Sunday, November 10, 2013

Tesla's Dream Coming True ???

Tesla’s Dream Coming True !!!



No not that Tesla automobile for the dalliance of the extravagant uber rich, consumed by guilt for not earning their riches, but the Tesla from the turn of the century.  The Tesla looking to give energy for the masses.  This Tesla was an eccentric genius who seemed to have tapped into the future and desperately tried to “invent” what he saw.

Such is the fate of most seers, that they may not have the practical ability to create what they envision, nor the genius to put a reason behind it and be able to connect the dots.  Not so with Nicola Tesla who actually invented the radio and not Marconi.  The Supreme Court finally said so.  Tesla also invented Alternating Current that the world uses every day.  Before then Direct Current was the model that Edison used and wanted the world to use.  The problem was that DC current lost power over short distances.  For Edison’s power to work, there would have to be a power plant and all that entails every mile along a power lines route.

Tesla’s genius lay in his seeing a way to create alternating current which could be used, stored and amplified at will without additional power plant along the way.  Tesla’s humanity lay in his tearing up the agreement he had with Mr. Westinghouse in which Westinghouse would pay Tesla a sum per amount of electricity used in his system.  This would have made Tesla the richest man alive.  Westinghouse however was having financial problems getting the infrastructure up and running.  Tesla tore up the agreement because Westinghouse had believed in him when no one else did and Westinghouse had risked all for Tesla’s ideas; and they both went to work.  The result was that they built generators at Niagra Falls which operate still today, and electrified New York City for the first time.  The rest is history.  What is sometimes over looked is the in humanity in the way Tesla was treated by society.  He died a poor and broke person.

Now to the reason of this blog.  Tesla had a vision that seemed to permeate all his inventions which included the concepts of Laser beams, x-rays, friction less motors and a myriad of other inventions.  That vision was simply that the world, the universe is made up and filled up with (for a lack of a better term) energy.  That is what everything is made up of.  His idea was that there should be an easy way to simply hook into the largest piece of matter available, the earth and tap into the excess power of the forces that make up the matter of the earth as it radiates outward.  Simply put he hoped to invent a way to harvest that power and he also thought this power could be wirelessly transmitted anywhere it was needed
Think of your local radio station which puts out x amount of signal, and our radios are tuned to that frequency.  We pick up some of that signal and our radios work.  Think of the amount of signal that is continually surrounding us and which you could say goes to waste.  In this case falls on deaf ears.
Well Tesla saw this and invented the concept of the radio – before there was a radio.  He also thought that electricity should be able to be transmitted in the same manner.  He understood the idea of waves and that all things are made up of them and all he should have to do is tune into the “force”.

This guy was ridiculed as crazy at the time, when all that was needed for his dream to come true was in my opinion a way to deal not in millions of watts ect. But to find a way to make it happen with small amounts that could be boosted later as he did with alternating current vs Direct current.

Allen Hawkes and Alexander Katko a couple of students have come up with a way to harvest out of thin air the myriad of excess electromagnetic that surrounds us.  Although the energy these students are capturing is from manmade sources such as the microwave energy already harvested by satellite receivers for TV, Radio and cell phones, which pervades us all, all the time.

Much like what the solar cell does when it collects the suns radiant energy this new invention collects excess microwave energy in the air around us.  It could be used to collect the excess energy from a WiFi set in your house, convert it to DC power and continually charge your phone.  This is done in their break through model by simply tuning a receiver cell to the frequency of the source and then through the use of Meta material and an active in this case copper conductor turning that energy into electricity of the DC variety.

This breakthrough is possible with the use of Meta material.  To my unscientific mind this is how the electromagnetic waves that are emitted are captured.  This Meta material is simply microscopically engineered material which is smaller than the waves it is trying to harvest.  I look at it in a mind game as trying to control waves in water.  Before our abilities to create things in the Meta or microscopically small world we could only block a wave entirely or let it pass.  With the new Meta technology we can take out as much water from each wave as it passes to fit our needs and let the waves continue.  This of course is pretty much pure conjecture on my part.  Here is the Wiki on it.

This is the breakthrough I think that allows us to modulate energy and make it usable to us.  Much as Tesla did with Alternating current. 

When you think of it all matter; the earth, the dirt, cement, you and me, everything of substance is made up of “energy” in one form or another and emits energy.  We consume food and turn it into energy at varying levels of efficiency why should it be thought strange to capture excess energy that permeates everything in our world and use it?  The inventors of this process say of it.  

 ““Our work demonstrates a simple and inexpensive approach to electromagnetic power harvesting,” said Professor Steven Cummer. “The beauty of the design is that the basic building blocks are self-contained and additive. One can simply assemble more blocks to increase the scavenged power.”

Professor Steven Cummer is the teacher in charge of and guiding these two inventors.




This is a picture of their Contraption in series gathering enough energy just sitting there to keep your phone charged, at an efficiency rating of a solar cell. From their article the fiberglass pieces are in effect antennas built at a frequency needed to collect energy from a source and build it through five such antennas to the voltage needed to power your cell phone.


  Before you start thinking these are just kids, anyone remember two kids working out of their garage thinking that there would be a market for personal computers.  Well there was and it along with all the variations that it generated were beyond the Steve’s conception.



This Picture below and the quote in it shows to me that great things can be had when the individual is left alone to "create" their own future.  As Tesla, as Jobs/Wozniak and Hawkes/Katko have or are doing.


“Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine”


  
Live Dangerously be a liberal Conservative

Sunday, November 3, 2013

The Battle




Arthur Brooks is an author I really admire.  Mr. Brooks is an economist that has studied the junction where social systems, and politics meet with economics.
 
Brooks is a born again conservative, a true believer in the Capitalist system.  While he is a numbers guy, through his study of the nexus of politics, people and money he has solidified a conservative approach that before he came was only vaguely hinted at. 

George W. mentioned Compassionate Conservatism and because of his vagueness and lack of factual knowledge not to mention lack of ability to articulate his message was roundly criticized by the left and the right.

Arthur Brooks has worked his way around from a Democrat to an Independent and if you read his works you would say a libertarian or a Republican.  He is very passionate about Capitalism.  He also has a lot of advice for Republicans on how to sell the Free Market position.

Mr. Brooks has given us a path that unites the arguments of the fiscal and moral conservatives and shows how both together and the synergy they create can be a potent force.

Simply put he thinks the Democrats win because they make their argument in moral terms whereas the Republicans end up talking about money.

Early on Brooks saw the moral superiority in Free Enterprise.  Through his books you can see how he has evolved his ideas from merely studying the facts and data from countless reports and making academic style reports to making something grander.

His book "Who Really Cares"

And his next book “Gross National Happiness” http://www.aei.org/book/society-and-culture/gross-national-happiness-book/  progresses us through his thought process during his political shift.  The prodigious amount of facts and figures he has analyzed staggers the mind;  however the way he writes about them will eases the mind and his conclusions he reaches will soothe it.  He writes in other words for the laymen, his conclusions while dealing with complicated and other times ill articulated maters become easily understood.

His next book “The Battle” is a short book. 

It is easy to read and brings together Arthur C. Brooks’ ideas into a cohesive vision of what’s happening and what the battle for this country is about.

His last book, “The Road to Freedom” is a blueprint for how to get out of the mess we are in and off the path to European Socialism.
Or as Frederick Hayek would say off of “The Road to Serfdom”.

This is where he comes up with the idea that this battle has to be fought on moral grounds, as he says in a speech (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_ryet5IUow) our immigrant parents didn't come over here for a better welfare state.  They came over here for the freedom to live off of their work.  To start a farm and live off of that labor.  He then jokes, they didn't come here because we have a cash for clunkers program.

In this lecture and his books he talks about how we need to talk about fairness and how our conservative programs help the individual because they are fair and the right thing to do.  He also quotes Jesus Christ Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”  Jesus Christ Mathew 25:31-40.

  The lynch pin to truly helping people is through showing at a personal level how a government that creates opportunity for entrepreneurs is a benefit to individuals.  Again the biblical idea of teaching a person to fish rather than giving them fish.  I might add not regulating and taxing a fisherman out of business too. 

He better than I writes of how Republicans and those battling for Free Enterprise if they do it in terms of moral high ground will win.  In other words, in a political setting people will be persuaded not through facts alone but facts that point to a moral conclusion, that also points to a choice that is best made not by the government but by the individual.  He talks of Earned success as the definition of Happiness and backs it up with reams of facts.

Few Republicans have been able to do that with any success in the modern age.  Ronald Reagan comes to mind.

George Will also has this quote about how big government has rigged society for big business. But, then, big government always is most caring about the strong, the articulate and the organized.”   http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will060813.php3#.Ubx7dfnryHs

But even Mr. Will only hints at the moral justification of smaller government.

Republicans have to learn to be more articulate about how our programs affect people on a fiscal level and how that is morally superior to what the Left has been giving them.

Clever subtleties may win the argument but will lose the war.

I think Mr. Will would read Mr. Brooks with relish.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Liberal Conservative





Sunday, October 20, 2013

The Outsourcing of the American Dream

The Outsourcing of the American Dream.


What's the next big thing in outsourcing?  


Well there seem to be two things in the works.  The first is the fact that businesses are merging with other businesses in another country and reincorporating the new entity in that or a third country.  Why?  It’s simple; lower corporate tax rates for one or both.  Less regulation. An example from Michigan is the company Perrigo which bought an Irish company Elan and reincorporated in Ireland which has a tax rate of 12.5% compared to the US rate of 35%.  The link below lists various other businesses that are doing the same thing.  This is article #4 in the link below from Newsmax, where I got most of the ideas for this blog post.  The Thrid thing is Banking.  While we can't outsource our poor the money is definately leaving.
http://tinyurl.com/pfyxrma

To continue from that same Newsmax email, you’ll see in article #3 that Canada is in effect outsourcing health care for its citizens to other countries.  This, while a voluntary migration of Canadians to America mainly to receive quicker and better health care is being forced upon the wealthier or more desperate Canadians by their government run health care.  The article blames this on the “Free Health Care” of Canada which is anything but free and is making their service anything but workable, if the definition of workable is to provide quality medical service in a timely manner to its people.  By timely I mean that they don’t want to die while waiting in line.  With our new Health Care are we not doing the same?  Where will we migrate too?

We all have seen the outsourcing of parts of businesses to take advantage of cheaper labor found in other countries, now it is the actual companies due to our higher tax rates driving more companies and their profits off shore.  

We too know of the influx of wealthy patients from around the world who hope to save themselves from their countries health care which for the most part is dysfunctional due to over regulation or being outright taken over by their respective governments.  The thread is common, the quality goes down, services get rationed to “people who need it most for the good of all”, which doesn’t work, and is not for the good of all only those who the bureaucrats deem so.

Along the same lines and looking at Article #2 in the Newsmax email, we look at the harmful effect the Dodd Frank Banking Bill has upon poor Americans.  This bill which has regulated nearly every aspect of the banking system in America was supposed to be for the benefit of poor people.  Instead the cost of the regulations and the limits it places on the types of fees allowable only forced the banks to sharply raise the fees it was allowed and is forcing poor folk out of normal banking.

So is the main idea of the American Dream;  that in America anyone of any means is free to do whatever is within his/her means to get ahead and to do whatever they wish to pursue their wants and desires, ie. Happiness, coming close to the end?

We are seeing that with the enactment of the Left’s policies of ever increasing government control and regulation in all aspects of our life; be it our jobs, small businesses we run or hope to start up, our ability and our doctors ability to receive and to give premium health care, to our ability to do with our money what we want is being taken away.  Even our “Free Market” is being corrupted by limiting our choices in the Market place by over regulation.

The obvious based upon common sense is being replaced by those obtuse regulations and regulators based on the Left’s mantra of "Its For the Common Good”.  Which is anything but good or the “common sense” with which we ran our lives before there was even “common law” from which the law derived. 

The regulations needed to implement the laws for the “common good” are negative and while professing free choice, really in effect limit the choices we have to choose from.  Those choices we have left are because someone other than the individual censored or limited the other choices to the ones they liked.

Walter Gellhorn in his book “Individual Freedom and Governmental Restraints” quoted Yale’s President Whitney Griswold when talking about censorship leaving less choices.  “The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas”.  That was written in the 1950’s.  

Isn’t censorship by definition arbitrary and tyrannical?

After all, isn’t the American Dream having the freedom to simply put your idea out there for the public to decide on and not have it “censored” first by the government?  Isn't doing something we want to the definition of freedom. Isn’t that one of the main reasons Europeans came to America in the first place?  To flee tyranny?  

A farmer of the Free Choice ilk Joel Salatin, after butting heads with the bureaucracy on many occasions because he tried to do things outside the box wrote a book titled "Everything I Want to Do is Illegal", voicing the frustration most of us face when trying to do anything in this (Our) over-regulated country. 

While Joel would probably not call himself a Conservative, he might bite on being tagged a Liberal Conservative.  I on the other hand might balk on being called a Liberal I too might bight on being called a Liberal Conservative.  There is common ground to build upon here.

Aren’t we now after all facing a tyranny of regulation?  Where left is there to flee too accept within ourselves?  Does not the saying in the picture below seem to sum it up?


I think Breitbart would agree.



Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative

 As you will see Walter Gellhorn brought together the liberal thoughts of individual freedom and how they were being trampled by over regulation through the government.  I would suggest reading further his book “IndividualFreedom and Governmental Restraints”.  

 I abhor any tyranny no matter what ideology it professes.  I would call myself an outright Liberal because I believe that by definition along Gellhorn and Hayek’s lines a Liberal is against the notion that the government should decide what we are allowed to do.  I believe in Freedom of choice in all aspects; work, health care, and money.  

However I will add to my new title (Liberal), the word Conservative because most liberals today have strayed from the original Liberal path and believe Individual Freedom of Choice should only be made between the choices defined by the government and which choices they allow us to choose from.

Even the religiously rigorous Amish allow their young adults the individual freedom of choice when they send them out to venture among the “English” to judge for themselves what they want to do with their lives.

So perhaps now I should sign my posts with;

Live Dangerously Be a Liberal Conservative  
(To my Conservative friends that indeed may mean I’ll be Living Dangerously)
Yup sounds good.


Monday, October 7, 2013

George Will to Be on Fox



George Will on Fox




Fox news recently broke the news that they will be hiring respected writer et all,
 George Will.

Mr. Will in his latest article shows what he will bring to the table.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will100313.php3#.Uk1qe4brxU8

George Will has always been a refreshing voice of reason.  He actually delves into the facts of the matter and lets the facts lead him where they will and not pander to the rhetoric of the day.

This article above shows us the facts and explains what the motivation is behind the actions being taken without unduly taking sides.  Mr. Will then has the ability to state his opinion not as some God like decree relegating other opinions as unworthy but simply as his opinion.

That will be refreshing.

While I will love to see his brand of fact and reasoned opinion off set the rhetoric sometimes portrayed on Fox, It will be a shame for him not to be the conservative face on the Main Stream Media, he was so good at it.  That I believe is the where the most violent rhetoric is that needs to be off set. 

That after all is where the battle that counts will be fought.  In the Main Stream Media for the hearts and minds of the public.

When fighting for the hearts and minds of their congregation a preacher may win his congregation, but as Martin Luther showed, when you fight for the hearts and minds of the public, you can win a whole religion.

A fight within a church and the Devil wins.   A Fight by the church against the Devil and the Devil loses.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Clancy and Flynn Dead

Clancy and Flynn dead.

If you're a reader and love books the passing of both Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn is a sorrowful double blow to your spirits.
If you happen to be a conservative and are action minded, then the pain of their passing becomes hard to bear, for me nearly intolerable.

I have enjoyed and read all the books of them both.  I remember first reading Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October" and as President Reagan, I too lost some sleep because I couldn't put it down.  I remember hoping this was the first of many and indeed it was.
  
Tom Clancy's uniqueness was found not just in the fast paced and militarily cogent aspects of his action novels, but how he merged the genre of the cold war with the world wide spread of terrorism and political intrigue.
  
His books were blockbusters and the movies made from them were big hits also.  Most have seen "The Hunt for Red October", "Patriot Games", and or "Clear and Present Danger".  All were Big Time movies with the likes of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery as their Stars.

While we do not yet know the cause of death, his dying will be mourned by many.  Perhaps a blessing to ease us through our grief is that there will be another novel of his writing coming out this winter titled "Command Authority".  Also there will be a movie titled "Jack Ryan: Shadow One" coming out around the same time.

Some time into the progression of my reading of Clancy's "Jack Ryan" novels I found another author.  His name was Vince Flynn who broke onto the scene with his collection of titles featuring Mitch Rapp as the fictional lead character.  

The first book in the series was the Assassins, I read it and was hooked.  Mitch Rapp seemed a fitting candidate to take over for Jack Ryan in the never ending fight over good and evil.

Vince Flynn's books like Clancy’s were fast paced, factual and prescient.  These books also dealt with political intrigue at the highest levels, with terrorism running throughout. Flynn cemented the genre Clancy created.   

The real sadness for readers is the relative youth of their passing.  Clancy died at age 66 which may seem old for the creative juices to be flowing but if you look back in time, Robert Ludlum (of the Jason Bourne trilogy) was writing until he died at the age of 73.  The two authors both favorites of mine were much alike and I would say Clancy took Ludlum to the next step, evolving the genre for the next generation, just as Flynn was evolving Clancy's.  

The sadness becomes more stark with the passing of Vince Flynn at only age 47.  I remembered a quote from Flynn about Clancy in a recent interview.  I looked it up here it is.
 “Hey, if Clancy can do it, why can’t I? They need books; somebody has got to be the next Tom Clancy.” Talk about some irony, who will the next Vince Flynn be?
http://www.atlassociety.org/tni/tnis-interview-vince-flynn

That interview truly spells out the struggles of Vince Flynn from a poor background with a learning disorder and how one can overcome all with sheer grit.

Clancy sent out and received 60 rejection slips before a non fiction Naval publisher accepted it for $5,000. 

Both writers had their struggles and Tom Clancy would tell you that the keeping your dream is the key to it all.  This link to an article explains at the time the rise of Clancy as a literary force against the odds.



Tom Clancy's website
Vince Flynn's web site.
http://www.vinceflynn.com/


Regards, Live Dangerously Be a Conservative
Never let others dream for you.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Democrat's War on the Middle Class.

Democrats =
War on the Middle Class
???
Jimmy Hoffa’s Letter to the Democrats about Obamacare.

“When you and the President sought our support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), you pledged that if we liked the health plans we have now, we could keep them. Sadly, that promise is under threat. Right now, unless you and the Obama Administration enact an equitable fix, the ACA will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.”

“Like millions of other Americans, our members are front-line workers in the American economy. We have been strong supporters of the notion that all Americans should have access to quality, affordable health care. We have also been strong supporters of you. In campaign after campaign we have put boots on the ground, gone door-to-door to get out the vote, run phone banks and raised money to secure this vision.”

“Now this vision has come back to haunt us.”

“Since the ACA was enacted, we have been bringing our deep concerns to the Administration, seeking reasonable regulatory interpretations to the statute that would help prevent the destruction of non-profit health plans. As you both know first-hand, our persuasive arguments have been disregarded and met with a stone wall by the White House and the pertinent agencies. This is especially stinging because other stakeholders have repeatedly received successful interpretations for their respective grievances. Most disconcerting of course is last week’s huge accommodation for the employer community—extending the statutorily mandated “December 31, 2013” deadline for the employer mandate and penalties.”

“Time is running out: Congress wrote this law; we voted for you. We have a problem; you need to fix it. The unintended consequences of the ACA are severe. Perverse incentives are already creating nightmare scenarios.”

“First, the law creates an incentive for employers to keep employees’ work hours below 30 hours a week. Numerous employers have begun to cut workers’ hours to avoid this obligation, and many of them are doing so openly. The impact is two-fold: fewer hours means less pay while also losing our current health benefits.”

“Second, millions of Americans are covered by non-profit health insurance plans like the ones in which most of our members participate. These non-profit plans are governed jointly by unions and companies under the Taft-Hartley Act. Our health plans have been built over decades by working men and women. Under the ACA as interpreted by the Administration, our employees will treated differently and not be eligible for subsidies afforded other citizens. As such, many employees will be relegated to second-class status and shut out of the help the law offers to for-profit insurance plans.”

“And finally, even though non-profit plans like ours won’t receive the same subsidies as for-profit plans, they’ll be taxed to pay for those subsidies. Taken together, these restrictions will make non-profit plans like ours unsustainable, and will undermine the health-care market of viable alternatives to the big health insurance companies.”

“On behalf of the millions of working men and women we represent and the families they support, we can no longer stand silent in the face of elements of the Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans.”

“We believe that there are common-sense corrections that can be made within the existing statute that will allow our members to continue to keep their current health plans and benefits just as you and the President pledged. Unless changes are made, however, that promise is hollow.”
“We continue to stand behind real health care reform, but the law as it stands will hurt millions of Americans including the members of our respective unions.”

“We are looking to you to make sure these changes are made.”

It’s about trust.

The President is losing his credibility and sense of trustworthiness among his base.

No matter how you spin it, the battle over the Affordable Care Act, (Obamacare), is a battle between those who work and those who don’t.

President Obama will throw anyone under the buss to keep that war of disparity in high gear.

It’s about time the Union workers of the world realize they are the ones, funding those who don’t
.
It is they who are being thrown under the bus as we speak or more appropriately as they work.
Some of the Union leaders are getting the picture.

They are feeling threatened by their working members because the President lied to them about not taxing their benefits to fund Obamacare.

It’s time now for the workers of the world unite, stand up and take their turn to throw Obamacare and all forms of socialism under the bus
.
Most people especially the Union workers are figuring this out, and it’s about time. 

From the letter above, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa I think has realized that President Obama isn’t loyal to those who got him there only loyal to those who will get him to where he is going.

I’m hoping that the working middle class of this great country will finally figure out that important fact about Obama.  In fact I hope all those who are being used by him and treated as a doormat will start to stand up.
He and his policies are a strictly class war between those who get their money from government and those who make it otherwise.

Obama’s class war is between those who work and those who don’t.

President Obama will throw anyone under the buss to keep that war of disparity in high gear.

It’s about time the Union workers of the world realize they are the ones that will be thrown under the bus next.

As Mr. Hoffa intimates, this is a war on the American Dream where a person can support his family through their work, vs. taking money from them so others don’t have to.

Hoffa is sounding like a Reagan Democrat.
I hope it’s catchy.

It is catchy
News Flash 9/1/2013
40,000 longshoremen dissociate themselves from The AFL-CIO over Obamacare.
Robert McEllrath, head of the ILWU wrote a letter to Richard Trumka AFL-CIO leader.  Below is a snippet. 
"We feel the Federation (AFL-CIO) has done a great disservice to the labor movement and all working people by going along to get along,"

McEllrath the Longshoremen leader was voicing his objections of Trumka’s support of the President’s Obamacare and immigration policies.


Trumpka head of the AFL-CIO a big supporter of Obamacare and the President in the beginning is now sounding reminiscent of Nancy Pelosi as he starts to feel the heat from his members.  Recently he said in answer to the question of how the changes he wanted to be made in  Obamacare would work: “I can’t tell you how it would work until its done”.   I.e. Pelosi “We won’t know what’s in it till we pass it.”

What a chance for Republicans to win a landslide in 2014.
How? Who?

Who do the Republicans have that can unite these Reagan Democrats with their base?

Who do the Republicans have that can unite the Republicans?

I fear for the Republicans, if they cannot take the lead in this.  If they cannot why would people expect they could take leadership across the board.

Americans now have a leader who cannot lead, who is afraid of making a decision that may tarnish his image.  He changes his mind on a whim, he seems all image, all rhetoric; from his swaggering to the podium, to his “jaunty” salute at the bottom of the steps of air force one, to his feet up on the White House furniture.  As people get tired of his bling and look for leadership they are finding none.

An empty suit.  A Cocky Smile.

What is the alternative?

Give me a Tea Party candidate? One without rhetoric?  Haven’t found many.
Why?  Because they are drowned out by and quickly pick up their own rhetoric.

Catch 22?  No just tell the truth and be willing to support those who do.  Not those who will give you the most.  Beware, it is the oldest of survival instincts.  It has been the foundation of support for tyranny since records have been kept.

It is Greed, or “self-interest” for the squeamish.
Civilizations are measured by how they control that.

Not their Governments but they the people that chose leaders and allow them to keep power.

Our civilization - we will be judged by who we allow to lead.

Elections matter.