Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

When did the idea of minding your own business fall so out of fashion as to be contrary to modern sensibilities? I remember asking my folks many times as a youngster “What’s wrong with that little crying brat over there?”; only to have them tell me it was none of my business. As long as the crying brat in question wasn’t weeping because mom or dad had been viciously beating them, whatever was the matter was no matter of mine. Nor was it the problem of any odd passer by who happened to see me crying when I was having a fit of my own. Sink or swim, it was all on ya, have a nice day, don’t let the door split you on the way out.

All that common courtesy and kind hearted uncaring has gone by the wayside, it seems, in favor of a nanny state, where everyone’s business in everyone else’s, and woe to the person who just doesn’t want to be bothered. Why does it have to be this way though? What has brought us to this increasingly hive minded point? Could it be the endless intrusiveness of modern technology and celebrity obsession? Could it be that you don’t have to even go out of doors any more to be a stalker? Everything is right there, at the finger tips. What’s worse: you don’t even have to geek it out anymore, spending who knows how many hours or days hiding in bushes, waiting for the best shot. Nope, the talking heads that tell us how to think and feel and act and vote are doing it all for us, with 24 hour live streams of their lives and embarrassments, until we’re so full of useless knowledge about the never rans that we hardly know who we are anymore.

Is it that we’re so afraid of being alone, or terrified of the responsibility to take care of our own needs, that we’re ready to saddle up to the nearest hitching post and let ourselves rot there? (I’ll admit that I know next to nothing about horses, so if that last bit of rant makes no sense I apologize. Too much of a city boy, I guess.)

There was a point in time, not even that long ago in the celestial scene of things, when folks—that’d be men and women, don’t want anyone to think I’m being noninclusive—were ready, willing and able to go about life on their own terms. There were people that would trek out into areas of the world completely unknown to civilization and settle down, making a life or a fresh grave for themselves. They’d hunt and gather and build and reproduce and make that place theirs if it was at all possible. I guess it was a “Can-do,”; a bit of grit that is portrayed to modern young humans as something archaic, if not downright racist, but then what isn’t these days?

It’s all paled compared to what it used to be. Individuals are presented as (repeating myself) racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-worker, whatever else the week kneed Leftist cretins feel like calling them because they can’t find a legitimate argument for their way of life other than “Well, I’m too much of a milquetoast liberal snowflake to survive in that kind of environment, so it must be evil!”; People who want nothing from their neighbors other than to be treated as human beings, and otherwise to be left alone, are touted as being antisocial and dangerously violent. I suppose there could be a glint of truth in that one, as who wouldn’t be violent if their busybody neighbors and their federal friends raided their homes, opened fire on their spouses and offspring, and effectively executed them for not wanting to be bothered?

I’m an individual. Fairly antisocial, too, truth be told. I bother with folks when I want to, in situations of my choosing, and for the duration that I’m willing to suffer through it. There are times when I have to be nice to head cases that I’d much rather walk away from: at work, when I’m being paid to be nice to head cases, rather than walk away from them. As long as I don’t see or suspect you of beating on your spouse or children, I don’t really care what you’re doing. MYOB, all the way, insofar as your business doesn’t get in the way of me doing mine. So that being the case, I’d be very appreciative if the rest of the world would KYFHO while I’m MYOB, and if my lack of caring bothers you, I’d have to ask (smile on face and twinkle in eye): DILLIGAF?

I hate those little quips about there being two kinds of people in the world. While some can be pretty funny, most are just pretentious and annoying. But it does seem to me that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who need to be i control of everything you do, and those who just want to be left alone. Live and let live, have a great day, and get the hell off my lawn. The world would be a much better place, I think, if there were more of the latter, and next to none of the former.

So, as you go out this week (when you read this, or at least skim it, the 4th of July is past, but as I sit here writing it it’s still a day away) be good human beings. Leave folks alone. Mind your own business, until someone makes their business yours. Bring this isolationist, nonconformist mentality with you into whatever your future holds. Remember that you aren’t owed any part of what your neighbor’s earned, any more than they’ve earned the sweat from your own brow. Keep your head down, and don’t start anything that earned you a kick in the pants. And be able to keep those times when you’ve had to get violent low enough to be counted on four fingers, keeping the middle one free to share with those folks that you gave a pass, even when they deserved nothing more than a pop in the teeth.