The Modern Flaneur

(Irreconcilable differences…also cheating, lying and stealing other people’s stuff.) “The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.” ~ Thomas Sowell, Is Reality Optional? And Other Essays (1993) Today, we bow a tiny violin for the world’s know-it-all caste. We refer to the conspicuous do-gooders who deign to walk amongst us... the unctuous meddlers...

(Tony ‘The Science’ Fauci) “An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less until finally he knows everything about nothing.” ~ We don’t know (Anonymous) Science is back in the news this week, dear reader. We speak, mind you, not of science “the discipline,” which invites (and indeed thrives on) healthy skepticism, open debate, and free inquiry, not to mention intellectual humility. Rather, we refer to Science “the man”... also known as Anthony Fauci...

“All changes in the realm of human affairs are brought about by ideas. Ideas and only ideas can light the darkness. They are the main weapons in man’s struggle for survival and advancement.” ~ Ludwig von Mises, from Human Action (1949) When we left you earlier this week, we were ruminating on an important subject: ideas. We’re interested in their origin. Their transmission. Their ultimate value, be it good, bad... or ugly. The subject may appear abstract, even esoteric...

It is the insertion of man with his limited life span that transforms the continuously flowing stream of sheer change ... into time as we know it. ~ Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, A New Refutation of Time God is a circle whose center is everywhere, and its circumference nowhere.

“You feel you have to publish crap to make money to live and let live.” ~ Ernest Hemingway in a Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1934 “I appeal to your charity, I appeal to your generosity, I appeal to your justice, I appeal to your accounts, I appeal, in fine, to your purse.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson in a letter to his father, 1865 “It is now the fall of my second year in Paris. I was sent here for a reason I have not yet been able to fathom. I have no money, no resources, no hopes.

“Do not be afraid; our fate Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.” “Hope not ever to see Heaven. I have come to lead you to the other shore; into eternal darkness; into fire and into ice.” “The poets leave hell and again behold the stars.” ― All quotes from Dante Alighieri’s Inferno What place does ancient mythology have in our modern day storytelling?

“The meaning of life is that it stops.” ― Franz Kafka “What awaits men after death cannot be anticipated or imagined.” ― Heraclitus of Ephesus “Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow.” ― Elie Wiesel Share The Modern Flaneur There was a time, not so long ago, when we used to spend our summers in Budapest. At least a month or two, anyway.

“We should not only be grateful to those in whose opinions we share, but also to those who have gone astray.

“No army can stop an idea whose time has come” ~ Victor Hugo Whatever Luis de Velasco and the Marquis González had planned for the day, it almost certainly didn't include meeting the formidable British navy in head-on battle. Peering down from the castle walls, the two men must have stood stunned as the largest fleet ever seen in the Caribbean sailed into the Bahía de La Habana, cannons aimed in their very direction. The year was 1762, sometime in June…or July.

When you want to go fast, go alone. When you want to go far, go together. ~ African Proverb One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. ~ Henry Miller The campfire crackled under the starry heavens. Yellow and orange flames licked at the cooling night air, illuminating a circle of red-dark faces crouching around it. Dear wife had retired to our nearby tent for the evening.