Friday, August 10, 2007
Sidetracked By a Statist
The title above refers to the years I spent wandering in "conservativeland" because of a statist's assessment that since I hated government, I was a conservative. Keep in mind that the statist in question was in college and heading toward a life in law offices and politics. His world view had been shrivelled by his blinders.
This person sat behind me in my "World History" class in college and I had made an impression on him because of my buckskin jacket and coonskin cap. (As an aside: It is so much fun watching a state senator twitch and squirm because of the nut-case wearing buckskin, sitting front and center in the class he has agreed to speak to! This is probably "illegal" because of the PATRIOT act now.) When I began dating the classmate's sister (future wife numero uno) he felt it was his duty to assess where I stood politically. I told him I hated government. Some things don't change, you see. He informed me that that made me a "conservative". I said I doubted it, but he assured me that was what conservatives believed, so I simply accepted this without looking into it. I wasn't too concerned about labels even then.
So I spent years watching the conservative "leaders" and wondering why they always betrayed me and made me more angry with each passing year. Had I stopped to think for myself at that point, I would have seen that I was not a "conservative", but an anarchist, or at very least a libertarian. Obviously, I have seen the light in the intervening years (Thank you, L. Neil Smith!). At least I didn't do any damage to freedom as a fake conservative. I didn't contribute anything to the conservative cause since I was fighting it from within, and wasn't inspired to be active in any way.
I am glad that I finally became concerned enough to actually step back and look at what I believed, as opposed to what someone else had labelled me.
This person sat behind me in my "World History" class in college and I had made an impression on him because of my buckskin jacket and coonskin cap. (As an aside: It is so much fun watching a state senator twitch and squirm because of the nut-case wearing buckskin, sitting front and center in the class he has agreed to speak to! This is probably "illegal" because of the PATRIOT act now.) When I began dating the classmate's sister (future wife numero uno) he felt it was his duty to assess where I stood politically. I told him I hated government. Some things don't change, you see. He informed me that that made me a "conservative". I said I doubted it, but he assured me that was what conservatives believed, so I simply accepted this without looking into it. I wasn't too concerned about labels even then.
So I spent years watching the conservative "leaders" and wondering why they always betrayed me and made me more angry with each passing year. Had I stopped to think for myself at that point, I would have seen that I was not a "conservative", but an anarchist, or at very least a libertarian. Obviously, I have seen the light in the intervening years (Thank you, L. Neil Smith!). At least I didn't do any damage to freedom as a fake conservative. I didn't contribute anything to the conservative cause since I was fighting it from within, and wasn't inspired to be active in any way.
I am glad that I finally became concerned enough to actually step back and look at what I believed, as opposed to what someone else had labelled me.
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