At one point or other in your life, and I suspect this may be it for me, you realize that the only thing you really control is your own life. The rest is at best events which you can do you best to try and influence, but must forever acknowledge is not yours to decide over.
After having two seriously bad years (the re-occuring blog breaks and the lack of posts as evidence) I have finally found what seems to be somewhat steady footing. Things are finally looking better. And after thinking about it for 6 months or more, I do believe that the time has come to start doing all the things I’ve been putting off for so long. I am not going to “find myself” or “travel the world” or such hippie-crap. Sure, I might go on vacation once or twice, but that is not the point.
The point is, I have a clear image of what one should do with ones life. Most specifically what I should do with mine. In modern language, it’s called “be the best you can be”. In a traditional sense, I found this post over at Traditional Christianity very enlightening. Even for you atheists, I STRONGLY recommend you go read it. It is a blue-print for saving, or if necessary rebuilding Western civilization. And it is quite simple :
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law.
Follow this, and all that has been lost will be saved.
On a more worldly note, it is my strong belief that unless women are willing to stand up to the modern “equality” garbage, that has so long poisoned not only relations between men and women, but also the social hierarchies that used to make life in Western countries pleasant and dignified, then men will simply have to. I am for equal rights, not for equal genders. Thus, I strongly encourage everyone to start thinking like, acting like and in the end becoming gentlemen. Now, most people these days do not understand the concept of a gentleman. They think that it’s either a stiff British person with a cane and hat, or that it is a modern, feminized white-knight male who will sacrifice his own dignity for the demands of feminists and leftist empathy-moochers.
A gentleman, must first and foremost always be a man. That means that you must embrace traditional masculinity. After that, you must strive without ever giving in to constantly refine your character. If you do not know where to start, I recommend the blog (and book) The Art of Manliness.
In the end, how we lived our lives will be the only thing that mattered. And since I’m turning 30 this year, I figure it is about time to grow up. Become a man, and all that. More soon.
Well stated, my friend! I went through two foreclosures since late 2010 and it was pretty difficult to get through, but I remember some advice that the cartoonist John Kricfalusi (Ren and Stimpy creator) sent me in a private email that year where he told me to just focus on studying and practicing rather than wasting time and energy trying to argue with people on certain animation forums, and that advice helped me to get through. I think similar advice can apply to frustrated economists like you and Aaron. Don’t waste time trying to argue with people who don’t believe in intellectual honesty, capitalism, markets, or truth or get riled up because of comments someone wrote on another blog.
Two foreclosures sound tough.
I think it goes beyond that, however. I think that not only do we owe it to ourselves to not get caught up in all the modern crap that surrounds us, but we have a duty to make sure that we don’t accidentally start acting like we share the values that we see all around us.
There is in fact no excuse for being lazy, ignorant, slothful, decadent or anything else – just as there never was. Assuming we only get one life, what we do with it is the most important thing until we die. So many people could do amazing things, and end up doing ….. nothing. Nothing at all. And the one thing everyone should strive to avoid is being that person, because its such a damn shame.
Let’s live In Gloriam Dei, if nothing else.
That’s a painful thing to think about. People wanting to do amazing things and then end up doing nothing and die off. That’s a waste of millions of cells.
The first foreclosure I went through was called off and I was allowed to stay in my house. The second foreclosure happened out of nowhere in late 2012 and these Asians bought off the house I was living under for rent. I’ve been living in an apartment with my parents for a week or two now since. I’ll probably have to move again this year back up to Massachusetts either during the spring or the summer.
Sounds like a nasty situation. I figure you’ll be alright though, you seem to have your head properly screwed on
Speaking of animation, here’s one of the greatest defenses of free enterprise and capitalism that I’ve ever watched. It’s one of those John Sutherland industrial films from 1948. I feel that it’s even more relevant today than it was back then. It’s everything that libertarians are supposed to stand for. Why they are wasting time negotiating and working with lefties is something I will never understand. I found this short in late 2011 during my senior year of high school. You should post it as a blog post for all to see.
Here’s a version without the extra commentary from the beginning and the end.
I like this direction that you are going. As I see the continual decay of society and there are so many things that become norms that 20 years ago would be considered things that no man with any self respect and sense of decency would consider doing, I say to myself; I will not be joining them; always good to see someone else doing the same.