Is there a way out?

Regardless of which side of the political spectrum you’re on you can’t help but be impressed by the event that took place in Washington, D.C. on September 12th. A huge number of people (yes I know the numbers are being questioned — no matter, they’re still big) from across America showed up to protest a radically arrogant and out-of-control federal government. No riots, no looting, no violence, no arrests, just outspoken outrage and peaceful protest. Amazing.

The “sleeping giant” of true freedom-loving Americans is starting to stir. The question now is, “Are we really going to have an impact? Is it enough, or is it too little, too late?” Is there really a way out of this mess?

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Who’s Really to Blame, Democrats, Republicans or …?

No matter which side of the political spectrum you are on you can hardly escape the feeling that America is in a real mess. Our politics are full of corruption. Our culture promotes the absolute worst of what it means to be human. We are involved in a multiple front war that seems to have no end in sight. Our future seems to be, at best, dismal if not outright catastrophic. What’s worse is that most of us feel that there simply is nothing we can do to divert disaster.

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Liberty and Happiness: Contributing to Society through Rational Self-Interest

You hear it all the time. Mostly from politicians, though preachers also parrot the phrases. The phrases are spoken so often they’ve become part of our mentality and are now no more than mere white noise. I’m talking about the phrases giving back, making a contribution, or contributing to society. These phrases are usually used with other phrases designed to make us feel guilt if we decide not to participate in whatever charity or political scheme is being promoted.

Most of the time, at least in this era, requests for contributions are geared toward the idea of self-sacrifice. It is often implied that because we have benefited from the positive things in society, we must somehow pay for those benefits by “giving back.” The idea that we can enjoy those positive things simply because we traded our time, talent and money in exchange for them, is considered, by certain individuals, to be selfish and immoral.

What these “elitist” individuals fail to realize is that contributions to society take place every day through a mechanism they despise. That mechanism is rational self-interest.

Note, please, that I am talking about rational self-interest, not the kind of self-centeredness that you find wrapped up in today’s obsession with excessive consumption. Those who live to consume are not rationally self-interested. They are slaves to their impulses and act only as their impulses dictate. They are on a constant hunt for the new. They live by the slogan “Bigger is Better.” or “Greed is good.” They eat their cake, and once eaten, they are frustrated because they no longer have it. Their lives are an endless cycle of spend, spend, spend, even when they are drowning in debt. Their reward is their self-destruction. They are irrelevant.

The “elite” who usually mouth the “give back” mantra are just as irrationally self-centered as the consumers. Their interest isn’t in improving society or in helping others, their interest is in feeding their ego and maintaining power over others. They use the idea of giving back to guilt others into doing what the elite think is “best.” Your life has no meaning to them except for what they can extract from you for their own ends whether those ends be political power or charitable causes. Both lead to your self-sacrifice for their personal ends. Not a real pleasant way for you to live your life.

The rationally self-interested, however, understand that life is a balance. It is a balance between productivity and consumption; between trade and benevolent giving. Life is not about self-centered consumption, nor is it about total self-sacrifice for the good of others. Life, specifically their own life, is their highest value.

The rationally self-intrested believe in production and trade. They produce things of value to others that they can trade for things that they value. They believe in earning their pleasures through exchanging value for value. The benefits they receive come from these exchanges. Therefore, they owe “society” nothing. They earned their benefits.

Giving becomes a voluntary act. They give because they wish to give, not because they see themselves as owing anything to anybody. They are free from the manipulative guilt of the constant promotion of self-sacrifice.

Production, trade, voluntary benevolence, these are the weapons that deliver the rationally self-interested from the manipulative hands of the politicians and preachers of modern day guilt. The productive can hold their head high and tell the consumers and elite power-mongers to take a long walk off a short pier. We already gave at the office.

Picture by flicker user Karloswayne under Creative Commons License. Use of this picture does not constitute an endorsement by Karloswayne of the ideas in this post.

Liberty and Happiness: Responsibility for Self

Most people want security in this world, not liberty. — H.L. Mencken, Minority Report, 1956

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. — George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, “Maxims: Liberty and Equality,” 1905

When I was a child I often would assail my parents with the demand for entertainment.

“I’m bored.”

“There’s nothing to do.”

These were two sentences that seemed to exit my mouth constantly when I was little. Today I am very thankful that my parent’s response was an equally constant, “I’m sorry for you. Looks like you’ll need to find something to do.”

Of course as a child I wasn’t as thankful as I am today. Back then I’d whine, stomp my foot or use any other technique I could think of to get my mom or dad do something about my boredom. Neither parent would budge. My dad would often say “I’m not responsible for your entertainment. That’s your job. Find something to do.” How could he be so cold and so mean?

What I didn’t know at the time was that my dad and mom were teaching me an invaluable lesson. They taught me that I and I alone am responsible for my own happiness and sense of well being. No one from the outside is going to rescue me from sadness, boredom or lack of self-worth.

In today’s culture we seem to have lost this important insight. When faced with a problem, we tend to look first to the external rather than to ourselves. Financial problems? Let the government bail us out. In relationships we demand that our spouse make us feel loved. In commercial transactions we look to litigation or threats of litigation rather than negotiation and wise choices for satisfaction.

The realization and commitment to the fact that we are responsible for our own lives seems to be as foreign to modern thinking as laughter is to Mr. Spock.

When we place the responsibility for our sense of well-being on some thing, person, or system, we become easily manipulated by the unscrupulous. We become demanding and obnoxious, driven by an out of control sense of entitlement. Mostly we become excessively vulnerable to potential loss.

Happiness is not achieved by relying on externals. It is only achieved and maintained by self-reliance. Wise choices, consistent action and self-knowledge is the only route to real, lasting happiness.

This is why liberty is so important. Without complete freedom to make mistakes, learn from them, and correct the direction of our future choices and actions, we loose the core of what makes us human. Relying on externals for our sense of happiness and well-being makes us slaves to those externals and takes from us our ability to learn and grow. It makes us broken and anything but happy.

Picture by flicker user davetoaster under Creative Commons License. Use of this picture does not constitute an endorsement by davetoaster of the ideas in this post.

Liberty and Happiness: A “New”, Radical Way of Thinking

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What do those words mean? What did they mean for our Founding Fathers? To them happiness was rooted in a vision of active citizenship in a highly limited government. It was deeply connected to three simple yet deep ideas: relationships, productivity, and contribution.

In today’s world these “old” ideas are actually quite “new” and viewed as radical by the common person. Today, the average person changes location once every five years. Children are expected to leave home once they graduate from high-school and are frowned upon if they don’t. They are especially frowned upon if they return home later to again live with their parents. The idea of the extended family living together like they did even as late as the 1940’s is now considered highly unusual.

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A Slight Detour

As I was thinking about another “Liberty” post for this week, I tripped across this post by Ryan Holiday. It deals with the subject of practical knowledge. Because my posts will be dealing with liberty and what I call the “tragedy of the American mind,” I thought post would be appropriate.

Essentially, Ryan deals with our obsession with our theories and speculations. He points out that we arrive at conclusions that are often erroneous because we fail to understand the purpose behind the idea or thing we are thinking about. He points to a couple of very good illustrations and I found that he, as usual, nailed me for some of my bad thinking habits.

I appreciate Ryan and what he is doing with his blog. I highly recommend that you check him out at http://www.ryanholiday.net/. His blog is well worth exploring. He’s a very thought-provoking individual.

Happy reading.

4 Reasons Why Liberty is Vital to Your Life

If you’ve read much of what I’ve written lately, or observed my Tweets on Twitter, especially over the last few days, you’ll quickly learn that liberty is very important to me. It’s a topic for which I have great passion. I am always reading liberty-oriented books, articles, and blog posts. I listen to liberty-oriented podcasts and enter discussions concerning liberty with whoever wishes to explore the benefits and inherent responsibilities of our freedoms. In other words, I think liberty is important.

Why? Let me give you four reasons out of the many I could list and then make a few observations.

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Liberty in Iran?

I needed at least one more week to prepare for a new series of posts for Freedom Friday, so I was searching for something that would be interesting yet stay faithful to the topic of the day. Ironically, it was Iran, a theocratic dictatorship, that supplied the necessary item for today’s post.

It’s easy with our Western perspective to jump to conclusions about what is going on in that part of the world. We want so desperately to see those in that area experience a taste of freedom from both religious and political tyranny. It’s easy to confuse the current protests in Iran with the struggle our Founding Fathers faced in their battle for freedom. Though the two may have some surface similarities, they might not be as identical as we would wish. Read the rest of this entry »

What Liberty is Not

It’s as inevitable as a great TV show being canceled by Fox Television after the first three episodes, or your brand new puppy peeing on your brand new carpet.

You’re sitting in your car at an intersection waiting patiently for permission from the traffic light to once again tromp down on that skinny pedal to the right side of your foot. Your not in too big of a hurry so you are kind of enjoying the ambience of the surrounding city life, and aren’t too pissed at having to wait for red to change to green. Life is good.

Until the Moron shows up.

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A New Series on Liberty Coming Soon

I’m going to be writing a new series on Freedom Friday. It’s about Liberty and the Tragedy of the American Mind. It will cover things about liberty that our collectivist politicians media don’t want you to know, and it will explore why it is that so many Americans are perpetually bored and so self-absorbed.

I’m still doing some research and organizing, and will be doing so both this and next week, but the following Freedom Friday I’ll begin the series. I’m really excited about this and am so looking forward to sharing my thoughts and observations. I think it will offer a new kind of hope in our rough economic times as well as a new vision of who and what we can be both as individuals and as a free society. I hope you’ll join me on June 19th, 2009 as we begin a journey of learning, thinking, and adventure.

In the mean time this week and next week I’ll be posting some quotes about liberty for your perusal. Feel free to comment on any of them that strike your fancy. Enjoy.

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