In this installment of our Classical Liberalism 101 series, we publish one libertarian's attempts to stand out from the crowd. Though we do not necessarily share all of his views, the overall point of "going against the flow" is certainly something all free-thinkers have experienced and will continue to have to do with. How do we be our true selves when politicians, teachers, ministers, and our own peers ostracize us (or worse) for holding beliefs different from theirs? And how do we treat those whose beliefs differ from our own? Something to ponder.
Translated by @peter.tsukev, edited by Yours Truly.
https://ekipbg.com/ne-sam-99/
I'm not the 99%
"Banality is the eighth deadly sin," Milen Ruskov, author of Summit, Thrown into Nature, and Pocket Encyclopedia of Mysteries, once said in an interview.
"The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot," said Salvador Dali.
For me, nothing is scarier than uniformity, banality, eternal repetition. That’s what hell means to me.
The first association people make when reading the quotes above has to do with repetition over time. But I'm more afraid of the repetition we see all around us: the same moments we experience over and over again, a generation in which we all resemble each other. We all like the same politicians, and if you like anyone else, you are ”evil,” “retarded,” “harmful”; persecuted, unfollowed, banned, or ridiculed. We all use the same vocabulary, and if you use different words, you are “stupid,” “insensitive,” “dangerous to society”; shunned. How is it that we can all believe in a uniform truth about the environment, culture, art, and the economy? There’s nothing more horrifying than this conformity.
I do not want to be one of the 99%. I want to be myself. When I'm with friends who are interested in culture, I belong to the 1% of fans of Botev Plovdiv [ed. a football club]. When I'm among Botev Plovdiv fans, I'm in the 1% who has anything to do with culture. When I was in school, I was in the 1% who listened to classical music — and when I was at classical concerts, I was the 1% of students from the Mechanics School.
I don’t want to make the other 99% like what I like, or do what I do. I dream of being happy with my own life, while not harming others. I dream of a world where everybody is happy with their lives and their differences, all belonging to the 1% of something — whether the 1% has to do with their eyesight, blood type, hair color, sexuality, favorite music, or the amount of money in their bank account. Insofar as you are not trying to ban differences, you are a good human being in my book.
I don’t want us to fight against differences, wealth, or offensive words. I don’t want us to fight against brave, unique, or intriguing people.
Let's fight violence, let's fight uniformity!
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