Reality
The Two-Party System
You’ve heard it said, “The real problem is our two-party system.” This philosopher will wax on as follows: “It’s insane that we have only two parties. That’s the real source of all our political problems and why nothing ever gets done. We’re the only country with a two-party system. What we need is multiple parties,…
Read MoreThose who stay above politics
You’ve heard it said, “I don’t like politics,” or, “I try to stay out of politics.” Usually this is paired with, “It’s too divisive,” or, “It’s too ugly,” or, “There’s no point,” and very commonly, “Everybody’s equally wrong,” and, “Both parties are equally corrupt.” “I just want to leave everybody alone and be left alone,”…
Read MoreRight to Privacy?
The proper definition of a right also explains to what extent you have a right to privacy, which is to the extent that you have a right to property. You have a right to property, which is to say a right to determine what you do with things over which you have control. You can…
Read More“Freedom to” vs “Freedom from,” and the impossibility of self-determination
Extending from the previous is another useful rule of thumb: You have freedom to, not freedom from. Franklin D. Roosevelt, in one of the single greatest acts of destruction against the concept of freedom by a United States president, famously listed his “Four Freedoms” which he believed should be guaranteed to all people: Freedom of…
Read MoreRule of Thumb: Rights
If you want a rule of thumb to determine whether or not a proposed right is really a right, here is a simple test: If it requires anything of anyone else, requires any other person to give or do something, then it is not your right. To live is a right. To make other people…
Read MoreWhat is a Right?
(It is a perennial amusement to me to watch a person try to derive the notion of rights without reference to God.) What is a right? “Something a person should have, or should be able to do.” According to whom? “Well, you know, according to the majority.” So if a majority agree that Jews don’t…
Read MoreWhat is faith? And why, when people speak of faith, they usually mean courage.
Faith is simply your reliance on work already done. Consider that you are building a house, or (if that’s a bit ambitious for you) a piece of furniture. You have designed it on paper over the past several days, carefully diagramming and plotting, determining what pieces you will need, the dimensions of each piece, and…
Read MoreIs there any such thing as an opinion?
Opinions are the indulgence of an undisciplined mind—one might say, if one was trying deliberately to be provocative. To be more precise, though, one should say, “If you could ever nail down exactly what an opinion is and find one in nature, it would be purely the indulgence of an undisciplined mind.” Seriously, though, I…
Read MoreThere is no such thing as “Need.”
Or, rather, there is no such thing as “need” in the sense that people commonly think they mean it. I was taught very early, by some well-meaning but not very sophisticated grade-school teacher, the difference between “needs” and “wants;” that a need was something one had to have to live and everything else was a…
Read MoreSarcasm
Sarcasm is like profanity or drunkenness. It is socially acceptable, sometimes socially celebrated, but it is not and never has been good, beautiful, or positive. It is ugly, and you are a lesser person for indulging in it.
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