A strength is more than an ability. It is an offering. It is the first way you find your place in a crowded human world. Your strengths might not be limited to whatever you currently think they are. They are not so obvious or neatly categorized as the world would have you believe. To know them thoroughly, you will have to dig deep into the catacombs of your body and mind.
Tag: principles
Dirty Prosecution Tactic – Flipping the Burden of Proof
This is from a call of shame with a Canadian prosecutor, sorry there is no audio to post. It’s about the very common, though very dishonest tactic of flipping the burden of proof. The burden is on the one making the claim, but when you’re full of crap, you try to flip the burden onto someone daring to question you.
Questions For Anarchists That Are Harder Than They Like To Admit
One article type I’d like to spend time exploring on this blog are those questions that people commonly throw at Anarcho-Capitalists as critiques of their system.
When So-Called Anarchists Look to the State as Savior
This is a crisis! Government needs to act! Look at all these scary stories about incidents of immigrants committing violence! Is that what you want?! If you oppose closed borders, you must approve of the violence going on! Sure, not all people trying to immigrate here intend to do nasty things, but some are going to, and the only way to be safe is to enforce laws stopping anyone from crossing the border, or at least requiring that people can only cross the border if they get permission from government first!
Should Governments Even Try to Solve Problems?
Otto von Bismarck famously described politics as “the art of the possible, the attainable.” People who like politics love this sentiment. It suggests workable pragmatism rather than impractical principles, compromise over conviction, action rather than inaction. I find this sentiment both hypocritical and misleading.
Liberty: Enemy of Crony Capitalism
Most people now deeply distrust the government, quite understandably. And many of these same folks have become aware of the extent to which crony capitalism is messing up their lives. Up to this point, libertarians such as myself can only say “welcome to the club.” But here is where things oft go awry.
Question Authority
Ultimately, the questioning of authority is not only a good thing. It is a necessary thing. It is the backbone of freedom. Cherish the right to protest. Cherish the right to be different. Cherish the right to question authority.
Death Brings Value To Life
Death is the phenomenon that brings value and meaning to our lives. It is empowering and uplifting. It means nothing is permanent. It means nothing is truly ours. The impermanence of our existence highlights what truly matters.
Principles, or a Convenience?
I recently saw a person publicly declare he is rejecting the Zero Aggression Principle (ZAP) after years of following it. The reason: Someone had insulted his girlfriend and he decided that the ZAP was inconvenient and “pacifist” because it informed him that using violence against the insulter would be something he didn’t have a right to do. He didn’t like this and started posting links claiming that words cause real harm.
Patchwork
If actions are not based on the NAP, peace, non-authoritarian, non-nationalist, anti-protectionist principles, indeed, they are just a patchwork of greedy impulses, non-libertarian to an extreme.