Thoroughgoing Thoughts from an Open-Eyed Onlooker

A succinct catchall of thoroughgoing thoughts from an open-eyed onlooker, offered for the casual edification of those who might wish to be casually edified.

No one, whether by "hard work" or "good fortune," has a right to be wealthy.

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War continues to happen because millions of citizens whose taxes pay for wars refuse to take a firm stand against armed conflict.

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The primary lesson that students receive in school is how not to think for themselves.

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Putting one's trust in the flip of a coin is a safer bet than putting one's trust in accepted institutions.

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As technology increasingly becomes more sophisticated, it is increasingly more likely to diminish the humanity of those who use it.

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An unrelenting desire for riches is the first step on a malign path that necessarily ends in moral destruction.

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To say that religion is fraudulent and harmful is merely to say that religion has much in common with government, business, education, and science.

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The fate of our planet is in the grasping hands of coldblooded lowlifes who are unworthy to rule over a patch of weeds.

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A person who blindly abides by the false guidelines of convention has no chance of ever being truly human.

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Capitalism can endure only so long as the masses are willing to submit themselves to the bondage of greed and debt.

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Progress is the means by which daily life is made to be more difficult than it actually needs to be.

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True freedom cannot be measured by laws or decrees, and is not dependent on the brutal might of armies.

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If all the honest people in the world were gathered in one small room, it would not be particularly crowded.

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It has yet to be determined whether life is a question without an answer, or an answer without a question.

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A free market is beneficial to humanity in the same way that a tiger is beneficial to its prey.

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Most of the time, most people in most situations do not know why they are doing whatever they happen to be doing.

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The likelihood of our leaders honestly seeking to do the right thing is roughly akin to the likelihood of hearing a Shakespearean soliloquy performed by a lawn mower.

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In the moral hierarchy of life forms, bankers should be counted among the lowest organisms.

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Peace can never be achieved through war for the same reason that love can never be achieved through hate.

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A smart person never surrenders to the transitory delusions of the stuporous masses.

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The distance from one side of the Milky Way to the other is considerably less than the distance between what most people claim to believe and what they privately think.

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A person who can afford to put money into stocks and bonds is a person who has too much money.

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As long as the number of dutiful followers in the world greatly exceeds the number of stalwart objectors, the principle of liberty will be in jeopardy.

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The truth can be suppressed for a moment, or an hour, or a day, or a week, or a month, or a year, or a lifetime, but it cannot be suppressed forever.

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New wealth cannot be "created," any more than an ocean can be conjured from a handful of dust.

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It is best to believe only that which has been proven, clearly and undeniably, to be correct.

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The only thing more villainous than being a millionaire is being a billionaire.

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A single flower contains more wisdom than all the books of philosophy that have ever been written.

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Heaven, as imagined in the compliant minds of devout believers, is a pleasant state of eternal conformity.

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Although the urgent threat of nuclear warfare is given little heed by most people, it remains probable that, sooner or later, mankind will render itself extinct.

Further reading

An Unpublished Letter to The Oregonian Regarding the Pandemic of Covid-19

Artificial Intelligence Is an Enemy of Human Values

Covid-19 Poses a Grievous Danger to Every Human Life

President Trump's War Against Iran Is Proving to Be a Hugely Expensive Undertaking

All Right Now: One Fan's Discretionary History of Rock 'n' Roll in the 1960s & 1970s (Part 2)