Some of you know that last year, I formed the Annie Party in response to the lack of satisfaction I have suffered at the hands of the Big Two and the ineffectiveness of all of the minor parties. The Annie Party has one and only one member -- me. And I am the only member it will ever have.
This post is primarily about individual empowerment. I began a post earlier in response to an Activist Post article about mass murders and its causes, but the I had a mind-storm and recalled everything I've ever thought about individualism. Individualism is the primary basis if Objectivism, the philosophy created by Ayn Rand, whom some of us greatly admire. I'm a fan myself. But I hesitate to call myself an Objectivist, even though many of my beliefs match up with the philosophy. I resist as identifying as a Wiccan, even though many of my spiritual beliefs match up with that religion. And I even resist identifying myself as transgendered, even though I began life as a man and now identify myself as a woman. Each of these labels comes with a typical set of traits common to each self-identified member of each group, and I, as an individual human being, rarely match up perfectly with any trait set of any label. I am Annie, and Annie means me! (paraphrasing Tolkien, btw, if that sounds familiar)
The same is true for all human beings. There are many commonalities shared by many individuals -- many people like punk rock, for example, or hold to conservative or liberal values. There are Democrats and Republicans, Goths and WASPs, Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs, Pennsylvanians and Californians, Americans and Arabs and Koreans, and so on. While each member of a particular group will bear several (or many) similarities to each f\of the other members of that group -- thus establishing them as a group -- there are always differences. It is the differences on which I like to focus.
The differences are more interesting than the similarities, and generalizations such as labels take away an individual's -- well, individuality. When you identify yourself with any particular group, you surrender a bit of your personal power to that group. Sometimes this can be a good thing, but sometimes it can be bad. "A mob is an ukly ting," as Inspector Kemp said, and mob mentality is a lot of what I'm seeing up on Capitol Hill these days, with Congresspeople, party boosters and aligned commentators all sticking to their respective party lines like drowning people to rescue ropes. There's no flexibility in party thinking, no compromise, no mercy. There seems to be a decreasing willingness among partisan politicos to view their opponents as fellow human beings, and to increasingly label them as "the enemy."
In a previous post, I gave anecdotal evidence of a common desire among most humans to live at peace with their neighbors. I neglected to mention the minority -- those who are not willing to live at peace. Enumerating the traits and determining the causes of such a mindset evade me at the moment -- for a better explanation, see Ayn Rand's book, For The New Intellectual -- but the evidence shows that a small number of people simply cannot bear the thought of other people living peaceful and productive lives. These are the people destined to become despots. You've probably encountered one, especially if you've ever worked in any hierarchical organization such as governments or large corporations. They either work overtly -- think of any jerk boss you've had, one makes every effort to stymie your efforts, or read about brutal dictators like Adolph Hitler -- or covertly, pulling strings from behind the scenes -- think Rupert Murdoch or Heinrich Himmler, or even Alexander Hamilton. They crave glory, but find that the only way they can achieve it is not to elevate themselves but rather to push down those around them until their heads rise above the masses. These are the kind of people in control of the major political parties here in America, and that is why I formed the Annie Party.
I know some of you are in awe of my intellectual prowess, and may decry my declaration that my political party is not open to new members. First off, I am nothing special. My brain may be big and powerful, but the concepts I lay out in my posts are not rocket science, easily grasped by anyone who will take the time to think about what they are reading and view it objectively, and apply the wisdom they gain to their lives. That is the role of a scholar, to learn and then to teach. Secondly, accepting other members would defeat the purpose of the party. My primary purpose in life is to empower my fellow humans, to throw light on their individual greatness and give them the tools to effectively control their own lives. Each and every one of us is capable of great things, separately and together. When we celebrate our differences, it shows how similar we are, how common our basic goals are at root. Basically, we all want to live. We want to live our lives, achieve our dreams, and give our children better circumstances than we had. Forces are at work in the world in opposition to all of that, and the only way to negate their destructive influence is to make our voices heard. That is not going to happen if you tie your views to that of a major political party, to allow your ideology to be subsumed by that of a political mob. If you are currently a member of any political party, then maintain that, but do not allow your views to be corrupted. If anything your party is doing bothers you, then speak up. "All that is for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing," as Edmund Burke wrote. Don't sit idly by while partisan bickering plunges us deeper into political gridlock. Change something. Form your own Tom Party, or Judy Party, within the ranks or outside of them. Be an individual. Use your power.
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