Pete's Log: Log Entry 165
Entry #165, (Life in General)(posted when I was 21 years old.)
How do I tell Sharon that I do want to keep the Libertarian-Creating Machine running but that at this time I do not have the funds available that this postal card indicates I would need in order to tell her this? Somehow I get the feeling that Sharon wouldn't read the card anyway. Some of her minions will add my contribution to their funds, mark me as "willing to pay," or "gullible," or "mr money-pants." and I will get more mail from Sharon Harris and her amazing Libertarian-Creating Machine.
This LCM, as I shall abbreviate to save time, sounds rather remarkable. I only skimmed through Sharon's letter, but it had some picture of people walking into this big machine, looking kinda disgruntled, and walking out the other end, wearing statue of liberty costumes and looking quite happy indeed. My guess is that the LCM injects its subjects with some variety of euphoric drug. Legalization of drugs is one of the things the Libertarian Party wants, and what better way to convert people to that point of view than to inject into them some euphoric drug that they will want more and more of.
It has been ingrained in my mind through the process of education that drastically changing the subect in the middle of a written work is generally considered poor form. So if you will ignore the fact that I had already drastically changed the subject from the LCM to meta-writing, I will insert into this monologue a global or meta subject which will make the transitions between local subjects smooth and enjoyable. I shall call this global subject foo and will initialize it to be "Sweatpants -- comfort and style" and encourage you to remember as you read that I am very comfy in my sweatpants right now.
At this point you are probably wondering "Why didn't colonial North America have a stable British-like society?" Well, the answer is simple. First, the wide cultural diversity present in North America made stability difficult. Second, there were large amounts of land available, which did not allow for a hierarchical society like that of Great Britain, because anyone unhappy with their position in life could simply move west until they found themselves happy... or dead.
But I would like to finish with the following analogy by Ed Quillen, which, although not relevant, summarizes my point nicely:
"It's like telling Women, 'unless you pay $10 a year to put your name on a list of people who prefer not to be raped, then the law will assume that you are making yourself available.'"