Today I would like to say something about the value of enthusiasm and optimism, but the chances are high that you’ve already heard a million quotes about the virtues of whistling while you work or the value of doing everyday chores with a sense of pride. Instead of giving you another quote about this topic, I’ll share an important distinction: Inspirational philosophy versus Inspired practice.
Tag: culture
Lyft and Uber Are Bringing Cultures Together
By now, if you haven’t ridden in a Lyft or Uber vehicle, you at least have heard one amazing story from a friend who has. Philosophical conversations, sports talks, business opportunities, and friendships have all been born of these rides taken with strangers. One of the things I love about these rides with strangers are the moments of randomness they insert into my life.
The Social Benefits of Hipsters
Through all their creativity – which may after be driven out of arrogance or snottiness – hipsters deliver a massive benefit to their societies. They bring back some magic into the mundane, and they bring new life to the parts of our world that might otherwise die slow deaths.
Rule by Majority Unfair to Minority
Allegiance to a group shouldn’t be assumed, mandatory, or dependent on where you live. Let people choose their own groups, and let the groups’ territories overlap the way those of clubs or churches do. Let people switch between groups, or opt out, as their needs and circumstances change.
How to Believe in Free Speech
Almost all libertarians earnestly say, “I believe in free speech.” Normally, though, this goes way beyond the right to speak freely. Most libertarians also believe that free speech “works” in some sense – that given a free exchange of ideas, the truth will at least ultimately prevail. On reflection, this is an awkward position.
Let’s Call the Farm Bill What it is: Corporate Welfare
The rawboned, overall-clad man driving a tractor 12 hours a day, calling the cows in for their evening milking, slopping the hogs, and sitting down for an evening pipe on the front porch before bed was once my grandfather. Now he’s a carefully cultivated image of the past, used by organizations like Duvall’s to propagandize for the transfer of billions dollars every year from your pockets to theirs via the political process, on top of what you spend in honest exchange for their livestock and crops.
The Voluntaryist Ethnicity
As my family has traveled the country and met or stayed with other voluntaryists and unschoolers, I can’t help but notice certain general customs among people and families of this kind. Without putting anybody in a box or limiting how it is expressed or experienced, here is the voluntaryist ethnicity as I’ve seen it.
The Law of the Instrument
What is your favorite tool? Is it so familiar or compelling that you are tempted to employ it in all contexts? The law of the instrument illustrates this tendency.
State Capacity is Sleight of Hand
While good social outcomes all tend to go together, the state capacity literature fails to show that government is the crucial factor that makes all the others possible. Indeed, as far as I can tell, existing empirics are quite consistent with Sutton’s Law that people rob banks because “that’s where the money is.”
White People Should Call Each Other “Nigga”
I’m a big believer in the idea that people give words their power. If “fuck” is said often by a three-year-old (which in my house, it is) then it loses its power. It’s just a fun thing to say, and when used non-playfully, it just doesn’t have as much bite. And isn’t that a good thing? Don’t we disarm pricks just a little bit by softening the meaning of the words they want to use against us?