Letters to the Editor • Police State
Our Most Valuable Resource
I was lazily flipping through the channels the other day and for some inexplicable reason ended up watching CNN (shudders). I decided to keep watching (if for no other reason than to get a good laugh) when a young politician, who\'s name I will not mention nor do I remember, came on the program advocating some new government stimulus to get us out of our economic mess (if we could only spend another $9 trillion, that would do the trick). However, it wasn\'t what this man was talking about that caught me off-guard, it was a piece of overused rhetoric. He said, and I\'m sure you\'ve heard it before: "The people are our most valuable resource".
Now this may not come as a shock or surprise to hear this apparently meaningless chunk of fecal matter spill out this man\'s, or any politician\'s, continuously moving pie-hole. But, for some reason, this time it struck me in a different way. I saw the phrase a-new... in a wholly abnormal light. You see, this cliché little sentence actually has more meaning than all the other hollow rhetoric that spews from Washington day in and day out put together and multiplied by the amount of dollars we are in debt.
"The People are our most valuable resource." Let\'s break this snippet down, in order to comprehend it\'s true connotation.
"The People are"
I think it\'s fair to say that this applies to us. John and Jane Doe. The Average Joe Six Pack. Mr. and Mrs. Main Street. The ever-so naive American citizen.
"our"
This is where it gets a little complicated, so you might want to turn down the volume on Oprah, set down the Tom Clancy novel, and listen up. Whenever your wonderful representative says the word "our", this doesn\'t mean "your\'s", it doesn\'t mean "everyone\'s", and it doesn\'t mean "America\'s". It means, quite simply... "theirs". It means the State, and every ally of the Establishment. It means his majesty Lord Obama I, the changeful. It means every member of that rat colony called congress. It means the pompous and insignificant Supreme Court. It means every beauracrat, every regulator, every censor, and every pawn who wears a badge to feel important and put themselves above the law. And it means every corporation, bank, and bailout recipient who\'s wallets get smaller whenever the government shrinks.
"most valuable"
Not just valuable, not somewhat valuable, not even very valuable. The MOST valuable. Value is measured by the worth or importance to someone... or more importantly, the usefulness to them.
"resource"
Webster defines it as a "reserve supply". Something that is to be used for the benefit of an individual or individuals. This could be money, tools... or persons.
Now that I\'ve broken down the sentence, it should be a little less ambiguous. When most people hear this expression uttered by their "representative" or any other politician, they think it is a form of flattery. That the politician is praising the people, that they are the most valuable resource. Yet what they don\'t so clearly define is for what or for whom this resource is being used.
This brings us to the oldest and most universal form of tyranny. Taxation. The State, in order to survive, needs the same resource we need to survive... Wealth. We need wealth to save, to invest, to feed ourselves and our families, to have a place to sleep and be sheltered, to have running water, to have sanitation, to have cooling/heating, to have electricity and plumbing, to have healthcare and medicine, to have the nearly innumerable technological innovations that improve our livelihood. We gain this wealth through work and labor, through trade and honest relations, through voluntary exchange and charity.
The State needs wealth to spend, to consume, to wage wars, to purchase guns, to oppress and invade, to order and to arbitrate, to monopolize and to expand, to fill their pockets and the accounts of their friends and allies. They gain this wealth through force and theft, through plunder and extortion, through involuntary taxation and unnecessary fees.
They tell us their existence is necessary, their monopoly on violence and the enforcement of the law a legitimate function. Their lies and fear-mongering are the basis of their continued survival, our ignorance and complacence gives it sustenance.
They need us to survive, not the other way around. The State is a parasite on society. It needs to take by force in order to have anything to use. The useful and prescient public services are enacted voluntarily and are given wealth based on their efficiency and effectiveness. This is true of every service, be it the distribution of food or the distribution of defense.
The State has focused on the monopolization of the law and "defense" in order to use force and coercion to regiment society into buying it\'s legitimacy and necessity. Without it, how would we have defense against criminals? (The State of course, as Rothbard said, is a gang of thieves and criminals writ large) From there the State expands through fear and false promises, it gains monopolistic control over almost every important area of society in order to further it\'s fictitious legitimacy.
Without us, and the wealth we create as a free society, the State would wither and die. Without the State, civilization would rid itself of a parasite that not only ciphers prosperity from it\'s best used areas, but uses the stolen wealth to further plunder, oppress, and otherwise cripple the growth of society. The State requires us to survive, we do not need them (and without it\'s existence we would be immensely better off as a result).
The State offers no services in return for it\'s theft and plunder that wouldn\'t otherwise exist in it\'s absence, and be fairer and more efficient without it. Therefore it is not a mutual relationship, as those who call it a "necessary evil" declare, but it is a purely parasite/victim relationship that must be rectified. If we are to have the full benefits of our prosperity, if we are to have the entirety of our basic rights and freedoms, and if we are to live in peace man qua man... then we must throw off the State and allow society to thrive in it\'s natural form. This would not mean violent chaos as State apologists predict (as if there is a dearth of violence and chaos in the world today). Instead it would mean order by natural reactionary law as opposed to arbitrary rule. It would mean voluntary and peaceful cooperation as opposed to force and coercion at the hands of the State. It would mean equality of rights, instead of the monopoly on violence and enforcement of the law to which the State lays absolute claim.
The only way to combat the State, short of violence (which as Gandhi wisely said, breeds violent freedom), is to de-legitimize it\'s existence to the masses. No establishment can remain against the will of the people. If we are to stop the lies of the State, we must merely tell the truth. If we are to end the regimentation, we must promote activism and an end to apathy. If we are to retain our continuously disappearing freedoms, we must shout for liberty. If we are to see peace restored, we must decry the moral evil of war. If we are to regain our prosperity, we must lay claim to it once again and refuse to give the government any credence.
While many may say it is a pipe-dream, a crack-pot idea, a utopian proposal that can never be realized... we must stand for right, regardless of the current popularity. I am not saying freedom can be reached in our lifetime, in our children\'s lifetime, or in our grandchildren\'s lifetime, but if we do not take a stand now... there will be no time in the future.
We must recognize the reality of the situation. The State is the enemy of humanity and an aversion to it\'s very survival. The greatest form of protest one can ever partake in is the simple act of thinking, the very act that makes you human. It is this that the State fears most. When it looses it\'s resource, it\'s only means of sustenance, it will fight for it\'s survival at all costs. The State will only exist as long as we allow it.
While we, and the wealth we create, may be the State\'s greatest resource, we can never forget that our greatest resource is, was, and will continue to be..... Liberty.
- Justin T. Buell
1 Comments in Response to Our Most Valuable Resource
Sort of like that alien cookbook titled "How to Serve Humans." You know the cookbook.
Anyway, the problem is that you have addressed only part of the situation. For a more complete view go here
http://factotum666.livejournal.com/
And check out the part about Orwells Boot