Richard Rieben's Columns
I Was Not Born to Submit . . .
"Howsoever thorough our indoctrination, we retain a will. It is an individual, unsocial and unrational quality. Would that the fighters for freedom could harness the power of that will, but they never will. It is not in its nature to be harnessed, only to resist being harnessed – by anyone, friend or foe." Column by Richard Rieben.
"The authority meme is across-the-board. It can never achieve or even simulate anything that is humane...it can only lead to misery, suffering, poverty, war, brutality, and slavery.....It is, at every minor occurrence, a complete capitulation to hell." Column by Richard Rieben.
"The private sector in many cases assumed responsibility for the care of people who were not able, by circumstances, to care for themselves, yet without any presumption of control over those afflicted by the hurricane. They volunteered assistance to those who were receptive to the particular assistance being offered – and they adjusted their assistance – on the fly – to the needs of the afflicted, directly and personally. They had no authority over anyone but themselves, didn't want it, and didn't need it." Column by Richard Rieben. This starts out a little dry, but stay with it.
"In terms of its material standard of living, bounty of creativity and spectacles of affluence, liberty surpasses all utopian visions. But it is made of different stuff, built upon a different premise, geared to different ends, and all of the social benefits are unintended byproducts of the premise. They are not intentional, are not engineered to these results, are not planned, are not organized for, are not utopian. It is, socially, a better path in terms of material results, but the material results are not the goal of it." Column by Richard Rieben.
Recommended "The other side of the equation that the ends do not justify the means, is that the means determine the ends. If you want good results, you start with a good premise. Scarmig contends that we already have good results, even starting from a bad premise. I disagree....I think, from our present situation, we can scarcely even imagine the results of starting from a good premise...how would we be able to do that?" Column by Richard Rieben.
The Passion of Liberty: Part Six - The Symbol of Liberty
Recommended "They’ve successfully hidden Christ in a closet for nearly 2,000 years. Mel Gibson let Him out again. If ever there were a window of opportunity for liberty, now is the time to strike the chains – clearly, cleanly and irrevocably." Column by Richard Rieben.
The Passion of Liberty: Part Five - Resurrection and Redemption
"It is no matter of faith that respect for the sovereignty of individuals, in any amount, will promote healing." Column by Richard Rieben.
The Passion of Liberty: Part Four - Original Sin
"We are, none of us, without the 'sin' of indoctrination, but to heal from this sin, we must give and seek the respect of our fellows...." Column by Richard Rieben.
The Passion of Liberty: Part Three - Goodwill to All
"Liberty is born of self-interest. It effects goodwill to all through its practice, and it generates goodwill in everyone as a consequence." Column by Richard Rieben.
The Passion of Liberty: Part Two - Respect One Another
"The action of securing our boundaries is the reciprocal exchange of respect, one to another." Column by Richard Rieben.
The Passion of Liberty: Part One - The Soul of Politics
"A form or method of effecting boundaries between sovereign individuals such as to effect harmonious social intercourse." Column by Richard Rieben.
"By the way, the dream for the future of this species is not something that is going to be vetted by a committee, approved by authority, or sanctioned by your peers. Scary thought, but it’s an individual dream. It won’t 'play' to a group. It doesn’t need to. Neither do you." Column by Richard Rieben.
"If you want liberty, you have to deprogram yourself and your neighbors. You have to do a lot of healing. And, that healing would go a lot faster if you already had liberty in which to do it. Indeed, in the condition of liberty, you wouldn't have to work so hard to overcome anti-liberty subordination because you wouldn't be surrounded by it all the time, as you are now. It wouldn't be chronically reinforced upon you." Column by new Root Striker Richard Rieben.