Tag Archives: James Quillian column

True Human Motivation.

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True Human Motivation
By James Quillian, Economist, Political Analyst Natural Law

Folks, psychologists have cooked up all sorts of fancy ways to explain human nature. That’s their trade, and it keeps the lights on in their offices. I don’t treat patients and I don’t have an income worth bragging about, so I’m not playing on their field. My work is simpler. I teach people how to size up what to expect from others—politicians, broadcasters, billionaires, and the rest of the citizenry trying to stumble through life.

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Politics and Righteous Ridicule

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Politics and Righteous Ridicule
James Quillian, Economist, Political Analyst, Natural Law

Every democracy has its toolbox. Some tools are shiny—ballots, hearings, committees, commissions. Others are blunt—petitions, protests, and the occasional letter to the editor written in a heat that could fry an egg on a cold skillet. But when the machinery of self‑government gets jammed, when the public is denied information, when voting has been neutralized into a ceremonial exercise, there’s only one tool left that still cuts clean: righteous ridicule.

Not the cheap stuff. Not the schoolyard kind. Not the kind that’s meant to bruise a man’s ego just to hear the thud. I’m talking about the kind Jesus used when He delivered those famous woes—calling the powerful “blind guides,” “whitewashed tombs,” and “hypocrites” with the precision of a surgeon and the moral authority of a man who had nothing to hide. That wasn’t cruelty. That was clarity.

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What Safety Really Costs

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What Safety Really Costs

By James Quillian, Economist, Political Analyst & Teacher of Natural Law

There’s an old story about a fellow who spent forty‑odd years working in a factory. Time finally caught up with him. His back was shot, his hands were worn out, and he couldn’t keep pace with the younger men anymore. The company didn’t have the heart to fire him, so they gave him a “job” out by the woodpile, shooting rats.

One day a friend stopped by and pointed out a rat scurrying across the boards. The old man didn’t even lift his rifle. “I never shoot all of ’em,” he said. “If I did, they might decide they don’t need me.”

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The Cruelty of Economic Policy

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The Cruelty of Economic Policy
By James Quillian, Economist, Political Analyst & Teacher of Natural Law

There’s a special kind of cruelty in modern economic policy, and it isn’t found in the fine print of legislation or the footnotes of a Federal Reserve report. The real cruelty is in the management of public sentiment — the quiet, steady shaping of what folks are allowed to see, hear, and think.

Why manage public sentiment? Why not manage the sentiment of billionaires and the one‑percent crowd? Well now, that’s a good one. You might as well ask a rancher why he doesn’t put blinders on himself instead of the horses.

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Calling It What It Is

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Calling It What It Is

James Quillian, Economist, Political Analyst, Natural Law

Every so often, a country drifts so far from its own description that the polite thing to do is stop repeating the label. America still calls itself a republic, but that word has become more of a sentimental keepsake than an operating description. We keep it around the way families keep an old photograph on the mantle — not because it reflects the present, but because it reminds us of what we once were.

A republic is supposed to be a system where the people are in charge and the government works for them. That’s the definition. But definitions don’t govern anything. Function does. And if you look at how power actually behaves in Washington, you’ll notice something uncomfortable: the people who are supposed to be in charge aren’t, and the people who are supposed to be working for them aren’t doing much of that either.

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