jvjones47

I love the world of ideas. Ideas move people. They impact people, yes sometime for the worse but also toward great accomplishments. People live out their passions through their ideas. 

I also believe that people struggle in this life to find their place, their sense of belonging, that path that they can call their own. In a word, I think people are fulfilled when they find their calling, that path that seems to fit uniquely for them. Although I believe that a calling can be played out in ones career, I think we confuse the two many times. Ones calling can go beyond career. It can be a process that we're constantly partaking of, but never nailing down once for all.

I believe the biggest battle being waged in ideas today is the one that pits the individual against the collective or the State. Individualism is much caricatured and maligned today. Yet we all strive to make our mark and contribute in ways that are important to us. Without individual liberty, creative ideas will not flourish.

I believe that individualism can flourish only when the State is severely restrained and restricted from intruding upon people's lives. Creativity, innovation, generating ideas and following our passions are the ways we maintain our personal freedoms and pursue our meaning and purpose in this life.  

I teach at the university level in a graduate program in which students pursue training as professional counselors. I enjoy literature, detective fiction, and discussions on the political economy. I'm libertarian and enjoy all venues of creative endeavors - music, art, literary, fiction, non-fiction. I love to travel the states and see the offbeat places where few tourists go. However, I enjoy being a tourist as well.

My passion is to study ideas and the way they feed people's lives and impact all of us - for the good and for the evil. And yes, I believe in good and evil.