Will you discuss politics at your holiday gatherings this year?

Well, it may be a bit late for your holiday gatherings, but we know a lot of our friends in the Bitcoin community believe in more than just cool technology — they have a genuine dedication to freedom. And we found this memo from our friends over at the Zero Aggression Project intriguing and helpful; we thought others might benefit in their New Year celebration and into the new year itself.

Will you discuss politics at your [New Year's] gatherings?

We hope you’ll avoid it. Instead…

We want to encourage you to ask powerful questions that will plant what we call Mental Depth Charges.

We rarely use the word “freedom” here. That’s because there are three basic versions of freedom. Two of them are frauds. These two are…

  • A right-wing view, where men with uniforms “rain” liberty on behalf of those who aren’t sufficiently grateful.
  • A left-wing perspective, where we all are forced to pay for the failed life choices of others.

Freedom in either sense is merely the sin of pride. The expositors of these views want others to know that they’re better than everyone else. If you disagree, they are morally superior to you.

Frequently, they will try to shame you into silence. Please don’t miss this point. They essentially want to bully you, even in conversation.

[Portrait of Herbert Spencer]
Herbert Spencer, 19th-century philosopher and classical liberal.

Perhaps in the past, you have been silent. It kept the peace. But why was that burden imposed on you? Maybe you didn’t know what to say. Then let us offer some advice…

Don’t “sell” your policy remedies! Try to avoid talking about politics. That means…

  • Don’t start such a conversation; let the family blowhard do it.
  • When such a “debate” starts, offer no partisan tribal defenses nor public policy proposals.
  • You have something better to offer, and that is what Herbert Spencer called the Law of Equal Freedom…
Each person has the right to do whatever he or she wills, so long as they don’t infringe on the equal freedom of other persons.

This is the third, unheard, and most genuine freedom. This is actual liberty.

  • It requires no flag-waving applause for those who brandish State insignia.
  • It does not seek the power to make humans more perfect through the imposition of coercive force.

Yet this view will have no TV commercials. It won’t be saluted at half-time. And that’s because the hierarchy — the structures of power — can’t figure out how to cash-in on it. The forms of so-called freedom they embrace are grounded in avarice — the raw lust to maintain and expand power over others.

Today, there’s little we can do about the fact that our views are not yet broadcast. But around the dinner table, there is something YOU can do.

Instead of discussing politics — the partisan personalities, the abstractions of statistics, and the superstition that any politician can solve a social problem — try bringing a Moral Mirror with you.

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You can read the rest over at ZeroAggressionProject.org.

Here's to a New Year with further adoption of crypto-currency, and further adoption of freedom!