My political philosophy has changed… a LOT. The first decade of my life- even the first 15 years, my philosophy was fairly stable- I was a Republican, although later I liked to call myself conservative. I basically fell in line with all of their beliefs. On second thought, my views were basically whatever America had. I remember thinking “expanding welfare is bad” while also thinking that the amount we had was the amount we needed. It was simply because I was accustomed to this society (and to my parents views, which almost matched mine). There was one issue on which I differed with them- abortion. It was only a minor difference. I believed that abortion was never justified, even when the mother’s health was at risk. However, I thought that it shouldn’t be made illegal in these cases, as I wasn’t positive that this was right. I was sure that abortion in cases of rape was unjustified, however, a stance that my mother was completely opposed to. She was very pro-life, but made rape cases the exception to the rule. It’s as if she considered rape the ultimate suffering (and still does, I assume- I don’t really think her views have changed very much).

During 8th and 9th grade, I was passionate about politics. I remember thinking to myself, “If you don’t care about politics, you don’t care about America!” I thought it was really quite clever at the time. (My other political catch phrase,regarding abortions, was, “If you don’t want your life to be screwed up, you shouldn’t have been screwing around in the first place!”)

My views started to evolve when I became interested in Glenn Beck- yes, the infamous show host on Fox. My dad got me one of his books, in which he proclaimed himself as a libertarian. I began to look at the differences between his beliefs and mine. Essentially, he thought there should be less restrictions on liberties, such as smoking in restaurants. I steadily found myself aligning with his views, and soon called myself a libertarian. I think this was in 10th grade. I steadily found myself endorsing less and less government, until I believed that it should only do what was necessary to protect natural rights (life, liberty, and property). This shift was more gradual. It at least took my through until the start of 11th grade.

There were two major changes that happened in 11th grade. I can’t remember which happened first, although I remember the exact hour of an exact date for one event. The more vague event was my transition to being an anarchist. This one was fairly inevitable- I just couldn’t justify the existence of government from a moral standpoint. No person should have any dominion over another. Seems logical enough, right? That was my political view for a very long time. The other change I had regarded religion. I was listening to “Imagine” by John Lennon at 1:00 AM on 10/10/10, when I became atheist. Just like that. The words of the song were so strong that I couldn’t block out all of the tendencies I’d had since grade school. I won’t go into too much detail about this one.

My political views changed one last time. I’d often found myself discussing anarchy with people, most of whom generally thought I was insane. However, I frequently discussed things such as politics and philosophy with another atheist at my school. He was (and is) totalitarian (preferably, he would be the dictator). Essentially, he thinks that a government that has complete economic control and no social control would be the best for society at large, or the greater good. He can certainly be described as utilitarian. He was always bothered by the fact that anarchy was extremely impractical, but I always insisted that morality outweighed. There were times when I questioned anarchy. Although my idea that no one deserved control over another, wasn’t that only in theory with anarchy? Capitalism is extremely controlling of the populace. Do it or die, essentially. This bothered me, but I just accepted it as the way things were in a truly free society. I kept wishing that my theoretical anarchist society would work, that somehow men could behave as angels. Perhaps there was some process they could go through to make them good? Temporarily give up morality so that, in the long run, society can flourish- without government. Then, it hit me. That’s what Marx had described in The Communist Manifesto. I haven’t actually read it, but it essentially describes the process of establishing a stateless and classless society with common ownership of property. It is, in essence, a Utopia. This idea started to appeal to me, and a few weeks ago I started calling myself a Marxist (I’m now in 12th grade). It provides a means to establishing the anarchy that I long for.

That was a long post. I really didn’t anticipate that. I really hope someone reads it. Unlikely.

Quick overview

9th Grade: Conservative

10th Grade: Libertarian

11th Grade: Anarchist

12th Grade: Marxist