In case of statism, break glass (no, not the window, Krugman). 

If there’s one thing that’s relatively consistent among libertarian activists, it’s their failure to celebrate their successes. You know, that part of a project when you’re supposed to step back, look at what you’ve accomplished and just take a minute to appreciate the product of your labour.

This may partially be because, well, if you’re a libertarian activist, you’re obviously relatively optimistic and unfazed by large obstacles—likely indicating that you are aware of and willing to do the massive amount of work necessary to overcome said obstacles. It may also be because the typical libertarian isn’t built for politics—what drew them to activism wasn’t ego or love of power (libertarianism isn’t particularly attractive to those types, for obvious reasons), but a passion for improving people’s lives—so they are probably not self-congratulatory or thick-skinned.

But if there is no validation—and honestly, seeing immediate results when your goals are to educate and invigorate the masses is far from probable—there will be burn out. There will be burn out and it will come without warning, swiftly and painfully. Your time as an activist will be short-lived, emotionally and potentially physically draining, and will probably start impairing other areas of your life, which might lead towards some resentment. And then it will be over and you will be another stereotypical, unorganized, idealistic, and sad little libertarian child.

As someone whose favourite aspect of the liberty movement is the people, the sense of community, the widespread, yet very intimate support everyone offers each other, I can almost guarantee you that if you celebrate your accomplishments with your fellow activists, congratulate each other on your specific roles and little wins, and really nurture the rich social aspect of working with people you care about and respect on something you love, your team—and its individual members—will withstand much greater internal and external pressures.

The social capital of this movement is really just phenomenal. But without continuous investment and use, depreciation will take its toll and we will have lost our most valuable resource and our biggest advantage over the rest of the political arena: our people.

(Source: http://c0nfidenceiskey.tumblr.com/)

fastcompany:

We hear support for legalizing marijuana is at an all time high. A while back Print Magazine asked four designers to imagine what a legal pot package might look like. Here’s what they produced.

I love packaging design. Love it. Way back when I thought I was going to go into art, that’s where I thought I was headed, so obviously, the intersection of design and libertarianism makes me so happy! Is this not reason alone to legalize it? Those little nickel bags are so tacky.*

*Oh, and I don’t smoke (or drink; I’m an unbiased straight-edge libertarian). As long as I don’t have to deal with the negative externalities, I am fully supportive of your right to, though.

(Source: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1320039/imagine-pot-was-legal-how-would-you-brand-it)

Haha.

I’ve had a long day. And I like typography and minimalism.

(Source: http://www.thefancy.com/things/266055461/Dom-is-Innocent-Poster-by-Phil-Jones)

Sold ‘Le Petit Prince’ shirt

Kashi box turned shipping box

Finally got around to shipping my Le Petit Prince shirt yesterday. The main delay—somehow I put this off for over a week after the shirt was purchased—besides midterms was that I couldn’t find a box that was the right size for my shirts and I hate being wasteful.

For the past few weeks, since learning how inefficient paper recycling is (quite inefficient, especially compared to other recyclable materials), I’ve been accumulating what has become an excessively large stack of boxes which formerly contained food (namely Annie’s pasta, Kashi granola bars, and Amy’s Indian microwave dinners). I used a small panel of a box to write care instructions on the Sagan shirt that I last sold, but other than that, I’ve just been shoving boxes into my screen-printing supplies box, which has stopped closing, as a result. Then I realized that I could just reuse those boxes for my shirts, since they are literally the exact size of my shirts (this actually kind of weirds me out, because it almost seems as if the boxes were designed for the shirts). So I took a Kashi box, turned it inside out so there wouldn’t be visible labeling, and wrote a Little Prince quote on one side and a little hippie note on another, with care instructions and a ‘thank you’ note written on separate strips of Annie’s pasta boxes inside.

Ich bin das überhippie.

Now that I think about it, I also need to get on designing our Libertarian Longhorns, UT YAL, and UT Youth for Ron Paul shirts. I guess that means I also need to buy a whole lot of yellow, red, and black ink… Blergity blerg blerg.

Just consider the state of the country for a moment: the horserace that is electoral politics, the media which frames that horserace, and the rhetoric we create surrounding it. Now I implore you to consider whether you have any control over any of it.

If this upsets you, do something about it.

(Source: http://anarchyagogo.tumblr.com/post/10792488086)

moleculess:

Crazy by wordboner on Flickr.

(Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wordboner/6218127949/)

The UT Free Speech Wall has been posted to the YAL blog!

If you are so inclined, you can read about the event, look through pictures of it, and watch the video (it’s just that great of a video). c:

(Source: http://www.yaliberty.org/node/21025)

Very cool.

(Source: http://cjwho.tumblr.com/post/9786154928/knowledge-tee-http-bit-ly-rdaojx)

(Source: http://warmwhispers92.tumblr.com/post/9823388760)