Safety Regulations Could Kill the Scooter Revolution (But They Totally Won’t)

With so many Birds and Limes already scooting around Atlanta’s Midtown district, I decided that I wanted to give one a try. I downloaded the app and headed eagerly over to a Lime scooter parked on the side of the road. I was giddy with excitement, dreams of zipping down Atlanta sidewalks scooting through my head. Then I came upon the Terms and Conditions.

Radicalism Without Revolution

“Radical” is a scary word, but radicals are (fundamentally) just very consistent people. If they believe in a principle, they believe that it applies to the very root (“radix” – a Latin term) of things. If they believe in non-aggression as a social norm, for instance, they think the value of non-aggression holds true for everyone – including the police officers and bureaucrats and military members whom we normally excuse from this rule.

The Voluntaryist Premise

Once a person adopts the label of voluntaryist (or the like) for their political identity, they assume, with good reason, the following premise: human suffering is terrible and should be prevented; aggression and coercion necessarily create human suffering. This premise leads the voluntaryist to hold a number of hypotheses with varying degrees of accuracy in some form or fashion within their minds at all times. Here are several of those hypotheses.

Be All, End All

There is no entity that can do defense, imperialism, law enforcement, infrastructure, pharmaceutical, diplomacy, security, education, politics, travel, migration, housing, care for the aged, care for the disabled, economics, finance, agriculture, stewardship, and so forth, and so on.

How to Become a Self-Help Rock Star

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.

They Love Their Chains

The great majority of the American people are oppressed and abused by their governments. But if you imagine that some group of revolutionaries undertook to overthrow these governments, it’s perfectly obvious that this same oppressed and abused portion of the people would overwhelmingly support and assist the merciless crushing of the revolt.

You Are Surrounded by Alternate Universes

I don’t see a lot of evidence for the actual existence of alternate universes. That sort of thing seems to be beyond the possibility of proving, almost by definition. But there is a metaphorical sense in which choices add up to make alternate universes. We get to see the results of the choices we didn’t make in the other people who did make them. In other words, other people = alternate universes.

Women Aren’t Especially Empathetic

I had a student years ago that was active, playful, distracting, had a short attention span, liked to roughhouse, was an independent thinker and lacked reverence for authority. However, he was incredibly non-malicious and friendly. The teachers and parents (mostly women) in the organization strongly disliked this child.