The Return of Vache Folle

For the last few years I have been too busy and, to tell the truth, too depressed to blog.  I went through a painful (as opposed to delightful) divorce, a difficult remarriage accompanied by stepfatherhood, and overwhelming financial difficulties.  I suppose that not blogging was just another manifestation of the crippling social phobia that I experienced.  Moreover, my extreme self loathing made it seem clear to me that nobody could possibly give a rat's patootie about my disjointed and incoherent ramblings.  What do I know?  Less than nothing.  What do I have to contribute?  Less than nothing.

Now, however, thanks to modern medicine, I am no longer crippled by anxiety, depression and phobias and I can once again delude myself into thinking that my thoughts are worth writing down.  I started by posting on Facebook short statements of my opinions on political and social issues.  I quickly discovered that a disturbing number of my Facebook "friends" were overt racists, homophobes and other varieties of reactionary troglodyte.  I had to start whittling them down until I only have a few whose posts I can tolerate.  On the positive side (at least I think it is positive), I rediscovered the urge to think about things besides the quotidian and to write down some of my thoughts and opinions for what I hope will become a readership in at least the double digits.

I still advocate freedom, but I no longer see the state as the only or even primary enemy of liberty.  I would not "push the button", as they say.  Pushing the button would just leave the existing power structure in place and would, in all likelihood, lead to a reduction in overall liberty.  Sure, our feudal overlords would have liberty out the wazoo, but the rest of us would have just as much liberty as they let us.  I suspect that this would be less liberty than the dreaded state allows us now.

I am looking to optimize liberty, to provide for the most liberty for the most people, to expand the concept of liberty beyond mere freedom from interference by the state.  Maybe this makes me "collectivist" in that I care about other people's liberty almost as much as my own and recognize that those of us who are not in the likely feudal overlord category need to band together and collaborate.

I don't know that it makes much difference whether the agency that threatens our liberty is "governmental" or "private".  The lines seem blurrier than I used to believe.

I probably won't always write about my brand of libertarianism.  Who knows?  Maybe I will devote a lot of space to gardening or what it's like to live in a house full of Ukrainians, half of whom speak no English.  Or to religion or to what it's like to be mentally ill. I just know that I feel a need to express myself in some manner.  Thank you for enabling me by allowing me to imagine that someone might actually read this.