Journal of a Wayward Philosopher Archives - Page 34 of 34

Election Day

submitted by jwithrow.

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Election Day

November 4, 2014
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P has risen to $2,009, gold has dropped to $1,167, oil is down around $77, bitcoin is at $328, and the 10-year Treasury rate is checking in at 2.33% today.

Looks like gold is still sitting on the clearance rack begging to be purchased. Gold jewelry would be a great Christmas gift this year! Just be sure to negotiate the price down significantly from whatever the price tag says. Did you know there are still cultures out there that store their wealth in gold jewelry? People in places like India and China must not have gotten their central bank’s memo: gold is barbaric, government paper currency is civilized. (Pay no attention to all of those pointless wars that were financed by government paper currency.)

Speaking of civilization, it is Election Day! Election Day affords every American the opportunity to honor that great tradition known as voting by rushing off to their local polls to support whichever Joe, Bob, or Dick (or Hillary) has promised to fix all that ails us and to move us forward. I am not sure exactly why all of us need to be moved forward but this apparently isn’t open to inquiries. It is every American’s right and responsibility to participate in our fine electoral process else be called a “commie”.

But you know… not everyone is quite so enthusiastic about voting. Let’s give some of the dissenting voices a hearing for a minute:

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” – Benjamin Franklin

“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.” – Mark Twain

“Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.” – H.L. Mencken

“It makes no difference whom you vote for – the two parties are really one party representing four percent of the people.” – Gore Vidal

“It’s not the voting that’s democracy, it’s the counting.” – Tom Stoppard

“No matter who you vote for, the government always gets in.” – Neil Innes

“The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.” – Charles Bukowski

“Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one’s government is not necessarily to secure freedom.” – Friedrich Hayek

“In politics we face the choice between warmongering, nation-state loving, big-business agents on one hand; and risk-blind, top-down, epistemic arrogant big servants of large employers on the other. But we have a choice.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Hmmm.

Come to think of it, nothing ever seems to change no matter which bobble head gets elected. No major legislation gets repealed entirely; at best it gets replaced by something equally as draconian with twice as many earmarks in it. At worst even more legislation is dumped on top of the steaming pile that already exists. There’s never a sincere effort made to reduce the size and scope of government or to even curtail spending increases. There’s never a sincere effort made to shore up the run-away welfare state that has bankrupted the government nor is any effort made to reel in the out-of-control warfare state that constantly runs amok in search of dragons to slay.

Side note: Microsoft Word suggests that I correct the previous sentence. It has underlined “has bankrupted” in green and suggests that I change the phrase to “has not bankrupted”. I guess Microsoft thinks I am over-analyzing the severity of the situation and thus will be voting its little heart out today.

As for me, I think I will side with P.J. O’Rourke on this one: “Don’t vote, it just encourages the [jerks].”

I see it as matter of personal responsibility: I am responsible for the well-being of myself and my family – government has no role to play whatsoever.

More to come,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

For more of Joe’s thoughts on the “Great Reset” and regaining individual sovereignty please read “The Individual is Rising” which is available at http://www.theindividualisrising.com/. The book is also available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.

The Majesty of Childbirth

submitted by jwithrow.

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
The Majesty of Childbirth

October 27, 2014
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P is checking in at $1,964, gold is at $1,228, oil has dipped down to $79, bitcoin is trading hands around $355, and the 10-year Treasury rate is at 2.25% today.

October has been the most volatile month of 2014 for U.S. stocks. The Fed is supposed to end QE3 (quantitative easing) this month which has investors nervous. Does the market tank when QE3 ends as it did with the end of QE1 and QE2? Or is the economy all better and ready to resume some semblance of normalcy?

My guess: get ready for QE4.

Mr. Market tried to clean out the gutters back in 2008 by liquidating unsustainable debt but the Fed intervened. With their quantitative easing chicanery, the Feds not only prevented Mr. Market from liquidating bad debt, they also piled even more rotting debt on-top. Without QE, Mr. Market would be free to begin the healing process which requires clearing out bad debt and insolvent entities. But most of the bad debt lives on the balance sheets of the federal government and now the Federal Reserve (transferred from Wall Street) and liquidating this debt would reveal the fundamental insolvency of these entities.

How best to hide insolvency? Print money to pay the debts! Hence: QE4 coming soon – probably early 2016.

Shifting gears: Madison made her entrance last week!

She was born on October 20 at 9:59 pm right here in Hot Springs, VA.

In our dining room.

Oh don’t worry, we put the dining room table out in the garage and replaced it with an Aqua Doula pool and a queen-size mattress.

The result: a healthy 7 lbs 11 oz baby girl born completely naturally with no invasive interventions or pharmaceutical drugs necessary. Just like childbirth has been done for thousands of years!

Wife Rachel said the homebirth experience has far exceeded her expectations in every aspect.

Instead of laboring on her back underneath fluorescent lights hooked up to an I.V., monitors, pain-killers, and labor-enhancing drugs, Rachel paced back and forth from our Great Room to our kitchen while verbally telling Madison she couldn’t wait to meet her. No one was around to bother her save her husband who valiantly tried to be a breathing exercise leader while also laboring himself to fill up the 170 gallon Aqua Doula pool. Needless to say, Madison did not wait around to test her sea legs and she was born very peacefully on dry land… into her father’s waiting hands.

Upon her birth, there was no one waiting to rush her off to be weighed, measured, poked, prodded, or checked so Madison had to settle for laying in her loving mother’s arms instead. While mother and baby bonded in those first few minutes of life, our midwife and doula worked gently to make sure both parties were in good health as the birthing process neared completion. Once confident in the health of mother and baby, our health care team worked diligently to clean and sanitize the area, provide food and water, do laundry, provide advice, tips, and reassurance, and countless other things that a star-struck father couldn’t possibly pick up on in the most defining moment of his life.

Our midwife and doula monitored the situation and provided sound counsel for roughly four hours post-birth as well. “This is what real health care looks like”, I thought. Our midwife came back out to our house for a 36 hour appointment and then again for a five-day appointment. She also answered several phone calls and text messages at weird hours during the stretch in-between appointments as well.

The result of such wonderful health care service is that both mother and baby are in terrific health despite not having left the comfort of their own home. It will be more than two weeks from birth before mother and baby will need to leave their home for another appointment.

The entire experience has confirmed what we knew all along – that natural childbirth at home is a much healthier and happier alternative to hospital birth for both mother and baby.

Of course few others understood this. Some just shrugged at the eccentricity of such an endeavor. Some turned their nose up in disgust. Some thought us to be ignorant, selfish, and cheap.

What they didn’t see were the countless hours dedicated to learning, study, and research over the course of nine months. They didn’t see the pages turning in the books that were read. They didn’t see the computer screen scrolling as medical studies and articles were mentally consumed. They didn’t drive an hour and a half to natural childbirth classes every Thursday evening for six weeks after a full work-day to increase their knowledge and understanding before driving an hour and a half back home to get ready for the following work-day. They didn’t watch the videos and the documentaries or practice the comfort techniques or study the possible complications and their signs. They didn’t sit up at night discussing emergency plans and precautions. They didn’t give up coffee, tea, and soda (caffeine) or dramatically reduce their intake of processed foods for nine full months. They didn’t eliminate glucose from their diet for a full week in the final week of their pregnancy.

But someone did do all of these things.

Someone put the time, effort, and work in to make sure they were making the best decisions possible and to make sure they were fully prepared for what was to come. Someone decided that she would be responsible for educating herself first rather than being wholly dependent upon the status-quo.

Someone decided she would be Super-Mom.

To her I pledge my eternal love, respect, and service.

More to come,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

Real History

submitted by jwithrow.

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Real History

October 15, 2014
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P is checking in at $1,851 today, gold is up to $1,236, oil is down to $80.34, bitcoin is around $396, and the 10-year has plummeted to 2.01%. The 10-year Treasury rate must have been afraid of its shadow this week.

Wife Rachel said my entry yesterday about the history of fiat currency bored her so much she fell asleep reading it. Sorry about that.

I see history as quite fascinating. Not the history that comes in Department of Education approved politically correct textbooks, mind you, but real history. Real history isn’t piecemeal highlights with names, places, and dates to remember; it is so much more important than that. Real history doesn’t show up in textbooks or in classrooms.

Real history is friend Wade’s family letters housed on his family farm in South Carolina. The letters were written by the original owners of the farm – his ancestors – and they have been passed down from generation to generation since. Real history is a five-bedroom brick home sitting atop “town hill” in Covington, Virginia built by my great-great-grandfather after emigrating from Lebanon in the late 19th century and opening a restaurant. This house comes complete with a Lebanese-style tiered garden on the side of the mountain. I can only imagine how many other pieces of real history are out there, passed down from generation to generation and discussed over Thanksgiving dinner.

But what is important with real history? Not so much the names, dates, and places as interesting as they may be. Instead, it is the ideas, values, and lessons that come with real history that are really important. These intangibles, if heeded, are what truly shape the future.

The textbook history tells me Napoleon invaded Russia and his army got wiped out. What do I learn from this? Don’t invade Russia? I will be sure not to make that mistake. Real history tells me great-great-grandfather emigrated from Lebanon, opened a restaurant, and worked like crazy to create a better life for his family. I am a part of that legacy. What do I learn from this? Free enterprise has the power to liberate and elevate individuals, families, and communities. This is a real, actionable lesson that is much more valuable to me than learning not to invade Russia.

Real history is mostly ‘private’ information while textbook history is ‘public’ information. What’s taught in the classroom and what comes on the news is also public information. Our society places a very high value on this public information; we love to hang around the water cooler and talk about it. It is to the point now where we seem to think that public information is all there is. We think the school teaches us everything we need to know and we think the news reports all aspects of all events to us every day.

Our worldview, which determines how we think and act, is shaped by this public information.

The problem is public information is riddled with holes and often less than helpful. “Don’t invade Russia” is sound advice but I was extremely unlikely to do so in the first place. If we value public information then we waste quite a bit of time on things that aren’t very relevant to us at all. Should Ray Rice have been banned? Should I buy Alibaba stock post-IPO? How will the mid-term elections go? Who will run for President in 2016?

Who cares?!

Football is just entertainment and unless you had Ray Rice on your fantasy team his private life probably doesn’t concern you much. Alibaba is the largest e-commerce company in the world and its IPO was welcomed with all manner of press and hoopla. But IPOs are designed for the insiders to get rich by selling their private stock to the public at an inflated valuation. This works best when the media pumps up the IPO story over and over again. You don’t want to be on the public side of an IPO, you want to be on the private side. And the mid-term elections are largely irrelevant as is the presidential election in 2016. No matter who wins the debt will continue to spiral out of control until the U.S. dollar is supplanted from its perch as the international reserve currency… probably by the IMF’s “Special Drawing Rights” (SDR). No amount of campaigning and voting will prepare you for the inevitable; probably best to stop wasting time and start preparing for the Great Reset now.

Public information is similar to the fiat currency we discussed yesterday. Maybe a little bit of it won’t do too much harm but go past that line and you are going to be in a world of financial hurt. So in this humble philosopher’s opinion: focus on real history and private information. The rest is probably just noise.

Hopefully this one doesn’t put wife to sleep. On second thought, maybe it’s for the best.

More to come,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

For more of Joe’s thoughts on the Great Reset and regaining individual sovereignty please read “The Individual is Rising” which is available at http://www.theindividualisrising.com. The book is also available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.

Fiat Money Undermines Society

submitted by jwithrow.

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Fiat Money Undermines Society

October 14, 2014
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P is checking in at $1,878 today, gold is up to $1,234, oil is down to $85, bitcoin is up to $403, and the 10-year is now down to 2.20%. All in a day’s work, I suppose.

Autumn is truly a beautiful season. There is a gentle, crisp breeze in the air up here in the mountains of Virginia and a myriad of red, orange, and yellow leaves dot the landscape. As we await Maddie’s entrance, wife Rachel and I will spend the day making homemade apple cider to celebrate such a fine season!

Last week I suggested that fiat money always seems to undermine the morality and stability of society throughout history. Let’s examine this a little bit more today.

First, we must be clear about what fiat money is. Fiat money is any currency that derives its value from government law and regulation. The word ‘fiat’ is Latin for “let it be done”. Essentially, fiat money is what the government says is money. Once decreeing something as money, governments usually force people and businesses to use whatever it is through legal tender laws. Fiat money has taken different forms throughout history. Today we primarily use electronic credit-based national currencies (U.S. dollars, Euros, Yen, etc.) as our fiat money. We still use fiat paper currency also but we are gradually transitioning away from this form of money. Here in the United States we use “Federal Reserve Notes” as our paper currency. Take a look at what the bills in your wallet say to confirm this.

Societies, to the extent that you can pinpoint a beginning and end to them, have not started out with fiat money. Historically, society starts out with free-market money – usually gold, silver, or some other valuable commodity – and then unwittingly moves to fiat money as its government becomes more and more corrupt.

Rome was using a pure silver “denarius” at the beginning of the 1st century, A.D. Roman emperors then learned how to ‘print’ money by melting down their silver coins, adding cheap base metal into the mix, then re-minting the denarius with a lower silver content. This enabled them to mint more silver coins than they had melted down, but the denarius was no longer pure silver.

The denarius was 85% silver by the year 100. By 218, the denarius was down to only 43% silver content. And by year 244 the denarius contained only .05% silver. This meant that each Roman denarius coin could purchase 99.95% less than what it could originally purchase! In other words, everyday prices were 99.95% higher for Romans in year 244 than they were in year 1.

So why in the world did the Roman emperors debase their currency so much? Why, for great wars, great public works, and to enrich themselves, of course! You have read all about the Roman Empire in the history textbooks. Maintaining an empire requires soldiers and soldiers require food, water, and payment. Oh, and weapons. This gets more and more expensive as the empire gets bigger and bigger. I bet you have read about the coliseum too – it was very expensive to build and maintain. Who was going to pay for it all?

The emperor certainly wasn’t about to curtail his lavish lifestyle to chip in. Instead he turned to dishonest fiat money: he melted down silver coins and made more of them with a lesser silver content. Then he paid the soldiers and workers and pretended like nothing was different about the money. As the currency was debased, Roman society got poorer and the government became more corrupt. Eventually the Roman Empire became impoverished and collapsed.

Looking farther east, Marco Polo documented the use of fiat money in China:

“You might say that [Kublai] has the secret of alchemy in perfection… the Khan causes every year to be made such a vast quantity of this money, which costs him nothing, that it must equal in amount all the treasure of the world.”

He continues:

“Population and trade had greatly increased, but the emissions of paper notes were suffered to largely outrun both… All the beneficial effects of a currency that is allowed to expand with a growth of population and trade were now turned into those evil effects that flow from a currency emitted in excess of such growth. These effects were not slow to develop themselves… The best families in the empire were ruined, a new set of men came into the control of public affairs, and the country became the scene of internecine warfare and confusion.”

The same thing happened in France when John Law introduced fiat paper currency in 1716: the currency was inflated into oblivion and the society was impoverished. And in Weimar Germany in the 1920’s – it got to the point where Germans were using paper marks to heat their furnaces! Argentina has followed suit a couple times in the late 1900’s. Zimbabwe was one of the wealthiest countries in Africa until its government ramped up the printing presses in 2008 and implemented price controls. It wasn’t long before civilized society was wiped out in Zimbabwe and people could no longer get enough food and water for themselves.

Do you notice a trend?

Fast forward to present day: the U.S. dollar has lost 98% of its value since the Federal Reserve was implemented in 1913. Much of this devaluation has occurred since all ties to gold were removed in 1971. What has happened to our cost of living?

Technology has also boomed since 1971 such that the means of production and distribution are much more efficient today than ever before. It seems to me this scenario should have reduced the cost of living for everyone. But has it? It wasn’t that long ago when an average American household consisted of only one wage earner. This one income was enough to provide a high quality of life for the family while the spouse stayed home to raise the kids. Most households now require two incomes just to get by.

The American standard of living is going in the wrong direction and this is largely due to fiat money. Further, the fiat money is used primarily for the same things it has always been used for throughout history – war, public works, and the enrichment of the political class…

I will leave it there for today but I hope my point was made.

Until the morrow,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

On the National Debt

submitted by jwithrow.

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
On the National Debt

October 7, 2014
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P is down to $1,953, gold is up to $1,212, oil is up to $89, bitcoin is up to $330, and the 10-year is down to 2.38%.

Looks like the 10-year Treasury rate is still well-corralled for the moment. And gold is still on sale.

Yesterday we examined a few of the traps cleverly hidden for infants coming into the world at this time – prompted by wife Rachel and my expectations of a little girl named Madison set to begin her journey here on Earth within the next few days or weeks. Today let’s look at the overt trap that boldly claims the right to little Madison’s future earnings: the national debt.

It is popular today for politicians to speak out against the national debt and boldly claim that ‘we’ (they love this ‘we’ business) need to balance the government’s budget and begin to pay the debt down. This sounds great and people will vote for you for making such a statement, but there are two problems this leaves unaddressed – one based in economics and one based in morality.

First, the economic problem: the national debt is not $17.75 trillion as advertised. The national debt is actually closer to $200 trillion if you calculate it according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) which require you to record all future liabilities on your balance sheet. Most of these future liabilities that are not included in the official debt figure are Social Security and Medicare commitments. These future commitments are completely unfunded which means there exists no underlying revenue support and no asset backing. The only way these future commitments can be met is if enough money comes into the Social Security and Medicare programs versus going out. Demographics tell us that 10,000 Baby Boomers will retire EVERY SINGLE DAY for the next ten years, however, which suggests that a huge number of people are going to move from being contributors to these programs to recipients.

Oh, and both Social Security and Medicare already run annual deficits.

These politicians must be expecting quite a bit from my little Madison if they plan to balance the budget and pay down the debt with her future earnings.

But they don’t actually plan to balance the budget and pay down the debt. The simple fact is it can’t honestly be done without defaulting on the existing commitments in some capacity. There’s just too much debt and not enough production. Which leads us to the moral problem: this system is incredibly, unbelievably immoral.

Why should anyone be taxed and forced to pay for anything against their will? What kind of system assigns debt to infants from the moment they draw their first breath in this world? What kind of system incentivizes debt, dishonesty, consumption, and exploitation while punishing honesty and production?

My answer: a really bad one.

So did the economic problem lead to the moral problem or vice versa? I am not sure but history does suggest that dishonest fiat money seems to always undermine the morality and stability of society.

I will have more thoughts on that in a later entry. In the meantime be sure to order a copy of The Individual is Rising for a more in depth look at these economic problems, some financial strategies to prepare for the Great Reset, and more.

Focusing our attention back on the debt-trap: how best to prepare Maddie for life in a society that plans to confiscate her future earnings to pay for the immorality of earlier generations?

It is a shame that I have to spend any time at all on this question here in what is supposed to be the “Land of the Free”. The more I think about it, the more I become convinced that education is the key to preparing our children for the world that awaits them.

Not education of the public kind, however. It looks to me like the public schools are setting children up to be victims of the immoral System. The public school system fosters a herd mentality and requires students to subordinate themselves to “authority” at all times. Such an environment is not going to stimulate the creativity and self-confidence necessary to thrive in a society that expects the next generation to pay the debts of the previous. Instead, this method of education is going to condition students to happily embrace their servitude to the System as it pillages the fruits of their labor in the name of the “common good”.

Far better to create an individualized educational experience tailored to Madison’s unique skills and interests. Instead of forcing subjects upon her, why not let her guide her own education? Rachel and I will probably need to do most of the guiding in the early years, but I suspect Madison will be plenty capable of determining her own path as she grows and matures. Enabling self-education in this manner will certainly do a better job of preparing her for adult-hood than the government school system that conditions students to always seek guidance and permission from “experts” instead of trusting their own abilities.

Of course this self-education will need to be blended with social activities as well. Fortunately, one can find all manner of groups, clubs, and activities using a simple internet search these days so I don’t see this being much of a problem. What will Madison like to do? Dance? Aikido? Art? Music? Softball? All of the above?

The world will be her oyster…

More to come,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

Maddie Coming Soon

submitted by jwithrow.

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Maddie Coming Soon

October 6, 2014
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P opened at $1,975, gold is down to $1,190, oil is hanging around $88, bitcoin back up slightly to $327, and the 10-year is checking in at 2.44%. While this wouldn’t be a bad time to pick up an ounce or two of the yellow metal, the 10-year Treasury rate is what’s really worth keeping an eye on. How long can the Fed keep rates suppressed? Some say forever; some say until December. I say “I don’t know”. Assuming the folks who say forever are wrong, what then happens when rates go up? Some say the Fed can manage the increase in a gradual fashion; some say the poor 10-year Treasury has been cooped up for so long that it will blow through the roof once free of its chains. I say “I don’t know” again but I tend to think the latter is probably more likely. And then…

Shifting gears from economic future to family future, wife Rachel is 39.5 weeks pregnant as of today! Coming soon: a little girl. How exciting! We shall call her “Maddie”. With Rachel busy working on her nesting list, I close my eyes and try to catch a glimpse of the future that awaits little Madison.

Look at all those traps.

Heavy metal toxins in infant vaccines? Round-up ready GMO fruits and vegetables? Ouch.

Government-run public school system designed to feed the administrators and instill collectivist ideals in the children? Probably best to steer clear.

Skyrocketing college tuition? Will there even be jobs left in this economy in twenty-some years?

Opening my eyes, I am confident that we have a pretty good plan to help Maddie tackle the college problem: an infinite banking insurance policy paired with a “hands-off” approach. We can fund a life insurance policy for Madison as soon as she turns two weeks old. With an annual premium of $3,000 per year, the policy will have a cash value of at least $60,000 by the time Madison reaches adult-hood. Then we sign the policy over to her and say follow your passion. Want to travel the world? Go for it. Want to start a business? Here’s your working capital. Want to go to college? No need for student loans.

Of course that $60,000 cash value figure is based on today’s purchasing power. I am confident the insurance company will be able to keep up with inflation via long-term investments and sound actuarial pricing on new policies such that Madison’s policy dividends will keep up with inflation also. Or maybe the dollar crashes and the insurance industry has to denominate their policies in gold in order to survive. Wouldn’t that be something! Then we wouldn’t need to worry about inflation because we would be using REAL money again!

Or maybe this strategy blows up in our face… who knows. We examine the Infinite Banking Concept (IBC) in more detail in our book “The Individual is Rising” – you can get it here.

So what is college for anyway? As best I can tell, people go to college to receive a degree that says they went to college. Then they try to get a job where they can sit behind a desk all day. That’s pretty much it. I suspect there was a little more to it years ago (early-to-mid 20th century?) and of course there are some exceptions – especially in the specialized fields like engineering.

Think about it. What is the first thing people say when they go to a job interview? “I have a degree in such and such”. This is supposed to be a strong selling point for the potential employee… but is it really? What does having a degree actually tell you about someone? You can probably safely assume that this person has spent a fair amount of time drinking cheap beer. I don’t know that you can really deduce much else. Doesn’t everybody have a degree these days? Doesn’t the government finance ninety-some percent of those degrees?

Doesn’t sound like much of a selling point to me.

We live in a ‘have’ oriented society – we place a premium on ‘having’ things. A degree, a nice car, a big house, a fancy wardrobe, you name it. We tend to link our own self-worth to what we ‘have’. We shouldn’t do that. Much more important than ‘having’ is ‘doing’. What are you doing to make your life better? What are you doing to make your family’s life better? But wait, there’s something even more important: ‘being’. What is the nature of your character? Are you a kind and strong-willed person? Can others count on you to be honest? Do you understand that your self-worth is derived from what’s within? Do you recognize how powerful and wise you truly are?

Having is nice. Doing is great. Being is essential. Focus on the being and everything else will fall into place. This is the one lesson I hope my daughter learns from me; any other lessons imparted from me to her will be of lesser importance. I also firmly believe it is a two-way street… I can’t wait to find out what she has to teach me also!

Back to the present: looks like I have some tasks assigned to me on wife’s nesting list. It is best not to keep her waiting.

Until the morrow,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher

submitted by jwithrow.

Introduction

October 5, 2014
Hot Springs, VA

This will be my first journal entry in this segment I am calling “Journal of a Wayward Philosopher”. I intend to post an entry periodically throughout each week going forward.

I got the title for this segment by asking my wife to describe me in one word. She immediately said “philosopher”. I then asked her to describe me using an adjective. She said “introverted”… I remained silent. Then she said “honest”… I still remained silent. Then she said “non-confrontational”… and I continued to remain silent. Then she said “strong-willed” and I thanked her for her help and decided to use “wayward” as my adjective.

What I hope to offer through these journal entries is a unique perspective on life, finance, economics, and philosophy in general as seen through my rugged individualist lens.

Please make no mistake about it: I am under no illusion of importance. I have no more intelligence or wisdom than the next guy and I am fully aware of my own ignorance.

I am also fiercely private and I have no desire whatsoever to talk about myself. And by private I mean that I am sometimes taken aback when asked about what I did last weekend. “None of your business” is often the first thought that comes to mind. But then I regain my composure, smile, and say I cut grass last weekend.

I have found this to be the perfect response to all conversations that begin with “What did you do last weekend?”. Why? Because people usually ask this question specifically so they can pass judgment on your response. Maybe it’s subconscious most of the time, but that’s what people are really doing when they ask you this question.

So I tell them I cut the grass. Cutting the grass is seen as “productive” (a term that has become a misused cliche, by the way) and it is completely uninteresting so it lends itself to no follow-up questions. Truthfully, I was much more likely to be sipping a glass of whiskey by the fireplace last weekend than cutting the grass – especially if we are in the month of November. But sipping whiskey lends itself to judgment AND follow-up questions so best just to cut grass year-round.

The point is I really don’t care much for talking about myself. I find it to be very uncomfortable.

So why publish a journal? Well, because I know you will read it. And I know that if you read my journal then you are much more likely to buy my book. After all, isn’t that what philosophizing is all about – selling books? Either way, I am grateful for your readership and I welcome all questions, comments, and feedback.

Until the morrow,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher