I wouldn't have become a voluntaryist if not for being in the US military, Part II

Okay, where did I leave off? Oh yeah....okay, so I was learning more about Ron Paul. I always trotted out the party line that he was just a latent hippie, et al. Democrats said he was racist, same old stuff. Anyway, I was watching some of his videos on YouTube, and I came across one that was not one of his, but it was in the suggestion, and it was called "The Philosophy Of Liberty". There was no spoken words, it was sort of like a PowerPoint slideshow set to some stock music and was illustrated with stick figures and symbolic representations of life, liberty, and property.

It was short, only five minutes or so, but it was life changing. I felt all of my preconceived notions shatter, simply because it made so much sense due to its simplicity.

Digressing to the military part, I began struggling once I figured out that members of the armed forces are paid with what is, essentially, stolen money. To this day, it is still a struggle for me to look at myself in the mirror every morning when I get up and put on this uniform. I began learning more about the true motives behind all the wars the US has taken part in, and began studying US government foreign policy beyond what is parroted in the mass media outlets. I saw the pictures of dead children abroad, and looked deeper into the Iraq insurgency and its roots.

It was very discomforting to know that I had taken part in that. Where I was once proud of what I had done, I was now ashamed. Not openly; it's just something that I carry with me. Unfortunately, I was on indefinite status by the time I had my world shaken up. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. There are the militant anarchists out there who say to go AWOL, but these are mostly people who don't appear to have a semblance of what one might call a "normal" life. I have children, an ex wife to whom the state forces me to pay every month, and a laundry list of monthly expenses. Sounds like excuses, I know. But I don't exactly wish to be a martyr. Another thing I have learned while in the military is that there is the world in which you wish to live, and the one in which you live. As things stand now, going AWOL is a shortcut to ruining your life and future prospects. You become a target for law enforcement. You can't get decent employment. Lots of other fun stuff.

So I have decided that it is best to just quietly stay where I am and do what I committed myself to do (voluntarily, ironically) back in 1998.

So there it is. Not interesting, not as well written as the content the celebritarians pump out daily, but still, that's my story.