Just because you don’t like what I say doesn’t make it any less true. Of course, the opposite is also true– just because you agree with me doesn’t mean I’m right. This is a hard thing to grasp.
Tag: responsibility
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.
Navigating around The Robots
If I’m out riding my bike it is my responsibility to not let the cars run over me. I can say it is the other drivers’ responsibility to watch out for me, but where will that get me? Dead.
Lesson from the NBA Playoffs: You Can’t Help Out by Holding Back
Don’t confuse “giving back” with “holding back” and don’t equate “helping out” with “sitting out.” You can’t truly be generous if you suppress your talents and stifle your potential because of misdirected pity towards those who have bad luck. Helping people who are losing the game isn’t the same thing as mentally checking yourself out of the game.
My Inner 10 Year-Old and Personalities of Other Ages
It’s a fun thought experiment to break down your personality and likes/dislikes into “ages”. I often find myself acting with the priorities and characteristics I might normally associate to a young boy, or to a grandfather.
Rights are Just a Mental Construct?
People who claim rights are “just” a mental construct without any external reality often use that idea to lead into a lecture– with their very next breath– promoting their ideas of responsibility; often based on their interpretation of morality.
Missing Children: The Pottery Barn Rule Revisited
A government employee who loses track of 1,475 children placed in his charge needs to to be fired — at least. An investigation of possible criminal negligence doesn’t seem unreasonable to me. Nor does a home visit by the area’s Department of Children’s Services or equivalent to make sure his or her own kids haven’t gone missing.
Unschooling is not ‘Lord of the Flies’
In the book, the absence of adults to model and nurture responsibility is palpably felt. Adults matter to children. They guide, protect, tend, reassure, and mediate. The lack of calm, care, and stability that adults offer children is what ultimately triggers the boys’ downfall. Of course, the great lesson from this great book is that it isn’t just children who would descend into brutality when calm, care, and stability are missing; it’s all of us.
Freedom, Not Force, Creates Lifelong Learners
As author Ray Bradbury famously said: “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” If we want an educated and engaged citizenry, with a passion for reading and knowledge and ongoing self-improvement, then perhaps “free choice” should be the norm rather than the exception.
Hypocritical Posturing Gets Old
The “progressive” Trump haters want you to believe they are the sensible ones, while in their minds, the “yokels” who voted for Trump, many of whom still support him, are “ignorant rubes.” This is their mantra, to be chanted until they get what they want.