Episode Details

The state of statist intellectuals; victims of bad, contradictory memes For example - UN Plaza: The Soft Underbelly http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/18763 An interesting blogger discussion - Science Saturday: Just a Theory; Ancient violence and the fear of being eaten http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/18623?in=42:39&out=60:37 It's important to address politics from first principles--and to define one's terms If intellectuals thought logically and didn't take collectivistic memes for granted, they'd improve society immensely Individuals (or groups of them) logically don't have the choice to nullify others' choices What is the origin of human conflict? Not respecting others and their property, courtesy of sacrificial and statist memes The fact that most people comply with governmental edicts doesn't minimize the ills of government Other political insanity from around the world... China nabs website staff for erotic audiobooks http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/20/china_arrests_four_erotic_audio_books/ "Authorities" are basically authoritarian sociopaths Society consists of individuals using their own volitional mechanisms, which no one has the right to contradict Authoritarian sociopaths' demise will happen when their "legitimacy" is undermined The doctrine of self-sacrifice leads politically to sacrificing individuals for the so-called "good of the collective" (i.e., for other individuals) Australian censorship board site pwned (http://classification.gov.au) http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/87mqb/australian_censorship_board_site_pwned/ http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/9880/miscs.jpg Saudi clerics urge TV ban on women, music http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29826511/ Somehow, the authoritarian sociopaths are able to convince the oppressed that their edicts are good and must be followed Extropianism means living the most flourishing lives possible, maximizing our potential via technological innovation (http://www.extropy.org/principles.htm) http://www.extropy.org/conferences.htm Liberty and Responsibility: Inseparable Ideals by Max More http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/liberty-and-responsibility-inseparable-ideals/ We must be careful not to romanticize America's founding; the Constitution only applied to those who agreed to it, and plenty of authoritarian sociopathy and collectivistic memes were present The parasitical legal profession lives off the meme of statism and strips people of their common sense and resources License is not responsibility; so, it undermines liberty "Without the liberty to choose our own actions and make our own choices, we lose the qualities of responsibility and virtue that make us uniquely human...Only freely chosen actions reflect character." M.M. The idea that governmental officials protect your rights is merely part of their public-relations scheme "Interventionism and welfarism act as a tax on responsibility." M.M. Politics, being the fourth branch of philosophy, deals with how individuals should treat each other; the only logical (i.e., non-contradictory) politics is voluntarism, or complete liberty http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/politics.html People naturally desire to be responsible in a society that respects their property Evil--the ini