Friday, September 28, 2007
my god. ryan's post just hit me like a ton of bricks. i can see it, the combination. the black and white individual struggle is what has always turned me off from libertarianism, despite my deepest needs for libertarianism to be the ideal suddenly seems to be illuminated by an optimistic back light. there is too much i see right for it to be a bad idea. and i think ryan just hit on the combining factor. it isn't exactly socialism, per se, it is more a system of mutual growth and benefit. when you trust a like-minded person, and don't have to protect yourself from them, you can combine the ideals of your enterprises, finding mutual beneficial ways to improve your own interests along with theirs simultaneously. it is exactly what ryan said, a system of chosen socialism. free capitalism taken down a different road, you are free to help you want, and be helped by those who choose to help you. it still contains the aspects of personal responsibility and accomplishment the resonate with me, while incorporating some of the moral ideals that libertarianism in its base form seems to squash while trimming the wasteful, choking morass that ultimately makes socialism infeasible.
my head is spinning. this is probably the biggest idea to hit me in years. this is definitely going to take some more fleshing out, but the important part is, i don't see myself being able to refute it inside my head. it already feels correct. it may be the true root of friv, the defining idea that lets all of the other ideas flourish. a large part of friv has always been locating other friv people to the benefit of all friv, and we know why. to focus and reward individual accomplishment by letting it further a greater goal, thereby magnifying each individual accomplishment instead of marginalizing it and allowing it to advance all the other aspects also working towards that goal. each enterprise is still an entirely individual venture, controlled and nurtured by the individual creators, but the presence of other like minded ventures in close proximity working along a parallel path allows for the entire community of ventures as a whole to progress together. i bet you we could go back to those first random conversations about altruism and personal advancement at the very beginning of the friv front page and see the finger prints of this conversation all over them.
my head is spinning. this is probably the biggest idea to hit me in years. this is definitely going to take some more fleshing out, but the important part is, i don't see myself being able to refute it inside my head. it already feels correct. it may be the true root of friv, the defining idea that lets all of the other ideas flourish. a large part of friv has always been locating other friv people to the benefit of all friv, and we know why. to focus and reward individual accomplishment by letting it further a greater goal, thereby magnifying each individual accomplishment instead of marginalizing it and allowing it to advance all the other aspects also working towards that goal. each enterprise is still an entirely individual venture, controlled and nurtured by the individual creators, but the presence of other like minded ventures in close proximity working along a parallel path allows for the entire community of ventures as a whole to progress together. i bet you we could go back to those first random conversations about altruism and personal advancement at the very beginning of the friv front page and see the finger prints of this conversation all over them.
