That must change.

The Gospel of Separation

Did you know that there were anarchists in Rome, during the Empire? They were called Cynics, and they made the same kind of arguments against the state that we might make: That theft is theft, regardless of its name and that men ruling over other men is inherently immoral.

But regardless of how correct these people may have been, but they carried a fatal flaw: They kept the state front and center in their minds, as a primary center of reference.

The Cynics rightly decried government, but rather than abandoning it on the wayside, they stayed and criticized it. As a result, they vanished along with Rome.

But there were people who did not go down with Rome, even though they used the same methods of arguing as the Cynics, revered Epictetus like the Cynics, and even adopted some of the same odd habits as the Cynics. But unlike the Cynics, these people stopped focusing on what was wrong, and started pursuing what was right. As a result, they said things like this:

We are not of this world.

Drawn out of this present evil world.

Called out of the world.

Rather than analyzing Rome to death and cataloging its errors, they simply left it behind.

These people (primitive Christians) expelled the state from the center of their minds, where it had no right to be. And from them we get a quote that I'd like you to consider:

Men do not put new wine into old wine-skins, or else the skins will burst and the wine is spilled. Rather, men put new wine into new wine-skins, and both are preserved.

Like them, we need to put our new wine into new skins, and into new skins only. We must stop centering our attention on the state and toss it aside with finality.

Without Works...

There was another quote that our primitive Christians liked to use: Faith without works is dead. And that's equally true for us. Talking, critiquing and complaining quickly become tools of delay and evasion, because we're not comfortable acting on our own wills. But if we ever want to liberate ourselves, we must stop talking and take action.

Perhaps you'll start by building free markets or trade networks, or by developing free currencies. Even if you lack any such opportunities, you can always sit on a bus and talk to people about liberty and progress... and in the end that may be the best choice of all.

But one way or another you must break your inertia and start moving. Almost any half-reasonable action is better than waiting. Either you act or you remain inert. Acting changes you.

We have a full right to act in our world; a right that is inferior to no one else's. And unlike the usual actors – Earth's various rulers – we don't claim the fruits of anyone else's labors. Thus we are not morally equivalent to the rulers of this world, we are morally superior. We shouldn't be excusing ourselves to them.

Contra Mundi

The current world demands that we suppress our wills and conform. And if we should deviate from their prescribed path, we feel compelled to defend ourselves. These are things we must put behind us; their “superior position” is a fraud.

Every healthy human is born with immense capabilities, but we've been trained in ways that prevent their use. And most of us are held in that position by a rulership cult that bleeds us dry. Nonetheless, this is the truth:

You are not a subsidiary being, born inferior to rulers. You are an independent creature of the universe.

You can shrug off the burdens that have been piled on you since the day you first encountered authority.

Guilt is manipulation and you don't have to be hurt by it anymore.

You can stop scrambling to avoid looking bad, and instead you can actually be good: you can be consciously aware of your own goodness.

All of this waits for us, not in some distant future, but here and now. We were born to it, but the current world will never, ever give us permission to act in that way. We must reclaim our will and use it in the world as we wish.

It's time for us to experience what we are; to acknowledge and use our abilities... to move forward without guilt, without shame; to revel in what we can do; to do it willfully and forcefully: To be, without apology.

Paul Rosenberg is the author of The Breaking Dawn and the Free-Man's Perspective newsletter.