I've Got Something to Say

Although I've known for years that I love political liberty, I didn't realize until a couple years ago that it is probably the deepest and most enduring value that I possess. How many times have I been impassioned over the slightest infringement - real, suggested or implied - of a man's right to his life - to think or feel or whatever, come to his own conclusions and act - even if what he does is stupid? Man's basic means of survival is reason. It works by choice. No one can force you to use it, but it is the fundamental fact that separates you from all the lower animals and it is the critical attribute that is the root to your right to your life and to political freedom.

Ever notice that a dog doesn't have a right to his life. He just lives. He has to fight for his life over and over at the slightest threat. Men cannot survive that way. Reason requires the freedom, i.e., the space in human society, to think and act. Reason is not only the root of one's right to life, it requires the right to life.

The enemy of reason is force. You might be able to fight off a person or two, but an organized, institutionalized force? Like the government?

Our society is increasingly forced, you know, "compulsed." I am an architect. Starting practice 37 years ago, the building code was a small 5"x8" book about an inch thick. Now it is a 4' shelf of binders holding 8.5"x11" pages. Instead of coming up with solutions to the problems presented by building, mostly we follow the code - the lowest level of solution to the problem. Government schools are factories of compulsion: About the only thing you get to choose is what you are going to wear, and in some cases, not even that. What you are taught, the days and hours you have to be there, the money everyone pays at the point of gun doesn't speak to our intelligence. We are treated as a farm animal for the purpose of having us do what those in power think we ought to do.

We live in a rising tide of anger. Things don't add up anymore. We look for causes. We see every kind of culprit, just not the real one. The government has stepped into the middle of our head and stands between our values and our actions. And as we allow that, we find ourselves increasingly frustrated.
I'm sick of it. So I'm going to blog about the subjects that interest me. Welcome to the blog.