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Living Consistently

I now thoroughly understand that the best way to gain freedom in the world is to show freedom in your self. Seeing someone who is truly free in their own life is an incredible sight to see, and even if someone is absolutely terrified upon seeing how someone can live freely...even if someone stuck in illusion chastises you, calls you a dork, calls you ridiculous, calls you idealistic, calls you unfair, calls you pie-in-the-sky, calls you a bastard, says you want the poor to die in the street, says you are a hypocrite, says whatever...you are still a light to that person. They may not see it, but you are an absolute shining beacon of hope to their unconscious.
They can say all those things. You know the truth. They see the truth.

Even right now I am beaming with an overwhelming joy at the idea that freedom can help facilitate such incredible joy in the world.

To those of you who are reading this who have never really looked into Philosophy as something that you can live day to day, or have never considered freedom to be something other than something the founding fathers talked a lot about, please ponder this: Imagine that its possible to be virtuous and live consistently compared to an objective set of values. Wouldn't that consistency lead to the most incredible joy in the world? Wouldn't that be the most noble pursuit a man can take? Why would you ever want to skim the surface of life having no consistentcy and dying isolated and unfulfilled?

I'm here to tell you, it is out there. Go. Find it. I know you can do it. If you do it, I will love you. An extreme statement? It may seem that way, but I can't help it. If you pursue consistency, virtue and truth I just can't help it. I love you.

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Why My Friends Are My Joy- Part 1- Cory

My friend Cory is an absolute joy to be around. His relationship with me had lasted since we were 13 years old. The fact that our relationship still survives is a testimony to the power of truth.

The truth is that in the earliest stage of our friendship, we were merely superficial buddies. We seemed to think that the other was worth our time, but our reasons for being in the relationship did not have to do with the value that we each brought to each other, but rather to the value the each brought to the other's illusions.

I cannot say for certain how Cory has felt about our friendship from the beginning, but I can say emphatically how I've felt. When I first met Cory, I was overwhelmed by his incredible kindness. Everyone that Cory met could immediately feel his warmth. I was not nearly as nice a fellow. At the age of 13, I was very insecure. I wanted to be cool, but I didn't want to be an individual. Since Cory was so nice, he allowed me to believe that I had value without actually seeking truth. I'd also submit (and I've talked to Cory about this and he agrees) that Cory's desire to be kind was also fueled by a desire to be accepted by others, instead of by himself.

Do you see how easy it is to want to live your life as someone who just parrots back the desires of others? The sad truth of this is that you simply end up with an incredible emptiness amongst all...because individuals cease to exist. Instead, there exists a void that all deny exists, but continues to crush your integrity.

As I grew up with Cory, I began to shed my desire to be “cool” and instead emphatically tried to be different from the crowd. This quest for individuality was actually about just as conformist as I was before. I would find out what was “cool” and speak out about why it was silly, and why my approach lead to much more happiness. It didn't lead to happiness because it was true, but because it was different. What nonsense!

Luckily for me, Cory continued to be my friend, but I started, like I did to nearly everyone, to look down on him like I was superior. This pumped up ego was a result of actually feeling that I had very little value. Of course, I was not getting girls either, so I had to act like I was so above all of this high school nonsense that girls just “didn't get how great I was”. I feel sick just thinking about how I used to be. Are you starting to see how lucky I am that Cory is still my friend? Maybe not, so let's keep going.

Through high school our relationship continued to be superficial, and we ended up going to the same university. Oh joy! Thus, by virtue of proximity, we continued to keep the friendship alive. The foundation, however, was still made of sand. The beginning of university for me was an absolute nightmare of not knowing what I wanted as a music major, and also wanting to show everyone that I was a great musician without putting in the effort to actually be one. Cory became someone who was merely familiar, and that became his value to me. Naturally, this was no basis for a friendship.

Then, in the summer between my first and second year of college, I read Atlas Shrugged. This discovery of Objectivism began a change in my life that nearly destroyed my friendship with Cory. I learned a great deal about truth and virtue by reading Ayn Rand, but I most certainly did not analyze the ideas quite enough.

Because of how I was raised, my methodology for expressing truth was to merely proclaim the truth and scoff off people who did not get it. While what I was saying may have been true, this is scarcely the proper methodology towards helping others understand the magnitude of libertarian philosophy. It was decidedly not Socratic, and thus there were only two possibilities: Either someone accepts what I say or rejects it wholesale. I bet you can guess which happened more often. It was this methodology that lead Cory and I to nearly losing a friendship.

One day when back in my hometown, Cory and I decided to drive together back to the city. We got into a discussion about Philosophy, and Cory got frustrated saying something to the nature “You know, I don't always agree with you” to which I said “That's fine, but what do you think?” and he said “I don't want to think about this stuff!” I responded, “do you really not want to think?”

Cory was quite angry with me, but he has said that that conversation was a fateful moment. Our friendship now stood on thin ice...a step in one direction and it would end, a step in the other direction to build a beautiful relationship. Cory has told me several times since that he considered not talking to me anymore, but instead decided to start really thinking about his life and the world.

This leads to another major moment about one year later. We had not seen each other for about a month as he was away at a leadership conference. I had been staying in Philadelphia for the summer and had not yet deFOOed (FOO=Family of Origin). However, I had gotten greatly into the philosophy of personal liberty. I, at this point, understood that merely being nice to everyone all the time was not freedom, and upon seeing Cory I became very frustrated. He had, in my eyes, reverted back to his old self in that he seemed to be being overly nice to everyone. I felt like someone could have been saying to him “I killed ten people while you were gone and hate your guts!” and he would have just said “Oh cool, you certainly have every right to be into that and I really respect your opinion”. Obviously this is an exaggeration, but I'm just trying to convey how I felt.

Since I was at the beginning of my attempt to convey how I feel to people, I pulled Cory aside at the party we went to and told him how I felt. I said “Cory, I didn't feel like you were being your true self tonight...I'm not saying that I'm totally right about this, but I just felt like you were placating everyone's feelings without caring about your own”. Naturally, he was taken aback and was quite irritated with my bluntness, but there was a definite change in Cory. We talked for a while and he expressed his frustration, but for the first time we truly open about our feelings with each other and worked together to find out why one of the two of us was feeling frustrated.

Now Cory and I have a mutual understanding that relationships are a two-way street. If you feel great about a relationship and the other person is feeling frustrated, irritated, angry, sad, etc. then if you want the relationship to last you must tell the other how you feel in the moment. This is so critical to solid relationships, because it is honest. Honesty is the first virtue in relationships, and you must have it to find truth.

The relationship I now have with Cory is absolutely beautiful. I know for certain that I can be open with him at all times and he can be that way with me. Seeing Cory happy makes me happy, but that doesn't mean I don't tell him when I feel frustrated about something. That would be dishonest, and no one becomes happy when others are dishonest towards them.

Cory and I are on a journey towards freedom, and I can't tell you how much he means to me. I see him and I feel pride to know such a man of integrity. To be his friend is an honor. Virtue is more important than popularity, conformity, or status. In my pre-enlightenment, I was friends with Cory because we both didn't know ourselves and we saw in each other the same emptiness. With both of us lacking in self-esteem, being around the other made us feel better about our lack of self knowledge. Now, by an incredibly wonderful happenstance, we both made the commitment to self-improvement. The relationship now is based on the celebration of our quest for virtue and truth.

I love Cory, and I can't wait for our further adventures in the world of the true self.

Feeling Defeated

My life “Post-Enlightenment” has been an absolutely incredible journey of intellectual rigor and fun. It is funny to think that “Enlightenment” is as simple as being empirical in every aspect of my life, however, it really makes me wonder about how I approached my life “Pre-Enlightenment”.

Politically, I was in some sense a libertarian minarchist (believer in the minimal government). However, I saw the idea of a libertarian candidate having any major shot at winning an election as being impossible. I was right of course (just look at Ron Paul's candidacy), but I didn't stand back and decide to unflappably look for the best way to find freedom. Instead, I decided to be a Conservative Republican! Oh Joy!

This was a pure example of trying to choose between “the lesser of two evils”. My thinking (and there wasn't much at the time) was that the republicans were (at least in their words) were more about keeping the free market as the top priority. My father taught me about Ronald Reagan's great speeches about freedom (despite his actions rarely lining up with his words) and I didn't like how the democrats seemed to want to grow the welfare state. I, for the most part, completely ignored the social freedoms that conservatives seemed to be keen to take away through state power.

So why did I do this? Why did I simply choose the lesser of two evils as opposed to the position that involved NO evil? Let's keep exploring what I used to think and we'll see if we can figure it out...

So I also would willfully deny my feelings. All the time. I would feel sad about something and say that I felt nothing, or that I felt happy, or that I felt angry. Never what I actually felt. I never wanted to go to church, but would say how I love God. I would have a puppy dog crush on a girl in elementary school, but say she was a dweeb when somebody asked. I would say “Who cares about being cool?” when I was just saying that to be cool. Perhaps you are seeing that my being a conservative republican was just a result of this?

Throughout my childhood, there was no empiricism. There was no “What do you think?” “How do you feel?” My parents never asked “What can we do to be better parents for you? Do you understand why I asked you not to eat that third candy bar? If you could choose any mother/father in the world, would you choose me? If not, why?”

My teachers in school never said “Do you think its fair that your parents don't have a choice about paying for this school?” “Is there anything I can do to be a better teacher for you? Do you feel happy and excited to be here? How do you learn? What can I do to make this environment good for you?”

Instead, my parents and teachers said one thing: “What I'm telling you is true because I'm telling you.”

Of course, I didn't always agree with my parents and teachers when I would first hear their “truths”, but when I would be curious and ask questions I quickly learned that “talking back is disrespectful to your mother!” If I would ask why it was disrespectful, I would get grounded. How nice.

Curiosity was so rarely exercised towards me as a child, and when I would show curiosity I got punished. I fought for a while, but towards high school I finally gave up. I threw in the towel. I was defeated.

Why bother arguing anymore? Clearly, my parents and teachers were just right about everything. I didn't have to figure out whether or not things were true through thought, reason, and evidence, but instead by referring to Dad. Instant Truth Gratification (ITG)! Just ask the big M or D and its true. Wow, that's easy! Forget being an individual...that's clearly unacceptable around here.

This lead to an almost worship of my parents. Me, along with many other kids in high school, went through a phase of talking about how wonderful my parents are. Hell, they buy stuff for me! They are the absolute paragons of virtue! I became super conservative, ignored the fact that my gut told me 'What the hell do I care if Gay people get married?' and stood along side my Dad and George W. Bush in supporting the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of human beings in Iraq. Why were people liberals? Why were people libertarians? Why were people anarchists (gasp!)? Well, they must have just had shitty parents because my dad obviously knows what he's talking about. Hell, he read Ayn Rand!

Luckily for me, the fact that “Ayn Rand was the greatest mind of our time” (straight from the big D), I decided to pick up Atlas Shrugged. That's where my life turned around. Clearly if Ayn Rand is “the greatest mind of our time” then individualism, logic, empiricism, and rationality are of utmost importance. So, after a long process of actually attempting to apply these characteristics to my own life, I started to realize the simple, and horrifying, truth. The real truth. My parents...my teachers...were rank hypocrites.

“Logic is what makes mankind great!” said my dad before screaming at my mother that night for talking while he was watching TV.

“God was with your grandmother tonight” said my mother despite the fact that the existence of God is impossible.

But...if this were true...then they weren't the paragon of virtue. The entirety of my childhood was built on never learning how to actually think! Because what is true is not up to me. It is not up to my parents. It is up to reality. Was I taught to be empirical and think for myself? Of course not! That would reveal their rank hypocrisy.

Unconsciously my parents knew that they were immoral in how they treated me, and nobody wants to consciously look themselves in the face and say “I am corrupt”. As a result, my dad handed me Atlas Shrugged. He was never able to live the values of the heroes in the novels, but he was able to understand in his subconscious that they were much closer to virtue than he could ever be. It was as if his unconscious, that part of him that knew his parenting was thwarting my capacity to think, was saying “Its too late for me...maybe this will save you.” We were both on a sinking ship in a sea of immorality with only one lifeboat and with what last bit goodness he had left sent me towards freedom while going down in the wreckage.

When you are held back, berated for thinking, told you are wrong for being curious, wrong for wanting to live an independent life, it is oh so easy to give up. You feel defeated. If you feel a strong emotion, you were told that your experience was wrong. How could you not?

I'm here to tell you though, your experience is true. Enough of letting others shit all over you. If they are, then, to be blunt, what the hell are you doing still hanging around them? Stop being defeated. Recognize that you feel defeated, and then recognize that it is not true. You have every ability to escape, to live, to be open with yourself, to be open with those around you. You have the ability to be free.

Then you get up, get out of bed, and say “Wow, what a nightmare. Good thing I'm awake now.”

That Crazy Unconscious

I consistently find myself wanting to mis-spell "Relationship" as "Realationship". I thought that was kind of cool.

My Friend the Hero

Imagine, for a moment, that you are walking down the sidewalk in your town. You are walking, perhaps listening to some music, or maybe you are practically skipping with joy at the beautiful day around you.

As you walk on, you hear a shout. Naturally, you look over, and you are appalled by what you see. Across the street, there is an able-bodied man punching another man in a wheel chair. This man is physically abusing a person who is not even free to run away. As you see this happening, all feelings of joy vanish and are replaced by some of the most acute anger you have ever felt.

Suddenly, without consciously deciding to do so, you yell, "Get the hell away from him!" You begin to run across the street, and the man says, "Stay out of this, this has nothing to do with you." The man in the wheel chair is trying to get away and gives you a pleading look. You say, "No. This is unacceptable. This is not how you want to treat this man."

Harness the rage you would feel towards the evil of a man who finds it necessary to physically abuse a person in a wheelchair. Try to truly understand that feeling. Can you imagine such evil? What if the man was merely yelling in a violent way at the person in the wheelchair? Wouldn't that fill you with a feeling of absolute disgust?

Now switch scenes.

You are on a bus on the way to work. The bus stops, and a woman gets on with her children. You notice that she is angry with her children and seems to be constantly scolding them. There is a great deal of malevolence in her voice. You start to feel very uncomfortable.

Next, you hear a crack. The woman had has just slapped one of her children across the face. You feel sick, but you do nothing. You get off the bus, and for the rest of the day, you can't quite make yourself feel comfortable. The entire day at work is filled with the memory of that woman hitting the child. There were so many people on the bus, and no one said anything.

Then suddenly, in a flash, you realize that if that child was a man in a wheelchair, you would have never sat silent. You would have sprung into action to try to help the clearly less able human being.

Then you nearly fall over when you realize the simple truth: that man in the wheelchair is infinitely more free than the child on the bus. The man in the wheelchair can try to get away; the man in the wheelchair can call the police; the man in the wheelchair can yell for help and not have to worry about being beaten when he gets home. The man in the wheelchair is not dependent on the person who is beating him.

"Why did I just sit there while that woman hit the child?"

Greg Minton my friend and an absolute hero, decided to put an end to the silence that we all we all try to justify by saying that it is noise.

He sat on that bus a week ago and saw the woman slap her child. He said bravely:

"Whoa, no. What are you doing?"

"Whatcha tryin' to say? You tryin' to tell me what I can and can't do to my child?"

"You just slapped your daughter across the face. That is unacceptable."

"She is my child, and I will do whatever I want to her! I bet you never got a good woopin', did you?"

After some silence, he said: "You do not want to be that mother for your children. You just don't."

The woman at this point attempted to get him kicked off of the bus for "running his mouth" but Greg decided to get off anyway to avoid being around that reprehensible woman any longer. On his way out he saw one of the teary eyed children give him a shy smile.

This type of bravery will change the world, my friends. Greg, I feel an incredible amount of admiration for your willingness to stand up for the victims of evil. You helped bring light to the fact that their mother is not virtuous, but instead an immoral and power hungry tyrant. You have inspired me to stand up for those who are not free to fight back.

My friends, children are not property.

Children are the most wonderfully curious and rational individuals on the planet...but they are also dependent on adults in their early years. What type of sadistic and evil person would think that the best way to teach children about the world is to show them a way to treat defenseless people is to use violence? WHAT TYPE OF MADNESS IS THAT?

Why is it that we would leap into action to help the man in the wheelchair, but not to help the child who may end up spending his/her whole life believing that human beings are evil and need to use violence against the weak and defenseless? Do you see how this is at the core of the world's pain? The human race is in agony for what? A power trip?

We must stop abusing children. They are the light that will change the world, but we must be responsible and not beat it out of them. War, genocide, incarceration for non-violent crimes, endless taxation, priests who molest children, politicians who send young men and women to die...do you really believe that any of this would exist if children were treated with rational curiosity instead of VIOLENCE?

No. Enough. Stop standing back and watching another child's life get ruined.

That shy smile that the child gave Greg is an indication that freedom is what the child longs for, not abuse. There is hope yet, but we MUST stop treating children as slaves and as property.

All of this lead me to realize what makes a hero.

A hero is not someone who goes out and kills people at the order of some old men in Washington.

A hero is not someone who kidnaps and incarcerates people for smoking a plant.

A hero is not someone who tells children that they will be good boys and girls if they just listen to Jesus.

A hero is not someone who tells children that family is the highest virtue despite how they actually treat you.

No.

A hero breaks the silence.

A Letter to My Future Girlfriend

(This was an idea that I got from Nathan McKaskle. It is my own interpretation. You can visit Nathan's Website here)

My Dear [Insert Name Here],

What a joy and an honor it is to know you. Every moment spent with you fills my heart with an incredible happiness that inspires me to be the best man that I can be. I want to tell you everything that I love about you.

Despite what others may think or say, you value truth higher than any social niceties that may stand in contradiction to reality. I admire and love your capacity for reason and courage in the face of a world that does not want you to speak about virtue.

I love your ability to empathize with almost anyone that crosses your path, especially me. I love this not only because everyone loves to feel that other can empathize with him, but also because it helps me improve my capacity to see the world through the eyes of another. You always try to understand how others feel, and thus you are able to only have relationships in your life that are totally worth having, and get rid of those that are not. This makes you so happy, and I love to see you happy.

Seeing you happy makes me happy, and I cannot help that. Why? Because despite a society that barely knows the definition of virtue, you always strive to hold virtue as a top priority. The fact that I know you are virtuous fills me with an overwhelming joy, because virtuous people do not spend their lives with cretins, but instead with other virtuous people, and you've put me at the top of your list. I am absolutely bowled over by this.

There is no doubt in my mind that I can have absolute trust in you. The implication of this is that I absolutely trust you to raise children with me. Your capacity for empathy tells me that a family with you would be based on absolute love and respect for the child, and an incredible understanding that the child can give us as much knowledge and wisdom as we can offer the child. My son or daughter would be in great hands with you by their side. There is no greater trust in the world.

You also have a great trust in me. You did not fall in love with me because you believed I could change into someone else, but instead because I was exactly who you wanted without having to change at all. Thus, I feel absolutely comfortable being myself and sharing every aspect of my life with you.

You are the most beautiful woman in the world. Because you happened to be born with subjectively attractive physical features? No. Because when I see your face, your hands, your body, I see the love I feel for you. The sight of you brings joy into my heart, and when you come in the door I simply want to run to the door and shower you with kisses.

You value honesty so highly that you are completely unafraid to tell me what you are feeling when you are feeling it...even if that means telling me you are angry, sad, frustrated or distraught in anyway. This willingness to show your emotions makes me fall even deeper in love with you. Not only are you honest about your emotions, but you are curious about mine. It is such a mutually beneficial way of communicating that every single second we spend talking is a second I fall even more in love with you.

You are courageous in the face of others, but even more importantly, you are not afraid to look yourself in the mirror and honestly ask questions that could lead to you changing your actions entirely, because truth, honesty, and virtue are more important to you than propping up mythologies and running away from reality. This allows me to feel the utmost in safety when around you. I do not fear that you will attack me, in any way shape or form.

My love, your passion for life and pursuits that you find valuable is a constant inspiration to me. You do not stand back, you do not run away, and you constantly look to be a generous as possible.

I absolutely and unabashedly love you. I may never meet you, but I will always love you.

P

Stop Running

You wake up in the morning, you put on your pants, and you look in the mirror. What do you see?

When you look do you see a proud American? Perhaps a god fearing "good" christian? A handsome man? A pretty woman? A Great musician?

Do you see anything? Do you just revert your eyes? Do you ever really look at yourself?

Yesterday, I went to the New Years Day Mummer's day parade in Philadelphia. Quite the spectacle, indeed. A celebration of epic proportions. The parade consists of the Irish and Italian districts of South Philadelphia getting together to play music and get ridiculously drunk. Most of the people involved are union member laborers from the area. The entire time I was watching the show, I couldn't help but wonder...do these people really know who they are?

All year, these people keep their unholy relationship with the government at all time highs, ensuring that they have a nice salary and avoid getting fired. The work ethic around the city thus diminishes, people struggle to find jobs, and everyone pays higher taxes. What happens when they people look in the mirror? Do they see that they use government violence to achieve their ends? Do they understand that if I refuse to pay their salaries I will be shot? Do they know that their actions make life even more difficult for those who struggle to find jobs? No...instead they look in the mirror and say "I'm standing up for the good and virtuous". In other words, when they look in the mirror, they don't see themselves, they see a lie.

Yet, everyday the unconscious of the dishonorable man eats away at his soul, reminding him that he is not virtuous, but in fact a coward who is unwilling to look the truth in the face. What does he do to hide this feeling? Well, he gets together with other dishonorable people, and he drugs himself. Everyone at the parade was absolutely black out drunk, and the reason is fairly clear...they were trying to run away. They were trying to run away from the mirror that will show them the truth, but they are running through a room of mirrors with no escape.

There is only one solution.

Stop running.

And So It Begins!

Well here I am, ready to open up my heart to the world. I find myself excited to be starting this blog, because I know that when I put what I'm feeling into written word, I can objectively look at it for more knowledge and self growth.

Often, when I actually have to take the time to type something out, I come to realizations or understanding that I didn't see coming at all when I started to write. I actually decided that I wanted to do this because the other night at a party I had so many observations and thoughts that I just had to write them down, and in doing so I made a major realization into what I had been feeling throughout the evening. Hell, if I can do it there, why not everyday? I want to be open and honest about how I feel, and I look forward to spending a great deal of time here and on the blogs of others who are taking this journey towards freedom.

Here's to a new and exciting adventure!