Garrett M. Vonk

First, the 30-second update on me:

I have a great new job at a Human Resources Outsourcing company. I’ve made tons of new friends in just a few weeks, and I am quickly (or slowly, considering the amount of material) becoming an expert in Health Benefits. The commute is similar to my other jobs, but we’ll probably look for a house a little closer to the office when we go house-shopping later this year.

Heather’s traveling a good deal now with her job, which changes the dynamic around the house a little. My dad is getting his MBA at FAU, so he’s a student again, which is GREAT to see.

Now, the light philosophical rambling

A sentence I read in Capitalism Magazine really got me thinking. It was really a quote from Ayn Rand, but it bears repeating.

The smallest minority possible is the individual.

I can’t think of a better way to put it. Mathematically, it makes absolute sense. No matter whom you align yourself with, politically, philisophically, emotionally, financially– the only person you are responsible for by nature is yourself. Everything else is agreed upon with respect to that responsibility.

If you don’t respect the ability of every man to own himself fully, and be himself, I don’t personally believe you have the moral authority to claim to respect groups of people. When the foundation of such groups is a common goal that each member purports to individually hold, holding up “rights” for these groups at the detriment of individual liberty is at best misguided, and at worst fraudulent and deceptive.

And I’m tempted to drop the “misguided” thought altogether. An article suggested by premises that proponents of, for example, free health care, cannot be called “misguided” because the word presupposes that their foundation is noble or moral when it is not.