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founding
Aug 2, 2022·edited Aug 2, 2022

These are excellent videos for Prager University. The introduction text is also solid and inspiring. Thank you.

There is one logical fallacy that torpedoes the case. A thing (good or bad) cannot be the cause of itself. The reason must be antecedent to the thing. Saying that the problem of Marxism is Marxism is ineffective. You pointed out that the goal of Marxism is to change human nature. Human nature is a given. Human nature is not going to change. We know that. The kids are taught otherwise today. They believe it. The videos don't address that.

Not to recognize all the ills of the mixed economy is to ignore that people know things are bad, but they have not been offered a strong case for disbelieving the "there's a light at the end of the tunnel" and "the state will wither away." Just because Marxism has consistently failed is not a hat on which to hook a principled opposition.

The answer must be in the nature of human nature itself and must be an implicit assumption made in 1776 -1789 by the Founders regarding the nature of rights. We are living through a proliferation of so-called "rights." It has gotten much worse in the last 20 years as if time is running out, or in the words of Atlas Shrugged, our "days are numbered." The implicit assumption has been replaced by explicit knowledge, but the concept of rights has not been updated.

I would look to something in the definition of rights that needs to be explicitly restricted and clarified based on human nature. It would have to be simple and exact to make Marxism obviously wrong in principle. Morality might trump economics, but ultimately the metaphysically given, man's conceptual consciousness forms the basis of human nature itself.

Philosophy must adjust to reality, and the longer it takes to adjust, the harder it becomes. Perhaps this is the idea that will move the cultural needle toward rationality. I doubt Prager will favor this notion because Christianity is basically Platonist. Objectivism is the only philosophy that could lead the way.

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Great videos!

The problem with Marxism is collectivism, with those at the top deciding for the collective what their greatest good is (and then, as the videos point out, making sure that this greatest good is enforced.) Our real greatest good is that we're each free to pursue our own greatest good within the broad constraints of the law.

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