Ah, if we were all more honest. What a wonderful world it would be.
I really don’t like www.change.org. Surprise! Some time ago I made the mistake of actually signing one of their petitions. I think it was for allowing openly gay scouts. I’ve consistently made the mistake of not allowing myself to pick sides of the left-right spectrum. The end result is often that I end up empowering those that seek to disempower me and my views. Sometimes I wonder if I qualify as a useful idiot. For example, I support gay rights. The end result is that I more often than not am empowering statist leftists (as the gay community votes overwhelmingly democrat). This hurts private property rights, gun rights, etc.
Presently, it has affected me with all the petition requests I get from www.change.org. The current whipping boy is the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch. His crime? Honesty and good business sense. In 2006 Peter Jeffries was quoted as saying during an interview, “We go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”
Banish the thought! The CEO thinks it’s good for business to make your brand seem exclusive, and that wearing their clothes makes you cooler and more desirable?! Monster! Jeffries’s principal mistake was admitting it. Rolex doesn’t want its watches on the wrists of the poor. But that’s okay — they don’t admit it. Beer commercials don’t have ugly girls in them — they just don’t acknowledge it. Beautiful angry liberals won’t actually date an ugly person, but so long as they don’t own it out loud, they can maintain that moral high ground and bite their thumb at Abercrombie and Fitch.
Why do I care? Well, I hate injustice in all forms. I hate the fact that people must hide their true selves. It prevents us all from reaching our potential levels of happiness. It prevents growth. It prevents us from developing fuller, healthier, relationships.
And, well, it scares me for my business. I’m exceptionally open about my beliefs on this blog, yet I’m a lawyer. I’m afraid that I will lose business. Because I support gay rights, drug legalization, and don’t much care for religion, I will lose conservative clients. Because I support property rights, don’t desire to eat the rich, and support gun rights, I will lose liberal clients. Because I’m openly anti-government I may be perceived as unprofessional in the legal community.
That bothers me, because each of us are radicals behind closed doors. Assuming that it’s bad for business, why do I blog so openly? Well, 2 reasons: To a lesser extent, I hope my honesty will be appreciated by clients (or perhaps someday, voters). But mostly, because more than acceptance, more than money, I seek freedom. Heck, that’s why I want money — to help secure my liberty.
I often carry in my mind of a quote by Jules Renard, “The only man who is really free is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving an excuse.” I feel bad because until I verified the author I thought it belonged to my man Emerson. Being truly yourself is but an extension of this quote. I seek freedom, and when you’re hiding your thoughts, you set your own shackles. I’m not going to do it. I’d rather deliver pizzas as a free man than be a lawyer in a gilded cage.
As for Jeffries, well, he’s twice as free a man as those protesting him.
Oh yeah, and Abercrombie and Fitch clothes suck, with their prepubescent looking shaved chest boys. Gross.
Spring is perfect for country music. I dunno though, this video only has cute girls. But I’m sure it’s just an accident. They didn’t say they only want pretty girls in their videos.
