EPTI'm fucking annoyed with my country. The United States of America. Not for all the same bitchy little reasons everyone else is. That's all irrelevant to me. As a matter of fact, that’s the problem. The nation has divided into factions. Have you guys ever even fucking read the federalist papers? The entire idea behind our nation was be free, but don’t become factions.
As written in Federalist 10:
“By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”
All of the ideals found in the constitution and the Declaration of Independence alike are linked back to Classical Liberalism, an idea that ranges from “We should all be free to do as we wish no matter what that is” to “We should all be free to do what we wish so long as it does not harm* others”
*Physically harm; not the stupid little ow my feelings harm. Not Orb harmed some black guy’s feelings harm. Not “You called me a bad name” harm. I mean cut your fucking arm off harm.
The problem is that everyone wants things THEIR way. There is no room for negotiation. No room for error. It fits my demands, or I will fight you until it does. This is an underlying fault with Classical Liberalism. It depends too much on the individual. They assumed that most of the people would be logical, and normal, and peaceful. But it doesn’t work when the majority* is stupidly stuck in their ways, and hell bent on forcing others to be just like them.
*it is evident that there is not always one clear majority, and a lot of the time it’s more like two 50|50 groups arguing to no end.
I will get back to that in a moment, but let me say this: This isn’t a religion problem. Religion is a faction, but as history has shown us, so too is atheism. An atheist saying “everything you do is wrong and stupid, and you should be more like me” is the exact same as a Christian saying “everything you do is wrong and stupid, and you should be more like me”. So too is this not a problem with republicans, or democrats, or whatever the fuck. It’s not the actual ideals and opinions that matter. It’s the fact that they are pitted against one another in an all out battle to the death, split almost equally down the middle.
Factionalism is bad only in the sense that by definition, it’s adversed to the rights of others. That means a Christian who says “Atheists can believe whatever they want, it’s their choice, not mine” or vice versa are not being a part of the problem, or at least they are not a part of a religious/atheistic faction. It’s okay to identify with other like minded people. But that doesn’t give you the fucking right to demand that everyone else should identify with these people too. Speaking as a Christian ( see my self-introductory blog here, it’s not a very simple identification as “Christian”, I consider myself extremely different from most others who identify with this term) I could not imagine ever trying to tell someone “This is bad! Don’t do this!” I have my beliefs, my opinions, and my speculations. No one can prove me wrong, and no one can prove me right.
So the shorter way of saying all that is: It’s okay to group up, just don’t then use your numbers to attack those who are different.
As John Stuart Mill said in his work “On Liberty”:
“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.”
Please, if you leave this with anything, don’t let it be “I should let people make obviously stupid decisions”. The desire to play Russian Roulette twice a week doesn’t fit within the scope of my intent. Don’t let people harm (see above definition of harm) themselves. Don’t let people harm others. Don’t let people be deceived by harmful (no, really, cut your arm off harmful) people. Don’t deceive others. But don’t go around thinking you know every single fucking thing on the planet. Let me set this the fuck straight.
Unless you can describe the scientific mechanism and/or/of action which causes something to happen, and simultaneously provide an elaborate and informative physically manifested and tangible representation of something, which is infinitely repeatable without error, what you are saying is not proven 100% true beyond the shadow of a doubt.
Having 11 academic organizations credit a scientific theory (read: math equation about shit we haven’t actually experienced ourselves) as true doesn’t make it true (unless the above challenge has been satisfied). Having two billion people believe in the same God as you doesn’t make him real.
You must accept that, unless the above challenge has been satisfied for your beliefs (ie “I believe gravity exists”) there is a chance you are wrong. I want you to fucking say it out loud. Say it with me. “I could be wrong.” It’s freeing isn’t it? You don’t have to fight any more. You don’t have to be in a state of war. You can put your fists down. Even if there is a 99.9999999999995% chance you are right, that still means there is a 0.0000000000005% you are wrong. You COULD be wrong. The simple acknowledgment of that fact frees you from your need to spread your opinion. As logic dictates, why would you want to spread something which could in fact be wrong?
Don’t go hiding your opinions. Make them as public as you wish! Run down the streets declaring them, shout them from the roof tops! But never tell me, or anyone else, that they are 100% right (again, unless they satisfy the above requirements), because they’re not.
And that is what is wrong with today’s America. It’s the “I’m right” syndrome. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure a lot of places have this same exact problem, but this is my home, this is where I see it the most. Believe you me, I love this place. With all of my heart, I truly do. And that is why I am declaring my disgust with it. I want it to reach that honorable place, where we are actually a place of freedom. I want us to use words like freedom, liberty, rights, privacy, independence, and etc. in their true forms, not just as political jargon defined as “lol money please kthx”.
When you guys go vote this year, vote for whomever you feel is right in your heart. But don’t believe for a second the opposition is wrong. I would ask that you consider every single point presented to you. You don’t have to believe anything anyone says. But just hear it all. You’ll notice the factionalism immediately. You’ll notice that one group wants rights, and the other should be deprived of theirs. And the opposite is also true. You don’t have to accept this as fact, you can choose to say I’m wrong, it’s your choice, and yours alone. But I believe it’s clear that there is something wrong with this system.
In before elitist Europeans. Come on guys, if you agree with anything I just said, you can’t say “America is doing it wrong, Europe is doing it right” cause that’s that same fucking problem on a global scale.
