The Mindcrime Liberty Show with Dobson and Patton

Episode 20: Is the family in Decline with Rik Storey?

The Mindcrime liberty show is joined today with guest Rik Storey on whether the family is getting better or worse? Has modernity destroyed or strengthened the family? What role does the state play in strengthening or harming the family? Was the past as good as many paleocons like a Peter Hitchens or Roger Scruton argue it was?   What caused the change in both marriage formation, out of wedlock births, and the rise in cohabitation/singleness? Was it technology, culture, or something else? What will be the effects be on society? 

Episode 19: Word Salad

The mindcrime liberty show discusses buzzwords such as the various isms and phobias which routinely get thrown out and whether they actually mean anything.  Later we discuss if words such as democracy mean something or is more akin to the other "word salad" words. 

Episode 18: Coronavirus part 2 or why Nassim Taleb is wrong.

The Mindcrimeliberty show revisits the topic of our very first episode: the corona-virus pandemic and the policies various states have enacted.  We discuss Nassim Taleb's and others work on the pandemic and update our earlier take on the pandemic.  Taleb  has consistently held the same alarmist position even when it was unpopular to do so unlike the mainstream.  Taleb praised Trump for closing the border of the US with China which the then "anti alarmist" mainstream criticized.  The biggest problem we have with corona-virus measures in particular stemming from Taleb's precautionary principle is if true they prove too much.  The measures the state is suggesting are merely band aids at best and at worst have no effect. What the state is asking the population to do we think is akin to the duck and cover drills which is more about calming panic which they the state created over a virus which hasn't been as deadly as the various models in particular the imperial model predicted. 

Ep. 17: Philosophy of Suicide including Camus, Christ, and Socrates.

The Mindcrime liberty show discusses suicide and its legitimacy. Is suicide a wicked form of self murder or is it something honorable?  Should it be legal or illegal? What are Albert Camus, Jesus Christ, or even Socrates (Plato) views on suicide and its legitimacy.   What exactly is a suicide attempt? Does dangerous behavior count as a form of self harm.  Why should a person continue living especially if life itself in a crass utilitarian way has much misery and no atheist (or for that matter theist) utopia is coming to alleviate the misery? Is Camus right that the only important question is whether life is worth living? 

Episode 16. Has Music Declined with Right Ruminations

Today the Mindcrime liberty show is joined by guest Right Ruminations, who has composed some music compositions which are linked below, on whether music has declined.  We discuss two pieces by Roger Scruton as a quintessential example of what conservatives in general say about the decline of music.  Is popular music in particular "pop" or "rock" as bad as conservatives like a Roger  Scruton say it is. Is popular or modern music in general tyrannical or polluting. Do we really want that being played in shopping malls or would silence be preferable? Is there any instrumental music today such as movie scores which compares against the past. Did the past that Scruton and many conservatives imagine ever really exist as gloriously as they claim.   

 

Our guest today Right Ruminations has a youtube channel and here is his musical compositions.  

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7uTbD5YUXfEOEW4shVNsBoXa3SpyXdKD

 

Two pieces by Scruton

 

Cultural Significance of Pop.  

https://www.roger-scruton.com/about/music/understanding-music/175-the-cultural-significance-of-pop

 

Tyranny of Pop Music 

https://youtu.be/eYua80VEcBk?t=4

Episode 15. Was Aristotle right about slavery?

With the recent murmurs about cancel Aristotle the mindcrime liberty discusses what this great Greek thinker thought on the topic.  Aristotle argues that a natural slave exists and its actually in the slaves interest to be ruled by the master.  Is this the case? Do these classes of persons exist or is Aristotle analyzing the contents of an empty box? What would be the historical/universal definition of slavery if one would want to postulate it in general. Would taxation or wage slavery be included as thinkers like a Hans Hoppe or Marx would argue respectively?  What about serfdom or even voluntary slavery? Is voluntary slavery an oxymoron?  Does slavery of any kind,  including the voluntary kind if it does exist, actually benefit either party.  Depending on the definition were most humans ever really free from slavery of some kind?  If slavery is so bad who today is actually enslaved and why don't we discuss that or all the other historical slave trades? We finally discuss whether paternalistic policies work and whether they are advisable to either parties in the relationship.  

Episode 14: Have Films and TV got better or worse in the past 100 years?

The mindcrime libertyshow discusses films and television shows and whether there has been a decline, improvement, or no change in various areas ranging from story telling and effects to the ideas and morals behind the stories.  Was there ever a "golden age" in films and TV?  Have movies become more crass and violent with bad morals and cursing? Were older movies superior in terms of what is called traditional morality or is this just a rose colored glasses version of the past?  Has this change mirrored society and if so does it matter?  

Ep. 13 The philosophy of Donald Rumsfeld, the Unknown Unknown, WMDs, and the Iraq War

The mindcrime liberty show discusses Donald Rumsfeld and one of the official justifications for the Iraq War which is the prevalence of WMDs in Iraq.  When Rumsfeld is asked a question about the prevalence of WMDs in Iraq and the link to terrorist organizations he responds with what amounts to a philosophy lecture.  Is Rumsfeld's philosophy lecture true or is it just  dodge to a simple question. What would be the kind of evidence to make Errol Morris or Slavoj Zizek happy. Do we apply the same stringent demands of evidence to other areas? Finally was Iraq ( and Saddam Hussein) really a threat to the US even if it did have WMDs. 

Episode 12: What is Justice and a discussion on pan anarchism, Hoppe, Chomsky, Stirner and Foucault with Richard Cheimison.

The mindcrime liberty show along with Richard Cheimison discusses what is justice and whether it exists in any meaningful sense.  Is justice merely power or is it something else.  What is the foundation of justice other than whatever the state and its courts/police say.   What does Aristotle or the Thomists say? Does anybody in modernity actually have any foundation for justice or are well all closeted (or not) Foucauldians, Nietcheans, and Stirnerites  Finally, we have a discussion on pan anarchism (or general libertarinaism of both left and right) as an approach to solve the problems inherit in the term justice in its current use.  Would justice exist in Hoppeville or Chomskyville considering both thinkers think the current state is an unjust criminal organization.  

Episode 11: Liberty for Julian Assange with Brian Vickery. Please visit libertyforassange.uk

We interview Brian Vickery who runs the libertyforassange.uk website and he lays out what exactly happened to Assange and why he was dragged out by British police from the Ecuadorian embassy and ended up in  Belmarsh prison for 50 weeks on a bail violation. Was the Swedish rape allegations a set up or not?  Assange  currently is facing extradition being indicted with 17 counts of the 1917 American espionage act.  Will he be extradited  and charged to add to a long list of persons charged with this act? Why is he so hated by so many and why has mainstream journalists been so silent about his predicament?  Has Julian Assange annoyed too many powerful people on both the left and the right?  Why has the UK looked like American lap dogs in the extradition process?   What does this mean for the future of journalism if Julian Assange gets extradited and charged?