“Let people parent how they want to parent” is for things like what time your kids go to bed. You cannot say that when you are being violent to children. And I will say this one more time. Hitting anyone is violent. I will defend the right of children over your assumed “right” to hurt them. If someone starves their child of food, do you protest, “let people parent how they want to parent?!”
Tag: animals
Life, Eating Animals, and Ethics
Do I value society with animals that I find delicious? No. Of course not. I value their taste and the nutrition that they provide. That’s it. And I obviously don’t value the hordes of insects I slaughter on a daily basis with my car. Who does?
On Property and Aggression
Rights are not metaphysical entities. No pathologist finds them during an autopsy. In a sense, they are conventions, but by that, I do not mean they are arbitrary. They are conventions much in the same way that David Hume saw the virtue of justice, which he equated with respect for property.
Cultural Osmosis
The enemy of reason is authority. People either believe something because reason tells them it is a true belief, or they believe it because some authority figure, whether it be a teacher, a parent, a priest or a politician, tells them it is so and they choose not to actively engage their reason in questioning the truth of what they are taught.
The Journey of Survival and The Risk of Failure
Many, probably most, people believe animals are probably better off in the wild rather than the zoo. This is true despite the fact that zoos offer the resources that animals spend most of their existence trying to acquire in abundance and at no risk. We reasonably understand that their evolutionary drive provides them with purpose and that merely giving them the ends of so many of their goals make them weak and depressed.
Is the Non-Aggression Principle Self-Negating? You Decide!
A person named Jared emailed me out of the blue about a week ago with the following letter. It contains a request for feedback followed by an argument that the Non-Aggression Principle as made popular by Murray Rothbard was self-negating on the grounds that the creation of private property is an act of aggression. What ensued were several letters back and forth in which we both flesh out the other’s argument and offer our critique. In the end we understood each other better, but alas no consensus was reach.
How to Unschool
1. Give your love generously and criticism sparingly. Be your children’s partner. Support them and respect them. Never belittle them or their interests, no matter how superficial, unimportant, or even misguided their interests may seem to you. Be a guide, not a dictator. Shine a light ahead for them, and lend them a hand, but don’t drag or push them. You will sometimes despair when your vision of what your child ought to be bangs up against the reality that they are their own person. But that same reality can also give you great joy if you learn not to cling to your own preconceived notions and expectations.
Old Ideas
One of the paths that I am wandering now, from this inspiration, is to consider disposable ideas from the view of a voluntaryist. There follow some ideas for which I would suggest early retirement.
An Attempt to Insult and Humiliate Mexicans
Suppose the Canadians were to build a wall to keep Americans out of their country, making it clear that Americans are simply not decent, productive, peaceful people and therefore the fewer of them who enter Canada the better. Might Americans take justifiable offense at such treatment? Why does anyone imagine that Mexicans feel any differently?
What I’ve Learned in 10 Years of Zen Habits
Unbelievably, this month marks 10 years since I started Zen Habits. I’ve had an amazing decade, and I’d like to reflect on those years today. I’ve seen so much change in the last 10 years that I can’t possibly reflect on all of it.