Hi there. I guess you googled me. There’s not much to tell really. Professionally, I’ve worked across the lines of politics, culture and technology. I’ve lived in dozens of places around the US, and have lived in Africa, Asia and Europe. I belong to, or at least feel connected to, some radically different — sometimes opposed — American subcultures. I believe that, as a U.S. person, I am responsible for what becomes of our country, and for what our country does in the world. Therefore, much of my writing and public work have been done with a mainstream U.S. audience in mind. That can make it hard to understand for non-U.S. people, U.S. elites and some progressives and conservatives.
I have been pegged as a liberal/lefty because I was a part of the development of online politics with MoveOn.org, presidential candidates and big NGOs — but it’s a lot more complicated than that. I’m radically conservative and conservatively radical. My main concern has always been trying to figure out the way forward to a world where more individuals are more free than they are today, and where societies do what they’re supposed to (secure the rights of individuals) better than they do today.
If you want to know what I believe (again, sorry for the U.S. focus): I agree with Thomas Jefferson that government is a necessary evil and that society is a natural good. I agree with Thomas Paine that property (access to the means of making an independent living is what they meant by property back then) is necessary for true freedom. I think that the people who think like me (and there are a lot of us) need to leave both the Left and the Right behind and get to work fixing our politics, our societies, our institutions, our neighborhoods and ourselves.
If you click around on the tags to the right, you can read some stuff I’ve written over the years. They include archives from my blog “Revolution in Jesusland” and my old ZackExley.com blog from 2004-2007.
I’m busy doing a real job now, so I’m not blogging. But email me at zackexley at gmail dot com if you want to talk!
