If I were a guest on a podcast or an interview broadcast, when asked about my major influences, I would stick close to the names repeated by voluntaryists — Spooner, Bastiat, Jefferson, Mencken, Mises, Hazlitt, Rothbard, Higgs, and Woods. But in this more expansive context, I can stretch out to discuss the influences who made me a voluntaryist before I knew I was one, before I knew to read the internal literature of the voluntaryist, libertarian, individualist mainstream. Three such influences are Alan Turing, Dan Carlin, and Ruth Rendell.
Tag: culture
Xenophobia and Cultural Assimilation
No one has an obligation to “assimilate” into a different culture, regardless of what piece of dirt they happen to be standing on. People don’t acquire an obligation to wear what you wear, eat what you eat, speak the language you speak, and think what you think, just because they exist in close proximity to you.
The Liberty of Man
The consistent libertarian is not “hostile to family, to religion, to tradition, to culture, and to civic or social institutions,” but he is also not necessarily supportive of any particular version of these things.
Will Virtual Worlds Destroy Humanity?
People who become consumed with virtual worlds do so because they find there the hormonal rewards that are lacking elsewhere. I’ve heard it said by such a person that he’s a hero and champion in his video game, but outside his life is complete shit. How does that happen?
Work Ethic is Not a Core Personality Trait
Some people will never really feel inspired. They will feel incompetent or surrounded with poisonous incentives. I am sure most people in communist/socialist societies had little-no grit/work ethic. For the rest of us, the issue isn’t conjuring work ethic/grit, it is finding the right incentives and atmospheres that will inspire us.
Immigration and Social Engineering
Social engineers of all parties and persuasions talk as though an economy is some kind of mechanism to be centrally fine-tuned and overhauled occasionally according to a plan. Even those who style themselves free enterprisers display the central-planning mentality when it comes to immigration.
In U.S. Universities, a Divorce Is Needed
If the worthwhile parts of the U.S. universities are to continue to thrive, or even to survive as serious endeavors, it would seem that a parting of the ways must come. The STEM fields must separate themselves from the bullshit parts of the universities. The latter can then go their own way to fester in their nonsense until the general public awakens to the need to cease supporting such activities altogether.
Ride That Bandwagon Right Over the Cliff
If you are a flag waving, troop loving, cop supporting American in 2017, you simply don’t have what it takes to resist the appeal of the bandwagon.
Peaceful Anarchism 017 – The State is a Lagging Indicator of Culture (10m)
Peaceful Anarchism 017, “The State does not mold culture. The State is the parasitical entity that attaches itself to the industrious host slowly siphoning away productivity. It must always follow culture. Culture always comes first. The State is a lagging indicator of culture.”
Lessons from Building Praxis – Part 1
I had a lot of entrepreneurial ideas prior to Praxis. Most were pretty weak, some were good. But it didn’t matter. I didn’t have what it takes to execute on any of them until I pushed myself much, much harder on personal growth.