By MARIO VARGAS LLOSA, WSJ
What is lost on collectivists is the prime importance of individual freedom for societies to flourish and economies to thrive.
The blessings of freedom and the perils of its opposite can be seen the world over. It is why I have so passionately adhered to advancing the idea of individual freedom in my work.
Having abandoned the Marxist myths that took in so many of my generation, I soon came to genuinely believe that I had found a truth that had to be shared in the best way I knew—through the art of letters. Critics on the left and right have often praised my novels only to distance themselves from the ideas I've expressed. I do not believe my work can be separated from its ideals.
It is the function of the novelist to tell timeless and universal truths through the device of a fashioned narrative. A story's significance as a piece of art cannot be divorced from its message, any more than a society's prospects for freedom and prosperity can be divorced from its underlying principles. The writer and the man are one and the same, as are the culture and its common beliefs. In my writing and in my life I have pursued a vision not only to inspire my readers but also to share my dream of what we can aspire to build here in our world.
Those who love liberty are often ridiculed for their idealism. And at times we can feel alone, as there appear to be very few dedicated to the ideals of true "liberalism."
In the United States, the term "liberal" has come to be associated with leftism, socialism, and an ambitious role for government in the economy. Many who describe their politics as "liberal" emphatically favor measures which desire to push aside free enterprise. Some who call themselves liberal show even greater hostility toward business, loudly protesting the very idea of economic freedom and promoting a vision of society not so different from the failed utopian experiments of history's socialist and fascist regimes.
In Latin America and Spain, where the word "liberal" originated to mean an advocate of liberty, the left now uses the label as an invective. It carries connotations of "conservative" or reactionary politics, and especially a failure to care for the world's poor. I have been maligned in this way.
Ironically enough, part of the confusion can be pinned on some who champion the market economy in the name of old liberalism. They have at times done even more damage to freedom than the Marxists and other socialists.
There are those who in the name of the free market have supported Latin American dictatorships whose iron hand of repression was said to be necessary to allow business to function, betraying the very principles of human rights that free economies rest upon. Then there are those who have coldly reduced all questions of humanity to a matter of economics and see the market as a panacea. In doing so they ignore the role of ideas and culture, the true foundation of civilization. Without customs and shared beliefs to breathe life into democracy and the market, we are reduced to the Darwinian struggle of atomistic and selfish actors that many on the left rightfully see as inhuman.
What is lost on the collectivists, on the other hand, is the prime importance of individual freedom for societies to flourish and economies to thrive. This is the core insight of true liberalism: All individual freedoms are part of an inseparable whole. Political and economic liberties cannot be bifurcated. Mankind has inherited this wisdom from millennia of experience, and our understanding has been enriched further by the great liberal thinkers, some of my favorites being Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper, F.A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. They have described the path out of darkness and toward a brighter future of freedom and universal appreciation for the values of human dignity.
When the liberal truth is forgotten, we see the horrors of nationalist dictatorship, fascism, communism, cult fanaticism, terrorism and the many savageries that have defined all too much in the modern era. The problem is less pronounced in the United States, but here there still remain problems resulting from the abandonment of these key principles.
Many cling to hopes that the economy can be centrally planned. Education, health care, housing, money and banking, crime control, transportation, energy and far more follow the failed command-and-control model that has been repeatedly discredited. Some look to nationalist and statist solutions to trade imbalances and migration problems, instead of toward greater freedom.
Yet there is reason for hope here and elsewhere. The American system still allows for open dissent, the hallmark of a free society, and in a healthy fashion both left and right practice this cherished freedom. Throughout the world, anti-Americanism and anticapitalism are in decline. In Latin America, outside of Venezuela and Cuba, dictatorship of the old socialist and fascist varieties is dead, with market reforms sweeping even nominally leftist regimes.
The search for liberty is simply part of the greater search for a world where respect for the rule of law and human rights is universal—a world free of dictators, terrorists, warmongers and fanatics, where men and women of all nationalities, races, traditions and creeds can coexist in the culture of freedom, where borders give way to bridges that people cross to reach their goals limited only by free will and respect for one another's rights. It is a search to which I've dedicated my writing, and so many have taken notice. But is it not a search to which we should all devote our very lives? The answer is clear when we see what is at stake.
Mr. Vargas Llosa, the 2010 Nobel laureate in literature, will receive the Alexis de Tocqueville Award on Nov. 15 from the Independent Institute at its 25th anniversary celebration. He wrote this essay for the occasion.
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Thursday, August 04, 2011
60 Small Ways to Improve Your Life in the Next 100 Days by Marelisa
60 Small Ways to Improve Your Life in the Next 100 Days
May 30 by Marelisa | 108 Comments and 1169 Reactions | Lifestyle | Tags: improve your life, life improvement, small ways to improve your life, work/life-balance
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to make drastic changes in order to notice an improvement in the quality of your life. At the same time, you don’t need to wait a long time in order to see the measurable results that come from taking positive action. All you have to do is take small steps, and take them consistently, for a period of 100 days.
Below you’ll find 60 small ways to improve all areas of your life in the next 100 days.
Home
1. Create a “100 Days to Conquer Clutter Calendar” by penciling in one group of items you plan to declutter every day, for the next 100 days. Here’s an example:
Day 1: Declutter Magazines
Day 2: Declutter DVD’s
Day 3: Declutter books
Day 4: Declutter kitchen appliances
2. Live by the mantra: a place for everything and everything in its place. For the next 100 days follow these four rules to keep your house in order:
If you take it out, put it back.
If you open it, close it.
If you throw it down, pick it up.
If you take it off, hang it up.
3. Walk around your home and identify 100 things you’ve been tolerating; fix one each day. Here are some examples:
A burnt light bulb that needs to be changed.
A button that’s missing on your favorite shirt.
The fact that every time you open your top kitchen cabinet all of the plastic food containers fall out.
Happiness
4. Follow the advice proffered by positive psychologists and write down 5 to 10 things that you’re grateful for, every day.
5. Make a list of 20 small things that you enjoy doing, and make sure that you do at least one of these things every day for the next 100 days. Your list can include things such as the following:
Eating your lunch outside.
Calling your best friend to chat.
Taking the time to sit down and read a novel by your favorite author for a few minutes.
6. Keep a log of your mental chatter, both positive and negative, for ten days. Be as specific as possible:
How many times do you beat yourself up during the day?
Do you have feelings of inadequacy?
Are you constantly thinking critical thoughts of others?
How many positive thoughts do you have during the day?
Also, make a note of the emotions that accompany these thoughts. Then, for the next 90 days, begin changing your emotions for the better by modifying your mental chatter.
7. For the next 100 days, have a good laugh at least once a day: get one of those calendars that has a different joke for every day of the year, or stop by a web site that features your favorite cartoons.
Learning/Personal Development
8. Choose a book that requires effort and concentration and read a little of it every day, so that you read it from cover to cover in 100 days.
9. Make it a point to learn at least one new thing each day: the name of a flower that grows in your garden, the capital of a far-off country, or the name of a piece of classical music you hear playing in your favorite clothing boutique as you shop. If it’s time for bed and you can’t identify anything you’ve learned that day, take out your dictionary and learn a new word.
10. Stop complaining for the next 100 days. A couple of years back, Will Bowen gave a purple rubber bracelet to each person in his congregation to remind them to stop complaining. “Negative talk produces negative thoughts; negative thoughts produce negative results”, says Bowen. For the next 100 days, whenever you catch yourself complaining about anything, stop yourself.
11. Set your alarm a minute earlier every day for the next 100 days. Then make sure that you get out of bed as soon as your alarm rings, open the windows to let in some sunlight, and do some light stretching. In 100 days you’ll be waking up an hour and forty minutes earlier than you’re waking up now.
12. For the next 100 days, keep Morning Pages, which is a tool suggested by Julia Cameron. Morning Pages are simply three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning.
13. For the next 100 days make it a point to feed your mind with the thoughts, words, and images that are most consistent with who you want to be, what you want to have, and what you want to achieve.
Finances
14. Create a spending plan (also known as a budget). Track every cent that you spend for the next 100 days to make sure that you’re sticking to your spending plan.
15. Scour the internet for frugality tips, choose ten of the tips that you find, and apply them for the next 100 days. Here are some possibilities:
Go to the grocery store with cash and a calculator instead of using your debit card.
Take inventory before going to the grocery store to avoid buying repeat items.
Scale back the cable.
Ask yourself if you really need a landline telephone.
Consolidate errands into one trip to save on gas.
Keep track of how much money you save over the next 100 days by applying these tips.
16. For the next 100 days, pay for everything with paper money and keep any change that you receive. Then, put all of your change in a jar and see how much money you can accumulate in 100 days.
17. Don’t buy anything that you don’t absolutely need for 100 days. Use any money you save by doing this to do one of the following:
Pay down your debt, if you have any.
Put it toward your six month emergency fund.
Start setting aside money to invest.
18. Set an hour aside every day for the next 100 days to devote to creating one source of passive income.
Time Management
19. For the next 100 days, take a notebook with you everywhere in order to keep your mind decluttered. Record everything, so that it’s safely stored in one place—out of your head—where you can decide what to do with it later. Include things such as the following:
Ideas for writing assignments.
Appointment dates.
To Do list items
20. Track how you spend your time for 5 days. Use the information that you gather in order to create a time budget: the percentage of your time that you want to devote to each activity that you engage in on a regular basis. This can include things such as:
Transportation
Housework
Leisure
Income-Generating Activities
Make sure that you stick to your time budget for the remaining 95 days.
21. Identify one low-priority activity which you can stop doing for the next 100 days, and devote that time to a high priority task instead.
22. Identify five ways in which you regularly waste time, and limit the time that you’re going to spend on these activities each day, for the next 100 days. Here are three examples:
Watch no more than half-an-hour of television a day.
Spend no more than half-an-hour each day on social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Stumbleupon.
Spend no more than twenty minutes a day playing video games.
23. For the next 100 days, stop multi-tasking; do one thing at a time without distractions.
24. For the next 100 days, plan your day the night before.
25. For the next 100 days, do the most important thing on your To-Do list first, before you do anything else.
26. For the next 14 weeks, conduct a review of each week. During your weekly review, answer the following:
What did you accomplish?
What went wrong?
What went right?
27. For the next 100 days, spend a few minutes at the end of each day organizing your desk, filing papers, and making sure that your work area is clean and orderly, so that you can walk in to a neat desk the next day.
28. Make a list of all of the commitments and social obligations that you have in the next 100 days. Then, take out a red pen and cross out anything that does not truly bring you joy or help move you along the path to achieving your main life goals.
29. For the next 100 days, every time that you switch to a new activity throughout the day stop and ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time at this moment?”
Health
30. Losing a pound of fat requires burning 3500 calories. If you reduce your caloric intake by 175 calories a day for the next 100 days, you’ll have lost 5 pounds in the next 100 days.
31. For the next 100 days, eat five servings of vegetables every day.
32. For the next 100 days, eat three servings of fruit of every day.
33. Choose one food that constantly sabotages your efforts to eat healthier—whether it’s the decadent cheesecake from the bakery around the corner, deep-dish pizza, or your favorite potato chips—and go cold turkey for the next 100 days.
34. For the next 100 days, eat from a smaller plate to help control portion size.
35. For the next 100 days, buy 100% natural juices instead of the kind with added sugar and preservatives.
36. For the next 100 days, instead of carbonated drinks, drink water.
37. Create a list of 10 healthy, easy to fix breakfast meals.
38. Create a list of 20 healthy, easy to fix meals which can be eaten for lunch or dinner.
39. Create a list of 10 healthy, easy to fix snacks.
40. Use your lists of healthy breakfast meals, lunches, dinners, and snacks in order to plan out your meals for the week ahead of time. Do this for the next 14 weeks.
41. For the next 100 days, keep a food log. This will help you to identify where you’re deviating from your planned menu, and where you’re consuming extra calories.
42. For the next 100 days, get at least twenty minutes of daily exercise.
43. Wear a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps, every day, for the next 100 days. Every step you take during the day counts toward the 10,000 steps:
When you walk to your car.
When you walk from your desk to the bathroom.
When you walk over to talk to a co-worker, and so on.
44. Set up a weight chart and post it up in your bathroom. Every week for the next 14 weeks, keep track of the following:
Your weight.
Your percentage of body fat.
Your waist circumference.
45. For the next 100 days, set your watch to beep once an hour, or set up a computer reminder, to make sure that you drink water on a regular basis throughout the day.
46. For the next 100 days, make it a daily ritual to mediate, breath, or visualize every day in order to calm your mind.
Your Relationship
47. For the next 100 days, actively look for something positive in your partner every day, and write it down.
48. Create a scrapbook of all the things you and your partner do together during the next 100 days. At the end of the 100 days, give your partner the list you created of positive things you observed about them each day, as well as the scrapbook you created.
49. Identify 3 actions that you’re going to take each day, for the next 100 days, in order to strengthen your relationship. These can include the following:
Say “I love you” and “Have a good day” to your significant other every morning.
Hug your significant other as soon as you see each other after work.
Go for a twenty minute walk together every day after dinner; hold hands.
Social
50. Connect with someone new every day for the next 100 days, whether it’s by greeting a neighbor you’ve never spoken to before, following someone new on Twitter, leaving a comment on a blog you’ve never commented on before, and so on.
51. For the next 100 days, make it a point to associate with people you admire, respect and want to be like.
52. For the next 100 days, when someone does or says something that upsets you, take a minute to think over your response instead of answering right away.
53. For the next 100 days, don’t even think of passing judgment until you’ve heard both sides of the story.
54. For the next 100 days do one kind deed for someone every day, however small, even if it’s just sending a silent blessing their way.
55. For the next 100 days, make it a point to give praise and approval to those who deserve it.
56. For the next 100 days, practice active listening. When someone is talking to you, remain focused on what they’re saying, instead of rehearsing in your head what you’re going to say next. Paraphrase what you think you heard them say to make sure that you haven’t misinterpreted them, and encourage them to elaborate on any points you’re still not clear about.
57. Practice empathy for the next 100 days. If you disagree with someone, try to see the world from their perspective; put yourself in their shoes. Be curious about the other person, about their beliefs and their life experience, and about the thinking process that they followed to reach their conclusions.
58. For the next 100 days, stay in your own life and don’t compare yourself to anyone else.
59. For the next 100 days, place the best possible interpretation on the actions of others.
60. For the next 100 days, keep reminding yourself that everyone is doing the best that they can.
May 30 by Marelisa | 108 Comments and 1169 Reactions | Lifestyle | Tags: improve your life, life improvement, small ways to improve your life, work/life-balance
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to make drastic changes in order to notice an improvement in the quality of your life. At the same time, you don’t need to wait a long time in order to see the measurable results that come from taking positive action. All you have to do is take small steps, and take them consistently, for a period of 100 days.
Below you’ll find 60 small ways to improve all areas of your life in the next 100 days.
Home
1. Create a “100 Days to Conquer Clutter Calendar” by penciling in one group of items you plan to declutter every day, for the next 100 days. Here’s an example:
Day 1: Declutter Magazines
Day 2: Declutter DVD’s
Day 3: Declutter books
Day 4: Declutter kitchen appliances
2. Live by the mantra: a place for everything and everything in its place. For the next 100 days follow these four rules to keep your house in order:
If you take it out, put it back.
If you open it, close it.
If you throw it down, pick it up.
If you take it off, hang it up.
3. Walk around your home and identify 100 things you’ve been tolerating; fix one each day. Here are some examples:
A burnt light bulb that needs to be changed.
A button that’s missing on your favorite shirt.
The fact that every time you open your top kitchen cabinet all of the plastic food containers fall out.
Happiness
4. Follow the advice proffered by positive psychologists and write down 5 to 10 things that you’re grateful for, every day.
5. Make a list of 20 small things that you enjoy doing, and make sure that you do at least one of these things every day for the next 100 days. Your list can include things such as the following:
Eating your lunch outside.
Calling your best friend to chat.
Taking the time to sit down and read a novel by your favorite author for a few minutes.
6. Keep a log of your mental chatter, both positive and negative, for ten days. Be as specific as possible:
How many times do you beat yourself up during the day?
Do you have feelings of inadequacy?
Are you constantly thinking critical thoughts of others?
How many positive thoughts do you have during the day?
Also, make a note of the emotions that accompany these thoughts. Then, for the next 90 days, begin changing your emotions for the better by modifying your mental chatter.
7. For the next 100 days, have a good laugh at least once a day: get one of those calendars that has a different joke for every day of the year, or stop by a web site that features your favorite cartoons.
Learning/Personal Development
8. Choose a book that requires effort and concentration and read a little of it every day, so that you read it from cover to cover in 100 days.
9. Make it a point to learn at least one new thing each day: the name of a flower that grows in your garden, the capital of a far-off country, or the name of a piece of classical music you hear playing in your favorite clothing boutique as you shop. If it’s time for bed and you can’t identify anything you’ve learned that day, take out your dictionary and learn a new word.
10. Stop complaining for the next 100 days. A couple of years back, Will Bowen gave a purple rubber bracelet to each person in his congregation to remind them to stop complaining. “Negative talk produces negative thoughts; negative thoughts produce negative results”, says Bowen. For the next 100 days, whenever you catch yourself complaining about anything, stop yourself.
11. Set your alarm a minute earlier every day for the next 100 days. Then make sure that you get out of bed as soon as your alarm rings, open the windows to let in some sunlight, and do some light stretching. In 100 days you’ll be waking up an hour and forty minutes earlier than you’re waking up now.
12. For the next 100 days, keep Morning Pages, which is a tool suggested by Julia Cameron. Morning Pages are simply three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning.
13. For the next 100 days make it a point to feed your mind with the thoughts, words, and images that are most consistent with who you want to be, what you want to have, and what you want to achieve.
Finances
14. Create a spending plan (also known as a budget). Track every cent that you spend for the next 100 days to make sure that you’re sticking to your spending plan.
15. Scour the internet for frugality tips, choose ten of the tips that you find, and apply them for the next 100 days. Here are some possibilities:
Go to the grocery store with cash and a calculator instead of using your debit card.
Take inventory before going to the grocery store to avoid buying repeat items.
Scale back the cable.
Ask yourself if you really need a landline telephone.
Consolidate errands into one trip to save on gas.
Keep track of how much money you save over the next 100 days by applying these tips.
16. For the next 100 days, pay for everything with paper money and keep any change that you receive. Then, put all of your change in a jar and see how much money you can accumulate in 100 days.
17. Don’t buy anything that you don’t absolutely need for 100 days. Use any money you save by doing this to do one of the following:
Pay down your debt, if you have any.
Put it toward your six month emergency fund.
Start setting aside money to invest.
18. Set an hour aside every day for the next 100 days to devote to creating one source of passive income.
Time Management
19. For the next 100 days, take a notebook with you everywhere in order to keep your mind decluttered. Record everything, so that it’s safely stored in one place—out of your head—where you can decide what to do with it later. Include things such as the following:
Ideas for writing assignments.
Appointment dates.
To Do list items
20. Track how you spend your time for 5 days. Use the information that you gather in order to create a time budget: the percentage of your time that you want to devote to each activity that you engage in on a regular basis. This can include things such as:
Transportation
Housework
Leisure
Income-Generating Activities
Make sure that you stick to your time budget for the remaining 95 days.
21. Identify one low-priority activity which you can stop doing for the next 100 days, and devote that time to a high priority task instead.
22. Identify five ways in which you regularly waste time, and limit the time that you’re going to spend on these activities each day, for the next 100 days. Here are three examples:
Watch no more than half-an-hour of television a day.
Spend no more than half-an-hour each day on social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Stumbleupon.
Spend no more than twenty minutes a day playing video games.
23. For the next 100 days, stop multi-tasking; do one thing at a time without distractions.
24. For the next 100 days, plan your day the night before.
25. For the next 100 days, do the most important thing on your To-Do list first, before you do anything else.
26. For the next 14 weeks, conduct a review of each week. During your weekly review, answer the following:
What did you accomplish?
What went wrong?
What went right?
27. For the next 100 days, spend a few minutes at the end of each day organizing your desk, filing papers, and making sure that your work area is clean and orderly, so that you can walk in to a neat desk the next day.
28. Make a list of all of the commitments and social obligations that you have in the next 100 days. Then, take out a red pen and cross out anything that does not truly bring you joy or help move you along the path to achieving your main life goals.
29. For the next 100 days, every time that you switch to a new activity throughout the day stop and ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time at this moment?”
Health
30. Losing a pound of fat requires burning 3500 calories. If you reduce your caloric intake by 175 calories a day for the next 100 days, you’ll have lost 5 pounds in the next 100 days.
31. For the next 100 days, eat five servings of vegetables every day.
32. For the next 100 days, eat three servings of fruit of every day.
33. Choose one food that constantly sabotages your efforts to eat healthier—whether it’s the decadent cheesecake from the bakery around the corner, deep-dish pizza, or your favorite potato chips—and go cold turkey for the next 100 days.
34. For the next 100 days, eat from a smaller plate to help control portion size.
35. For the next 100 days, buy 100% natural juices instead of the kind with added sugar and preservatives.
36. For the next 100 days, instead of carbonated drinks, drink water.
37. Create a list of 10 healthy, easy to fix breakfast meals.
38. Create a list of 20 healthy, easy to fix meals which can be eaten for lunch or dinner.
39. Create a list of 10 healthy, easy to fix snacks.
40. Use your lists of healthy breakfast meals, lunches, dinners, and snacks in order to plan out your meals for the week ahead of time. Do this for the next 14 weeks.
41. For the next 100 days, keep a food log. This will help you to identify where you’re deviating from your planned menu, and where you’re consuming extra calories.
42. For the next 100 days, get at least twenty minutes of daily exercise.
43. Wear a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps, every day, for the next 100 days. Every step you take during the day counts toward the 10,000 steps:
When you walk to your car.
When you walk from your desk to the bathroom.
When you walk over to talk to a co-worker, and so on.
44. Set up a weight chart and post it up in your bathroom. Every week for the next 14 weeks, keep track of the following:
Your weight.
Your percentage of body fat.
Your waist circumference.
45. For the next 100 days, set your watch to beep once an hour, or set up a computer reminder, to make sure that you drink water on a regular basis throughout the day.
46. For the next 100 days, make it a daily ritual to mediate, breath, or visualize every day in order to calm your mind.
Your Relationship
47. For the next 100 days, actively look for something positive in your partner every day, and write it down.
48. Create a scrapbook of all the things you and your partner do together during the next 100 days. At the end of the 100 days, give your partner the list you created of positive things you observed about them each day, as well as the scrapbook you created.
49. Identify 3 actions that you’re going to take each day, for the next 100 days, in order to strengthen your relationship. These can include the following:
Say “I love you” and “Have a good day” to your significant other every morning.
Hug your significant other as soon as you see each other after work.
Go for a twenty minute walk together every day after dinner; hold hands.
Social
50. Connect with someone new every day for the next 100 days, whether it’s by greeting a neighbor you’ve never spoken to before, following someone new on Twitter, leaving a comment on a blog you’ve never commented on before, and so on.
51. For the next 100 days, make it a point to associate with people you admire, respect and want to be like.
52. For the next 100 days, when someone does or says something that upsets you, take a minute to think over your response instead of answering right away.
53. For the next 100 days, don’t even think of passing judgment until you’ve heard both sides of the story.
54. For the next 100 days do one kind deed for someone every day, however small, even if it’s just sending a silent blessing their way.
55. For the next 100 days, make it a point to give praise and approval to those who deserve it.
56. For the next 100 days, practice active listening. When someone is talking to you, remain focused on what they’re saying, instead of rehearsing in your head what you’re going to say next. Paraphrase what you think you heard them say to make sure that you haven’t misinterpreted them, and encourage them to elaborate on any points you’re still not clear about.
57. Practice empathy for the next 100 days. If you disagree with someone, try to see the world from their perspective; put yourself in their shoes. Be curious about the other person, about their beliefs and their life experience, and about the thinking process that they followed to reach their conclusions.
58. For the next 100 days, stay in your own life and don’t compare yourself to anyone else.
59. For the next 100 days, place the best possible interpretation on the actions of others.
60. For the next 100 days, keep reminding yourself that everyone is doing the best that they can.
Monday, August 01, 2011
Top ten international tourism destinations in 2010
Out of a global total of 940 million tourists, the top ten international tourism destinations in 2010 were
Rank Country International tourist arrivals
1 France 76.80 million
2 United States 59.75 million
3 China 55.67 million
4 Spain 52.68 million
5 Italy 43.63 million
6 United Kingdom 28.13 million
7 Turkey 27.00 million
8 Germany 26.88 million
9 Malaysia 24.58 million
10 Mexico 22.40 million
Rank Country International tourist arrivals
1 France 76.80 million
2 United States 59.75 million
3 China 55.67 million
4 Spain 52.68 million
5 Italy 43.63 million
6 United Kingdom 28.13 million
7 Turkey 27.00 million
8 Germany 26.88 million
9 Malaysia 24.58 million
10 Mexico 22.40 million
top ten destinations in Americas in 2010
Out of the total of almost 150 million tourists to the Americas in 2010, the top ten destinations were:
Rank Country International tourist arrivals to the Americas
1 United States 59.75 million
2 Mexico 22.40 million
3 Canada 16.10 million
4 Argentina 5.29 million
5 Brazil 5.16 million
6 Dominican Republic 4.13 million
7 Puerto Rico 3.68 million
8 Chile 2.77 million
9 Cuba 2.51 million
10 Colombia 2.39 million
Rank Country International tourist arrivals to the Americas
1 United States 59.75 million
2 Mexico 22.40 million
3 Canada 16.10 million
4 Argentina 5.29 million
5 Brazil 5.16 million
6 Dominican Republic 4.13 million
7 Puerto Rico 3.68 million
8 Chile 2.77 million
9 Cuba 2.51 million
10 Colombia 2.39 million
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The Road Not Taken By DAVID BROOKS
The Road Not Taken
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: July 18, 2011
Over the past months, Republicans enjoyed enormous advantages. Opinion polls showed that voters are eager to reduce the federal debt, and they want to do it mostly but not entirely through spending cuts.
Josh Haner/The New York Times
David Brooks
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The intellectual, cultural and scientific findings that land on the columnist’s desk nearly every day.
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Related
In Debt Crisis, a Legislative Trick Up the Sleeve (July 19, 2011)
Times Topic: Federal Debt Limit (Debt Ceiling) & Deficit Talks
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Room For Debate
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For voters, this political standoff is a frustrating sideshow for what they really care about: jobs.
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There was a Democratic president eager to move to the center. He floated certain ideas that would be normally unheard of from a Democrat. According to widespread reports, White House officials talked about raising the Medicare eligibility age, cutting Social Security by changing the inflation index, freezing domestic discretionary spending and offering to pre-empt the end of the Bush tax cuts in exchange for a broad tax-reform process.
The Democratic offers were slippery, and President Obama didn’t put them in writing. But John Boehner, the House speaker, thought they were serious. The liberal activists thought they were alarmingly serious. I can tell you from my reporting that White House officials took them seriously.
The combined effect would have been to reduce the size of government by $3 trillion over a decade. That’s a number roughly three times larger than the cost of the Obama health care law. It also would have brutally fractured the Democratic Party.
But the Republican Party decided not to pursue this deal, or even seriously consider it. Instead what happened was this: Conservatives told themselves how steadfast they were being for a few weeks. Then morale crumbled.
This week, Republicans will probably pass a balanced budget Constitutional amendment that has zero chance of becoming law. Then they may end up clinging to a no más Senate compromise. This proposal would pocket cuts that have already been agreed on, and it would eliminate leverage for future cuts and make them less likely.
It could be that this has been a glorious moment in Republican history. It could be that having persuaded independents that they are a prudent party, Republicans will sweep the next election. Controlling the White House and Congress, perhaps they will have the guts to cut Medicare unilaterally, reform the welfare state and herald in an era of conservative greatness.
But it’s much more likely that Republicans will come to regret this missed opportunity. So let us pause to identify the people who decided not to seize the chance to usher in the largest cut in the size of government in American history. They fall into a few categories:
The Beltway Bandits. American conservatism now has a rich network of Washington interest groups adept at arousing elderly donors and attracting rich lobbying contracts. For example, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform has been instrumental in every recent G.O.P. setback. He was a Newt Gingrich strategist in the 1990s, a major Jack Abramoff companion in the 2000s and he enforced the no-compromise orthodoxy that binds the party today.
Norquist is the Zelig of Republican catastrophe. His method is always the same. He enforces rigid ultimatums that make governance, or even thinking, impossible.
The Big Government Blowhards. The talk-radio jocks are not in the business of promoting conservative governance. They are in the business of building an audience by stroking the pleasure centers of their listeners.
They mostly give pseudo Crispin’s Day speeches to battalions of the like-minded from the safety of the conservative ghetto. To keep audience share, they need to portray politics as a cataclysmic, Manichaean struggle. A series of compromises that steadily advance conservative aims would muddy their story lines and be death to their ratings.
The Show Horses. Republicans now have a group of political celebrities who are marvelously uninterested in actually producing results. Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann produce tweets, not laws. They have created a climate in which purity is prized over practicality.
The Permanent Campaigners. For many legislators, the purpose of being in Congress is not to pass laws. It’s to create clear contrasts you can take into the next election campaign. It’s not to take responsibility for the state of the country and make it better. It’s to pass responsibility onto the other party and force them to take as many difficult votes as possible.
All of these groups share the same mentality. They do not see politics as the art of the possible. They do not believe in seizing opportunities to make steady, messy progress toward conservative goals. They believe that politics is a cataclysmic struggle. They believe that if they can remain pure in their faith then someday their party will win a total and permanent victory over its foes. They believe they are Gods of the New Dawn.
Fortunately, there are still practical conservatives in the G.O.P., who believe in results, who believe in intelligent compromise. If people someday decide the events of the past weeks have been a debacle, then practical conservatives may regain control.
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: July 18, 2011
Over the past months, Republicans enjoyed enormous advantages. Opinion polls showed that voters are eager to reduce the federal debt, and they want to do it mostly but not entirely through spending cuts.
Josh Haner/The New York Times
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For voters, this political standoff is a frustrating sideshow for what they really care about: jobs.
Readers’ Comments
Share your thoughts.
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There was a Democratic president eager to move to the center. He floated certain ideas that would be normally unheard of from a Democrat. According to widespread reports, White House officials talked about raising the Medicare eligibility age, cutting Social Security by changing the inflation index, freezing domestic discretionary spending and offering to pre-empt the end of the Bush tax cuts in exchange for a broad tax-reform process.
The Democratic offers were slippery, and President Obama didn’t put them in writing. But John Boehner, the House speaker, thought they were serious. The liberal activists thought they were alarmingly serious. I can tell you from my reporting that White House officials took them seriously.
The combined effect would have been to reduce the size of government by $3 trillion over a decade. That’s a number roughly three times larger than the cost of the Obama health care law. It also would have brutally fractured the Democratic Party.
But the Republican Party decided not to pursue this deal, or even seriously consider it. Instead what happened was this: Conservatives told themselves how steadfast they were being for a few weeks. Then morale crumbled.
This week, Republicans will probably pass a balanced budget Constitutional amendment that has zero chance of becoming law. Then they may end up clinging to a no más Senate compromise. This proposal would pocket cuts that have already been agreed on, and it would eliminate leverage for future cuts and make them less likely.
It could be that this has been a glorious moment in Republican history. It could be that having persuaded independents that they are a prudent party, Republicans will sweep the next election. Controlling the White House and Congress, perhaps they will have the guts to cut Medicare unilaterally, reform the welfare state and herald in an era of conservative greatness.
But it’s much more likely that Republicans will come to regret this missed opportunity. So let us pause to identify the people who decided not to seize the chance to usher in the largest cut in the size of government in American history. They fall into a few categories:
The Beltway Bandits. American conservatism now has a rich network of Washington interest groups adept at arousing elderly donors and attracting rich lobbying contracts. For example, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform has been instrumental in every recent G.O.P. setback. He was a Newt Gingrich strategist in the 1990s, a major Jack Abramoff companion in the 2000s and he enforced the no-compromise orthodoxy that binds the party today.
Norquist is the Zelig of Republican catastrophe. His method is always the same. He enforces rigid ultimatums that make governance, or even thinking, impossible.
The Big Government Blowhards. The talk-radio jocks are not in the business of promoting conservative governance. They are in the business of building an audience by stroking the pleasure centers of their listeners.
They mostly give pseudo Crispin’s Day speeches to battalions of the like-minded from the safety of the conservative ghetto. To keep audience share, they need to portray politics as a cataclysmic, Manichaean struggle. A series of compromises that steadily advance conservative aims would muddy their story lines and be death to their ratings.
The Show Horses. Republicans now have a group of political celebrities who are marvelously uninterested in actually producing results. Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann produce tweets, not laws. They have created a climate in which purity is prized over practicality.
The Permanent Campaigners. For many legislators, the purpose of being in Congress is not to pass laws. It’s to create clear contrasts you can take into the next election campaign. It’s not to take responsibility for the state of the country and make it better. It’s to pass responsibility onto the other party and force them to take as many difficult votes as possible.
All of these groups share the same mentality. They do not see politics as the art of the possible. They do not believe in seizing opportunities to make steady, messy progress toward conservative goals. They believe that politics is a cataclysmic struggle. They believe that if they can remain pure in their faith then someday their party will win a total and permanent victory over its foes. They believe they are Gods of the New Dawn.
Fortunately, there are still practical conservatives in the G.O.P., who believe in results, who believe in intelligent compromise. If people someday decide the events of the past weeks have been a debacle, then practical conservatives may regain control.
Brasil, um exemplo de quê? by CARLOS ALBERTO SARDENBERG
Brasil, um exemplo de quê? CARLOS ALBERTO SARDENBERG
O Estado de S.Paulo - 18/07/11
Hillary Clinton andou elogiando o sistema tributário brasileiro, pela ampla capacidade de arrecadação de impostos, como definiu, e o modo como o governo gasta o dinheiro em programas sociais que tiram pessoas da pobreza. O comentário serviu para o momento político nos EUA.
O governo democrata de Barack Obama, ao qual pertence Hillary, como secretária de Estado, está justamente numa guerra fiscal com os republicanos, que dominam o Congresso. Os democratas querem um programa de ajuste que aumente os impostos - mas só para os mais ricos, ressalva Obama - sem prejudicar programas sociais. Os republicanos querem um forte e amplo corte de gastos públicos e se opõem a qualquer aumento de imposto.
Faz sentido falar em aumentar imposto nos EUA? Sim, se a comparação se dá entre os países desenvolvidos. Nesse grupo, excetuando o Japão, os EUA têm a mais baixa carga tributária, em torno dos 27% do Produto Interno Bruto (PIB). Nos demais, essa carga está acima dos 35% e passa dos 40% em muitos europeus, como na França.
Mas há diferenças enormes no modo de organização da sociedade. Nos europeus, o governo precisa de mais dinheiro porque presta mais serviços diretamente à população. Os serviços de saúde, por exemplo, são basicamente públicos na Europa e privados nos EUA. Idem para o sistema de aposentadoria e de escolas.
Na verdade, porém, todo mundo paga. Os americanos recolhem menos impostos, mas precisam pagar quando vão ao médico ou às universidades. Os europeus são atendidos de graça (ou fortemente subsidiados), mas pagam mais caro pelos produtos que compram por causa dos impostos.
E, curiosamente, tanto os EUA como muitos países europeus estão com o mesmo problema: déficit no orçamento dos governos e dívidas públicas muito elevadas.
Por outro lado, entre os emergentes, o Brasil ostenta, disparado, a maior carga tributária, em torno dos 35% do PIB. Na China, por exemplo, os impostos levam apenas 20% da renda nacional. Na América Latina é a Argentina que arrecada mais impostos, depois do Brasil, mas não chega aos 30%. No México está em torno dos 20%.
Embora arrecade mais, o setor público brasileiro deve mais do que na maior parte dos emergentes, especialmente quando se considera a dívida bruta. E opera com déficit nominal no orçamento total do governo (federal, estadual e municipal.)
Resumindo, o governo brasileiro arrecada mais e toma mais dinheiro emprestado. Gasta mais, portanto, e bastante em programas sociais, como disse Hillary Clinton.
Por exemplo, um quarto da população brasileira recebe os pagamentos mensais do Bolsa-Família. Mas também um quarto da população mexicana está no Oportunidades, o Bolsa-Família deles e que, aliás, é anterior ao nosso. Também no Chile, que recolhe ainda menos impostos que no México, há o Solidariedade, distribuição de renda tão ampla e eficiente quanto os outros dois.
Considerando padrões como saúde e educação, os indicadores brasileiros de qualidade e eficiência não são superiores aos dos demais emergentes. Ao contrário, nossos alunos, nos testes internacionais, perdem de colegas de países onde a arrecadação e o gasto por estudantes é menor do que aqui.
O Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) é admirado em alguns países da América Latina, pela sua ampla capacidade de atendimento. Mas o pessoal talvez não saiba que, além de recolher os impostos que financiam o SUS, cerca de 45 milhões de brasileiros pagam planos de saúde privados. (E que Hugo Chávez vai ser tratado num hospital privado, onde se trataram, aliás, José Alencar e Dilma Rousseff).
De todo modo, um tema frequente aqui na região é, como na proposta de Hillary, aumentar impostos para financiar saúde e educação - e melhorar esses indicadores. Dizem: já que a carga tributária ainda é baixa...
Ora, isso, em si, já mostra como algo deu errado no Brasil. Nossos impostos já estão lá em cima e não se nota desempenho notável dos serviços públicos prestados. Mas a aposentadoria pública funciona bem, especialmente para os mais pobres, no caso do INSS, e para os funcionários públicos. Só que é também uma fonte enorme de déficit. Ou seja, aqui, paradoxalmente, a arrecadação de impostos e contribuições não é suficiente.
Entre os ricos também há comparações interessantes: o ensino médio europeu, basicamente público e gratuito, é superior ao americano, público e privado. Mas as universidades dos EUA, privadas e pagas, mesmo quando pertencem a governos, são muito superiores às da Europa, públicas em geral.
Somando dinheiro público e privado, os EUA são os que mais gastam (per capita) em saúde, com resultados contraditórios. Há setores da população que não conseguiam nenhuma assistência - objeto do novo programa de Obama - e setores atendidos com medicina de alto nível.
Transporte e infraestrutura nos EUA, mais privados, igualam ou superam muitos europeus, públicos.
Dá o que pensar, não é mesmo? Leva a uma conclusão que a muitos parece tão simples que não pode ser isso. Mas considerem: a questão central não está no tamanho da carga tributária e do gasto, mas na eficiência de uma e de outro. E, olhando por esse lado, o elogio de Hillary ao modelo brasileiro foi apenas uma fala para a política interna, ou resulta de falta de informação, ou as duas coisas. O governo, aqui, arrecada muito, complica e encarece a vida do contribuinte e não entrega serviços e obras na proporção esperada.
Claro que, com pouco dinheiro, governos podem fazer pouco. Mas não decorre daí que, com muito, farão mais e melhor. O Brasil é exemplo disso. Nosso caso, aqui, é como reduzir impostos e aumentar a eficiência do gasto.
O Estado de S.Paulo - 18/07/11
Hillary Clinton andou elogiando o sistema tributário brasileiro, pela ampla capacidade de arrecadação de impostos, como definiu, e o modo como o governo gasta o dinheiro em programas sociais que tiram pessoas da pobreza. O comentário serviu para o momento político nos EUA.
O governo democrata de Barack Obama, ao qual pertence Hillary, como secretária de Estado, está justamente numa guerra fiscal com os republicanos, que dominam o Congresso. Os democratas querem um programa de ajuste que aumente os impostos - mas só para os mais ricos, ressalva Obama - sem prejudicar programas sociais. Os republicanos querem um forte e amplo corte de gastos públicos e se opõem a qualquer aumento de imposto.
Faz sentido falar em aumentar imposto nos EUA? Sim, se a comparação se dá entre os países desenvolvidos. Nesse grupo, excetuando o Japão, os EUA têm a mais baixa carga tributária, em torno dos 27% do Produto Interno Bruto (PIB). Nos demais, essa carga está acima dos 35% e passa dos 40% em muitos europeus, como na França.
Mas há diferenças enormes no modo de organização da sociedade. Nos europeus, o governo precisa de mais dinheiro porque presta mais serviços diretamente à população. Os serviços de saúde, por exemplo, são basicamente públicos na Europa e privados nos EUA. Idem para o sistema de aposentadoria e de escolas.
Na verdade, porém, todo mundo paga. Os americanos recolhem menos impostos, mas precisam pagar quando vão ao médico ou às universidades. Os europeus são atendidos de graça (ou fortemente subsidiados), mas pagam mais caro pelos produtos que compram por causa dos impostos.
E, curiosamente, tanto os EUA como muitos países europeus estão com o mesmo problema: déficit no orçamento dos governos e dívidas públicas muito elevadas.
Por outro lado, entre os emergentes, o Brasil ostenta, disparado, a maior carga tributária, em torno dos 35% do PIB. Na China, por exemplo, os impostos levam apenas 20% da renda nacional. Na América Latina é a Argentina que arrecada mais impostos, depois do Brasil, mas não chega aos 30%. No México está em torno dos 20%.
Embora arrecade mais, o setor público brasileiro deve mais do que na maior parte dos emergentes, especialmente quando se considera a dívida bruta. E opera com déficit nominal no orçamento total do governo (federal, estadual e municipal.)
Resumindo, o governo brasileiro arrecada mais e toma mais dinheiro emprestado. Gasta mais, portanto, e bastante em programas sociais, como disse Hillary Clinton.
Por exemplo, um quarto da população brasileira recebe os pagamentos mensais do Bolsa-Família. Mas também um quarto da população mexicana está no Oportunidades, o Bolsa-Família deles e que, aliás, é anterior ao nosso. Também no Chile, que recolhe ainda menos impostos que no México, há o Solidariedade, distribuição de renda tão ampla e eficiente quanto os outros dois.
Considerando padrões como saúde e educação, os indicadores brasileiros de qualidade e eficiência não são superiores aos dos demais emergentes. Ao contrário, nossos alunos, nos testes internacionais, perdem de colegas de países onde a arrecadação e o gasto por estudantes é menor do que aqui.
O Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) é admirado em alguns países da América Latina, pela sua ampla capacidade de atendimento. Mas o pessoal talvez não saiba que, além de recolher os impostos que financiam o SUS, cerca de 45 milhões de brasileiros pagam planos de saúde privados. (E que Hugo Chávez vai ser tratado num hospital privado, onde se trataram, aliás, José Alencar e Dilma Rousseff).
De todo modo, um tema frequente aqui na região é, como na proposta de Hillary, aumentar impostos para financiar saúde e educação - e melhorar esses indicadores. Dizem: já que a carga tributária ainda é baixa...
Ora, isso, em si, já mostra como algo deu errado no Brasil. Nossos impostos já estão lá em cima e não se nota desempenho notável dos serviços públicos prestados. Mas a aposentadoria pública funciona bem, especialmente para os mais pobres, no caso do INSS, e para os funcionários públicos. Só que é também uma fonte enorme de déficit. Ou seja, aqui, paradoxalmente, a arrecadação de impostos e contribuições não é suficiente.
Entre os ricos também há comparações interessantes: o ensino médio europeu, basicamente público e gratuito, é superior ao americano, público e privado. Mas as universidades dos EUA, privadas e pagas, mesmo quando pertencem a governos, são muito superiores às da Europa, públicas em geral.
Somando dinheiro público e privado, os EUA são os que mais gastam (per capita) em saúde, com resultados contraditórios. Há setores da população que não conseguiam nenhuma assistência - objeto do novo programa de Obama - e setores atendidos com medicina de alto nível.
Transporte e infraestrutura nos EUA, mais privados, igualam ou superam muitos europeus, públicos.
Dá o que pensar, não é mesmo? Leva a uma conclusão que a muitos parece tão simples que não pode ser isso. Mas considerem: a questão central não está no tamanho da carga tributária e do gasto, mas na eficiência de uma e de outro. E, olhando por esse lado, o elogio de Hillary ao modelo brasileiro foi apenas uma fala para a política interna, ou resulta de falta de informação, ou as duas coisas. O governo, aqui, arrecada muito, complica e encarece a vida do contribuinte e não entrega serviços e obras na proporção esperada.
Claro que, com pouco dinheiro, governos podem fazer pouco. Mas não decorre daí que, com muito, farão mais e melhor. O Brasil é exemplo disso. Nosso caso, aqui, é como reduzir impostos e aumentar a eficiência do gasto.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
St. Thomas Aquinas: The Existence of God can be proved in five ways.
St. Thomas Aquinas:
The Existence of God can be proved in five ways.
Argument Analysis of the Five Ways © 2004 Theodore Gracyk
The First Way: Argument from Motion
Our senses prove that some things are in motion.
Things move when potential motion becomes actual motion.
Only an actual motion can convert a potential motion into an actual motion.
Nothing can be at once in both actuality and potentiality in the same respect (i.e., if both actual and potential, it is actual in one respect and potential in another).
Therefore nothing can move itself.
Therefore each thing in motion is moved by something else.
The sequence of motion cannot extend ad infinitum.
Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.
The Second Way: Argument from Efficient Causes
We perceive a series of efficient causes of things in the world.
Nothing exists prior to itself.
Therefore nothing is the efficient cause of itself.
If a previous efficient cause does not exist, neither does the thing that results.
Therefore if the first thing in a series does not exist, nothing in the series exists.
The series of efficient causes cannot extend ad infinitum into the past, for then there would be no things existing now.
Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God.
The Third Way: Argument from Possibility and Necessity (Reductio argument)
We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be, that come into being and go out of being i.e., contingent beings.
Assume that every being is a contingent being.
For each contingent being, there is a time it does not exist.
Therefore it is impossible for these always to exist.
Therefore there could have been a time when no things existed.
Therefore at that time there would have been nothing to bring the currently existing contingent beings into existence.
Therefore, nothing would be in existence now.
We have reached an absurd result from assuming that every being is a contingent being.
Therefore not every being is a contingent being.
Therefore some being exists of its own necessity, and does not receive its existence from another being, but rather causes them. This all men speak of as God.
The Fourth Way: Argument from Gradation of Being
There is a gradation to be found in things: some are better or worse than others.
Predications of degree require reference to the “uttermost” case (e.g., a thing is said to be hotter according as it more nearly resembles that which is hottest).
The maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus.
Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.
The Fifth Way: Argument from Design
We see that natural bodies work toward some goal, and do not do so by chance.
Most natural things lack knowledge.
But as an arrow reaches its target because it is directed by an archer, what lacks intelligence achieves goals by being directed by something intelligence.
Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.
The Existence of God can be proved in five ways.
Argument Analysis of the Five Ways © 2004 Theodore Gracyk
The First Way: Argument from Motion
Our senses prove that some things are in motion.
Things move when potential motion becomes actual motion.
Only an actual motion can convert a potential motion into an actual motion.
Nothing can be at once in both actuality and potentiality in the same respect (i.e., if both actual and potential, it is actual in one respect and potential in another).
Therefore nothing can move itself.
Therefore each thing in motion is moved by something else.
The sequence of motion cannot extend ad infinitum.
Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.
The Second Way: Argument from Efficient Causes
We perceive a series of efficient causes of things in the world.
Nothing exists prior to itself.
Therefore nothing is the efficient cause of itself.
If a previous efficient cause does not exist, neither does the thing that results.
Therefore if the first thing in a series does not exist, nothing in the series exists.
The series of efficient causes cannot extend ad infinitum into the past, for then there would be no things existing now.
Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God.
The Third Way: Argument from Possibility and Necessity (Reductio argument)
We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be, that come into being and go out of being i.e., contingent beings.
Assume that every being is a contingent being.
For each contingent being, there is a time it does not exist.
Therefore it is impossible for these always to exist.
Therefore there could have been a time when no things existed.
Therefore at that time there would have been nothing to bring the currently existing contingent beings into existence.
Therefore, nothing would be in existence now.
We have reached an absurd result from assuming that every being is a contingent being.
Therefore not every being is a contingent being.
Therefore some being exists of its own necessity, and does not receive its existence from another being, but rather causes them. This all men speak of as God.
The Fourth Way: Argument from Gradation of Being
There is a gradation to be found in things: some are better or worse than others.
Predications of degree require reference to the “uttermost” case (e.g., a thing is said to be hotter according as it more nearly resembles that which is hottest).
The maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus.
Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.
The Fifth Way: Argument from Design
We see that natural bodies work toward some goal, and do not do so by chance.
Most natural things lack knowledge.
But as an arrow reaches its target because it is directed by an archer, what lacks intelligence achieves goals by being directed by something intelligence.
Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
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