Malibu morning picture of the day - Friday, April 22, 2016

Dear Family, Friends, and Gentle Readers,

It's Friday and it's clear over the waters of Malibu.

A bank of low clouds are out there over the horizon, but over land it's cloudy and foggy as you can see here: that would be Santa Monica through South Bay under the clouds in the distance.





A few of my coworkers know that I am politically and philosophically a libertarian, or a classical liberal, and they've asked what I think about this election season. I tell them I really don't pay attention to primary season at all. Neither of the main political parties speak to the way I think things should be done or run, and I fear they never will. I still vote, always for losers, namely the Libertarian Party. I'm asked why I throw my vote away. I tell them it doesn't count anyway. The only place my vote counts is in the small nonprofit committees on which I sit and in the two juries that I've been in, and that's fine.

I can't say I'm totally disinterested in the election cycle though. I do live in this country and I like to see what my fellow citizens are doing en masse. Presidential elections and their run-up are a proxy set of national quadrennial surveys that tell you what kind of people you're living with and what they're nervous about. I always wonder if I will get to live through something like the beautiful summer of 1914 and watch as the civilized world turn into something completely different in a matter of months. Something seems to be happening in the American masses this year, but we'll see if it turns into significance or if it dissipates.

I'm always amused by comments I read on people who don't understand libertarian or objectivist stances on public policies. We get accused of being childish or selfish. Selfishness I will definitely own up to. We hold high the value of the individual and his or her self-determination to do what is best for themselves or those they care about, as long as it does not infringe on the same liberty of others. So, you have to care about yourself first. Childishness is a misreading however. There is a perception that libertarians don't want to share their stuff with others, and that's childishness. The virtue of sharing is probably the first thing we learn from our mothers or kindergarten teachers as they help to learn to navigate in society. This is probably where a lot of people get their sense of where "childhood" ends and "adulthood" begins. It's very primal.

Libertarians do share their stuff with others. We just don't want to be forced to share our stuff with others.That is the definition of theft; it's not "sharing." If the consequence of not choosing to share is being struck, or physically isolated, or being subjected to verbal and public shame, surrendering to someone that cookie to someone is not an authentic act of the will. It is not an act that would accrue karma (the Asian version of expressing the concept of volition and free will). Imposing such coercion is the kind of Act of God that is craved by those who say "Why didn't God stop the bullet/terrorist/rape/bacteria/--your injustice here--?"

To be able to manifest your will is what is important to libertarians. Are we uncooperative with other people? Sometimes sure. Are we isolationist weirdos? A few maybe, but most of us have to deal with others to get stuff we want or want done. So, we have to be good listeners and communicators and negotiate things we will or won't do until we find commonality with others. This is not a difficult concept to understand. Everybody acts this out in some way. Libertarians are just people who have thought about it a lot and know what their moral starting point is.

A lot of people think it's odd that a worldview built on selfishness could find any kind of purchase on a lot of people who call themselves Christians. Rand and Branden, some of the most vocal evangelists of objectivist ideals were atheists. Where we converge, however, is at the core belief that a person is responsible for their willful acts; which supposes that a free will exists.

Lookee that time, gotta pay the rent! Just listen to Goong-Goong/Yeh-Yeh ramble on...

Love,
Pops