Stuart although he combines several threads, is overall in politics and theory a little more ‘libertarian’ than I am, but I don’t think he’s a dishonest, incompetent or wasteful-of-time person to listen to, you know. Politics is often why people want to advance in society, but the method—here a sort of alternative prosperity, not unlike Deepak, who’s more left of center—isn’t something that can’t be transferred…. Which is I guess why most corporations, although they have steady preferences about things like taxes, do their best to some extent to get supporters on both sides. The effect is often a sort of superficiality, it’s true, but pure military-political-journalism control would lead to a lot more fighting and even blood-letting. I’ve always been the sort to try to take the good, and improve on it, despite the very real distortions of the system, and even the rich. Stuart doesn’t actually ever come that close to saying that the rich are all happy and helpful, just that you can become richer, happier, and more helpful.

Personally there’s also a big reason for me to read him, which is why it’s always been hard for me to read him. I found out about him through Wayne, who’s an (evolved) codependent, and despite Stuart and Wayne being similar enough that they could be in a band, Stuart doesn’t have the same energy; he’s much rather be a black hat if it came to that, rather than fawn and flatter, if it came to that. They’re both successful, but Stuart’s energy fed Wayne and I know it could feed me, if I allow it to get past my defenses.

…. As for Stu’s philosophy, well, first for the politics part: I generally find libertarians to be a little exaggerated and comic, (in this age there do have to be a certain amount of grey bureaucrats to do the dull grey work, and some of them are in government, so the libertarians stand up in the middle of the pub and give a speech about men and liberty, you know 🗽), and certainly Stuart is part of that; he’s wild. But there are some good aspects to his philosophy, and not all in the not-specifically-libertarian bits.

Which leads into the other part, for example about yin and yang—although he’s very sparing about guru words, but they’re good words, quiet feminine yin and expansive masculine yang. Stuart says there’s an imbalance, and over-abundance of yang, in society, and of course he’s right. Even in the academy you have that, with the “hard sciences”, and clearly that’s not the only example. But I think it’s more personal than he implies: some people have too much yin. The new age subculture often has too much yin (not, incidentally, the same as a non-mistreatment of women situation), and Wild Stu is kinda the yang element in there himself. I myself have too much yin energy—not to such a fundamentalist extent as a femme mystique girl or boy (although I was one once, ten years ago), but even the scholar—at least the sort of scholar I am, often has too much yin. Stay at home, read books, feel safe. Of course, reading and writing can indeed be productive activity, but everything has its shadow, and the yin scholar often spends too much time on, stay at home, read books, feel safe. If you don’t have a serious in some sense goal of practical mastery and practical spirituality and ideas, and not Just the aspect that is different from that, well, it opens up the question as to whether or not you’re making a mistake….

Even Thoreau in Walden, which I just started awhile ago, opens the essays with one called Economics or something; it’s personal economics, and it’s Thoreau, and it’s Walden, you know. It’s worth thinking about. Of course, accepting is as important as having, and it’s always possible that you might die on some day you didn’t expect to have to, and spiritually and really it might not be a bad thing, but if a sea crawler grabs your leg, and holds you under, trying to drown you, is it not prudent—and appropriate—even as you understand that you don’t need, on some level to pump fear toxins into your body and attack yourself, (I mean, either in your body or in your mind you accept that the fear toxins aren’t helpful), but also, prudently, appropriately, try to get your head above water so that you can live; you go all-in and use up your energy reserves because we came to this place to live, right.

In this book, Stuart Wilde shows you that money is merely a form of energy, and that the difference between having it and not having it is merely a small but subtle shift in consciousness (in fact, one woman claims she won $1.7 million in the lottery using the techniques presented within these pages). Like his other highly successful books, this work is chock full of useful information and practical ideas. His breezy and comical style makes for effortless reading as you plot your path to complete financial freedom.