I, Pencil

Posted November 16, 2012, 12:45 p.m.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute has produced an excellent short video called I, Pencil, which is adapted from a 1958 essay by Leonard E. Read. Additional related videos are available at ipencilmovie.org.

The video is a succinct illustration of how millions of people are involved, directly or indirectly, in the production of something as simple as a pencil. And this massive effort comes about through the voluntary cooperation of individuals making economic choices, not through the dictation of some central planning office.

It’s well worth six-and-a-half minutes of your time.

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

Quotes

I want to remind priests that the confessional must not be a torture chamber but rather an encounter with the Lord’s mercy which spurs us on to do our best.

There is no intrinsic conflict between science and religion.

Some of the sharpest men in argument are notoriously unsound in judgment.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.

Be united to Christ in order to purify yourself, and together with him experience the insults, the spit, the blows and the thorns. . . .

It’s easy to tell when another person is rationalizing (as opposed to being rational), but it is nearly impossible to know when you are doing it yourself.

A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope.

In making any assertion, we must be guided by the nature of things, except in those things which are above nature, and are made known to us by Divine authority.

So long as we have lots of warning, humans are astonishingly clever at solving problems, even enormous ones. So figure that into your predictions.

This triangle of truisms, of father, mother[,] and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it.

The holier and purer a life, the more it would attract malignity and hate.

In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.

If every man had faith, we would need no more laws. . . .

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

It is the schizophrenia of a free society that we outwardly espouse faith in the people but inwardly have strong doubts whether the people can be trusted.

A modest man is steady, an humble man timid, and a vain one presumptuous.

The West is able to look at its own foibles and laugh, even make fun of its own fundamental principles. There is no Islamic equivalent to Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Can we look forward to seeing The Life of Mo anytime in the future?

A journey of a thousand miles starts under one’s feet.

You only live twice: Once when you are born, and once when you look death in the face.

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