[{"content":"Faith gathers writing and media related to Orthodox Christianity, spiritual formation, and the disciplines of an examined life under God.\nSome pieces are direct statements of belief. Others are part of a longer movement, toward older truths, deeper roots, and a life ordered by something higher than preference or impulse.\n","date":"March 9, 2023","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/faith/","section":"Faith","summary":"Faith gathers writing and media related to Orthodox Christianity, spiritual formation, and the disciplines of an examined life under God.\nSome pieces are direct statements of belief. Others are part of a longer movement, toward older truths, deeper roots, and a life ordered by something higher than preference or impulse.\n","title":"Faith","type":"faith"},{"content":"The Treasury is where money, institutions, macro conditions, and long-horizon financial thought are examined carefully and without hype.\nIt gathers work on sound money, economic judgment, and the structures that quietly shape ordinary life. The emphasis here is on seeing clearly, weighing consequences, and resisting financial amnesia.\n","date":"September 18, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/treasury/","section":"The Treasury","summary":"The Treasury is where money, institutions, macro conditions, and long-horizon financial thought are examined carefully and without hype.\nIt gathers work on sound money, economic judgment, and the structures that quietly shape ordinary life. The emphasis here is on seeing clearly, weighing consequences, and resisting financial amnesia.\n","title":"The Treasury","type":"treasury"},{"content":"The Gymnasium holds training, health, physical capability, and the practical maintenance of strength and vitality.\nThis realm is about discipline in the physical sense, the habits, routines, and choices that shape endurance, energy, and readiness over time.\n","date":"October 2, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/gymnasium/","section":"The Gymnasium","summary":"The Gymnasium holds training, health, physical capability, and the practical maintenance of strength and vitality.\nThis realm is about discipline in the physical sense, the habits, routines, and choices that shape endurance, energy, and readiness over time.\n","title":"The Gymnasium","type":"gymnasium"},{"content":"The Schoolroom is for books, habits, education, and the domestic seriousness of forming children well.\nIt gathers material related to teaching, children\u0026rsquo;s reading, and the quiet work of formation. This realm is less about schooling as a system than about education as a way of shaping souls, tastes, and attention.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/schoolroom/","section":"The Schoolroom","summary":"The Schoolroom is for books, habits, education, and the domestic seriousness of forming children well.\nIt gathers material related to teaching, children’s reading, and the quiet work of formation. This realm is less about schooling as a system than about education as a way of shaping souls, tastes, and attention.\n","title":"The Schoolroom","type":"schoolroom"},{"content":"The Watchtower is for analysis, pattern recognition, and pieces that require caution, clarity, and elevated perspective.\nIt gathers work that tries to name what is happening without surrendering to panic or propaganda. The mood here is vigilance, but also steadiness, the discipline of seeing clearly without becoming consumed by noise.\n","date":"October 9, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/watchtower/","section":"The Watchtower","summary":"The Watchtower is for analysis, pattern recognition, and pieces that require caution, clarity, and elevated perspective.\nIt gathers work that tries to name what is happening without surrendering to panic or propaganda. The mood here is vigilance, but also steadiness, the discipline of seeing clearly without becoming consumed by noise.\n","title":"The Watchtower","type":"watchtower"},{"content":"A chronological archive of videos across the wider memoir, with each entry living on its own standalone page and also appearing inside the relevant realm timelines.\n","date":"April 1, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/","section":"Videos","summary":"A chronological archive of videos across the wider memoir, with each entry living on its own standalone page and also appearing inside the relevant realm timelines.\n","title":"Videos","type":"videos"},{"content":"Micro is the short-form stream, for quick notes that still deserve a durable home.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/micro/","section":"Micro","summary":"Micro is the short-form stream, for quick notes that still deserve a durable home.\n","title":"Micro","type":"micro"},{"content":"The Map will eventually visualize links, tags, and trails across the archive, in the spirit of the master plan\u0026rsquo;s graph view.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/map/","section":"Map","summary":"The Map will eventually visualize links, tags, and trails across the archive, in the spirit of the master plan’s graph view.\n","title":"Map","type":"map"},{"content":"This area is private in the long-term architecture and should not be exposed publicly in production.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/family/","section":"Family","summary":"This area is private in the long-term architecture and should not be exposed publicly in production.\n","title":"Family","type":"family"},{"content":"This working page maps posts from the old blog into the new digital memoir architecture.\nThe goal is to preserve the legacy archive faithfully, with original text, original dates, and a direct link back to the source post while migration is being validated.\nMigration status # Migrated: imported into the Hugo archive with original text and original date preserved Missing / unavailable: referenced in the old index but source page not currently reachable External archive only: historical reference that remains outside the main Hugo post corpus Current result # All legacy posts visible on the old blog index have now been migrated into the Hugo archive except for You Are The Product, which currently returns 404 and appears unavailable at its old URL.\nFull migration matrix # Year Legacy post Realm Status Notes 2023 ESG Presentation Watchtower / Treasury Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2023 Faith And Tradition Faith Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2022 CBDC Presentation Treasury Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2022 Coercivists–Voluntaryists Watchtower Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2022 The Good News Faith Migrated Re-extracted with fuller parser to avoid truncation. 2022 Yarr Terminal Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2022 SearXNG Terminal Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2022 CBDCs Treasury Migrated Re-extracted with fuller parser to avoid truncation. 2022 Gold is real Money Treasury Migrated Re-extracted with fuller parser to avoid truncation. 2022 The Lord of The Rings Library Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2022 DuckDuckGo to Begin Censoring Watchtower / Terminal Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 You Are The Product Watchtower / Terminal Missing / unavailable Old URL currently returns 404. 2021 4:30 AM Gymnasium Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 Hermetic Principles Watchtower Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 Natural Law Faith / Watchtower Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 Right from Wrong Faith / Watchtower Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 Truth Faith / Watchtower Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 Shopsmith Workshop Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 Calibre Terminal / Library Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 Journal For Discipline Gymnasium / Library Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 Jitsi Terminal Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 RSS-Bridge Terminal Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 Latin Library / Schoolroom Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 Drew\u0026rsquo;s Personal Library Library Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 Maturity Matters Watchtower / Faith Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2021 Independence Not Dependence Watchtower / Workshop / Terminal Migrated Added original link back to source post. 2014 StarLog Blog Posts External archive only External archive only Still lives at drewredifer.blogspot.com. 2013 drewredifer.com External archive only External archive only Historical site reference. Remaining follow-up # Investigate whether You Are The Product exists at an alternate URL or only survives in another archive. Later, decide whether to keep all migrated posts equally surfaced or treat some as deeper archive material. After blog migration, move on to YouTube inventory and realm mapping. ","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/library/legacy-blog-migration/","section":"The Library","summary":"This working page maps posts from the old blog into the new digital memoir architecture.\nThe goal is to preserve the legacy archive faithfully, with original text, original dates, and a direct link back to the source post while migration is being validated.\n","title":"Legacy Blog Migration Map","type":"library"},{"content":"I’m Drew. This is my life, told in projects, essays, code, and video.\nThis site is organized as a set of connected realms, each one a room in the same house.\nStart with Start Here if you want the guided path, or wander by realm if you prefer to explore.\n","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/","section":"The Drew Archive","summary":"I’m Drew. This is my life, told in projects, essays, code, and video.\nThis site is organized as a set of connected realms, each one a room in the same house.\n","title":"The Drew Archive","type":"page"},{"content":"The Library is the reading life of the archive.\nIt gathers books worth keeping, ideas worth revisiting, and the long conversation that stretches across generations. Some entries are about particular works. Others are about education, inheritance, and the habits of learning that shape a life over time.\n","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/library/","section":"The Library","summary":"The Library is the reading life of the archive.\nIt gathers books worth keeping, ideas worth revisiting, and the long conversation that stretches across generations. Some entries are about particular works. Others are about education, inheritance, and the habits of learning that shape a life over time.\n","title":"The Library","type":"library"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/books/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Books","type":"tags"},{"content":"This trail follows the building of a durable archive across books, tools, servers, and preservation-minded media.\n","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/trails/building-the-archive/","section":"Trails","summary":"This trail follows the building of a durable archive across books, tools, servers, and preservation-minded media.\n","title":"Building the Archive","type":"trails"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/digital-memoir/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Digital-Memoir","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/making/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Making","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/systems/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Systems","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tags","type":"tags"},{"content":"Trails are the memoir’s chapter system.\nA trail links pieces published in different realms into a single readable sequence.\n","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/trails/","section":"Trails","summary":"Trails are the memoir’s chapter system.\nA trail links pieces published in different realms into a single readable sequence.\n","title":"Trails","type":"trails"},{"content":"This trail gathers pieces that sketch a movement toward Christianity, objective truth, and a life ordered around older and more stable things.\n","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/trails/coming-to-faith/","section":"Trails","summary":"This trail gathers pieces that sketch a movement toward Christianity, objective truth, and a life ordered around older and more stable things.\n","title":"Coming to Faith","type":"trails"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/conversion/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Conversion","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/faith/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Faith","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/library/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Library","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/workshop/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Workshop","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 1, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/audiobooks/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Audiobooks","type":"tags"},{"content":"More rant than formal review, this entry captures reactions to How to Slay a Wizard, especially the frustration with its AI Audible narrator.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03-iF1SvxBg\n","date":"April 1, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2026-04-01-owen-benjamins-book-is-great-the-narrator-is-not/","section":"Videos","summary":"More rant than formal review, this entry captures reactions to How to Slay a Wizard, especially the frustration with its AI Audible narrator.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03-iF1SvxBg\n","title":"Owen Benjamin's Book is Great, The Narrator is NOT, How to Slay a Wizard Review","type":"videos"},{"content":"","date":"April 1, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/review/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Review","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 1, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/series/","section":"Series","summary":"","title":"Series","type":"series"},{"content":"","date":"April 1, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/series/video-archive/","section":"Series","summary":"","title":"Video Archive","type":"series"},{"content":"","date":"January 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/craftsmanship/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Craftsmanship","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"January 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/diy/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Diy","type":"tags"},{"content":"A complete breakdown of home projects from the past year, from small maintenance fixes to bigger upgrades, with a comparison between what was handled directly and what was hired out.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPQapFB6neE\n","date":"January 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2026-01-14-every-home-project-diyd-vs-hired-out/","section":"Videos","summary":"A complete breakdown of home projects from the past year, from small maintenance fixes to bigger upgrades, with a comparison between what was handled directly and what was hired out.\n","title":"Every Home Project: DIY'd vs Hired Out","type":"videos"},{"content":"","date":"January 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/family/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Family","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"January 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/fatherhood/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Fatherhood","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"January 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/gifts/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Gifts","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"January 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/home/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Home","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"January 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/makers/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Makers","type":"tags"},{"content":"A short video addressed to makers, linked to the broader world of craftsmanship, building, and making with intention.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbPUbYIylPU\n","date":"January 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2026-01-14-makers-this-video-is-for-you/","section":"Videos","summary":"A short video addressed to makers, linked to the broader world of craftsmanship, building, and making with intention.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbPUbYIylPU\n","title":"Makers: This Video Is for You","type":"videos"},{"content":"","date":"January 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/projects/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Projects","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"January 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/schoolroom/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Schoolroom","type":"tags"},{"content":"A short reflection on how a 1993 vintage Snow White toy became a daughter’s favorite Christmas present.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hikpe0JZ_sM\n","date":"January 14, 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2026-01-14-the-best-gift-for-a-kid-with-everything/","section":"Videos","summary":"A short reflection on how a 1993 vintage Snow White toy became a daughter’s favorite Christmas present.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hikpe0JZ_sM\n","title":"The Best Gift for a Kid with Everything? This 1993 Toy Still in the Box","type":"videos"},{"content":"","date":"November 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/cars/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Cars","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"November 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/great-books/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Great-Books","type":"tags"},{"content":"My dad and I sit down in his garage to talk about his lifetime with the Graham automobile, from rebuilding one in high school to driving away from his wedding in it. It fits the archive as both a workshop piece and a family record.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSrLvfJxqb4\n","date":"November 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2025-11-14-my-dads-lifetime-with-the-graham-automobile/","section":"Videos","summary":"My dad and I sit down in his garage to talk about his lifetime with the Graham automobile, from rebuilding one in high school to driving away from his wedding in it. It fits the archive as both a workshop piece and a family record.\n","title":"My Dad’s Lifetime with the Graham Automobile","type":"videos"},{"content":"","date":"November 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/reading/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Reading","type":"tags"},{"content":"Earlier in the year, Drew bought the Great Books of the Western World set for $150. This video captures his review after about a year of actually owning and living with the collection.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2ZOYX_0FDQ\n","date":"November 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2025-11-14-the-great-books-of-the-western-world-a-complete-review/","section":"Videos","summary":"Earlier in the year, Drew bought the Great Books of the Western World set for $150. This video captures his review after about a year of actually owning and living with the collection.\n","title":"The Great Books of the Western World: A Complete Review","type":"videos"},{"content":"For the fourth year in a row, an annual friends trip was missed. What began as a miserable weekend turned into a reflection on setbacks, family illness, and silver linings.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqUvReww3X8\n","date":"October 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2025-10-14-cursed-by-bad-luck/","section":"Videos","summary":"For the fourth year in a row, an annual friends trip was missed. What began as a miserable weekend turned into a reflection on setbacks, family illness, and silver linings.\n","title":"Cursed by Bad Luck? Finding Silver Linings in the Worst Weekend Ever","type":"videos"},{"content":"","date":"October 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/dogs/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Dogs","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"October 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/reflection/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Reflection","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"October 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/setbacks/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Setbacks","type":"tags"},{"content":"A personal reflection on a hard household question, why it mattered to fight to keep the dogs, and what that revealed about attachment, home, and family life.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxn1DlGvrZ4\n","date":"October 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2025-10-14-why-i-fought-to-keep-our-dogs/","section":"Videos","summary":"A personal reflection on a hard household question, why it mattered to fight to keep the dogs, and what that revealed about attachment, home, and family life.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxn1DlGvrZ4\n","title":"Why I Fought to Keep Our Dogs (Even After They Destroyed Our Couch)","type":"videos"},{"content":"","date":"June 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/culture/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Culture","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"June 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/division/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Division","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"June 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/healing/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Healing","type":"tags"},{"content":"A reflection on division, curated realities, love of neighbor, and what healing might require in a fragmented culture.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7_L9I6vnLs\n","date":"June 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2025-06-14-why-were-divided-and-how-to-heal/","section":"Videos","summary":"A reflection on division, curated realities, love of neighbor, and what healing might require in a fragmented culture.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7_L9I6vnLs\n","title":"Why We're Divided and How to Heal","type":"videos"},{"content":"Why are modern books falling apart in just a few decades while much older books and manuscripts are still readable? This entry preserves the video as part of the archive’s broader concern with books, memory, and preservation.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izNkUngbSWY\n","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2025-04-14-books-are-disappearing/","section":"Videos","summary":"Why are modern books falling apart in just a few decades while much older books and manuscripts are still readable? This entry preserves the video as part of the archive’s broader concern with books, memory, and preservation.\n","title":"Books Are Disappearing, And It's Not An Accident","type":"videos"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/creation/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Creation","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/elon-musk/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Elon-Musk","type":"tags"},{"content":"A long-form reflection on Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, X, The Boring Company, and the larger civilizational through-line they may represent.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLXoDymc3hw\n","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2025-04-14-elons-companies-all-have-this-in-common/","section":"Videos","summary":"A long-form reflection on Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, X, The Boring Company, and the larger civilizational through-line they may represent.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLXoDymc3hw\n","title":"Elon’s Companies All Have This in Common, But No One’s Talking About It","type":"videos"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/food/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Food","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/habits/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Habits","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/industry/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Industry","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/media/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Media","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/preservation/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Preservation","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/printing/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Printing","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/publishing/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Publishing","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/technology/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Technology","type":"tags"},{"content":"A short reflection on tipping, fast food, and using public accountability as leverage to change a habit.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsb6enW1v3Q\n","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2025-04-14-tip-shaming-and-why-im-quitting-fast-food/","section":"Videos","summary":"A short reflection on tipping, fast food, and using public accountability as leverage to change a habit.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsb6enW1v3Q\n","title":"Tip Shaming And Why I'm Quitting Fast Food","type":"videos"},{"content":"","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/toddler/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Toddler","type":"tags"},{"content":"For years, we’ve been stuck in a cycle of consuming, scrolling, watching, and absorbing endless content. This video argues for turning that energy outward and building instead of only watching.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsR5p0ugFn0\n","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2025-04-14-we-are-the-new-media/","section":"Videos","summary":"For years, we’ve been stuck in a cycle of consuming, scrolling, watching, and absorbing endless content. This video argues for turning that energy outward and building instead of only watching.\n","title":"We Are The New Media, It's Time to Start Creating","type":"videos"},{"content":"A short video about reading chapter books to a toddler, why it matters, and how it fits into a family reading culture.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRPmXxkcxUY\n","date":"April 14, 2025","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/videos/2025-04-14-why-im-reading-chapter-books-to-my-toddler/","section":"Videos","summary":"A short video about reading chapter books to a toddler, why it matters, and how it fits into a family reading culture.\nWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRPmXxkcxUY\n","title":"Why I'm Reading Chapter Books to My Toddler (And Why You Should Too!)","type":"videos"},{"content":"","date":"March 9, 2023","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/christianity/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Christianity","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/faith-and-tradition.html Originally published on 2023-03-09 at drewredifer.com.\nAre Not Mutually Exclusive # There is a famous scene in the gospels where the Pharisees try to trap Jesus. In an attempt to nail him for heresy they get a lawyer to ask him which of the commandments is greatest. The thought process behind the trap is that no matter what response Jesus gives they will nail him. By making a judgement call on which commandment is best he will be degrading the others. So they put him on the spot (Matthew 22:34-40).\nBut when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”\nJesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”\nNot only does he answer the question but he does not allow himself to be trapped.\nHe responds by referring back to the idea of Mt. Sanai. That being the mountain where Moses literally hiked up to the heavens to receive the law from God which he faithfully relayed to the people below. This is the idea of the vertical (Heaven) and the horizontal (Earth or World). Jesus says you should love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. He then says that you should love your neighbor as yourself. He sums up his response by saying that these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. He is explicitly saying that this is the underlying meta-principle on which all the commandments rest.\nThis exercise addresses the atheist that makes the claim that they do not need faith and a religious tradition because they abide by a set of personally defined principles. These principles can be likened to the ten commandments. They might be derived from their life experiences or from their family or a combination of both. Lets assume that these principles were put together without contradiction and that the common thread that binds them together is that they are all good. So what is the underlying meta-principle that unites them as good? This is the question that Jesus answers.\nWhen he says that you should love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind he is stating that you want to be oriented towards the highest conceivable good. This means that you make the decisions of your life by striving to do good. Whatever that might be. This is your initial proposition. What follows is the moral component, or the golden rule. That you should treat other people as if they were as good as you were and vice a versa. That is the underlying two dimensions that gives rise to all other necessary commandments.\nIt is with this spirit that puts god, the divine above all else, and that unites us with all other people. This is the common psychology that unites Christian and the monotheistic religions more broadly. These underlying two dimensions can be seen symbolically by Mt. Sinai in the old testament and by the cross in the new testament.\nAs an atheist if your principles are coherent, then there is a meta-principle that unites them. The religious tendency would be to discover that commonality and to define how you should conduct yourself in relationship to it.\nThe problem with this personal approach is that it is one dimensional and even that dimension is not shared outside of yourself. You miss out on the vertical dimension which is shared amongst the group. The idea is that the well constituted polity has two dimensions. There is the vertical element which gives the organization its common aim. For Christians this is God and the idea here is that the divine represents the highest possible aim. This vertical element unites the people with the transcendent. In a basic governing hierarchy this would be represented by the Kings fealty to God. The King himself is subordinate to a set of shared transcendent principles, and so is everyone else. This is the vertical dimension. The horizontal dimension provides you with a way in which to conduct yourself so that you can engage in repeated acts of altruism with other people. This shared morality defines right from wrong and builds in acts of charity that provides for the welfare of the community.\nYou need both dimensions because on occasion you might fall astray because you might adopt the mindset that you should just go along to get along. That you should conduct yourself the way that other people want you to conduct yourself. While this is usually true we have seen very recently that the exception is when everyone else loses their collective minds and everyone goes crazy. To avoid mass formation psychosis you need that relationship with the vertical.\nNow you might push back and say that the people that run the structures that connects the people to the vertical, the religious institutions, often go crazy too.\nThis is absolutely true, and it is a perennial problem. This is why it is a mistake to view religious institutions as only a consequence of tradition. The institution is run by humans and humans are corruptible which tends towards corruption. However, the checks and balances are found within revelation itself. For example, the tradition of the Israelites in the Old Testament goes corrupt in the form of a corrupt King. But the prophets standup to the King by pointing out that there is a divine order that he is violating. Over and over when the Kings are corrupted all hell breaks lose until the leaders reorient themselves towards the vertical.\nThis is more obvious today than ever. To see how the Catholic Church was corrupted you can read Paul Williams book, Operation Gladio. If your interested in breaking news corruption you can look into what Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has to say. This is not to pick on the Catholic Church, all existing religious structures are susceptible to institutional takeover. This can be seen in the East as in the West with the many Protestant denominations.\nThe next logical question might be how do we then tell the false prophets from the true prophets?\nThe answer to that is that you will know them by their fruits.\nFor example, If your institution is taking large donations from wealthy families under the condition that they choose who runs the place then that might be a red flag. Or if some individuals decide to break from tradition to support a strategic geopolitical goal then that might also be a red flag, or more appropriately, a rotten apple.\nThis is where I think the more decentralized nature of the Eastern Orthodox Church proves most resilient. The idea of progress, in the Western sense of the word, is foreign to the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox are determined to remain loyal to the past, to maintain a sense of living continuity with the Church of ancient times. This is best summed up at the start of the eighteenth century, by the Eastern Patriarchs when they said:\n“We preserve the Doctrine of the Lord uncorrupted, and firmly adhere to the Faith He delivered to us, and keep it free from blemish and diminution, as a Royal Treasure, and a monument of great price, neither adding any thing, nor taking any thing from it.”\nThis idea of living continuity is summed up for the Orthodox in the one word, Tradition. “We do not change the everlasting boundaries which our fathers have set,” wrote John of Damascus, “but we keep the Tradition, just as we received it.”\nTradition, is most commonly understood to signify an opinion, belief or custom handed down from ancestors to posterity. Christian Tradition, in that case, is the faith and practice which Jesus Christ imparted to the Apostles, and which since the Apostles’ time has been handed down from generation to generation in the Church. But to the Orthodox Christian, Tradition means something more concrete and specific than this. It means the books of the Bible; it means the Creed; it means the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils and the writing of the Fathers; it means the Canons, the Service Books, the Holy Icons – in fact, the whole system of doctrine, Church government, worship, spirituality and art which Orthodoxy has articulated over the ages. Orthodox Christians of today see themselves as heirs and guardians to a rich inheritance received from the past, and they believe it is their duty to transmit this inheritance unimpaired to the future. (The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware p.190)\nSo for the Orthodox, if prominent members of the church begin to exhibit signs of corruption they are easily identified because they will be openly compromising their beliefs by breaking from Tradition.\nNow the true atheist will say that they are reticent to give up their idiosyncratic belief system in order to accept divine revelation in the form of a handed down tradition. This sentiment would make you protestant in the most fundamental sense of the word. Now you might claim to have access to some personal pool of intuition that can steer you in the right direction. This gets back to the earlier point about only pocessing one dimension rather than the preferable two shared dimensions. This intuition of yours, to the degree that it is a reliable source is going to be structured so that it facilitates your ongoing interactions with other people in the best possible manner. So it would be arguable that it is not as peculiar to you the individual as you might originally have thought. It is subject to its own Logos or internal logic.\nSo now you must ask yourself if your internal Logos is a better guide than the Christian Logos, the word of God?\nAt the extreme we have the example of Socrates whose internal voice told him to offer himself up to the mob as a sacrifice. This may be a rare occurrence and God help us when it does happen. However, in today’s world of constant change and “progress” if you are not firmly rooted in the vertical, tradition, then you will be at the mercy of modernity. You will be like a ship without a rudder and without an anchor driven by the winds of chance and the circumstances of others. Hopelessly lost and adrift in the sea of modern madness.\n","date":"March 9, 2023","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/faith/2023-03-09-faith-and-tradition/","section":"Faith","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/faith-and-tradition.html Originally published on 2023-03-09 at drewredifer.com.\nAre Not Mutually Exclusive # There is a famous scene in the gospels where the Pharisees try to trap Jesus. In an attempt to nail him for heresy they get a lawyer to ask him which of the commandments is greatest. The thought process behind the trap is that no matter what response Jesus gives they will nail him. By making a judgement call on which commandment is best he will be degrading the others. So they put him on the spot (Matthew 22:34-40).\n","title":"Faith And Tradition Are Not Mutually Exclusive","type":"faith"},{"content":"","date":"March 9, 2023","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/series/legacy-blog-migration/","section":"Series","summary":"","title":"Legacy Blog Migration","type":"series"},{"content":"","date":"March 9, 2023","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/orthodoxy/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Orthodoxy","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"March 9, 2023","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/tradition/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tradition","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"October 9, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/esg/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Esg","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/esg-presentation.html Originally published on 2022-10-09 at drewredifer.com.\nhttps://videos.drewredifer.com/w/fUaBUJbvMXgwQ37sdL8MYB\nThis past week I gave a continuatoin to my CBDC Presentation. In this talk I picked up where I left off and tell the story of how the WEF conspired with BlackRock to implement the Great Reset which is nothing more than a rebranding of the UNs\u0026rsquo; 2030 Agenda. ESG is the mechanism that BlackRock is using to coerce the private sector into compliance with the UN\u0026rsquo;s SDGs(Sustainable Development Goals). If you have an interest in the topic you can watch the recording on my personal video server instance of PeerTube. If you take the time to view the talk feel free to reference the slides directly, esg-presentation.pdf.\nViewing Recomendations # I recommend viewing the video on a larger screen like a monitor or TV screen so that you can use your phone to view the slides. Also, I would set the replay speed to 1.25x to speed up the talk. Finally, if you have not seen the CBDC talk I would recommend going back to watch it first.\n","date":"October 9, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/watchtower/2022-10-09-esg-presentation/","section":"The Watchtower","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/esg-presentation.html Originally published on 2022-10-09 at drewredifer.com.\nhttps://videos.drewredifer.com/w/fUaBUJbvMXgwQ37sdL8MYB\nThis past week I gave a continuatoin to my CBDC Presentation. In this talk I picked up where I left off and tell the story of how the WEF conspired with BlackRock to implement the Great Reset which is nothing more than a rebranding of the UNs’ 2030 Agenda. ESG is the mechanism that BlackRock is using to coerce the private sector into compliance with the UN’s SDGs(Sustainable Development Goals). If you have an interest in the topic you can watch the recording on my personal video server instance of PeerTube. If you take the time to view the talk feel free to reference the slides directly, esg-presentation.pdf.\n","title":"ESG Presentation","type":"watchtower"},{"content":"","date":"October 9, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/presentation/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Presentation","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"October 9, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/video/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Video","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"October 9, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/wef/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Wef","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"September 18, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/cbdc/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Cbdc","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/cbdc-presentation.html Originally published on 2022-09-18 at drewredifer.com.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k85Rzigrd2c\nEarlier this month I gave a presentation at my local community center on Central Bank Digital Currencies(CBDCs). If you have an interest in the topic you can watch the recording on my personal video server instance of PeerTube. Also viewable on Youtube. If you take the time to view the talk feel free to reference the slides directly, CBDC_Presentation.pdf.\nDescription # While I have covered the topic in a previous blog post, CBDCs: The future of fiat money and a detailed explanation of why they are a very bad idea, I take this as an opportunity to move past the basics. I begin by discussing the development of CBDCs globally and then bring it home to discuss what CBDCs mean for us here in the United States. I give an overview of our monetary system so that my audience can better understand the story of how we got to the roll out of CBDCs. I then unfold this financial story by taking them through a forensic analysis of our monetary systems\u0026rsquo; historical record of deposits. Credit to this goes to John Titus. I then describe the policy change that strategically broke our monetary system and discuss who was behind this financial take over, and how the very fact that they got away with it all but ensures the unfortunate rollout of CBDCs here in the very near future.\nNote # Because this presentation was given to an audience I moved through the slides rather slowly. In addition, it shows that I am out of practice when it comes to speaking publicly. I used a lot of verbal filler. While I think the people in attendence got a lot of value out of the talk I do not think it transfers well to video and for that reason I plan to make an online specific version of the talk in the near future.\n","date":"September 18, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/treasury/2022-09-18-cbdc-presentation/","section":"The Treasury","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/cbdc-presentation.html Originally published on 2022-09-18 at drewredifer.com.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k85Rzigrd2c\nEarlier this month I gave a presentation at my local community center on Central Bank Digital Currencies(CBDCs). If you have an interest in the topic you can watch the recording on my personal video server instance of PeerTube. Also viewable on Youtube. If you take the time to view the talk feel free to reference the slides directly, CBDC_Presentation.pdf.\n","title":"CBDC Presentation","type":"treasury"},{"content":"","date":"September 18, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/monetary-system/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Monetary-System","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"September 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/coercion/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Coercion","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/coercivists-voluntaryists.html Originally published on 2022-09-10 at drewredifer.com.\nHow We Escape the Two Party System and The Dangers Associated # When you get into the weeds of politics you realize that it is difficult to pin a person down and slap a label on them that distinguishes their political alliance. However, when we communicate with one another we use simple vocabulary to describe our position. When communicating with the masses we categorize political position according to a simple left-right scale. This distilled use of vocabulary is not ideal and in fact it is dangerous.\nAs a consequence, this is likely the reason we have an entrenched two-party system here in the United States. If the majority of our voters have already bought into the two-party system and accept the premise that every topic is binary with either a liberal or a conservative solution, then how can a party with views outside of this paradigm ever expect to win office? This use of a single left-right scale makes it impossible to describe a libertarians’ views on government.\nLibertarians oppose government involvement in economic affairs, but they also oppose government involvement in the personal lives of peaceful people. By this definition would you categorize libertarians as “rightists” (because they promote free enterprise) or “leftists” (because they oppose government meddling in people’s private affairs)? To everyday Americans who operate from the left-right distinction, a libertarian would be a walking contradiction. Thus, as a communication tool, the left-right distinction fails political outsiders.\nDespite the publics dissatisfaction with the left-right – “liberal-conservative” – lingo, the widespread use continues. This is likely in large part due to the sheer convenience. Think about it, from the perspective of someone who communicates to the masses about politics. They can simply state that so and so politician is left of this president or right of that president. The description takes only seconds and does not tax the attention of the viewer.\nThis semantic laziness becomes dangerous when you begin to realize that we are trapped within a system of perpetual conflict and war. We have inherited a system by which through constant conflict and the continual merging of opposite ideologies, we are told that we will somehow make progress towards perfecting our way of life. The root of the problem is that these opposite ideologies are established by either the extreme right or the extreme left belief systems. You can choose Pepsi or you can choose Coke. You can choose the blue puppet, or you can choose the red puppet. We have this illusion of choice but because we have distilled our choice down to this poorly defined left-right paradigm we lose sight of our common interests as individuals. Regardless of intentionality the result of this system is that the masses are divided and conquered. While we fight amongst ourselves, our rights and liberties are being eroded away from beneath our feet.\nThe Dialectic # The dialectic is a philosophy, or a way of thinking, that goes all the way back to Plato’s writings on Socrates and how he used the dialectic method to establish truth through logical arguments amongst two or more people with conflicting ideas. It was not until Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s Hegelian dialectic method that we learned the true danger of this framework. Hegel twisted the dialectic method into a system for guiding our thoughts and actions into conflicts to lead us to a predetermined solution.\nImagine a political spectrum and you have an individual that is firmly rooted at one of the two extremes. If you wanted to change that person’s fundamental belief structure, to that of the opposite extreme, how might you approach this seemingly impossible goal? The answer is that you would start by rejecting the very concept of absolutes in favor of constant change. Hegel’s way of thinking is that everything is constantly changing and must forever adapt to the eternal change or moral relativism. If everything is just shades of gray, then nothing can be black or white, or absolute. Next you would deploy the Hegelian strategy which can be accomplished through a process of tension and resolution.\nThe Hegelian Formula\nTHESIS + ANTITHESSIS = SYNTHESIS\nPRO + CON = CONSENSUS (COMPROMISE)\nThe Hegelian Formula is expressed as follows: Thesis represents an idea or opinion, antithesis represents the counter-opinion or opposite idea, synthesis represents the domain where thesis and antithesis intersect and overlap. The dialectic synthesis represents the consensus, or the “compromise”, between the thesis and the antithesis.\nHegelian Dialectic Visualized\nNow if absolutes are rejected, as Hegel argues they should be, then this opens the formula up to the possibility of a positive feedback loop. Once the circular argument has reached synthesis, a new thesis can be created, and the process begins anew, incrementally and progressively moving forward toward the next predetermined outcome.\nSo now that we understand the Hegelian Formula let us turn our attention back to the task of changing someone’s fundamental belief structure. If we take John Doe’s initial views on a given subject to be our starting thesis, then we can bring in a skilled debater to present the complete opposite view on that subject, let this be our antithesis. During the debate John Doe’s initial views are challenged and he reaches a compromise with the debater on certain points. This consensus changes his initial views and moves them ever so slightly in the direction of his opponent’s views. This new compromised view represents the dialectical synthesis. Now after enough of these circular arguments take place John will find that his new views have changed so drastically that when compared to his initial views on the subject, they represent the original opposing view. This illustrates the power of the Hegelian dialectic and demonstrates its use as a powerful change agent.\nThe Hegelian dialectic reduced to its simplest form could be summed up as problem, reaction, solution. The “agent of change” employing the strategy creates the problem or crisis, foments the reaction (tension), then attempts to control the outcome by providing the solution (resolution).\nNow that you have wrapped your head around the concept you can research on your own to learn how it was adopted by Karl Marx, see Marx’s Dialectical Materialism. You will learn that in Marxist intellectual circles, around the turn of the century there was a growing trend within the Marxist movement that a better way to change the world is not abruptly and violently at the point of a bayonet, (traditional Marxist revolution), but rather it should be done slowly and incrementally by transforming individuals and their cultural institutions. By taking this slow incremental approach you can control a country as effectively as if you conquered it militarily.\nSo, if we know that the Hegelian Dialectic is a tactic that has been weaponized by Marxists to transition Capitalistic societies towards Socialism and ultimately to Communism then how do we put a stop to it? Afterall we are trapped in a left-right system where the majority opinion is formed by either the extreme right or the extreme left belief systems. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are vulnerable to the dialectic.\nI propose we start by recognizing that government and the governed are at odds with each other. Thomas Paine rightfully pointed out that society and government are wholly different in Common Sense when he wrote, “Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one…” What we need is to devise a set of more descriptive terms that unite the governed and remind them of this distinction.\nCentralists-Decentralist # I have been thinking through this problem, the problem of the two-party system we find ourselves trapped in. Over these past two years I have come to the conclusion that greater centralization inevitably leads to the consolidation of power and ultimately corruption of the system at the expense of the governed. As a result, I have since begun to view individuals not as either “left” or “right, or “liberal” or “conservative, but instead as being either a centralist or a decentralist.\nI recently read the essay, which by the way was the inspiration for this blog post, Coercivists and Voluntarists by Donald J. Boudreaux. In the writting he points out that this was originally suggested by Professor Richard Gamble, who teaches history at Palm Beach Atlantic University. However, he also pointed out that this “centralist-decentralist” language contains its own potential confusion when he referred to Clint Bolick’s book, Grassroots Tyranny, which illustrates problems at the local level of government.\nBoudreaux believed that this “centralist-decentralist” language was a vast improvement over the muddled “left-right” language but believed it could be taken a step further. In his essay he proposes we adopt the following set of political labels: “Coercivist-Voluntarist.” In his writing he lays out his case:\nAt one end of this spectrum are Coercivists. Coercivists believe that all order in society must be consciously designed and implemented by a sovereign government power. Coercivists cannot fathom how individuals without mandates from above can ever pattern their actions in a way that is not only orderly, but also peaceful and productive. For the Coercivist, direction by sovereign government is as necessary for creation of social order as meticulous craftsmanship of a watchmaker is necessary for the creation of a watch.\nAt the other end of the spectrum are voluntarists. Voluntarists understand two important facts about society that Coercivists miss. First, voluntarists understand that social order is inevitable without coercive direction from the state as long as the basic rules of private property and voluntary contracting are respected. This inevitability of social order where such rules are observed is the great lesson taught by Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, and all of the truly great economists throughout the ages.\nSecond, voluntarists understand that coercive social engineering by the government – far from promoting social harmony – is fated to ruin existing social order. Voluntarists grasp the truth that genuine and productive social order is possible only when each person is free to pursue his own goals in his own way, constrained by no political power. Coercive political power is the enemy of social order because it is unavoidably arbitrary – bestowing favors for reasons wholly unrelated to the values the recipients provide to their fellow human beings. And even if by some miracle the exercise of political power could be shorn of its arbitrariness, it can never escape being an exercise conducted in gross ignorance. It is a simpleton’s fantasy to imagine that all the immense and detailed knowledge necessary for the successful central direction of human affairs can ever be possessed by government.\nHe goes on to state that, “society emerges from the cooperation of hundreds of millions of people, each acting on the basis of his own unique knowledge of individual wants, talents, occupations, and circumstances.” The Coercivist-Voluntarist vocabulary is superior to the Left-Right, or Liberal-Conservative, vocabulary because as Boudreaux rightfully points out, it distinguishes liberty’s friends from its foes. He goes on to conclude his essay by stating, “The true voluntarist fears nothing as much as he fears coercive power – whether exercised by those on the “left” or the “right.”\nAt its core this is what the Hegelian Dialectic is, a means of coercing the governed to a predetermined destination. By arming the governed at the individual level with a set of descriptive terms. Terms that specifically point to this vulnerability. We can both guard against attacks on Capitalism like those posed by the Hegelian Dialectic, and we can escape the two-party system by allowing political outsiders like Libertarians to participate. This simple descriptive tweak would arm the governed at the level of the individual with the discernment needed to distinguish liberty\u0026rsquo;s friends from its foes.\nIf you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","date":"September 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/watchtower/2022-09-10-coercivists-voluntaryists/","section":"The Watchtower","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/coercivists-voluntaryists.html Originally published on 2022-09-10 at drewredifer.com.\nHow We Escape the Two Party System and The Dangers Associated # When you get into the weeds of politics you realize that it is difficult to pin a person down and slap a label on them that distinguishes their political alliance. However, when we communicate with one another we use simple vocabulary to describe our position. When communicating with the masses we categorize political position according to a simple left-right scale. This distilled use of vocabulary is not ideal and in fact it is dangerous.\n","title":"Coercivists–Voluntaryists","type":"watchtower"},{"content":"","date":"September 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/dialectic/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Dialectic","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"September 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/politics/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Politics","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"September 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/voluntarism/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Voluntarism","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"September 3, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/debt/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Debt","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"September 3, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/gold/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Gold","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"September 3, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/inflation/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Inflation","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"September 3, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/money/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Money","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/gold.html Originally published on 2022-09-03 at drewredifer.com.\nTraditional financial wisdom going back thousands of years universally states that you should save your money and avoid going into debt. Take for example the financial principles taught in the bible:\nSpend less than you earn - Proverbs 13:11\nAvoid the use of debt - Proverbs 22:7\nNowadays the only person you will find telling you to save your money and to avoid going into debt is Dave Ramsey. However, in today\u0026rsquo;s modern monetary system you do not need to be a financial expert to question this age-old-advice. All it takes is a quick look at a graph of the US dollar supply to understand the problem.\nGraph of US Dollar Supply aka Money Printer Go Brrr\nIf you save a set amount of US dollars and the US Federal Reserve increases the total supply of US dollars then proportionally your savings will be negatively impacted through decreased purchasing power. So, if this is the case then how come for thousands of years, we were advised to save our money and to avoid going into debt? Is it possible that the prevailing wisdom of the past was wrong?\nMoney vs. Currency # The answer is of course, no, but to understand why we must first understand the difference between money and currency. In today\u0026rsquo;s monetary system, no country on earth uses money, they all use national fiat currency. For something to be money it must meet all of the following criteria:\nMedium of Exchange\nA Unit of Account\nPortable\nDurable\nDivisible\nFungible (Interchangeable)\nSTORE OF VALUE\nFor the past three thousand years gold has been recognized as money. Fiat currency was originally a derivative of gold in that it was a paper receipt that was redeemable for physical gold. Unfortunately, the issuers of the paper receipts historically have always caved to greed and issued more currency than there was gold to back it up. When the supply of currency expands prices grow to absorb the excess cash. Their exchange rate with gold continues to climb higher until eventually a point is reached where no amount of physical gold can be exchanged for any amount of dollars. This is when faith in the gold substitute, fiat currency, is lost and the price of gold measured in fiat currency goes to infinity. This has been the case in every single hyper inflationary economy that has existed. A few notable examples from the past century:\nWeimar 1923\nHungary 1946\nYugoslavia 1994\nZimbabwe 2008\nThe Difference Between Currency and Money\u0026hellip; # Money must be a store of value and maintain its purchasing power over long periods of time.\nToday currencies are no longer redeemable for gold but are only based on confidence. In other words, they are backed by nothing. Money must be a store of value and if you look at a graph of the US dollar\u0026rsquo;s purchasing power over time you can see that it is failing.\nVisualization of how the purchasing power of the US dollar has decreased since the creation of the Federal Reserve\nThe most recent CPI numbers show that this devaluation of the dollar is only speeding up.\nLatest CPI report shows annual inflation at 8.3%\nAll other currencies are pegged to the US dollar which makes this a global issue.\nUsing logic we can further illustrate how gold is money. The Monetary Regression Principle was formulated by Austrian School economist Ludwig Von Mises in his 1912 book, The Theory of Money and Credit.\nHow do you know what prices are? # When you wake up in the morning you know basically how much everything costs and you know how much you need to work in order to buy the things you need and want. You know this only because you extrapolate from yesterday\u0026rsquo;s prices. Connecting prices today to yesterday\u0026rsquo;s prices. All prices of all things must have some reference point into the past otherwise prices are meaningless. By the Monetary Regression Principle, the prices of all goods and services have some reference point to prices in the past and today those prices are denominated in national fiat currencies that regress to gold. By the regression principle, dollars are still indexed to gold, see the price of gold today here.\nWhat is Wealth # Your true wealth is your time and freedom. Money is simply a trading tool that stores economic energy, your time and freedom, whereas currencies leak them away. Gold is the ultimate money, simply because of its properties. Fiat currencies are based solely on confidence, and always return to their intrinsic value of zero. Rising prices are a symptom of an expanding currency supply and gold has historically always accounted for an expanding currency supply.\nSo now that we know the difference between money and currency, we can see that our modern society rewards debt and punishes those who save in currency. The age-old financial advice that states you should save and avoid going into debt sounds foreign in today\u0026rsquo;s world because it is bad advice if you save currency. This departure from sound money to currency inverts the historic fundamentals of money. However, just because Nixon took the world off of the gold standard that does not mean that we cannot take matters into our own hands and create our own personal gold standard.\nPersonal Gold Standard # When living on a personal gold standard you take on a different operational mentality, strategy, and overall approach to lifestyle when compared to the average investor. By removing the scales from your eyes that were placed there by Governments and Central Banks you begin to see currency for what it really is, and you can finally see that the Emporor has no clothes on. This brings clarity to financial advice from decades past and helps one to remove the fog and confusion that so often comes along with trying to understand how money works.\nTo better understand the implicaitons of living under a personal gold standard let us explore the idea further through the three financial actions investors take:\nSaving\nDebt\nInvesting\nSaving # Historically a system benefits when operating on a foundation of sound money, also known as a gold standard. In comparison to a trust based fiat currency system. In comparison to a trust based fiat currency. A hard money system benefits by rewarding savers instead of incentivizing borrowers. When currency is created out of thin air the existing currency in circulation is diluted over time and this punishes savers by devaluing the purchasing power of their savings. On the flip side of the coin this currency creation benefits riskier behavior and borrowers are rewarded because as time goes on their debt becomes easier to pay off. This creates a system that is built on debt as opposed to a system built on savings which becomes very fragile when that debt needs to be paid back.\nAdditionally, a hard money system benefits society by providing a true measure to compare investment returns against. In a currency-based system if your currency is losing X percent of its value annually then the dollar amount does not change but the purchasing power does. For example, if you are investing in something that provides a two or three percent return then in dollar terms you are getting a posiive return but when compared against its actual purchasing power you are actually getting a negative return. This means that in a system that can have an infinite supply of currency, where the value of that currency continues to go down over time there is a massive amount of currency that is going into investments that are providing a nominal positive return in terms of dollars, but in real terms of purchasing power they are actually negative returns. This added layer of deception incentivises investment into wealth destroying investments. Investors are simply destroying their wealth slower than if they had just left their wealth tied up in dollars to have the leaky currency destroy the purchasing power.\nConversely, a hard money system incentivises investment that actually produce a real return. Even if the real return is only one percent that is better than what the money would do over time which is to slowly appreciate in terms of purchasing power. See the graph below as a reminder of what happens to currencies purchasing power when compared to gold.\nGold shown as constant purchasing power at the 100 line whilst all other currencies crash to the bottom.\nNow that we understand the advantages that a hard money system has over a fiat currency based system, we can implement a personal gold standard to take advantage of the benefits. This allows us to not have to worry about or rely on the system doing things the right way. If you do things the right way, independent of the system, then you can reap the benefits.\nSavings is often confused with both investing and loaning money. They are all different. Saving, debt, and investing are three seperate things you can do with money and they are not at all the same thing. An example of savings is keeping money in a safe at home. An example of debt would be borrowing money, for example borrowing money to buy a house or a car. However, most people do not realize that they are actively engaged in loaning money. When you put money into a checking account you are loaning money to the bank. When you put money in a savings account or a CD that is also a form of loaning. By putting money into these financial instruments, you are actually loaning money to the institutions and they can use that money to turn a profit and pay you an interest rate on the money that you have loaned them. When you buy a bond, be it a corporate bond, a municipal bond, or a federal bond that is loaning money. Loaning money to a company. Loaning money to a city. Loaning money to the federal government. Whatever type of loan it is you are going to be paid an interest rate for the duration of that loan and these are all forms of debt. Investing is something entirely different. When you loan someone money that is not an investment, that is debt. When you save money that is also not an investment. They are three seperate things and for now we will continue to focus on saving.\nIn our current system saving is discouraged because currency acts as a mask that vails the fundamental ways that money works because we the public are viewing prices through the lens of currency. We do not realize that there are two separate things at play, gold (real money), and currency, and they are not the same thing. So now when you hear someone like Dave Ramsey tell you to save and avoid going into debt you should ask yourself the following. Why would I save bank notes that are backed by nothing and which I know they are going to just print more of that will further destroy the purchasing power of my savings? The better thing to do would be to save as little as possible just like all the rich people do and to take out debt to buy investments. Our current system is set up to incentivize this type of financial behavior but as noted above this builds a poor financial foundation and adds fragility to the system. Your gut reaction is correct, you should avoid saving currency, bank notes backed by nothing. However, on the other hand the fundamental laws of money that traditional advice hints at still stands. We should save real money not fake money backed by nothing. Currency is not money, when you save money what that is really referring to is saving gold.\nGold is money because of its properties and will always out perform currency because it is a store of value over long periods of time. Gold has a finite supply, it cannot be created at will, there is a cost of labor for extracting it out of the Earth, and it is almost impossible to destroy. It does not rust or decay unlike a lot of other commodities and metals that can get used up, and there is a lot less of an industrial use for gold as opposed to precious metals like silver so the actual value does not fluctuate as much because it is not dependent on other industries.\nWhen you put your savings into gold instead of into cash, what you are doing is you are building up a store of wealth that will persist over time without leaking value. Not only will it persist, but it will slowly appreciate in terms of its purchasing power. Now for a lot of things it will not appreciate in terms of its purchasing power. This applies to things that do not change with technological advancements or things that become cheaper through efficieny and increased productivity. For example, an old rule of thumb that many investors use to demonstrate the stability of gold\u0026rsquo;s purchasing power is the gold-to-decent-suit ratio. In ancient Rome, an ounce of gold could buy a toga for a senator. In 1960 a businessman could buy a suit for $35 - the cost of an ounce of gold. Today a high-end three piece fitted suit costs around $1800, or an ounce of gold. Golds purchasing power persists over time.\nThis persistence applies to wages as well. Going back to ancient Rome, a roman centurion was paid between thirty-five and forty ounces of gold for their yearly wages and in terms of todays dollars that translates to somewhere between sixty and seventy thousand dollars. Which is a comparable wage to todays soldier.\nActual appreciation in purchasing power in terms of gold can be seen in technological advancements and when things become cheaper through efficienty and improved productivity. This would include such things as improvements in manufacturing and farming techniques. There are many such efficienty improvements in today\u0026rsquo;s goods and services that we do not see in cost savings because they are masked by the dollars losing value faster than the productivity gains. When you put your savings into currency you lose purchasing power over time and your wealth is leaked away by the speed at which more currency is added into the system. Whereas when you store your savings in gold your purchasing power is preserved over time.\nWhile it is self-evident to see the advantages of saving money in gold as opposed to cash you still cannot get paid directly in gold. To truly live on a gold standard, you would need to convert your paycheck from currency into gold and when you wanted to purchase something you would need to convert from gold back into currency. There are companies out there that are trying to bridge this gap by providing a service that will allocate your savings into physical gold and allow you to transact using a gold backed debit card. As currencies around the world are further debased, it is reasonable to suspect demand for these services will only increase.\nWhile you wait for these services to improve you can continue to save in physical gold. Work towards having six months of savings for emergencies or more if you are saving up for a larger investment. Keep a checking account open with a bank or preferably a local credit union where you have a month of cash savings stored. This account is also used to collect your paycheck. Then after you have paid your expenses save the remainder in physical gold. If you were to instead store your savings in a savings account, then you would just be loaning money directly to the bank for a negligible nominal rate of return. That would of course be a negative real return.\nDebt # There are two sides to debt when dealing with a hard money system. One side is borrowing money, and the other side is loaning money. Within each of these categories we will be comparing gold to currency.\nBorrowing Currency\nUnder the current monetary system it is extremely profitable to borrow dollars and to deploy those dollars into investments. In terms of its purchasing power, fiat currency decreases over time. For example, if you look at historical home values you will notice that an average American home purchased in the 1960s cost around $20,000 where as that same house today would cost around $370,000. This is a direct reflection of the dollar losing its purchasing power. So when you hear people complain about how much they have to pay today versus fifty years ago you need to tell them to shift their perspective. This is simply a result of the dollar going down over time which means when you borrow dollars, over time it becomes easier and easier to pay back. This is because you are paying back that debt with less purchasing power than what you originally borrowed. Debt is easier to pay off in a fiat currency system. This is why the Federal Reserve continues to print more money, becuase the govermnet is loaded with debt and they need that debt to become easier and easier to pay off. The alternative is defaulting on their obligations. Once you make this connection you will realize that this system can only continue in this direction and eventually it will break. When this happens, the government will be left with only two options. Save the economy, or save the currency. History shows that government always chooses to save the economy.\nHowever, that is out of our control so in the meantime we can use this knowledge of how the system works to our advantage. When you borrow currency in a fiat-based economy that debt becomes easier to pay off over time. This holds as long as you avoid purchasing bad debt. For example, if the currency is depreciating at two percent per year then you are not going to want to borrow money to purchase something that loses more than two percent, like a new car for example. This is because when you go to sell that car you will have a lot less purchasing power available to you to pay back that debt. So a good rule of thumb to use when borrowing dollars is to use the rate of devaluation of that currency as the bar for what you deploy those dollars into. An example of a good use of debt would be by purchasing a piece of real estate. This investment will provide rental payments that can be used to cover the debt on the loan and over time that debt will become easier and easier to pay off because what you deploy your dollars into is either gaining in real value or it is losing value slower than the dollars that you borrowed. Borrow fiat currency and use it for profitable investing\nBorrowing Gold\nJust like you can borrow fiat curreny, you can also borrow gold. However, you should never borrow gold. I will repeat this, NEVER BORROW GOLD! This is where the ancient financial wisdom rings true. For all of history money was gold and that meant that over time money appreciated in value. When you borrow gold, it is more difficult to pay back that loan the longer that loan exists because you are having to pay it back with more purchasing power than you originally borrowed. Borrowing gold is the opposite of borrowing cash. When discussing debt, the difference between gold and currency becomes obvious and the historical advice proves to have been right all along. This is because there is a difference between money and currency. So, the age-old advice still applies. Do not go into debt with money and do not borrow money. While we use currency today there are services that will let you borrow against your gold. This means that when you pay back your debt you are paying back in terms of ounces of gold which retains its purchasing power in relation to the dollars you borrowed against it. This means that it becomes harder with time to pay back that debt. Do NOT borrow in gold, it becomes increasingly difficult to pay back\nLoaning Gold\nIf you borrow money in gold it is difficult to pay back but through that same transaction we observe that it is profitable to be the party that lends the gold. This is because with the money that you are lending you are getting an interest rate plus the increase in purchasing power that you are guaranteed to get back through your ounces of gold. So not only are you getting increased purchasing power over time plus the interest rate in the transaction, but you are also holding gold collateral in the event that the borrower cannot pay back the debt. This guarantees that you at least get your purchasing power back.\nToday, in our currency dominated system, people lend money when they keep savings in a savings account or when they buy bonds. This is an inferior method of loaning money. If you want to take advantage of the lenders side of the debt transaction you should lend gold. This guaratees you get your purchasing power back when you are paid back in ounces of gold borrowed, you get interest, and there is collateral. Lend gold as opposed to traditional lending through Savings Accounts, CD\u0026rsquo;s and Bonds.\nLoaning Fiat Currency, Dollars\nLoaning dollars or fiat currency is unprofitable. This is why banks so often face collapse and why they can only stay in business through the help of central banks like the Federal Reserve. This is why the Federal Reserve continues to devalue the dollar by adding to the total supply of dollars in circulation. The likelihood that you will get an interest rate that will exceed the rate at which those dollars are losing value is virtually zero. Traditional lending through a savings accounts or by buying CD\u0026rsquo;s and Bonds are all examples of loaning cash. When you participate in this type of traditional loan there is very little likelihood that you will regain your original purchasing power when comparing the value that those dollars have lost. In real terms, purchasing power, you actually lose value by lending dollars. Avoid lending fiat as the return will rarely exceed real inflation.\nSo in regards to debt, there are four components. For fiat currency there is borrowing dollars and there is lending dollars. For gold there is borrowing gold and lending gold. These pieces are opposites of each other. You should lend your gold, but you should avoid lending your dollars. You should borrow in dollars, but you should avoid borrowing in gold.\nThis can be understood by observing real returns. The real return of cash is steeply negative. The real return of gold is slightly positive. This means that you want to avoid obligations that put you on the hook for paying back something that appreciates in value over time. You do want to take advantage of the ability to borrow something that you can pay back with something less than you borrowed in terms of its purchasing power.\nInvesting # When deploying money into investments in a fiat based monetary system such as we have today your goal is to get a return on your investment. Because you now know about real money, gold, and its inverse relationship to currency you now have a bar that you can judge your investments against. This is the rate of depreciation of currency. To retain your purchasing power, your wealth, you must only deploy your money into investments that will yield a greater ROI than the rate of depreciation of the dollar.\nInvesting through the lens of a gold standard looks very different than investments viewed through the lens of fiat currency. In a system where dollars depreciate over time you must beat the rate of depreciation with your investments ROI. If you put your money into a CD and you get a two percent ROI then if you only think in terms of dollars then you might be satisfied with this ROI. But the investor that disciplines themselves to a gold standard will look at the rate of inflation in their area and quickly realize that a two percent ROI is a bad investment. You would actually be losing a lot of your purchasing power over time. This logic applies to investments in stocks that give a five, six, and even seven percent rate of return. Even in these investments you could still be destroying your wealth and losing real purchasing power over time when you realize that you can only purchase a fraction of what you could with that same money you used to make the initial investment. This means that to make smart investments you should look through the lens of a hard money system. Investments that give a positive ROI will stand out when compared to something that does not lose its purchasing power over time, but slightly appreciates. This exercise will wake you up to the startling fact that most appreciation and long term capital gains are largely a mirage and for the most part they do not realy exist.\nDOW\u0026rsquo;s performance since 1900 priced in Gold\nLook at this chart of the DOW Jones Industrial Average priced not in terms of dollars, but in terms of gold. Historically the DOW always comes back down to around one ounce of gold. There are brief periods of time where there are large bubbles blown up in the valuation of companies that are included in the DOW but eventually, they revert to the mean and you can buy the DOW for around one ounce of gold. It should come as no surpise that when you look at the best companies and measure them in terms of innovation that they only show 2-3% annual improvements.\nDOW\u0026rsquo;s performance since 1900 priced in Dollars\nTo further drive home this point let us look at a hundred-year chart of the DOW priced in dollars that shows a graph that trends up and to the right. What you are really looking at when you view this chart is a devaluation of the currency. This is a graph that illustrates the fact that it costs more dollars to buy investments today than it did the day before. This is not because these investments have gained in value but because the dollars purchasing power has been destroyed. So when you listen to so called financial experts tell you about how we do not actually care about daily draw downs and that we are in the markets for the long term appreciation, you now know that they are deceiving you! Long term there is no appreciation, long term things revert to the mean. So if the only thing that you are banking on when investing for your retirement is appreciation then you are effectively gambling.\nTake a company like Amazon. If the goverment decides to declare it a monopoly and they decide to break up the company then all of your gains that you have accumulated over the years could be gone over night. This is especially apparent when you compare the purchasing power you are left with to your initial investment.\nIf you cannot count on capital appreciation when investing, then how should you invest your money? If you are a student of history then the answer should come as no surprise to you. Historically the wealthy do not invest for appreciation but for cashflow and income. Income is the answer. Be it dividends from stocks, rental income from real estate, or profits from owning a business. Income is the only way to ensure that you start to collect a real return on your investment.\nPeople have made a lot of money through speculation which is what investing for appreciation is, but a lot more people have lost money this way. That is why time old financial advice does not value it as a reliable means to build wealth. All the proof you need as an individual investor is the above graph of the DOW priced in gold. If it were possible to pick all the companies that hit the lottery and experienced massive growth and to avoid all of the other companies then you would never need something like an index fund to exist. However, the fact that index funds do exist and show total system returns and the fact that those total system returns revert to the mean or about one ounce of gold for the DOW, shows that as an individual investor the only reliable way to get real returns on investments is to invest for cashflow and income, not for appreciation.\nYou should only deploy your money into investments when their ROI is greater than the value of the debt or cash losing its purchasing power. For example, contrary to what banks want you to think when you take out a loan to buy your first home. When they tell you that your home is your greatest asset, what they really mean is that your home is their greatest asset. Yes, your home will go up in value over time, but this is only a reflection of the loss in purchasing power of the dollar. This is why your home should never be tied to your net worth, it is not an investment. You are only speculating that you are going to be able to sell your home to someone else at a greater price which is gambling. So when you take out cash a good investment would be to deploy that into an investment like a rental proprety. This is a reliable investment because the cash flow from the tenant pays the debt on the property. To make it simple, the bar of entry when considering an investment deal is that the cash flow you are receiving is greater than the cost of servicing that debt. The larger the margin, the safer the investment. This investment is an example of how you can build your wealth because once the debt has been paid off you will be left with at least some value in the property, and you will still have cash flow from the property that will serve as income. Income is the only reliable way to make sure you can service the debt if you decide to use debt to purchase an investment. This income is often used as the bar to ensure using debt is a good idea. Use debt to generate income and avoid using debt for speculation\nHe also said, \u0026ldquo;Money is gold and everything else is credit.\u0026rdquo; Fiat currency is just credit. When you use currency, you are relying on the good faith of the US government to not do what it has always done, which is to devalue the currency. In conclusion, disciplining yourself to a gold standard allows you to make smart financial decisions that are in line with age old financial advice. If you are saving, save gold. If you are loaning, loan gold. If you are borrowing, borrow fiat currency. If you are investing, invest for cash flow that provides a real return over the cost of the debt if you are using debt. If you are not using debt, then invest for immediate real returns. This will keep you from speculating and relying on the greater fool theory that states there is always a greater fool for you to sell your investment to at a higher price. By following this advice, you will avoid being tricked by appreciation in terms of dollars only because you are holding everything to the standard of gold and how it is performing.\nIf you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","date":"September 3, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/treasury/2022-09-03-real-money/","section":"The Treasury","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/gold.html Originally published on 2022-09-03 at drewredifer.com.\nTraditional financial wisdom going back thousands of years universally states that you should save your money and avoid going into debt. Take for example the financial principles taught in the bible:\n","title":"Real Money","type":"treasury"},{"content":"","date":"August 3, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/gospel/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Gospel","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"August 3, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/morality/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Morality","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/the-good-news.html Originally published on 2022-08-03 at drewredifer.com.\nMorality is not up for Interpretation # After the overruling of Roe vs. Wade I witnessed an avalanche of despair and frustration. One of the major points of contention was this rage over losing fundamental rights for women. The right to an abortion. Knowing what real Rights are I reached out to a number of people to try to engage in a conversation about morality. I reached out to friends, family, and I even engaged with random people on the internet. In all my discussions I put forth several scenarios and asked them what they would do if they found themselves in these situations. What I learned horrified me, but at the same time revealed a fundamental problem with our society. Below are two of those scenarios:\nScenario 1 # Imagine that you find yourself sitting in a room and on the table before you lie a large red button. You are trapped in this room, and you are told that you have two choices. You can either choose to press the button, or you can choose not to press the button. If you press the button, then you are free to leave the room, but a stranger in the adjacent room is killed. You have never met this stranger, you know absolutely nothing about them, and you never will. If you choose not to press the button, then you die. You have nine months to make your decision.\nTake a moment to really think through these two choices. Think about the consequences of each action. Think about the morality of your decision. Is one choice the Right choice? Is the other the Wrong choice? Is the morality of this decision up for interpretation? Try to separate yourself from the frame of man’s law, also known as government. Try to separate yourself from the frame of religious doctrine. Try to separate yourself from any external biases that might influence your choice. Now make your decision. Do you escape with your life by pressing the button and killing the innocent stranger, or do you choose to not press the button and self-sacrifice your life to spare the life of a stranger?\nNow remember your answer and let us move onto the next scenario.\nScenario 2 # Imagine that you find yourself being held hostage at gun point along with your entire family. On the table in front of you lie a large red button. You are told that you have two choices. You can either choose to press the button, or you can choose not to press the button. If you choose to press the button, then a random stranger that is being held captive in an adjacent room is killed. If you choose not to press the button, then your entire family is killed. Regardless of your choice you get to walk out of the room with your life.\nTake a moment to really think through these two choices. Think about the consequences of each action. Think about the morality of your decision. Is one choice the Right choice? Is the other the Wrong choice? Is the morality of this decision up for interpretation? Try to separate yourself from the frame of man’s law, government. Try to separate yourself from the frame of religious doctrine. Now make your decision. Do you choose to press the button and kill the stranger, or do you choose not to press the button sacrificing your entire family to save the life of an unknown stranger?\nWhat I Learned # Every time I presented the above scenarios to someone and asked the question of which choice they would choose if they found themselves in one of these two scenarios, without exception, everyone said they would press the button. They said they would press the button to save either themselves or the lives of their loved one(s), at the expense of an innocent’s life. When I asked them how many innocent strangers it would take for them to change their mind, they began to understand the point I was trying to make. As high a number as I suggested, I could not get them to change their decision. The point I was getting at was that if you concede to take the life of one then you would commit genocide to save those you know and love.\nThe reason I was left horrified after having these discussions was not because people chose to press the button. I anticipated most people would press the button, in fact, I even confided that I too would probably push the button if I ever found myself in a similar situation. Given the choice why would I sacrifice the lives of those I know and love or even my own life to spare the life of a stranger? Taken at face value the choice seems simple. No, the reason I was horrified was because I explained in excruciating detail how morality, knowing right from wrong, was objective and not up for our interpretation. I did this before I presented them with the scenarios. I used first principles to build my argument, I even proved how truth was objective because it was necessary for defining morality. After all of this I still consistently got the same answer, everyone chose to press the button, and had a justification for why they were right in their decision. My argument made no difference, to them this was a personal choice. To them the morality of their action was up to their interpretation, put another way, they believed morality to be subjective.\nIf you want to learn more about how I presented my case for Objective Morality you can read a previous article I wrote on the topic, here. Below is the definition of a Right action I gave before asking the above scenarios:\nA Right is an action that does not result in harm to others.\nI went on to define a wrong as any action that does harm to others. I further distilled it to a single word, theft. For example, murder is wrong because it is the theft of another person’s life against their will.\nPlato’s The Sophist # The reason objective morality matters is because if it is not true then every action is up for interpretation. This is dangerous because it means that you are capable of being swayed by whomever makes the strongest argument. This leaves you vulnerable to extreme manipulation. This is an age-old problem that is addressed in Plato’s the Sophist. Just as the ancient Athenian philosophers had the frustration of dealing with devious individuals that would set truth aside to sell their argumentative skills out to the highest bidder, so we find ourselves today being bombarded with propaganda to sway our decisions this way or that. If we know right from wrong, then we can be confident in our decision making. On the other hand, if we do not have a standard by which to base our morality then we are like a ship without a rudder and without an anchor driven by the winds of chance and circumstances of others.\nWhen I would point to this vulnerability, they would consistently fall back to the argument that I was pushing my religious viewpoint on them. I found this very frustrating. I was doing my best to explain objective morality from a secular world view. The crux of my argument that consistently turned people off to my message was my use of the word God/Nature when explaining Natural Law, or the Golden Rule. I tried in vain to explain that they should interpret God in the most abstract way possible. I would tell them that you do not have to have a religious world view to understand what I mean, if you want you can just interpret it as a physicist would, if you are a mortal being then your actions in this world have consequences. I would tell them how the same concept had manifested in different cultures thorughout history. I would explain to them that it was like Karma, you reap what you sow. I talked and I typed until I was blue in the face. It did not matter, the moment I used the word God most of the people I talked to were completely turned off to the idea of objective morality.\nNow this was a touchy subject to begin with and emotions were already high with many of the people I spoke to so it should not come as a surprise that most were turned off by what I had to say. After all I was trying to convince them at the height of their frustration that not only were they wrong about abortion, that it is not a right, but that their understanding of morality was so out of whack that they were capable of committing genocide.\nI learned A LOT from talking with people about this topic, but I found that it was such an incendiary topic that I decided a couple of weeks ago that I was not going to share my findings publicly. However, today I had a brush with death while taking Elena to our nanny\u0026rsquo;s place. I was waiting at a stoplight to turn left onto the busy street in front of our neighborhood. The light turned green, and I took my foot off the break. As the car began to creep forward, I looked right, and then left. As I turned my head to look left a giant utility truck pulling a cement mixer bulled through the intersection completely ignoring the red light. This was just in front of my car. Had I not looked both ways and simply gassed it on green that truck would have crashed directly into the drivers’ side of my car. The side of the car that both I and my eight-month-old daughter, Elena were sitting on. We both would have been history, it would not have made a difference had I been driving a hummer.\nNow this turned out to be a non-incident but because my daughter was in the car it shook me up good, and because I cannot shake this topic from my mind, I figured I would sit down and write this article out properly. While I would normally stop at the secular world view and present my conclusions. That being that objective morality is real, it is a problem that society thinks that right and wrong is up for interpretation, and that we as a society need to learn that there are situations where selfishly we might think we are right when in reality, objectively we are wrong. I would simply leave it at that and end by saying something wholesome like, Hakuna matata, everybody lets all just continue to go along to get along.\nNo, not today. Instead, I am going to lean into that which everybody seems to find so uncomfortable, GOD’s standard of morality. I tried to make the argument that morality was built into us by natural design, and everybody rightly pointed out that I was pushing religion on them. I concede. I was wrong, morality is a Godly issue.\n“Man will believe anything as long as it is not in the bible.”\n– Napoleon\nEveryone I talked to got very emotional when I brought into question the morality of their decision. This is because everyone thinks they are a good person. This is a human response, and I think that if you could go back in time and interview some of histories most notorious wrongdoers that they would make a compelling case for why they were justified in their actions. They would likely conclude that despite their many wrong doings that they were still a good person. This applies to Nazis who followed orders during the 1930s and 1940s or any order followers during times of great atrocities. To any of the worst world leaders throughout history. Such as Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, Vladamir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, or Pol Pot to name only a handful. People are capable of horrific actions and the moral culpability lies with those who acted wrongly.\nThe truth is that humanity is a fallen creation. As Jesus so rightly put it, there is none good but God (Mark 10:18). If someone claims to be good, they are deceiving themselves through their own self-righteousness. You can prove this by holding their actions accountable to God’s standard, the Moral Law. Also known as the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament of the Bible. This moral law is the same moral law that our civil law is based off of.\nLady Justice\nI tried to take the secular path by explaining truth and how there is such a thing as objective morality. The problem with this approach is that it does not account for Justice. It plays the game of the scales. You end up comparing the aggregate total of your right actions to your wrong actions. If the scale leans in the direction of your right actions, then you come to the conclusion that you are a good person. This is not a valid excuse for wrong actions.\nIn a court of law, the judge does not judge you on how well you lived your life. If you broke the law, then the just judge will judge you according to the letter of the law. Think about it. If you were a surgeon who made a living saving the lives of others and one day you decided to up and murder someone the judge will not take into account how many lives you might have saved, but instead will judge you on how many you took when making his ruling. You will be guilty of murder and labeled a murderer.\nIf you disagree with this, then you do not believe in objective morality. You might say that murder could just as easily be right. But this is a futile argument because in your heart you know murder is wrong. For the law is written on your heart and your conscious bears witness (Romans 2:15).\nI used to try to explain this sense of consciousness from a secular point of view but we as humans have an inherent knack for justifying our actions. To this point I must concede that I have become cynical to human reason. I recently heard it put the following way and I think it sums up my thoughts on the matter neatly, “Reason is the minds Press Secretary. It is used to justify what you have already made up your mind on to do.”\nLeft to our own devices we will commit genocide. Yes, you! See your original response to Scenario #1 and Scenario #2 above. As if the standard of the ten commandments was not heigh enough Jesus raised the bar higher yet when he preached his sermon on the mount. If you so much as look at a woman with lust, you are guilty of adultery (Matthew 5:28). If you have anger in your heart towards others, then you are guilty of murder (1 John 3:15).\nThis seems outrageous when taken at face value, but that is because we are all wretched sinners. We are all guilty of these acts and thoughts, not because we are evil but because we are human. If this is true, and if you are capable of taking a step back from yourself then you will know in your heart that it is. You must first lust after someone before you have sex with them, and of course, you must first hate before you commit murder.\nOkay, so what?\nIf my moral character is to be held to the standard of the ten commandments, then I am guilty like the rest of humanity. I am a lying, thieving, blasphemous, fornicator at heart who is guilty of idolatry, and if Jesus has his way, then you can tack on murderous adulterer. So, to be clear, I am a lying, thieving, blasphemous, fornicating, murderous adulterer who is guilty of idolatry. Just like you and the rest of humanity. Does this really mean I am a bad person who will be condemned to hell if found guilty of these sins on judgement day?\nYes, yes it does.\nIf God is holly, righteous, and just then that is exactly what it means. That is what it means if there is an after life but before we get to the good news lets think about the implications for life as we know it here on Earth. If you live an immoral life, then you will quickly find yourself living in a state of Hell. If enough of our society abandons their morality, then we will all find ourselves living in Hell here on Earth.\nThese past two years I have adopted a saying, “What is life but a test of the soul?” I say this in times of hardship to friends and family when I feel that they need a message of courage. In C.S. Lewis’s book, Mere Christianity, which if you have not read consider yourself undereducated, he states the importance of straightening out your life:\nChristianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live for ever. Perhaps my bad temper or my jealousy are gradually getting worse —so gradually that the increase in seventy years will not be very noticeable. But it might be absolute hell in a million years: in fact, if Christianity is true, Hell is the precisely correct technical term for what it would be. And immortality makes this other difference, which, by the by, has a connection with the difference between totalitarianism and democracy.\nIf individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilisation, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual. But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more important, for he is everlasting and the life of a state or a civilisation, compared with his, is only a moment.\nThis eloquently states why we need to straighten ourselves out and align ourselves with Gods standard of morality. If we die and our souls become eternal, well, then we had better straighten ourselves out now because if not, our eternal existence will not just be miserable, it will be hell.\nSin is Deadly Serious # For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.\n(Romans 6:23) Most people do not realize what death is. According to the Bible, death is wages. God has paid you in death for your sins. It is like a Judge in a court of law has a heinous criminal before him and says you have raped three woman and murdered them. I am paying you with the death sentence. You have earned this punishment. This is your wages. This is what you deserve. To God, sin is so serious that it will earn you the death sentence. The soul of sinners shall die. After death we will be judged by God on judgement day.\nThe Good News # For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.\n– (John 3:16)\nThe reason Jesus is our only salvation and the only way to have eternal life is because he is the only good man. Only an innocent man can take on the punishment for the guilty. I cannot take the fall for you because I am just as guilty as you are. This is why the Gospel is referred to as the good news, because God paid the debt for humanity with his only begotten son. Death is wages, and Jesus’s final dying words on the cross were, “It is finished (John 19:30).” He was stating that he had paid the fine in full. You and I violated God\u0026rsquo;s law. Jesus paid the fine. That is what happened on that cross. Jesus lived a perfect life and died a brutal death on Earth so that our guilty souls could have eternal life in heaven. If you are in a court of law and someone pays your fine then the Judge can legally let you go. It is as if you had a stack of speeding fines. Even though you are guilty, you can walk because someone paid your fines. Even though you and I are guilty before God under the death sentence, God can take the death sentence off of us and let us legally live forever becuase Jesus paid the fine in full on that cross. In doing so he rose from the dead and defeated death. God\u0026rsquo;s gift is eternal life through Jesus.\n\u0026ldquo;For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing\u0026hellip;\u0026rdquo;\n(1 Corinthians 1:18) Now the reason the Gospel makes no sense to someone who is proud of heart is becuase they do not believe in objective morality. They think that the morality of their actions is up to their interpretation. In other words, they will not acknowledge their sins. If I were to stop you on the highway and tell you that someone had paid a fine for the law that you broke. You would probably say that does not make sense. What are you trying to say, that I am a criminal? The good news of the fine being paid for you would sound foolish; it would not make any sense. But if instead, I take the time to explain to you that the area you just sped through was set aside for a blind person\u0026rsquo;s convention and the maximum speed limit was fifteen miles per hour. There were signs everywhere. You are in big trouble and you\u0026rsquo;re going to jail for a long time, or you can pay this massive fine, but fortunately for you someone has paid it. Now because you realize how serious your transgression is the news that the fine has been paid for no longer sounds foolish. It makes sense now. It is exactly the same with the Gospel.\nIf someone is proud and self-righteous then they do not see sin as being serious and the Gospel will make no sense to them. If you tell them that Jesus paid the fine for their sins, they might say something like I am a good person and that does not apply to me because I am not a sinner. It is only once you realize how serious sin is, that it comes with the death sentence. That Gods wrath abides on you (John 3:36), and that you are an enemy of god through wicked works (Colossians 1:21). Once you acknowledge that from a place of honesty then and only then does the good news of the Gospel make sense. It is the best news you could ever hear. All you must do is trust in the savior and God promises that he will reveal himself to you. Accept Jesus as your lord and savior, confess your sins, and sin no more. Then as a Christian if you fall back into sin, which you will because you are human, you must admit your wrong doings and beg for forgiveness. The idea is that we recover from sin within this life in order to prepare for the role to come.\nSounds simple, right?\nThink again.\nBecause narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.\n(Matthew 7:14) Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.\n– (Matthew 19:23)\nAnd again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God\n– (Matthew 19:24)\nMost of us will hear the good news and ignore it. Many will claim that they cannot believe in a God that would damn most of humanity to hell. Why would a loving God do such a thing? The answer is the same reason there is evil on Earth, free will. God did not make us into robotic machines of flesh, he gave us free will. He gave us the ability to choose right action from wrong action. Evil arises when people choose wrong action and go against Gods will. If God forced you to go to heaven when you died then that would be the theft of your free will. What if you do not want to go to heaven when you die? Who is God to force you to do something against your free will when he gifted that ability to you in the first place? All he can do is provide you with the invitation. It is up to you to either accept or deny. The choice is yours. As it is with everything in life, you make the choice, and you live with the consequences of those choices.\nThank you for taking the time to read this article. Regardless of your beliefs I hope that you take some time to reflect on what you just read. If you are a Christian or would like to become one I pray that you take the time to pause, right now, to get right with God. After all you never know when a truck will blow a red light to send you to the afterlife to meet your maker.\nAdditional Info # By the way, I crafted Scenario #1 to perfectly replicate the situation a mother finds herself in when she must choose between saving the life of her unborn child, or her own life. I wanted to explore the morality of the most tragic reason one might choose to get an abortion. I crafted Scenario #2 to replicate a situation where one might find themselves being blackmailed. I wanted to illustrate how the only right choice in a hostage situation of that sort is to self-sacrifice because the alternative always leads to genocide. There are no limits people will not go to if they think that they can protect their loved ones. In both scenarios by pressing the button you are perpetuating the wrong. In Scenario #1, unless you were raped, you got yourself into the situation by your own free will. You do not have the right to steal away the life of your unborn child. Abortion is objectively wrong. In Scenario #2, by pressing the button you are perpetuating the wrong done to you by your captor. The objectively right decision is to not press the button because you have already been captured, even if it means the death of everyone you know and love. Remember, you must live with your consequences. Both the right ones, and the wrong ones.\nIf you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","date":"August 3, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/faith/2022-08-03-the-good-news/","section":"Faith","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/the-good-news.html Originally published on 2022-08-03 at drewredifer.com.\nMorality is not up for Interpretation # After the overruling of Roe vs. Wade I witnessed an avalanche of despair and frustration. One of the major points of contention was this rage over losing fundamental rights for women. The right to an abortion. Knowing what real Rights are I reached out to a number of people to try to engage in a conversation about morality. I reached out to friends, family, and I even engaged with random people on the internet. In all my discussions I put forth several scenarios and asked them what they would do if they found themselves in these situations. What I learned horrified me, but at the same time revealed a fundamental problem with our society. Below are two of those scenarios:\n","title":"The Good News","type":"faith"},{"content":"","date":"August 3, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/truth/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Truth","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"July 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/feeds/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Feeds","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"July 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/privacy/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Privacy","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"July 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/rss/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Rss","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"July 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/search/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Search","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"July 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/searxng/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Searxng","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/searxng.html Originally published on 2022-07-10 at drewredifer.com.\nDrew\u0026rsquo;s Private Search Engine # Now hosted locally as a service. I have created an instance of SearXNG that is up and running, fully self hosted on my server. The utility can be reached here: search.online-opsec.net\nWhat is SearXNG? # SearXNG is a metasearch engine, aggregating the results of other search engines while not storing information about its users. Basically, it is a private search engine that anyone can use that I am now hosting on my personal server. There are no adds, every search you make is not being compiled to create a digital voodoo doll of you so that companies can target advertisements at you more efficiently, it can be customized to your liking, and leverages the results of more than seventy search engines at once. SearXNG is a fork from the well-known searx metasearch engine. It provides basic privacy by mixing your queries with searches on other platforms without storing search data.\nSearXNG can be added to your browser\u0026rsquo;s search bar; moreover, it can be set as the default search engine. I have already set it as the default on my devices and I encourage you to do the same. This was the solution I was looking for a few months back when I wrote my article about DuckDuckGo censoring \u0026ldquo;Disinformation\u0026rdquo;, you can read that post here. At the end I recommended using an instance of SearX but I was never satisfied because I was still using someone elses search engine. I wanted my own. Anyways, I have been using my instance of SearXNG as my primary search engine for a couple days now and I cannot express how satisfying it is to no longer rely on proprietary search engines where you know every search you make is being logged and used against you. If you are interested in creating your own private search engine then I have included the resources I used below. If you would rather just use my instance, search.online-opsec.net then please do. If you would rather use one of the other many publicly available instances of SearXNG then I have included a link for that below as well.\nResources # For further information on how I setup SearXNG consult the following resources:\nSearXNG docs List of publicly available SearXNG instances: searx.space Landchad.net\u0026rsquo;s guide: landchad.net/searxng/ YouTube installation guide by NetworkChuck: ditch Google!! (build your own PRIVATE search engine) ","date":"July 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/terminal/2022-07-10-searxng/","section":"The Terminal","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/searxng.html Originally published on 2022-07-10 at drewredifer.com.\nDrew’s Private Search Engine # ","title":"SearXNG","type":"terminal"},{"content":"","date":"July 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/self-hosting/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Self-Hosting","type":"tags"},{"content":"The Terminal is where the digital side of life lives.\nIt gathers code, systems, self-hosting, AI workflows, and the craft of building technical infrastructure that actually serves a human life. The aim here is not technology for its own sake, but technology made answerable to human judgment, independence, and use.\n","date":"July 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/terminal/","section":"The Terminal","summary":"The Terminal is where the digital side of life lives.\nIt gathers code, systems, self-hosting, AI workflows, and the craft of building technical infrastructure that actually serves a human life. The aim here is not technology for its own sake, but technology made answerable to human judgment, independence, and use.\n","title":"The Terminal","type":"terminal"},{"content":"","date":"July 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/yarr/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Yarr","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/yarr.html Originally published on 2022-07-10 at drewredifer.com.\nDrew\u0026rsquo;s Web-Based Feed Aggregator # Now hosted locally as a service. I have created an instance of Yarr that is up and running, fully self hosted on my server. The utility can be reached here: rss.drewredifer.com. RSS aggregators are the tool you should be using if you want to stay up to date with many different websites. Rather than visiting the web page directly you can follow the websites RSS feed and you will be notified when a new article is published. RSS aggregators render news aggregating applications and websites pointless and are better because they are not curated to push agendas and targeted news articles.\nIn the past I have used online RSS aggregators like feedly. Feedly is still a popular option but you are giving whoever runs feedly a curated list of the websites you are interested in. Also, they use a pay wall if you want to add folders to organize your feeds. I have also used RSS aggregators over email programs, for example Thunderbird has a decent built in tool. If you want the most efficient and private RSS aggregator then you are best off using newsboat.\nWhat is Yarr? # Yarr (yet another rss reader) is a web-based feed aggregator which can be used both as a desktop application and a personal self-hosted server. I am using it as a personal self-hosted server which is nice because I can access the websites I care about from any device so long as it has a connection to the internet.\nResources # For further information on how I setup Yarr consult the following resources:\nYarr Github Repository: Yarr Landchad.net\u0026rsquo;s guide: Yarr ","date":"July 10, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/terminal/2022-07-10-yarr/","section":"The Terminal","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/yarr.html Originally published on 2022-07-10 at drewredifer.com.\nDrew’s Web-Based Feed Aggregator # ","title":"Yarr","type":"terminal"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/cbdc.html Originally published on 2022-06-16 at drewredifer.com.\nThere is a major shift happening right now regarding monetary systems. Central banks around the globe are in different stages of researching and developing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In fact, as a recent Bank for International Settlements report indicates, 90% of central banks around the world are currenctly studying the feasibility of issuing their own CBDC. This is not just something being put into place in one or two totalitarian countries, but in nearly every country in the world.\nAs you may have heard by now, the Biden Administration issued an Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets this past March. At the time this announcment caused a lot of buzz in the financial sphere about how the administration was clearing the way for a digital dollar, it should be noted that the Federal Reserve has been actively exploring the concept for some time now; the \u0026ldquo;go ahead\u0026rdquo; from Biden was more of a formality than a substantial policy shift. Specifically, the Boston Fed has been collaborating with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Project Hamilton - a multiyear research project on CBDCs - since the summer of 2020. A report on Phase 1 of the project was released this past February.\nWhat is a CBDC? # In a paper released earlier this year by the Federal Reserve, Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation, a CBDC is defined as a digital liability of a central bank that is widely available to the general public. There is a lot more to CBDCs than this simple definition and I encourage you to read the paper in its entirety. When you do read the paper, you will learn that this will take control of the money out of the hands of the local banks and centralize it to the Federal Reserve. It will be programmable money and like our current fiat system it will also be backed by nothing. Put another way, a CBDC grants totalitarian control to anyone who wields it and as a notable banker so eloquently put it, \u0026ldquo;Give me control over a nations money and I care not who writes the laws.\u0026rdquo;\nBrief History of Banking # Historically, banks kept gold and silver as money. Because you do not own what you cannot protect, banks were initially used as a security measure for protecting money. After enough people felt safe keeping their gold stored in banks, they began to exchange the paper receipts. People treated these paper receipts as redeemable for gold because they were. However, soon the bankers realized that not everyone was redeeming their paper receipts for gold, so they caved to greed and began lending out more paper receipts than there was gold to back them up with. Put another way, the banks were lending your gold to somebody else and if you tried to get access to your gold you would discover that it was no longer there. This discovery of fraud would consistently lead to bank runs which woulld cause the criminal banks to collapse. This type of behavior should have been outlawed, but instead it was nationalized with the invention of the Central Bank. In order to prevent a local bank from collapsing when it commits fraud the powers that be decided to create a bank for the banks. A centralized place where local banks can store some gold so that they are no longer susceptible to bank runs. This builds into the system a place for the local banks to turn to when they need to be bailed out because they are caught commiting fraud.\nRisk is like energy; you cannot eliminate risk you can only transfer it. So instead of decentralizing the financial risk within the system that was isolated to individual banks at the local level the creation of the central bank centralized all the risk. This makes the whole financial system very fragil because now fraud that was previously a local problem becomes a national problem.\nFast-forward and soon the Federal Reserve, the central bank of America becomes the central bank of the entire world. As has always been the case, the Federal Reserve isued more receipts than they had gold to back it up and so a worldwide run on the bank of the United States began. So, when the countries of the world asked for their gold back in 1971 President Nixon told them no and he severed the connection of the dollar to gold. This action set the fiat currency system into motion, a system where governments can create as much currency as they want, and this is the financial paradigm we are currently operating within.\nWhile fiat currency is technically backed by nothing the same is not entirely true for our banking system. Our banking system is built upon legacy systems that were created when currency was restrained by physical gold. Our banks still operate as if they require on site reserves. As if they could still fail and go out of business. Any semblance of checks and balances in today\u0026rsquo;s banking system is a remnant from when currency was constrained by physical gold. It was the backing of something real that held the financial system accountable.\nUnfortunately, today your bank account is digital, it is nothing more than some ones and zeroes on a computer. Banks used to take your money and lend it out to somebody else when they would go to the bank to take out a loan. In reality banks lend money into existence. Every loan banks make is money that did not exist prior to the loan being made. This money will continue to exist in the monetary system until the outstanding loan is paid in full.\nOur current system is bad. It is highly fragile. It accelerates the concentration of wealth. It rewards going into debt and punishes those who save. As a result, it acts as a transfer of wealth from the savers to the borrowers. There is a lot to dislike about this system but as bad as this system is it is nothing compared to the evil that the Central Bank Digital Currencies will be capable of. CBDCs are a categorically different system and once we embrace them there is no going back.\nHow CBDCs are Different # As stated above, the Federal Reserve defines a CBDC as a digital liability of a central bank that is widely available to the general public. With today’s system you have an account with your local bank and your local bank has an account open with the Federal Reserve. A CBDC on the other hand will bypass, nationalize, and render obsolete the current traditional banking system. The banking system knows this and its why the American Banking Association sent an open letter in response to the Federal Reserve that said if they come out with a CBDC it could collapse the whole banking system. With the rollout of a CBDC, every individual and business will have a digital wallet or account directly with the central bank. So instead of logging into your Chase or Wells Fargo account, you will have an account directly with the Federal Reserve. On the surface this might not seem any different and you could make a good argument that our current interactions with money are already exclusively digital. However, an account directly with the Federal Reserve is different and it is intensely dangerous.\nCentral banks maintain a monopoly on both the creation and the destruction of a nation’s currency. This power is already the most dangerous power on planet Earth today. Now pair to that power, the ability to directly control every transaction and account of all individuals and businesses. This power would be centrally concentrated amongst a couple dozen unelected bureaucrats.\nWhy Governments Want Them # The entire purpose of a CBDC is to control how much money exists and to control exactly where that money exists. This money is programable. This means that it gives the central bankers the ability to make scalpel like changes to the economy at the level of the individual. This capability to enact such finely tuned economic policy is unprecedented and would give central bankers a level of control over your life that has never before been seen in human history.\nRight now, the central bank must rely on bank lending and government deficit spending in order to insert new dollars into the economy. They have very little control over where those dollars end up. We still have a degree of decentralization in our monetary system in that the local banks control the supply of dollars in circulation through lending and where those dollars end up based on their lending requirements. Put another way, Jerome Powell does not control the dollar, Jamie Dimon does. A CBDC would give that control to Jerome Powell.\nNow if you move to a CBDC then Jerome Powell will have total control over the number of dollars in circulation. He would be able to control the rate of inflation. He could increase or decrease the money supply. He could increase or decrease velocity. He could also issue credit to whoever has political favor. Keep in mind that in order for local banks to operate they must report their profits and loses or PnL. This acts as a check on the banks because they must lend based on an individual’s ability to pay them back. A central bank does not have to do that because they do not have to worry about being paid back. This means they can issue dollars based on your social credit score, or if you have been a good boy or girl and worn your mask. But just the same, if you are caught outside not wearing a mask or not following whatever ritual the authorities deem necessary at the time then that offense could be deducted from your social credit score and the next time you go to the bank to get a loan you will be penalized by having to pay a higher percentage interest rate. That is assuming that you were approved for the loan to begin with. Because the Federal Reserve is not concerned with being paid back, they could enforce equality of outcome.\nNow if you really are a bad boy or bad girl, say you are a trucker in Canada, or you donated to a trucker in Canada, then you can be completely excommunicated from the entire financial system. Now if at some point cash is banned, which can happen faster than you might think, then you are left with zero purchasing power outside of the system and you are done, absolutely cut off. There is nowhere for you to go. You cannot move to another country as a financial refugee because that purchasing power is trapped within the financial system, and they have eliminated the off ramps.\nProgrammable Money # Because CBDCs will be programable they could hypothetically give everyone a stimulus check that would expire in one month in order to boost spending that month to hold off a recession. They could give everyone a food bonus, money that could only be spent at a grocery store who also has a wallet/account open with the Federal Reserve. They could limit how many dollars you spend at a gas station during a specific time of the month if gas is getting too expensive or if supplies are running low. They could overnight, shut off any person’s ability to make any transactions whatsoever if they were deemed dangerous, or a criminal, or a terrorist. If the stock market was crashing, they could deposit dollars into your account that could only be used to purchase stocks. They could restrict certain transactions such as buying specific stocks if that stock looks to them like it might be in a bubble.\nRight now, our neighbors up north are seeing their banks turn into muscle for the state and it is proving to be pretty effective. Now imagine if a couple dozen unelected bureaucrats can do all of this with a couple dozen strokes of a keyboard. No more international wires, no usage of an ATM, no more approved business licenses without an account open with the Federal Reserve. No more buying from any businesses unless you use your CBDC.\nCouple a CBDC with an individual social credit score and they can be used to train you like an animal through a system of rewards and punishments. They can make an individualized sales tax. For example, if they see that you are drinking too much, they can add an additional sales tax to each additional drink you might order at a restaurant. This type of scenario might seem hyperbolic, but your imagination is the limit because it is programable money. If your social credit score is below a certain threshold then they might limit your means of travel like they do in China to only slower options like trains and cars as opposed to airline travel. They could ban you from using Uber or Lyft or even from booking a hotel.\nSay for example, that a climate crisis is declared. Well, if you want to grill out this weekend then when you go to the grocery store and try to check out with hamburger meat then you might find out that your allotted personal carbon allowance has been used up for the month and now you can only purchase proteins sourced from plants and bugs. Mastercard has already come out with a tool for banks to calculate customers carbon score based on what you buy and if you have booked a flight recently with Google Flights, you will have noticed that they are already calculating carbon emissions per flight. When viewed from the level of the individual It does not take a Notradamus to realize that this will be used to manipulate everyday people’s behavior by restricting travel and purchases.\nViewed from a more macro level, if the government is at say a hundred and fifty percent debt to GDB and the Federal Reserve needs to bail out the government then they can increase velocity by inflating their way out. Inflation is nothing more than the theft of purchasing power from the existing money supply. So, in order to increase velocity as mentioned above, they can program a timer into your monthly stimulus that forces you to spend those dollars within a week or else it disappears. This forces people to purchase goods and services sooner than they otherwise would have which results in increased velocity and in turn increases the rate of inflation and lowers the debt burden for the Federal Government. However, because the inflation raises the price of those goods and services that were just in such high demand and the wages of the middle and poor Americans always lags behind this results in decreased purchasing power for everyday Americans.\nThis is the situation we find ourselves in today. While the government admits that inflation is eight percent, real inflation is likely double that. If wages increase at say five percent per year and inflation increases at fifteen percent, then the difference is ten percent per year. When you compound that delta over years then that means peoples real wages are being decreased significantly and the government is doing this intentionally to bail themselves out to pay back their debts. With a programmable currency they can lock you into the system and cause as much inflation as they want and there is nothing you can do about it.\nWith foreknowledge of this you need to have some purchasing power outside of the banking system incase you or your group become the next Truckers. This can be accomplished by owning precious metals like gold or silver or some cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin or Monero. You can get creative with forms of purchasing power outside of the traditional financial system but ideally it would have the qualities of being both highly liquid and relatively stable in terms of retaining its purchasing power in relation to the dollar.\nJust like pandoras box, once they get their hands on this much power there is no turning back. It will be too late when the masses wakeup and realize what has happened. You will not be able to back peddle and exit the system. They are right now actively shutting down all off ramps from the financial system, be it with cash withdrawls or deposits or KYC/AML regulations in cryptocurrencies. You won’t be able to use your CBDC to buy gold. You won’t be able to buy Bitcoin or other decentralized cryptocurrencies. In China, you cannot buy Bitcoin with their CBDC, and you could not do so even before they outlawed Bitcoin. You will not be able to transfer any of your wealth out to make an investment in a different country in order to purchase citizenship through investment. You will not be able to rely on CBDCs in times of crisis to buy an airplane ticket out of the country. This is being sold to the masses as a necessity for economic stability all in the name of preventing money laundering, increasing efficiency of cross boarder payments, and of course, national security. In reality CBDCs will be used as the chains that will enslave humanity and all future generations.\nThis is a line that once crossed cannot be uncrossed. Right now, there are people around the world that said this could never happen here. Then they woke up and they realized that it did. Certain businesses like Marijuana, firearms, or gold and silver dealers are already having their business accounts shut down by the existing banking system. If we move to a CBDC there will be no alternative bank turn to in order to continue doing business. The amount of control that will be given to any entity that is able to issue and control Americas CBDC will be unprecedented. This is a power that we do not want to exist regardless of whether or not it ends up being used for good or not. The capacity for it to be used for evil is too great. In the Federal Reserves open letter to the public, they explicitly stated that they want Congress to authorize the use of CBDCs. Unfortunatly, the submission window has closed to respond directly to the Federal Reserve but that does not mean you cannot contact your representatives to tell them absolutely not, this is a bad idea, and we do not want anything to do with them.\nIf you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","date":"June 16, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/treasury/2022-06-16-cbdcs/","section":"The Treasury","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/cbdc.html Originally published on 2022-06-16 at drewredifer.com.\nThere is a major shift happening right now regarding monetary systems. Central banks around the globe are in different stages of researching and developing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In fact, as a recent Bank for International Settlements report indicates, 90% of central banks around the world are currenctly studying the feasibility of issuing their own CBDC. This is not just something being put into place in one or two totalitarian countries, but in nearly every country in the world.\n","title":"CBDCs","type":"treasury"},{"content":"","date":"June 16, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/central-banking/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Central-Banking","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"June 16, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/macro/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Macro","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 23, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/audiobook/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Audiobook","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 23, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/lotr/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Lotr","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"April 23, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/phil-dragash/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Phil-Dragash","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/lotr.html Originally published on 2022-04-23 at drewredifer.com.\nby Phil Dragash\nI stumbled upon this audio masterpiece when reading a comment in a totally unrelated forum and could not believe how immersive it was, I could not stop listening. When I looked into it I found that it was done by an independent American filmmaker and artist, Phil Dragash. From the blurb on his website it appears that he spent four years working on this project. This 48 hours long version of LOTR is read by Phil, who gives all major characters distinct personalities, and includeds ambient sound effects, and original music by Howard Shore from the feature film trilogy. This work is presented as three books with each chapter being recorded as an individual file. Originally this project was available for free on YouTube with custom painted thumbnails for each chapter. Sadly YouTube took the work down due to copyright reasons. Fortunately, someone was able to archive this labour of love in its entirety so it can be enjoyed into the future. Access the complete work at Archive.org, see links below:\nLord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Soundscape by Phil Dragash Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Soundscape by Phil Dragash Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - Soundscape by Phil Dragash If you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","date":"April 23, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/library/2022-04-23-the-lord-of-the-rings/","section":"The Library","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/lotr.html Originally published on 2022-04-23 at drewredifer.com.\nby Phil Dragash\nI stumbled upon this audio masterpiece when reading a comment in a totally unrelated forum and could not believe how immersive it was, I could not stop listening. When I looked into it I found that it was done by an independent American filmmaker and artist, Phil Dragash. From the blurb on his website it appears that he spent four years working on this project. This 48 hours long version of LOTR is read by Phil, who gives all major characters distinct personalities, and includeds ambient sound effects, and original music by Howard Shore from the feature film trilogy. This work is presented as three books with each chapter being recorded as an individual file. Originally this project was available for free on YouTube with custom painted thumbnails for each chapter. Sadly YouTube took the work down due to copyright reasons. Fortunately, someone was able to archive this labour of love in its entirety so it can be enjoyed into the future. Access the complete work at Archive.org, see links below:\n","title":"The Lord of The Rings","type":"library"},{"content":"","date":"April 23, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/tolkien/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tolkien","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"March 12, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/censorship/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Censorship","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"March 12, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/duckduckgo/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Duckduckgo","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/duckduckgo.html Originally published on 2022-03-12 at drewredifer.com.\nTo Begin Censoring \u0026ldquo;Disinformation\u0026rdquo; # DuckDuckGo, the search engine, has grown in popularity in recent years and owes much of its success to its emphasis on protecting the searchers privacy and avoiding curated search results. In today\u0026rsquo;s Google dominated internet based service offerings, competitors, especially in the search engine space need a superior offering that resonates with users just to gain a market share foothold. For DuckDuckGo that competitive advantage was trust. Something Google has not been able to offer its user-base since they removed the \u0026ldquo;Don\u0026rsquo;t Be Evil\u0026rdquo; clause from its code of conduct.\nUnfortunately for loyal users of the service, myself included, that trust was recently undermined by the founder and CEO of the company, Gabriel Weinberg when he announced via Tweet that the search engine would be rolling out search updates that would down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation.\nFor the userbase of this service, that being individuals who value privacy and unbiased search results, this move has effectively compromised the service. Now I am not going to pontificate on why Weinberg decided to crack down on \u0026ldquo;disinformation\u0026rdquo; for this particular topic, but we all know the old addage,The first casualty of war is always the truth. So from now on if you use DuckDuckGo as a search engine Weinberg will be filtering your results through his version of The Ministry of Truth.\nThe Deeper Problem # As a daily user of the service I view this move as a serious wakeup call that points to a much deeper problem, reliance on proprietary software. It is looking more and more like Richard Stallman was right all along when he said that proprietary software was malware.\nIf you have never looked into the free software movement, it can best be understood by watching Stallman\u0026rsquo;s TEDx video: \u0026ldquo;Introduction to Free Software and the Liberation of Cyberspace. The central idea behind the movement is that by making software free (think libre or freedom) it gives the user control over the software. Proprietary software does just the opposite, it gives the software control over the user.\nIn a world where companies have forgotten the lessons learned from Orwell\u0026rsquo;s Nineteen Eighty-Four dystopian science fiction novel this concept is key to ensuring the free flow of ideas and speech. Take for example, the case study that was Parler, the social media app that bills itself as unbiased social media and a place where you can speak freely and express yourself openly without fear of being \u0026lsquo;deplatformed\u0026rsquo; for your views.\nParler grew rapidly following the last round of presidential elections when Facebook and Twitter stepped up their efforts to crack down on misinformation. What happened next was a coordinated attack on Parler by Apple, Amazon, and Google that effectively booted parler off of the internet within a span of less than twenty-four hours. Both Google and Apple kicked the application off of their devices respective app store, and Amazon removed the social media company from its cloud hosting services, Amazon Web Services. This left the service inaccessible until the company bowed to the wishes of the powers that be.\nBoth Parler and DuckDuckGo illustrate the problems with centralized control when it comes to internet services. In the case of Parler, the service was targeted and held hostage until they agreed to comply with the wills of larger tech companies. In DuckDuckGo\u0026rsquo;s case the founder and CEO woke up one day and decided to start censoring search results which undermines user trust and begs the question of what else they might be censoring. In either case the users, you and I, lose.\nThe Solution # So instead of being herded onto the next platform that promises to put the user first let us learn from recent history and avoid the trappings that come with centralized control on the internet.\nFree software puts control of the software back into the hands of the user, you and I. If software is free and decentralized, it can be installed by anyone and run on any server. With similar forms of censorship happening more and more frequently and in a world where the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is proposing linking your web browser history to your credit score it is best we get ahead of this problem and lead by example by adopting these existing software options that empower the user. Who knows, if the IMF gets their Orwellian wish this proactive step could be good financial advice!\nNow, as for search engines, dump DuckDuckGo and\u0026hellip;\nUse SearX! # SearX is a decentralized meta-search engine which runs on free and open source software (FOSS). It polls results from whatever search engines you have selected and it aggregates the results. Because it is FOSS it can be installed by anyone and run on any server.\nYou can read more about it on their website, find an instance to use, or install it on your server. I was first made aware of this search engine by Luke Smith, check out his overview video of SearX on PeerTube or Odysee.\nIf you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","date":"March 12, 2022","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/watchtower/2022-03-12-duckduckgo-to-begin-censoring/","section":"The Watchtower","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/duckduckgo.html Originally published on 2022-03-12 at drewredifer.com.\nTo Begin Censoring “Disinformation” # ","title":"DuckDuckGo to Begin Censoring \"Disinformation\"","type":"watchtower"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/hermetic-principles.html Originally published on 2021-12-13 at drewredifer.com.\nHermetic Tradition # \u0026ldquo;Heed these words, you who wish to probe the depths of Nature: If you do not find within yourself that which you seek, neither will you find it outside. If you ignore the wonders of your own house, how do you expect to find other wonders? In you is hidden the Treasure of Treasures. Know Thyself and you will know the Universe and the Gods.\u0026rdquo; -The Oracle At Delphi\nThis quote is an understanding of the rule of Correspondance. It is to know the dynamic interplay between free will and natural law.\nThe Kybalion # \u0026ldquo;There is no portion of the occult teachings possed by the world which have been so closely guarded as the fragments of the Hermetic Teachings which have come down to us over the tens of centuries which have elapsed since the lifetime of its great founder, Hermes Trismegistus, the \u0026ldquo;scribe of the gods,\u0026rdquo; who dwelt in old Egypt in the days when the present race of men was in its infancy. Hermes was, and is, the Great Central Sun of Occultism, whose rays have served to illuminate the countless teachings which have been promulgated since his time. All the fundamental and basic teachings embedded in the esoteric teachings of every race may be traced back to Hermes. Even the most ancient teachings of India undoubtedly have their roots in the original Hermetic Teachings.\u0026rdquo; -The Kybalion\nThe writers of the Kybalion argue that the Hermetic teachings are the oldest teachings having influenced all occultic teachings since. In reality this is probably not true. The Hermetic tradition grew out of the Egyptians\u0026rsquo; Khemetian tradition that was passed onto the Greeks. Forms of Shamanism likely predate the Egyptian\u0026rsquo; Khemtian philosophy and that is just known forms of occult teachings. Regardless, the teachings of Herems Trismegistus have surely influenced countless esoteric teachings.\n\u0026ldquo;The lifework of Hermes seems to have been in the direction of planting the great Seed-truth which has grown and blossomed in so many strange forms, rather that to establish a school of philosophy which would dominate the world\u0026rsquo;s thought. But, nevertheless, the original truths taught by him have kept intact in their original purity by a few men each age, who, refusing great numbers of half-developed students and followers, followed the Hermetic custom and reserved their truth for the few who were ready to comprehend and master it. From lip to ear the truth has been handed down among the few. There have always been a few initiates in each generation, in the various lands of the earth, who kept alive the sacred flame of the Hermetic Teachings, and such have always been willing to use their lamps to re-light the lesser lamps of the outside world, when the light of truth grew dim, and clouded by reason and neglect, and when the wicks became clogged with foreign matter. There were always a few to tend faithfully the alter of the Truth, upon which was kept alight the Perpetual Lamp of Wisdom.\u0026rdquo; -The Kybalion\nThe Hermetic tradition was a collection of teachings, a body of knowledge if you will. It was not a dogmatic religion or single set of teachings. The tradition was hidden from those who were not deemed worthy of the body of knowledge which is known today as occultism, hidden knowledge.\n\u0026ldquo;These men have never sought popular approval, nor numbers of followers. They are indifferent to these things, for they know how few there are in each generation who are ready for the truth, or who would recognize it if it were presented to them. They reserve the \u0026ldquo;strong meat for men,\u0026rdquo; while others furnish the \u0026ldquo;milk for babes.\u0026rdquo; They reserve their pearls of wisdom for the few elect, who recognize their value and who wear them in their crowns, instead of casting them before the materialistic vulgar swine, who would trample them in the mud and mix them with their disgusting mental food. But still these men have never forgotten or overlooked the original teachings of Hermes, regarding the passing on of the words of truth to those ready to receive it. Their customary attitude has always been strictly in accordance with the other Hermetic aphorism: \u0026ldquo;The lips of Wisdom are closed, except to the ears of Understanding.\u0026rdquo; -The Kybalion\nFrom my personal experience this first sentiment about there being only a few people within each generation with the curiosity, and willingness to receive truth rings true. The writers of the Kybalion are pointing out the truth that you cannot make somebody learn. The pursuit of truth is a solitary pursuit. You need sustained curiosity and a desire to learn in order to do the work needed to elevate your personal understanding of both yourself, and the world around you. Fortunatly with the information super highway open(the free and open internet) the ancient wisdom of the occult is at the fingertips of anyone with the will to learn. Unfortunatly, times have not changed much since the time of the Kybalion. In todays society we cannot stop entertaining ourselves to death with trash entertainment, our modern equivalent of disgusting mental food.\n\u0026ldquo;There are those who have criticized this attitude of the Hermetists, and who have claimed that they did not manifest the proper spirit in their policy of seclusion and reticence. But a moment\u0026rsquo;s glace back over the pages of history wil show the wisdom of the Masters, who knew the folly of attempting to teach to the world that which it was neither ready or willing to receive. The Hermetists have never sought to be martyrs, and have, instead, sat silently aside with a pitying smile on their closed lips, while the \u0026ldquo;heathen raged noisily about them\u0026rdquo; in their customary amusement of putting to death and torture the honest but misguided enthusiasts who imagined that they could force upon a race of barbarians the truth capable of being understood only by the elect who had advanced along The Path.\u0026rdquo; -The Kybalion\nWell consider me a critic becuase knowledge is power. Knowledge withheld from the masses creates a knowledge differential which results in a power differential in favor of those hoarding the occult knowledge. I believe that knowledge used positevly means using it to uplift and expand the human conciousness which results in the expansion of morallity. Now I will confess that my take is a modern take but I think the spirit of the above passage speaks for itself. So as long as you are not at risk of being tortured or put to death knowledge should be available to all those with the will to absorb it.\nNow the The Kyballion teaches seven basic over arching operating principles found in nature. They are known as the Hermetic Principles:\nThe Principle of Mentalism\nThe all is mind: the universe is mental.\nThe Principle of Correspondence\nAs above so below: as below so above.\nThe Principle of Vibration\nNothing rests; Everything moves; Everything vibrates.\nThe Principle of Polarity\nEverything is dual; Everything has poles;\nEverything has its pair of opposites; Like and unlike are the same;\nOpposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; Extremes meet;\nAll truths, are but half-truths; All paradoxes may be reconciled.\nThe Principle of Rhythm\nEverything flows, out and in; Everything has its tides;\nAll things rise and fall; The pendulum swing manifests in everything;\nThe measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left;\nRhythm compensates.\nThe Principle of Cause and Effect\nEvery cause has its effect; Every effect has its cause;\nEverything happens according to law; Chance is but a name for law not recognized;\nThere are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the law.\nThe Principle of Gender\nGender is in everything; Everything has its masculine and feminine principles;\nGender manifests on all planes.\nThe Principle of Mentalism # The ALL is MIND. The Universe is Mental. Thoughts lead to the manifestation of things and events. Thoughts create our state of existence and the quality of our experience here on Earth. Therefore, be responsible for everything you create by being responsible for everything that you think.\nThe Principle of Correspondence # That which is Above is like to that which is Below. That which is Below is like to that which is Above. The Macrocosom (the very large; the totality) and the Microcosom (the very small; the individual units which comprise the whole) are reflections of each other. The Universe is Holographic; it is self-similar across all scales.\nThis principle states that there is a harmony which can be made, agreement and coorespondence between these planes:\nThe Great Mental Plane\nThe Great Spiritual Plane\nThe Great Physical Plane\nThe Principle of Vibration # Nothing rests. Everything moves. Everything vibrates. At the most fundamental level, the Universe and everything which comprises it is pure vibratory energy manifesting itself in different ways. The Universe has no \u0026ldquo;solidity,\u0026rdquo; as such. Matter is merely energy in a state of vibration.\nThe Principle of Polarity # Everything is Dual. Everything has poles. Everything has its pair of opposites. Opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree. Extremes meet. All paradoxes may be reconciled.\nThe Principle of Rhythm # Everything flows, out and in. Everything has its tides. All things rise and fall. The pendulum-swing manifests in everything. The measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left. Rhythm compensates.\nThe Principle of Cause and Effect # Every Cause has its Effect. Every Effect has its Cause. Everything happens according to Law. Chance is but a name for Law not recognized. There are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law.\nThe Principle of Gender # Gender is in everything. Everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles. Gender manifests on all planes.\nThe Lost Principle # The Generative Principle or The Principle of Care\nThe \u0026ldquo;LOST\u0026rdquo; PRINCIPLE, is the dynamic of CARE. What we care about on a day-to-day basis acts as the driving force of our thoughts and actions. Therefore, Care can be seen as the ultimate Generator of the quality of our experience. This Principle has been often referred to as the Generative Principle. The word generative is derived from the Latin verb genere, which means \u0026ldquo;to create\u0026rdquo;.\nWhat we care enough about to put our will behind is ultimately what gets created in our world. The world is the way that it is because most people do not care enough (even if they SAY they want things to be different) to change it through their actions.\nThese principles operate in everything in the natural world and they are always operating. As such they were called the Hermetic Principles and the word hermetic comes down to us in modern english in the word Hermetically Sealed. Meaning that it is fixed, it is inherent in nature and nothing we do is going to change how these principles operate. So all we can do is align our conciousness to them and understand that they do exist and are operating in nature. Only then can we live in harmony with them and not create self inflicted suffering. This is just like the physical laws of dynamics, they are fixed and set in stone. While you are on Earth you are operating in a 1 G gravitational field. If you step off of a large building gravity will have an effect upon the mass of your body and you will go splat. That is a fixed law and all you can do is understand it. It does not matter wether or not you like it or not, all you can do is understand it and align your behavior accordingly. The laws of nature as expressed in the Hermetic tradition are set in stone and as a result they are Hermetically Sealed. This tradition does a really good job of explaining the underlying principles of Natural Law.\nIf you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","date":"December 13, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/watchtower/2021-12-13-hermetic-principles/","section":"The Watchtower","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/hermetic-principles.html Originally published on 2021-12-13 at drewredifer.com.\nHermetic Tradition # “Heed these words, you who wish to probe the depths of Nature: If you do not find within yourself that which you seek, neither will you find it outside. If you ignore the wonders of your own house, how do you expect to find other wonders? In you is hidden the Treasure of Treasures. Know Thyself and you will know the Universe and the Gods.” -The Oracle At Delphi\n","title":"Hermetic Principles","type":"watchtower"},{"content":"","date":"December 13, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/hermeticism/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Hermeticism","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"December 13, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/occult/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Occult","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"December 13, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/principles/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Principles","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"December 10, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/aquinas/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Aquinas","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/natural-law.html Originally published on 2021-12-10 at drewredifer.com.\nNatural Law # Natural Law has been known by humans since time immemorial. We know this becuase it is expressed in one way or another in all of the major cultures and religions.\nIn the west it is best known as the Golden Rule, or Gods Rule:\n\u0026ldquo;Do unto others as you would have done to yourself.\u0026rdquo;\nFor some it becomes more clear when expressed in the negative:\n\u0026ldquo;Do NOT do unto others as you would NOT have done to yourself.\u0026rdquo;\nSt. Thomas Aquinas believed in the objective order of nature. After his work on proving the existence of God, he is probably most famous for his understanding of natural law. While Aquinas believed that this objective order of nature (and the operation of human reason which discovers it) are, in fact, ultimately grounded and established by God\u0026rsquo;s intelligent willing of the good of creation (i.e., His love), he recognizes that one does not need to know that the objective order of nature was God\u0026rsquo;s creation. Thus, whether or not one believes in or rationally proves there is a God, one can recognize, and be bound by natural law. According to Aquinas, it applies to all people at all times, and in some sense is known by all rational humans (though, of course, they do not (but should) always act in accordance with it).\nAquinas distinguishes four kinds of laws:\nEternal law is comprised of those laws that govern the nature of an eternal universe\nDivine law is concerned with those standards that must be satisfied be a human being to achieve eternal salvation\nNatural law is comprised of those precepts of the eternal law that govern the behavior of beings possessing reason and free will\nHuman law is (that which is promalgated by human beings) valid only insofar as its content conforms to the content of Natural Law\nEternal law is comprised of those laws that govern the nature of an eternal universe. Divine law is concerned with those standards that must be satisfied be a human being to achieve eternal salvation. Natural law is comprised of those precepts of the eternal law that govern the behavior of beings possessing reason and free will. Human law is (that which is promalgated by human beings) valid only insofar as its content conforms to the content of Natural Law. As Aquinas puts it:\n\u0026ldquo;Every human law has just so much of the nature of law as is derived from the law of nature. But if in any point it deflects from the law of nature, it is no longer a law but a perversion of the law\u0026rdquo; (ST I-II, Q.95, A. II).\nTo paraphrase, an unjust law is really no law at all.\nDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made reference to to this in one of his letters:\n\u0026ldquo;I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that \u0026ldquo;an unjust law is no law at all.\u0026rdquo; Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority.\u0026rdquo;\nTo truly know natural law is to know what actions we do NOT have a right to do because taking them is harming another being.\nThe above post was adapted from a talk given by Mark Passio. If you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","date":"December 10, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/faith/2021-12-10-natural-law/","section":"Faith","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/natural-law.html Originally published on 2021-12-10 at drewredifer.com.\nNatural Law # Natural Law has been known by humans since time immemorial. We know this becuase it is expressed in one way or another in all of the major cultures and religions.\n","title":"Natural Law","type":"faith"},{"content":"","date":"December 10, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/natural-law/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Natural-Law","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/right-vs-wrong.html Originally published on 2021-12-06 at drewredifer.com.\nCommon Sense # Right and Wrong are diametrically opposed opposites that exist in nature. These concepts do not exist as constructs within the human mind, they are objective. Morality is entirely to do with the distinction between Right and Wrong behavior. Knowing this distinction is tantamount to having true Common Sense because the definition of Common Sense is to truly know the difference between Right and Wrong behavior.\nThe word Right by itself has two seperate meanings. For example in Math if you were to give the solution of four when solving the simple equation of two plus two then you would be Right. In this context the word Right can be defined as correct or based in Truth. Additionally, using the apophatic approach of seeking knowledge through negation, we can obtain the second meaning. If someone were to steal from you then you would say that action was Wrong. So we can know that Right being the opposite of Wrong has a moral component. Therefore Right can also mean Moral, or in harmony with Natural Law. Natural Law in this context simply means to treat others the way you would want to be treated. Or put apophatically, do NOT treat others the way you would NOT want to be treated.\nPutting this all together we get that the word Right means Correct and Moral. Correct, meaning in alignment with that which is true and moral, meaning in harmony with Natural Law. Therefore, we can define Right as follows:\nDefinition # A Right is an action that does not result in harm to other sentient beings\nRights Are Universal # Knowing the definition of Right means that you now know the Rights of Human Beings. If an action is based in truth and does not harm others then it is a God given Natural Right. This means that every single human being on this planet has the exact same Rights. Not one person has one more Right than another human being and not one person has one less Right than another human being. To think that anybody anywhere on the planet has more or less rights is a logical fallacy. Knowing the difference between objective Right and Wrong is the key to understanding true Equality because Rights are universal and therefore the exact same for every human being on Earth.\nThe above post was adapted from a talk given by Mark Passio. If you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","date":"December 6, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/watchtower/2021-12-06-right-from-wrong/","section":"The Watchtower","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/right-vs-wrong.html Originally published on 2021-12-06 at drewredifer.com.\nCommon Sense # Right and Wrong are diametrically opposed opposites that exist in nature. These concepts do not exist as constructs within the human mind, they are objective. Morality is entirely to do with the distinction between Right and Wrong behavior. Knowing this distinction is tantamount to having true Common Sense because the definition of Common Sense is to truly know the difference between Right and Wrong behavior.\n","title":"Knowing Right from Wrong is Common Sense","type":"watchtower"},{"content":"","date":"December 4, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/objectivity/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Objectivity","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"December 4, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/perception/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Perception","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"December 4, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/philosophy/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Philosophy","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/truth-is-objective.html Originally published on 2021-12-04 at drewredifer.com.\nTruth Defined # Truth is that which is.\nIt is that which has occured in the past and that which is occurring in the present. Truth is OBJECTIVE meaning that it is NOT dependent upon the perceptions of human beings because perceptions can waver.\nPast \u0026amp; Present # The concept of truth is simply that it is that which already exists. It is that which has happened in the past and is happening in the present momment. This can be reimaged as the past having been recorded in the universal record, and that the present is being recorded.\nThis concept is illustrated beautifully in Hollywood\u0026rsquo;s 2002 interpretation of H.G. Wells\u0026rsquo; novel, The Time Machine. In the film the protagonist is an inventor who builds a time machine to go back in time to prevent the death of his fiance. To his horror when he goes back in time he learns the hard truth that he cannot change the past for it has already been written.\nThe Future # Unlike the past and present, the future has not yet been written.\nTruth vs. Perception # In the figure above there are three waveforms that oscillate about an axis, the straight white lines. The colored waveforms represent three seperate individual human perceptions. Lets refer to them as blue-man, green-man, and red-man. These individuals ability to perceive what has occured and what is occuring can be referred to as consciousness. Which can be defined as a beings ability to recognize patterns and meaning with respect to those patterns. Meaning that either you have an accurate understanding of what is taking place in and around you, or that you have an inaccurate understanding of what is taking place in and around you.\nTo fully understand this figure you must know what a waveform is. A waveform in this instance is simply a Sine wave. It has a crest and a trough, and the oscillating line repeats in this pattern. The distance from one crest to the next crest is the wavelength. The longer the wavelength, the shorter the frequency. What this means is how frequently the waveform will intersect with the axis, or the line that represents truth. Said another way, how frequently will the waveform representing human perception align with the straignt axis representing truth.\nIf your conciousness is high, meaning that it is at a high frequency(think blue-man) then this means the individual is going to have more of an abillity to understand and recognize the patterns. If your conciousness is low, meaning that it is at a low frequency (think red-man) then you are going to see the patterns less frequently. So to reiterate, as you move from low frequency to high frequcny you can see that the wavelength is shorter which means that it intersects the line that represents truth much more frequently. This can be quantified. From low to high, red-man intersects five times, green-man intersects ten times, and blue-man intersects twenty four times. So the higher the frequency of an individuals conciousness, the more in tune with truth that individual is. So what would happen if you took an individuals frequency infinitly high? The answer is that it would become indistinguishable from a line and therefore that individual would be aligned to that which is, truth.\nThe concept to be garnered is that perception is not reality, it is the human filter that we see reality through. It is our job, as concious beings to work to align our perception to the reality which exists which is truth. We need to set aside our desires for what we want the truth to be and instead look at the truth for what it is. The truth may be something entirely different than what we want it to be, but until we can recognize what it is we are not even in a position to make an accurate diagnosis of what is going on. If we cannot understand this then we have no hope of working to create what we want it to be.\nThe above post was adapted from a talk given by Mark Passio.\n","date":"December 4, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/watchtower/2021-12-04-truth-is-objective/","section":"The Watchtower","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/truth-is-objective.html Originally published on 2021-12-04 at drewredifer.com.\nTruth Defined # Truth is that which is.\n","title":"Truth","type":"watchtower"},{"content":"","date":"November 25, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/shopsmith/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Shopsmith","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/shopsmith.html Originally published on 2021-11-25 at drewredifer.com.\nHome Workshop System # ","date":"November 25, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/workshop/2021-11-25-shopsmith/","section":"The Workshop","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/shopsmith.html Originally published on 2021-11-25 at drewredifer.com.\nHome Workshop System # ","title":"Shopsmith","type":"workshop"},{"content":"The Workshop is where practical life gets recorded.\nIt gathers tools, repairs, projects, built objects, experiments, and the honest mess of making things happen. This realm is about tangible work, the kind that leaves marks on wood, walls, rooms, and routines.\n","date":"November 25, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/workshop/","section":"The Workshop","summary":"The Workshop is where practical life gets recorded.\nIt gathers tools, repairs, projects, built objects, experiments, and the honest mess of making things happen. This realm is about tangible work, the kind that leaves marks on wood, walls, rooms, and routines.\n","title":"The Workshop","type":"workshop"},{"content":"","date":"November 25, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/tools/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tools","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"November 25, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/woodworking/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Woodworking","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"October 23, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/calibre/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Calibre","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/calibre.html Originally published on 2021-10-23 at drewredifer.com.\nDrew\u0026rsquo;s Library Server # Now hosted locally as a service. I have created an instance of Calibre/Calibre-Web that is up and running, fully self hosted on my server. The utility can be reached here:Drew\u0026rsquo;s Library Server.\nWhat is Calibre? # The Calibre library server is an open-source way to store eBooks and it allows you to, access your eBooks from anywhere, transfer between devices, and even share them with others.\nCalibre-Web? # Calibre-web is a web application that provides a clean interface for browsing, reading, and downloading eBooks using an existing Calibre database.\nResources # For further information on how I setup Calibre/Calibre-Web consult the following resources:\nThe Calibre-Web project\u0026rsquo;s github Digital Lethargia\u0026rsquo;s guide: How Did I Setup Calibre/Calibre-Web for eBooks Calibre: About Calibre Calibre Docs: calibre User Manual Landchad.net\u0026rsquo;s guide: Setting up a Calibre library server How to Change Calibre-Web default port: Troubleshooting default port ","date":"October 23, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/terminal/2021-10-23-calibre/","section":"The Terminal","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/calibre.html Originally published on 2021-10-23 at drewredifer.com.\nDrew’s Library Server # Now hosted locally as a service. I have created an instance of Calibre/Calibre-Web that is up and running, fully self hosted on my server. The utility can be reached here:Drew’s Library Server.\n","title":"Calibre","type":"terminal"},{"content":"","date":"October 23, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/ebooks/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Ebooks","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"October 23, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/library-server/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Library-Server","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"October 2, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/discipline/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Discipline","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"October 2, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/journal/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Journal","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/journal-for-discipline.html Originally published on 2021-10-02 at drewredifer.com.\nJournal For Discipline! # Over the past two years I have kept a daily journal for tracking tasks, notes, and events. For taking notes I follow the Bullet Journal Method. The images to follow display how I have organize my journal. It is what works for me.\nJournal Supplies # Journal, Pen, and Whiteout Tape\nFor my journals I use ones with bullet grid paper. This journal measures five and a half inches in width and eight and a half inches in height. I got this one in a pack of three from Walmart. The brand is simplygenius and it is really cheaply made. I prefer my first two journals, which I also got from Walmart, the Exceed brand. Unfortunatly, last I checked they had stopped selling this higher quality journal and instead have opted for the super cheap made in China, simplygenius journals.\nNormally I would not care about the specific type of pen I used, but the paper in this journal is so bad that I had to experiment to find a pen that would actually write on this terrible paper. The ultra fine Pilot G-2 (0.38) does the job. Additionally, I always try to have some White-Out tape handy for my frequent mistakes.\nJournal Organization # The first two full page spreads in my Journal are reserved for a quick full year at a glance. I divide each page into thirds (or quarters). Each third contains a full calendar for that specific month followed by space to schedule events by day.\nYear at a glance\nYear at a glance cont\u0026hellip;\nAt the begining of each month I reserve several pages to be devoted to that month. That includes a page for that months calendar along with the following sections:\nFull months calendar\nGoals for the month\nBrain Dump section\nBrain dump for work\nBrain dump for my personal life\nMonth at a glance\nCheck-In section\nCheck-In for my physical state\nCheck-In for my spiritual state\nDaily gratitude tracker\nLHS: Monthly Check-In, RHS: Monthly Gratitudes\nDaily memory tracker\nAdditional tracker for something I\u0026rsquo;m trying to be intentional about\nLHS: Montly Memories, RHS: Monthly \u0026ldquo;Insert-Intention\u0026rdquo;\nDaily habit tracker Monthly Habit Tracker\nAfter completing the month at a glance and its cooresponding sections I leave a full page spread for my week at a glance. This is where I break the spread into columns with each week day getting a full column and the last column being split between the weekend. The daily columns include the following: a section for top priorities, space for notes, and lastly a section that breaks down my waking hours for that day to schedule events.\nWeek at a glance\nEach day is where the meat of the journaling takes place, but first I reserve a page at the begining of each working week for a Weekly To-Do List. This is where I list out tasks that I want to accomplish throughout the week. I typically start to fill this section out towards the end of the work week as I begin to think ahead to what needs to be done over the weekend.\nThe day of the week is pretty self explainatory. I include the following sections you see below: The date, the top priorities for the day, and a section to the right for scheduled events by hour for the day. While I am often lazy about the monthly sections in my journaling I am very disciplined about my daily tasks. I fill this section out first thing every morning and it allows me to think through what all needs to be accomplished for the day. As the day progresses I fill this page out and often carry on to the next page.\nLHS: Weekly To-Do, RHS: Day at a glance\nAs priviously noted above, this type of journaling and layout is what works for me. If you are serious about journaling I suggest you take the time to research what works for other people and build out your own methodology. My only suggestion is to not over think it, just start journaling!\nIf you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","date":"October 2, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/gymnasium/2021-10-02-journal-for-discipline/","section":"The Gymnasium","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/journal-for-discipline.html Originally published on 2021-10-02 at drewredifer.com.\nJournal For Discipline! # Over the past two years I have kept a daily journal for tracking tasks, notes, and events. For taking notes I follow the Bullet Journal Method. The images to follow display how I have organize my journal. It is what works for me.\n","title":"Journal For Discipline","type":"gymnasium"},{"content":"","date":"October 2, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/planning/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Planning","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"October 1, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/communications/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Communications","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"October 1, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/jitsi/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Jitsi","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/jitsi.html Originally published on 2021-10-01 at drewredifer.com.\nDrew\u0026rsquo;s Video Conferencing Server # Now hosted locally as a service. I have created an instance of Jitsi that is up and running, fully self hosted on my server. The utility can be reached here: meet.drewredifer.com\nWhat is Jitsi? # Jitsi is a set of open-source projects that allows you to easily build and deploy secure video conferencing solutions. It is a good private, federated, and libre alternative to Zoom or any other centralized video conferencing software. There is no complicated login process and you do not need to hand over your personal identifiable information with usernames and passwords. You can create calls just by typing the URL.\nResources # For further information on how I setup Calibre/Calibre-Web consult the following resources:\nJitsi: Jitsi Home Page Jitsi Docs: Jitsi Meet Handbook Landchad.net\u0026rsquo;s guide: Jitsi Video Chat ","date":"October 1, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/terminal/2021-10-01-jitsi/","section":"The Terminal","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/jitsi.html Originally published on 2021-10-01 at drewredifer.com.\nDrew’s Video Conferencing Server # ","title":"Jitsi","type":"terminal"},{"content":"","date":"September 12, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/rss-bridge/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Rss-Bridge","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/rss-bridge.html Originally published on 2021-09-12 at drewredifer.com.\nGenerate Atom or RSS feeds # In the sprit of building my own platform I created an instance of RSS-Bridge today and it is up and running, fully self hosted on my server. You can reach the utility here: rss-bridge.drewredifer.com\nWhat is RSS-Bridge? # RSS-Bridge is free and open source software for generating Atom or RSS feeds from websites which don\u0026rsquo;t have one. RSS-Bridge is not a feed reader or feed aggregator, but a tool to generate feeds that are consumed by feed readers and feed aggregators. The RSS-Bridge project aims at sites that:\ndon\u0026rsquo;t provide public accessible Atom or RSS feeds force their users to subscribe to e-mail notifications force their users to use their own proprietary APIs require their users to come back on a regular basis in order to check for new content RSS-Bridge will generate feeds based on \u0026ldquo;bridges\u0026rdquo; that are developed for any site. Those bridges will collect data and extract all necessary informatin which is then converted into various feed formats like Atom or RSS. The project strives to reconnect the Web and the contributors are very passionate about their cause.\nResources # For further information on how I setup RSS-Bridge consult these resources:\nRSS-Bridge project\u0026rsquo;s github Landchad.net\u0026rsquo;s guide: Setting up RSS Bridge Reconnecting the Web with RSS-Bridge ","date":"September 12, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/terminal/2021-09-12-rss-bridge/","section":"The Terminal","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/rss-bridge.html Originally published on 2021-09-12 at drewredifer.com.\nGenerate Atom or RSS feeds # ","title":"RSS-Bridge","type":"terminal"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/why-I-make-waking-up-early-a-priority.html Originally published on 2021-09-07 at drewredifer.com.\nWhen you are young you are dependent on others and you have few responsibilities. Therefore you do not have to spend the bulk of your time managing these responsibilities. However, as you age you increase both your independence and the number of things that you are responsible for. You want to maximize this new found independence and responsibility, and in fact I firmly believe that doing so to the best of your ability constitutes a life well lived. For further reading see my article on this topic: Maturity Matters. Unfortunatly, this comes at the expense of your personal time.\n# Personal Time\nPersonal time is time to yourself, time where you are free from distractions from the outside world. It is the time you have each day that you selfishly alot to your selfish pursuits. If you do not make personal time a priority then you will find that you will never have time for yourself.\nTo illustrate how few hours most of us actually have to ourselves each day lets take a look at the typical employees\u0026rsquo;s daily schedule:\nTypical Employee Schedule\nIf you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\nReturn to Blog.\n","date":"September 7, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/gymnasium/2021-09-07-430-am/","section":"The Gymnasium","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/why-I-make-waking-up-early-a-priority.html Originally published on 2021-09-07 at drewredifer.com.\nWhen you are young you are dependent on others and you have few responsibilities. Therefore you do not have to spend the bulk of your time managing these responsibilities. However, as you age you increase both your independence and the number of things that you are responsible for. You want to maximize this new found independence and responsibility, and in fact I firmly believe that doing so to the best of your ability constitutes a life well lived. For further reading see my article on this topic: Maturity Matters. Unfortunatly, this comes at the expense of your personal time.\n","title":"4:30 AM","type":"gymnasium"},{"content":"","date":"September 7, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/classical-education/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Classical-Education","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"September 7, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/language/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Language","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/latin-resources.html Originally published on 2021-09-07 at drewredifer.com.\nWHY I want to learn it and HOW I plan to do it # Why? # A current long term goal of mine is to read through many of the great works that have come out of Western Culture in chronological order. This year I have slowly been progressing through the great works of the ancient Greeks, starting with the Epics, moving on to the Drama and Lyrical works, followed by the Histories and finishing with the Philosophers. After completing the Greeks I will be moving on to the Romans and this has sparked an interest in looking into how difficult it would be to read these works in the original, Latin.\nHow? # I have purchased the following Latin resources:\nOrberg, Hans H. - Lingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata Pars I Familia Romana Orberg, Hans H. - Lingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata Pars 1 Exercita Latina I Orberg, Hans H. - Lingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata Colloqvia Personarvm (Second Edition) Miraglia, Luigi - Fabvlae Syrae Graecorum Romanorumque Fabulae Ad Usum Discipulorum Latine Narratae To start I am using Hans Orberg\u0026rsquo;s Lingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata. This book uses a unique approach to language learning in that there is no English translations. The entire book is written completly in Latin. This might sound absurd at first but it is written in such a way that the context clues and illustrations alone are enough to pick up the meaning. What is so fascinating about this approach is that it forces the reader to emerse themselves in the language, because you are reading without translations your mind begins to process in Latin. It removes the friction that comes along with most foreign language learning specifically that constant back and forth translation needed in most traditional approaches.\nLingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata is divided into 35 chapters and each chapter has exercises at the end to cover the material learned within that particular chapter. To suppliment these exercises I am using Orberg\u0026rsquo;s Lingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata Pars 1 Exervitia Latina I which contains additional exercises to be completed and follows along with Lingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata by chapter. The two additional books listed above will be used once I have exhausted Lingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata Pars I Familia Romana.\nAs mentioned above my long term goal is to read the great works of history in their original Latin without translation. In order to see this goal through I am willing to commit myself to an hour of intentional Latin learning each day. Below are my estimates for working through Orberg\u0026rsquo;s Lingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata:\nLingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata Pars I Familia Romana 2 Hrs per Chapter 0.5 Hrs per End of Chapter Exercises Lingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata Pars 1 Exercita Latina I 1 Hr per Chapter Exercise With the following estimates I think I can complete Orberg\u0026rsquo;s Lingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata Pars 1 in one hundred and twenty three hours. At an hour a day this should be attainable in just over four months time.\nLatin Resources # Luke Ranieri\u0026rsquo;s general Youtube Channel polyMATHY and his Latin only Youtube Channel SscorpioMartianus Luke\u0026rsquo;s video on the LINGVA LATINA PER SE ILLVSTRATA Book Series with links for purchase in the description Vox Latina: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin By W. Sidney Allen Aritcle by Luke Smith: Learn Latin Veterum Sapientia (English Translation) written by Pope John XXIII in 1962 on the promotion, study, and enduring importance of Latin in the modern Church. ","date":"September 7, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/library/2021-09-07-latin-resources/","section":"The Library","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/latin-resources.html Originally published on 2021-09-07 at drewredifer.com.\nWHY I want to learn it and HOW I plan to do it # Why? # A current long term goal of mine is to read through many of the great works that have come out of Western Culture in chronological order. This year I have slowly been progressing through the great works of the ancient Greeks, starting with the Epics, moving on to the Drama and Lyrical works, followed by the Histories and finishing with the Philosophers. After completing the Greeks I will be moving on to the Romans and this has sparked an interest in looking into how difficult it would be to read these works in the original, Latin.\n","title":"Latin","type":"library"},{"content":"","date":"September 7, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/latin/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Latin","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"September 7, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/morning/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Morning","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"September 7, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/time/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Time","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/library.html Originally published on 2021-08-29 at drewredifer.com.\nBelow is a list of books that I have in my personal library. They are listed in chronological order. If you would like a personal suggestion from my list or would like to recommend a book to me, email me (drew@drewredifer.com).\nPlease keep in mind that I have not read all of the books that I own, nor do I own all of the books that I have read.\nThe Greeks # The Epics: # Homer - The Iliad 800 BC Homer - The odyssey Drama and Lyric: # The Works and Days by Hesiod\nHesiod - Works and Days 750 BC Sappho - Poems by Sappho 630 - 570 BC Aeschylus - The Agamemnon 525 - 456 BC Aeschylus - The Libation Bearers Aeschylus - The Eumenides Pindar - Odes of Pindar 518 - 438 BC Sophocles - Oedipus the King 497 - 405 BC Sophocles - Oedipus at Colonus Sophocles - Antigone Euripides - The Trojan Women 480 - 406 BC Euripides - The Medea (431 BC) Aristophanes - The Frogs 446 - 386 BC Theocritus - Idylls of Theocritus 300 - 260 BC The Histories: # Herodutus - The Histories 484 - 425 BC Thucydides - The History of the Peloponnesian War 460 - 400 BC Xenophon - Anabasis (The Persian Expedition) 430 - 354 BC The Philosophers: # Plato - The Aplogy 428 - 347 BC Plato - The Crito Plato - The Phaedo Plato - The Phaedrus Plato - The Republic (Book I, II, VII, VIII, IX, X) Plato - COMPLETE WORKS Supplemental Material: # SparkNotes and Crowther, John and Kestler, Justin - Greek Classics (SparkNotes Literature Guide) History # World History: # Hawkes, Jacquetta - Prehistory (History of Mankind) Muller, J. Herbert - The Uses of The Past: Profiles Of Former Societies Biers, R. William - The Archaeology of Greece: An Introduction Ramage, H. Nancy - Roman Art (fifth edition) Patterson, M. Gordon - Essentials of Ancient History 4,500 Bc-500 Ad (Essentials) Hildinger, Erik - Swords Against The Senate: The Rise Of The Roman Army And The Fall Of The Republic Jenkins, Peter - Across China Churchill, S. Winston - The Birth of Britain (A History of the English-Speaking Peoples #1) Churchill, S. Winston - The New World (A History of the English-Speaking Peoples #2) Churchill, S. Winston - The Age of Revolution (A History of the English-Speaking Peoples #3) Churchill, S. Winston - The Great Democracies (A History of the English-Speaking Peoples #4) Le Couteur, Penny and Burreson, Jay - Napoleon\u0026rsquo;s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History Schaller, B. George - Stones of Silence: Journeys In The Himalaya Diamond, Jared - Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Civilizations Rise and Fall #1) Quigley, Carroll - Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr - The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr - The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 2]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr - The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 3]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Short, Philip - Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare Irving, David - Apocalypse 1945: The Destruction of Dresden U.S. History # Carnes, C. Mark and Garraty, A. John - The American Nation: A History of the United States Pratt, L. Mara - American History Stories You Never Read in School but Should Have Van Doren, Carl - Secret History of the American Revolution Archer, Julie - They Made A Revolution Lancaster, Bruce and Ketchum, M. Richard and Catton, Bruce - The American Heritage Book of the Revolution Michener, A. James - Legacy Sutton, C. Antony - Wall Street and The Rise of Hitler Ellis, J. Joseph - Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation Hamilton, Alexander and Jay, James and Madison, James - The Federalist Papers de Tocqueville, Alexis - Democracy in America Vidal, Gore - Burr: A Novel Ashton, T.S. - The Industrial Revolution, 1760-1830 Toynbee, Arnold - The Industrial Revolution Sandburg, Carl - Abraham Lincoln: The Praire Years and The War Years Volume 1 Sandburg, Carl - Abraham Lincoln: The Praire Years and The War Years Volume 3 Bishop, Jim - The Day Lincoln Was Shot O\u0026rsquo;Reilly, Bill and Dugard, Martin - Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassinatino That Changed America Forever Bradley, James - Flyboys: A True Story of Courage Ambrose, E. Stephen - Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler\u0026rsquo;s Eagle\u0026rsquo;s Nest Nathanson, E.M. - The Dirty Dozen Sims, H. Edward - American Aces: Great Fighter Battles of World War II Johnson, Larry - The Seelback A Hilton Hotel: A Centennial Salute to Louisville\u0026rsquo;s Grand Hotel Knebel, Fletcher and Bailey II, W. Charles - No High Ground Perloff, James - The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline Williams, L. Paul - Operation Gladio Bolick, Clint - Grassroots Tyranny: The Limits of Federalism Saad, Gad - The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense Gold, Simone - I Do Not Consent: My Fight Against Medical Cancel Culture Kennedy, Jr. Robert - The Real Anthony Fauci Berenson, Alex - Pandemia: How Coronavirus Hysteria Took Over Our Government, Rights, and Lives Beck, Glenn - The Great Reset Webb, Whitney - One Nation Under Blackmail Vol. 1 \u0026amp; Vol. 2 Natural History # The Map That Changed The World by Simon Winchester\nGrotzinger, Jordan - Understanding Earth (Fifth Edition) Eckert, W. Allan - Earth Treasures, Vol 3: The Northwestern Quadrant: North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming Eckert, W. Allan - Earth Treasures, Vol 1: The Northeastern Quadrant: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermond, and Wisconsin Eckert, W. Allan - Earth Treasures, Vol 2: The Southeastern Quadrant: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia Winchester, Simon - Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 Winchester, Simon - The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology Penick, L. James - The New Madrid Earthquakes, Revised Edition Parr, J. Gordon - Man, Metals and Modern Magic Fiction/Literature # Ruland, Wilhelm - The Finest Legends Of The Rhine Unknown and Heaney, Seamus (Translator) - Beowulf Shakespeare, William - Othello Doyle, Arthur C. - The Hound Of The Baskervilles Doyle, Arthur C. - The Best of Sherlock Holmes Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Lord of the Rings PART ONE: The Fellowship of The Ring Twain, Mark - Roughing It Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Bradbury, Ray - Fahrenheit 451 Hemingway, Ernest - For Whom the Bell Tolls Beston, Henry - The Outermost House Thoreau, Henry - The Viking Portable Library Thoreau Rand, Ayn - The Fountainhead Flagg, Fannie - Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe Gruber, Michael - The Book of Air and Shadows Verne, Jules - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Adams, Douglas - The Ultimate HITCHHIKER\u0026rsquo;S GUIDE: Five Complete Novels and One Story Asimov, Isaac - The Foundation Novels: Foundation Asimov, Isaac - The Foundation Novels: Foundation and Empire Heinlein, A. Robert - The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress Brin, David - Startide Rising Weber, David - Off Armagedon Reef Paolini, Christopher - To Sleep in a Sea of Stars Weir, Andy - Project hail Mary Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Lord of the Rings PART ONE: The Fellowship of The Ring Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Lord of the Rings PART TWO: The Two Towers Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Lord of the Rings PART THREE : The Return of The King Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary Edition Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Silmarillion Carleton, Barbee O. - The Secret of Saturday Cove Lane, Julie - The Life And Adventures Of Santa Claus Lewis, C.S. - The Chronicles of Narnia Colfer, Eoin - The Artemis Fowl Series Philosophy # Seneca - Letters from a Stoic Sun-tzu - The Art of War Frost, S.E., - Basic Teachings Of The Great Philosophers Dostoevsky, Fyodor - Notes From The Underground Gigerenzer, Gerd - Rationality for Mortals: How People Cope With Uncertainty Okasha, Samir - Philosophy Of Science: A Very Short Introduction Roose-Evans, James - Passages of the Soul Porter,Roy - A Social History Of Madness Henderson, Jonathan - Common Sense Knight, Keith - The Voluntaryist Handbook: A Collection Of Essays, Excerpts, And Quotes Religion # The Bible Prayer Book The Early Christian Reader Boethius - The Consolation of Philosophy Aquinas, Thomas - On Evil Frank, Joseph - Literature from the Bible Porphyrios, Elder - Wounded By Love: The Life and the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios Taylor, Rev. Robert - The Devil\u0026rsquo;s Pulpit Burgoyne, Thomas H. - The Light Of Egypt: The Science of The Soul and The Stars Ware, Timothy - The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity Strobel, Lee - The Case For Christ: A Journalist\u0026rsquo;s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus Comfort, Ray - How To Bring Your Children To Christ Finance # Lewis, Michael - The Real Price of Everything: Rediscoverying the Six Classics of Economics Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich - The Communist Manifesto Conway, Edmund - 50 Economics Ideas You Really Need to Know Walett, G. Francis - Economic History Of The United States: Summary Of All Phases Of Economic Growth Including Final Examinations And Answers Best, Joel - Damned Lies And Statistics: Untangling Numbers From The Media, Politicians, And Activists Sowell, Thomas - The Housing Boom And Bust Schiff, D. Peter and Downes, John - Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse Dahle, M. James - The White Coat Investor: A Doctor\u0026rsquo;s Guide to Personal Finance and Investing Greene, David - Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat: The BRRRR Rental Property Investment Strategy Made Simple Turner, Brandon - The Book On Rental Property Investing: How to create wealth and passive income through smart buy and hold real estate investing. Gardner, David and Gardner, Tom - The Motley Fool Investment Guide For Teens: 8 Steps to Having More Money Than Your Parents Ever Dreamed Of Caldwell, O. Louis - After The Tassel Is Moved: Guidelines For Highschool Graduates Pink, H. Daniel - The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You\u0026rsquo;ll Ever Need Clason, S. George - The Richest Man In Babylon Graham, Benjamin - The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing Ramsey, Dave - The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness Ramsey, Dave - The Total Money Makeover: Workbook Ramsey, Dave - Dave Ramsey\u0026rsquo;s Complete Guide to Money Cardone, Grant - The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success And Failure Karpel, S. Craig - The Retirement Myth: What You Must Know to Prosper in the Coming Meltdown of: Job Security, Pension Plans, Social Security, The Stock Market, Housing Prices, and More Kiyosaki, T. Robert - Rich Dad\u0026rsquo;s Cashflow Quadrant: Guide To Financial Freedom Sutton, Garrett - Start Your Own Corporation: Why The Rich Own Their Own Companies And Everyone Else Works For Them Covey, R. Stephen - The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Pollan, M. Stephen and Levine, Mark - Live Rich Sinek, Simon - The Infinite Game Gardner, Howard with the collaboration of Laskin, Emma - Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership Willink, Jocko and Babin, Leif - Extreme Ownership ","date":"August 29, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/library/2021-08-29-drews-personal-library/","section":"The Library","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/library.html Originally published on 2021-08-29 at drewredifer.com.\nBelow is a list of books that I have in my personal library. They are listed in chronological order. If you would like a personal suggestion from my list or would like to recommend a book to me, email me (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","title":"Drew's Personal Library","type":"library"},{"content":"","date":"August 22, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/maturity/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Maturity","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/maturity-matters-and-why-it-is-the-responsibility-of-all-of-us-to-bare-our-burden.html Originally published on 2021-08-22 at drewredifer.com.\nWhy it is the responsibility of all of us to bear our respective burdens # As a kid I can remember taking my experience and applying it to the adults around me. I thought most adults were boring because they did not spend their time as I did exploring the woods, hanging out with friends or playing sports all day. In fact now that I think about it this must be why we in society put so much value in professional sports. If you really think about it, professional athletes are the kids that never gave up the dream, they managed to keep playing a childrens game long after the rest of us quit. As you mature, you (should) take on more and more responsibilities and you (should) begin to make the shift of relating more to your exhausted parents than the kids that spend all day running around the neighborhood.\nThis shift is difficult to see until you are out of school because for your first eighteen or so years you are locked into a room with your peers. You might be able to relate to kids within a year plus or minus your own age, but if you go much past that kids are either entirely too young or they appear as out right adults in your eyes. After all, a two year difference in Elementary school seems like a life-time and if you cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel in your own grade then how can you be expected to relate to someone who is two years apart, be that behind or ahead of you on the educational trail. While in the grand scheme of things this age difference is a non-factor, in the moment it is your entire world.\nIt is not until you remove yourself from the public school system that you learn how to socialize outside of your immediate age group. For most of us this occurs with our first job. Typically it is in this environment that people begin to realize that just because someone is older than them does not automatically mean that they are more mature. For the purpose of this post I am going to play the arm chair psychologist and give my own interpretation of maturity. For me maturity is the measure of how well you manage your personal responsibilities. Notice that my definition is indiscriminate of age, wealth, or any other non-sensical category one might think up to basterdize my definition.\nIt is a simple part/whole relation:\nAs the number of ones responsibilities increases, so does the expectation that they will be able to manage all of these responsibilities. If you begin to slack on some of your responsibilities, then by this definition you are not living up to your true maturity level and are therefore quantifiably less mature than you otherwise should be.\nTake for example two individuals that at a glance appear to be operating on a similar plane of existence. They both work dead end jobs and waste away their free time and weekends entertaining themselves to death playing video games and watching Netflix. However, taking a closer look we observe that one of these individuals is in their twenties with hardly any true personal responsibilities while the other is in their forties and has all but abandoned his wife and three kids in his selfish pursuit of frivilous activities. While both individuals are actively taking responsibility for similar amounts, clearly the forty something individual is over all far less mature. This is because he has a much greater true number of personal responsibilities that he is shirking.\nAs you age you tend to acquire more and more personal responsibilities. Using myself as an example when I was in college I felt as though I had a ton of responsibilities but really all I was responsible for was eating and proper hygeine, that and making sure I did not fail out of school of course. When I met Cassandra my responsibilities increased so much as I needed to be a good boyfriend to her. Things did not really change until I graduated and took a job outside of school. That first job in Oklahoma was where I first started to gleam how much work it would take to function as a mature adult. Fortunately for me I had few distractions to keep me from shirking my responsibilities as I lived in the middle of nowhere on an oil rig.\nAfter that year passed Cassandra moved on to dental school and I joined her for her first year. I still had few responsibilities, but it seemed like a lot because we moved in together and were learning how to share a space and the responsibility necessary to maintain that space. Also, I was now working a job that required me to work odd hours so I was not always able to partake in the weekend dental school festivities. After that first year together I decided to hit the reset button on my career and moved back north to get my engineering degree. To save money I sold my pickup truck and bought a cheap economy car and moved back in with my parents. For three years I worked during the summer in Louisville to be with Cassandra and to save up enough money to support myself through the rest of the year when I would go back north for school.\nMy round two undergraduate education was drastically different from my first. This was because I had a greater number of personal responsibilities. Here is a short list to illustrate:\nI could not mess up a single class so that I could graduate in three years with Cassandra\nI needed to maintain a high GPA\nI was trying to minimize the student loans I took out by working through the summer\nI commuted an hour to and from school each day with a two hour commute each weekend to be with Cassandra\nI worked to strategically set up myself for success to land a good job out of school where we could both work\nThis second round of education was very eye opening. The students in engineering school were more mature and had a much greater number of responsibilities. Most students worked part time jobs alongside their busy class schedules and a few even worked full time jobs pulling long night shifts to support their families or avoid student loan debt.\nFastforward to today and my number of responsibilities has increased substantially. Cassandra and I are now married, work our respective full time jobs, have a home, and two dogs to take care of, and to top it all off we are expecting a little girl at the end of this year. From where things stand I feel like I have reached my capacity. If I am being honest with myself I will have to admit that my maturity is slacking relative to my recent additional responsibilities. It may seem overwhelming now, but I know I am only scratching the surface in terms of the responsibilities I hope to one day bare. I do not have to look any further than my own dad for a suitable role model.\nHere is a list of just some of my dads responsibilities:\nContinues to provide for a family of five after thirty plus years\nAlways willing to drop anything to help one of us three kids\nMaintains a much larger home and hardly ever ousources work or chores around the house\nActs as the family mechanic to ensure we all avoid costly car payments\nTakes care of Mom in her retirement\nTakes care of Grandma Sharon and helps to oversee many of her affairs\nHas stayed near his own mom and step dad, Art and has helped them over the years when necessary\nHas managed to keep his relationship with all of his siblings friendly and made it a priority to meet regularly despite being spread out across the country\nManages to keep the lights on at more than one shop around town\nMakes sure all of his toys with motors are running and well maintained\nActually repairs half of the junk in Indy\nHas maintained life long friendships and has never missed an opportunity to host guests for the Indianapolis 500 every Memorial day weekend\nI am not shy about the admiration I hold for my dad. The man has flaws of course but compared to most he is a perfect boyscout (Eagle Scout actually). I have never heard him curse and the first alcoholic beverage I ever saw him drink was at my own wedding. He has taken on a herculean level of responsibility during his lifetime and done so with a level of maturity that I only know is possible because I have personally witnessed it.\nThrough his example I have learned that if you can raise your level of self discipline proportionally to match your true personal responsibilities then you can live your life with a level of maturity that will both inspire and bring up the world around you. Hollyweird and our greater Pop Culture does a great disservice to the masses when they show the lone actor saving the day. This false narrative breeds complacency. The truth of the matter is that it is on all of us to take personal responsibility for what we have signed up for in this life and to do so with a level of maturity that inspires others to do their part. To do anything else is reckless, endangers the future of the things we care most about, and leaves the world, the world you can actually effect worse off for it.\nIf you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","date":"August 22, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/watchtower/2021-08-22-maturity-matters/","section":"The Watchtower","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/maturity-matters-and-why-it-is-the-responsibility-of-all-of-us-to-bare-our-burden.html Originally published on 2021-08-22 at drewredifer.com.\nWhy it is the responsibility of all of us to bear our respective burdens # As a kid I can remember taking my experience and applying it to the adults around me. I thought most adults were boring because they did not spend their time as I did exploring the woods, hanging out with friends or playing sports all day. In fact now that I think about it this must be why we in society put so much value in professional sports. If you really think about it, professional athletes are the kids that never gave up the dream, they managed to keep playing a childrens game long after the rest of us quit. As you mature, you (should) take on more and more responsibilities and you (should) begin to make the shift of relating more to your exhausted parents than the kids that spend all day running around the neighborhood.\n","title":"Maturity Matters","type":"watchtower"},{"content":"","date":"August 22, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/responsibility/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Responsibility","type":"tags"},{"content":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/independence-not-dependence.html Originally published on 2021-08-17 at drewredifer.com.\nThe case for why when given the choice between independence and dependence the default should be to choose independence # When given the option to choose between independence and dependence the defacto choice should be to choose independence, NOT dependence. Sadly, we (the collective American Consoomer) have that backwards. We have grown accustomed to trading away our independence, be that our privacy, personal data, or in many cases our very capacity to think independently. We trade it away for shiny new products that come with the promise of convenience. I say that last part somewhat tongue in cheek because corporations know what sells and employ a standing army of marketers who will sell you on why you need this new product or feature. If they do not get to you first then the dragnet of Youtube Tech Dorks will sell you on the idea with their latest Tech Review upload.\nThis shift towards increased reliance on corporate products and services has saturated all aspects of the American Consoomer\u0026rsquo;s life. For the sake of this post I will constrain myself to technology, specifically computers, and how we use them to store digital media. In this context media will be defined as digital formats users interact with on a computer. Think, the programs we use, the music we listen to, the videos we watch, the photos we view or the very documents we use. You get the picture but to help further illustrate, see example list below:\nSoftware Programs\nMusic\nPodcasts\nVideos\nPhotos\nVideo Games\neBooks\nAudio Books\nEmail\nPersonal Websites\nDocuments\nCryptocurrencies\nAll of us as computer users have our own digital media. However, for each independent example given above there is a counter dependent example for those that choose to outsource the ownership of their digital media. Here is a new list with the equivalent renters/subscription model for digital media:\nSoftware Programs become subscription based Applications / updates are forced on existing software / centralized app stores\nMusic becomes DRM Music / Streaming Services or Music Applications: Spotify / Pandora\nPodcasts become DRM Podcasts / Streaming Services: Podcast Applications(iTunes) / Spotify\nVideos become DRM Movies / Streaming Services / Apps: Youtube / Netflix / Facebook, Snapchat, Tik-Tok, etc\u0026hellip;\nPhotos become Facebook / Snapchat / Photo Applications: Apple\u0026rsquo;s iCloud\nVideo Games become Steam / DRM digital downloads\neBooks become DRM eBooks / Amazon\u0026rsquo;s Kindle\nAudio Books become DRM Audio Books / Amazon\u0026rsquo;s Audible\nEmail becomes Online Email Services: Google\u0026rsquo;s Gmail\nPersonal Websites become Facebook Profile / Webhosting services that store your files on a remote server\nDocuments become Cloud Storage: Apple\u0026rsquo;s iCloud, Google\u0026rsquo;s Drive, Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s OneDrive, Adobe\u0026rsquo;s Document Cloud\nCryprocurrencies become Centralized Exchange Wallets: Coinbase\nThe first list represents digital independence, mainly that you do NOT depend on a service to gain access to your personal digital media. In fact you can access your digital media without an internet connection because you own the storage space where your media lives. For many this is how we learned to use computers and frankly that is because there was no alternative. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the last generation to learn how to interact with digital media in this way. I can make this claim with confidence because my cousin who is eight years younger than me had a drastically different upbringing with computers. He was brought up in a school system that used Google Chromebooks.\nMy first introduction to Chromebooks came around ten years ago when my buddy Dan bought one. He pitched it to me as a fast, affordable, light weight laptop. As we talked I was shocked to learn that Chromebooks did not have onboard storage. When I asked where you would store your media he explained that so long as you had a connection to the internet, you could access all of your files through online Google applications. This is when I made the connection that this device was a literal portal to the Google \u0026ldquo;Eco-System\u0026rdquo;.\nThe Google Eco-System consisted of a suite of online applications that were equivalent to local programs you were used to interacting with. So by uploading all of your local digital media to Googles\u0026rsquo; cloud storage, Google Drive, you could freely use the Google Eco-System through a Chromebook. The idea was too good to be true. Google\u0026rsquo;s pitch was that for as low as $150 you could have a fast, lightweight device through which you could access all of your personal media using Google\u0026rsquo;s free online suite of applications. Because your media would now be stored on Googles\u0026rsquo; servers you could rest easy with the peace of mind that should something ever happen to your computer your personal digital media would be safe.\nSo that was the pitch, and at the time it was a good one. To see how far ahead of the curve Google was at the time it is important to remember that ten years ago Consoomers only had two real options, Windows or Apple. The lowest end Windows PCs came in around $500 and the cheapest Apple computer you could buy was around twice as much. Technically Windows sold \u0026ldquo;netbooks\u0026rdquo; as low as $200 or $300 but they were absolute garbage. Both Windows and Apple computers were slow (unless you had an expensive SSD), heavy, and required you to shell over around $100 to Windows for software if you wanted their suite of programs. Not to mention the ever present fear of losing all of your personal media should you lose or break your computer. So to reiterate, Googles\u0026rsquo; pitch was an appealing one because it solved almost all of the inconvenient aspects of computing while providing safety for ones personal media.\nConvenience and safety all at an affordable price point. That, it turns out was all it took to convince Consoomers to give up their digital independence. # Fast forward to today and we live in a world where computing is highly centralized amongst a few large companies. After seeing the success of Google\u0026rsquo;s digital land grab companies quickly followed suite and now almost every software company offers cloud based services. Because most users use smartphones instead of laptops or desktops. Consoomers have two real choices, Apple or Android (Google). If you use Apple all of your digital media is uploaded to Apple\u0026rsquo;s servers a.k.a. iCloud and we have already discussed Googles\u0026rsquo; model.\nThis new era of computing has concentrated control in the hands of a select few large corporations and this has left users dependant on these companies for access to their own personal media. So in effect, the average computer user today has been swindled out of personal ownership of their own media and left a dependant digital peasant. It is impossible to know the ramifications of this new level of dependence.\nHowever, one result is that that this has created a seismic shift in how companies do business. Instead of selling Consoomers products companies are now selling services. What software was once available for a one time purchase is now only available under a subscription. It is becoming more and more common for the software to require an internet connection simply to ping the mothership to verify that payments are up-to-date before allowing the user to use the software.\nIt is important to realize just how invasive we as Consoomers have let these companies become and more importantly to think about how dependent you personally are on them. So when I make the argument that when given the option of choosing between independence or dependence I believe it is in your best interest to default towards choosing independence. I am not suggesting you go live by yourself in a cabin in the woods but when it comes to most people they are currently operating their digital lives at the level of dependence that if operating at a similar extreme of independence would be analogous to living alone in a cabin in the woods. This is all to say that for most of us, myself included, that we are already far too dependant in how we currently manage our digital lives. I am simply suggesting that we pump the brakes, take a long hard look at where we are and start the process of taking back control of our digital lives.\nIf you found this article interesting and would like to share a comment with me, please feel free to reach out to me directly via my personal email at (drew@drewredifer.com).\n","date":"August 17, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/watchtower/2021-08-17-independence-not-dependence/","section":"The Watchtower","summary":"View the original post: https://drewredifer.com/blog/articles/independence-not-dependence.html Originally published on 2021-08-17 at drewredifer.com.\nThe case for why when given the choice between independence and dependence the default should be to choose independence # When given the option to choose between independence and dependence the defacto choice should be to choose independence, NOT dependence. Sadly, we (the collective American Consoomer) have that backwards. We have grown accustomed to trading away our independence, be that our privacy, personal data, or in many cases our very capacity to think independently. We trade it away for shiny new products that come with the promise of convenience. I say that last part somewhat tongue in cheek because corporations know what sells and employ a standing army of marketers who will sell you on why you need this new product or feature. If they do not get to you first then the dragnet of Youtube Tech Dorks will sell you on the idea with their latest Tech Review upload.\n","title":"Choose Independence NOT Dependence","type":"watchtower"},{"content":"","date":"August 17, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/independence/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Independence","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"August 17, 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/ownership/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Ownership","type":"tags"},{"content":" Why this exists # Most platforms want me to pick one lane — DIY creator, or tech writer, or finance commentator, or homeschool dad. But a life doesn\u0026rsquo;t come in lanes.\nThis archive is built on the conviction that ideas and projects are more honest when they\u0026rsquo;re kept in their proper rooms but allowed to speak to each other. The Workshop is not the Library. Faith is not the Terminal. But they all belong to the same person, and they all shape the same life.\nA few convictions that show up repeatedly here:\nThe past is the focus, the present is the periphery The earlier generations were often wiser. The Church Fathers, being closer to Christ in time, carry more weight than modern voices. We step backwards into the future This is not progress as the modern world defines it. It is walking carefully, guided by what came before. Objective truth exists Morals, ideas, and lessons from church history are not merely subjective preferences. Self-reliance matters Building, fixing, and maintaining your own systems — digital, financial, physical — is a form of freedom. Multigenerational thinking Physical books, durable systems, and recorded lessons are for children and grandchildren who will come after. What to expect # Essays and videos published irregularly but with intention Projects documented without pretending the mess never happened Technical posts that assume competence but explain the why, not just the how Writing about faith that is personal, not preachy Financial and macro commentary that is skeptical of institutions and mainstream narratives No corporate tone, no content mill output, no optimization for engagement This is a life, recorded. Contact # If you need to reach me, use the contact page. For newsletter updates, subscribe on the homepage.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/about/","section":"The Drew Archive","summary":"Why this exists # Most platforms want me to pick one lane — DIY creator, or tech writer, or finance commentator, or homeschool dad. But a life doesn’t come in lanes.\n","title":"About","type":"page"},{"content":"This trail gathers pieces about books, learning, and the kind of inheritance that is carried through memory, reading, and formation rather than money alone.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/trails/books-formation-and-inheritance/","section":"Trails","summary":"This trail gathers pieces about books, learning, and the kind of inheritance that is carried through memory, reading, and formation rather than money alone.\n","title":"Books, Formation, and Inheritance","type":"trails"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Categories","type":"categories"},{"content":"This site is being built as a Hugo-based digital memoir system with a self-hosted stack around it.\nThe long-term plan includes comments, analytics, cross-linking, trails, and a broader clawbot-assisted publishing workflow.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/colophon/","section":"The Drew Archive","summary":"This site is being built as a Hugo-based digital memoir system with a self-hosted stack around it.\nThe long-term plan includes comments, analytics, cross-linking, trails, and a broader clawbot-assisted publishing workflow.\n","title":"Colophon","type":"page"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/contact/","section":"The Drew Archive","summary":"","title":"Contact","type":"page"},{"content":"This trail gathers entries about discipline in both the inner and outer sense, habits of thought, habits of action, and the difficult work of becoming governable by truth rather than impulse.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/trails/discipline-and-self-governance/","section":"Trails","summary":"This trail gathers entries about discipline in both the inner and outer sense, habits of thought, habits of action, and the difficult work of becoming governable by truth rather than impulse.\n","title":"Discipline and Self-Governance","type":"trails"},{"content":"This page will eventually explain ways to support the archive and its ongoing work.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/donate/","section":"The Drew Archive","summary":"This page will eventually explain ways to support the archive and its ongoing work.\n","title":"Donate","type":"page"},{"content":"This trail gathers work related to tools, domestic projects, practical making, and the slow material work of building a place, a household rhythm, and a usable world.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/trails/making-a-home-building-the-material-life/","section":"Trails","summary":"This trail gathers work related to tools, domestic projects, practical making, and the slow material work of building a place, a household rhythm, and a usable world.\n","title":"Making a Home, Building the Material Life","type":"trails"},{"content":"Welcome.\nThis archive is meant to be explored more like a house than a feed. You can enter by room, by path, or by chronology, depending on how you prefer to read a life.\nWhat this is # This is not only a blog, and it is not only a video archive. It is a digital memoir built across projects, essays, code, books, and video.\nSome entries stand alone. Others belong to longer arcs. The goal is for the whole thing to read less like a stream of posts and more like a durable record.\nThree ways in # Begin with a realm # If you want a room with a clear theme, start with a realm.\nThe Library for books, ideas, education, and inheritance Faith for Christianity, spiritual conviction, and older truths The Workshop for tools, projects, repairs, and making The Terminal for technology, AI, self-hosting, and digital systems Begin with a trail # If you want a chronological path through connected pieces, start with a trail.\nComing to Faith for a religious and philosophical movement across time Building the Archive for books, tools, systems, and preservation Begin with the present # If you want to enter from the newest material and work backward, start on the homepage with Latest across the archive.\nHow to read it # Start with a trail if you want orientation.\nStart with a realm if you want atmosphere.\nRead chronologically if you want the archive to reveal its connections gradually over time.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/start/","section":"Start Here","summary":"Welcome.\nThis archive is meant to be explored more like a house than a feed. You can enter by room, by path, or by chronology, depending on how you prefer to read a life.\n","title":"Start Here","type":"start"},{"content":"This trail follows a recurring theme in the archive: technology as something to be governed, owned, and made answerable to human judgment rather than dependency.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/trails/technology-in-service-of-independence/","section":"Trails","summary":"This trail follows a recurring theme in the archive: technology as something to be governed, owned, and made answerable to human judgment rather than dependency.\n","title":"Technology in Service of Independence","type":"trails"},{"content":"This trail gathers pieces concerned with truth, distortion, manipulation, and the effort to keep one\u0026rsquo;s judgment intact amid pressure, fashion, and organized confusion.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/trails/truth-propaganda-and-clear-seeing/","section":"Trails","summary":"This trail gathers pieces concerned with truth, distortion, manipulation, and the effort to keep one’s judgment intact amid pressure, fashion, and organized confusion.\n","title":"Truth, Propaganda, and Clear Seeing","type":"trails"}]