Voluntary is to choose

Voluntary is to choose. 

Autonomous is to do alone. 

One can autonomously (on their own) choose to be in a community.  This would be a voluntary action.

If you believe that community (which is not autonomous) is important then you would choose it voluntarily as would all others whom value it as you do.

If community is a universal value then there would be many communities.  IF it is not, you can hardly advocate for a personal preference to be forced on the unwilling majority.

If your community chooses to build roads you can choose to share your road with a neighboring community.  You can enter into a contractual relationship with them.  You can form another kind of voluntary relationship at a different level of intimacy with this community, or not.

If roads are a universal value then there would be many roads and many communities wishing to enter such arrangements previously described.  If not, you can hardly advocate for a personal preference to be forced on the unwilling majority.


Substitute the words community and roads for anything else and you understand the theory of a voluntary society and how it works.


I appreciate you for reading this, voluntarily.

-R

Seeing a problem

Seeing a problem in the world that only could have happened because a human was free to do it, and then thinking the way to solve that problem is to make that human less free via force or threat of force to prevent it from happening in the future has unintended consequences that are MORE costly in the long run than the original problem.

Its more costly because neither the producer, consumer, or enforcer has grown philosophically, morally, or spiritually by choosing the coercive path.  Which means that you will always have to pay for the product/service + corruption + enforcement.  Which means you have compounding problems as your next problem builds off of your last.

We should never create (through our philosophy) distance between cause and effect.  We should never create intellectual fog as to whom is responsible for what.

The proper way to enforce is to withdrawl consent in all ways in which support was being given to the individual/groups previously.  This implies that as individuals we are responsible for our actions, and the results of those actions.  It is personal responsibility and accountability that needs to grow if we want health/peace and those qualities are diminished when we try to export OUR responsibility onto others.

Therefore property rights and free association are to be held up as paramount for a free and healthy society.  To be responsible is to be responsible for something, this original something is you, your actions, the things you acquire, and then the people you associate with.  All manner of human relationships need to be voluntary and chosen for all of us to grow in the ways which support a healthy society.

Freedom is the ultimate principle.  You are free to do anything but violate someone else's freedom, to the degree that you do you are responsible.  To violate anyone's freedom is self destructive and nullifying of that point of view or philosophy.

-Evil and the nature of our world-

There is no guarantee onto the future.  It is unhealthy to force it into mine or anyone else's vision of utopia.  What I mean is that there is no "system" conceived of that can guarantee total peace and serenity for all.  We can only guarantee freedom or slavery.

You could try to create hell on earth and have unlimited resources with which to try, and yet someone will laugh, someone will fall in love, someone will smile.  Eventually you would have to kill all life including your self.  This perspective is ultimately self destructive and self denying.  It is insane and I don't think worth perusing intellectually to a great degree.

You could try to create heaven on earth.  If you have unlimited resources the best you could do would be to create YOUR version of it which is ultimately narcissistic and psychologically unhealthy, but no matter what you do someone will get hurt, cry, make a mistake.

This world is completely bound by cause and effect.  Human beings are a mix of their determined biology and environment, yet in every moment exercise free will to decide.  It is from this position that we begin.  This is where you exist, this is your life.  What will you do with it?  There are few guarantee's.  You have the right to exist and to interact with the world, as do all others.  If you do not like what someone else is doing you have the right to not participate or support in any way.  If you do not like how someone is behaving you do not have the right to initiate force against them.  If human beings are good, then over all, in the long run, more often than not, life will be good.  The converse is also true, if human beings are bad then...  Voluntary associations of like minded people can grow from units as small as two and become as large as the whole planet.  They can perform ANY function or service.  These associations will grow based upon our individual philosophies, if it is possible to have two philosophies be in alignment they will be similar in principle and be simple in nature they will be non-contradictory.  Alignment is stable and self reinforcing.  Our social systems will either promote equality or inequality.  IF they promote inequality then individuals are responsible to withdrawl consent from said system and seek out/create another.  Overtime this process is equalizing to the best degree that anything could be.  There are no inherent masters or slaves.  This is the best we can hope for.

All physical items (property) must be either owned or awaiting to be discovered and then owned.  Therefore someone is responsible for all things, or soon to be.

Government is a group of people that have the moral right to initiate force over another group of people in a given geographic area.  In a government system you do NOT actually own your home even if you no longer make payments to a bank, this simple evidence is all that is needed to understand the nature of government.  If you don't believe me or my point is not understood try to live in your home peacefully in a self sustaining mannor and tell me if someone shows up carrying a weapon explaining to you that you owe them money for a war you do not support.

Voluntary associations look and function EXACTLY like government except they are truly accountable to a degree semiannual voting (democracy) could never be, in that they can utilize a voting methodology to gain consensus but have the built in the fail safe of "disassociation rights" of all members to keep it fair.  There will be as many voluntary associations are there are good ideas they will be dynamic as human beings are.  They are truely bound to the will of the member.

If humans beings want roads there will be roads.
If human beings want local or national defense there it will be.
If human beings want guaranteed health care there it will be.
If human beings want a social safety net there it will be.

What human beings can never have is something for nothing with out slavery.

Please, reject slavery.

-R

Tao of life, politics style.

Property rights, free markets, capitalism, profit; All of these things are just tools for life (like biology and chemistry are). They are the right ways for humans to relate to one another in the realm of material. They are not the whole story to a full life though. There is also the integration of community, relationships, tradition, love; They are the ways humans relate to one another in spirit (like poetry, art, and music are). Observation, logic, rhetoric, judgment are the bridge between the material and spiritual side.


All are important.
None require force in order to function.
Force actually halts all function.
The only place for force is in defense.
in defense, function is halted as attention is turned to stopping then reversing the corruption.
Mercy is the transition from defensive force to non force
Once the corruption is gone the force stops, mercy is expressed.

The only time force does not corrupt is in the defense of one of the above.

Judgment is being exact in the application of force...or love for that matter. That is why observation, logic, rhetoric are the bridge. They sit between material and spirit. This bridge is reality, it just is.

as much as its tempting for me to pick one color above as the most important part of being human...I really shouldn't. I've learned that when I try to focus on one thing as being THE MOST important I really do lose sight of my true goal. During certain times, one is more important than the other, but none is more important than all, all of the time.


I really think that the truth of life is being shown to us at all times (its got to be right? If not we're fucked), and should be applied to our philosophy and how we choose to govern ourselves. "the truth of life" is like how math was...its hard to discover...but once the rules are gotten, it can be expanded upon. The "truth of life" its even harder than math because its not so simple to prove like 1+1=2. 1+1=2 was only half of it.

why?

because the truth of life is the integration of the two things that seem impossible via a process that is seemingly cold.

like... facts + feelings about those facts via a non contradictory understanding of how they relate to each other equals a human experience.

I've always been so interested how republicans and democrats can argue and never get anywhere...yet both sides really think the other side is dumb or ignorant. In some ways they're right. I've always wanted and hoped that everyone could come together.

I think the coming together is starting in the green above then looking at the red and the blue at the same time and removing ideas that don't fit. This takes courage, honesty, and acceptance. none of which require force. All of which are honors in the life of a human whether everyone knows or no one knows. In that way its true.

-R

Attitude Management

Attitude management is the third pillar of health.  You have objective sciency things like nutrition and excercise.  Its easy to not appreciate the real and valid part of health called attitude management.

AM is subjective because it is purely your experience.  There is no evidence of it outside of your mind.  It is truly all up to you and only true if you think its true.  It is good to appreciate that it is subjective in nature so that you can really be aware of what power you have.  In subjective things you are like a god.  You can instantly create, destroy, sort, compare, pay attention to, ignore, cultuvate, or ruin your attitude.  Because our 5 sense's are so objective and obvious and evidence based they are what they are regardless of what you think about them.  Its easy to think that your attitude is like that too.  Its easy to think your attitude is just what it is and you have to deal with it.  Its easy to think that your attitude is THE RESULT of outside objective REAL things like, Cars, people, situations, financial resources, circumstance, relationships.  However...attitude is NOT the result of those things.  In my opinion this is wonderful news.  This is news though that is critical to understand and appreciate much like we strive to understand and appreciate the other pilars of health like excercise, nutrition, sleep.

In our world we are taught that its often either, or.  This mentality makes is hard to appreciate objective rational things like our five sense's while recognizing and appreciating purely subjective things like our attitudes. 

For me its important to establish that both are real, but real in differnt ways, and a relationship to both is vital to a happy healthy life.

So what is AM, and what does it look like?  I don't have this perfectly hashed out...this is only a rough draft of ideas.

Simply put, attitude, is how you feel.
Attitude Management is recognizing that you feel what you think about and therefore YOU need to manage what you think about.
Attitude management is the central point of integration between what you think and what you feel.  It is a crutial power/responsibiliy of a concious being that desires to be alive.

There seems to be many books about either objective reality OR subjective reality, but not ones (I havn't searched, just havn't come across) that recognize and define out both and then explain that the human expereince is the integration of the two.

I didn't fully realize this yesterday, but had a set of experineces that really helped to further define this concept into what you are reading right now.

The process of AM needs to be explained with examples given..this is outside the scope of this entry.  The concept that you feel what you think about is the core of the truth.

You feel nothing for things you do not think about.

The purpose of this email was to give AM its rightful place as a fully valid and crutial part of life that like nutrition and excercise must be dony daily.  In fact AM is successful in so far as it is practiced.

AM will get at suffering, anxiety, depression.
Things are still what they are, bad things are still bad, like pain, but suffering and depression in my opinion don't come from pain, but from our attitude about it.  During times of pain it is even MORE necessary to practice AM.  You could say that normal life is AM practice for the very painful times.

If ones lives their life with zero AM they will most likely have an emotional outlook and attitude that is very weak, susseptable, chaotic, sometimes good or bad whenever.  I'd like to add that a greater and deeper practice of AM is even more important to those of us who try to expereince the world through our feelings.  OR for people who's AM has gotten corrupted and out of control.

A practical method for living.

Seek form, expression, truth.  Let this point you in a direction, move in that direction, and as you leave what you understand and drift into the great mystery stay on the path you put yourself on and the mystery will clarify into form, expression, and truth if you seek it.  Continue this until you find a balance of what you know compared to your natural curiosity of that which you don't know.  When you get to this point you will feel content in your spiritual life.  This might not last, and thats ok.  The conscious effort of seeking balance is a theme that is crucial to a peaceful, wise, and grateful life.

A light side reward.

The reward for acting in a light way is peace, not instant and guaranteed body peace, but light side or subjective/mental/psychological peace.

There is light and dark, there are gradients in between.  This can be shown visually to illustrate the point, but is only a concept I'm beginning to understand.  It is a goal I have to do.

I'm writing this because I need to start getting this stuff out of my head so that I can start to sort and structure it. 

Yes, there will always be a part that is better in the mind, and not describable by words.  There is also a part that needs to be put down in the physical and described.  Its ok, let there be both.

success stories

I love dramatic success stories.  I have a success story...letting it brew as it becomes more dramatic :)

Marks Daily apple has a nice collection.  Our triumph to sculpt the type of physical body we want is such an amazing thing.  I become aware of things as I express my self.  For example I'm becoming aware of something very important.

Human physical triumph is post mental triumph.  The journey began within.

Getting a lean healthy strong flexible body is one heck a journey.

There are many steps and stages in a journey.  Here is a step I'm thinking about...that perhaps is not a step but a belief system that one carries with them along the journey. 

I think of what I want to be.
I realize, to be different, I have to think, then do, different things.
I understand what I want to be.
I work to express that.
I work to enjoy each step because victory is now, not later.
I realize I'm responsible for my thoughts, feelings, and physical output.
repeat.