David McElroy

Do you ever have days when you feel like ditching the “civilized world” and moving to a remote cabin without leaving a forwarding address? I’ve been feeling that urge lately — and it’s getting stronger.

The more I know and understand people, the more I dislike most of them. I wish I could like more of them. I really do. There are a few who I care about deeply, to differing degrees, but the vast majority of people seem determined to present themselves in a way intended to make me hate the entire human race.

I’ve become sick of the vicious and nasty hatred that I read and hear from people simply because others have the temerity to disagree with them. I see it more online today than in real life, but I suspect it’s just because people feel anonymous enough online (even on Facebook) to vent their real feelings instead of hiding them as they do when they’re face to face with people.

I’ve become heartsick about the almost complete inability of a large percentage of people to even attempt to understand each other. So many people lash out in anger if they even suspect that someone disagrees with them on political or cultural issues.

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I didn’t eat at Chick-fil-A Wednesday, but only because I new the lines would be around the block on a day that was being billed as “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” which was a response to the groups that have been trying to get everyone to boycott my favorite chicken restaurant.

For as long as I can remember, Chick-fil-A has been an enjoyable part of my life. Back when they just had the sandwich, I used to throw away the bread and pickle, because the chicken was all I wanted. I switched to the nuggets and then to the strips when they were introduced. I have other favorites at other places. The Big Mac and the Whopper were pretty good if I wanted unhealthy burgers — as most of us do sometimes. And the old, discontinued Big Twin (which was an even better knockoff of the Big Mac) at Hardee’s was another favorite. (And speaking of Hardee’s, it’s hard to beat their sausage biscuits.)

There’s lot of food from a lot of places that I’ve loved over the years. But I have to confess that with every favorite I’d add to my list (or choice I’d remember to never buy again), the only thing that mattered to me was whether I liked the food. I never once considered the politics of the people who sold me the sandwich.

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For a long time, I’ve found myself wishing I could live on an island somewhere — or maybe even in a cave — to escape the stupid people who seem to be all around.

But when I think about it more seriously, I realize it’s not just stupid people who I want to escape. I want to escape from very bright people who insist that it’s their moral right to force me to obey their will.

There are some quite brilliant people — at least as measured by IQ — who have fallen for the civic religion that tells them it’s their moral right to make my decisions and take my money to use as they please. Most galling, perhaps, is their sanctimonious belief that I’m being “greedy” if I don’t want to obey them.

I watched an online discussion play out of Facebook Monday between siblings over the issue. One woman posted this graphic from the Bastiat Institute, which I had also posted Monday. It points out something that I’ve talked about before. If someone else claims a right to what you produce, you are a slave to that person or group to that extent.

After the woman posted the graphic, her two sisters disagreed with her, each for a different reason. It ended up mostly as a dialogue between the original poster and one of her sisters, who is a progressive left Democrat. They’re all three exceptionally intelligent women. But the leftist misses the moral point about the theft of property entirely. I think this part of the exchange was when I most wanted to bang my head against a wall:

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