The People’s Pottage
In the comment section of Robert Ringer’s Post on Trump a couple days ago, one Charles Garret remarked:
You are right. This is going to be a wipe out with Trump. I am 85 and we understand Trump. We are fed up with what’s been going on in our government for the last 50 to 60 years.
This elicited a curious reply from an anonymous ‘Guest’:
Based on your name and age I think you will enjoy (or know) Garet Garrett, The People’s Pottage, available online to read for free.
Mildly intrigued, I did a search and found the book available as a free PDF download from one of my favorite sites, the Mises Institute. It was originally published back in 1953, and their blurb stated:
A time came when the only people who had ever been free began to ask: “What is freedom?”
Who wrote its articles — the strong or the weak? Was it an absolute good? Could there be such a thing as unconditional freedom, short of anarchy?
Given the answer to be “no,” then was freedom an eternal truth or a political formula?
The three essays brought together in this book, entitled respectively, The Revolution Was, Ex America, and Rise of Empire, were first published as separate monographs by The Caxton Printers. They were written in that order, but at different times, as the eventful film unrolled itself. They are mainly descriptive. They purport to tell what it was happened and how it happened, from a point of view in which there is no sickly pretense of neutralism. Why it happened is a further study and belongs to the philosophy of history, if there is such a thing; else to some meaning of experience, dire or saving, that has not yet been revealed.
“What is Freedom? … Could there be such a thing as unconditional freedom, short of anarchy?” Is this in my current mental wheelhouse, or what? 🙂
Thus, now more intrigued than ever, I downloaded and started reading it. Wow! Why have I never heard of this book or its erudite author? So far, I have only completed the first essay, “The Revolution Was”; but I am blown away. I now know a lot more about the New Deal than ever before, and in the process have encountered much thought provoking material, on how sheeple are carefully manipulated by those in control of the narratives that shape public opinion.
I can hardly put it down; but I didn’t want to wait until I had finished it to turn my friends and associates on to a great read, which could be fodder for interesting future discussions hereabouts. Go get it… and enjoy. 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º
Downloaded on your suggestion and the foreword read. I suspect I’ll come away from this book finding our current state of affairs even more loathesome, but enlightened nonetheless.
Off to the library tomorrow to retrieve some items (actual books with bindings!) that have been held for me so I may not get through these essays and comment for a few days, but I look forward to further discussion.
Thanks in advance.
Loathsome for sure; but absolutely inevitable, Mary. The parallels with Obama’s total disregard for the Constitution, the Republican Congress’ fear of him, and refusal to use their power of the purse against his agenda, are chilling… and disgusting. Thanks for the interest in reading it.
I used to spend a lot of time in libraries; but I almost never read books printed on paper anymore. I really try not to ever read past an unfamiliar word without looking it up and adding it at least to my reading vocabulary, so I have become spoiled with the built-in dictionary in my Kindle and PDF readers. 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º
I too suffer similar spoiling regarding my Kindle but am unaware of a PDF reader. What do you use and were do you get it?
Troy
The standard free Adobe Acrobat Reader is an example of what I meant by my PDF reader, Troy, although personally I don’t use it that often. I actually have many ways of reading a PDF file, depending on which platform (Windows or IOS) I am using at the time.
In my Montessori endeavors, I have frequent need to create, modify, combine, and/or password protect PDF files and forms, so for years I always used the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Pro, which I didn’t mind paying for. Recently, Adobe has changed their whole marketing philosophy to a web based subscription arrangement, giving one access to whole bundles of their software for a monthly fee. Since I have no need of Photoshop, etc. this service was not worth it for me, so I stopped buying the latest version of Acrobat.
It is a long ugly story regarding the Windows 10 upgrade, and a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) loop I couldn’t get out of; but I ended up buying a new laptop, before finally giving up and resetting the old one to a fresh Windows install. This deleted all of the installed programs on it, including my Acrobat Pro, which I had bought as a download several years ago. Rather than go through all the folderol with Adobe required to replace and reinstall this ‘legacy’ software, I decided it was time to find an alternative.
After a bit of research and review comparisons, I chose to purchase Soda PDF 8 Pro with the OCR module. It includes a cool “3D” reader mode, which lets one flip through the pages like a Kindle. I have not investigated their ‘free’ offerings; but if you are interested, this 3D reader is being offered as a free download here. Let me know if you like it. â—„Daveâ–º
Downloading it now. Thanks for the pointer.
Troy
You will
enjoyappreciate it. I finished Part 2, “Ex America” last night. If I had been encouraged (or even permitted) to read this book in high school, it sure could have saved me a lot of time and effort in life, wasted tilting at windmills. â—„Daveâ–ºYou are correct — I did appreciate it. Like you, I wish I had known of (and read) this years ago as it would have saved me a lot of investigation, pondering and mistakes along the way to partial understanding of the mess we are in. Regrettably, it also reinforced my feeling of hopelessness as regards the future of our nation.
Troy
Yep… it is just astounding that it was written back when we were still in short pants, with such a clear understanding of what was being lost by the American people, how, and why. Yet, as is so obvious now, brilliant as it was, it basically had zero effect whatever on the future outcome of American politics.
Now, to think that there is something we might do as individuals, which could correct past mistakes, and improve the future of our erstwhile republic, is ridiculous hubris. If I hadn’t already given up, I sure would now. 🙁 â—„Daveâ–º
OK – I downloaded the free version of Soda PDF. The pages it renders are clearer than Acrobat Reader. I think I will like it. Thanks for the pointer.
Troy
Hi would you mind letting me know which hosting company you’re working with?
I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most.
Can you suggest a good hosting provider at a reasonable price?
Cheers, I appreciate it!
I use DREAMHOST and have been very happy with their service, Fred. â—„Daveâ–º
Not to take anything away from Dreamhost because I’m not really familiar with them. One thing is I’ve never noticed any down time on this site. I do however suspect that the fast load time of this site has more to do with the simple bare bones design of the site itself and the avoidance of bandwidth gobbling media. Very nice. As you know Dave I run one that is just the opposite. Very heavily modded with a ton of plugins and java. Speed is a constant battle. Yet the difference is only about .75 seconds off a Godaddy server (don’t read this as a Godaddy endorsement. They do have their issues). I guess I can live with that. 😀
Another good book I recommend is Rosalie M Gordon’s “Nine Men Against America”. http://www.sovereignstates.org/books/NMAA/NineMen_Cover.html. Very apropos these days. We must prevail.