Another insightful article by VDH. Always amazed at his uncanny ability to see and articulate what so many of us are thinking.

I pray a quick end to this panic and maybe, just like VDH says, a few of us will learn something valuable.

The whole article was insightful, as I've come to expect from VDH. I focused, though, on his discussion of the value of the tradesman, trucker, and by extension the mechanic, delivery person, and the myriad other similar cogs in the wheel of society who provide true contributions to our way of life. They are indispensable and worthy of respect.

I earned an MBA and made a good living as an airline pilot (Delta). I always stood in awe of the master mechanic who solved mechanical problems on very complicated jets, then signed their names to the repairs they made, certifying the aircraft was airworthy, risking their jobs on the quality of their work. Same thing with a master auto mechanic or plumber. I know better than to touch anything involving electrical faults. These folks know what they're doing out of both pride in doing the job right and necessity. So much smarter than me.

My advice given freely to friends sending their kids off to college is to recommend they learn a trade and master it. It will teach them logic, the criticality of procedure, diagnostic skills, and maybe a bit of humility. It might also allow them to make a living if things go badly as 'professionals', save money at home, and perhaps provide a self-enriching hobby or pastime.

VDH is something of an exemplar of what I'm trying to express. He teaches at a super elite American university (Stanford). He's a renowned classical scholar. Yet he operates a family farm in rural California. He's on the short list of pundits I admire.

College is overrated. I’ve learned that. My first adult job required a four year undergraduate degree. Somehow, I went on to get three more post graduate degrees and a Juris Doctorate. But, you know what? Even though comfortably retired and living around the world, if I had to do it all over again, today. I never would have gotten the first degree.

My wife had an unfortunate incident recently with the garage door jamb mis-stepping into the fender and bumper of our car. The body shop manager made the observation that his repair technicians generally make a six-figure wage, and they don't have a college degree. They are eager to see the snow fly, especially because those white-collared drivers are stressed out and in a hurry to get to and from work, when they should be a bit more plebian in their attitudes and habits.

Beautiful, well said.

I used to be a crew chief on a public safety helicopter for a large agency in CA. Our mechanic said every time he saw us depart with full load of non jettisonable humans on board he felt it in his gut, praying all the maintenance was done right. Hats off to the pilots and mechanics aerospace workers that allow humans to fly.

We will learn, and we will just as quickly forget. It happens after every outbreak of some scary disease. When SARS emerged scientists did a lot of good work toward vaccines and cures. When the disease died down their grants were cut. Same with MERS. Both of those are coronaviruses. We could have had all of this under control fifteen years ago. I wonder if the researchers on Wuhan will find themselves shuttled off to some other project and their work put on ice after this is all over, only to have to start all over again in five or ten or twenty years.

"We will learn, and we will just as quickly forget."

It isn't "we" the people who "forget". It is the State. And that's the problem with Statism. It dictates what scientists and businesses etc will be "allowed" to learn and what they *must* "forget".

That's the one thing "we" the people NEVER seem to learn - since both parties continue to GROW the State and continue to VIOLATE rights/freedom. Until "we" learn that lesson, "we" get what "we" ask for - and deserve - good and HARD.

I traveled the planet for about 30 years and have likely been exposed-to and gained immunity to every nasty bug out there. Today parents don't let their kids crawl on the ground, eat dirt, and generally be exposed to these various bugs att an early age when their bodies are immunity-making machines. Instead its isolation, hand-wipes, sanitizer -and ultimately sickness.

"Today parents don't let their kids...Instead its isolation..."

And those same parents (and their parents and almost everyone on the planet) believe they are the "parents" of every other human being on the planet (whom they treat AS "kids") and, as their "parents", have the right to "isolate" them as well. These are the Statists - the "we" - to whom I was referencing.

I was telling a youngster this the other night when I stated we actually used to eat dirt

That may be a valid point, especially with respect to allergies, but how much immunity is that going to give someone to SARS-COV-2 aka COVID19? Folks in 1918 were exposed to all kinds of nasties that we don't accept today, then along came "Spanish" Flu, from Kansas. Kids today are no less exposed to lesser coronavirsuses (many common cold viruses, for example), RSV, influenza, etc. In fact, they're the ones that tend to spread lots of it in schools.

The 1918 Spanish Flu was a generational game changer. Folks alive then had not been exposed to a hearty corona-virus. Following generations gained immunity and we really have not seen a "nation wide" pandemic since.

Technically, that pandemic was caused by a Type A Influenza H1N1 strain known colloquially as swine flu, closely related to the 2009 outbreak. Coronaviruses are significantly different. This one is a SARS variant known as SARS* CoV 2. *Severe acute respiratory syndrome

Good point.

There is some evidence to suggest that rather than starting in the US or on the Western Front, the Spanish Flu was brought to The West by Chinese laborers imported by the Western powers.

It's amazing how many of History's pandemics have started in Asia.

Not really. Asia has always been the home to about half the human race, who life chiefly along crowded river valleys.

What do you recommend we do? Either we pull the lever (or click the screen) for the lesser of two evils or we don't vote at all. Mr. Lightbringer and some friends and I were having lunch with some business associates one day a number of years ago and as usual we were all complaining about our higher-ranking civil masters (calling them civil "servants" seems so demeaning to them -- and so untrue). "Would you want the job?" I asked. Nobody did, even when I promised them my vote. I don't want the job either. Do you?

"What do you recommend we do?"

Eliminating all the Statist elements from our political system *first* requires people to WANT to eliminate Statism. As our current State-manufactured DISASTER proves, people have near-universal support for *totalitarianism*. The only difference between the Right and the Left today is *what* they want to do with that dictatorial power. So the FIRST thing we have to do is *educate*. We have to teach people the evil of Statism and the morality of rights and a system *limited* to their defense.

Absent that education, you can't get anywhere else. Even a revolution would require such an education - otherwise you'll just get more of the same rights-violating Statism. So, first grasping the correct ideas AND the arguments for those ideas one's self, and then teaching those ideas and reasons to others, are the necessary beginning steps.

This is why I always argue THE thing the Right should be doing is working to ABOLISH State Education. Get the State OUT of the 'government indoctrination business' completely. With the rise of the Woke Left, the Right is more and more seeing the wisdom of this move.

Agreed. Unfortunately too many people prefer free stuff to freedom, and thinking for themselves hurts their unaccustomed heads. The mass of Americans have been taught from their Sesame Street days all the way through their advanced degrees what to think, not how to think, regardless of what those purported to be educators claim.

This current coronavirus has provided unaccustomed parents and children with a unique opportunity to homeschool or, in the case of college students, to self-educate. I hope that enough of them like it enough to continue doing it after the outbreak ends. The more parents are involved in their childrens' educations, the less power the federal Department of Education has to implement its toxic and often demonstrably incoherent curricula. We might just end up with a critical mass of thinking, educated young Americans one day!

but.....all the single moms....what will they do??

Find the sperm donors to pitch in

Best they tie to green energy or climate change or income inequality or being a trannie or being discriminated against.

You are correct. Sad and true

Know your enemy.

There is a generation of youth that believe they can change the world, but are completely dependent on others to change their oil.

Oil?--A not insignificant number are afraid to change a light bulb.

They can't change them, but they can feel good about banning them.

How many liberals does it take to change a light bulb?
Two: One to screw in the bulb and one to get written consent from the socket.

Liberals are the only people I know who could cross-thread a light bulb.

Suffice to say completely dependent on others. They're too lazy and entitled to work, and the lure of free stuff and envy economics entices them much more than earning their way does.

At times, I wonder what the younger generations knows. While I have some colleagues in their early 30's who are extremely well educated, some of the young people do not seem to know much. The other day I spoke with a law student who did not know about gulags in the Soviet Union. As bad as it is to have this virus, it may force us to look at the world from a more realistic perspective. The dream of millions of illegals becoming citizens who could help a party cement a majority for generations is now destroyed. The American people care about their health. They want leaders who speak to real concerns.

I believe the problem begins with people acutely aware of their "rights" and oblivious to their obligations. One cannot exist without the other.

They don't even know what rights are. If someone or something has to furnish it, it's not a right.

Correct. Walter Williams has written on this theme. He says that to demand the services of a provider (such as a doctor) as your right, without paying for them, was banned by the 13th Amendment.

"They don't even know what rights are."

Indeed. Unfortunately this is true of not just the Left, but of the Right as well, as Craig post demonstrates.

Rad4Cap how nice to run into you again. Greetings.

However, I must lament you are still banging out the same one note tune. That is, "everyone else, Left or Right, doesn't know a damn thing about individual rights--only I do, damn-it."

Carry on my good man. Carry on.

"[Rights] cannot exist without [obligations]".

So what supposed "obligations" are you declaring "rights" place upon you?

To gain the rights of a law abiding citizen , you must abide by the law. To get the rights of a taxpayer you must pay taxes, in order to deserve the right to speak freely, you are obliged to let others speak freely. Paying fees and following rules generally give you the rights of a membership. If you don't believe you have obligations, talk to rights deprived prisoners etc. The right to vote comes with an age obligation etc. Adults are supposed to know these things, children are unaware and require guardians.

"To gain the rights..."

This is your error - your fundamentally fallacious premise which leads to all your other falsehoods.

Rights are not GIFTS *bestowed* by a 'benevolent' State. Rights are facts of reality about human beings, recognized and defended BY a proper State. The violation of those rights is what invalidates a State.

Put simply, contrary to your philosophy, rights are not 'privileges' of "membership". But thanks for identifying your pre-enlightenment view of man. MODERN adults were supposed to learn these things. But Marxists indoctrinated them as children. So those children have grown up, "unaware", into good little totalitarians who *feel* rights are just permissions 'required' by their "guardians" in order for them to think and act.

"[Obligations] to defend those rights"

I believe you'll find Craig means "obligations" to OTHERS.

And, in regard to one's self, one is NOT "obligated" to defend one's rights. For instance, one can ignore or forgive a violation if it is accidental or a misunderstanding, etc. In other words, one has the *choice* to defend one's rights or not. It is NOT "an act or course of action to which a person is morally or legally bound".

Never confuse "educated" with "smart". "Smart" is instinctive and the foundation of wisdom. Today's education has little to do with either.

Never confuse "smart" with "wise."

An educated person has acquired some level of knowledge, but "smart" takes practice.

See: Bloom's Taxonomy. Knowledge is rightly placed at the bottom.

It is indeed tragic that so few “educated” people ever heard of Solzhenitsyn, or if they have they mistake the name for a brand of vodka.

November 3rd, 2020 will be remembered - not, like December 7th, 1941 as "a day which will live in infamy" - but as a day which marked the beginning of the end of the Democrat Party. It will be payback time for the way the Dems and the media have reveled in the misery of the American people during this crisis in the hope that "this will be what brings down Donald Trump". NOV. 3RD, DEMS & MEDIA, YOU WILL PAY.

The Young Americans under the age of 23 have no recollection of 9-11.