Monday 26 October 2015

Why Government is Antithetical to Freedom

"When two people meet in a political discussion, regardless of the political affiliations, there are bound to be a number of issues that they agree on. For example, a socialist and a free-marketeer - despite having completely different opinions on how an economy should be run - are likely to agree on a dearth of issues including ending foreign military interventions, the war on drugs, reducing government surveillance into the private lives of citizens, and ending corporate welfare from the government to rich business issues. Nevertheless, under the political system which most people favour - parliamentary democracy of some description - both are almost completely powerless to fight back against these (real or perceived injustices) because they have to simply accept one of the "package deals" of policies offered by one of the parties that can win. If none of those parties offer the option of ceasing to sink state funds into nuclear weapons, for example, these supposed political enemies alike will both be forced to pay for them through the tax system - regardless of their personal values. It is the power to divest which is the real basis of political freedom. The power to say "no, I don't believe in this, I don't want to pay for it, and so I am going to spend my money elsewhere." That is the freedom that the non-state sectors of society (be they businesses, charities, cooperatives or other non-government organisations) offer, but the state does not, and fundamentally why the state is antithetical to freedom." - Antony Sammeroff

 I think if you use this argument when you get into political debates with statists, "even where we both agree - and there is lots of common ground - we are still powerless to make change under the system you support, which is parliamentary democracy" - the penny might drop.

It looks like this: "Both you and I agree on lots of issues, for example against the wars, against the war on drugs, against corporate welfare. But under the system you support, we are relatively powerless to change it because even if we vote - we can only vote for the package deals of party x or party y - if those issues are off the cards on both platforms, we will still have to pay for it whether we like it or not through the tax system - even if one is one platform, another one is not likely to be on the other platform. "

Saturday 24 October 2015

Get in Touch with your Heroes.... Now!!!

Really sorry to hear that my friend and colleague Peter Gerlach passed away at 77. I had the pleasure of interviewing him 4 times for YouTube, sadly one of the interviews did not record and was lost forever, but I was told that our last one included 'a lifetime of takeaways.' I was looking forwards to collaborating more when I finished my current projects... Silly me for waiting. His wisdom lives on in his work. I honour you Pete thank you for all you taught me. funnily enough look at my facebook status from the 12th of October: Hey if you like or admire someones work or writing or whatever they do you should send them an email before they croak. I have exchanged emails with most of the people who really influenced my thinking that were alive during my lifetime. Alfie Kohn, Warren Farrell, Stefan Molyneux, Pete Gerlach.... Nathaniel Branden, another hero, died December of last year - I had never bothered to even try emailing him. Marshall Rosenberg died this year. For ages I wanted to tell sci-fi author Brian Aldiss what I thought of his writing, and how much I loved his ability to build rich worlds - even just for one short story or a novel. He is 90 now! I finally emailed him today, almost 10 years after the thought of wanting to tell him first crossed my mind. Perhaps he is too busy to reply but at least I put it out there, we'll see. Get emailing your heroes they might croak like Nathaniel Branden and Marshall Rosenberg. Talk about timing!

Monday 19 October 2015

marriage

you know, my whole life I have taken it for granted that if I got married I would take the ladies name as well as her taking mine. So much so that the first time I realised it was when I mentioned a scenario that it was a feature of in passing to a flatmate around 6 years ago and rather than comment on the scenario he remarked that it was "very modern" of me to add a girls last name before my own. Isn't it weird? I never even regarded it as a thing, even although I knew that most people don't do that. Only problem is that if the tradition continues my descendants will have a massive long list of names.

Friday 16 October 2015

Friday 9 October 2015

Tax codes

Apparently Americans spend 6.1 billion a year complying with US tax codes. Wouldn't it be nice if they just replaced the 67,000 pages of tax regulations with the FAIR Tax and everyone could go out volunteering, spending the afternoon with their family, or making something that other people want for some extra cash?

Tuesday 6 October 2015

Posts on Education



I would not say that our society is one for bringing out the excellence in people
our education system for example only really focusses on learning things and writing them out again in exams
besides reading, writing and arithmetic (and memorisation) it does not teach people many skills
it is also very authoritarian and does not foster independent thought, initiative or critical thinking
so what we are really seeing when we look at humans are humans with one hand tied behind their back
I am all for education but a different kind of education that edifies people and helps them feel confident in taking on challenges and learning from mistakes (I was a piano tutor for 8 years or so and I have also been a classroom assistant)
then we will see a different kind of human being
in this day and age memorisation is really not a very important skill, because you can get all the info you need at the click of a mouse. People need skills if they want to live independent and self-responsible lives, if they want to have options instead of having to take what they can get (be it from employers, or the state.)


Higher Education is so screwed up right now that the stuff that should be considered a worthy hobby is seen as vocational; and the stuff that is actually vocational is considered to be an unworthy hobby! C'mon people we can do better in the 21st century lets teach about the Socratic question: how is a good life lived?


Monday 5 October 2015

"Work and love; love and work... that's all there is." - Freud

I think Freud was right when he said "Work and love; love and work... that's all there is." People obsess about sex, money and power, but none of those come close to either being occupied in fulfilling work or in the love of others - because those three things are all means to an ends, whereas fulfilling work and love are processes which are their own ends.

Sunday 4 October 2015

A Blessed Life

I live a blessed life. Sometimes I get down but not because anything is objectively

wrong with my life, it's just my own negativity and unprocessed shit. And whenever I go

a level up and see through my own bs I am just thankful to be alive. I live a life of

service and get to make a living helping others heal and grow. I'm immensely

intelligent, a good communicator, great writer and speaker, musical, and have cultivated

many talents. What more could you want? I love my life!