This is the last bit of prep work before my deconstruction of the misinformation in Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny. To recap, my conservative nephew suspected that there was misinformation in this book and he asked me to evaluate it a few weeks back. It did not fit into my agenda for The Middle Class Forum [...]
Continue reading about Liberty and Tyranny – A Liberty Model
The previous entry equated a high quality of life with preserving our natural rights. There is an inherent problem modern culture faces with this. It’s easy to preserve natural rights where there are limited choices that can be made. When those choices expand because of diversity so does the difficulty of preverving the natural rights [...]
Systems out of Balance is divided into three parts corresponding to the Declaration of Independence’s reference to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” I make some liberal interpretations to equate these components with natural rights. In particular I refer to a “Cultural Quality of Life” in terms of the preservation of our natural rights. [...]
This is the concluding entry for this week’s series on natural rights and cultural entitlements. The natural rights were free will, free thought and, for lack of a better concept in today’s greed-based economy, merited consequences. Privacy was introduced as a cultural entitlement that many might think is a natural right, based on mistaken assumptions [...]
The times I have come closest to death have been in the wilderness. One time involved a bear; one time involved a cliff; and one time involved a freezing hail and lightning storm. Regardless of those mishaps, when I am done with the parenting phase of my journey I will again subject myself to the [...]
The previous three entries on The Middle Class Forum described free will, free thought and merited consequences as our natural rights. Our guaranteed liberties do not stem from our natural rights so much as from cultural entitlements. The big three cultural entitlements that we frame as liberties are privacy, property and security. Out [...]
Inuits have multiple words for ice and snow; the Yamanas from the Amazon have none. What individuals experience determines the social meanings they will construct. Thus embedding an Inuit (or American) into Yamana culture will lead to communication problems even if they otherwise speak the same language. This is a metaphor for how I felt [...]
Continue reading about The Natural Right to Merited Consequences
When asked about what I liked about long distance backpacking I would often remark on the complex grandeur of nature yet the simplicity of challenges faced. This is in contrast to the complex nuances of social interactions and challenges that occur in our modern culture. When given the straight scoop, when provided with open and [...]
While in my twenties I organized a variety of long distance backpacking expeditions. Only one other person has organized more (Warren Doyle) and between the two of us we can lay claim to nearly all of them. The conventional wisdom among backpackers was that spending a long time in the wilderness was something individuals do, [...]
Imagine that you are offered a choice for home entertainment that is to last you the rest of your life. One choice is a television with only one station available, a news station run by a corporate giant, but includes three different video game consoles with twenty games from different companies to choose from. The [...]
