Category Archives: Reflections

I might blog here about practically anything, so beware!

First they ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win.

Posted by David Emeron on
M.K. Gandhi while serving in the Ambulance Cor...

M.K. Gandhi while serving in the Ambulance Corps during the Boer War (1899) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Gandhi is purported to have said something of the sort.

Since the term “liberal” was co-opted by marxists in the early 20th century, and the term “libertarian” has more or less taken on the meaning that it used to have, I have noticed a few things:

First, that libertarianism, for many decades, has been ignored–barely a blip on the national radar, so to speak.

Second, that something has changed regarding these erstwhile liberals now called libertarians.  They have moved well away from obscurity, and in the last five years, seem to have moved rapidly through the mockery stage.  Naturally this type of mockery indicates fear–but this is another issue altogether.

Now, however, libertarians, individualists, (classical) liberals–call them what you may–are being actively fought.  This is quite a change, considering that a mere 10 years ago such people seemed to have been settled into the obscurity phase of the Gandhi quote (paraphrase, or misquote.)  I can only feel encouraged by this as I feel individual liberty is of paramount importance: and not just to me, but to everyone–even the enemies of such liberty.

If one scans the posts in the WP reader tagged “libertarian,” one might find about three hit pieces for every one genuine libertarian blog post.  This, at least, is what I found in my admittedly short, non-scientific sample.  In any case, such is not a group of posts that can be “followed” blindly, by any means.

The enemies of individual liberty taking part in these attempts at disinformation, denigration, obfuscation, or misdirection should perhaps take heed that stage 4 of the Gandhi attributed quote (paraphrase, &c) is just around the corner.

Related articles

And having clicked on the above article, I was quite amazed at the synchronicity of another article which begins with the very same Gandhi  reference–perhaps properly quoted and sourced.  The above article is of course based on more concrete examples of this, rather than the result of my own proclivity for pattern recognition.  I did not include more related articles because I did not think my whimsical little article warranted vetting them all–especially since only one in three is a genuine….

Well… you get the idea, I think.

Just a thought:

Posted by David Emeron on

I just had an interesting thought in the form of a question:

Some of us–perhaps most of us–begin life in an ordinary way; that is to say our lives, even our natures, may be quite ordinary. Is it possible that true love is the very element that transforms a person from the ordinary to the extraordinary?

I do remember my young self as… while not quite ordinary, perhaps in many respects much more so. Once I fell so deeply in love, nothing was ever the same. Nothing internal. Not the outside world. Everything changed. Everything was different.

After that moment, All my thoughts and feelings were more complicated, more deeply considered. Life was different; nor did I approach it in the same way as before.

via Intro 8: Thy Bed | David Emeron: Sonnets.

Idiots with Loud Voices | Inner Organs

Posted by David Emeron on

An answer here to an unasked question in the very thoughtful post which links below:

I enjoyed this post quite a bit, young sir.  I enjoy a well-reasoned essay, even if on an emotionally charged subject.  Yours is a very well reasoned point of view.  “But wait!” as Ron Popeil says, “There’s more.”

In these matters, our problem, in a very general sense–and by “our” I mean virtually all of us excepting those few who have received a proper education–and I do not number among them, although I wish I did.  Virtually all of us do not know how to research a topic properly; and by research I mean “study,” because, as a scientist, I consider research to consist of experiments and theories one investigates and tests oneself, first-hand.  Still, not splitting that particular hair, whether one calls it research or study, one must know where to look.  When one hears that Microsoft, or Apple, or Monsanto, or Greenpeace are the Devil incarnate, one must, in general (if one knows how) make a valiant attempt to see if this theory can be DISproven, not proven.  Scientists disprove theories, and when they cannot do so using any and all proper methodologies, then they begin to think that perhaps the theory–at least for lack of a better one–might be correct.  Because of my background, I often do both that “research” which I deem “study” and that which I perform and devise first-hand.

The fact that almost all of us do not know how to do this, is not our fault (until we well and truly become aware of how and why this is the case and choose not to self-correct this mal-education, only then do any of us share some blame.) 150 years, or thereabouts, of marxist and proto-marxist education theory is responsible for this as well as many other deficits in all aspects of our ability to think.

If one investigates these “hotbutton” issues using the proper portals and even using both research and study, if possible, one often finds–and I must even go so far as to here state that one usually finds–that the lemmings are running toward or away from the cliff for no reason at all; or more accurately, that quite often one finds (as in the actual case of the lemmings themselves) that some version of Uncle Walt was up there on top of the cliff with a bin full of lemmings and a snow shovel.

So the first thing we have to do, is have a look on top of the cliff and see if he’s still up there with an empty bin, leaning on his shovel, having a smoke break, so to speak.  And barring that, we see if we find lots of tiny scrabbling footprints, as one might expect to find, or a few large bootprints, some tire-tracks, and a half-dozen cigarette butts.

via Idiots with Loud Voices | Inner Organs.

Aang can save the world | wordcoaster

Posted by David Emeron on

In response to this:

The airbender avatar Aang,
Teamed up with the rest of his gang
To bring life and rebirth
And save the whole earth
And if that ain’t enough, well then dang!

While a bit of an Anime noob,
I watched the whole thing on the tube
All in one afternoon
(Hope you mean the cartoon,
And not this Sha-lam-a-lon boob.)

Aang can save the world | wordcoaster.

Twitter and Facebook links being recalcitrant:

Posted by David Emeron on

This is one of those things, I suppose.  The things they warn you about.  Periodically one will have to renew ones ‘publicise’ links or else they will stop working.  So I hope I have done so now.   This is what I get for not maintaining my facebook page nor posting any fresh twitter links save the automatic ones.

Pay it Forward is Nonsense

Posted by David Emeron on

This I thought was well thought out. So much so that I also added a rather lengthy comment below the post.  I am quite sure it is riddled with grammatical errors so I include a copy of it here which I may correct in due course:

Bravo! I have long felt unsettled by the term to which you refer. I have always acted with kindness toward others; and when others are kind to me, this does indeed lift my spirits, so to speak and makes it a bit more likely that I will be that much more kind to any I should encounter. However I have always rewarded, in any way in which I am able, acts of kindness shown to me.

We often forget that a real life and fiction are not the same. We write a certain passage in as a philosophical passage in a book–as did Miss Rand–to illustrate a philosophical point. It is not, I think so much a blueprint for action but rather a thing to keep in mind in real life.

For example, when recently our car was down with unexpected and catastrophic repairs, which I found would take some time, owing to the unavailability of parts and the type of work needed, to repair, our friend JR whose work and sleep schedule is quite opposite mine most of the time, offered me his car until the work was done, provided he was not at work himself, and was in essence done with his car for the day. He did not ask for a dime or a dollar–this was real life, after all, not a lesson in a book. HOWEVER, the lesson of Miss Rand’s book, and perhaps one that was reinforced by good parenting and perhaps even by the Andy Griffith show : ) caused me, without even thinking about it, to wash my friend’s car and leave the tank full. I did this whether there were ten gallons or a half gallon missing, and regardless of how much or how little I drove.

Yes such an act is encouraging. But even such an unsolicited payback as I describe is all the more encouraging to those who have done someone a good turn. I would have done this even if my friend had insisted It was not necessary. Just as are the two characters in Miss Rand’s book, both of us are financially stable enough that my act of recompense was neither necessary nor burdening to either of us, still the goodwill was priceless! And, what better way to show my appreciation than to save him a trip to the car-wash and the gas station for a few weeks.