England expects that . . .
October 21, 2005
Dave, honoring the memory of Admiral Lord Nelson
The Battle of Trafalgar
October 21, 2005
This famous sea-battle pitted the British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson against the combined French and Spanish fleet on October 21, 1805, marking the beginning of the end for the Age of Sail and giving Britain unchallenged mastery of the seas for the next 100 years.
Author Mark Adkin, in the introduction to his massive The Trafalgar Companion, says this about the Battle of Trafalgar:
The scale and importance of Trafalgar is demonstrated by the figures involved. It was a struggle between giants in terms of firepower. 33 French and Spanish ships-of-the-line (the Combined Fleet) faced 27 British. These 60 ships, all massive floating gun platforms, could produce a huge theoretical weight of shot. The Combined Fleet’s 2,636 long guns could fire a combined broadside of 27.5 tons of iron, while the British ships carried 2,026 guns that could deliver 19.5 tons. There were some 4,662 guns (mostly heavy) at Trafalgar, in comparison to 537 (mostly light) at Waterloo. Although not all ships participated to the same extent at Trafalgar, it was a close-quarter fight with ships often slugging it out at less than 50 yards, sometimes with their sides grinding together so that guns could not be run out before firing. At these ranges it was difficult to miss. The battle raged for four hours. At the end many ships on both sides were dismasted and crippled, numerous holds flooded and hundreds of dead bodies were thrown over the side. Hundreds more men lay in agony on blood-stained decks. Dozens of casks of amputated limbs were emptied overboard. A French ship exploded, and at the end the British had captured 17 enemy vessels - a huge haul and an extraordinary achievement.
Trafalgar the battle cannot be separated from Nelson the man, who was, and is, one of Britains greatest heros, equalled in modern times only by Sir Winston Churchill. Nelson died on the deck of his flagship Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar from a musket ball fired from the mizzentop platform of the French ship Redoutable. He had been wounded several times before during his naval career, and by the time of Trafalgar had lost an arm and an eye. He was a little man at only 5 feet 6 inches, but was a fearless leader and his men worshipped him.
Although flawed in his character, he was a religious man. He wrote this prayer about a month before he died in battle:
May the Great God whom I adore grant me to fullfil [sic] the expectations of my Country, and if it is His good pleasure that I shall return my thanks will never cease being offered up to the Throne of His Mercy; if it His good providence to cut short my days on earth, I bow with the greatest submission, relying that He will protect those so dear to me that I may leave behind. His will be done. Amen. Amen. Amen.
As the big battle began, Nelson hoisted this famous signal to be repeated from ship to ship, “England Expects that Every Man Will Do His Duty.”
The statue of Nelson in Trafalgar Square has been a famous London landmark for many years, along with several thousand pigeons. They made a dreadful mess, and in 2000 the Mayor of London hired a hunting hawk to be brought to the square every day. The pigeon population is now down to 200. Nelson suffered as much as the rest of the square from pigeon detritus, so perhaps he too welcomed the hawk’s arrival.
Today marks the 200th anniversary of this famous battle.
Wisdom from the Great Depression
October 20, 2005
Here are some surprisingly modern observations on the Great Depression from the year 1931:
We live in a society organized in such a way that the activity of production depends on the individual business man hoping for a reasonable profit, or at least, to avoid an actual loss. The margin which he requires as his necessary incentive to produce may be a very small proportion of the total value of the product. But take this away from him and the whole process stops. This, unluckily, is just what has happened. The fall of prices relative to costs, together with the psychological effect of high taxation, has destroyed the necessary incentive to production. This is at the root of our disorganization. It may be unwise, therefore, to frighten the business man or torment him further.
What kind of an economist blames high taxes and scary anti-capitalist proposals for a good chunk of the Great Depression? What kind of an economist highlights the fall in prices relative to costs, implying that a fall in costs (including wages!) would alleviate the crisis? Robbins? Hayek? Mises?
Nope. The author is John Maynard Keynes, from Essays in Persuasion. It makes me wonder if there’s a lot more wisdom in Keynes than in Keynesianism.
Aside from the economic content, what caught my eye is the date, 1931, the year of my birth. Be that as it may, it reinforces my long-held belief that there are certain economic principles that have the nature of unchanging truth. Keynes’s words still ring true. Attacks on the capitalistic economic system are still mostly misguided.
One can be acutely aware of the dark side of capitalism without rejecting its potential for good for humankind. What other economic system in place today can equal that potential? I know of none.
Dave, an unapologetic capitalist, he.
Advice to the Chinese
October 18, 2005
In his latest The Daily Reckoning e-mail newsletter, Bill Bonner describes the latest gratuitous economic advice our financial gurus have been feeding the Chinese. Consider this delightful excerpt:
The Chinese, for example, have been around for a very long time. They were eating spaghetti and firing off rockets when our own Anglo-Saxon forebears were still slithering in the mud of the Dark Ages. It is not as if the Chinese were born yesterday; it is as if they hadn’t been born yet at all. They seem so naïve…so innocent…so benighted. Why the poor people still think you have to save money to get ahead! Can you think of anything so backward, dear reader? It is hard to imagine, isn’t it? We mean that in this great Internet age - with all the world’s secrets available to anyone who can spell google.com - how could the Chinese remain so frightfully un-sophisticated? How could they not know of mortgage equity extraction (MEW), of negative amortization mortgages (Neg Am), maximizing shareholder value (MSV), or flipping condos (FC)? We wonder if they are aware of other breakthroughs; do they know about penicillin, reality TV, rap music? Do they walk on two legs, or four? Maybe they don’t even know how to use a knife and fork.
There is nothing I can add to this.
Dave, dolefully shaking his head.
It’s just a ballgame
October 18, 2005
Sure it is. I was reminded last night why I love baseball in spite of its steroids and obscene paychecks. It was the 5th game of a 7-game series to determine who will represent the National League in the World Series. The Houston Astros had the St. Louis Cardinals on the mat, 3 games to 1, and the Houston fans were making life miserable for the Cards as the game went into the ninth inning, the Cardinals down 4-2. Near the end of an exciting, back-and-forth ballgame, the scrappy Astros are an out away from a league championship and the World Series.
After two quick outs in the top of the ninth, Eckstein and Edmonds scratched out hits to put two men on base. With two strikes on Albert Pujols, the game was all but over, and the raucous Houston fans were mentally taking the league championship to the bank. Houston ace closer Brad Lidge sent one of his unhittable sliders whistling toward the plate; Pujols took a mighty swing, and it was suddenly 5-4 Cardinals. There was no joy in Astroville. It was one of those magic moments of Baseball.
Since the 1940s, listening to the ballgame on the radio has been an essential part of my summers. The mental image of the action on the field, painted for me by the play-by-play guys, is far more satisfying than watching the game on TV and almost as good as being at the ball park. It also is more efficient, because I can be doing other things as I listen, mentally tuning in or out as the game drones on.
I don’t get very emotional over the ups and downs of the Cardinals, remembering that just about anything can happen over the 160-plus games of the long baseball season. A single game just doesn’t deserve much in the way of cheers or tears.
But when one of those magic moments comes along, I find my heart pounding, which probably proves that I care more than I should about a game between overpaid kids. After all, it’s just a ballgame.
Dave, sheepishly feeling rather pleased.
Off the deep end VI
October 17, 2005
Perhaps you are getting a little weary of thinking about all this philosophical stuff. Come to think of it, so am I. Let me see if I can wrap it up.
My main premise was that the mind is our connecting link between our body (the physical world) and our soul (our personhood). The former has to do with what we most often call “reality;” the latter to do with quite another “reality” that is supernatural and religious in nature. Both are real in the sense that both exist in our consciousness and are not just figments of our imagination.
To think about our souls correctly requires knowing God. John Calvin said in his Institutes that we must seek knowledge of God before we can have knowledge of self. Since God is by definition an infinite being, and since it is painfully obvious that you and I are finite beings, our knowledge of both God and ourselves is necessarily incomplete. That shouldn’t stop us from seeking knowledge of things. It seems that we are programmed to keep asking questions, and every now and then God may slip us an answer.
Well, I have taken it as far as I can and will let it rest for now.
Dave, which his head hurts.
Galatians 4:8-12
October 16, 2005
4:8 Formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods at all. 4:9 But now that you have come to know God (or rather to be known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless basic forces? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? 4:10 You are observing religious days and months and seasons and years. 4:11 I fear for you that my work for you may have been in vain. 4:12 I beg you, brothers and sisters, become like me, because I have become like you. You have done me no wrong!
This short passage makes coming to know God, or being known by God, very desirable. In the case of the Galatians, they were in danger of falling back a step in their spiritual journey. It may seem arrogant of Paul to ask them to “become like me,” but Paul’s credentials, that of a converted Jewish Pharisee, gives special authority to the request. Become like Paul in not turning back to the sincere but misguided religious practices that served mostly to hold God at arm’s length. -sdg-
Bummer is nigh
October 15, 2005
Part of my life simplification system is to reduce the seasons from four to two: Summer and Bummer. Summer is the glorious part of the year, and it starts with major league baseball spring training about the first of March and ends with the last out of the World Series in late October.
As far as Bummer is concerned, the less said the better. Too bad we can’t take our cue from Ma Nature and just go into hibernation like bears and groundhogs and most plant life. Bummer brings without fail sniffles, the flu, and malaise. There is nothing for it but to hunker down and outlast it.
The major league championship series are underway, and it won’t be long before it’s World Series time once again. And you know what comes next.
Dave, not quite willing to let his Summer go.
Galena territory
October 14, 2005
We’re back from a few days near the old mining town of Galena in northwest Illinois. The town was named for the mineral Galena, a major ore of lead and silver (galena is the Latin name for Lead Sulphide). Seventy-five years ago, the mineral Galena was the stuff — the crystal — of crystal radio sets. My father no doubt used a Galena crystal in the radio set he built around 1920, and I did the same when I was a Boy Scout some 20 years later. Galena is a natural semiconductor, precursor of today’s silicon diodes, a component of almost all electronic devices. We’ve come from Galena’s lead mines to Silicon Valley.
I digress. Marilyn and I were visiting a time-share resort for a few days located in a 6,800 acre resort area south of Galena. If we had been there a week or so later, it would have been ablaze with fall color. Our brief stay was marked with clouds and fog, mostly, but it was a part of the state neither of us had seen and not too far from the “Little Switzerland” region of northeastern Iowa where I fished for trout in the 1960s.
The Galena area is beautiful, rolling woodland, punctuated with a farm here and there in the valleys, or with golf courses in the case of the resort area. The farm in the second shot is a beautifully manicured horse farm just adjacent to “The Territory.”
Off the deep end V
October 13, 2005
It’s fairly easy to understand physical reality, the reality of the body. Just reach out and touch something. Likewise we know something about the thoughts served up by our minds and how they determine how we act. The spiritual reality is the hardest to get a grip on, and here I return to Blaise Pascal. He uses the word “charity” to describe this third level of reality.
The infinite distance between body and mind symbolizes the infinitely more infinite distance between mind and charity, for charity is supernatural.
…All bodies together and all minds together and all their products are not worth the least impulse of charity. This is of an infinitely superior order.
Out of all bodies together we could not succeed in creating one little thought. It is impossible, and of a different order. Out of all bodies and minds we could not extract one impulse of true charity. It is impossible, and of a different, supernatural order.
Peter Kreeft, in his explanation of the above, says: “Charity” = agape, the kind of love that is God’s essential nature and God’s essential work in the world and in human hearts.
Pascal’s third level of reality, the spiritual, is more or less what I had in mind when I dove off the deep end. It is intensely religious in nature, basically thinking God’s thoughts after him, consistent with the mind being the link to the spiritual reality.
Absent more comments that call for a response, I’ll try to bring closure to this series in the next Off the deep end post.
