Wednesday, May 18, 2005
You don't belong to her
I'm a forest kind of girl. I like bold sweeping generalisations. I like ignoring the inconvenient details. And I like succint summaries. The shorter the better, especially when it comes to things that do not really interest me.
This is why I loved Roderick Longs Libertarianism in one sentence (via ALTG)
Other people are not your property.
How cool! How convenient. How efficient. So many ideas intimated in just six words.
What I love about this sentence is that, not only does it apparently sum up Libetarianism, it also sums up my attitude to life. By "life" I mean everything related to people and not just the socio-political aspects of life. It is a great mantra for that stickiest of all aspects: relationships.
For example, my friend Bob has been having difficulties with females. Specifically with females staking a claim and treating him like they own him. When he told me about this difficulty, the first thing that popped into my mind was "other people are not your property." So I emailed this revelation to him.
I was far too subtle though because he missed the point. He said he agreed with the statement, and that he was good at not treating other people like property. Ummm...yeah...I know that Bob! I must remember to be direct and blunt when communicating, especially with males.
So I spelled out what I was trying to say to Bob, which was the flip side of the Libertarian sentence:
You are not other peoples property.
(translation: "you don't belong to her", or alternatively "grow a spine")
I was very impressed with myself, although I'm sure millions have thought about this before me.
I really like this reflected perspective. It is much more useful to me. I am currently meditating on it. As is Bob.
