Category Archives: Anthony Trevlac

Communism’s Fundamental Error – And It’s a Big One

By Anthony Trevlac

  • May 6, 2024
  • 6-min read

If socialism ever officially ends up on the ash heap of history, where it certainly belongs, it will be because it is based at least one fundamental error. There is a fatal flaw in its basic approach that no amount of misdirection, finger-pointing, or excuse-making can overcome.

The problem is that socialism/Marxism/Democratic Socialism are all based on the assumption that groups are the dominant and fundamental operating units in a society. That notion is wrong. The embrace of it undermines everything on which it is based.

The individual is the building block of society, here and in every other nation. This has been true from the moment the first primordial sign of life appeared on the planet. This was billions of years ago, even before Keith Richards was born.

To recognize the primacy of the individual is not to say what government wants to be true: it is a statement about what is true. Opinions have no more impact on this than they do on determining the freezing temperature of water.

Putin or Xi or Biden can develop policies, tactics, and strategies that try to force groups to do something. But the people those policies affect react as individuals, not groups.

They may give an order to share food equally. But lots of people will disobey it given half a chance. They will care more about their own child than about another’s. They will care more about themselves than their neighbor. They may disobey any and every directive if they disagree with it, think ignoring it will help them, and are unlikely to be punished for their recalcitrance.

Lots of individuals will disobey an order if they can do it without getting shot or otherwise sanctioned. The fact that people don’t act in unison, without fail, every time, means that disparate outcomes are a certainty.

The exercise of executive fiat at the state and national levels led to disastrous policies during. Certainly, millions of people just said “ok” when told to wear a mask or stay home, but millions also told authorities to take a long walk on a short pier. This historical exercise should have told our government that trying to herd these cats is a pointless effort and doomed to fail.

One is astonished at time at how many people seem to just love to follow rules. They can’t want to be told what to do. And huge swaths of them don’t even give it a second thought. The feds say we have to wear yellow shirts, walk backwards, and yell “Spongebob rules” incessantly. Let’s do it! Don’t ask questions. Have they ever lied to us before?

Well, yes, they have.

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Plenty of Blame to Go Around In Education

By Anthony Trevlac

  • April 29, 2024
  • 4-min read

Most Americans have long recognized that education is a prerequisite for happiness, success, and well-being. It is also fair to say there is a widespread feeling that our schools are failing us.

There is a lot of debate about what to do to improve our schools, but it is important to remember they do not operate in a vacuum. Public education reflects the values in our communities, our nation, and ourselves.

Teachers and administrators should be held accountable, but our educational system can only do so much when the environment in which our children are raised has changed so dramatically. There is enough blame to go around. If our schools aren’t good enough, it is also important to ask if we are good enough.

The disintegration of the family is key. Most black children in the 1960’s had two-parent households. Most today do not. About three-fourths of black children in America today are born to unmarried women.

Only the most naïve of us – or the most willfully ignorant – would deny the devastating effect this has had on the ability of children to concentrate in school, get support at home, follow good role models, and stay out of trouble. Children from intact, two-parent homes perform better on every important metric.

Then there is the worst self-inflicted wound in our history. America shut down the economy and public education during Covid. Millions of us complained at the time and were widely reviled by those people who think you should just fall in line.

We objected to the loss of freedom and predicted it would result in terrible long-term damage to the economy. Many unconstitutional actions were taken, and sanctions were applied randomly. Why was it OK to go to Lowe’s or Kroger, but not to Larry’s Hardware or Sam’s grocery? Why was it safe to wait in line at Wal-Mart but not to wait in line to vote?

Those who defend our response to Covid claim we didn’t know much about it, we learned as we went along, and we did our best. That certainly is a charitable way to look at things. The physicians who used to use leeches and bled their patients said the same thing.

There was never good science behind several of the tactics we were told to use (masks, six-feet distancing), and many policies were continued long after we knew better. They are still promoted today.

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