Safnerism

“A man shouldn’t believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself.” -Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Ever since I first saw Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which I admit was far too late in my young life, and I heard Ferris say that line in the beginning, I was amazed.  I wrote it down, thinking to myself, how can such a cliche pop-comedy movie possibly espouse such a profoundly philosophical idea?  Regardless, I took the idea to heart.

Labeling is always a hassle.  Words have generally agreed upon definitions through intersubjective consensus, but in the realm of politics and philosophy, words are almost meaningless.  Ask a so-called “conservative” whether he believes in global interventionism:  If he says yes, he might now be a “neoconservative,” if no, he might now be a “paleoconservative.”  Ask a “liberal” if she favors wealth redistribution: If she says yes, she’s likely a “socialist,” if no, she’s might be a “libertarian.”  But of course, all of these people still label themselves “conservatives” and “liberals,” and only a select few will identify with such narrow and nuanced terms as “civil libertarian,” “communitarian,” or “anarchosyndicalist,” even if their views seem to “objectively” (whatever that means) line up with common definitions of them.

For a while now I have styled myself as an “anarchocapitalist,” or ancap for short.  I have come here to repudiate that word, it is a terrible word and I have fallen out of favor with it.  Much of this diatribe will be against the word itself, not necessarily the ideas behind it, which I tend to maintain, though I have broadened the horizons of my beliefs as well as expanded my outlook on things.

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