I just finished watching the 1990 Christian Slater movie “Pump Up The Volume“. When I was an undergrad student, I went out with this chick who was obsessed with Christian Slater. I mean, posters for every Christian Slater movie were all over the walls of her bedroom. Her bedroom. Christian Slater staring at me constantly. That’s kind of unnerving, if you catch my drift. Since then (the mid to late 90s), everyone who’s familiar with that movie’s told me I’m just like Christian Slater’s character in that movie. I always used to think I was Anthony Michael Hall, but maybe not, since there’s no single Anthony Michael Hall movie that comes as close as “Pump Up The Volume” does. All of these things, and my recent opportunity to view another Slater movie called “Heathers“, led me to request a copy through Netflix.

I can definitely see a similarity with my rants and criticism of society and authority and stuff. Also, most people who “know” me during the day say I’m too quiet and shy, even though I’m not usually like that in the later evening hours. I’m dissatisfied with the state of things, even more than usual as of late, particularly on the job front. I’m finding that nobody wants an outside of the box thinker. That’s just bullshit they feed you in graduate school. They all want a Yes-Man, or in order to comply with EOE regulations, a Yes-Chick, a Yes-Black, or a Yes-Cripple. And yeah, they don’t want individuality or freedom of speech or freedom of thought. Their “diversity” is all about putting people in pretty little colored boxes. They can do an activity that a five year old can do so they can feel good about helping the less fortunate, but as we’ve already discussed, they’re not concerned about actually dealing with the problems of individuals, just about classifying people. Genetically speaking, organisms with closely similar DNA are most susceptible to being wiped out en masse by disease. That’s a holocaust just waiting to happen. Passing me up is the worst mistake they could make if they want to continue their line. Anyway, the FCC wanted to lock Slater up in the movie for speaking about what’s really going on in the culture on a pirate radio station. Blogging is today’s equivalent of pirate radio stations. When they make blogging illegal, only criminals will blog. So be it.

While there’s some strong differences between Christian Slater’s character in this movie and myself. I’m not as eloquent. I don’t command the kind of following that he got. That much is obvious. All-in-all I think it’s a good movie to see if you want an insight into my view of the world. It’s called REALITY. Contrary to FCC-controlled airwaves, reality will not be televised.

Last week I went downtown to get a job working on behalf of the Democratic Party. This job would have required me to fundraise and campaign for Democratic candidates who opposed a lot of people that I know. Great candidates such as Stephanie Watson (candidate for NC Senate 16) and Brian Irving (candidate for NC Senate 17). And, oh yeah, Mike Munger (candidate for Governor). Especially Mike Munger, since getting just 2% in that race would help the party avoid a costly ballot access drive for the 2012 electoral cycle. The fact I’m not employed in no way means that the Democratic Party people didn’t want me. On the contrary, I could have done well and made some quick money in the process. It wasn’t just the money that drove me to such an action. There was also the deep desire to prove myself, make my time in this world worthwhile, do something great. In the end I backed out at the last minute after having a few moments to stare at all the Democratic Party propaganda on the wall.

There was something else that was on my mind at that time. I’d been stressed out for the last week or so reading about all these horrible and treacherous acts that could be committed by any number of mysterious cabals at this past weekend’s Libertarian Party national convention. As a Libertarian, I thought to myself: “Why should it even matter? I mean, most of the Libertarians I know were deeply involved with the recent Republican campaigns of Ron Paul for President and BJ Lawson for US House. Besides most everyone’s had some other political affiliation before joining the Libertarian Party. We even have former Democratic and Republican office holders who’ve spent serious amounts of time in The-Belly-Of-The-Beast, DC, doing who knows what. Why can’t I improve my skills, build my resume, and buy a gallon or two of gas in the process?” Anyway, back to the convention…

The first time I heard the phrase “don’t blow it this time” in a political sense was while serving as a delegate at the 2000 Libertarian Party national convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. At these conventions there are tons of fliers passed out for everything — way too many, if you ask me. One of the ones that was left at my seat before the business session was on white paper. It featured poorly-photocopied pictures of candidates for party office with names like George Phillies, Carol Moore, R. Lee Wrights, and Starchild (all of whom I voted for, by the way). At the bottom of this flier, it said “Grassroots works, support ground up, not top down.” At the top it said, among other things, “Don’t blow it this time…” To this day, I still have it posted on my inspiration-remembrance-don’t forget corkboard that sits on the desk of my home-office. Incidentally, the second time I heard this saying was in 2004 when Presidential candidate Gary Nolan was conceding and endorsing Michael Badnarik for the Libertarian Party’s nomination over Aaron Russo.

While I can’t say that I was happy with the results of this year’s Libertarian Party national convention (particularly selecting Wayne Allyn Root as the vice-presidential nominee over a candidates like marijuana activist Steve Kubby), there were a number of things that I was happy about. First of all, I didn’t hear anyone say “don’t blow it this time.” Secondly, I didn’t see any embarrassing moments during C-SPAN’s coverage, except for Christine Smith’s insane rant against Bob Barr’s selection. But the best thing were the numerous calls for unity, most notably in debate and concession speeches by Mary Ruwart and George Phillies.

Now that the convention’s over, it’s time for me to say something of great importance to my fellow Libertarians: Don’t blow it this time… Libertarians, by the nature of their philosophies, are highly individualistic. Thus, unity may be hard. Tolerance may be hard. Acceptance of where other individuals are at in their journey toward realizing the benefits of freedom may be hard. But these are all essential to keep in mind when spreading the message of liberty through engagement with fellow Americans in the political realm.

But beyond these things, Libertarians must be better individuals. In Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau states that when people are ready for it, they will have a government “which governs not at all”. If Libertarians desire this as an end, they will never be able to achieve this end without personally being ready for it. If we are able to address the vast majority of our own problems, work with other like-minded individuals to solve those problems that we can’t solve on our own, be more successful, hold positions of responsibility and esteem, demonstrate high levels of innovation and leadership, those people who may not yet be Libertarians (or even libertarians) will move in that direction. That will be the only way the Libertarian Revolution can possibly begin.

I don’t have all the answers, and I definitely don’t have my life all together yet. But I’m committed to this change, and when ready, I will be committed to bringing others who desire this change with me. I’ve been thinking about this concept for awhile. Maybe as I’m working on my journey, a vehicle to communicate what this change will look like can be developed. I sure hope so. In any case, watch this space.

I’ve been writing, just not posting.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of networking and interviewing to find my latest (hopefully paying) gig. While I’ve been persistent in my search, I’m finally starting to feel worn down from the constant bustling. Luckily, I’ve found a few minutes to write (and take pictures and other such bloggable stuff). A lot of it didn’t make sense at the time, or needed heavy editing. Maybe I’m too much of a perfectionist. Perfect mediocrity.

Anyway I’ll be posting these bits and pieces this weekend. Maybe it’ll show something about the depths of my soul or something that I missed in all of life’s usual busy-ness. Look for some new additions, perhaps with a best of post to highlight the highlights, so to speak.