4/8/05
I had a little bit of time yesterday when I was getting my hair tinted - yes, I do chemically enhance myself by covering my grey with a lighter brown than my hair originally was many years ago. (I'm one of those unfortunate person's whose hair color genes began to "turn off" at age 16.) But anyway, I used the time while there to jot down some of my thoughts - the day after my 60th birtday.
My thinking in these past 5 years (since getting to really know Paul) has had the opportunity to become both more focused and more explorative while far more discerning of people's spoken and written words coupled with their actions. Some might say that I'm not "tolerant", which if asked means they conclude that I don't just simply accept a person as he or she is. To this I would say that the degree I interact with another person is proportional to the degree to which I find value in his/her ideas and actions. And I expect that there is a similar evaluation done by others of me - or at least there should be.
I give individuals several opportunities - even over considerable periods of time - to make their ideas and values known. In most cases, what I learn is that the other person, with whom I've had some limited interactions, has little or no interest in the ideas that are the focus of my life - promoting a minimally restrictive society of maximally free self-sovereign individuals and living an extremely long and vigorous life. In that case, the purpose of the interaction - having my hair done, discussing similar taste in music, completing purchases with the same clerks at a regularly visited store, etc. - develops into nothing further. Future interactions of the same type with the same person becomes what Paul named many years ago, "a tiny perfect relationship". There will be more interactions, but it is highly unlikely that they will increase in depth or breadth because the common foundation of essential (in my view) values is not present.
Someone might ask how I can know in a brief exchange with a store clerk, for instance, that he/she and I do not have hold essential values in common. Observations can be easily made. A person's degree of leanness is a major item that I think can reasonably be used in assessing a person's judgment, when the severe health risks of obesity and even being moderately overweight are well publicized. When I see over many weeks that a person is the same non-lean size, and sometimes even heavier, I know that health and vitality are not really important, no matter what claim is made verbally. (Paul and I have on a number of occasions given a business card to someone moaning about their inability to lose weight. So far none have ever contacted me and therefore I wonder about how sincere was their stated desire to be a healthy size. While it's always possible they did gain something from MoreLife itself, if it had been significant and they truly changed their eating/activities, I think we would have received an email from them.) In addition, the excuse or joking response I get from a person who I have known for sometime regarding recently unhealthy weight gain - or failure to lose weight over a prolonged acquaintance - is also a telling factor about the person's true lack of committment to his/her own health and vigor.
Observing that someone works for the government, especially in a law enforcement or military capacity, immediately in my mind these last several years has thrown up a red flag about that person. Many such individuals would do no harm to another person in their daily private lives but most often have not stopped to think about the fact that so very many of the laws they are enforcing are to prohibit exchange deemed to be of mutual benefit to those involved; almost certainly they have not considered the intrusive nature of government itself. But even those working for government agencies in support roles are countenancing their existence; when their skills are readily sought in the private market, I can conclude that they have not thought far enough to either recognize the approval they are giving to government or they are too lazy or fearful (possibly of having to compete) to seek work elsewhere.
And then there are the individuals I know whose interest in a truly better society goes no further than reading an occasional libertarian article (just as those whose commitment to their own good health is serious only to the point of not being obese by National Institutes of Health definition - BMI greater than 29.9). While they do not profess opposing views to the ones that I consider essential, they do not exercise their minds to understand that they actually are living many contradictions - agreeing that government is the source of major failure for an individual's longest range widest view best interest, while still working for and/or otherwise supporting its continued existence. Really understanding the concepts of a non-government minimally restrictive framework is not a quick read, but if a person really wants to eliminate the enormous problems in current society, then some time and effort is required to exercise one's mind and study the concepts and proposed implementation (Self-Sovereign Individual Project). I find that those who do not want to make that time and put forth that effort (just as with their counterparts regarding physical health changes) are not people who really hold the same values important that I do. And these are people for whom I have little time to spare. I am far more interested in finding those who share my fervor for promoting a minimally restrictive society of maximally free self-sovereign individuals and living an extremely long and vigorous life - people actually improving or maintaining their own good health, being productive in their own lives and increasing their own understanding of, while communicating to others how, the minimally restrictive framework of SelfSIP can promote maximal individual happiness and make for a truly far better world than currently exists.
Does this "qualification" of people I come in contact with limit the number of those I consider friends? Most certainly! But then true friends, not simply long-time well-known acquaintances, are those who hold the same important values in common. Age, gender, race, nationality, location and other (to some) often important factors are not important. And how long I've known a person is also not a strong contributor towards ensuring that a person is true friend - most often in the past 5 years I've found that those I've known the longest (and the best) are the least likely to have made the same philosophical growth steps as I have done. So I look mostly at each one I meet anew (in person and on the Internet) and wonder if this one will become a true friend.
 |
 |