It was the other way round for me: I managed to shake off my depression (pretty much) when I shook off my received socialism. Having kids helped as well. Sure, it is shocking to learn how bad (morally and functionally) society is, and it's scary to see where it's going, but things have been worse (read 'Liberal Fascism' to see how), and they're not bad enough to counter the boost Sowell, Hoffer, von Hayek, Popper and von Mises give me.

The childlike mind versus the adult mind. Many of us have had to deal with adult content, while still children.

In the West, there seem to me, to be too many adult
children, in positions of power. And, those among the majority those in a position to support them seem childish, too. Government daddy,corporate moms.

Corsair, you are absolutely correct. The profound sense of relief, joy even, of discovering common sense in a world that seems to be run on lies and stupidity, is a most uplifting experience.
I was depressed re the human race world until I discovered libertarians (LA, Mises, yourselves) and that some people could actually penetrate the fog of brainwashing.
Personally I see that reality goes a little further than empiricists will allow, but that, I believe, is because empiricists will not receive all the data there is to be received.
A love of truth is the essential equipment.

Personally, as a libertarian who is painfully aware of the direction my country is taking, I live is a gray area somewhere between depression and resignation. On my better days I try to adopt the philosophy expressed by the character Wash in the movie Serenity: "I am a leaf on the wind." (Of course, we all know what happened to him in the end, so perhaps that's not the best of role models.) On my worse days I clean my guns and reload the clips.

Good post.

Remember you can always move somewhere else. There's no shame in that. The problem is that most places are quite similar.

As the rather evil American blogger Roissy ( http://roissy.wordpress.com ) has said there are many way to "take advantage of the chaos". Some of them aren't morally objectionable.

"[Throwing] off the social-collectivist hive-mind" is not the sole purview of libertarianism.

Sorry, hit [enter] too quickly.

One can just as easily escape the hive-mind by reading writers such as Edmund Burke and Albert Jay Nock, neither of whom could ever be classed as libertarians.

du Toit, you crashing imbecile, did you ever read "Our Enemy, The State"?

Would you just sit your lard ass down and shut up?

I doubt K.D.T. has read my "Edmund Burke: Propertarian" either. In which I argue that Edmund Burke had very strong elements in common with what we call libertarianism (for technical reasons I did not use the word "libertarianism").

However, there is some justification for Mr du Toit not haveing read my thesis - as it was turned down by the University of York. The work was no good.

"Why was it no good" - for many years I tried to make them give me specific reasons why my thesis was no good (flaws in my arguments, errors in my reasoning - whatever), but under the Statutes of the University of York 1963 (upheld by the Lord Chancellor of England and Wales - at the time of dispute Lord Irvine) they do not have to have any specific reasons.

No doubt if Mr Beck wrote a thesis arguing that Albert Jay Nock had a strong libertarian strand that would be ruled to be no good also.

Remember they do not have to refute any of your arguments or evidence.