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So if my comment policy was the first thing I think I got right (and I’m highly confident it was) in my search for an original and effective response to the loss of freedom, then this new idea that just occurred to me (after some words from a co-worker were turning in my brain) is the second. It’ll be pretty controversial with many of my political and ideological brethren, I suspect, but I’m eager to defend it.  Too bad I don’t have time to write about it tonight, and probably not tomorrow, and if not then, then probably not until Wednesday. I’m sure you’re all on the edge of your seats :-) .

(What my co-worker said was “It’s okay, I have no hate in my heart.”  To which I responded, “And neither do I.”)

UPDATE:  Yeah, no time to really write anything.  The only thing I’m adding tonight is to mention that I see no reason to suspect that people today are inherently more virtuous or wicked than they have ever been in human history.  And that goes cross-culturally as well.  Most people worldwide embody a desperate desire to see good triumph, and are riddled with anxiety that good is impotent.  The phrase “Worldwide Prisoner’s Dilemma” just drifted through my transom…

Posted in The Project.

By John
April 11, 2009

2 comments

The Atlas Shrugged Book Campaign

Atlas Shrugged Book CampaignOver at go-galt.org, C. Jeffery Small is making a push this April to mail letters and copies of Atlas Shrugged to our elected representatives and unelected power-wielders.  For those of you itching to make a pro-liberty statement around tax time, he provides a wealth of information and suggestions on how to hone your message.  I know many of those who stumble across this blog have been in search of a way to express their frustrations with the anti-freedom mindset of our political class; his project might be right up your alley, so check it out!

Posted in Other Galt-ish Projects.

By John
April 5, 2009

4 comments

Dr. Larch, anti-vaccinators, freedom

In John Irving’s The Cider House Rules, Dr. Larch considers himself an abortionist out of obligation, because of the practice’s illegality. He argues with his protege Homer that his personal feelings on the matter are irrelevant as long as women are forbidden from availing themselves of abortion as an option. According to Larch, only if and when abortion was legal could Homer allow himself the luxury of personal conscience; until then, however, he expected Homer to fight for the women who came seeking deliverance. (Please note: this is not a commentary on this view of abortion — both proponents and detractors have much stronger arguments than those barely hinted at here. It’s not even a commentary on the moral stances of the characters involved.)

I homeschool my kids. Such as it is, anyhow (the more accurate term is “unschooling”). Homeschooling being a fringe activity, you run into a lot of fringe viewpoints (and you can use this site as Exhibit A), and one with a lot of currency among homeschoolers is distrust of vaccines almost on principle.  As a scientifically-minded person, this drives me nuts. Seeing otherwise reasonable folks reject one of the greatest medical achievements of the previous two centuries, endangering not only their children, but other children and adults as well, angers me greatly. However, I feel an obligation to defend their right to make that profoundly irresponsible choice from those who would allow them no choice at all. As important as vaccination is, liberty is even more important to a healthy society.

There are many things one can peaceably do with one’s own freedom. You can try to better everyone’s lot in life, or just your own. You can waste it, or what’s more, use it to convince thousands of others to waste theirs as well. But the only right one can have to sit in judgment of how another has chosen to peaceably use their freedom comes from the fact that one acknowledges their right to freedom in the first place.  The person who would say “See how he exercises his freedom when it’s granted? This is why I cannot permit him to keep it.” already believes that their desired outcomes are not only worth more than another’s, but that that fact entitles them to grant or revoke his freedom as it suits. To them I have nothing to say, as befits the chattel they take people for. I will not waste words on those who refuse to treat others as fellow humans.  I may share or dispute their moral assessment of another, but while they insist that their moral assessment is a cudgel with which they may compel their peaceable but allegedly moral inferiors, they are unworthy of pronouncing moral judgment. Against them, I will side with the miser and the wastrel. Both are the moral superior of the highwayman.

Posted in Musings.

By John
March 30, 2009

5 comments

Me and Krugman both

This just caught my attention, given my post from a month and a half ago:

Krugman says he found himself in the science fiction of Isaac Asimov, especially the “Foundation” series—”It was nerds saving civilization, quants who had a theory of society, people writing equations on a blackboard, saying, ‘See, unless you follow this formula, the empire will fail and be followed by a thousand years of barbarism’.”

I guess we’re all looking to save the world, all trying to plan our own First Foundation. Of course, Paul Krugman has some very different ideas about how to go about it (that, and a Nobel Prize [grumble, grumble, all just a big popularity contest, grumble, grumble...]). At least they’re not as bad as Shoka Asahara’s.

Posted in Current Events.

By John
March 29, 2009

1 comment

…or else what’s a meta-phor?

So imagine two enemies, Parasite and Producer (John Bunyan, eat your heart out), each with a hostage.  It’s an unstable stalemate, the dramatic conclusion of a cheesy movie. Who’s gonna flinch first? Will both hostages perish? Why is that guy smirking?  What does he know that we don’t, or is he bluffing?

Cramming Atlas Shrugged into this framework, we know why Producer is smiling. Parasite’s hostage, which is the world Parasite knows, means nothing to Producer. Producer’s hostage, his own productivity, means everything to Parasite. So Producer has nothing to fear; he holds all the cards, and he doesn’t even care if Parasite figures it out.

Of course, that’s not how I characterize the situation we face today. Because there is no Atlantis, the world Parasite knows is the only world Producer knows too, and Producer loves her dearly, and is anguished at the pain she’s already suffered, and is terrified that Parasite just might kill her.

Producer also knows that Parasite will never let his hostage go voluntarily; Producer has spent the whole movie up until now trying to appease Parasite, and the situation has only gotten worse.

So Producer has taken a hostage of his own, his own productivity. But Parasite is smirking at Producer. “I know you’re never gonna pull that trigger, because you love your own hostage more than I do!” And Producer thinks Parasite might just be right, and then it’s game over.

mgBut Producer can turn this situation around in two ways. First, he can let Parasite know that he’s just bat-shit crazy / punitive enough to pull that trigger. Parasite is searching Producer’s eyes, counting on seeing a glint of fear. What if Parasite saw something else?

The second scenario, well, let’s just hope we don’t get to that point. Parasite’s hostage is sick, and getting sicker. In the back of his mind, he knows that if she reaches the point of no return, there won’t be anything holding Producer back. Producer will be mourning, free, and in a mood for vengeance.

I wrote up this little metaphorical analysis because it helps clarify what I’m going for here. And it’s not how some of my readers see things, which is fine. They feel like they’re in the same situation as Atlas, that they don’t care about Parasite’s hostage. Obviously, their path is easier than mine. They’re not hurting me in any way, and I wish them luck. Heck, I hope I can help them as well. But because I want to save Producer’s hostage so much, and I don’t think Producer can bluff his way through this conflict, I’m trying to think of ways to convince Parasite that Producer means it, and to remind Producer that yes, the situation is bad, and isn’t going to improve.

Posted in The Project.

By John
March 22, 2009

13 comments

Better Living Through Technology

One last post about the blog, rather than what the blog is about. I’ve decided to create a WordPress plugin for this blog to enable individual readers to filter out comments they don’t wish to read a second time. I plan on it working as follows:

  • The average reader would see the site totally unfiltered, all comments visible
  • A reader could choose to click a “Filter Comments” link over in the sidebar
  • If they have used the Filter Comments capability before, if would use their most recently used settings
  • If not, the reader would create / have created for them (not sure yet) a unique ID that could be preserved as a cookie, so their filter choices could be preserved
  • With an ID, a reader could toggle on/off the visibility of any comment on the site, and have that visibility choice retained for subsequent visits to the site.
  • If comment filtering is enabled, the reader can pick a “Show All” link where they can unset their previous filtering choices.

Pretty simple, eh? My comment policy remains the same, but this little bit of functionality puts more control in the individual reader’s hands. And while I think the idea behind it is philosophically consistent with the ideas motivating this site, it has a much broader applicability. Imagine the benefit to, say, the proprietor of a feminist site who gets periodically hit with ugly misogynistic comments, but who has an objection to deleting them outright. This plugin would empower their readers to customize their reading experience for the site.

Now I have no experience with creating WordPress plugins, and I’m curious to see what the API is like. But it’ll be worth the effort to make something reusable that I can donate to the WordPress community. WordPress is a fantastic technology that I have enjoyed immensely, and it’s good and proper to finally make a contribution of my own.

I’ve got a lot on my plate (hello, iPhone 3.0 SDK beta!), including a promised post on a wonky job action idea of mine, but I’m looking forward to getting cracking on it this weekend. What do you folks think, good idea? bad? lacking key features?

Posted in Under the hood.

By John
March 17, 2009

1 comment

Comment Policy Monday

I had really wanted to post on a possible job action, but circumstance demands that I address this site’s comment policy, as it appears to be widely misunderstood by those who are in general agreement with the site’s overall mission, probably due to my tendency to wax poetic a bit when getting my objectivist on. So let me break it down.

1) People who are only here to troll, mock, etc., are free to say whatever they want. Their comments will always be approved. The only circumstance under which I might delete one of those comments would be if they contained potentially libelous or otherwise illegal content, but that holds true for anyone’s post. And anyway, I’m not a lawyer, so what the hell do I know.

2) People who are here to explain why the whole endeavor is doomed, evil, unwise, etc., are similarly free to say whatever they want.  Their comments will always be approved.

3) People whom I see as a potential ally in the promotion of liberty face onerous restrictions. Essentially, you are not permitted to engage anyone from 1) or 2) above. If you find yourself itching to reply to something you see as demanding a smackdown, take a walk around the block. Do not succumb to the temptation. If you do, your comment will be deleted. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a direct fisking or a veiled response, straightforward or sarcastic, confrontational or conciliatory. It has no place here. Additionally, general attacks on “the enemy”, however you see it (“leftists”, “socialists”, “moochers”, etc.), are also not permitted. 

I have endeavored to be consistent in my application of this policy, and I will continue to do so.

There’s a method to my highly arbitrary fascism. Regarding 1) and 2) above, I just don’t care. As to 3), for good or ill, you people reflect on me, and on lovers of freedom in general. And when you engage in comment policy violating behavior, what you are saying is that freedom is primarily a debate club position. You’d rather just rehash the same old arguments for the millionth time than work towards actually developing ways to advance freedom.

I am stipulating that you are right to favor freedom and independence. But you think you are showing the world that you favor them by repeatedly arguing your case while things fall apart around you. You aren’t. You’re demonstrating that the actual loss of freedom is less important to you than the opportunity to type another essay, or to call names.

I’m trying to train you. If you can’t keep your eye on the goal because someone is saying something stupid somewhere, you won’t be of much use in the fight ahead. 

Who am I to be such a hardass? Honestly, I’m nobody. I’m a smart guy, but I’ve got no particular skills when it comes to this sort of fight. But I know that in looking back on the time that I’ve spent engaging in random running battles with cranks online, I don’t think that time was well spent. I’m not speaking of discussions with people I know personally, or people I respect; those have paid great dividends. But the eternal internet flame war has just been a monstrous deadweight loss when judged by the proper standard of actual liberty achieved, instead of by the usual standard of vaguely satisfying snarkiness.

Okay, I’ve said my piece. I will be updating some links and information pertaining to the comment policy. From this point forward, I’ll be leaving moderation on to keep me from being put in the position of needing to delete comments after they’ve already been published. Furthermore, I’ll be deleting offending comments without explanation. You’re smart enough to figure it out. If you’re concerned that your essay will be lost, save it locally first.

Posted in The Project, Under the hood.

By John
March 16, 2009

5 comments

Coming Attractions

Hope everyone’s having a nice weekend.  I’ve been busy with rehearsals for a concert on Sunday, so rather than let the site stay stale for days, I figured I’d let you know what was coming up here. First, I’ll post on a possible incipient job action plan on Monday or Tuesday. Then I think a post explaining the purpose behind the comment policy is in order. That’ll drop the day after. And probably the day after that will be a bit on a tool I’m developing for use on this site and others, but I don’t want to say much about it before the comment policy post.  So stay tuned!

Posted in Under the hood.

By John
March 14, 2009

3 comments

Most Peculiar, Mama

What an odd 24 hours. For what it’s worth, the site had over 4,000 visitors today, and over half of them were using Firefox. I had no idea IE had lost that much market share! I had some real nice comments, many thanks, and I appreciate the folks who actually signed the Public Declaration. I’m hoping at least half of you are real. Just a bit too tired to look into it right now.

Just an FYI, I’m real unavailable for the next 15 hrs or so, so don’t freak out if your comment doesn’t show up because it’s held in moderation. I should be able to get to it in the afternoon or evening. That’s of course assuming the site doesn’t fall over again. We’ll see.

In short, an interesting day, but nothing that changes the fact that there’s a lot of work to be done, and i don’t even know what it is :-/ .

Posted in Under the hood.

By John
March 12, 2009

20 comments

1,000

1,000 unique visitors today (as of 11:05 AM).  Surprising doesn’t begin to cover it.  I hope some of you have found something you like, and I wish I had some more goal-oriented content for you. There’s a bunch of us (and our numbers are growing) who don’t think the world can continue on the way it is without some pretty disastrous consequences, but know that changing course is a tough endeavor. Just “trying anything” is costly in itself, so I’m committed to finding a real solution. Unfortunately, I realize being deliberate about finding a solution can look a lot like dithering; what can I say — I’m honestly not sure what I can offer, but I’ll be damned if I’m not trying. Look around, judge for yourself, and if you find another place you think can get the job done better (or if you think you can), then tremendous! Be sure to let me know.

Posted in Under the hood.

By John
March 12, 2009

33 comments