The Radical vs. The Nonconformist

Blind anger and passion do nothing to threaten establishment and authority but rather validate it. Those such as Nietzsche who by default rejected anything accepted by culture norms or those that accept nonconformity for the simple sake of nonconformity, only confirm authority and the status quo. The oppressors simply state “ You see! the opposite of obedience is insanity!” It simply confirms the age old lie that the only alternative to masochism is sadism.

The issue is not conformity vs. nonconformity but rather conformity vs. integrity, conformity vs. self respect, conformity vs. the truth.  If your “nonconformity” is held simply by default of what most people currently believe because of some unnamed and unexamined contempt for the status quo then your beliefs are just as subjective and unfounded as those you passionately oppose.

The true radical’s hatred of the status quo is rooted in his/her love of the truth, not some mindless nonconformity. Mindless anger, passion and contempt achieve nothing but your own frustration and tint the reputation of those that actually have something to say. But when our beliefs are rooted in first principles, when passion is put along side of cool logical consistency it is then unstoppable.

We hate the ugly because we love the beautiful, we hate the state because we love freedom, we hate authority because we love ourselves, we reject falsehood because we love the truth. Don’t let your passion be driven by simple minded contempt, but rather a deep love of everything that makes like beautiful and honest.

Sober (why I am)

Considering that I am an anarchist and an atheist its interesting that my most controversial subjects that I deal with are drugs and animal rights (I am opposed to both). Many of my friends have decided to regularly use drugs or alcohol and I suppose its time to further clarity my position.

If the point of philosophy is to develop a healthy relationship with the truth, then what is its opposite? Self induced insanity

Man is a rational being that achieves happiness by means of reason, creativity, productivity, and friendship, in short happiness is achieved by using your brain and sharing your time with those that do that same. Drugs achieve the exact opposite of all these things. The faculty of reason is destroyed, creativity is reduced to mindless (for those of you that claim drugs increase creativity, I would suggest writing something as beautiful as The Fountainhead while on acid), friendship is reduced to incoherent ramblings (as for those that claim that alcohol as a social lubricant, I am only forced to ask why your friendships require lubrication). As a result: a brainless pleasure that comes form a complete evasion of reality. A self induced insanity.

Happiness is not suddenly achieved as soon as pleasure reaches a certain standard. Happiness is not a simple sensation. It is a long term state of mind. It is non-contradictory joy as a result of livings ones values consistently.

Never mind the healthy issues, that not the point, the point is that drugs are the exact opposite of everything that makes life beautiful, honesty, and authentic. Surely I could have a drink or two from time to time and live with my self in the same way I could steal from time to time and live with my self. But “living with yourself” is not the point to life now is it? Life is not the evasion of pain, life is not a giant hospital hiding from the facts of reality. No we are meant to achieve something, we are meant to make something beautiful. We are meant to become our own hero by embracing everything that makes life beautiful and rejecting everything that takes it away. And that is why I am opposed to drugs.

Limited Resources

If limited resources are the cause of poverty and starvation what exactly would we expect?

• Poverty and starvation would be independent of geography
• If there is a limited amount of people who have the vast majority of the resources there is no reason to assume that they would all be in one geographical location
• All or nearly all known resources are currently being exploited
• If limited are resources are the problem but there are still unused recourses then limited resources cannot possibly be the cause of poverty.

Considering that poverty is confined to geographical location and we are not even close to using all of the resources around us, limited resources cannot possibly the the explanation for poverty. Consider places like Africa, the land is abundant with natural resources and the possibly for farming yet the people are in poverty. This is the case with most of the 3rd world countries.

The better explanation is the policies of the government in the area cause poverty. This is the only explanation for why people in New Mexico are relatively wealthy compared to those just across the border. Limited resources cannot possibly explain why this happens all over the world. Why mass poverty and prosperity would change suddenly across borders.