Of course I can only speak for myself, so here is my answer:
As a child I was bed-ridden for two years and had a home tutor. Perhaps that had something to do with it. I had more family input during those formative years before the indoctrination centers (public schools) got their grip on me. Most of my girlfriends became cheerleaders and I tried out every year but could never make the cut as they said I lacked pep and was too serious (even though I could perform a flip and smiled my brains out through the tryouts). In high school, my friends paired off in "couples" as they needed a guy for their sense of identity. I felt I had the rest of my life to be a couple with my husband; therefore I wanted to shop around to see who else was out there first, so I would know him when I did meet him. When shopping for clothes, I never bought the first thing I saw. It just made sense to me.
My friends started smoking and drinking before I was ready to so I stayed home from the parties throughout my junior year. In my senior year I decided to finally go along or my best years would pass me by -- not my proudest moment. I redeemed myself though, by refusing to shoplift when "everyone was doing it".
In college, I rejected sorority life as my self-identity was solid enough and did not depend on a group. I also dated only independent men and met my husband there. I was a fine arts major and enjoyed sticking out from the well-dressed coeds in my paint-and-clay-stained jeans as I schlepped my easel, paint box and portfolio all over campus. I felt very bohemian.
I had discovered Ayn Rand and devoured every book of hers I could find. This led to my co-founding the Ohio Libertarian Party in 1972 (see my previous article on this website entitled, "Ayn Rand, Cigarettes, and Phone Booths"). This was before most people even heard of the term, libertarian. It just seemed rational to embrace this philosophy.
My husband and I were vegetarians for twelve years before it was trendy because it made sense to us. There were only a few health food stores in Cleveland at the time so I had to drive across town to stock up on supplements and such. Not like today when we have national health food chain stores -- even in the malls! I planned on natural child birth with the La Maz water immersion before it was heard of (but unfortunately ended up with an emergency C-section). I breast fed when hardly anyone did because it was rational and natural. Our mothers, not having chosen this for their babies, were ignorant on the subject so the only place we could go for support was La Leche League.
We home-schooled before others even considered it an option. It just seemed natural and right to us. We enjoyed it so much that it wasn't until tenth grade when my son made the decision to enroll in public school for the social aspects of it. I'm proud to say he excelled academically and graduated with honors.
When my husband and I became Christians and started to shop for a church, we felt the mainstream churches did not worship the way we wanted to. We were delighted to discover the Assemblies of God could offer what we were looking for. Though other Christians tend to regard them as cultist and not "true" Christians, we felt at home.
As you can see, all (or most) of the decisions I've made have seemed so right to me that it was difficult to understand why everyone didn't think this way and make these choices. What is it about me (and many of us libertarians and free thinkers) that compels me to do unconventional things: Genetics? DNA? Brain chemistry? Diet? Were we dropped on our heads as infants?
Why is it that what makes us crazy mad about current events in our country and the world, everybody else is okay with it? Why can't EVERYONE see things the way we see them? Is it that we're "smarter" than everyone else? LOL. We are products of the indoctrination centers too, so how is it that we turned out differently? What woke us up when everyone else is still asleep? We hunger for truth and when shown it, grab on like a life-preserver to a drowning man. Yet when we show our truth to others, most don't seem to care. Are we the square pegs in their round hole, or are they the square pegs...?
Please comment if you have an answer for me as I really would like someone to shine some light on this. I realize this article comes off sounding somewhat self-indulgent but I'm trying to be analytical here. I really do want to know what it is about our makeup that is different. Please tell me your story. I told you mine. Thanks.
©2008 Moonbow, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Monday, December 15, 2008
Last modified: Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The views expressed in this article are those of Moonbow only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Moonbow is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
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Reader Comments:
Posted By: Master C
Date: 2008-12-15 15:35:57
Dear Moonbow,
You asked for those of us who might be able to venture an answer as to why the world makes you so crazy, and why you feel like a square peg in a world of round holes, so I thought I might offer some answers for you.
One is that you SHOULD feel out of place because you are offbeat, out-of-step, and embrace ideologies which are microscopic in their support. I was just the opposite of you in high school, and was on student council, was the quarterback of the football team, was a starting guard on the basketball team, and was captain of the track team as I pole vaulted and ran the high hurdles. I was VERY popular with all the POPULAR kids in school, and I enjoyed many privileges derived from that position. My grades were modest, and my interest in scholastic issues was subdued, but my focus was more on other the social opportunities in running with the right crowds, and I HAD FUN.
That's what taking that DIVERGING road will do for you ~ you'll keep your soul but you'll find that you have very little input in things. People won't ask your opinion because they know how out-of-step you are, or how restrictive your views are. They know you're not a "team player" ~ at least not for the HOME TEAM.
I think your intellectual and literary skills also suffered from a lack of attention, or a decided attempt to step away from the rigors of scholarship. For instance, the subheadline of this article reads: "Us libertarians in this big, old round hole we live in. Why don't we fit in? What makes us so different than everyone else?"
More properly, your subheadline should have read "We, Libertarians" not "Us Libertarians", and what you have placed a period after is not even a sentence. Then, when you mentioned that you and your husband had home-schooled your child(ren) I feared that those signs of weak scholarship would be passed on as surely as those weak signs of your political orientation.
I say that your poliical orientation is weak because it is so arrogant and self-righteous. YOURS is considered to be the only sane and intelligent interpretation of what to eat, what to wear, where to work, how to vote, what (presumably) to watch on television, what authors to read (Ayn Rand is rigid, godless, has the sexual morality of a tramp ~ having her heroine, Dagny Taggart, sexually active with three different men, one of them married ~ Hank Rearden) ~ and she stigmatizes the government as an intrusion into freedom when it is that same government which provides police, fire, courts, streets, highways, and laws which civilize ALL nations. So, it is obvious that anyone who ignores ~ or, in your case ~ DISDAINS and SCORNS government participation in the society will find themselves MISPLACED.
To find a better place for yourself, you should go somewhere out in the wilds of society where no other people or communities exist so that you can preach your own gospel of independence and self-sufficiency. Because if you try to live in a civilized world, you will continue to feel out of place and certainly like a SQUARE PEG.
Master C
Posted By: Steven A. Rosile
Date: 2008-12-16 00:00:20
Hello Master C. Once again you impose your authoritarian world view on how everyone should behave and believe and miss the main points that this lady is trying to make.
For starters, she has made choices in life that seem correct to her as to how to live her life. Some of these choices have become quite fashionable and popular, others less so, among the population at large. However, she doesn't insist everyone follow her personal choices as you accuse her of doing. That is your world view and what you attempt to justify in your usual miserable manner.
Next, she wonders how it is that many among us are not concerned about things that are terribly wrong in this country, such as making war without Congressional Declaration, imprisonment without charges, torture, denial of habeas corpus,no due process of law, and warrantless wiretaps to name just a few examples.
And yet you just smugly ignore these facts and prattle on, putting down others for their concerns while our society is coming apart at the seams.
Maybe libertarians just have the ability to see through the smoke and mirrors put out by the government and media and see the truth. You certainly seem unable to do so Master C, and so are part of the problem. You also seem to feel frightened and threatened by people that make choices different from yours. Why would that be?
People have different likes, desires, abilities and goals. Libertarians respect these differences and believe that everyone should make lifes decisions for themselves, rather than have some self-appointed Master, such as yourself, make them for all of us.
For Liberty,
Steven A. Rosile
Posted By: David S
Date: 2008-12-16 00:17:04
Moonbow my very first comment is don't listen to Master C. He is a well known asshole and obviously square pegs don't fit there. But of course there is no need for me to tell you that because you already know it.
I came to the Libertarian camp from a much different path than you did. But we are both here because we believe in freedom. I think you may be asking the wrong question though. The better question is; why are there so many assholes who don't give a damn about freedom.
Posted By: sommers
Date: 2008-12-16 04:00:32
For me, it's always been a sense of what is fair. I have always had basic libertarian views. I have no sense of them being taught. Of course "fair" in todays society is very subjective.
Though I'm not a stalwart type libertarian in the political sense, there are obvious "right and wrong" governmental policies, at least obvious too me. Basically, if the government uses force to require it's citizens to part of their policies, I'm naturally suspicious, or resentful of that. ( policies that would otherwise not be criminal ) Keep individual freedom as strong as possible is this large society.
Posted By: Master C
Date: 2008-12-16 09:16:56
Hey, Stevie ~
It's not that Libertarians have "the ability to SEE THROUGH the smoke and mirrors put out by the government and media" as you contend, it's that Libertarians SEE smoke and mirrors EVERYWHERE! Libertarians spread HYSTERIA and MISINFORMATION everywhere they can. They don't understand the MODERN system of government and money, and don't even recognize the views of HAMILTON and WASHINGTON who were among the strongest FOUNDERS of the USA and led the FEDERALIST view of government. To the Libertarians, it's Jefferson (a vacillator and pedant who spent more time in France than he did in the colonies) and his buddy Madison (who couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag ~ a kind of old world Dick Cheney) and Ben Franklin who was so old he didn't know what he was thinking, who they support and drool over.
David S,
Here's a real intellectual heavyweight! Ha! Ha! He's so full of excrement that he's constantly looking for a**holes! Well, it would take a lot of a**holes to eliminate the kind of sh*t you're spreading, Davie. I looked for some articles you might have written, and ~ as I suspected ~ the cupboard was bare! Until you're willing to put your thoughts out there for us to look over, maybe you should stay in the bleachers and just watch the rest of us interact. The sandbox is more appropriate for first graders.
Moonbow,
Remember, dear heart, the only place where your views will be supported is somewhere like this website that only has about 15 or 20 rabid Libertarian hounds who think they're real tough. The moment they venture ANYWHERE else, they find that no one cares a thing about what they think. They're not even SQUARE PEGS, they're LEPERS whom no one wants to listen to or even be around.
Master C
Posted By: sjaye
Date: 2008-12-16 11:16:16
Why is it that almost every authoritorian liberal I talk to, or hear from, cannot recognize any economic model between their socialistic vision of heavy government involvement in education, health care, business regulation, and massive social programs, and full fledged anarcho-capitalism? All I hear is police, fire, courts, etc. are government functions, so, if you like them, you cannot possibly not be a big-government statist. The founding fathers built a government who's primary function is to protect people's rights and freedoms. This is why police, fire, and courts are basic functions of local governments, and national defense is a function of federal government. They protect us against threats to our freedom. Many of us believe that there is nothing about a federal education department, social security program, or health care program that protect our own freedoms, and that, if anything, these are examples of governments impeding on our freedoms.
A single entity, in this case GOVERNMENT, is capible of BOTH protecting our freedoms, as well as infringing on them. This is a point that many don't seem to understand. Almost every single entity can be both a positive thing or a negative thing depending on the extent in which it is used. Example: an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but if you eat 40 apples a day, you will probably end up with nutrition defections. Yes, the same can be true of government, a certain amount of government may be a positive thing for freedom (prevent descent into anarchy, looting, theft, riots), but too much government results in Big Brother.
By the same virtue in which all libertarian/fiscal conservative arguments are reduced to being anti-governement anarchist statements, I can reduce all liberal/statist arguments into being arguments in support of fascism and totalitarianism.
Posted By: John L. Jones
Date: 2008-12-16 18:23:31
Master C,
you seem to have a very common hang-up. One that is quite prevalent amongt debunkers and "I-am-always-rightists." Rather than attack the meat of the idea/topic at hand, you choose to attack the writer.
You have also shown a propensity to project your self-image. Case in point: "YOURS is considered to be the only sane and intelligent interpretation of what to eat, what to wear, where to work, how to vote, what (presumably) to watch on television, what authors to read." This quote showcases your basic misunderstanding of the fundamentals of libertarianism and would be better suited for a philosopher more like yourself.
I've weathered your personal attacks regarding my military service, which you know nothing about, and am now motivated to call you out every chance I get. It is your campaign of disinformation about libertarianism that scares people away from a political philosophy that has the power to set each individual free. Your above comment is entirely devoid of a counter-argument and instead resorts to below-the-belt personal attacks.
John
Posted By: Master C
Date: 2008-12-16 18:57:22
Dearest Johnny,
Oh, my! I'm sooooooo scared!
That's like an amoeba saying that he's going to stop me from driving my car. Good luck Mr. Big Stuff!
The drivel I've read from you would barely make enough saliva to spit. So, I'm really scared of you being "motivated to call (me) out every chance I get."
If you read what I have to say about soldiers ~ of which I was one; drafted into the Army 1970 - 1972 ~ you'll know how I feel about the VOLUNTEER type. They're robots who never question an order, never challenge their "superiors", and they defend the beliefs and preferences of the ELITE. As Muhammad Ali said when they drafted him: "I ain't got nothin' against them Viet Cong. None of them ever called me a nigger."
I'd like to hear one of you gung-ho, order-following volunteers stand up to someone about Iraq, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, and Bush. That's what FREEDOM'S about ~ not following the orders of elitist goons.
Master C
Posted By: Kate
Date: 2008-12-16 19:52:31
Enjoyed the article. As for Master C...Don't pay any mind to him ...It's the Big metal plate in his head...He always spouts off whenever his Mom turns on the microwave oven.
Posted By: Quiltingsando
Date: 2008-12-16 19:56:28
Hi! Moonbow:
Maybe we desire to take the road less traveled. We may agree on some things and disagree on others but the feelings of being the outsider I can relate to. I was not one of the smart or popular kids so I had to learn from observing others. I watched what others did and I would do the opposite if I thought it would give me better results. I had wonderful parents so I tried to learn from them as well. I don't claim to have any answers as to what is right or wrong because it seems I learn something new everyday which causes me to reevaluate my position and in turn can cause stress. Good luck in getting your answer. Peace
Posted By: moonbow
Date: 2008-12-17 02:12:40
Master C,
Thank you for pointing out my grammatical errors. You were right that the use of "us" was incorrect. It was a sloppy oversight for which I am guilty and embarrassed! The seemingly incomplete sentence was due to my assumption that it could be read with the title as one sentence. Please note that the respective changes have been made and please do not hesitate to advise me of any mistakes in my subsequent articles. I truly appretiate your diligence and keen eye. It is readers like you who keep writers like me on their toes!
Posted By: moonbow
Date: 2008-12-17 02:22:20
Typo: "appreciate". See what I mean? Your scrutiny is already improving my proofreading skills! Now I just have to exercise them BEFORE I submit the comment!
Posted By: sommers
Date: 2008-12-17 06:58:54
I wonder if the "C" stands for Cheney.
Posted By: trd
Date: 2008-12-17 07:38:47
The "C" may stand for Communist. It may also stand for Crap, Crude, Cripple, Crook, Corrupt, Constipated, Cretin, maybe even Cesspool. But it probably stands for Carl Conrad which is the name if this retired professor. He loves to do personal attacks with a heavy dose of metaphors. That's his hobby.
Posted By: Master C
Date: 2008-12-17 09:59:53
Dear Moonbow,
Just to help you a little further ~ your subheadline should read "different FROM" not "different THAN everyone else."
But, I'm glad to know that you "HOMESCHOOLED before others even considered it an option." I wonder what kind of OTHER educational lapses will emerge in your son's academic orientation considering the oddball politics and the rather weak linguistic skills to which he was exposed.
Don't worry, though. I'm sure there will be at least 1 or 2 additional sympathizers on this website who will condemn ME and extol YOUR virtues. As they say: birds of a feather..."
Master C
Posted By: Al E.
Date: 2008-12-17 15:15:53
As a guy who was popular, athletic and in with several different crowds back in school, I can say that Libertarianism isn't limited in its appeal to loners. I grant you that it will never appeal to bullies.
Posted By: Master C
Date: 2008-12-17 19:38:31
Hey, Al,
If you think that Libertarianism will never appeal to bullies, I guess you don't know Jahfre the BIG Fire Eater and his wife the closet heckler, Dan Steward, John L Jones (who's promised to "call [me] out every chance [he] gets"), R3volt, and a couple of other REAL TOUGH GUYS who patrol this website like vigilantes.
The only promise of LIBERTY they have is to THEMSELVES. The rest of us just get pounced upon like unarmed Christians in the arena with hungry lions!
Believe me, anyone who thinks Libertarians are courteous, have a conscience, or will listen to anyone but their favored lecturers is smokin' some stuff that I'd like to get a hold of.
Master C
Posted By: trd
Date: 2008-12-18 08:19:38
I didn't know that words written on a blog was considered bullying. I always thougt that bullies did their thing thought face-to-face and fist-to-body physical abusing. As far as I know, words on a blog only hurt thouse who could be emotionally unstable. Other than that, there will be no bruises as a result from this website.
Posted By: Master C
Date: 2008-12-18 08:50:07
trd,
You should live in a closet somewhere. You don't know enough about things to join the adults in conversation.
I suppose you're not aware that VERBAL abuse is one of the strongest and most enduring that people suffer in relationships. And, do you think all those little kids at school are just getting beaten up, or do you suppose that "fatty" and "ugly" and "stupid" are pretty common taunts?
As for you, you should try to write a little more clearly because YOU'RE just looking for someone to call your comments pathetic and inept. The proper verb in your first sentence, for instance, should have been PLURAL to go along with the PLURAL subject ("were" instead of "was"), and the word is "thought" not "thougt" even though you misused it TWICE in the barely four sentences you struggled your way through (or, I should say, "thougwh" or something similar for your benefit.).
So, if you think you're going to contribute something ADULT and INTELLIGENT to the discussion, why don't you try to write it like an ADULT ~ not some incompetent BOOB (or should I say, BLURB or something for your benefit?).
Master C
Posted By: trd
Date: 2008-12-19 11:41:40
So if you consider abuse as VERBAL, then there is no abuse here either because there is no VERBAL, only written. In which case you can chose not to read, unlike verbal which is still in your face. these things written here and merely zero's and one's recroded in some server.
But if you still do consider this form or written "attacks" abuse, then you are the number 1 offender. You probably derive pleasure in writing crap about people who disagree with you. Maybe you even get erections from writing your abuses here or maybe you need to get out of the closet. I don't know. It's probably a proyection of what you have gone thorugh with your pathetic childhood and part of your adult life whatever scrap is left of it. Its probably one of the reason for many divorces. Since you seem to know a lot about verb al abuses, I can't imagine the nasty things you used to say to your wives. Did they cheated on you or they just got tired of your verbal abuses? Or maybe they could not stand you.
If what you consider to be an ADULT is living a pathetic life as a college professor and getting many divorces, then consider me a happy child.
With regards to grammar: I don't care because these things written here are just blogs or blurbs with no computer spell checks or grammar spell checks. This is no publishing book or professional editor or any of that. I am not writing professional essays or tech papers here. So if there are typos so be it. English is my third language