Musings

Isn’t amazing how a person can dance all around a common theme without seeing it? It seems to me I’ve been doing that in my recent posts—both implicitly attack the authority inherent in many current systems. Yet I was clueless as to that until just now.

I don’t recall where I saw the link to the Harper’s article, The revolution will not be pasteurized: Inside the raw-milk underground, but I’m glad it came to my attention. The article is quite long, but very interesting, and mostly excellent. Oddly enough, it isn’t the subject of raw milk that leads me to write about the article.

A deceptively simple question, perhaps ... but something I’ve been pondering for quite some time now, actually. It burbled into this question on my recent cross-country drive.

Ignore practical considerations of cost, “relevance”, duplication, etc. What would you focus on in the museum you would love to create?

I’ll provide my answer in the comments, after giving you fine individuals a chance to answer.

Well, I survived the trip. Actually, it was much better than that bare statement would suggest, in most respects.

I’ve been thinking a fair bit about Pint of Stout’s upcoming thought–party, An Inquiry into the Soul. Although I’m not sure how to accomplish it just yet, I hope to contribute. Then, The Shadow’s Thoughts on Ataraxia veered my rambling ideas into a related (but only tangentially) direction: what is a successful life?

The Epicurean concept of ataraxia means freedom from mental disturbances. Epicurus taught that such freedom is a necessary component in the lifetime pursuit of rational pleasure which leads ultimately to eudaimonia (the flourishing of one's life).

Epicurus is truly the philosopher of freedom--of the sort that most of us modern lovers of liberty seek--and the fact that he accurately laid out all of the essentials millennia ago is truly remarkable. And what are these essentials?

That’s what I’ve been sorely tempted to tell a lot of people lately. But, despite my wishes otherwise, it simply isn’t true.

One of the things some people are only now becoming aware of—and it’s happening now because of the increased focus on this sector of the financial industry, methinks—is that a nontrivial amount of Wall Street transactions are currently unregulated by federal and/or state law. As a New York Times article suggests, that seems about to change. Problem is, it won’t change in the direction that will help.

I discovered that Drupal has a built-in module for doing polls. Whee! However, I haven’t figured out how to have it automagically published, either here in the bloggy area or as a sidebar feature. So, for now, I’ll simply point to it from this post, and encourage relevant comments to be posted here.

The poll asks the question, “What do you think is the most important thing a parent can give to a young child?”. I think that anyone who wants to may vote—one needn’t be signed up here to cast a vote. If that is true and some of you wish to make a comment without registering, I’ll do my best to accommodate you. Please either email or PM me at GYHD or The Boondocks with your comment and some means of attribution—either a ’nym or just plain “anonymous” is fine with me. Although ... if we have 27 different anonymice it will be difficult to keep track of the conversation. Maybe label yourself Anonymouse #X? We can worry about the details should that become necessary.

Anyway, the poll will run for a week; and I’ll keep this post atop the blog for that duration. Have at it, if you wish.

After my unexpected jump in motivation yesterday, I have already gotten a fair bit of progress made. I sent off a large box of snolf books, and upon seeing how cheap media mail is, plan to do likewise with as many of my books as I can.

I can’t help but be reminded, as I start to dig through all the stuff I’ve accumulated, of the common admonition, “It’s just stuff”. While I certainly agree that a fair portion of people seem too focused on simply acquiring stuff—succumbing to the siren song of consumerism—and I am too often in that group myself, there’s stuff and then there’s stuff. And sometimes it can be hard to separate the two.

Two quotes, from two sources ... they seem to be saying contradictory things to me. If you want to play along for a few minutes, follow me ... but remember, I am not an economics whiz and that’s where we’re going for a spell.

Dale over at Anarchy in Your Head has created an excellent cartoon that very succinctly presents why I cannot support He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named-Here:

Someone commented on that post that RP is Frodo, which set me to laughing. But then I got to thinking ... is someone like Frodo possible? I don’t think so; I don’t think Gandhi measures up, although he might come closest. I’m not sure that it’s productive to dwell on such questions, because fictional characters operate in worlds very different from ours. I don’t see a lot of value in even trying to emulate characters like Frodo, Howard Roark, Dagny Taggart, or John Galt.

That said, I think most individuals who seek power over others end up like Boromir, even if only metaphorically.

As struck as I was by this understanding when I first encountered it, it’s become an uncomfortable truth for me of late. I’ve tried to dodge it ... tried to find a rationalization or exemption that would cover my actions, but I have come to the realization that I can’t weasel around it.

I’m not sure that that’s the most accurate way to describe Prosper—although the home page’s title says “people to people lending” so I guess I’m not too far off. What an intriguing idea ...

Yep, you can peer into your genetic code, without a medical monopolist’s permission slip required, for just under $1,000 USSA. The company offering this deal is deCODE, in Iceland.