constantly throughout all of history, and throughout all of the world. How
often did they actually mean it? Hardly ever. Even today, in this country,
such "demands" usually mean little more than this: "If you don't stop
treating me like dirt, I'm going to wait a few years, vote for the lesser
of two evils, and lose anyway!" Not surprisingly, that sort of thing
rarely makes tyrants quake in their boots.
Due to prolonged, intentional indoctrination, almost everyone has a huge
aversion to disobeying a perceived "authority." They don't just want to be
free; they want "government" and "authority" to approve of them being
free. They don't just want to control their own lives; they want "the law"
(the decrees of the politicians) to tell them that they are allowed to
control their own lives. So they spend huge amounts of effort, time and
money trying to get "government" to change its decrees. However, if you
beg tyrants and thieves for freedom, while continuing to faithfully obey
them as they rob you and boss you around, then your physical enslavement
is not the problem--your mental enslavement is the problem. If you don't
want to be a slave, stop thinking like a slave, stop talking like a slave,
and stop acting like a slave. Stop begging the "massuh" for anything. As
Ayn Rand put it, stop offering the parasites and crooks of the world the
"sanction of the victim" by acting as if they have a right to do what they
do to you. They don't. You own yourself. Act like it.
Most people, including those in the freedom movement, hugely underestimate
how much depends upon the perceptions of the public. Imagine if tomorrow,
a couple hundred million Americans woke up, and suddenly felt no
obligation to be robbed, even when the robbery is called "taxation," and
felt no obligation to obey the commands of control freaks, even when their
thuggery is called "law." What would happen? If someone was in the
presence of a state mercenary ("law enforcer"), he might still do as he is
told to avoid trouble. But the politicians' hired thugs cannot always be
everywhere. In short, if the general public didn't believe in the
superstition of "government," the parasite class would soon be ignored out
of existence, without the need for any election, any change in
"legislation," or any revolution.
Of course, as long as the majority remain firm believers in the cult of
"government," there will be risk involved in behaving as if you own
yourself. But ultimately, the only road to freedom has nothing to do with
"political action" (begging the tyrants to let you be free), and
everything to do with people's willingness to ignore, disobey, and/or
resist those claiming to be "authority." There is always risk involved in
disobeying any gang of thugs, but even a relatively small number of
people, if they refuse to comply and cooperate with the control freaks,
can be extremely powerful. If the people don't accept the legitimacy of
the controls being imposed upon them, and don't accept the "authority" of
the thugs trying to do it, controlling them becomes extremely difficult,
even if they never forcibly resist. I happen to have firsthand experience
with a fine example of this, from spending a year somewhere that is more
closely monitored, and more constantly controlled, than any country in the
world. It's called "prison."
In prison, people are held captive, and their possessions and behaviors
are continually scrutinized and limited. There is no currency allowed in
federal prison. There is no trade allowed. There are no cell phones
allowed. There are no cigarettes allowed. There are no drugs allowed. Lots
and lots and lots of things are strictly forbidden in prison. In fact,
they pretty much give you a short list of what you are allowed to have,
and what you are allowed to do, and you can just assume that everything
else is "against the rules." However, as it happens, lots of items and
behaviors which are "against the rules" in prison also happen to be
abundant there. I was only in a "minimum security" federal prison, but
most of the people there had been at higher security facilities before
that, and they confirmed that such things happen constantly even there.
Even when you put human beings in a concrete box, take away almost
everything they have, constantly search what little you allow them to
keep, and have them always under surveillance, and completely forbid any
sort of trade at all, a system of commerce will magically appear out of
nowhere, almost instantly. Even in a constantly patrolled and monitored
cage, where all trade is "outlawed," I saw a thriving economy, with
make-shift currencies, bartering, all manner of products and services for
sale, and so on. (It's no big secret I'm revealing here. Everyone at every
prison, including the guards and "administration," know their so-called
"rules" are constantly broken, no matter how nasty they get about it.)
How could this be, in the ultimate totalitarian paradise (prison)? Simple:
most inmates don't care what their captors think. They feel no obligation
to obey. In many cases they submit to commands, just out of
self-preservation, but if they can disobey and "get away with it," they
don't feel a shred of guilt about it. Most inmates do not view their
"keepers" as a righteous authority, but as a hostile enemy, a collection
of power-happy thugs and buffoons, and most inmates don't feel the
slightest moral obligation to obey them. And though I hate to say it, that
makes most prison inmates more free mentality than the average
American--maybe even more than the average "freedom movement" activist.
They can still be physically controlled to a certain extent, but aside
from the occasional "Stockholm syndrome," they rarely feel any loyalty to
their controllers. They feel no obligation to obey, and feel no guilt when
they don't.
Of course, some inmates also have no respect for the rights of other
individuals. The point here is not that all inmates are noble freedom
advocates, but that most of them are no longer constrained by the
"authority"-worship that has been trained into almost all of the "free"
people out here. For example, do you take pride in being a "law-abiding
taxpayer"? Would you resent being called a "criminal"? In other words, do
you still imagine yourself to have a moral obligation to obey the decrees
of the liars, thieves and murderers who wear the label "government," and
who call their thuggery "law" and their robbery "taxation"? Until you
overcome that programmed-in mindset, nothing is going to free you from
tyranny, because the chains that bind you are inside your own head. On the
other hand, once you overcome your tendency toward loyal subservience to
some imagined "authority," a huge number of possibilities open up to you,
even if you're still geographically stuck inside a collectivist police
state.
If you want to live free, do not wait until freedom is "legal." It never
has been, and it never will be. Nor does it need to be. If any significant
number of people understand that they own themselves, and act accordingly,
it becomes literally impossible for those in power to maintain control
over them. When people stop caring what is "legal," and only pay attention
to what is right, tyrannical regimes fall apart. When one grasps the
degree to which "law-makers" and "law-enforcers" are outnumbered by those
they seek to control, it becomes obvious that brute force alone is not
what keeps the masses compliant and "manageable." What keeps most people
subdued and controlled is the fact that most of "the masses" feel a
patriotic duty and a moral obligation to obey those in "government." If
the people stopped imagining liars and thieves to be legitimate rulers,
and stopped viewing their idiotic commands and demands as "laws," the
power of the politicians would simply dissolve.
So what should those who want freedom do? Instead of focusing time and
energy on "political action," become anti-political. You wouldn't petition
a rabid dog to stop biting you, why would you petition the parasites in
Washington for anything? Why would you imagine that you need their
legislative permission to be free? Do whatever you can to avoid being
injured by unthinking, inhuman beasts, whether they are rabid dogs or "law
enforcers." But trying to reason with them is pointless. Begging them to
be civil is pointless. Whether you prefer to avoid them, deceive them,
sabotage them, scare them, or physically combat them is a personal choice.
But whatever you do, STOP BOWING TO THEM! Because as long as you view them
and treat them as your masters, they will view you and treat you as their
slave. When you reach the point where you view them and treat them as what
they are--murderers, thugs and thieves pretending to be "authority"--then
you are most of the way to being truly free already.
