Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Everyone has their own unique personal preferences. This is probably a good thing since it makes life interesting and keeps us from all fighting over the exact same stuff. Think how boring it would be if everyone preferred identical things. Variety is the spice of life.
As long as everyone remembers their preferences are only preferences, not a matter of one being right and the other being wrong, there’s no problem. It’s only when people try to impose their preferences on everyone that it becomes an issue.
It’s the difference between preferring the color yellow and forbidding the color blue; making the demand that everyone else pretend to prefer yellow, too -- or else.
This is the difference between having your own individual preferences, without acting like a tyrant, or trying to control others. Guess which path politicians prefer.
I try not to mistake my personal preferences for an excuse to tell you what to do or not do.
It’s why I can think abusing tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs is unhealthy, and prefer you not harm yourself with them, without believing it’s ethical to allow government to have the illegitimate power to regulate any of it in any way.
Live how you want; be who you are. Give others the same respect and it’s no one’s business.
Forcing others to ignore their own preferences because they differ from yours is not right. It’s the opposite of giving others the same respect you probably want from them. Stealing from others, attacking them, or forcing them to give you special treatment is the same. In such a case you need to meet a stone wall of resistance until you back down and become civil.
As long as you don’t try to use violence -- neither individual nor the collective violence of government -- against those whose preferences simply disagree with yours, there’s no reason to stand up to you. The moment you do, standing up against you is the right thing to do.
If you are encouraging tax-funded government schools to manipulate the preferences of a generation of impressionable little kids against the wishes of their parents, you are imposing your preferences coercively. You’re on the wrong side even if you are certain your preferences are better. You are crushing their individuality and, in the long run, making the future less free and less colorful than it could be. You certainly aren’t helping the kids.
Farwell’s Kent McManigal champions liberty. Contact him at: