GailG

You own your body. You do not own nature. You can own the fruit of your labor, but nature is held in common.

There are at least two kinds of Libertarians. There are the neo-libertarians, like Rand Paul. Then there are the Libertarians. I'm a Libertarian and all my libertarian friends support Bernie. That sounds strange to many, but it doesn't if you think it through. Until we establish equality, we can't establish libertarianism, so he's at least a baby step in the right direction.

Locke said that the basis of his reasoning is that before wealth and money, all land is commonly held. So your scenerio doesn't work. Locke wrote his 2nd treatise on government after learning about the Iroquois and other indigenous nations that held all nature in common and had democracy by 100% concensus. That culture would never build a "circular road", as you call it because it would have required the concent of 100% of the people within its boundaries to allow that to happen. the one effectively held prisoner would have vetoed the proposal. The rest of the people either have to live with it or use peaceful means to change the resister's mind. We are taught that those of the enlightenment just happened to come upon new ideas and ideals, but that's a myth. Those of the enlightenment happened to learn about the Iroquois who have the longest lasting constitutional democratic republic in recorded history. It was founded in August 909 CE

People live in a delusion is the answer to your question. Just because your labor touches the land does not make the land yours. It makes what you gather from the land - with none going to waste - that makes it private property. The entire concept of labor causing you to own what your labor produces arives from the idea that nature is commonly held. So a stream is commonly held, but the water you draw from the stream is your property. This has a built-in failsafe, where it would be ethically abhorrent to take more than you can use - not to mention stupid - because you have to carry your possesions with you as you travel about. You need to read John Locke's 2nd treatise on government. I think the part you want to read is chapter 5 - but I'm not sure. It's not that long of complicated in any case

When you take away consumers, you take away demand. The sole remaining company dies. That's what's happening now.

There is a difference between anarchy (chaotic anarchy) and rational anarchy. In rational anarchy, government does not own you, so you can't be forced to fight against an invader. Neither can government stop you from doing so. THat's why I think that capitalism must fail before we can implement rational anarchy, thus peace. The Iroquois accomplished it, and they began as cannibals. They were the longest lasting constitutional republic in history - established in 909 CE - with democracy by 100% concensus. They had no social ills - no prisons, no taxes, no domestic abuse, no poverty, etc. All contributed for the benefit of the whole. The invading capitalist cultures destroyed theirs.

Not to my way of thinking. If you are being forced to do something against your will, you are not free. I happen to believe that if you think of opportunity costs as financial ones, then again, you are not free. Capitalism is a softer version of slavery. Adam Smith called workers in a capitalistic system "free slaves". Somehow along the line, we dropped the word slaves.

A functioning democracy IS anarachy. Democracy by consensus is RATIONAL anarchy.

Here is how I escaped the cycles of anger. You have to walk THROUGH the anger. About 30 years ago, I was frustrated by my anger. Anger hurts. It doesn't feel good. I could never gain congtrol of it. One day I wonderd what anger really is. At that point I was a Xian, so I wondered if my emotions could be gifts from god that I was refusing examine. Perhaps they are a gift that I'm not using properly (among other wondering). So I decided to explore my anger to see what it is if I could. I chose a time when I was alone in the house. I fixed a cup of coffee, sat down, and proceeded to let my fury loose. Something had been upsetting me so it was very easy to get anger. Soon, I was as angry as I had ever been, but because this was an intellectual exercise, I didn't feel any of the pain that comes with anger. At that moment, I realized that what is so painful about anger is our fear of it. So I looked around in my mind (with the mind's eye) to see if there was any more anger in there. I found some hiding in a dark corner, and I invited myself to experience it. Immediately, I heard a popping sound in my ears, and felt like a whole giant bathtub of invisible water just washed over me. the anger was 100% gone. But then, I remembered that I hadn't learned anything about my anger, which made me angry enough to do the exercise over again. I repeated it. At the point of the ears clicking and the inivisble water washing over me, I was laughing hysterically. VIVID memories were wizzing through my mind. These memories were of me as a young child. The first was me at age 4.5. I had been wanting to read for at least a year but no one would teach me because I had to wait until I started school. I thought I would trick them into teaching me. I asked my father to write me name on a piece of paper, which he did. I then went to the coffee table and started practicing over and over and over and over again. After what seemed a long enough time back then (probably 5 minutes or less), I wrote my name on another piece of paper and showed it to him. He looked and pointed out that the "a" was backwards. I was devastated. I started crying. I felt so ashamed and embarrassed. I hadn't been careful enough. I was too stupid to teach myself to read. As I watched that memory (from the outside), I wanted to tell her that she hadn't done anything wrong and she certainly wasn't stupid. At that point I realized how perfect she was. As a Chritian, I found this shocking. I had never seen anyone's perfection before, and this perfection was mine. Then another memory. These were wizzing by so quicly I couldn't keep up as I tried to write notes about each memory. Every single memory was a memory where I unfairly and harshly critized myself. I didn't grow up in a physicallyt abusive home, so I didn't have to face memories that others might have to face as they realize that they are angry at themselves for judging themselves. By the time the exercise was over and the last of the memories passed, I realized that I could no longer be angry at the someone I had been angry at. I could see the perfection at the core of her being, because if it was in me, it was in her as well. Now I see only perfection when I see others, even if they are making mistakes because of errors in their belief system. whenever I start to get angry, before it can root itself in me, I go to my front porch, sit on the rocker, and remember what my perfection feels like. It feels wonderful. Those who live in anger are really beating themselves up with it. I can't share your emotions. You are alone with them. You can choose to abuse yourself with them (masochism) or you can get rid of them. The choice is yours. Good luck

I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's a symptom of a rational mind coping with the irrational world we live in. My husband has Aspergers. He is extremely bright, but he is not logical (though he is in his 80s and what we knew about the world back then was verey different than we now know. I love learning so I kept my knowledge up to date. I have to keep bringing him back and walking him through logic.

You are right. Thank you for bringing it up. I too found it fascinating as I had never been able to understand how those who called themselves Christians would do as they did.

LIsten to the interviewer be amazed by her atheism. That's the kind of indoctrination we were all subjected to. That video is from the time when we were required to say the Lord's prayer in school each day and pledge allegiance to the flag (rather than the Constitution), and a nation under god. thanks for the video

I don't have morals. I have ethics. These are two very different things. The pope has morals that allow him to say one thing and do another, That's why morals are so important in both religion and governmnent. Ethics make that impossible because ethics are grounded in honesty. As to your question, I am reminded of a speaker at the 2015 American Humanist Association. The woman is a pastor who through her studies realized that she was an atheist. Atheist had been a dirty word--so dirty that it was an almost unthinkable thought. She googled "atheist minister" and found out that there were many in her position. At that moment, she got it and started laughing. The first thing she realized after recognizing her spiritual atheism is that atheists have ethics! She went to her leadership meeting and told them what happened and how she would like to change the church. They said OK, so it's now a humanist church. She lost some parishoners, but she lives with a clean conscience, and services are now more meaningful.

In my opinion, the most complete explanation is in a book I am writing. I explain it rather like this: We are powerful creatures, and you can easily test that for yourself. Get two strile canning jars. Now cook some rice. Place the steaming (sterilized) rice in the jars. A couple of tablespoons each is enough. Label one love and the other hate. Place them about two feet apart where they will get equal environmental treatment. For the next month, whenever you see the rice, (at least once a day), hate the one labeled hate. Be as mean and insulting to it as you can. Project your dislike for it into the rice. Do the opposite with the one labeled love. Complement it. Tell it how beautiful and wonderful it is. Project your love into the rice at least once a day. It will take little time before the hated rice will turn moldy while the loved rice remains pristine looking. You can also do this with 3 jars of rice. Love one, hate one, and ignore the one in the middle. You will find that the one in the middle turns black and moldy. The other two jars look pretty OK, buty when the experiment is over, smell the two not-moldy jars of rice. The hated one will stink so bad you might gag while the loved one has a mild fermented smell that is not objectional. Our minds are powerful instruments. When we learn to discipline them, we can do amazing things. These aren't miracles. They are natural parts of our beings. We are gods.

Why are you afraid of Satanism? It is nothing more than atheism wearing a costume. It exists because of anger at Christians. It pokes fun of them, but in a more personal way than the flying spaghetti monster does. Satan isn't real.