Postcards: Silence, Exile, and Cunning...

It's Friday... and the power is out... ͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­ Forwarded this email? [Subscribe here]() for more You are a free subscriber to Postcards from the Florida Republic. To upgrade to paid and receive the daily Republic Risk Letter, [subscribe here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Postcards: Silence, Exile, and Cunning...]( It's Friday... and the power is out... [Garrett {NAME}](floridarepublic) Aug 9 floridarepublic   [READ IN APP](   Nothing is easier than stamping your foot and shouting: "That's mine!" It is immeasurably harder to proclaim: "You may live as you please.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn --------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Fellow Expat, Greetings from a power outage. Or, as I like to call it… Maryland 2027. I have been trying my very best to avoid politics. But I just couldn’t avoid it today. Rule One of the Florida Republic is simple… “Mind your own business and keep your hands to yourself.” And I want to tell you something… because I believe it. It is at the core of what the Florida Republic means to me… The state of mind that we must employ. Florida Governor Ron Desantis is asking an important question for VP Candidate and Minnesota Governor. If you are a person who believes “Mind your own damn business…” a quote from the Minnesota governor that has been at the center of the campaign. Why did Minnesota’s government create a snitch hotline for other people to report residents during COVID-19? This shouldn’t be hard to answer… But—l[ike what’s happening in England right now with people getting arrested for their Facebook posts]( entire apparatus is designed to create a state of fear. The reason people under the East German Stasi were easily manipulated into reporting others and watching their every move was simple. It deflected attention away from them. When you’re telling on someone else, you are either an idiot who wants to believe that you’re a good little society member… or - more importantly - you keep the roving hoard off your back. It’s like high school on acid… where someone makes fun of you, and your immediate impulse is to mock someone else so that the attention deflects off you… The book Gulag Archipelago opens in the first two chapters, examining this phenomenon and what happened in Russia. So I want to state something about this… and it’s in how I live. And it’s at the core of what we do here in the Republic. You know these people… If someone comes up to me… whether it’s an HOA member lecturing me about the tomatoes I’m growing on my porch… or most of the COVID lockdowns in New York City… or whatever else is coming… Literally, anything else that people decide they just can’t keep to themselves. I always just recite this line. It’s by James Joyce in A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. “I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it calls itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defense the only arms I allow myself to use -- silence, exile, and cunning.” They will walk away… because they are too dumb to understand it… Or they will realize the truth. There is nothing you can throw at me that makes me afraid. Nothing. I don’t fear whatever they will bring because I won’t comply or be made to care. Take away my money… take away my home… give it to someone else who will squander. I do not fear failure, ruin, or worse. They can say… we will take away your home… And I’d reply, I can be happy in a tent. They’d take away my tent and cast me into the woods… And I could survive in the woods… very easily… like humans did… Nothing can be done… because they would become the monster even though they are convinced of their benevolence. These people will just ultimately view us as a lost cause that can’t be manipulated into compliance. They will tell us that we can’t be members of their society. Oh well… They will trash us in writing. They will cast us as lepers. Okay. I’m good. Because if I don’t believe in the system… I won't participate. This isn’t hard. It freaks them out… that someone can think this way. They’d just think I’m crazy. I’m okay with that… Now… I know you’re tempted to think… but Garrett, what if they did this… or said that? Or threatened this… Don’t do their job for them. This is game theory… a prisoner’s dilemma for them too. Why would they resort to those extremes? Because if they did… remind them. Tell them who the monster is that they would even consider such extremes. Watch how defensive they will get… watch them walk away. It’s too much for them to think about in depth… Silence, exile, and cunning. They’re undefeated. Stay positive, Garrett {NAME} Disclaimer Nothing in this email should be considered personalized financial advice. While we may answer your general customer questions, we are not licensed under securities laws to guide your investment situation. Do not consider any communication between you and Florida Republic employees as financial advice. Under company rules, editors and writers cannot recommend their positions. The communication in this letter is for information and educational purposes unless otherwise strictly worded as a recommendation. Model portfolios are tracked to showcase a variety of academic, fundamental, and technical tools, and insight is provided to help readers gain knowledge and experience. Readers should not trade if they cannot handle a loss and should not trade more than they can afford to lose. There are large amounts of risk in the equity markets. Consider consulting with a professional before making decisions with your money.   [Like]( [Comment]( [Restack](   © 2024 Garrett {NAME} 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 [Unsubscribe]() [Get the app]( writing]()