Looking back on my life I find that the times that hold the most value are the times when I did things that were strange, unexpected, unconventional, risky, or just weird. Those are the things I remember and smile about the most.
Tag: value
A Voluntaryist Completes the Proust Questionnaire
Remember the premise, to wit: This would be a good architecture for an interview with a very objective voluntaryist. So I have put myself into the personification of a scholarly, principled, individualist voluntaryist to imagine how honest answers to these questions might look.
Be Free (Even When People Disagree)
Lots of people know how to be cool and confident as long as everyone is nodding their heads in agreement with them. It’s a lot harder to be cool and confident when someone listens to you and says “Sorry. I’m not buying anything you’re saying.”
Marine Le Pen and the Growing Scourge of Nationalism
While I certainly do not expect to see Marine Le Pen secure a victory in the upcoming French Presidential runoff election, even her ascendency to such a race represents yet another (once) surprising victory for the strain of nationalistic populism which has been sweeping the globe in recent years. From the Philippines to Great Britain to the United States to Turkey to France (and many other similar examples as well), we are witnessing the reversal of a trend at least 70 years in the making.
Proud of The Bad Guys?
It’s a terrible shame when someone chooses to throw their life away in service to a gang of nasty thugs. That shame is compounded by delusional friends and family who think this tragic turn of events is something to be proud of. It’s most certainly NOT.
Why Our Coercive System of Schooling Should Topple
I’ve been called a crazy optimist, a Pollyanna, a romantic idealist. How can I believe that our system of compulsory schooling is about to collapse? People point out that in many ways the schooling system is stronger now than ever. It occupies more of children’s time, gobbles up more public funds, employs more people, and is more firmly controlled by government – and at ever-higher levels of government – than has ever been true in the past. So why do I believe it’s going to collapse – slowly at first and then more rapidly – over the next ten years or so? Here are four reasons.
The Challenge to Decentralist Ideology
A large contingency of people consider the state/government to be the enforcer and protectorate of a society’s values. This might be the largest obstacle decentralists (like myself) have in espousing and explaining a decentralist ideology and sentiment.
Against War: Standards
The drone strikes in the Middle East, and the Tomahawk missile strikes in Syria, are cases in point. A drone strike is not a sniper bullet, killing a particular guilty person; it lays waste to that person’s home, to their neighbors, to the people across the street who may be trying to help the wounded and dying. It is an atrocity; it should be loudly denounced as a war crime, not praised. Nor can we be certain of the quality of the evidence which led to the strike in the first place.
An Extraordinarily Evil “Citizen”
The real “bad idea” here is giving people the political opportunity to meddle in the lives of others, and punish them when they don’t cooperate with their own violation. No good group would condone such evil.
Police Culture Poisons the Individual
While a good guy could become a cop, the culture poisons the individual. The incentives of government, monopolies, unions and feeling camaraderie with others in the same culture all concentrate themselves into a situation that cops must be immoral and indecent to remain cops.