Corrupt will take a short break during the Yule holidays.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Emmanuel Goldstein's Book sums up the support for equality in this way:

The aim of the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim -- for it is an abiding characteristic of the Low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittenly conscious of anything outside their daily lives -- is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal.

Was Goldstein right in his assumption that equality is mainly advocated by proles? Martin Regnen has the answer in his latest column: Who Loves Equality?

The Republic of Texas movement campaigns for Texas to be officially separated from the United States of America, on the grounds that Texas never acceded to be part of the union and has the right to forge its own future, maintaining sovereignty and resisting integration into the planned North American Union. Senator Ed Brannum is spokesman for the Republic of Texas movement, and kindly granted us an interview.

Read the entire interview: Texian Senator Ed Brannum

Martin Regnen poses a controversial question this week:

The primary purpose of marriage is and has always been to reduce violence between men competing for mates. Westerners are much less violent than we were only a few hundred years ago, and other peoples possibly are as well. We are far less likely to die by violence. Have we become so nonviolent and orderly that marriage has lost its raison d'etre? Would marriage still be going strong in spite of the easy availability of birth control and employment for women if trying to kill your wife's lover were normal behavior?

Read his latest column: The Bloody Roots Of Tradition

Brett Stevens reviews green teas and British candy this week:

Trying to live a healthy, moral, realistic life in a time when most people are oriented toward distraction is a beast. The rest of them care more about what makes them look cool to others, and how they can band together to conspire to face the fewest challenges in life possible, and you're without hope looking for something as simple as a beverage you can believe in. Never fear: we've found the answer, at least for green teas.

CORRUPT Reviews Green Teas

None of us like modern society, yet we have to live in it. Part of that means finding candy for your kids, because although I too dislike beet-derived refined sugar, they're going to get exposed to it, so you want an option at home that's not chock full of chemicals to shrink their testicles and give them cancer or pre-AIDS. Ideally, from the somewhat paranoid perspective of a protective parent, you would be able to give them sugared zucchini, but let's be realistic about what kids will accept.

Tavener's Sour Lemon Drops

John Zerzan is one of the leading advocates of the anti-civilization movement, communicating through speech, literature and action that modern society is unsustainable and harmful to our psychology and freedom. Following in the footsteps of Theodore Kaczynski, Zerzan is a radical anarcho-primitivist and believes that we must get rid of civilization itself, returning to a very simple lifestyle close to nature. His ideas confront commonly held beliefs about primitive people and about our path towards progress.

Read the interview here: Anarcho-Primitivist Thinker and Activist John Zerzan

Corrupt is always interested in finding allies from the green anarchy movement, because we have a lot in common:

- We need more separatism instead of trying to force one system of values upon all people.

- We need local, self-sustaining communities back.

- Globalization and mass industrialization don't work.

- We have too much government and bureaucracy running our lives.

- Modern people are not happy.

- The modern lifestyle is harmful to nature and makes us neurotic.

- We need to figure out the basics before we get involved with too much technology.

- Much of the products we have around today don't serve a meaningful purpose outside of consumption.

How fast are we humans evolving? Has our evolution stopped dead in its tracks? How much do we differ genetically from our ancestors five or ten or fifty generations ago? The question is the subject of controversy - Greg Cochran and Henry Harpending have authored an upcoming book on the acceleration of human evolution during the past 10000 years, while others are suggesting that in more recent times we have been evolving slowly or not at all.

Read Martin Regnen's column here: Is Darwin Alive And Well?

A few days ago I had an interesting conversation with a person whose views of music differ completely from mine. I managed to tease out a fairly complete description of those views without making him so offended or angry that he'd stop talking to me. I have written this brief summary because I find them thoroughly irrational but also interesting.

According to this view, which I call the magical theory of music, the purpose of music is most definitely not to provide something of value to listeners. It doesn't matter whether music provides listeners with enjoyment, something to dance to at a wedding, pomp and circumstance at an official ceremony, or even enlightenment. All those are side effects of music. The only valid purpose of music is to provide the performer with the satisfaction of personal expression.

Read Martin Regnen's column here: The Magical Theory Of Music

Alex Birch calls for an unusual revolution in his latest column:

One of the reasons people suffer from low self-esteem today is that they have less control over their own lives. The nanny state takes cares of our children, the media tells us what to think, and the supermarkets supply us with every product we could ever need. What if we'd start to take responsibility for our lives again? Let's start with the basics; how many people today know how to cook their own food? Surprisingly few. If it's out of sheer laziness or lack of knowledge, I don't know, but it seems to me that we can do a lot better than this.

Read his column here: I Call For a Cooking Revolution

This week our columnist Martin Regnen investigates whether democracies suffer worse from Parkinson's Law:

One of the fundamental laws of bureaucracy, Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time available. It is responsible for a tremendous amount of waste and inefficiency and for the uncontrolled and unnecessary growth of organizations of all kinds. Reflecting on Parkinson's Law recently, I realized that democratic governments should be more vulnerable to it than totalitarian governments.

Is it true? Read his column here: Why Democracy Inevitably Leads to More Bureaucracy

Jim Gruber offers his personal experience with quitting the corporate world and entering private business:

Years ago, I had what I considered an ideal job at an up and coming company. They offered autonomy and interesting projects, but the demands were high. Weeks started growing to 60+ hours with evenings and weekends becoming commandeered for "urgent" tasks, and soon not only was personal time gone, but also sleep, sensible eating, and time for reflection had become victims. Days came to swallow nights and the suggestion from higher ups was to work harder, not smarter.

Read his column here: When the Going Gets Tough, Quit

Alex Birch comments on Finnish high school shooter Pekka-Eric Auvinen's tragic fate and how modern society is too impotent to care for its brightest young individuals:

People love to be judgemental. They get a kick out of pointing fingers and feeling powerful. From our television shows, designed to let the audience function as armchair judges, to real world situations like elections, where we pick the underdog because it makes us appear morally superior--judgement rules our perception of reality. Therefore, when tragic things such as school shootings take place, the public immediately responds by overlooking pure facts and instead filling the scene with drama. The verdict falls, "he was insane," and then we shrug it off as if it had nothing to do with our society as a whole.

Read his column here: We Fail Our Intelligent Children

This week our columnist Martin Regnen investigates whether judging somone by apperance really is that bad:

Our educators, politicians and activists like to remind us that we must not judge people by their appearance. Such judgement is supposedly morally abhorrent and provides no useful information. But how true is that? Are we good at forming some accurate judgements based on a person's appearance or not?

Read his column here: Being Judgemental

From one of our Corrupt supporters:

I had this message waiting for me when I signed into Facebook today:

"Please Read This!
Warning
You uploaded a photo that violates our Terms of Use, and this photo has been removed. Among other things, photos containing nudity, drug use, or other obscene content are not allowed, nor are photos that attack an individual or group. Continued misuse of Facebook's features could result in your account being disabled.

If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page at facebook.com/help.php?topic=wphotos."

Guess which photo it was?
Yep, the Corrupt.org bumper sticker "End Democracy 08". Think it's a coincidence this happened on election day?

The image that offended Facebook was this:

The ugly face of neo-Stalinism is revealing its true nature, when even private non-governmental forms of communication require obedience to democracy and don't permit alternatives. Wasn't the whole idea behind Freedom and Change that we're free to speak our minds and change the world around us? Or is self-criticism banned in the supposedly best system of government humanity has to offer? Democracy is its own enemy and will, as Plato noted, develop into tyranny once it has undermined its own founding principles. The hypocrisy of the West continues.

Show the world you refuse to back down--order home a batch or End Democracy t-shirts and stickers from our merchandise store today!

Our translator Eetu brings us positive news regarding our upcoming publication of Pentti Linkola's latest book:

I mentioned this to the friend of Linkola I had been in contact with,
and she asked around in Tammi (the Finnish book's publisher), because
she has worked there before and also taken part in editing the book.

The Tammi people told her that they'll certainly send a notice about
the publication to the newspapers, but the event would most likely be
postponed until January since the press is undoubtedly quite busy
around Yule time. Mr. Linkola, she and some others involved with the
book would be there.

I'll get back to you when there's more information.

Regards,
Eetu

Martin Regnen deals with the problem of incompetent voters in a democracy:

One of the features of democracy is that almost any adult, no matter how unintelligent or uninformed, has a vote. Does this result in poor policy choices? If it does, how can the problem be fixed? Or is a democracy which makes rational policy choices a pipe dream?

Read his column here: Must Democracy Suffer Foolish Voters?

If you're interested in discussing this topic further, why not have an anti-democratic lunch with Arnold Kling from the Library of Economics and Liberty?

Reader George Paci suggested that I attempt to convene a lunch where locals can join me in batting around ideas, or I suppose just bat me around. Fellow DC-area bloggers as well as readers are welcome to attend.

In the spirit of opposition to democracy, I will organize this event by fiat.

1. Monday, November 10, one PM.

2. Lebanese Taverna, downtown Silver Spring, about 3 blocks from the Metro, and close to garage parking. Convenient for District and Maryland residents. For Virginians, not so much, although y'all are more than welcome. Maybe Bryan will be moved to try something similar on that side of the Potomac.

We suggest all corruptian DC-residents try this out and have some fun. Mention the idea of letting each community decide its own system of government (parallelism), while hinting at what seems to work is a traditional order (leadership based on ability).

"To be full of things is to be empty of God. To be empty of things is to be full of God." Emerging from a tumultuous time in Central Europe, where various factions of belief contended for the hearts and spiritual minds of Germans everywhere, Meister Eckhart produced by means of divine insight a higher philosophy that echoed the religious truths that were quickly becoming forgotten in thirteenth century Europe.

Contributor Joel Meyer continues to educate us in traditional wisdom, this time elaborating on the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart. Describing his life, his ideas, and his vision of a spiritual unity within us all, Meyer covers one of the most important Christian thinkers of the West.

Read about Meister Eckhart here

Want to be a part of the momentum and also write a profile?

Check this page for a list of available topics.

Once a Warrior King is one of those books that makes you re-evaluate how you view the world. Ostensibly about warfare, it seems to me that it's equal parts practical knowledge and a philosophical -- or some would say spiritual -- assessment of what is important in life, from someone who daily faced both the possibility of losing his own life and the necessity of taking the lives of others. When I first read this book as a teenager, I was blown away by its honesty and wisdom. When I re-read it for this interview, I was again -- doubly so. As it turns out, David Donovan the man who answers email and writes interviews is a gentle fellow, but he is a student of life and so like all students of life he is adamant about lessons learned. We are fortunate that he answered our questions, and honored that he allowed us to ask them. See our review of Once a Warrior King and then wander on over to David Donovan's web site to learn more about this insightful author.

Read the entire interview here.

Our book company has now informed us that the original publication date for the Linkola book is set to 21th of December, but that with a bit of luck, we may have it ready before then.

We are now working on the Corrupt imprint for the book.

Thanks to all of you who helped me gather more supporters. It’s going well. We have gotten a few hundred more names just in the last couple of days. We’ve also been recognized on other websites. I’d invite you to take a look at http://www.corrupt.org/. But we still have a long way to go.

We only have one shot at trying to get the system turned around. If the legislation that I am prepared to offer fails, I’m afraid it might be some time before we can find someone else who has the courage to stand up for the people.

Thank you for your support.

John LaBruzzo

After having received a notable amount of support from our readers, we have now sent off a first list of emails to LaBruzzo.

He's thankful for all the support he receives and clearly states that this will help him prepare for the welfare reforms he seeks to implement.

We still urge all Corruptians who are reading this to contact our Editor and give him your email address in support of John LaBruzzo and Corrupt.

Together we campaign against welfare abuse and bureaucratic totalitarianism, wherever we find it. Help us spread the word and be a part of the change!

Follow the campaign:

What this controversy is all about: Louisiana State Rep. Suggests End of Welfare to the Clueless and Support of the Successful

How Corrupt got involved: Vote LaBruzzo, End the Welfare State!

How You can help us create change: LaBruzzo Fired Over Anti-Welfare Policy Suggestion - Now He Needs Our Help