Zelenn

Good Afternoon boys and girls, I was wondering if there were any FDR members in the Tampa area that would be interested in meeting up? The Tampa area has a rather large amount of Libertarians and that's kind of like the "diet coke" of AnCap, so I thought the odds might be high that there were a few FDR members hanging about Tampa. I live in Bradenton myself and would be more than happy to meet with other FDR members.

Hello FDR. Once upon a time, I dipped a toe into the forums here and left because of trolls, actually one particular troll, and decided that I didn't like online communication. I generally don't like writing and reading walls of text to begin with, so the troll really didn't help matters. That being said, I am going to make a sincere effort to hang around here more often and be engaged on this forum because *drum roll please* I am going back to college at 27 years old and I'd like to have the FDR community with me as I navigate a sea of nauseating Statism, starting with my Intro to Philosophy class. :-) I will be making my way part time through an AAS degree in Biotechnology while working one and maybe two jobs while doing it. I should accumulate exactly ZERO debt, by working and taking 3 years to complete a 2 year degree. It will be hard and difficult, but I think it will be worth it as I will have training in something I thoroughly enjoy, laboratory science, which I've objectively established is a value for me based on my enjoyment of my current work, phlebotomy/ lab tech for Quest Diagnostics. I'd like to hear your thoughts on going back to school in your late 20's and how to make it through the blatant Statism without disrupting class every five mintues to offer up a bit of philosophy. Thanks guys.

So your method of negotiation is to routinely terrorize me by trashing my reputation, down voting every post I make because you're upset, and being an all around shit head on my threads? I've noticed that other posts I have made which have nothing to do with you or this thread have also been down voted, seemingly without reason. Are you actually searching out my other posts and down voting them? Dude, this is cyberbullying. You were trolling. I called you out on it, I asked you politely to stop. You didn't. I ordered you to stop, else this would go to a Mod and you've stepped up your game. Shit just got real bro. You are not helpful on these boards and are blatantly trolling. Moderators, why is this guy still on the boards? He clearly has no interest in rational discourse and has all but admitted to trolling. This is not the only thread where his actions have been disruptive.

OK. And Prolix, stop down voting all my posts. You're trashing my reputation for no reason and its childish.

Wow. I apologize for the delayed response. I totally just saw this. You are correct. I have "largely" dealt with it, but not completely. But you should have seen where I started. :-) Mostly, I have dealt with it on "my end." I have pursued self knowledge, studied logic, I'm in therapy, trained my body (which sends self esteem through the roof! Lol). I have processed what has happend to me and I understand the forces that shaped my early life experiences. Having this knowledge has brought me to a place where I feel like I actually have free will. I'm no longer "running on autopilot." I am at a point where I have realized that my parents aren't interested in self knowledge or speaking about the past anymore. I am aware that this brings up much pain for my parents as they were both abused by their own parents AND siblings and they'd rather not talk about it. We spoke about many issues and they apologized for much of the harm that came to me that they directly caused (spankings, not validating my experiences, pressuring me to do well in school etc.) I'm now at 26, trying to forumlate the questions and arguments regarding the "indirect" harm that resulted. Its a hell of a thing to tell your mother, "Leaving me in that daycare was wrong and you did it, and you bear moral responsibility for it even though others did the physical hurting." Its a bit difficult to make that accusation without a solid understanding of the argument. I'm struggling to understand how I can hold my parents responsible for not being more intelligent than they were. For that matter, how do we deal with people in our lives who don't seem to be "strong enough" to handle philosophy? Disassociating with family who "can't handle truth," seems rather callous, after all, they're not evil, just weak and easily distracted by petty things. Demanding that people read and journal about Aristotle, disect Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and explain concept formation vis a vis Rand, while naming the logical fallacies... "or I'll leave you"... Seems a bit much to me. There are so many people in our lives that are completely addicted to Statism, literally addicted. Employers, family, my therapist, etc. They're good hearted (they think), but just don't fully understand the ramifications of "taxing the rich" or the ethical implications of "another military base," etc. And most of them don't seem to have the EMOTIONAL capacity to understand. The arguments aren't difficult to understand intellectually, but accepting them emotionally is terrifying and most people simply don't have the strength to face the reality of "Taxation is violence," or "Patriarchy is nonsense." My parents are the prototypical, "Wake up, work, watch TV, sleep," kind of people. They complain about everything and resist intrustions into their "stable routine." I feel like I am disarming a bomb at times. If I bring up the right subject, at the wrong time, in the wrong emotional climate... Boom! A nuclear blast on my family relations. I'm not ready to disassociate with them. And my parents ARE trying to have a relationship with me. My father and I kayak together a few times a week, we work together at times glazing hams. My mother and I cook some times and have "deep" conversations. Unfortunately, my parents would rather do ANYTHING but talk about my childhood. They want to build a new relationship without discussing the ongoing one. Thank you so much for the compliment. It means a lot to have someone understand the effort it took to get where I am.

I think there are many thing to be learned from martial arts. Of course, I think of martial arts as a much broader field of study than simply "how to hit a guy." Martial arts to me is "The Study of Conflict." Its a MASSIVE area of study. It involves not only the technical aspects of physical conflict, but moral, and situational aspects. It involves not only physical conflict, but economic conflict, social conflict, political conflict. Its about debate and logical fallacies, as much as using your hips to throw a guy. Martial arts tend to be overtly philosophical as well. Aikido is especially. One of our footwork patterns is a simple forward stepping movement called Irimi, which tends to be translated as, "Enter without fear." We have a training exercise called Tai No Henko, the entire purpose of which is to "gain your enemy's perspective." I''ll leave you to extract what value you will from that. Studying martial arts is studying conflict, not just the situational conflict itself, but also how conflict arises and what is the best way to deal with conflict when it arises. Trolls on the internet will often say, "martial art X sucks! After all what would (Karate, Aikido, Tai Chi etc) do if a guy swung at you in a bar? Huh?" The study of conflict would want to know: A: Why were you in this bar? B: What did you do to garner this guy's attention? C: Do you have to fight or can you walk away? D: If you must fight, must you use lethal force or is it enough to neutralize him? E: Have you trained yourself to the point where you can neutralize him without causing serious injury or are you so barely skilled as to actually be dangerous? (and not in a good way.) F: Where are you emotionally? Do you want to hurt him? Do you look to violence and a chance to be Billy Badass like a hungry dog looks to meat? In short, what you will find in martial arts depends on your reason for training. Aikido has made me a much calmer person. It is not a substitue for philosophy and self knowledge, but it may be a worth while adjunct.

I'm hoping that the shallowness of "some" women will act as an filtration device. Any woman who's perception stops at my clothing and wallet is not deserving of my time and attention. Money, status and height are about the only things I don't have going for me. I'm fit as a fucking fiddle. A Cross country cyclist, a rock climber. I train in a martial art or two. I can cook fairly well, great with kids, and I'm emotionally available. I can garden, milk cows, build sheds, install electrical wiring, free dive for oysters, and weld with plastic. My skill set is so versatile that I'm not even sure what is the extent of what I can do. I am certain that I can adequately perform in skills that I haven't even tried yet. I abide by the Non Agression principle, actively try to be logical, pursue self knowledge, manage what little money I have very well, and am basically a living god in bed, if I do say so myself. Lol. But unfortunately, I'm 5' 7", don't own a suit (and would probably never wear one), and have never earned more than $30,000 a year. My personal freedom means way too much to sacrifice it for something like money. Now, I'm going to "toot my own horn here", ... I'm freakin awesome. I'm 26, can do all kinds of practical things, I'm fit, fun, try to be virtuous... and I couldn't get a date to save my life. I'm not afraid to say that I have no clue what the fuck is going on. Finding a compatible woman shouldn't be this hard.

That's a good question. I suppose in the long run, it doesn't matter if they throw the race card around. I believe I spoke of fear of losing my bus ticket as my reason for hesitancy, Grayhound has been known to revoke tickets and leave stranded those who "cause trouble." I've been gone for a while, busy week, and I can't believe nobody has touched this. Does anybody think that there is an element of responsibility transfer in calling on the State in situations where personal action is possible? If one witnesses abuse, does a man have a responsibility to act? Does calling a cop count as making good on that responsibility? Where are all the philosophers? I heard they hang out somewhere around here. Lol. ;-)

... I'd lie. Because theres not a chance that they'll listen to you otherwise. If you lie, you might get the abusing parent's attention long enough to put forward a suggestion that sparks their curiosity and then you can have that conversation. It's a long shot and probably still is very unlikely, but the conversation won't happen at all if you say, "No, I don't have kids. I just have a lot of thoughts on the matter." Having kids is to a peaceful parenting conversation as having a college degree is to a job. Its a "credential." It allows you to get your foot in the door. Otherwise, your resume goes in the trash, no matter how good you really are. Sad, but has been my experience.

I train in Aikido and while I agree with many things Stef puts out, I have my differences when it comes to his thoughts on martial arts.

I suppose my concern is, as I discovered in this thread, that I may have used the cop as a form of transferring responsibility of action. I'm not sure this is actually true, but some of the other posters had some really good suggestions for things I could have done, but didn't. Emotional revulsion at the spectacle basically left me paralyzed and un able to take action, but surely, I could have at least talked to the boy or refocused his attention. Confronting the women was a losing proposition, but interacting with the boy was not. I'm wondering if calling on the State, even in difficult situations like this, can't sometimes be simply a way of using the State to avoid the (perceived) danger of taking personal action and "getting in the fight" ourselves? Since you train Aikido, let me mention the philosophy behind some of our techniques and movements and think about if they apply here. Irimi- A forward movement. Moving in to our attackers space. To Enter (Without Fear.) Drawing Uke Out-- Throwing a strike designed not to initiate violence so much as to provoke a predictable counter response from an opponent who has already communicated hostile intentions, but has not yet taken action. I now wonder if, instead of calling a cop who turned out to be useless, it might have been better (though certainly more demanding of ones courage) to Irimi, to enter without fear into this conflict and interact with the boy, almost certainly drawing out the anger in these women. Once their hostility is out and open, we can deal with it. The cop would have been much more useful, if the women HAD BEEN angry and hysterical. Its almost as if, we as a culture turn a blind eye to the anger and abuse done to children; that cop walked all through that bus station and saw this boy before I had ever said anything to him, but he did nothing until I asked him specifically. However, If that anger involves an adult who can engage back, now the situation has to be dealt with. It would almost have been preferable, to non violently provoke the women into being more angry and more violently irrational than usual. Once they've become "too angry" (apparently hitting kids doesn't count eh?) now they have to contained.

Hmmm... No, I can't say I do. Not that I have much of a choice on those things. Better alternatives might exist, but we won't see it so long as the State is around. Oh, is that your point maybe? That currently there's not much of an option? ^^^ This guy^^^ says what I think much more eloquently than I can. And he's much nicer about it. I'm kind of... A dick. Thank you, Sir. Now please, for Hells sake, can we talk about the abuse and what calling the state means. Can we delete Prolix's posts, undo his neg votes, mostly for the sake of my ever decreasing reputation from his exchanges, and let's get back on topic? It'd be much appreciated.

Nathaniel Brandon... This man, Ayn Rand, and Stef have been the three largest influences on my life. Where I would be without their words is something I'd rather not think about. Good bye, Dr. Brandon. I'll miss you. And thank you.

Welcome!

Welcome Ryan, that's quite a username ya got there. Big boots to fill. Lol. Just messin with ya. If you wanna talk ITOE, hit me up. Ayn Rand is a favorite of mine.

Welcome Jacob. Religion... Takes a while to really get to know it for what it is. I have been in almost every religion imaginable, so I know a lot about "rewriting" my basic philosophical operating system. Definitely not easy, certainly not a very comfortable task, but highly necessary. Welckme again to the boards and dont hesitate to ask a question. :-)

Welcome Paul.

Welcome sir.

Prolix, all you did was repeat your previous comments. You've added nothing new and it was YOU, not I, that made this about race. You're trolling and everytime I interact with you, my reputation takes a hit because younkeep giving my posts neg votes with out just cause. This has been my last warning. This is my ultimatum: Get out of my thread. Now. Don't respond. Just leave. If you refuse, this issue will be brought to the attention of a moderator. And un-neg my posts on your way out.

... ... .... What? So much verbiage. So little said. Alright. I'm calling it. Dude, you are trolling. Its killing this thread and I want you to stop. Now. I am trying trying to discuss real shit here and I will not tolerate juvenile questions like, " Do you want me to be antagonistic?" The answer to that riddle is, "No. Now contribute meaningfully to the discussion or get out."

Anyone else here engage in High Intensity Strength Training ala Drew Baye, Doug McGuff, Mike Mentzer, Ken Hutchins Super Slow, etc etc? How is your training coming along? What sport do you train for, if you have a sport? Does your sport modify your workouts? Are you a 1 Rep Max guy or a Time Under Load guy? And a much broader question, do you feel that Virtue can be trained under the barbell? Good trainin' good trainin'.

I will check out the Europe Skype call. I am also interested in holding a weekly Skype call on some other day and time, for those not able to make the Europe call. PM me if interested.

Wow. Prolix, are you TRYING to be antagonistic? We've been through this, guy. Thank you for addressing my core concern which was NOT race, although I tip my hat to Prolix for distracting the entire thread with that, but whether it is ethical to ask the State to use aggression to intervene in abuse. And, I wish I hadn't been so paralyzed by my feelings of revulsion that I could have at least interacted with the boy. I feel like I let the boy down with my personal inaction. I suppose that's my question really. Looking at my actions, it seems that I used the cop as a substitute for taking personal action. Kind of like using the State to help the poor instead of buying a beggar a meal myself. So, I ask myself, was using the cop a means of transferring responsibility? Did I have any responsibility? Given the possibility of "race carding" was any other option open to me? And if it was, how can I recognize it so that next time I am in a similar situation, I can take action immediately? Training, training, training. Always training.

So, the thread appears to by dying, but before the embers go out I must ask, "Why did my posts get negs?" I secretly suspect the negs come from Prolix, though they may not, as the neg'ed posts follow our interactions. Trying real hard to maintain a good reputation and given my early post count and neutral reputation, even a small amount of negs could be a killing blow. I won't ask anyone to change their vote if they feel I have earned it, but I would like an explanation as to why my posts get negs or have offended. Perhaps in a PM. Thank you. Luxfelix, like your suggestions. Of course, now I palpably feel that, had I a stronger emotional bearing, I might have interacted with the child thus doing some real good for the boy, instead of merely alerting a useless cop and watching the train wreck. So, I do feel a bit guilty now, for not having the "intestinal fortitude" to take action that might have actually helped. I wonder, is this an example of... dare I say it... cowardice?

Started as a Christian Liberal from Kentucky in the military (yes that was a weird experience.) Ditched Christianity... To become a Wiccan (facepalm) Ditched Wica to go Taoist (ah, it hurts, just let me die LOL) Ditched Taoism to go Buddhist WHILE entertaining Republican politics (...what?) Was a Buddhist truck driver that read Ayn Rand... and the scorched clouds of religion were dispersed and the rich, sunlit fields of Atheism were glimpsed and my brain naturally recalibrated itself. :-D Discovered Stef while looking for Objectivist vids. And its been a non stop, massive, facefisting punch of Logic and Truth ever since. What a strange and jagged path. Best part!! I'm not even done yet.