I've listened to a half dozen podcasts a week for about the past several months and listened to all of the Best Of series. I've also read several of Stef's books.
With no disrespect intended to Stef I don't believe all parents are evil. My own parents occasionally used their power to control me. However, they were never abusive in their use of power. Instead, they, for the most part, explained why I should do things rather than telling me what I had to do. They also encouraged me to think for myself and told me when I was about 13 that I was old enough to run my own life. They assured me they would always be available to discuss anything I wanted their input on. They also told me that if I ever got into a situation of extreme peer pressure I could always say "My parents won't let me do that." My wife and I told our sons the same when they entered their teenage years.
I studied a bit of psychology in university (I majored in Mathematical Physics) and read as much as I could on good parenting as our first son came along. My wife and I avoided power confrontations with our children, using reasoning instead. As a result, our sons never went through the normal teenage rebellion phase. Our youngest son attempted to do so once. My response was to explain my reasoning and to tell him to make up his own mind while reminding him that he had to live with the consequences of his decision not me. Another time when one of our sons got in with what we thought was a bad group, we kept our opinion to ourselves and a few months later he decided on his own that he no longer wanted to associate with them.
I have alway been very interested in learning more about how parents should treat their children and still am. I'm talking about practical advice, not vague generalities. My wife and I currently look after our granddaughter 3 days a week and I'd like our treatment of her to be even better than our treatment of our sons. I'd also like to be able to give my sons and their wives as much information as I can on how to be exceptional parents. As an example, a few months ago, I purchased a book on using sign language with babies and learned some basic signs that our granddaughter has used for the past several months to help her tell her parents and us what she wants.
The bottom line is that I've always been too busy working at living a good life to have time to run anyone else's life. I've also been far more focused on having good times with my wife and children, and the rest of my family, to want to waste time fighting with them.
I started my adult life believing that no matter what the question, government was always the answer. After a decade or so, it became apparent to me that politicians lied about almost everything. (I would now delete the almost.) It also became apparent that much of what government did had negative side effects and often did more harm than good. (I would now change much to all and often to always.) I switched from voting for one of the two major parties to voting for the essentially anti-government Rhinoceros Party. By my late 40s I'd learned a bit about the Libertarian Party and although they never had a candidate in my district, I began writing Libertarian across the ballet. I read very little about politics over the years as I was very busy with a wife and 3 sons along with my consulting and later my manufacturing businesses. Instead I spent most of my leisure hours reading about business-related or parenting topics (or science fiction for relaxation).
After I retired some 4 years ago, I read some Ayn Rand as well as some Murray Rothbard and a number of other Libertarian writers. I very quickly concluded that Rothbard's message made more sense than Rand's - it was more consistent. I also learned more about the LP and became a candidate in the provincial (state) election last fall. Although the party supports limited government, I ran on a platform of anarchy. (I presented moral arguments as well as arguments about effectiveness.) I was involved in several public debates and noticed that most of the people in the audience rejected my message outright. A few cocked their heads in thought for a second or two then shook their heads in rejection of my ideas. Over the past year, I've been involved in several discussions with LP members about the inconsistency of their principles of non-aggression and private property under a limited government. For the most part, they just don't see the hypocrisy and all my arguments bead up and run off them like water off a duck's back. They feel they can control government although they are fully aware that all past attempts to do so have failed.
For the past couple of years, I've been on a "quest" to uncover the myths that people in our society believe. Many of these relate to government as I'm sure most of you know.
Earlier this year, I got onto Facebook to join the LP of Canada group there. I also started listening to podcasts and when I came across a mention of Free Domain Radio in the Voluntary group on Facebook I decided to give Stef a listen.
That tells you a little (too much?) about who I am and how I got here. Now I'd like to say a bit about where I now feel I am. To start with, the fact that I'm writing this says I agree with most of what Stef says. Other than few minor issues, I can say that I most definitely agree with and fully support his ideas on personal freedom and anarchy. (After listening to one of his podcasts, I often feel like Newton standing on the shoulders of a giant. It's really great to be able to benefit from what Stef has worked out over the decades.) I have not deFOOed (I actually enjoy being with the members of my FOO.) I have just begun I confront my family and friends as to whether they would support my being shot for disagreeing with their favorite government program.
I look forward to interacting with many of you over the coming years as we pursue the goal of greater personal freedom.