BillyPilgrim Posted September 2, 2016 Posted September 2, 2016 Hello, FDR board members. I'm a 20 year old guy from Iowa. My search for truth began a couple of years ago, reading Kurt Vonnegut and questioning my protestant-Christian upbringing. I took a few detours along the way, straying dangerously close to leftist political philosophy for a time, and never quite having the rigor to reject Christianity (mostly due to social pressure). It was the modern philosopher Alain de Botton's book Religion for Atheists that opened my eyes to what I already believed (or rather, didn't believe) about God and religion. The videos and articles from De Botton's School of Life organization gave me an overview of philosophy and introduced me to important things like self-knowledge. All of this served to prepare me for what I would hear from Stefan about personal freedom, and market anarchism by extension. I was introduced to FDR about five months ago by a friend who had watched some of Stefan's YouTube videos. I was immediately interested and began listening to the podcasts from the beginning, and I haven't stopped since. So far, I'm about 200 episodes into volume one. I'm also making my through both both "UPB" and "On Truth." I mentioned Vonnegut because it was reading his novels - which often use absurdity and meaninglessness to make sobering points about human nature - that made me realize my interest in the natures of meaning of beauty. So it was this aesthetic branch of philosophy that first brought me into the fold. But I was never very interested in the ethics side of things until I started listening to Stefan talk about the argument from morality. I remember driving home from school in a swarm of cars on the interstate as his syllogism was laid before me. The world turned upside down. It took me a few days to take it all in, but I was amazed at how well reality was explained by this theory. Having been raised in an entirely conservative environment (home-schooled), and thrust into an entirely liberal one (community college), I had never heard of the Non-Agression-Principle or anything regarding the philosophy or liberty. So the truth of rational, scientific, and consistent morality taken to its logical conclusion of anarchism was a discovery that brought delight beyond words. So I am eager to expand my self-knowledge and learn more about what living out the philosophy of freedom looks like. Thank you for reading my introduction, and I look forward to conversing with and learning from you all!
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