Brady1981

I had some fun answering these questions. My top match was 100% Ayn Rand! (You'll understand if you do it). http://selectsmart.com/PHILOSOPHY/

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/28/childrens-commissioner-ban-parents-smacking

This post made me think of Pandora's box. We know that we are bound to release all the terrible negative emotions, all the things that will pollute human life, but of course we can't help but open the box and all knowledge is released, but all trauma follows with it as well. The knowledge we maybe gain, perhaps is something useful, but we often find that we have regretted gaining it. And once gained it is impossible to lose again. The physicists who provoked America into developing a nuclear weapon are the ultimate 20th century representation of the myth of Pandora's Box. The self-destructive power we gain, but we can never put back. I think the feeling of powerlessness that you feel ties in with the very fact that we live in a state where power has outstripped wisdom. But I don't think feeling powerful is the important thing in life, i mean i guess we want to feel empowered, but that would seem to come from being wise and virtuous and happy. It's certainly better to be 'brainy' rather than 'dumb', if not for your own self-fulfilment, then for your children, if you have them, either now or in the future. A dumb parent turns into an ignorant hypocrite, and all this mess becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, a never-ending cycle of hopelessness. One last thing about Pandora's Box. From what i remember, Hope is left inside, it is not released, leaving us to wonder whether there is hope or there isn't, depending on any particular persons take on the matter. Perhaps some more enlightened board member can take this up.

I've been living in Jeddah for a little over a year. It's obviously a very intolerant and strangulating society to live in for a lot of people, though i don't very much count myself among them. I'm obviously very aware of the consequences of reaching beyond my legal rights, but at the same time I feel that i have enough liberty to...well to be libertarian. As Stef says, we are the source of our own freedom, and being in Saudi Arabia doesn't stop me from rationalising the truths of my own existence. But living in Saudi Arabia does provide the benefit of not stealing any of my money. I don't pay any tax, and while there's no doubt someone's got a gun to my head somewhere along the line (perhaps someone on the board would like to point that out to me!), i guess what i'm trying to say is to what extent is living in Saudi Arabia, (where no-one is stealing from me), better than living in my home country of England, where of course, I have the predicament that Stef so eloquently talks about on his podcasts. And i'm talking from a libertarian standpoint. I'm not living in Jeddah because i'm a muslim