What’s one of the most ignorant things a statist can say? “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” That’s just about the dumbest thing that can ever come out of someone’s piehole.
Tag: natural
You Can Solve Problems, or Play Politics
I can’t respect those who believe your rights and liberty are subject to their opinions (which they’ll call laws), and who back their opinions with threats of violence (known as law enforcement). I don’t understand this type of thinking.
Prosperity: Maybe Not What I Thought It Meant
I’ve always thought of “prosperity” as having an abundance of material wealth, and that seems to be consistent with popular usage. However, my thinking here has been going through some changes lately.
How to Be Mindful All the Time
I often get asked about how to remember to be mindful more of the time — how can we remember to not only be present more, but to be compassionate, to drop into our bodies when we’re feeling difficult emotions, to have a beginner’s mind, to relax into the chaos of the moment?
Your Right To Yell ‘FIRE!’ in a Theater
It is your absolute human right to say (or write) whatever you want to say. It may not be wise, and in a free society you will be held accountable for any harm you cause by doing so. You have the responsibility to NOT say something untrue which can cause trouble, but no one has the right to silence you.
For the Love of Reason
Far be it from me to divide humankind in two, but were I so inclined, I’d divide it into those who love reason and those who are indifferent if not outright hostile to it. Members of the first group adore the reasoning process and their own reasoning faculties. The others find the process burdensome and discomforting, something that threatens long-held beliefs and intuitions.
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 Power of Simple Parties
I recently attended one of the best birthday parties I can recall. What’s odd is how this party stood out to me at all. It had no bumping music, no fancy lights. No one was drunk or high or gorging on fine food. No one was grilling food, dancing, hanging around a pool, hanging around a bonfire.…
Scarcity
It seems to me that there are 3 kinds of scarcity: 1) natural, 2) monopolistic, and 3) creative. The first and third are conducive to free markets. The second can produce horrors.
Moral Exculpation for an Action
One may obey “the law” out of prudence, in order to avoid the syndicate’s punishment of those who fail to comply with its dictates. But such prudential action is independent of morality and cannot serve as a surrogate for it.