I am new at this blogging thing. It started out as an activity I could do while my wife and I enjoyed television time together in the evenings after work. The reality show programming that we sometimes settle on watching falls short toward engaging my mind as much as I might otherwise prefer. So I would hunker down in my recliner with lap top on top of the tv tray and start typing my rambling thoughts. I started it in 2008 and wrote a couple of pieces and then stopped after Barrack Obama was elected. I felt defeated. Unable to push back.
With the advent of the 2012 primary season, I returned to my fledgling but hibernating online and open diary that is this blog. I now find myself thinking more and more about what role I can play to help our country turn things around. Different this time around – I have discovered Twitter. What a great catharsis! Quick, rapid fire tweets allow me to share what is on my mind. I can connect with like minded people using hashtags. As a result of this great technology and couple it with my smartphone (Android), I am discovering I am not alone. I am far from being the only person who is frustrated with the state of our Constitutional Republic and looking for something better in terms of government leadership that is going to respect the law of the Constitution.
If you are here reading this, then I know you probably share my political views and you likely stumbled upon one of my tweets in the twitter universe or have found me in the blogosphere. I am glad you are here and doing me the honor of taking the time to read my thoughts.
I have been a Ron Paul supporter since my “step father” Gerry himself of the libertarian persuasion – turned me on to him back in 2006 0r 2007. I have heard the libertarian message off and on through casual discussions with Gerry since he an my mother became a couple in the early to mid 1980’s when I was 10 -12 years old. Gerry never shoved on me – he always just shared it with me.
In recent years, I have found myself thinking, “what can I do to secure a better country and my freedoms?” In response to those calls from my conscience, I got pretty involved with my local Republican committee. That also started in 2006. at one point, I was attending district and state GOP conventions and electing Ron Paul delegates to the GOP National Convention in Minneapolis. I walked out on them when the GOP and McCain supported TARP in October 2008. Hypocrites. That is what I think of the GOP.
Now I am about to turn 40 years old and the message of individual freedom that I was introduced to as a boy and have flirted with supporting these past few years has much more meaning to me. Four more years of Obama is not what I would prefer in the White House.
But what can me as one man do to play a meaningful part in turning this country around? Where can I find the time? I have a job. I have a wife. I have a home that requires up keep. I would be lying if I denied that I did not enjoy my free time of just sitting and burning hours away essentially being idle with my books or the internet, watching sports and researching fantasy football and engaging in idle chatter with my family. Shamefully, I have become a product of the times. I am reaping the rewards (or suffering from the trappings) of the modern era that has been delivered upon us. All the modern technology of the last 75 years has made me into a man who is too easily content to be fat, dumb, and happy. I fear I am not alone.
I am now in the throws of some kind of awakening. It is clear that this blog site and twitter account can connect me with others. The network that is being formed around the tenets of limited government and individual freedom and that is being exponentially fed and swelling with new members as a result of the Ron Paul campaign is the mechanism by which me and other people like me can play a part in halting the progression of statism.
Sharing our thoughts and our knowledge of what our Constitutional Republic is and means is what we can do. I was delighted to see my own step son Chris debating the merits of libertarianism on his Facebook page while the GOP Iowa Debates took place last night. He must be getting the message via the osmosis of the world wide web.
The phenomena that I think might be able to propel our thinking forward and turn it into action is rooted in Complexity theory. There are spontaneous adaptive systems in place and we are creating libertarian fractals of individual freedom networks. I acknowledge that the science of theory is a bit over my head, but I think I get enough of it to appreciate its presence. If you are interested in learning more about this theory, please go to the Plexus Institute online at http://www.plexusinstitute.org or the Santa Fe Institute at http://www.santafe.edu/ . I seem to be at a crossroads where I am melding my Systems Thinking views with Complexity Theory. I have another blog post here at https://livinghereinamerica.wordpress.com/ that relates to Systems Thinking. I would be grateful if you read that post as well.
It can often be overwhelming to know that bad things are happening to us and that there seems as though there is nothing that can be done to stop it. The spread of liberalism and progressivism that is eroding our freedom and swelling the size, scope of our government is alarming and fear inducing. But I am wholly convinced that we can turn the tide with our connections with each other at sites like this blog and then via the resultant conversations that will emerge. We can share what we know and introduce the concepts to others.
When I set out to write this morning, I thought I would try and make a dramatic or powerful start with Benjamin Franklin’s quote as he exited the first constitutional convention. You know the one you have read or heard where he answered the person who came upon him as he was leaving the convention who asked him “what did you all just do?” Franklin replied, “Gave you a Republic if you can keep it” or something to that affect. I was going to use that quote as a springboard to exploring in writing what it is that we can do to make a difference.
So to be sure that I got the Franklin quote correct, I googled it. To my delight, I came across an immediate post 911 article written by one of my more favorite libertarian thinkers and writers, Jacob Hornberger from the Future of Freedom Foundation. When I found that Hornberger had already written sort of what was on my mind. Something else emerged. The post above. There goes that Complexity Theory again!
I am going to end my post here. The fact that you are here reading this means that we as patriotic Americans who love our liberty are already doing what we can to make things better for our country. The next action or step to take will naturally evolve and emerge from the act of you reading this. You will share what you think from this site and it will inevitably trigger a cascade of still further events that will result in your network of family and friends engaging in the exchange of the Liberty Message that we know to be vital to our existence as a free people of this great nation. Thanks again for taking the time to read this message and please feel free to post a comment and share the site with others you think might enjoy it.
Here is the link to Jacob Hornberger’s article. http://www.fff.org/freedom/1101b.asp
Living in America 