Last weekend I mentioned finding notes on promising blog entries that I never completed or posted. My favorite (but most difficult) was about freedom “superpowers.”
I thought I’d turn this topic over to you guys — who are, in aggregate, the cleverest blog commentariat on the planet and therefore far better able to come up ideas than I’d be by myself.
So here’s the question, and a crucial caveat:
What THREE freedom superpowers would you like to possess for the future?
The caveat: I’m not really talking about superpowers, ala Marvel or DC. No laser vision to melt AOC’s tiny little brain. No super strength to lift up capitol buildings and hurl them into the sea. No ability to run such rapid circles around your enemies that they never even see you. No magical hammers, shields, or nifty bullet-deflecting bracelets. Sorry; I agree those kinds of powers would be fun. Useful, too.
I’m talking about three things you’d like to be really, really, but humanly good at that would help you and yours or the country be more free.
Okay, if you want to add a fourth one involving x-ray vision, flaming hands, or an Iron Man suit, go ahead. Consider it a bonus item. I don’t think anybody will complain. But first choose three “superpowers” that a real freedomista — maybe even you — could use in the real world.
I believe that people, and the world, change only by adopting ideas and behaviors successfully demonstrated by those who walk the talk.
1. Courage to follow my convictions in thought, word, deed regardless of personal ramifications. Fearlessness in confronting myself and others when those convictions are violated.
2. Humility to know my limitations and to acknowledge my errors.
3. Discernment to know the difference between honest mistakes, ignorance, and evil.
Bonus Superpower: skull penetrating telekinesis that can blast the stupid thinking of the b*stards who disagree with me.
1. The ability to ignore and walk away from stupid statism.
2. The ability to do what’s right and whatever I want (as long as it’s right), in spite of any “law” or any watching law enforcer goons (the Blue Line Gang).
3. The ability to instantly assess and know the response to any statist objection– even if I don’t say it out loud. And this also goes back to superpower #1.
1) The ability to educate by objective persuasion the full meaning of the Bill of Rights. The B of R should have been written first – to address the rights of the individual; then there would have been no need for a formal government. Applying the B of R to a free society is a simple matter of tolerance. (See below)
3) The ability to persuade others the true meaning and intent of tolerance. Tolerance is acknowleding the same rights for others as we claim for ourselves, and refusing to force others to live, believe, or act against their will. Tolerance begins with the individual, and ends when society attempts to define it.
3) The ability to remain humane (both disciplined and rational) in the face of inhumanity. We may yet have to face this situation.
4) Every “superpower” has the ability to use force. I would hope never to need any superpower.
1. To be completely healthy.
2. To be outstandingly good at building and fixing things. As good as Tim on Home Improvement wanted people to think he was.
3. To be completely unnoticeable when I want to be.
If I had a fourth choice, it would be the ability to communicate clearly and effectively when I want to. I suppose if you add other languages to that power, it could get to DC/Marvel level.
Be for good
Stand your ground
Respect others as you expect them to respect you
Bonus Superpower; be able to turn water into good wine and weeds into weed or a fine cigar depending on your mood that day
1. The ability to write persuasively, and
2. the ability to speak persuasively, and
3. the physical and mental stamina to do them tirelessly and effectively.
Oh, and I’m with Comrade X on the bonus superpower.
I’m with most of the others: The ability to communicate persuasively regarding freedom (and economics). #2 is a corollary, which is the ability to remember all the stuff I’d want to know to accomplish #1. I’d also like to be able to read with comprehension much faster than I do now.
Bonus power: Be a Green Lantern (yes, there are more than one).
1. Along with physically, I’d like to be able to truly mentally disregard laws which I find offensive or intrusive, and to not have them enter upon my thoughts.
2. I’d like to have the power to really go Gulch, and live my life for my sake and not for others, nor expect them to live theirs for me.
3. The power to banish stupid from my life
4. Most of all, I’d like t be able to teleport a mini me to any corporate boardroom in the world, any hoity toity club, any place the undeserving rich gather, and have zeros fall off the net worth of all those in the room each time I blink my eyes. Shrink private yachts the same way.
Interesting. Every one of us chose self-improvement as our superpowers. Nobody wants power over others (except in jest). I wonder what response one would get from other forums.
1. Ethics
(Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching—even when doing the wrong thing is legal. Aldo Leopold)
2. Crafty
(No, not the sneaky kind. The kind where you make things out of scraps and string. Everyone in my family is crafty, and it’s awesome.)
3. Prepared
(Where you pull a flashlight out of nowhere when everyone else is in the dark. Yeah, Eagle Scout here.)
Super-duper power? Making friends with animals.
(Not the speaking-their-language-pretending-they’re-intelligent movie stuff, just making friends on their terms. I’ve rarely been able to do that.) (But then it’s hard for me to make real friends with humans, too. I can never remember people’s names.)
Some otherwise useless amusement. Shots rang out… https://therionorteline.com/2011/11/30/the-56-bestworst-analogies-written-by-high-school-students/
I want freedom from fear–my own, and those of others. If I could do that, I really wouldn’t need any other powers.
I’m putting these in without seeing what was in the prior comments, so I can pretend I’m original:
1. Rights Invisibility – The ability to be invisible to busybodies who want to infringe my rights.
2. Responsibility Focus – The ability to make people responsible for their own situation and the outcome of their own life.
3. Socialism Ray – A ray to make the people who advocate socialism immediately experience the full effect, fast and hard.
4. The power to grow and retract my fingernails an inch or two at will. Just because.
5. I’d like my hair back, not a hairy back.
I should have responded when this was current. My apologies. My choices, in order of preference, would be:
1) Being able to minimize the ability of any person or agency to exert any negative influence or control over my life
2) The ability to teach my ways to others who wished to learn them
3) The ability to change the thinking of others so that they could value personal freedom as much as I do