Let's wrap this up in a tortilla! Om nom nom.
Someone I know wrote: "What has helped encourage me when I’m in a bad mood is reading lots of books that remind me of what I believe."
I'm thinking about the stuff I tend to read that reminds me of what I believe. Sadly, it's often been the stuff I stumble onto. A lot of shit about our police state. It's not conductive to a positive mindset. Hearing about potheads getting jailed, random people getting shot by the police, foreign people getting bombed/gitmo'd/etc, and the absolute waste of our big mommy government.
It's hard not to be part of the herd. I really wish I could be be a run-of-the-mill moderate person who doesn't think about politics. Who is annoyed about paying taxes, but knows that they're going to a good cause. That is anti-war, but wants us to stay and help build a government anyway. That believes in civil rights, but knows that any good american has nothing to hide from the government. After all, the government is just trying to save us from terrorists. I wish I could be against the FDA but still believe in it's purpose.
I don't. Not at all. Being libertarian is hard. I automatically make it easier for myself by humurously generalizing and being righteous. But bleh.
The biggest problem I've had with my girlfriend was when she said "The free market & capitalism leads to people only valuing each other for what money they make." Even being next to her (which makes it harder for me to be annoyed), I was somber for a few hours. I disagree with it on so many levels.
One quote that has intellectually bothered me a lot:
I wish to emphasize that there is a necessity not to espouse a truth because it is safe. Being driven to a set of assumptions because one is afraid of another set and their consequences is the most passionate and nonobjective kind of philosophy. Too many intellectuals and scientists (almost unconsciously) use basic assumptions as defences against their fears of other assumptions and their consequences. Until we can train ourselves to be dispassionate and accept both the assumptions and the results of making them without arrogance, without pride, without misplaced enthusiasm, without fear, without panic, whithout anger, hence without emotional involvement in the results or in the theories, we cannot advance this inner science of Man very far.
Those who wish to embrace the truth of an alternative set of assumptions as an escape from the basic assumptions of modern science are equally at fault. Those who must find a communication with other beings in this kind of experiment will apparently find it. One must be aware that there are (as in the child) needs within one's self for finding certain kinds of phenomena and espousing them as the ultimate truth.
Most of the quote is obvious, but that bold part is really important.
It's easy to jump to one assumption because another assumption has bad consequences.
Am I guilty of that? I'm definitely at-risk. A lot of my assumptions have come from my disgust with the gigantic disgusting cesspool that government is. My fear of that assumes that anarchy is better. There's good rationalizing to back it up too, you nay sayers.
I imagine that there might be missing a solution that would disgust me (because it seems too pro-government) but doesn't interest anyone else because they don't fear the government the way me and my anarcho-capitalist comrades do.
Let's wrap this up. What happy things are there for me to read? Science fiction and fantasy that has a streak of personal independence and creativity really makes me happy. I'd really like to have a Heinlein novel right now. And I would kill someone for a new Heinlein novel. Too bad I've read them all. It's also too bad Heinlein is dead. He'd be 100 years old and either delightfully apathetic or fucking ornery.
I'm thinking about the stuff I tend to read that reminds me of what I believe. Sadly, it's often been the stuff I stumble onto. A lot of shit about our police state. It's not conductive to a positive mindset. Hearing about potheads getting jailed, random people getting shot by the police, foreign people getting bombed/gitmo'd/etc, and the absolute waste of our big mommy government.
It's hard not to be part of the herd. I really wish I could be be a run-of-the-mill moderate person who doesn't think about politics. Who is annoyed about paying taxes, but knows that they're going to a good cause. That is anti-war, but wants us to stay and help build a government anyway. That believes in civil rights, but knows that any good american has nothing to hide from the government. After all, the government is just trying to save us from terrorists. I wish I could be against the FDA but still believe in it's purpose.
I don't. Not at all. Being libertarian is hard. I automatically make it easier for myself by humurously generalizing and being righteous. But bleh.
The biggest problem I've had with my girlfriend was when she said "The free market & capitalism leads to people only valuing each other for what money they make." Even being next to her (which makes it harder for me to be annoyed), I was somber for a few hours. I disagree with it on so many levels.
One quote that has intellectually bothered me a lot:
I wish to emphasize that there is a necessity not to espouse a truth because it is safe. Being driven to a set of assumptions because one is afraid of another set and their consequences is the most passionate and nonobjective kind of philosophy. Too many intellectuals and scientists (almost unconsciously) use basic assumptions as defences against their fears of other assumptions and their consequences. Until we can train ourselves to be dispassionate and accept both the assumptions and the results of making them without arrogance, without pride, without misplaced enthusiasm, without fear, without panic, whithout anger, hence without emotional involvement in the results or in the theories, we cannot advance this inner science of Man very far.
Those who wish to embrace the truth of an alternative set of assumptions as an escape from the basic assumptions of modern science are equally at fault. Those who must find a communication with other beings in this kind of experiment will apparently find it. One must be aware that there are (as in the child) needs within one's self for finding certain kinds of phenomena and espousing them as the ultimate truth.
Most of the quote is obvious, but that bold part is really important.
It's easy to jump to one assumption because another assumption has bad consequences.
Am I guilty of that? I'm definitely at-risk. A lot of my assumptions have come from my disgust with the gigantic disgusting cesspool that government is. My fear of that assumes that anarchy is better. There's good rationalizing to back it up too, you nay sayers.
I imagine that there might be missing a solution that would disgust me (because it seems too pro-government) but doesn't interest anyone else because they don't fear the government the way me and my anarcho-capitalist comrades do.
Let's wrap this up. What happy things are there for me to read? Science fiction and fantasy that has a streak of personal independence and creativity really makes me happy. I'd really like to have a Heinlein novel right now. And I would kill someone for a new Heinlein novel. Too bad I've read them all. It's also too bad Heinlein is dead. He'd be 100 years old and either delightfully apathetic or fucking ornery.