For example, you might be free to acquire a car, drive dangerously and kill yourself. Would force/fraud not be required to stop you from killing someone or even damaging property in that same accident?

Finally, they describe nature as some endless resource. The source of our property is common and any use of it would imply a theft from everyone else. If one person cuts down a tree, it is not available for others, even as a producer of oxygen.

I agree, but with loud enough voices a handful of people can do great things.

I would just like to point out that we do not learn from the present as in your closing statement. We DO learn from the past. We learn IN the present. It is an action and that is what we do in the present. We take actions. {or we don’t ;{but even then “not doing” is just the action we are currently embracing}}

These actions in the present create our future. {They can be based upon what happened in the past {reflection} and/or upon plans for the future {vision}}

Thank you for taking the action to change your mind with regards to writing about politics and for taking the other actions necessary to actually do it. You have gained at least one other reader in doing so.

am

Scott, I think it’s more the idea that everyone can be the change they want to see. Blogs seem to be plentiful in society today, but in truth the percentage of people that actually use them is low and when you mete out the personal blogs, you’re down to (relatively speaking) a handful of people.

We’re about to hit a critical mass in shifting consciousness that’s for sure.

In Spirit,
Nneka

So if we already have the “means” to change the world, i.e., blogs, forums, printing presses, etc., and we know the “means” to change ourselves, then what remains?

Or is the “Change” that we seek to make in the world really the lesson that bloggers are trying to teach, I.E., how to gain, or regain, personal freedom?

So by the act of writing, by saying “hey, this is what worked for me” aren’t we already _being_ the change that we want to make in the world? Isn’t the real challenge now just getting the message out to as many people as we can?

I think Ghandi said it best:

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

By unifying thought, feelings and actions, we enable ourselves to make changes in ourselves. The challenge is, how do we translate these internal changes to changes in the world around us? Is it to lead by example? Isn’t that what we, as bloggers, are already trying to do?

Rick,
Thanks for the heads up on the book. I’m going to try to get my hands on a copy.

Great post, great thoughts.

As we abdicate personal responsibility to the bully, we are enabling the bully. The logical end to this behavior is obvious. We all need to become our own self-actualized man or woman, and start taking our responsibilities back from this faceless wolfpack of tyrants and make this world one worthy of who we really are.

Daniel