The Family

Somewhat oddly, I’ve been seeing signs of increasing S.E.S.S. amongst pro-freedom individuals, even us staunch individualists. On the one hand, it might be surprising that such individuals fall into its clutches now and again, but on the other, it shouldn’t be: we, too, are simply humans trying to find a good way through this adventure called life.

Well, I survived the trip. Actually, it was much better than that bare statement would suggest, in most respects.

A while back, Pint of Stout invited individuals to consider a question, and to share an answer to it. As his question was a neat bull’s-eye for me—something I have thought long and hard, and variously about for decades—I hereby accept his invitation and offer my ramblings to accompany his.

I don’t have much to say about it this time around, but Garry Reed did an excellent job of depicting the federal money-laundering system in We Are Taxbucks. Bravo, Garry!

You know who you are ... and while you may have thought that I wouldn’t say anything publicly because I didn’t ask permission to, you thought wrong. A very happy birthday to you, my dear badger friend, and warm wishes for very many more! I’m sorry I couldn’t bake a cake for the occasion, but I’ve yet to find a cake that travels through the mail well.

[If you’re a regular here, you may well know the individual to whom I am referring. Even if you don’t, what harm can come from wishing another pro-freedom Family member well?]

Sometimes a seemingly simple question - or a misunderstanding - can create great rifts between people and challenge deeply held ideas... I may have lost a very long time friend - and he's an incredible champion of freedom - over this. I really don't understand why and he, strangely, is not at all clear why he disagrees with me. I would really appreciate any feedback.

For the benefit of my Wisconsin readers: Wendy McElroy will be speaking in Madison on Monday, 2/25. The basics of it:

To learn more about being a responsible voter or nonvoter, you can attend a forum on voting featuring Ms. McElroy and Professor Brighouse Monday, February 25 at 7:00 p.m. at the University of Wisconsin School of Law, Room 5229. The event is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy.

I don’t think I’ve heard her give a formal talk, but I have met Wendy in person, and read a few of her books, and found her to be a lively, clever, and engaging thinker. Given her writings on the subject of non-voting, this should be an interesting evening!

In a very good post on quitting (the comments on it so far are good, too), Kirsten incidentally offers this bit on compromise:

By compromising again and again ... we ended up with lives that were tolerable but nothing close to what either of us really wanted.

Oh boy, can I relate ... and many thoughts and questions spring to mind as a result, but I’ve a lot of things to do today, so it’ll have to wait for another time.

It’s officially available! B.W. mentioned it as part of his January 16th celebration, saying he thought it’d be available by February first. But I’ve gotten word that The Imaginary Bomb is on sale now, as a downloadable file or paper format. Congratulations, B.W.!

It’s certainly a major victory to be back online after nearly two days! Short story: our satlink company had a regional problem, and when it was “fixed”, that created another problem for a subset of affected customers. Yes, we were among those beset with that second problem. But, after many hours with tech support, our connection was finally restored late yesterday evening ... too late for me to have enough energy to offer my contributions to the party I’d scheduled. But now that I’ve had some time to get things properly set up, I hope it carries on from what was begun on 1/16 ...

It seems to me that the kerfuffle over who wrote the questionable content in the RP newsletters has acquired a tabloid patina: individuals are scurrying from place to place, trying to find a definitive answer to the “Who dunnit?” question; at one of the sites with several contributors who are under suspicion, they’re adding to the heat with retorts of “Smear!” in response to every item that touches on the issue; and other family institutions are covering every supposed development, even when it may not be a development, but rather a repackaging of an old development. And I’ll admit, I got sucked into that for a while myself. When I realized that my interest in it surpassed the mystery and veered into something of an appetite for gossip, I started backing away. But as I do, I have some parting observations—not all of which come from my head.

... I am not a crotch-kicker.

Regular readers know I don’t ordinarily put much emphasis on the turn of the calendar to a new year ... it’s just an artificial construct for marking time, after all. Also, many individuals seem to only become introspective at this time of year, and all too often make resolutions that seem to flounder almost as soon as they’re given voice. I don’t like the thought of joining that pattern. (Don’t get me wrong—I do my share of floundering too; I just try to disperse it over the entire year.)

My children are now old enough to stay up for welcoming the new year, and thus they generate a fair amount of excitement for it—of course, it doesn’t hurt that that’s also when we usually exchange gifts. Thinking about our upcoming party here in a couple of weeks has also gotten me thinking about resolutions and related stuff more than usual. But I am still having trouble clarifying all the swirling thoughts, hopes, and ideas in my mind.

I see that Walter Block has continued with the deriding of anarchist non-voters for not supporting RP—or, as he puts it, “kicking people in the crotch”. (Yes, I know; it’s a lovely image of tolerance in the pro-freedom family, isn’t it?) He completely missed mine, but offered some interesting new gymnastics in the attempt, so I guess it’s my turn to add to the shouting again.

Dale over at Anarchy in Your Head has created an excellent cartoon that very succinctly presents why I cannot support He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named-Here:

Someone commented on that post that RP is Frodo, which set me to laughing. But then I got to thinking ... is someone like Frodo possible? I don’t think so; I don’t think Gandhi measures up, although he might come closest. I’m not sure that it’s productive to dwell on such questions, because fictional characters operate in worlds very different from ours. I don’t see a lot of value in even trying to emulate characters like Frodo, Howard Roark, Dagny Taggart, or John Galt.

That said, I think most individuals who seek power over others end up like Boromir, even if only metaphorically.