spacepan

Voting increases the voter turnout, and one of the "political" goals you might set out to achieve is to reduce the voter turnout as much as possible. I think that you should step outside of politics, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't cherry pick the effective methods used by political activist groups. You can make posters and pamphlets, you can spread a message of liberty, and you can encourage people to not vote. There are all kinds of ways to be socially active without being politically active. I think that there is a tendency to equate the two, and you might consider being "politically" antipolitical. Does this make sense? Basically, why not have your cake and eat it too? Act as though you were a political activist, but limit your message to the non-political realm. I would recommend finding ways to advocate (peaceful) action that is good and constructive where a traditional activist lazily supports a new law.

I got all the way through my Philosophy undergrad education without taking a class that focused on Political Philsophy (whoops!). My interest in Philosophy really picked up speed when I was searching for the justification for government, and I love to ask statists where this justification is. When I was a statist, I would at least do the lip service to social contract theory, but it's so trivially easy to debunk that there MUST be a more nuanced justification that the more cerebral statists are drawing from.I haven't read the original work yet, but I'm at least finding different summaries. I'm vaguely familiar with the concepts, but has anyone studied this word-by-word and actually gone through the ins and outs of the text? At first glance, it's just looking like a very messy way to cheat emotivism into the picture. But I know I'm being a bit lazy and not very charitable at this stage... Have any of you gone through this in a class and have heard it defended? Are there scraps of it to be salvaged? Is it a fun read? Let me know!

I saw Jesse Ventura speak at Rally for the Republic in 2008, Ron Paul's "shadow convention," and I was actually very impressed with him. I have no idea what's going on with that Conspiracy show and why he would jeopordize being a credible voice for liberty in order to do... uhh... the things he does on that. I can also relate to the fact that podcasts on topics you wouldn't necessarily "choose" are GREAT. Otherwise, I would be trapped in the political philosophy bubble, totally ignoring the fact that philosophy is so much more powerful in the areas of your life that you can control.This thread also makes me want to play Metal Gear Solid (I was more strictly a J-RPG kid), but I'm terribad at FPS's..

Your story reminds me of the "anarchy game" we played in middle school. The teacher divided us into groups, each one producing a different thing (Food, Pens, Paper) and one group of thieves. Each group produced a fixed amount of resources but, mathematically, the game was rigged so that people would gradually die off. If a thief died first, then the game ended up working out only if each group traded for exactly what they needed each turn. If a producer died, the group produced less, thus causing more death, thus "demonstrating" that anarchy can't work. I remember reflecting upon this experience later and realizing how disingenuous and lazy it was. I had loved that class and respected the teacher, but years later, after some reflection, I'm just totally disgusted by the fact that this passes as "education."I wish I could say it's "good to hear" that someone went through something similar... but mostly it just kind of sucks.

I'm a Philosophy major graduate living in St. Paul MN. Currently, I'm working at a paralegal, but, I assure you, I am an anarchist (though I prefer to say "non-statist" and "non-theist"). The first video of Stefan's I saw was one that he directed at the Ron Paul supporters in 2008. Over the years when I was studying, I kept him on my radar a bit, but it wasn't until after I graduated (and had way too much free time) that I started watching his videos daily. It was refreshing to hear a mature perspective that resonates with me since my entire education, from start to finish, was characterized by struggle against each school's ideology (first the "subtle" statism in elementary/middle school, religious indoctrination in middle school and high school, then the not-even-trying-to-be-subtle-anymore statism of college). I've become a bit frustrated with people around me because none of them are as passionate or convinced as I am that living in a free society is important, though at least a handful of them have at least warmed up to libertarian ideas. I realized that there HAS to be a forum on this FDR website Stefan keeps mentioning, and that I've also been complaining about how I don't have an "internet home" like I used to. Basically, I expect that posting on these forums will solve all of my problems and make my life super awesome. I hope I can help keep this forum healthy and active!