Hello from sunny Acapulco bay,
My day started off as every day starts here… around 10-11am I awaken naturally. I've always despised the idea of an alarm clock. Of course, I have to use one when necessary, usually to do with flights, but otherwise I can think of no worse way to start your day than by being awoken before you are ready. I've felt this way at least since I was 12 years old and that perhaps was my first reason for having a massive dislike of being forced to go to school. I've never been a morning person. I know many who are, but I have always been a night owl. If I do anything by my own volition prior to 9am, it is likely because I am still up from the previous night.
I still remember thinking at a very young age that I wanted to become an entrepreneur if only for the sole fact that I could more or less design my own schedule.
This morning was particularly glorious. Although I did smell a hint of sulfur in the air. I later found out the prince of peace, Barack O'Bomber was just a few hours away which explained the faint smell of Hell in the air.
If you don't have dogs and ever feel lonely, get a dog. This is my favorite part of the four dogs who all sleep in my room. Despite the random awakening when they hear a cat in the middle of the night… and not just any cat, by the way, as they all adopted a kitten born in our garden last year before I had to give it away due to the fact I couldn't breath with her anywhere near me, they will all sit, sometimes for hours, waiting for any hint that I am awake. Sometimes I pry one eye open just a tiny bit and take a look. All four are lazily sitting there but all with their eyes on me. "Wake up!" their waving tails say to me. But, until I actually sit up they will remain quiet not wanting to awaken me. I find that so endearing.
Once awake, it is a full dog assault of kisses. It can be a bit chaotic at times, but the amount of love in the room more than makes up for the chaos as each tries to leap over the other to lick my face first.
Finally, they all calm down and I then usually open my bedroom patio doors with a glorious view of Acapulco Bay where many of my Anarchast episodes are filmed from. By that time it is already very warm, if not hot, and I walk out wearing nothing for my first 30 minutes of Vitamin D. Those who use umbrellas to guard themselves from the supposed scourge of the sun have it all wrong. I am convinced that my daily sun exposure is one of the main reasons I am still vibrant, healthy and alive despite almost totally living on cigarettes and alcohol for the last few years.
Although, I've recently decided it is time to give my body a break and I've been drinking blender-fulls of spinach, avocadoes, celery, zuchini, carrots and other leafy greens throughout the day, which also has me feeling much more vibrant in general lately.
Getting back to this morning, it was especially beautiful as I took in the sun and the cutest little baby hummingbird zoomed by to spend a few fleeting seconds suckling from the flowers on the patio to be followed a few seconds later by a beautiful orange and black butterfly. As I looked down, my two chihuahuas were on their backs fully bathing in the sun's glory.
And I thought to myself, what a beautiful world!
I've actually changed a lot in the last few years. I used to get angry and frustrated hearing about the stupidity of collectivism. Now I mostly just look upon it as though I am an outside observer watching humans self-destruct. Of course that is much easier to do from freer places like Mexico and Chile than in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave where you literally walk amongst zombies for the most part. And even those who aren't zombies usually look around, as though I was talking about overthrowing Castro in Cuba (which I've done in Havana and was also met by the same looks) checking for police, video cameras and other brainwashed people all too eager to engage in slave on slave action before whispering to me, "You're right, but don't say it too loud."
And that's beside the fact that the current mindset of the region known as the US is that you should call in people in costumes with guns if "the guy down the road hates the government"! Not a good place for me!
It's not perfect in Mexico. Mostly thanks to the prince of peace and his puppetmasters who have brought the crazy idea of having a war on plants and flowers down south. And so earlier this evening after a few bebidas out on the town I took off my headphones on my scooter and stopped near an army truck positioned directly outside the neighborhood where I reside when in town and looked at all of them in their camoflauge, machine guns and tourets and asked, in Spanglish, "Where's the war?"
They stood in total confusion. So, I rephrased, "Who's attacking? Guatemala?"
It was followed by about five seconds more of confusion before finally one of the men in his funny costume started laughing, evoking all the rest into laughter. "Nada, amigo… nadie" ("nothing, friend, no one") he said and shook my hand knowingly. He's just there because the US government is giving him a cool job to hang out and not have to work too hard.
I smiled back. I knew that would be their response. You can actually see some of the shame on their faces as they drive by their fellow townfolk whom many they have known for generations. But, it is just the way it is.
I mostly now just look on these things with amusement. Although, I'd never, ever say anything like that in the epicenter of global craziness, the USSA. Things are getting so insane there that I've seen more than 5 or 6 "attempted suicide" calls in the media in the last month which were met by the police arriving and shooting the obviously emotionally distraught man with scissors or a knife being gunned down in a hail of bullets. They couldn't let him commit suicide, after all; that's illegal!
MY RANDOM RESPONSES TO RANDOM QUESTIONS ASKED OF ANARCHISTS
Being the weekend I get to relax a bit and give myself license to just say what I feel like saying. So, today, after having a wonderful day I will respond quickly to two quick questions I saw on the interweb today posed at anarchists.
Why Aren't More Anarchists Vegetarians?
This was logically asked here by Jacob Spinney.
I have an interesting spin on this one. From 1992 to 2000 I was an ardent vegetarian and was even vegan for 2-3 hours in that timespan. Why? Mostly because one of my life's missions is to try everything at least once. I've tried almost every diet you can think of and really gave it a go on vegetarianism. However, everyone's body is different and I didn't do particularly well on that diet. I was slightly overweight (which is not normal for my body type) and lethargic. That, truthfully, may be due to the fact that I just didn't really like vegetables much back then and mostly ate chips and spaghetti with butter (or worse, margarine, when I was a vegan).
However, I always, always missed two things. Steak and chicken wings. And for seven years they were always somewhere in the back of my mind. Then, near the end of 2000 the tech bubble started to collapse on my Internet enterprise and I was incredibly stressed out and spent nearly a month in a Toronto hotel laying off numerous people from my Internet company every day and having to watch them cry or fear for their near term survival. During that entire time I stayed in a hotel that had only one thing on the room service menu that I could eat as a vegan. Spaghetti with tomato sauce.
Night after night after incredibly trying days I'd return to my hotel exhausted and barely have the strength to pick up the telephone receiver to ask for, "Spaghetti and tomato sauce, please."
Finally, after nearly a month of that I returned to the hotel so stressed that I couldn't even walk up a flight of stairs and dialed the familiar room service number. They answered, "Spaghetti and tomato sauce, Mr. Berwick?"
I responded, "Yes," and with a long pause and a deep breath I said, "No, cancel that, steak… rare… and chicken wings!"
For the entire next year I ate only steak and chicken wings.
Now, with that as preface, let me very, incredibly shallowly, go into this debate on whether anarchists should be vegetarian if they truly believe in the non-aggression principle.
And, remember here, that this is not a major philosophical discussion. This is just me chatting after a few drinks.
First, there is a difference between humans and animals. And I say that after telling you how much I love my dogs and all the wildlife around me. However, I think that differentiation is important to state. Let's deal first with non-aggression against humans before we even go the next step to animals!
Furthermore, if there is anyone who truly loves animals and can see their emotions and feelings more than I, I would be surprised. If my wife, kid, best friend or my dog died, I'm not sure I could fully differentiate my feelings.
That said, let's just deal first with humans. If we can even come close to peace among humans then we can take on the next challenge.
I will also state, for the record, that I do feel bad when I eat animals. But I love the taste. It makes me feel better, in general, than when I ate non-animal products. But I do feel bad about it.
But, since someone is bringing up this issue… what is their take on killing bugs? I stepped on a cockroach on purpose the other day. I admit I had mixed feelings about it. Not to mention the millions or billions of bacteria we all kill every day purely by accident.
It's a tough one and one that I will continue to consider.
Then I saw someone post a question on the interweb that is much easier to tackle. He asked, "In an anarchist world, how would abuse against animals be solved?"
Now this is something I can deal with.
His main issue is that he hates cruelty against animals. And, I think all sentient, undamaged individuals feel the same. But he was asking how it would be dealt with in an anarchist world.
First, an anarchist world wouldn't be perfect. But it would be more perfect than any other system we have ever tried to live under. I'd wager a guess that anyone who truly tries to torture an animal has probably been tortured in their life to some extent. Or, at the very least, felt very hurt by society. In either case, in a truly anarchist world where people only had to have a belief in the non-aggression principle there would rarely be any parents physically abusing their children. And, if they did, they'd find that society, through private enterprise, would disincentivize it. As example, if a person had a child who had been emotionally damaged and they tried to enlist him in any particular school they would be charged extra for any damage the child does to the property or unto others. This is a big difference from the collectivized schools of today where there are pre-jail training in things like "detention" or even a "quiet room" which looks like a solitary confinement chamber. But, no disincentive to the parents.
Plus, in a more free, uncollectivized world, people would be generally much more happy as they'd almost assuredly be more prosperous and free and less likely to "lash out at society". There'd be no reason to. Society wouldn't be constantly stealing from them, indebting them and forcing them to do arbitrary things they don't like.
After all that, if a few twisted individuals still felt the need to be cruel with an animal and you didn't like it, you'd be well within your rights to do what you want with that person. It'd be justice dealt out on the individual level. Whereas, today, if you knew your neighbor was being incredibly cruel with animals, you'd risk a lot to even raise a fist to him or you'd be charged with assault and thrown in a cage.
All in all it is not a major issue that we need to worry about yet. Most humans are treated cruely today by being constantly robbed and oppressed. Let's deal with many of the damaged humans first, animals next. One step at a time. And, once humans live more healthily and are healed of violence and theft it will all occur naturally.
ABORTION
While we are on difficult topics, let's also tackle abortion from an anarchist perspective. Don't let it ever be said I avoid difficult topics!
Many people ask, in an anarchist world, how would abortion be dealt with?
Well, how is abortion dealt with today? It isn't really. There are places where some people use violence to stop people from doing it and there is some places where some people use violence and theft to protect and pay for people to do it.
I think this one comes straight down to the main issue that anarchists always talk about: property rights. And owning your own body.
This is going to be the quickest, most trite answer, but I side with libertarian comedian Doug Stanhope on this one. If someone is living in your body and they aren't paying rent and you don't want them there, "evict that mother f*#ker".
HOW'S THAT FOR A WAY TO END THE WEEKEND
I am not sure how I went from talking about beautiful things and hummingbirds and butterflies to ending it off with fetus killing. But, that's where it ended up. You know where to send your complaints.
In the end, however, by trying to find the most extreme examples of why anarchy won't work, why not focus on the multitude of reasons why collectivism is horrible… that is, unless you don't believe in the individual over the collective. Remind that to someone who purports to care about "minorities" the next time you hear it. The smallest minority is the individual. We need to look at things from the individual level and work our way up, not from the collective level and work our way down.
Or, heck, do whatever you want. I'm about to go to sleep much the same way I awoke, with my four dogs and beautiful family all around me. And, by the way, a family totally unplanned and cobbled together out of randomness for those who think I am an uncaring anarchist who wants to kill babies.. far from it. In fact, as good friend of TDV, Stefan Molyneux recently stated so well:
[Stefan just recently announced that he has recently diagnosed with lymphoma – and we send our very best wishes to him not only as an incredibly important freedom fighter but also as a great human being and a very good friend of myself]
Our framework does the most to help the disadvantaged. Not the least.
In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy my own personal life and avoid areas where individuals aren't respected or are subordinated to the collective. In the end, there is no collective, there are just individuals.
And, as my daughter said to me today when I jokingly questioned my Mexicana wife about her very typical Mexican fiesta lifestyle and going off to another party with friends for the evening, "It's her life," said my daughter.
I agreed completely. It is her life. If everyone thought like my six-year-old daughter we'd have a much better time here on this space rock.
It all starts with you. Try not to physically hurt any other human. From there, it's all easy. To me, sometimes, it feels like people are so scared to take the first step towards a better world. But, once that step is taken by enough people they won't believe the wonders it evokes.
