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09/12/2007 Entry: "we have seen the enemy..."

This one's been a long time coming.

It's me, PSM. Hi.

I know too many people whose attitude is, "I don't take orders from anyone, ever. Try and tell me what to do and I'll probably do just the opposite, just to show 'em. I'm a sovereign individual, dammitall!"

And that's what they call freedom. I've been stewing over this for a long time, but I still can't find the words to express what I mean, so please forgive me.

If a person's sense of individuality is so insecure that they cannot follow the leadership of someone with whom they may disagree, even if that disagreement is intense or important, then that person will be a force for division wherever they go, never for unity.

In any meaningful relationship, there inevitably comes a point where one party has to come to the other and say, "I don't care about winning the argument anymore. Tell me what I must do to make it right between us again." I've seen so many good friendships broken up in the freedom community, not because of betrayal, nor theft, nor violence, but because of what amounts to ideological differences.

To lay aside one's own individual sense of being right for the sake of preserving or restoring a relationship with another person EVEN IF THAT OTHER PERSON IS WRONG requires a command of individuality that I rarely see anywhere. It requires humility. As freedom lovers we may tend to think of humility as weakness, to associate it with subjection. But true humility can only be evinced by a person who has the choice not to be humble. I am convinced that one of the most meaningful things a person can do with their freedom and sovereignty is to lay it aside (not lay it down, if you can grasp the difference here) for the sake of another.

I'm tired of seeing ever more groups of ever smaller numbers in each group sitting around and smugly congratulating each other on how right they have it and how wrong all those "other" people are.

Posted by Penguinsscareme @ 10:22 AM CST
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