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Jan 12Liked by Samuel Robinson Kephart

Great points, Samuel. Thomas Paine wrote a series of inspiring brochures, one known as "The American Crisis", because of the devastating conditions of Washington’s troops during the winter of 1776, which starts with the famous line, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” We're living that time again.

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I know a little bit about Paine. Starting almost 50 years ago, and for several years ongoing, I took and studied several courses in the Science of Volition from the Free Enterprise Institute, aka FEI, that was headquartered in Los Angeles. They operated a branches in Orange County and San Diego. FEI was THE gathering point in Southern California at the time for intellectual "libertarians" seeking more insight into how to establish a society that "works" rather than the one that party politics has destroyed us with. The Founder and Principle Lecturer of FEI was the late Dr. Andrew Galambos, a brilliant astrophysicist. It was Dr. Galambos' oft-mentioned fervent conviction that Thomas Paine actually "ghost authored" most of the Declaration of Independence, although other Founding Fathers have since been improperly given credit for writing it. One of Galambos' principle theories was that of practicing "moral capitalism" which required giving both proper intellectual attribution/credit to AND micro-royalties for major breakthrough ideas that elevate and provide value to other people. Needless-to-say, my studies at FEI helped shape my worldview. https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Paine-Author-Declaration-independence/dp/B0007DMH7O, https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/public/gdcmassbookdig/declarationofind00np/declarationofind00np.pdf, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Joseph_Galambos, https://www.galambos-fei.com/about-this-website

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How very interesting! I'd like to learn more and will check out the books you recommend, thanks, Samuel

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