Libertarian Toker
06-15-2004, 02:07 PM
What Libertarianism has done for me
http://www.libertyforall.net/frontal.html
In between busy Good Friday family events today I stopped and stared at a Myrtle tree in full bloom. I wondered if there were bees and from a distance I didn't see any, but upon approaching I noticed there were several. When I got within grasping distance of a blossom, I could see and hear the buzz of hundreds of bees.
I've grown so much in my 29 years, and just approaching that buzzing tree so close is proof.
As a child I had a near pathological fear of stinging, buzzing insects. I can remember a day when I was about 7, the first day of spring, warm enough to take out my little pink bike, the training wheels still on it, and try to ride. I was all alone and a disoriented little bumblebee landed on my arm and I froze in absolute terror and waited for my daddy to come out and do something to make the scary crawly thing go away without stinging me. I stood there, over my bike, like a statue for what seemed like 2 hours (in reality probably 5 minutes) before it went away of its own accord. I wasn't even stung by anything until age 12, and though it hurt like an SOB, I survived it and flying buzzy things kind of lost their sting, so to speak. Now, as a woman, I can watch a bumblebee amble along from bloom to bloom and admire his yellow fuzziness and hear his pleasant buzziness. He's really kinda cute, if you give him a chance. And as long as you don't go all psycho and swat at him, he's just going to do what he does and ignore you.
It's a little like converting from Republican to Libertarian, growing up. The liberals are not the flying stinging bees anymore. I don't have this pathological fright every time I hear their rhetoric. I realize that, just like everyone, they are a little right and a little wrong, but I don't have to put my very soul in mortal danger just by listening, reasonably, to their side of the story. They may just have something I agree with in there somewhere and admitting it doesn't contradict everything down to my very moral fiber.
I AM half LIBERAL, half conservative and all freedom loving female. What this means is the epitome of open-mindedness, the freedom to listen and possibly embrace (or NOT embrace) any ideas out there, on the face of them. Before, the game was to figure out is this a "liberal" or a "conservative" plank and then argue myself into why it was angelic or demonic. How confused I was then when the "demonic" seemed more rational... Now I see why. I never was a conservative. I was always a libertarian, before I ever heard the word in high school.
This is me, libertarian, grown-up me, open and embracing all that is logical and beautiful. Not superficially afraid of ideas because of labels. This is the American way, the way that America says that she is, but is actually so viciously divided against herself in this two-party, he-said she-said, vitriol that real diversity is a farce. There is no discussion where there is mindless irrational fear. There is only - Daddy, please get it off!!! Get it off me!!! Daddy
(Kerry? Daddy Bush?) save me from the bad buzzy thing!!! I can't even look at it! There is no meeting of the minds where there is abject terror, and where people are either A or B. And never the twain shall meet.
This is what libertarianism has done for me. It has allowed me to listen to Rush and think, you know, on many things, he's right, but on that, he contradicts himself and is full of bunk. I can also listen to Howard Stern, or Al Franken (or anyone else in the media) and agree with them too. But most of all, I can make up my own mind, starting from embracing the precepts of liberty and human nature and realities of life on this mortal coil.
Listen to the buzzing all around you. They are the ideas that freedom prospers. Yes, they have the capability to sting you, but there is beauty there too. Appreciate it, like an adult, without fear. Open yourself.
Listen, listen to them all. Don't ask if they come from friend or foe, but judge their veracity in their own right, for yourself. Diversify your portfolio of ideas.
Grow up. Stop being afraid.
by Rachel Mills
http://www.libertyforall.net/frontal.html
In between busy Good Friday family events today I stopped and stared at a Myrtle tree in full bloom. I wondered if there were bees and from a distance I didn't see any, but upon approaching I noticed there were several. When I got within grasping distance of a blossom, I could see and hear the buzz of hundreds of bees.
I've grown so much in my 29 years, and just approaching that buzzing tree so close is proof.
As a child I had a near pathological fear of stinging, buzzing insects. I can remember a day when I was about 7, the first day of spring, warm enough to take out my little pink bike, the training wheels still on it, and try to ride. I was all alone and a disoriented little bumblebee landed on my arm and I froze in absolute terror and waited for my daddy to come out and do something to make the scary crawly thing go away without stinging me. I stood there, over my bike, like a statue for what seemed like 2 hours (in reality probably 5 minutes) before it went away of its own accord. I wasn't even stung by anything until age 12, and though it hurt like an SOB, I survived it and flying buzzy things kind of lost their sting, so to speak. Now, as a woman, I can watch a bumblebee amble along from bloom to bloom and admire his yellow fuzziness and hear his pleasant buzziness. He's really kinda cute, if you give him a chance. And as long as you don't go all psycho and swat at him, he's just going to do what he does and ignore you.
It's a little like converting from Republican to Libertarian, growing up. The liberals are not the flying stinging bees anymore. I don't have this pathological fright every time I hear their rhetoric. I realize that, just like everyone, they are a little right and a little wrong, but I don't have to put my very soul in mortal danger just by listening, reasonably, to their side of the story. They may just have something I agree with in there somewhere and admitting it doesn't contradict everything down to my very moral fiber.
I AM half LIBERAL, half conservative and all freedom loving female. What this means is the epitome of open-mindedness, the freedom to listen and possibly embrace (or NOT embrace) any ideas out there, on the face of them. Before, the game was to figure out is this a "liberal" or a "conservative" plank and then argue myself into why it was angelic or demonic. How confused I was then when the "demonic" seemed more rational... Now I see why. I never was a conservative. I was always a libertarian, before I ever heard the word in high school.
This is me, libertarian, grown-up me, open and embracing all that is logical and beautiful. Not superficially afraid of ideas because of labels. This is the American way, the way that America says that she is, but is actually so viciously divided against herself in this two-party, he-said she-said, vitriol that real diversity is a farce. There is no discussion where there is mindless irrational fear. There is only - Daddy, please get it off!!! Get it off me!!! Daddy
(Kerry? Daddy Bush?) save me from the bad buzzy thing!!! I can't even look at it! There is no meeting of the minds where there is abject terror, and where people are either A or B. And never the twain shall meet.
This is what libertarianism has done for me. It has allowed me to listen to Rush and think, you know, on many things, he's right, but on that, he contradicts himself and is full of bunk. I can also listen to Howard Stern, or Al Franken (or anyone else in the media) and agree with them too. But most of all, I can make up my own mind, starting from embracing the precepts of liberty and human nature and realities of life on this mortal coil.
Listen to the buzzing all around you. They are the ideas that freedom prospers. Yes, they have the capability to sting you, but there is beauty there too. Appreciate it, like an adult, without fear. Open yourself.
Listen, listen to them all. Don't ask if they come from friend or foe, but judge their veracity in their own right, for yourself. Diversify your portfolio of ideas.
Grow up. Stop being afraid.
by Rachel Mills