 Let me share with you one of the most challenging insights that I've recently concluded about human beings and what has turned into one of the most difficult challenges to libertarian political philosophy that I'm aware of. It's this. Humans seem to love hierarchy. It doesn't really matter where they fall on the hierarchy. They especially like hierarchy if they're at the top, but they even are cool with hierarchy if they're in the middle of a hierarchy or even at the bottom of a hierarchy. If that's true, what I've just said, that implies that the libertarian individualist society might not have a very large population. I still think it can, of course, exist. It's not a challenge to the principles of libertarianism. It's just that this idea of mass adoption of libertarianism might not be as popular as we think because people crave hierarchy more than they crave freedom. I think it has to do something with the desire for stability. People, even if they're less free, they are okay with that as long as things are stable and things aren't changing really quickly. So I've noticed just how comfortable people are with hierarchy. When people are looking down, down their noses at those that they consider less than them, when people are looking across the table at those that they consider their peers, and even when people are looking up at those they consider in a higher social class. So let me give you some personal stories and anecdotes. And I wonder if you guys have also had similar anecdotal experiences, similar observations that I have. For about the first 20 years of my life, I lived in a couple different places on the east coast of the United States, but always in fairly humble circumstances. When I was 16, I moved to a place in upstate New York that's one of the poorest counties, first or second poorest county in the whole state. And the culture there was not a great culture. And in terms of hierarchy, they were pretty low on the social hierarchy, but what I noticed is that they were really cool with it in a sense. When they viewed themselves as part of a class, they gave them some kind of camaraderie with their neighbors, with their peers. They identified as the backwoods hicks that really value their pickup truck and guns and all that. And there's nothing inherently wrong with the values necessarily of that culture. But what I do think is toxic is that there's an acceptance and an embracing of low standards and underperformance that that hierarchy, they think, well, that's just who we are, like we don't aspire to much because we're backwoods hicks. That gets into people's psychology and I think they like it. It gives them connection with other people, which I think is really toxic. But you also saw it in how they looked at other people higher up in the social hierarchy. So you see this when people are talking about celebrities or they're talking about politicians or anybody with fame, there's this kind of person worship. Or sometimes you see this with the military in these communities where they view, oh, those are greater humans than we. And if we can rub elbows with them, maybe we'll get some of their magic fairy dust and become of greater status like they. There's very much an acceptance of this social hierarchy that's out there in culture. And it's a shame. And they go along with it. They think it's their place. I think it's bad psychology. I think there are countless people who could be so much more fulfilled and so much more productive and so much more they could flourish more if they just shook that acceptance of a kind of cultural hierarchy. Since then, I've lived in places that aren't lower down on the socioeconomic ladder. I've been around people that are upper class and you also see similar hierarchical pleasure. You see it especially as people look down their nose at those that they consider to be lesser than themselves. It's really disgusting. Especially you see this with academic circles, right? If you're somebody outside the system and you're challenging their ideas, they don't like you talking out of line. I have plenty of personal experience with that. But also in these circles, there's this grotesque kinship that they have with their fellow superiors in society. It's a central planning mentality where they feel like they know what's best for everybody else in society because they're so smart and they have the formal credentials and they're part of the ruling class. I really think there is a kind of ruling class and it's partly because of a mentality. There's a group of people that abuse themselves as right to rule over other people who aren't fit to rule over themselves. But you also see it just like at the bottom of the hierarchy, people, oh, they like to look up. You see it in the middle, you see it at the top. Those I lived in D.C. for a while with rubbed shoulders was a very powerful people. And there's that admiration, profound, deep admiration and excitement around being in the presence of really powerful people and those at the top of the pecking order. Oh wow, they feel better about themselves even in the upper class when they're around those with more power. I find a lot of this again grotesque and unnecessary. I think it's people tricking themselves, trying to feel better about themselves one way or another, trying to connect with people and make some kind of cultural kinship one way or another. I know there are a few individualists out there and there is a culture amongst them. Those people that think the hierarchy is kind of silly and want to see you as an individual and not as some part of a class that you're born into or that you choose to live in accordance with. I know they're out there, but there's not many of them. So I'm hoping that using the internet we can see the emergence of a kind of anti-hierarchical culture, a radical individualist culture, where if we're going to have a class, we'll be the class of those individuals who are universally accepting of you and anybody else who's willing to get over their own egos and succeed by their merits and fail by their own merits. And just because you succeed doesn't somehow make you a human plus, you know, where all works in progress, in process, trying to progress. However, as nice sounding as that might be, I think that idea is an extreme minority. I think all around the world you have the desire, the active craving for hierarchy, for status, for even if it's you're at the bottom of the pecking order, it gives you stability or if you're good to be at the top of the pecking order it makes you feel good about yourself. Unfortunately, I think that's the world that we live in and I don't know how many people who have that mentality want the kind of political freedom that those who are more libertarian are disposed to desire. Is it possible to have radical political freedom if most of the people in society desire hierarchy at the expense of their freedom? What do you guys think?