Introduction

I AM THE SURLY CURMUDGEON

I'm the Surly Curmudgeon because life in the USA forces me to be. I'm pissed off about life in this country and most of the world because it doesn't have to be as bad as it is. And if you don't think it's bad, let me remove the blinders from your eyes. It doesn't matter who I am other than the representation of an ideal of individual freedom and responsibility. I'm iconoclastic, incorrigible, and proud of it, and a renaissance man of ideas. I don't care if you agree or disagree with me. I'm here to provoke and make you think. If I offend you or make you uncomfortable, good! If you've never offended someone you've never lived. I don't suffer fools gladly. I try not to suffer them at all. There's enough suffering in the world and I refuse to participate in it.

I support individual freedom and responsibility. You can't have one without the other. You've heard that there's no freedom without responsibility, but there's no responsibility without freedom, either, it's an equation that goes both ways, and we are losing both. Think about it.

I'm not a conservative or a liberal or anywhere in the middle. I'm radical in the way that it means getting to the roots, and sometimes that requires extreme changes. I'm a rebel because I don't want to conform to anyone's idea of proper behavior. I'm an individualist and a communalist, but I'm not a walking contradiction, as are the current liberals and conservatives. I support classical liberalism and conservatism, but few people understand what those ideals are. Do you? I criticize because I want to improve America, and do we ever have room for improvement! I talk common sense, but my common sense is very uncommon in America today. I try to cultivate a humorous perspective on it, otherwise I'd be crying all the time.

I proudly call myself an elitist because someone has to uphold high standards and ideals. Elitism doesn't mean putting anyone else down, but requires bringing them up to your level, even beyond. It's the standards that matter, not the person.

I offer you controversial, logical and rational ideas consistent with individual freedom. My motto: "Question everything."

I'm very sensitive to bullshit and I'll tell you about it. Our society is so full of it that most of us have lost the ability to smell it. In fact, we're in over our heads and sinking fast. This offal is even being sold to us and we're buying it.

I don't feel like I'm living in a free country. Our freedoms and rights have been whittled away over the past century so they're only a ghost of their former existence. I'm taxed at an exorbitant rate - and I'm far from rich - that restricts my freedom to act with my honestly earned resources. That means my property isn't mine. I can't use my body for my pleasures without breaking some law - drugs are illegal, most sexual expression is illegal - my body doesn't belong to me. Gays and other minorities aren't allowed the equal rights they are guaranteed under the Constitution. I have no privacy from our government or a myriad of businesses who buy and sell my personal information. You're in the same boat. The government can put you under surveillance if it has even the slightest suspicion that you might be involved in criminal activities, and it defines criminal activities at a whim. Do you want to do something about it or will you apathetically let your lives be sold to the highest bidder?

I agree with Mohandas Ghandi, in his reply to a reporter who asked him what he thought of Western Civilization, he said, "I think it would be a good idea." But I don't think that civilization can be achieved within western culture. For all its positive achievements, it is too flawed at its foundations to produce a fair and sane society. I have become its respectful enemy.

What is really important for our lives? We humans seem to have our priorities skewed. Should technological progress, making money, having material goods, achieving social status or experiencing pleasures be the most important priorities in our lives? All of these have consequences that affect all our lives in ways we do not initially consider and that ultimately threaten the achievement of those priorities. Where will these priorities lead us? Must the population and the economy continue to grow and for what reasons? Would we be better off with another set of priorities?: spiritual and personal growth, solving social ills: poverty, war, famine; learning to love.

If we weren't so shortsighted, greedy, paranoid, prejudiced we could build a paradise on Earth. It's our beliefs and ideologies - capitalism, patriarchal religions, cultural philosophies that are the impediment to achieving the semi-divine. There are no other good reasons why we can't create a culture where everyone has the basic needs provided and without grindstone labor or tyranny. No, I have no illusions that we could create utopia, humans being fallable creatures, but I have faith in humanity that we can achieve at least this modest ideal, but I have no faith in our traditions. Those superstitions only hold us back. Sometimes, instead of "throwing out the baby with the bathwater" it would be better to start with the bathinet and throw out the whole thing.

This isn't a book, but a collection of categorized observations. It can be read in any order and part, depending on your interest.

If this site is ever shut down without my notification, then you will know that you live in a police state and it's time for another revolution to restore the Constitution.

Some new laws: 1. The obvious isn't. 2. Constants aren't. (Standards aren't, either) 3. Absolutes are relative. 4. Ignorance is infinite. 5. "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity." 6. "Everything you know is wrong!" (thanks to Firesign Theatre) 7."We are as gods, so we might as well get good at it." (1960s motto)

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