I used to be surprised by this but that was probably 20 years ago now. I mean the same concept can be applied to the power of the President in the US. Obama ran for office on the abuse of power by Bush. Then he did zero to reduce the power of the office. That's just one example. In the US every election I think of how absurd it all is. Each side uses scare tactics about how the other is gonna use power to oppress in some way. No one talks about actually fixing that issue. Why? Because they don't want to reduce the power. They just want to use it.

Now, why doesn't the public get this? Well, most are tuned out for the most part and only listen to the surface level stuff on the news or social. The ones that aren't tuned out are only tuned into their team's propaganda. Its like the federal reserve. No one talks about the ring of power. They only talk about what they will do if they have power. It has never entered the mind of most people to destroy the ring.

I'll just say this. I didn't find the liberty movement (libertarianism, anarchism, volunteerism) because I was reading over different world views. Like many others, I'm wired to ask questions and find problems and look for solutions. I recall many conversations with conservatives back in the early 2000s about how many things would backfire on them. The gun would be pointed back at them. Then I started realizing I wasn't alone in this thinking and found like minded thinkers much smarter than me.

I just don't think most people think about this stuff. They are thinking about the immediate. They are easily manipulated and redirected into the two or three camps. I don't even think its some conspiracy. I just think its incentives creating a system that works for those at the top.

And to be clear. Destroying the ring in our case is largely a mental thing. If the state ceases to be at the center of our minds it will eventually fall on its own.

I'm reminded of another angle to this. We humans in 2025 can just be so selfish and self-centered that we never even consider other perspectives. And I'm not meaning the progressive idea of pluralism or their nonsense. What I mean is to try to understand different perspectives that I may not hold. Its easy and feels good to just discount the opposing position but its actually very dumb and destructive.

If an opposing view is ridiculous it should be easy to knock down. I see this everywhere right now. Most of us are just preaching to the choir all the time. There's a place for that but how many of us actually seek to steel man opposing positions. Can we understand why others would disagree with us. Sure, I know we are right in all our positions but can we understand why others would disagree. If you can't you have work to do. The answer isn't always those people are dumb. Yeah, plenty of people that agree with me are just as dumb.

I see the strawman pattern in religion, politics, health, science, and relationships. I think there is an education component to it. We aren't really taught how to avoid the pitfalls of this but also its just human nature. We can be very short-sighted and selfish.