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Showing posts from February, 2014

The Digital Privacy Movement's Battered Woman Syndrome

"No one is coming to save you." --Nathaniel Branden A woman discovers her controlling boyfriend has secretly bugged her cell phone, placed hidden cameras in her bedroom, and been reading her private emails. He refuses to admit wrongdoing and apologize. He even tells her he's doing it for her own good: "Honey, I'm doing this to protect you. I'm doing this because I love you." She should just tell him this is unacceptable and trust him to stop after she confronts him about it, right? Obviously wrong. Anyone who'd rather not end up putting the lotion on its skin before it gets the hose again would move apartments, get a new phone, change passwords, file a restraining order, and start carrying a Smith & Wesson. I'd probably adopt a couple pitbulls too. Spearheaded by digital privacy activists, today is The Day We Fight Back against mass surveillance. By "fight back" they mean do the literally most useless thing they could pos

#MusicMonday - "Subdivisions" by: Rush

This one goes out to all the students grade slaves who had to start a new week of school today. You are beautiful and worthy and good, and if you feel lonely or alienated or looked over or not understood, all that confusion and angst isn't your fault. You're feeling it because you're good and you know intuitively that all the crushing weight of the rigid system around you and the bullshit social pressures are not the way life should be or has to be. I love you and I think you are wonderful. "Subdivisions" Lyrics Sprawling on the fringes of the city In geometric order An insulated border In between the bright lights And the far unlit unknown Growing up it all seems so one-sided Opinions all provided The future pre-decided Detached and subdivided In the mass production zone Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone [Chorus:] (Subdivisions) In the high school halls In the shopping malls Conform or be cast out (Subdivisions) In the baseme

How Compulsory Schooling Causes Broken Hearts and Emotional Wounds

Saw this on Davi Barker 's Facebook page last night: "We've heard a lot about how compulsory schooling harms the natural enthusiasm to learn, as well as the unspoken lessons of the Prussian system. I've heard a lot of people discuss how forced association leads to bullying. But I have never heard anyone discuss to effects of compulsory schooling and forced association on broken hearts. Think about a highschool from a biological standpoint. It is for practical purposes a cage in which society throws people who are biologically, and by any pre-modern standard, adults. They are trapped there for six hours a day, locked in a room with 30+ other adults, arbitrarily selected by age. They are at the peak of their emotional and hormonal volatility. And they are told to devote their undivided attention to education. This is very bad chemistry. Inevitably relationships form, adding more volatility. Love, lust, jealousy, rage. Explosive emotions, probably experienced for th

Prediction: Rand Paul becomes president in 2016. At the end of his eight year tenure...

...government will be bigger than ever. Just like it was at the end of Ronald Reagan's time in the White House. And you will have given millions of dollars to Rand Paul along the way, who will spend it on ads to get elected, ads in the mainstream media outlets that teach people not to be free. This is how libertarians unwittingly subsidize a message that makes theirs incomprehensible to the people they are trying to enlighten. You'd be better off spending your political donations on some good books.

Tired of Endless War? There's Only ONE Solution, and I Would Have Never Guessed

This free audiobook, The Origins of War in Child Abuse -- written by Lloyd Demause and read aloud by libertarianism's greatest living orator, Stefan Molyneux-- is a uniquely incisive work of historical scholarship that examines how human history was experienced by children, and why their experiences have created a society prone to the self-destructive frenzy of war. If you are anti-war, this book delves into the root causes of war in a way that no other has, and reveals so many interesting facts about the lead up to specific wars it will make your head spin. Demause makes a compelling case that war is not primarily an economic nor political phenomenon, but a psychological one. Demause's investigation into the history of war concludes that each war is an episode of mass hysteria centered on self-destruction and human sacrifice, and that the psychological motivations for war can only make sense to a society of people who were abused as children. If this is true, the one

The Inner and Outer Worlds

Libertarianism as I have experienced it focuses 99% or more of its attention on the outer world . Peruse just about any of the most popular libertarian websites and you'll find discussions about politics, economics, culture, and history. You'll find very little about psychology. It's a curious, maybe even suspicious gap in libertarian thought. For a political philosophy that characterizes itself as the champion of the individual, there doesn't seem to be very much reflection on the individual and the inner world of individual human beings, which are considered by libertarians to be fundamental and prior to society. Most popular libertarianism focuses on issues that can be formulated as the following stock headlines: Congress Passes Another Bill That Limits Your Liberty The President Issues Another Edict That Limits Your Liberty How This [State, Congressman, or Activist] Is Working to Stop [Government Agency] From Limiting Your Liberty But if the freedom o
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