I can’t remember how old I was when my parents started taking us to Jim Fulton’s house for Bible Study, but I couldn’t have been any older than 13. I always liked visiting Jim & Pam; Jim’s deeply intellectual examinations of Christianity seemed to drive my dad batty, and Pam’s exquisite home and inherent grace were a delight to my developing Midwestern fashion sense. Those Bible studies only lasted for a few months, but Jim Fulton had a rather disproportionate level of influence on my early intellectual development.
Jim suggested I read the works of Ludwig von Mises, the Austrian economist. I found the reading difficult at first, and only gradually grew to understand and more fully enjoy it. It probably shaped a lot of my early thought on Economics and Economic Policy, and continues to influence me even now. Jim didn’t stick with non-fiction suggestions, though.
| Twenty years later, I’ve begun to realize that concepts I once though esoteric or relegated to the far stretches of my imagination have a way of abruptly showing up in the real world. |
Had my parents read Ayn Rand’s Anthem themselves, they might have politely told Jim that von Mises’s works were “enough for now” – but they hadn’t, so at a tender young age I found myself exploring Rand’s vision of a collectivist dystopian future. A world where Hope and Individualism were clinging to existence by a single human thread stretched the bounds of a young imagination molded by Star Trek & The Chronicles of Narnia. The concept of a world where using the pronoun “I” was a capitol crime seemed so foreign and remote that I subconsciously relegated its like to the far stretches of my imaginary repertoire.
Twenty years later, I’ve begun to realize that concepts and futures I once thought esoteric or impossible have an way of abruptly showing up in the real world. Captain Picard’s PADD came to life today in the fertile hands of Apple’s Steve Jobs. This week in California, the Merriam Webster dictionary was pulled from classrooms after a parent objected to the dictionary defining “oral sex.” The Democratic President of the United States has proposed a spending freeze, and I’m disgusted with him for shirking his promises to the gay community.
I suppose my nieces and nephews will be walking around in sexy, gangling, genetically engineered avatars when they’re my age.
