Choices aren’t willed into existence, but rather choices are a reaction of how our mind and individual being interacts within the world. You didn’t choose your spouse because you willed it, you chose your spouse because you liked them.
Tag: values
How Far Should You Develop a Relationship with People You Disagree With?
My wife and I are incredibly social people and we are able to attract plenty of friends who do share similar and complimentary ideas on the world, and respect within relationships. If I was unable to harvest great relationships, I probably would not hold the views I have today.
A Horrible View of Male Relationships
Our society has a horrible view of male relationships and the seemingly unemotional nature of them. Men are largely viewed as repressed and broken women that need to be fixed by being more emotionally open and having relationships like women have. However, when you pause to think of the men you know who are emotionally open and who have relationships more like women … they are unable to attain the goals and desires most men desire.
“But Gregory, Why on Earth Do You Need so Many Passports?”
Since it is not practical (and in most cases impossible) to exist beyond the influence of nation-states, the next best option for the exceptional person seeking to expand his identity is to embrace multiple nationalities.
It’s Either Bullies or Balance Sheets
A wise man once told me that in this life, you can obey balance sheets or bullies. In the end, those are the only two paths. He was drawing attention to an unavoidable reality in a world of scarcity. All scarce things must be allocated among competing ends. This can be done top-down by people in control, or it can be accomplished bottom-up with the signaling system that emerges from voluntary exchange. The two approaches don’t mix well.
The Problematic Foundation of “Privilege”
The main problem with the concept of privilege is that it ignores how people generally acquire resources. We all acquire resources by trading with others. People are able to demand more resources when they have qualities that are highly valuable to other people. When we see people who are disadvantaged, we need to ask: How can we help make these people more valuable to others?
Anarchism as Constitutionalism
Trying to refute anarchism by pointing to undesirable instances of anarchy is about as bad an argument as trying to refute Bidinotto’s advocacy of government by pointing to the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany. Whether a state is horrendous or decent depends in large part on its constitutional structure; whether an anarchic society is horrendous or decent likewise depends on its constitutional structure.
Save Yourself the Trouble
Dishonesty is the highest form of disloyalty. Nothing is a greater offense to true loyalty than fake love. Have you been victimizing yourself or others by putting on a facade of fake love? Do you consistently behave in ways that are antithetical to your core values and highest priorities all in the name of “taking one for the team”?
How to Unschool
1. Give your love generously and criticism sparingly. Be your children’s partner. Support them and respect them. Never belittle them or their interests, no matter how superficial, unimportant, or even misguided their interests may seem to you. Be a guide, not a dictator. Shine a light ahead for them, and lend them a hand, but don’t drag or push them. You will sometimes despair when your vision of what your child ought to be bangs up against the reality that they are their own person. But that same reality can also give you great joy if you learn not to cling to your own preconceived notions and expectations.
Adolf Hitler: How Could a Monster Succeed in Blinding a Nation?
Is it still possible in today’s Germany to escape the realization that without the mistreatment of children, without a form of child-rearing based on violence to inculcate blind obedience, there would not have been a Hitler and his followers? And thus not millions of murdered victims either? Probably every thinking person in the post-war period has wondered at some time or other how it could have happened that a human being devised a gigantic machinery of death and found millions of helpers to set it in motion.