The Left Is the Apex of Personal Liberty? Humbug.

Chapter 6.4: The biggest failure of the Nolan Chart

Why this book | Title Page | Table of Contents
Preface | Introduction
PART 1
Chapter 1 (1.1) (1.2) | Chapter 2 (2.1) (2.2) (2.3) | Chapter 3 (3.1) (3.2) (3.3) (3.4) (3.5) (3.6)
PART 2
Chapter 4 (4.1) (4.2) (4.3) (4.4) (4.5) | Chapter 5 (5.1) (5.2) (5.3) (5.4) (5.5) (5.6) (5.7) (5.8) (5.9)
Chapter 6 (6.1) (6.2) (6.3) (6.4)
PART 3
Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14
PART 4
Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 |
PART 5
Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Conclusion
Appendix | Works Cited

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Note: This is an installment of The Freedom Scale: An Accurate Measure of Left and Right. See here for installments of The Distributed Nation: A Plan for Human Independence.

Note 2: I know that many of you are missing #FreedomMusicFriday and the rest of my normally more varied content. However, time is short, the world is weird, and we need solutions. That is what I am writing The Distributed Nation (the other book) as quickly as possible. We will return to more normal fare once that is done.

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6.4 Problems with the Nolan Chart, 3

• Little bits of freedom are not enough.

• The left isn’t the apex of personal liberty

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Little bits of freedom are not enough.

During my brief time at Moscow State University in 1991, I intentionally sought out experiences beyond the classroom. I skipped a number of the student group tours and instead just walked around the city with no particular aim in mind, other than to be there and let things happen.

I sat on sidewalks and smoked cigarettes with random strangers.¹ I climbed to the top of a tower to look out over the city. I got into conversations where we spent more time flipping through a Russian-English dictionary than actually talking.

Early on, I met two sisters in front of St. Basil’s. We tried to communicate—they jokingly started telling me the words they knew in English: mother, father, missile, pronunciation, and the number five for some weird reason. In truth, they knew a little more English than that—enough to understand me when I asked them out on a date (yes, both of them) at 9:00 the next day…

You can continue reading for the cost of an occasional cup of coffee!