Our individual lives are infused with groups. Groups based on ethnicity, geography, vocation or common interests. Groups based on family, religion, or any number of potential commonalities.
In a free country, most groups are free to choose the members they accept, and set the rules that govern their members. Most individuals are free to accept membership (or not). Once they become members, if they desire, they can attempt to change the rules, and are free to leave the group if they wish to depart.
In short, most groups are voluntary. Some are less voluntary that others, but even those that seem most difficult to leave (say, employment or location) are still choices that individuals have the power to make.
Some groups are not voluntary. Ethnicity is one example of an involuntary grouping. You cannot change your ethnic heritage, but neither does your ethnic heritage limit you. In a free society, you can make of yourself what you will...in a closed society, you will be limited by your ethnicity.
Another example of an involuntary group is the nation you were born into. If you were born in the United States, you can move from city to city or state to state at will. Within the United States, you will become a citizen of the city or state that you move to, but you cannot declare yourself a citizen of another country.
Each nation state reserves the right to offer or reject citizenship rights to those individuals who choose to move within its borders. The special situation of the national government will be discussed much more in future posts.
Modern life is a tapestry of conflicting, sometimes cooperating, sometimes competing, individuals and groups. It is difficult to understand what is happening in such a confusion of agendas and egos, if one does not know how to cut through the fog of vanity and polemics.
The purpose of the "Poor Man's Philosophy" is to offer an understanding why things are as they are, and to encourage a new way of thinking about how we can change things.
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