video is attempting to convey. The immediate effect of this is that attention spans are shrinking. It is becoming harder and harder for people to focus on any one thing or topic, such as a book or full length article, for extended or long periods of time.

I recently found an article on Forum Geopolitica which confirmed this phenomenon. The article itself is long, long, long, but grabbed my attention from the beginning and I read it through to the end. It might have taken me half an hour, but, as far as I am concerned, was well worth the time and I have a much better understanding of the topic than I would have if I had not read it. The quotes below are taken from it.

“[W]e are experiencing a process of de-literacy, a relapse into a new illiteracy. The ability to understand complex texts is being lost on the way to an “age of idiocy”.[93] The loss of written culture in turn leads to a crisis of tradition: this opens the door to the recoding of history, a reframing in the service of ruling propaganda, and the implementation of historical lies…”

“…When writing loses its significance as a tool of communication, historical experiences are lost – which condemns us to repeat them. If the word tends to become obsolete, the analytical power of written symbols is also lost. Visual media become the dominant matrix of truth, as they are much more effective at undermining reason and appealing directly to emotions.[95]…”

Visual media become the dominant matrix of truth… Isn’t that exactly what has happened across much of the world today? It’s not too far-fetched to think that, books might themselves become oddities, accessible only in museums as quaint artifacts of ancient history. The goon squads of Fahrenheit 451 might become obsolete because no one ever reads anything, thus depriving writers of a viable market.

Book? What’s a book?

My father, whom I learned to understand too late, said that there was only one thing which needed to be taught to anyone, namely, how to read AND understand what had been read. If a person can read anything and understand it, there are no limits to what he might achieve. Everything can be learned–everything–including complex and advanced subjects, IF understanding comes with the reading. Abstract philosophical and religious concepts, theories, sciences, mathematics, all the way to mundane, everyday subjects–all these can be learned simply by knowing how to read and to understand what has been read.

When I was young, I read anything I could get my hands on, mostly fiction, but I also spent a lot of time studying encyclopedias, fascinated by geographic maps and history. Gradually, my tastes changed and now I hardly ever read a novel, concentrating on non-fiction works of all stripes and persuasions, constantly honing my beliefs and (hopefully) becoming a better thinker for my efforts.

While reading the above-cited article, it struck me that modern society might be reverting back to a time where only a few, the learned few, could address issues intelligently and the masses of men simply lived as they had for centuries with no hope of ever escaping the pit of extreme ignorance. The vision that came to me was of monks in a monastery, toiling a lifetime away to produce knowledge, while nearly everyone around them was in survival mode, simply trying to stay alive. Of course, the argument can be made that education was strictly limited to the intelligentsia and that the common people and even their nobles had no means of accessing that until Gutenberg’s press came along, which may be true, but it still does not detract from my point. The fact is that knowledge and information are easier to gain today than ever before in history, yet the ability to retain those for longer than the immediate usage is rapidly being degraded. If the medieval, Dark Ages were a pit of ignorance, then what would today’s society be called? Age of idiocy seems to be about right.

In a world where video and audio are increasingly dominant, it becomes more difficult to determine what is actually true, especially now that AI can be used to manipulate photos and sounds, even words, to achieve the ends desired. How do I know that video I just watched is completely accurate? Has it been worked over to portray something different than what is seen and heard? I have no way of being sure without relying on someone else’s judgment and say-so. It is nearly impossible to do this with the written and published word which cannot be changed without leaving a record.

All that aside, curling up with a good book, whether on a couch beside a roaring fireplace or not, is far more satisfying than watching it (or its adaptation and interpretation) on a screen. The “seeing” of Buck in Call of the Wild, Sherlock Holmes, Beau Geste, the Chronicles of Narnia, Aku-Aku, or the Gulag Archipelago, in one’s own mind far surpasses the experience of seeing them according to someone else’s imagination.

But, then, I may just be speaking as an old fogie who refuses to keep up with the times and wants to revert back to his own Age of Innocence.