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David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

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Do you want to live in a world where people like this decide who gets power over you?

By David McElroy · May 19, 2011

I’ve already discovered that publishing this site means getting interesting responses. And by “interesting,” I sometimes mean “stupid.” I want to share this example with you.

In response to my piece Wednesday morning about not voting, a friend of a friend left the comment above for me on Facebook. How do you possibly argue with people such as this? How can anyone believe he has any chance of using reason to bring them around to understanding individual sovereignty? He’s an (allegedly) educated man from a nice suburb in Virginia, but it’s clear that he’s been so brainwashed by the “civic religion” that he can’t stop and ask why someone might choose not to vote for moral reasons. We can’t win our freedom by hoping that people such as this guy will suddenly decide to start making sense. We have to find alternative ways — outside the political process.

I’m delighted at the intelligence, information and tone of much of the feedback I’ve gotten from you guys so far, but people such as this guy remind me that we’re in the minority. Even if it weren’t a moral issue to me, trying to bring change through voting just isn’t pragmatic. It’s not going to happen.

Oh, and for the record, my name isn’t Dave.

Postscript: The man who wrote the note I’m ridiculing here is a good friend of one of my friends. As a result, my friend has rushed to his defense, insisting that her friend didn’t mean to be argumentative or disagreeable. She’s argued her case pretty heatedly. But I think this makes a further point that’s worth noting. People don’t have to be malicious or mean-spirited to be wrong. This guy is a very decent man who’s just like the vast majority of people in this country who still believe in our civic religion. But those of us who see that this is a moral issue have to point out and ridicule these unthinking beliefs, not to ridicule the people, but the lay the foundation for helping people understand that freeing people from state control is a moral issue, not just one of preference. At one time, polite people didn’t point out the immorality of slavery to slaveholders or to others who defended that repugnant system. We don’t need to make the same mistake today. The people who hold the view we’re talking about aren’t generally evil. They’re just well-meaning, civic-minded people who unthinkingly repeat lies they’ve been taught.

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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

Have you ever had what you thought was a new idea — and then discovered that “old you” had the same idea years ago? I had that experience tonight. And it’s been wonderful. I came up with an idea tonight for a very short satirical film that would be a promotion for a fictitious college. The point is to make the college promote — as good things — everything which is actually terrible about most modern colleges. Then I remembered a fake college that I invented back when I was in college. I had created student recruitment brochures and various newsletters back then, so I decided to call my “new” college by the same name I’d invented years ago: Ochita College. As I searched my computer for any old material I might still have about Ochita from the past, I discovered an email I sent to someone in 2009 — outlining essentially the same idea which I came up with tonight. Since I didn’t remember writing that, it felt like magic. So my next film project just might be this one instead. If all goes well, you might soon see “Ochita College: Your Future Starts Here.” This should be fun.

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