Ironic

You know what's ironic?

The core of many of my ideas are based on the advice of a friend of mine that I don't even talk to, anymore.

When Brandi and I were living in Lawrence together, I was trying to give up red meat for health reasons. I was having a hard time of it and I would come home every night and tell Brandi about how I gave into temptation and ate fat-loaded meat.

One day, Brandi said, "Why don't you just let yourself eat it and not feel all guilty about it."

So I did. I just let myself eat whatever I wanted, for awhile. I would eat the nastiest, fattiest meats I could get my hands on. Kentucky Fried Chicken, Long John Silvers, Wendy's, McDonalds. Whatever I could get my hands on.

And she was right. It was the guilt that was hanging me up. And the freedom to choose badly was finally what gave me the genuine, sustainable, long-term ability to choose well. Today, I am a rare breed. I am one of the few of my friends that I know of who began eating vegitarian and who has stuck with it. Largely because of this very good advice that Brandi gave me. Whenever I wanted to cheat, I just let myself. And the consequence has been an enormously healthy diet.

And I have generalized that piece of advice to almost every area of my life where I need to make a change. And it has worked invariably without a miss.

You know what's ironic? The way that we find more genuine control over ourselves and in our lives and with others is by letting go. Brandi and Maslow were right. Freedom makes for the best choices, long term. Because it allows us to make the bad choices we need to make to learn and internalize with experience why the good choices are so good.

That's why freer people are stronger than less free people, long term, and why freer cultures are stronger than less free cultures. Because freedom is where the learning takes place. And it is the learning that makes us more genuinely strong.

And that is the core of my ideas.

I always said Brandi was my best teacher.

In Brandi's honor, I'm playing a song that wasn't of any particular significance to us when we were together, but which seems appropriate, today, from the last great era of music.



Love,
Ben

Fame, wealth, and having it all (we miss you, Kurt)

A really honest reflection on fame, wealth, and having it all by Kurt Cobain on tapes made before his suicide which have been compiled into a soon-to-be-released documentary, About a Son.



It is occurring to me that there are some events in young peoples' lives that may shape their outlook on the world differently than their parents' outlooks. Kurt Cobain's death may have been one such event for my generation.

The last great era of music - the mid-to-late 90's - as far as I am concerned.

We miss you, Kurt. And we miss the music.

Love,
Ben

Evidence that least possible necessary aggression would predict

Foreign Policy reports research that my theorizing with least possible necessary aggression would predict.

The Hidden Pandemic

What is it? Crime. And it is up all over the world.

Why would least possible necessary aggression predict a surge in crime?

Because crime is escalated, I believe, by repressive and more aggressive law enforcement measures. And repression and higher amounts of aggression are the other important variables that are up all over the world, these days.

You doubt that? Keep an eye on that Red Mosque situation in Pakistan.

It's ironic, isn't it?

Aggression and repression are natural responses to aggression and retaliatory measures against us. And aggression and retaliation, as Bobby Kennedy argued in his Mindless Menace of Violence speech immediately after the death of Martin Luther King, are the natural responses to aggression and repression. Sometimes aggression is needed. Often it is ineffective or counterproductive by increasing the overall level of aggression, repression, and retaliation. Until we face that reality more honestly and learn the lesson, that is the fate we have chosen. Let us choose wisely.

Love,
Ben