Quick Abacus – Page 11 – Commentary and Critique by Florian Deltgen

September 16, 2021 Political Ideologies

How I became a citizen of the land of the free and the home of the brave – oh boy!

n 1973, I worked as a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Botanical Museum. My host, Professor Richard Evans Schultes, occasionally invited me to dine with him in the teachers’ dining room, where on one occasion I sat next to Professor Kenneth Galbraith’s table and a cross-table conversation developed between Schultes, a conservative, and Galbraith, a liberal. What I got to hear from Galbraith was pure neo-Marxist ideology and should have been a warning for me and a harbinger of things to come.

September 10, 2021 Culture and Religion

A Brief History of Slavery

When we talk about slavery, we mostly mean the enslavement of Africans in America between approximately 1500 (arrival of first African slaves in North America) and 1865 (13th Amendment) – a period of approximately 365 years. However, slavery is one of mankind’s oldest institutions and America was a latecomer to it. Since our history is regrettably one of domination and subjugation it is probably safe to assume that slavery goes back into Neolithic times, when one group would raid the habitation of another group, kill most, and make the survivors slaves.

September 4, 2021 Culture and Religion

Some Thoughts about Race and Prejudice

The definitions of species and race apply to humans, animals, and plants alike. The fewer characteristics make up a race, the weaker its identity and stability as a set. Races can change or even disappear when they mix with other races. If the defining characteristics become too few or only one, like e.g. skin color, the concept of ‘race’ becomes absurd.

August 4, 2021 Political Ideologies

Who is a Native?

The word ‘native’ is derived from the Latin verb ‘nati’ = ‘to be born’. ‘nati’ is a semi-deponence, i.e. a verb that exists only in the passive voice. Makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, being born is the most passive act you ever perform in your life. A ‘native’ to a certain place would seem to be a person who was born in that certain place. Accordingly, if you were born in e.g. Columbia NC you can call yourself a native of that town. But the common use of the term goes beyond this narrow meaning. American Indians call themselves “Native Americans” or “indigenous” and the non-European Australians are called “aborigines” with the connotation that they, i.e. their predecessors, ancestors, forefathers were all born in America or Australia or at least on the American or Australian continents. . .

July 28, 2021 Science and Philosophy

5 = 1: From Dead-End to Portal

In one of my earlier contributions I tried to show that and how rational thinking leads to irrational thinking. Here now, I would like to show the opposite. I will prove to you that 1 = 5 and then show you how this seeming nonsense can make a lot of sense. . .

July 19, 2021 Political Ideologies

Santa Claus and Culture War

Since religion is so deeply engrained in our culture and society and since our nation was partly founded on the quest for religious freedom, it is difficult for the enemies of religion to attack it frontally and direct. But attack it they must because they are mostly Marxist atheist materialists who believe that religion is “opium for the people” and that theirs is the only true worldview. And because they realize that religion is the main road block on the road to their totally just utopian society: Communism. Hence, they attack religion indirectly using mainly two tactics: they try to remove religion from public life and they try to profane and secularize religion, currently mainly the Christian religion. . .

July 10, 2021 Science and Philosophy

The Rational Roots of the Irrational

It seems that the cognitive and intellectual tools that humans have at their disposal to understand and manipulate reality around them are fairly adequate within a medium range of things, tasks, and problems – hardly surprising, since they are probably adaptations to life on planet earth. These tools are mainly the capability to reason logically, to understand and apply the causal nexus, and to use practical concepts of time and space. . . It also seems that these same tools become pretty useless when we leave the middle range of earth reality and venture into the macro-cosmos . . .

July 5, 2021 Socialism

The Birth Defect of Collectivism

Many ideologies consider the “group” (the collective) more important than the individual. The class, society, the state, the people, the tribe etc. constitute a superior value. “You are nothing. Your nation is everything” was a NAZI motto. The Fascist motto was “You are nothing. The State is everything.” Today’s dominant collectivist ideology is Socialism. . .

June 29, 2021 Socialism

What is Fascism and NAZI-ism?

In this day and age, the terms ‘fascist’ and ‘NAZI’ have become substitutes for rotten eggs and tomatoes. They are thrown at anybody who disagrees with left-wing or right-wing ideologists. However, most people do not know what they really mean or used to mean. . .

June 21, 2021 Economy

What Stimulates the Economy and what is Inflation?

Many people believe that government spending of tax money creates an extra stimulus to the economy. This belief is wrong. Here is why: If a person earns e.g. $100 through work in the free market and the government takes away – say – $30 in taxes, the government can now spend the $30 for goods and services in the marketplace, while the earner (taxpayer) can now only spend the remaining $70. At best, the combined effect would be the same as if the earner had been allowed to keep and spend his/her $100. In either case, $100 would have flown into the economy to stimulate it. The part of the $100 that was taxed away and then spent by the government, produces no additional stimulating effect for the economy. . .