Most people tend to buy the Establishment model of the world, which states that you must adhere to a one-dimensional view of the world, in which there are only left and right views, and on that spectrum, we are only allowed to be center-left or center-right. Outside of that narrow range, folks are called Far-Left or Far-Right.
More complex thinkers allow a second dimension - a Y-axis if you will, where people can be up or down, depending on the intensity with which they hold their views.
This comes up because I have this secret hobby. I like to troll politically charged groups who fall solidly into the Left-Right Paradigm. The easy pickin's are the Progressive Left. They whine like spoilt children when folks don't just give up and believe in everything they espouse, without reason, argument or any mentation at all.
The Conservative Right are nearly as much fun, though occasionally they will pipe up with an argument or two, flimsy as they may be.
At some point, some one is bound to ask, "What DO you believe?" This question usually comes after I have spent some time trashing all members of the Generally Accepted Left-Right Paradigm.
My answer almost always flummoxes them: "I am an anarcho- crypto-captialist-social libertarian-fiscal conservative." And yes, I've noticed that isn't an option on most social media profiles.
If you want to visualize the world the way I do, then you need to think in three-dimensional bubble graphs. I see the world as a matrix of left-right, up-down, and in-out. Within that matrix, people have views that can fall anywhere within a given space, where some of the views overlap, while others lie will outside the spheres of other groups.
I believe that government should be almost non-existent and that what little trickle of money we allow them to have must be spent with annual GAAP-compliant annual reports and severe penalties for failure to comply, including the death penalty for government employees who fail to maintain the strict rules applied to them.
Outside of that one area, I do not believe the government should have the right to incarcerate or kill anyone. That is the people's job. If, after a fair and comprehensive trial by their peers, and a fair appeals process, a criminal is found guilty of a capital crime, they should be turned over to the mob and dealt with in a public and highly visible way.
I believe that folks should be allowed to do pretty much whatever the hell they want, provided they don't murder, steal, destroy other's property or lie about other people. This is contingent on everyone behaving in public with manners and etiquette and decency, as proscribed by the larger community.
I believe that companies, including corporations, should be able to do whatever it takes to make a decent profit and benefit their employees, provided that the registered officers of said companies are completely, wholly and individually responsible for the actions of the company, up to and including the above-described process for those convicted of capital crimes.
I especially believe that any company responsible for fouling the environment should have its officers marched out and forced to wallow in their own filth.
I believe that nations should encompass the physical area representing the dominant social, religious, traditional, and racial norms of any given group of people. Immigration would only be allowed insofar as the individual was willing to fully and completely assimilate into the dominant culture of a nation.
Places without any substantial human presence would be unincorporated and exist outside the bounds of any nations. This would include Antarctica and most of the world's great deserts. Within these unincorporated areas, anyone wishing to challenge themselves against the elements is free to do whatever they want, and if they are successful and eventually create a community of like-minded individuals, then they can incorporate and become a nation.
I believe the UN should exist, but have exactly zero political power. It should be a large, air-conditioned space with a few chairs and a stage and some basic A/V equipment maintained by donations only (as are any staff). Here, anyone from anywhere and come and say anything about any topic they so please, and the speeches should be streamed on the internet 24/7.
I believe there should be no compulsory education, especially that is mandated by government. Parents should be free to choose whatever course of education they want for their children, and buy whatever services they can afford to further their goals.
I believe there should be NO mandatory health care or government-operated scheme to distribute narrowly sanctioned care. Folks should be free to buy and use whatever treatments they damn well please, and join insurance pools (if any exist) that will assist in payment for those treatments.
Related to the health care issue, if folks want to kill themselves with drugs, that is their prerogative and the only people who have the right to interfere are their families and friends, and any experts they care to jointly employ for that purpose.
I believe there should be NO welfare. Either family groups bind together for their mutual benefit, or individuals can strike out on their own. In either care, they are fully and personally responsible for their own welfare. Any attempt to force others to donate to them should be treated as stealing.
I could go on, but the dear reader probably gets the idea that my views don't fall within the Left-Right Paradigm chosen for us by the Establishment. Nor do most people, when pressed on the matter.
If one could get the Average Joe into a serious conversation, they would likely find themselves espousing beliefs that in some part fall outside the bounds of allowed thought. At some level, we are all thought criminals, which is why fascist regimes are so brutally effective - everyone is guilty of something sometime, the rest is just choosing when to prosecute.
The world is far more complex than most of us are willing to contemplate on a regular basis. In fact, the reason we tend to buy into the Establishment boundaries is because it reduced the burden of thinking we are faced with. If everything is left-right, black-white, rich-poor, then we can make decisions with coin tosses and move on with our business.
True freedom, real liberty, is a lot of work, just like those great marriages we all envy. Sure, to the world they are a happy, bubbly couple full of life and love, but behind the scenes, there is a lot of discussion, pondering and compromise.
One -dimensional thinkers are easy targets and deserve to be trolled. If they are so willfully blind and eager to wear their hearts on their sleeves, then let the games begin!
i prefer to revel in the glorious complexities that are human existence.
