No, Im not starting a book club or anything, but enough people have asked me which books inspire(d) me that I thought I might start posting some of them. This is probably my favorite novel of all time -- a masterpiece. Some excerpts: What I fear most are affirmative actions of sober and well-intentioned men, granting to government powers to do something that appears to need doing. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. That we were slaves I had known all my life — and nothing could be done about it. True, we werent bought and sold — but as long as Authority held monopoly over what we had to have and what we could sell to buy it, we were slaves. A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as state and society and government have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsible individuals. He believes that it is impossible to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame. . . as blame, guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human beings singly and nowhere else. But being rational, he knows that not all individuals hold his evaluations, so he tries to live perfectly in an imperfect world. . . aware that his effort will be less than perfect yet undismayed by self-knowledge of self-failure. Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws — always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up. Because not one of those people said: Please pass this so that I wont be able to do something I know I should stop. There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him. Revolution is an art that I pursue rather than a goal I expect to achieve. Nor is this a source of dismay; a lost cause can be as spiritually satisfying as a victory. Do this. Dont do that. Stay back in line. Wheres tax receipt? Fill out form. Lets see license. Submit six copies. Exit only. No left turn. No right turn. Queue up and pay fine. Take back and get stamped. Drop dead — but first get permit.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 18:14:07 +0000
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