As our young men and women move into adulthood ( as mine have just done) and they need to navigate the complicated and hostile paths of the future, I decided to compile some selected readings, quotes, videos and advice that may help them. This will probably be the first American generation that will be less prosperous than the prior one, and will have to actually deal with and resolve the complicated social issues and deep divides that their elders have left them as things come to a head, so let’s try to point them the right way.
1) “Life isn't fair, it's just fairer than death, that's all.” – William Goldman, The Princess Bride (
https://www.amazon.com/Princess-Bride-20th-Anniversary/dp/B000TJBNHG) Expecting life to be fair will make you dissatisfied and unhappy. It’s a grown up reality that one must simply accept and deal with and simply try to not contribute to the problem. One should realize that sometimes life not being fair works in one’s benefit as well as to one’s detriment. There is a balance here.
2) “The World Only Cares About What It Can Get from You” (
https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person) You have the internet. Use it to improve your value to others. Learn a second language. Learn secondary skills that you can sell if your primary skill can no longer provide. The days of having a single profession or a single source of income are probably over. See also Ayn Rand’s “money speech” from Atlas Shrugged (
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/library/books/franciscos-money-speech-from-atlas-shrugged/) and Barnhardt’s “We Are the Gold” (
https://www.barnhardt.biz/2013/11/05/the-one-about-how-we-are-the-gold/)
3) “Me is mine. You Is yours” (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxnBSb4OKeU ) There are a limited number of ways people can get along , repeatedly and over time , and this is at the heart of all of them. This is the basis of natural rights, of “live and let live” and basic moral philosophy. Do not harm others and do all you say you will do and you will build a network of friends that will be there to help you when things don’t go well. .
4) Don’t Spend Money you don’t have (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3ZJKN_5M44) No really. Don’t do it. Housing should cost ¼ of your take home. If it doesn’t you need to find somewhere cheaper, a shored house, a shared room and maybe one in another city, state or even country. Living below your means is key to having enough savings to weather the little disasters life throws at you. Even if you can only save 1% of your income, then do that. The earlier you do it, the better off you will be. Delayed Gratification is the key to success. If children can learn to do it, so can you. (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment)
5) “No Matter where you go, there you are “ –Buckaroo Banzai(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g95ZXrh2oK4)
Having compassion for yourself and for others in failures is always called for. When you find yourself or someone else at a low, understand it is not where you have been that defines you, but what you decide to do next that counts. Meaning comes from being able to take responsibility for yourself and for others. (
https://www.amazon.com/12-Rules-Life-Antidote-Chaos/dp/0141988517, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NP6881K/) You will maximize your satisfaction with life by always trying new things, just outside your area of competence. Doing so maximizes your chances of success and keeps you always moving forward toward a greater ability to take responsibility.
6) “Everything is amazing & Nobody is happy” –Louis CK (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdFB7q89_3U) You are probably doing better than the kings of old. (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3VhzEAruMk) Appreciate that fact. Gratitude and Perspective are invaluable to finding a good place for yourself and assessing your situation
7) 'There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.'- Richard Bach (
https://www.amazon.com/Illusions-Adventures-Reluctant-Richard-Bach/dp/0440204887) In my experience if you are seeing the same problem over and over in your life it is an indication you need to change and grow. Failure to acknowledge the problem will leave you mired.
8) “There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day; we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life.” ? Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms (
https://www.amazon.com/Passionate-State-Mind-Other-Aphorisms/dp/1933435097/) Never accept any external excuse as a reason for not moving forward. There is no substitute for perseverance and showing up. This is why there is no such thing as unskilled labor. Simply arriving on time and doing your best while at work will set you above your co-workers who lack these critical skills.
9) “Funny, I've always believed that the world is what we make of it” – Ellie Arroway (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ5LAJsebzM) Never use the evil in the world as an excuse for not doing what you know is right in your personal behavior. Character is what you are in the dark.
10) “All the roots grow Deeper when its Dry” -David Wilcox (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW2SsxLsl80) The people who lived through the great depression often remembered it as one of the best times of their lives, because of the meaningful connections with others forged in hardship.
11) Never take offense when none has been offered to you. Taking umbrage when there was no intent to offend is manipulative, and its own form of stealing
12) “All those moments will be lost, Like Tears in the Rain” (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoAzpa1x7jU) Seize the day, even if you feel it may be futile in the end. The personal experience of beauty is always worth it. See also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej9w6KMn4Y013) “It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of a son of a bitch or another. “ --Malcolm Reynolds (
https://www.amazon.com/Firefly-Complete-Anniversary-Collectors-Blu-ray/dp/B07451532Z) No matter who your heroes are, they were human, and humans have flaws. Do not reject the noble because it is combined with evil, for ever was it so. Mimic the good and disregard and jettison the bad
14) “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.” ? C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology (Making of Modern Theology) Understand the limits of your own knowledge, and understand what is best for you, may not be best for others. "Gemeinnutz geht vor Eigennutz" ("The community comes before the individual") was written around every Reichmark. See also :” "Now I ask you in all soberness, if all these things, if indulged in, if ratified, if confirmed and endorsed, if taught to our children, and repeated to them, do not tend to rub out the sentiment of liberty in the country, and to transform this Government into a government of some other form.Those arguments that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated with as much allowance as they are capable of enjoying; that as much is to be done for them as their condition will allow. What are these arguments? They are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world.You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden. That is their argument, and this argument of the Judge is the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn it whatever way you will---whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent." -- Abraham Lincoln. Speech at Chicago, Illinois
15) “Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as "bad luck.” ? Robert Heinlein. Wealth is not a zero sum game, and the Pareto Principle, The cost of knowledge , and human responses to incentives will always thwart any attempt to make people equal in outcome. See also (
https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.txt)
16) When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ ’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”? Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass. Understand how others are using language to manipulate how you see and interpret the world, and learn to resist it. . The map is not the territory. (
https://www.amazon.com/Language-Thought-Action-S-HAYAKAWA/dp/B000H5JXK6)
17) “The cavemen had the same natural resources at their disposal as we have today, and the difference between their standard of living and ours is a difference between the knowledge they could bring to bear on those resources and the knowledge used today.”
? Thomas Sowell, Knowledge And Decisions (
https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-and-Decisions-audiobook/dp/B009QWNFG4/) The world is in the state it is in because of the tradeoffs past generations have made, often between two or more even more undesirable paths. If you really want to change the world, you need to be able to understand these tradeoffs and see the world as a system, with inefficiency and flaws , undergoing incremental improvements via tradeoffs between one thing and another. Asking Sowell’s questions “At what cost?”, “As compared to what?” , and “Do you have any hard evidence of that?” along with the two other questions I learned from him :” Who is to decide?” and “What incentives does this set up?” will greatly assist you not only in navigating the world, but in ensuring the small incremental improvements you make to it, will, in fact, result in improvement. The path to hell is paved with good intentions, and the law of unintended consequences is always in effect. Learn to know what you don’t know. See also Hayek’s “the Road to Serfdom”
https://www.amazon.com/Road-Serfdom-Fredrich-Dr-Hayek/dp/0255365764/rBooks everyone should read for the fundamental truths they contain
1) The Bible
2) Knowledge and Decisions – Thomas Sowell ( really everything he ever wrote…)
3) Language in Thought and Action – S I Hayakawa
4) The Federalist Papers.
5) The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
6) The Princess Bride – William Goldman
7) Winter’s Tale – Mark Helprin
8) Illusions – Richard Bach
9) The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff
10) The Watchmen – Alan Moore
11) A Scanner Darkly – Philip K Dick
12) The Evolutionary Psychology Behind Politics: How Conservatism and Liberalism Evolved Within Humans –Anonymous conservative
13) Starving the Monkeys: Fight Back Smarter –Tom Baugh
14) Dictator's Handbook : Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics - Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, Alastair Smith
15) The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements- Eric Hoffer
16) Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Movies everyone should see for the fundamental truths they contain
1) To Kill a Mockingbird (If Atticus Finch isn’t a hero of yours, he should be)
2) Pink Floyd’s the Wall.
3) Gattaca
4) Lost in Translation
5) Trust ( Hal Hartley)
6) Idiocracy
7) Office Space
8) Brazil
9) Pulp Fiction
10) Fight Club
11) Firefly/Serenity
Anyone else got suggestions and advice?
