The Crux Of My Disappointment With Anarchy
Throwing our most basic power away.
We are in a culture war.
Common sense is losing. Most people have started to notice it by now. The fact is that this is a non militaristic, yet, government funded battle between being pro life and anti life. I cannot put it more succinctly than this. While your hackles may already be going up about abortions or women’s rights and all the things that the government “has no place in,” they nevertheless fund both sides to an extent. Even by saying “government doesn’t belong here,” you are participating in the culture war. I’m not condemning you for participation. No good human should sit down and shut up in a culture war. Are you choosing the humanitarian or antihumanism side?
If your only contribution to the culture war is merely to say, “I don’t think the government should have a part in this”, you are already, just by that statement, participating in it, so don’t stop there. Please say what you think people can or could or should do in lieu of government. If you leave it at, “I don’t think government should have a part in this,” what you are really saying is, “I have power right now that I am squandering on what the government should or should not do.”
I teach correct use of boundaries. The number one reason most people have boundary issues today is that all their attention is focused on what they want to keep out of their boundaries.
The whole entire POINT of boundaries is to keep your attention and energy focused on what you want to see more of in your life, what you want to create more of in your life, the relationships that are worthwhile. So if you are sitting on your high horse imagining that saying, “government should do this or should not do that” you have already allowed government to consume your attention. You are conceding your boundaries and giving your attention to that which you do not want.
When you take a topic like transgender ideology, critical race theory, communism or birth rights and turn it into a conversation that starts and ends with a commentary about the role of government, you lost the culture war and you already surrendered your personal boundaries. Culture wars are the only righteous wars. Winning the culture war can stop a war escalating to violence.
If you sit on your high horse, rationalizing that if government doesn’t have a place in other people’s lives, then I don’t have a place in other people’s lives, you might end up dead wrong. You’re going to abdicate your business of freedom of association or social awareness or even social education to those who do feel government does or does not have a place in these conversations and wants to use government to force you, one way or the other, to play out that side of the war WITH WEAPONS. This is your chance to propose common sense and solutions. This is your opportunity to shine. Don’t quit now!
Lately, the culture war is ramped up to 11.
It doesn’t simmer down because you minded your own business and said things or thought things like, “if everyone would just mind their own business, like me, the world would be a better place.” Part of your business is to care for those around you, not sorry to say. As a humanitarian, I am pretty sure that being an asshole is a free choice that you are using in the worst possible way. Plenty of these choices are devastating to other people, to life on earth, and they affect you when they are in your state, city, neighborhood and your home. If you sit idly by waiting for everyone else to sit idly by, these issues will end up in your living room, influencing your decisions about your kids, where to move, where to work, and on and on. The culture war is reshaping every aspect of life as we know it. Did you not notice that the entire world decided that breathing the public air was no longer acceptable? They don’t want to share the air with you anymore. This is a dire situation upon which you can’t stop breathing to keep them off your back WITH WEAPONS.
The world has gone insane, and if you think not commenting on it is the best use of your personal power in the culture war, you may be right. It may end the war, but it won’t wind up that the victors chose sanity because you refused to reason with people or tell them you won’t tolerate their devastating irrationality. Anarchists have become so anti-war that they have become anti-confrontation and even anti-conversation if it might escalate to civil action of any kind. Don’t be so excited to end war that you end one that could truly stop violence. Holding your ground, claiming your ground is not an act of violence. Take a stand and get it out to the world.
“Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.” ~Edmund Burke
That’s all for today.