This is Part Two of a three-part series. If you missed it, read Part 1, first.

Last December (2017), a friend came down near where I lived for a variety of reasons, —one of which happened to be her birthday, which is realy how I got to the point where I am now. We had a couple of drinks on her birthday, and when I epxressed how great it was to talk to someonone who didn't think that I was a some kind of selfish, stupid nutjob because I think people's lives are better when the're free, she mentioned that Liberty Forum in New Hampshire was coming up in February. This wasn't the fist time that she had mentioned a liberty-themed event to me—hell, one year, I actually registered and paid to go to PorcFest, but had to cancel my trip at the last minute to cover an event at work—but this time, everything came together, from timing to personal will, and I decided to go.

On top of attending, my friend was also coordinating the people who MCed the rooms and the conference—announcing speakers, getting them water, keeping them on time, those sorts of things—and asked if I wanted to volunteer. I thought, Wow, what better way to meet people than to be one of the folks helping out, that other people depend on? That would be great! So I said, Sure!

She stopped and said, "Now, Mickey: If you say you're going to volunteer, you have got to commit to being there. I need people who I can depend on."

Apparently, she was holding it against me, the two times I told her I was going to PorcFest and then...didn't. Well, I managed to convince her that she would definitely see my smiling face up ther, and I went.

I singed up to run one of the rooms for two of the three days, and here's a little personal detail about me: I'm what they call an "ambivert." Introverts have their recharge and self-healing time alone or in small, intimate groups, while extroverts are the ones organizing excursions and nights out, because they get all their energy from the interactions of groups of people. Few people are wholly 100% introvert or extrovert. Just about everyone needs a friend or some downtime; it's more about where you generate the majority of your happiness, mental health, creativity—whatever drives you in life. Well, ambiverts need both of those things in something that sort of approaches equal measure.

In my day job, I'm a computer programmer, and I have the privilege of working with a truly fantastic group of people ware are brilliant, funny, generous, genuine—and every one of them on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. My introvert gauge has read authoritatively FULL for a good long while, now. So full, in fact, that it was affecting my gumption to get out and refill my other tank.

Back to Liberty Forum. My friend walked me around and introduced me to dozens of people, who were open and energized, and genuinely happy to meet me. And then I got up in front of a room full of people. I was nervous, to begin with. If it makes you feel better, damn near everyone who stands in front of an audience gets nerves of some kind, at some point, possibly every single time they do it. (I do.) But I got up there, and I looked at a whole bunch of people who know—as I do—that nothing improves the lives of everyone more than the freedom to live as they choose, and I just...introduced people.

I don't know what I have to say that's important to other people—hopefully, I'm finding that voice—but I had to honor and the pleasure of looking out at all those people and announcing that someone was going to follow me onto the stage who was far more interesting that I was, who ould inform them, educate them, and engage them. I came off that so-called responsibility feeling electrified, excited, and alive.

This is Part Two of a three-part series. Part One should have been read first, and Part Three just makes sense in a read-me-next kind of deal.

I felt an incredible sense of isolation. So many people around me—including people I care about—wanted to do things to and for other people "for their own good." There's a whole lot more nuance to that assertion than I want to address right now, but it boiled down to the fact that I was sick, emotionally sick, from so many people from all walks of life who devoted—devote—a great deal of energy to trying to change other people's lives to suit their own world view—not that they see it that way, of course—and losing sight—if they ever had sight of it in the first place—of two things that are vitally important.

First, the notion that freedom—that is, individuals unfettered from pursuing their own interests (so long as they are not harming other people)—was why people fled Europe in the first place. Nathan Hale famously said, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." Hale wasn't seeking safety or security, he was hanged for spying on British troops because he so fervently believed in the natural right of all people to determine their own destiny, including the choice to risk and forfeit his own life in the effort to achinve that end.

The country he spoke of so passionately at his end was not a source of blind nationalism, or some warmongering jingoism, but a nation formed of people who laid down everything to secure the rights of people to practice and protect their individual liberty.

The second thing that gets lost in the paternalist rhetoric is the fact that seizing and siphoning the resources and productivity of a nation in order to "make the world a better place"—doesn't. Nanny state intervention and government-mandated social welfare programs incur costs by encouraging program dependency, eroding social cohesion, and also by lowering the overall wealth and prosperity of the places where they occur by directing resources in a place not necessarily where they will have the most impact.

Freedom is not just a pleasant notion bled for by idealistic nut jobs. It's the most effective means for improving the lot of every single individual who lives in a society.

Hold that last though, because I'll be coming back to it.

So, this feeling of isolation was really getting me down. I have a few people in my life who think—to my mind—sanely, but the overwhelming (important work, there, "overwelming")—the overwhelming majority either ranted and raved about—or tacitly accepted—ways of life that just took all the joy out of life.

On of my bastions of sanity—a close friend for over two decades—has for years been involved within groups of people who don't just whine about the lack of liberty, but who take positive action toward securing the rights of people to practice and protect their individual liberty. In retrospect, that sounds like a no-brainer, but though I had known about these people for years, I was caught up in the problems and challenges of everyday life and constantly distracted by all the shouting and posturing and sensationalizing happening all around me every day.

This is Part One of a three-part series. If you liked it, read Part Two and Part Three, as well.