Debating the merits of a particular government policy or proposal with authoritarian-minded political opponents is pointless – if you’re hoping to persuade, at any rate. Far better to ask them a few apparently simple questions – and force them to confront the disquieting answers about the authoritarian nature of the political and social system they support. 
For instance, you might ask what their view of slavery is. Is it morally wrong to own another human being? Probably, they will say it is wrong. Now ask: What does it mean to be a slave? Usually, they will tell you it means being the property of another. Now ask the killer follow-up: What does it mean to be the property of another?
Point out that it means having control over another person’s life – control of his actual person, his body. His mind, even.
To be in a position – to be entitled – to use violence to enforce compliance.
A slave is not at liberty to act as he wishes to act. He must do as he is told – and if he does not, he can expect physical punishment and that punishment will not be considered assault. The slave must accept his punishment.
There is no appeal, no recourse. He must bow low and submit – or risk the repercussions, which ultimately include death.
His only hope is escape.
The slave, most obviously, owns nothing – because he controls nothing. He may be allowed to use things. But the owner of these things – himself included – is someone else. Someone else gets to say yes – or no. When – and where. How – and how much. The slave has no real say – in that he is never in a position to say no. Not without consequences raining down upon him.
He merely obeys. Because he must obey.
The fact that his hands may hold the scythe does not mean the scythe is his. The fact that the effort of his body cuts the wheat does not mean the wheat is his. He is permitted to keep a portion. In principle, because in fact, the slave owns nothing that may not be taken away from him. At any time, for any reason. And he is powerless to do anything about it.
The slave’s dwelling, the clothes he wears – even his very body – are subject to arbitrary control against his will by another person or persons. This is the essence of what it means to be a slave. 
Be sure your opponent accepts these points – which he must accept, because to not accept them is not unlike refusing to accept that 2 + 2 = four.
Now ask him whether he (or anyone else he knows) is free to determine the course of his own life. Or do others set down terms and conditions which he must obey?
Is he free to do business with whomever he chooses to do business? Or is he told exactly with whom he must do business – and under what conditions?
May he travel freely? Or is he required to travel with permission – and only under certain conditions? Must he carry ownership papers with him wherever he goes? And is it not true that if he is caught without these papers, he is subject to arrest and imprisonment for that reason alone?
Is he free to raise his children as he considers best? To teach them as he sees fit? Or must he teach them things others decree he must teach them?
Is he even free to choose whom to marry? Or must he submit to the authority of others in even this most personal of life’s choices?
Is he free to defend himself when accosted by strangers? Or must he submit to these strangers, if they wear a certain type of outfit? (Did not the overseer also wear a certain type of outfit?)
May he own things?
More precisely, is he permitted other than conditional use of things? For instance, that which he may think of as “his” home. If it is in fact “his,” then surely that means no one else has legal claim to it and cannot take it away from him once he has paid the original seller in full. Ask him about the large payments he must make to others every year, forever, in order to be allowed to remain on “his” property. Remind him that plantation slaves also had homes – in the sense that they were allowed conditional use of dwellings. Dwellings ultimately owned by someone else. The slaves were permitted to use these dwellings so long as their labor provided enough return to the true owners of the dwelling. A slave who refused to work – who declined to make payments in the form of his labor then (and tax payments now) would soon discover who the true owner of “his” dwelling really was.
Just as today.
Ask whether he is compelled to give up whatever portion of the fruits of his labors others decide they are entitled to – and how this differs from the slave in the field being forced to pick cotton for the benefit of others . . . . Ask him what he thinks will happen if he declines to hand over the fruits of his labor… . 
Ask whether he is at liberty to do as he wills even with his own poor body. May he freely choose to treat his body’s ailments as he sees fit? Or will he be chained and jailed if he treats himself in other than the “lawful” manner?Ask whether he knows that he may be forcibly taken from his home if he declines to be “treated” in the manner prescribed by others.
Who, then, owns his body? His very person? If I have the power to compel you to do – or not do – then is it not a fact that to some degree at least, I am your owner?And in that case, are you not a slave?
The control need not be vicious or even mean. The owner of a beloved dog is no less the owner of the animal by dint of the fact that he treats it kindly and tends to its needs. The dog is not at liberty to come and go as it pleases. It is allowed to use certain items – an old sofa, for example – and not other things. It does not own anything.
It is owned.
Neither did the plantation slave own anything. And many had benevolent masters – for example, Thomas Jefferson – who tried to treat them with kindness, as they saw it. Check Coles Specials and Big W Catalogue. Who saw themselves as parents of subnormal adult children in need of guidance – and restraint. This benevolent treatment, however, in no way made the slaves other than slaves.
Behind the gentle guiding hand, always the whip.
As it is today – with the exception that today’s slaves are unaware of their condition and imagine themselves to be free. Its subtlety is its genius. Instead of individual plantations, there is one consolidated plantation called “our country.” But we are owned nonetheless.
It is immaterial that we are not normally chained… if the chains may be put on at the first hint of disobedience. 
That we are allowed use of more (and nicer) things than the slaves of the past does not in any way change the fact that they are just as owned (because just as controlled) by someone else – and may be taken away at any moment, if the true owners so choose.
Our cotton fields are the cubicles of the modern office; our overseers called by different names. But their job is what it has always been: To make sure we toil, submit and obey. And if we do not… .
Well, we all know the answer to that one.
Throw it in the Woods?
Wow Eric,
That is the most depressing thing I’ve read in quite a while.
Especially the comment about slaves being able to run away.
And that was four long years ago. Thousands of laws, rules, and regulations ago. The twilight of the Hope & Change era and the dawn of the More Hope & Less Change In Your Pocket era.
As the end of the era of More Hope & Less Change In Your Pocket nears, Eric , any more fucking questions?
This is quite possibly the most cogent explanation I’ve ever read. . .
The questions are so simple, even a Public High School Graduate can understand. . . as are the answers.
The difficult part will be finding someone willing to answer them honestly, once they begin to see where the answers lead. . .
Well done, Sir.
seems like the only ones who have freedom of movement are the super rich, criminals and drifters
We Christians know exactly what it is like to be a slave – we are slaves to Jesus Christ. But this allows us to understand what is going on (Bible prophecy has seen this coming) and be able to tolerate it, while trying to change it, of course. But if you prefer freedom, then move to Russia or China or Iran – you will be free to wish you were back in the USA, little else!
Jesus rejected the state. The state beat then nailed him to a cross. You are not much of a Christian if you believe you can change it.
As lberns1 posted, Jesus rejected the state and the state killed him. While many see in Jesus what they want to see, the stories are quite explicitly against the bankers and the state.
The love it or leave it routine is also rather tired. One thing the ruling class does is to make everyone else poor. The idea of supporting the US federal government and those that have influence over it to impoverish people overseas be it through political, military, or economic interferences strikes me as silly. Because they don’t limit themselves to people overseas, they do it here as well. Also what is done overseas comes home.
Quite right BrentP–
In fact as far as I recall, the ONLY act of violence Christ perpetrated was whipping the money-changers doing business in a temple.
Interesting message, because even in those times the banksters’ game was afoot. Goldsmiths had invented fractional reserve banking and interest; both are the devastating instruments of financial warfare bringing us down today.
Henry,
“But if you prefer freedom, then move to Russia or China or Iran – you will be free to wish you were back in the USA, little else!”
I read this comment as typical Republican “America – love it or leave it” idiocy. If that was not your intent, I apologize for the interpretation.
You might be surprised to discover that in China, you are not forced at gunpoint to “buckle up for safety.” That in Russia, you’re not herded into a “free speech zone” when you protest the government.
Small stuff, Henry?
How about the “freedom” to declare any one of us a “terrorist” at whim – literally – and have us grabbed by jackbooted thugs, carted off to a prison hole someplace and held there indefinitely? Did you know that our Dear Leader may even order our deaths – at his whim?
But ahhm proud to be an ahhhmerrrikun! Where at least ahhh know ahhhm freeeeee…….!
Even country music has been assimilated by the Borg. No more wildcat moonshine fiddling. New Country means synthesizers and Cowboy crooners from Yankee City garment disrtrict pasturelands.
Catholics killed the movie industry. Since 1934 all movie plots are approved by the Catholic League of Decency code. Gov is good. Priests and police are noble. Sin always leads to ruin. Its the law.
If you put pre code film into youtube youIll see the world as it once was before the clover anschluss.
Jazz age dialog and personality is unbeleivable to witness.
Leave it to Beaver phoniness comes from the barrel of a censors gun.
Amen to that; I have witnessed it up close!
I live in a small community in the rural South – increasingly infiltrated by Yankee peddler types looking to make a buck off “southern” culture. So now, in town, there’s this contrived, heavily commercialized “jamboree” every Friday night. Hawk the hillbillies! Come gawk at the “authentic” redneck culture. Which it isn’t of course. But do buy something now, won’t you? Y’all come back!
There is an element here trying to transform this once-fine place into the next Dollywood.
When they succeed, we’re leaving.
AS AN upper Midwester and now sothwester I’ve learn to appreciate my years in Godz Country.
I bot season tix to the newly opened carolina panthers and I showed up at a work shindig in licensed nfl apparel.
I endured so much razzing I went out to the truck andput on something else to get some reprieve from redneck comedy hour.
Southerners don’t do phony and carpetbaggers will eventually be run out of town.
Hope the deliverance canoe tourists take there purty ideas down the river and out of your woods.
Why would you want to be a slave to anyone? This language appeals to you?
This is why I threw religion of your sort in the woods a long time ago.
Dear Henry,
No one on earth today is entirely free from slavery. We are all slaves to some degree, because we are all ruled against our consent by this or that government.
That said, it may surprise you to learn that people in today’s China are actually less enslaved in certain respects than people in the USSA.
For example, so-called “nail houses” in China have attracted much attention in the West. Nail houses are single family dwellings that the inhabitant has refused to sell and vacate in order that some shopping mall or highway be built in its place. This forces the builder of the shopping mall or highway to work around the nail house, creating the strange scenes often seen online.
The fact that the inhabitants can get away with this shows that in some respects at least, property rights are accorded more respect in “Communist China” than they are in the “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave”.
In the USSA, these strange scenes are unseen, because LEOs have gone in guns blazing and forcibly evicted the inhabitant long ago.
https://www.google.com.tw/search?q=nail+houses+china&espv=2&biw=1091&bih=551&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj66Jjnk97PAhUFoZQKHWCDA7QQsAQIGQ
I would like to think the best way to confront an authoritarian politician is to ask him how he/ she would feel about the law if they were the citizen affected by it. Put themselves in their constituents’ shoes, so to speak.
They wouldn’t be politicians in the first place if they didn’t think it was “good” for “us.”
Dear LibRep,
Unfortunately the “political class” is distinguished by its indifference to principles, including most notably, the Golden Rule.
Slavery still Exists Today and it will until what keeps
Slavery Going is Ended Namely the Political and Economic System of
Exploitation
Poverty Deprivation Oppressive Taxes are All Signs of Slavery
together with Slave Driving Bosses
Man, I love it when I see People getting up to speed on things and catching up with me, it’s almost enough to give a guy hope.
Ha@hope. As if.
WFD.
Wake me if any show interest in the Fifth Amendment’s Presentment Power.
Another analogy for our status in addition to that of a plantation slave can also be considered. We are all inmates of a gulag who are allowed to vote for the guards and camp commandant. The candidates promise all kinds of things to the voters except for release from the gulag. At the end of the day, after all the hoopla has died done, and the new management takes office, the voters still remain inmates of a gulag.
So much for the myth that voting makes a difference.
The fact that the American people have accepted the income tax shows that they have no qualms with being someones slave.
Can anyone explain to me how an income tax is anything other than slavery?
Try extortion. Taxing income is unlawful. The only lawful tax is a single sales tax.
Buyer to seller.
Seller to Local Government.
Local Government to State Government.
State Government to National Government.
tgsan
Agree, Tinsley –
Such a tax (sales tax) is essentially voluntary (and absolutely anonymous; i.e., no disclosure of income sources or any other info to anyone).
No one would be compelled to pay the tax. If you don’t buy the item, you pay no tax.
And more: If the object of taxation were limited to the sole purpose of defending people’s rights (so, civil and criminal courts; peacekeeping) then the amount needed would be trivial vis-a-vis what we’re forced to fork over today. Even so, those who don;’t wish to support even these minarchist functions would not be forced to do so.
Dear Eric,
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that sales taxes are “essentially voluntary”.
Naturally I agree that they are far less intrusive than income taxes.
But for a third party (the crime family with a flag known as “The Government”), to come between two parties engaged in free trade, and demand a “cut” is hardly “voluntary”. It is still extortion.
Lincoln’s Marxists freed
the slaves by violence
while other nations did so
peacefully ((e.g., Britain
and India )). Read about
Lincoln’s Marxists in “Red
Republicans and Lincoln’s
Marxists: Marxism in the
Civil War.”
Search Amazon.com; buy the book; tell your friends.
“A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him. ”
Ezra Pound
From
http://www.strike-the-root.com/4/hambidge/hambidge2.html
“So, let’s reiterate. You need government permission to make your home, travel, earn a living, defend yourself, obtain medical treatment, and educate your children. You will never get government approval for many of those things in many places. You will never get government permission to entertain your mind and body in unapproved ways. At certain times, you cannot criticize those who decide who and what gets approved. You must sell your property to the government if they want it, and you must kill and die for them if they tell you to. And you have no choice but to pay for it all anyway, whether you like it or not.”
Perfect
http://thinkorbeeaten.com/theknoll/informer.html
I found this guys documents and knowledge of the USA very interesting Eric. It runs apropo to your article. This guy is a legal researcher.
Before World War I, Hilaire Belloc predicted the revival of slavery as the logical result of the amoral accumulation of power and money in the hands of ruthless plutocrats who would use the machinery of government to enforce a system designed to maximize their profits at the expense of everyone else. In 1931, continuing to stress the theme, he penned an essay titled “The New Paganism,” which begins as follows:
“Our civilization developed as a Catholic civilization. It developed and matured as a Catholic thing. With the loss of the Faith it will slip back not only into Paganism, but into barbarism with the accompaniments of Paganism, and especially the institution of slavery. It will find gods to worship, but they will be evil gods as were those of the older savage Paganism before it began its advance towards Catholicism. The road downhill is the same as the road up the hill. It is the same road, but to go down back into the marshes again is a very different thing from coming up from the marshes into pure air.”
Its funny that this guy says advanced ” from ” barbarism. Do ppl understand that barbarism is true freedom ? Barbarian was a title given to non-Romans and means bearded man bc Romans didn’t wear beards. What the hell is more pagan than the catholics holy shit !!! Its pure paganism mother worship father worship shrines and shit these ppl are so blind the g damn catholics have killed more ppl than every war, plague, and natural disaster since the beginning of fucking time and there still looked at as some sort of example of god’s way to live. No wonder ppl hate religion. I guess Gandhi had it right when he said I like your Christ but I dont like youe christians.
I’ve got a book for you; I’m halfway through and it’s going to force me to learn the history of the middle ages and Renaissance all over.
World Lit Only By Fire.
I don’t know how accurate it is, but the portrayal of the Catholic church–and the “Holy See” itself–are devastating.
The Borgias. Incest–father/daughter, brothers/sister; pimping out the hot young daughter for political advantage; convents as brothels…the church was insanely decadent.
In fact it’s totally fascinating because it mirrors exactly what happens to Elites all through history when they gain power. That is, they go bat-shit crazy.
The parallels of the Catholic church circa 1500 to today’s governments are fascinating. The same centralization, the same psy-ops against the sheeple; the same decadence, the absolute lust for CONTROL even over money.
It’s convinced me that Statism today is identical to Catholicism then; it’s a religion, and it’s sold the same way.
What REALLY encourages me about this book is how easily the whole corrupt edifice fell. Cue up: Gutenberg press, Martin Luther, and some well-placed satire and Bam!…gone.
One take-home lesson I’m getting from the book is the irresistible power of laughter and derision directed at authority. If you can make people laugh at them, it’s like taking a jackhammer to concrete…with the advantage that it’s much safer than taking up arms.
The Catholic Church is still a government. It also maintains an empire. It has troops all over the world that take orders from an imperial city and presses their agenda abroad. It has a seat at the United Nations. It even still has vestiges of its old armed forces remaining in the form of the Swiss Guards.
@Tog–right you are, sir.
My point is that it was once truly virulent; excommunicating at will, killing at will. Openly flaunting its absolute tyranny.
It lost and had to come back a lot nicer…still an empire, but toothless. Were it not for its continued PR efforts, it would fade into nothing.
Here’s a fun analogy I have for tyranny:
Viruses evolve. For an example of a virus that’s well-evolved, look at the common cold. It’s hardly ever fatal; in fact it leaves you feeling well enough to walk around spreading it–at which it’s highly effective, shedding itself copiously from your runny nose. It’s not miserable enough to make huge efforts to avoid it, either.
It just lives–and for a parasite, it’s not bad.
Contrast this with a terribly unsophisticated, un-evolved virus like Ebola. Highly virulent, it kills its own host–not a very clever trick. But it’s fairly new to the scene, and over generations it will become more cold-like.
Just so governments. The former, the US government pre-1861. The latter, today’s.
The analogy breaks down when we go fully anarchic; I suppose that would be like the phase of Herpes when it hides out in your ganglia, just waiting for a weak moment to flare out in a nasty comeback.
So I suppose the analogy maintains even in anarchy; for hidden within humans is this insane urge to be led, to be controlled–and more viciously, to control others.
Herpes, indeed.
That’s a great analogy.
Herpes, indeed.
Government is the virus, clovers the festering sores!
good analogy about the virus’. have to sit and think about that for a few moments..
This is the best stuff of yours I’ve read, Eric. I really, really appreciate you putting in words what’s been in my head all this time.
Great work.
Dear Eric,
You’re a real pooface. I am about to publish a book on this very subject. Yer really stealin my thunder, man!
warmly,
M
The more, the merrier – !
Released! http://endlessunlimited.com/?page_id=217
Eric, I’d be happy to send you a free copy if you’d give me an honest review. I feel I’ve made some great contributions to the philosophy of personal liberty; in expressly revealing the sham of the slave masters, in clear language that the average clover could understand (complete with a simple visual to back it up). Shoot me an email if you’re interested, Thanks!
I just bought it based on your web page, Michael.
For a buck on Kindle, I couldn’t resist.
How would you compare your approach to Stefan Molyneaux’s?
I guess I’ll find out when I read it. I’m on a great sci-fi novel now and I’m finishing up “World Lit Only By Fire”…so it will be a week or so.
meth, Thanks.
Shamefully, I must admit that I am not thoroughly familiar with the totality of Stefan’s work, I’ve watched some of his radio broadcasts. I’d hate to do either of us the injustice of comparison; Stefan is brilliant.
What I would imagine is different with my book and approach, is that I have tried to detail not only logical fallacies, but tried to underline a great deal of emotional manipulation that we have faced. I have tried to show how the system perpetuates itself; through mental manipulation, through emotional manipulation, through it’s structure (denying basic necessity so people are too busy to think, but providing just enough so they are too comfortable to resist). You can see a chart midway through the book that serves as the basis of articulating my complaint.
Hi Mike,
Yes, please do – I’d be happy to review the book here. E-mail me ([email protected])
“Its subtlety is its genius.” So true. The genius that causes so many to argue against it, claiming it’s an outright lie. But we know better.
Off topic: How the hell do I get my own avatar picture on this site?
Nine-eleven was a boon for the slimy statists. However, decades before 911, those Americans who had not surrendered their hearts and minds to the State chose to simply acquiesce in its crimes.
If a significant number of Americans ever get serious about salvaging respect for the American ideal, the Fifth Amendment’s Presentment Power is still valid and waiting to be used.
tgsam
Tinsley, I fear the war was lost on nine eleven. They stood up DHS, and all the planning they had made for years for this creation of a national “Stassi,” planning that was held back and drooled over by the statist oligarchy that truly runs everything on the planet, finally got the big budget to go forward.
A couple of years ago, some panic wrought wrist-wringer called in a “man with assault rifle” report to 911 at a local mall. Within a very short time, there was full jackboot military response, lockdown style, with armored vehicles and all. It turned out video review showed it was dude carrying a normal umbrella. Front page picture of the lightning-fast tactical response in the paper, which, of course, didn’t raise any hackles in the sheepentariot.
It’s already in place, and, if/when TSHTF, there will be ORDER. Paid for by your tax dollars, serfs.
DOWNRANGE?
Taking a break from automobile service and repair I worked as an Able Seaman aboard the USNS Twin Falls Victory in 1966. Does that mean anything to you?
tgsam
Yeah, it means you’re not one of THEM!
I’m sure there are many other meanings, all of them positive. I’m not sure what is your implication, but I hope it’s not that all the right-minded people are going to have to fight again, but maybe that’s it.
It’s a whole nuther discussion, but a lot of people have opined about what happens if TPTB ask our military to do things which are, arguably, unconstitutional, for lack of a better euphemism. I’d rather not go there in this thread, but it’s an elephant in the room.
The Twin Falls Victory and the Vandenberg were ships employed in the 1960s and 1970s to plug the gaps in the satellite tracking system. While I was aboard the Twin Falls we operated in the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. Our stops included Ascension Island, Trinidad, Port Elizabeth and Capetown. We were considered “downrange” in the jargon of the day.
Q: What could a dedicated five percent of adult Americans do to return to lawful pursuit of the American Ideal?
A: Enforce the genuinely unalienable Law of the Land approved by the Second Continental Congress in July 1776. It is the primary entry in the Corpus Juris Secundum. (The Body of American Law)
Unenforced law is no law at all.
tgsm
Fuck law.
There is only one law: “Harm No One”
Everything after that is utter bullshit.
These are the fucking psychopathic public school retards that you are up against….Good luck and good night, Amerika.
A sickening pageant of looters… we’re headed for Russia and 1917 all over again.
I tend to see us as 1932 Germany Eric–but you’re right on this point.
The 1917 Bolshevik “revolution” was designed and funded directly by the Globalist Banksters. Rothschild’s agent Jacob Schiff oversaw much of their funding and travel, and supported Trotsky while he lived in luxury in America.
Just the same, the Bankster interests here have hijacked the country through their political oligarchy–the bought-and-paid-for politicians.
Half of these filthy stupid animals want to steal from you and the other half want to destroy you…What do you make of that mentally retarded sociopath at 0:40?
Amerika’s Democrat Terrorist Organization is BY FAR the most evil terrorist group on planet Earth. Schiff should have followed up with “Should Amerika start depopulating the Earth of Humans” and you will see that they will reveal their true terrorist / murderous nature.
Don’t despair. There is a bright side to all this. Having neither guns, nor gold nor any valuable life skills, these stupid parasites will all perish within months of the SHTF. Their social justice will be bulldozed by reality’s Darwinian justice.
Or as “The Collector” informed Max as he entered Barter Town, “The brothels are full.”
One effective tack is to define slavery as lack of ownership of one’s own productivity, and have people ponder the concept of Tax Freedom Day in that light.
I actually had a statist tell me she would deserve jail for not paying her taxes. It’s a constant battle with these people. It makes devotion to any other religion pale in comparison.
Wow. What can you do in the face of that but gape?
It is definitely the most fiercely-defended faith. To hear these people describe others as fanatics is laughable.
Yep, I was pretty dumbfounded. She literally wears her enslavement like a badge of honor. Truly sickening.
Years ago (early ’70’s) my dad had a young woman working for him that listened intently as he described the amount of individual Liberty he enjoyed growing up in the 1930’s. She was amazed at the America he described and said she had never known that kind of freedom in her lifetime. She went on to say that her children would undoubtedly know even less freedom, but they wouldn’t know the difference, so it probably wouldn’t bother them. What she was saying was that we have a shifting baseline from one generation to the next. Now I realize that the human condition is cyclic and the pendulum will swing back toward freedom. But if history is any indicator, by the time that generation feels the discomfort of their chains enough to overcome fear and inertia, bloodshed will be all but inevitable.
Like poetry… That’s why I read ever post written by “Boothe.”
Boothe that’s called “shifting the Overton window”; through carefully managed psy-ops designed at places like Tavistock and their bitches at Rand Corp, we are gradually accustomed to conditions that a generation before would have been intolerable.
The discourse shifts gradually in the desired direction; the frogs boil.
My only hope is that in the past twenty–and especially the last 10–years they’ve become so desperate and moved so fast the frogs are hopping.
Many of these people are polytheists. For all of their Reich-wing rhetoric about “freedom” and “limited government,” you’d be amazed (or not) at how many “evangelical ‘Christians'” worship the State over God. (Hint: drop by any evangelical “church” this Sunday and see what they have in store for commemorating 9/11. Last year set a trend that, I predict, will become a “religious” holiday as central to the Great National Religion as are Christmas and Easter.)
“at how many “evangelical ‘Christians’” worship the State over God.”
Bad Quaker (Ben Stone) interviewed Becky Akers, and they discussed this very subject for about 7 minutes. The discussion starts around the 10:00 mark (I’d suggest listening to the entire podcast):
http://www.badquaker.com/archives/1922
I would like to humbly suggest comparing the beliefs of these xtians to the beliefs and rituals of the Babylonians and specifically Mithraic beliefs and i think you will see no differences in deed only in title. This plan of world dominance is literally thousands of years old being handed down through the blood lines of the elites. I know I know it sounds like conspiracy ( You think ?!? )
I actually had a statist tell me she would deserve jail for not paying her taxes.
=================
Yeah right.
Within 24 hours of her ass hitting the cold cell floor she’d be converted to a conservative or libertarian.
A LIEberal is a conservative that hasn’t been mugged yet.
Nothing converts like unbridled reality.
I doubt it.
There are millions – tens of millions of people – who really do believe that “cheating” the taxman is a moral offense and that people who do so are criminals.
Well attempted, Eric. If logic alone could win arguments and persuade people of the right things, “what a wonderful world it would be!” Alas, logic does not work, at least on sheeple. There is overwhelming proof of that dating at least from the beginning of the 20th century. Nowadays, indeed, they “don’t know much about history.”
they “don’t know much about history.”
=====================================
Thanks to the *ReEducation Camps* known as public schools.
The *crossover* is now complete and only gov’t ineptness regulates the speed of decline.
There really is no way out.
The willing slaves outnumber the freedomists 10 to 1 or more.
Only after the complete decimation of all slave mentalities everywhere will the freedomists reign.
Where do these slave mentalities exist?
Anywhere, everywhere, all around you, even in your own home.
Is your wife a slave or freedomist?
Careful there, think again.
If the gov’t tells her they will take her kids she will flip on you in a nanny second and you’ll finally see the nasty underbelly as you never have before.
Take the word *individualist* seriously, for when it comes right down to it, all you own is you. The rest is just faith.
Why should the choice be to leave the nation our forefathers established in the name of freedom? And, check out the penalties Uncle places on those who want to transfer their wealth – lot’s been written on the changes the past few years…
Besides, the whole planet has become, largely, the plantation…
This is great “Litmus” paper – people always out their true understanding of liberty when something truly profound like this is put before them. I note especially the attempt to “dismiss” the message, either through “social contract” bs, or some other ruse.
Yeah. It’s that “love it or leave it” mind-numbed drivel.
The way Libertarians talk as if that the U.S. will be a Soviet state in the not-too-distant-future with “undesirables” rotting away in gulags. If so, then Libertarians ought to be leaving in droves or getting ready to literally fight for the their lives.
Look much at US prison statistics lately? It already is for many. Our government now claims the authority to hold “domestic terrorists” without due process. The heavily armed populace is the only thing keeping the goons at bay. You’re still ok if you stay in the realm of acceptable behavior, which gets to be a smaller and smaller pen every day.
Many articles and comments here discuss expatriation, prepping and defense. These things are pondered and discussed at length. You’d be aware of this if you considered the articles and comments a little further than you do in your search for a place to vent your spleen.
You mean “enemy combatants who don’t follow the rules of warfare and thus don’t get the protection of the Geneva Convention”?
Nope. The president has asserted that anyone he claims to be a “terrorist” – including American citzens – may be summarily detained without charge and held indefinitely. He most recently asserted his power to have anyone deemed a “terrorist” killed by his order.
Mind, Clover: No presentment of evidence (much less a conviction in open court) is required. Only the mere assertion that so and so is a “terrorist.”
This does not bother you?
They tried it on Brandon Raub which raised quite a stink. He was eventually released due to the uproar, but it makes one wonder how many have already been disappeared without a trace?
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/citizen-warrior/2012/aug/22/can-government-detain-you-over-facebook-posts/
Dear Eric,
The “Lord of the Flies” is about what you said ” use force for self-defence only”. In the book there is a lot of that in the absence of any “enforced rules of law” or Gov to enforce the laws and no Police to help.
For them to use force do defend them-selfs must mean that they being attacked by a person whom is not leaving them alone.
Mao’s “The Little Red Book” is how to survive when the Gov comes apart, which appears to be the non-clovers dream.
Rick
Sadly, we’re already a Soviet state.
Have you failed to notice?
We may be jailed now at whim and denied due process. We may be tortured – even killed – if the elected Stalin so decrees.
So far, of course, this has not happened on a large scale. They are just testing the waters. But the fact is they have set forth the principle and acted on it – against individuals whom they know will elicit not much sympathy, who can be described as “enemies of freedom.” Well, do you suppose that will be the end of it? That the net will not be cast wider?
We are under ubiquitous surveillance. We are subject to routine, arbitrary physical searches – including invasive touching of our genital areas.
Where do you suppose this is leading, Clover?
We are at a scary crossroads.
And most of us can’t just leave. And many of us won’t leave.
Dear Eric,
I have been reading your posts, and the ones of your fellow non-clovers.
It does seem to me in about 20 years you would like to have a cross between “Lord of the flies” and Mao’s “The Little Red Book” instead of a Gov.
Rick
Rick,
So, you see advocacy of human liberty based upon the principle of non-aggression (no first use of force; i.e., only in self-defense) as “a cross between “Lord of the flies” and Mao’s The Little Red Book instead of a Gov” ?
Just… bizarre.
Rick, we’re already almost there. Feral children spawned by teenage high school dropouts supported by taxpayers are running wild in street gangs. As for Mao’s Little Red Book, only a few badly worn speed-bumps in the Bill of Rights and the absence of another false flag “terrorist” attack are what stand between political dissidents and Uncle Sam’s re-education camps.
Yes Gil, what they did to Brandon Raub was the same “if you don’t agree with the state, you must be mentally ill” mode of operation that the soviets and virtually every other dictatorial police state runs under. Of course some police states simply come crashing in, shoot some of the members of your party, then burn the rest (including women and children) to death to “protect the children”, then destroy evidence, cover-up for and even promote the perps (remember Waco?). Here in Amerika, the thug scrum would never spray people in the face with noxious chemicals for the “crime” of sitting peacefully on a private road of a college campus. No sir, not here!
Nor would our dear leaders even dream of locking up thousands for the non-crime of possessing a common mind altering plant and using them for slave labor (look up Unicor or Federal Prison Industries and open your eyes). Or how about all those folks that lost their homes and ended up in concentration camps during world war II because they dared to be of Japanese decent? In fact Gil, this is nothing new here in the United States.
Abraham Lincoln, the same man who was ready to sign a Constitutional Amendment to perpetuate slavery, subsequently suspended Habeas Corpus, shut down hundreds of newspapers at bayonet point and locked up roughly 13,200 political dissidents all the way back in the 1860’s. Some of these folks languished in prison well after the War of Federal Aggression was over for the heinous crime of not speaking out in support of Lincoln’s policies when other citizens dared object to them. Yep; 150 years ago you could go to prison simply for remaining silent at the wrong time. In many ways, the U.S. gun-vernment makes the soviets look like a bunch of campfire girls.
It already IS.
We are.
We are.
getting ready to literally fight for the their lives.
=================
Well, duh.
And you’re not?
I have tried this approach many times and it doesn’t work. The counter argument is too simple. They simply claim that they do in fact subscribe to the social contract and although they don’t agree with all aspects they agree with enough of them to make it acceptable to them. If pushed they will simply say that they, unlike a true slave, can leave the nation if they so choose.
Make sure and remind them that the IRS, modern-day fugitive slave marshals, will still expect them to render their pound of flesh for ten years after expatriating. Unless they renounce their citizenship, and I understand that even that is no guarantee.
Or in other words, the slave could be free at a price, just as we can.
Well, according to Eric’s analogy, we don’t “own” any of our physical possessions anyway….the government does. So if all it costs to leave the country is to give up a bunch of stuff we don’t own anyway, sounds like a bargain to me.
As long as it remains possible to renounce citizenship and simply leave the country, the “slave” analogy really is not completely accurate. That’s not to say that things don’t suck already. And it may not be possible to renounce……, relinquish your wealth, and simply waltz across the border for too much longer. But until then….., keep your passport current.
Even slaves could runaway
From what I have been led to believe, if you leave the country with the intention of evading future taxes they can claim you owe taxes. Of course there isn’t jack they can do about it unless you come back to visit.
In other words you can be 100% completely paid up on the day you renounce your citizenship and still not be free from the taxman. If they believe you renounced your citizenship to quit paying taxes on future profits from money you earned while a citizen they can demand you file taxes on that income. (in other words they own a part of any income you make from any income you made while you were a citizen.)
Please correct me if I am wrong. I am not close to 100% sure on this.
I’m not sure either, I’ve read about it in a few different places, but you can’t believe everything you find on the Internet. Seems purposefully vague.
Of course there isn’t jack they can do about it unless you come back to visit.
What with your friendly neighborhood IRS helper gaining more access to bank accounts overseas, and the travel agency at Langley that will pick you up anywhere to be whisked away on charter flights to exotic locales worldwide, I’m not so sure anymore.
Hi Brad. I’m a tax guy (never, ever been with the IRS though…always on the side of taxpayers) and know a little bit about this. The rule used to be that if you gave up citizenship to avoid taxes, you would be taxed for the next 10 years. It was changed in 2004 to a more objective standard. Now, you are subject to the 10 year tax period upon giving up citizenship if (1) your average tax for the past 5 years was more than $124,000, or (2) your net worth is $2,000,000 or more. Those numbers are indexed for inflation, but I don’t have the current figures at the moment. Anyway, they don’t affect most of us.
Another rule was added in 2008: if you give up your citizenship, you are deemed to sell all of your property. If the phantom gain is more than $600,000, you owe tax on the excess.
When we expatriate, I am looking forward to using a large-bore Sharpie to write “Fuck. You. All.” in broad strokes on a 1040 and submitting it…the last “submission” I’ll be displaying to the thugs, brigands, murderers, pedophiles, and psychopaths who comprise “our” government.
Or at least, that’s my plan. Perhaps prudence will dictate it remain a fantasy.
But I’ll sure be thinking it! Loudly!
How can anyone miss the fact that we live in slavery, with light chains, nice cells, and well-dressed jailers?
We’re cattle. And the milking phase is over; it’s slaughtering time, they want the meat now too.
I’m reading a fascinating history of the Dark and Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance and I’m at the point of the Gutenberg press’s invention.
The Elites of the day huffed and puffed and burned people alive to stop it; to no avail. I agree with The Daily Bell that we’re seeing an “Internet Reformation”–and they’re huffing and puffing just as hard.
Just like the original Gutenberg, the Internet has had an entire generation to penetrate before the Elites really figured out how badly it’s screwing their plans. My dream is that the next step in human awakening is casting off statism, just as the Renaissance cast off Papism.
Imagine if, in 10, 20, or 50 years, the Zero Aggression Principle achieves the same “duh, of course!” acceptance as the principles of scientific discovery today? That it’s accepted culturally as prime fact…now THAT’s a revolution!
Thanks for the info.
One thing that puzzles me about American citizens being liable for the tax on foreign income, how will the IRS collect this tax if one has left the U.S. with no intention of ever returning? Who reports this income to the IRS? Do most foreign governments have treaty obligations with the U.S. government to do so? If so, are they also obligated to force the U.S. citizen, who may also be a dual citizen of his new country, to cough up the money? Can he be deported to the U.S. for failure to pay this tax?
I’m curious how the collection mechanism works.
The US empire has many foreign governments do their bidding and most people want to be able to visit people in the USA.
The only way to effectively ignore the IRS is to live in a country which the feds have no leverage over, never travel to one it does, and most of all never enter the USA again.
That ten year thing is simply astounding. Only Uncle Scam comes up with doozies like that.
Yep. They go ‘well just leave’. Then comes the explanation that there is no ‘just leave’. They have no idea that the US federal government taxes people who live overseas. They make a point of it too.
Then try to explain to them purchasing a foreign passport because you have to do that first before one can renounce citizenship.
They won’t believe any of it. They never looked into it. But they think one can just leave and go live somewhere else and be free of the US government.
It’s a delusional world they are in.
Brad, the “social contract” is the ultimate bulwark that they retreat behind and no amount of argument can smoke them out. I’ve gotten nothing but frustration from pointing out that I can’t be bound by a contract that I didn’t sign.
For thinking people, Lysander Spooner demolished the social contract argument; for clovers, it can’t allowed to be demolished because it’s the only way they can live (and force us to live) according to their feeeeeelings.
Exactly!!
It’s funny to me that these clovers are like super-feminized people; maybe it’s the fluoride ?
Feelings? Then this is should bring back some memories.
Exactly what I mean super feminized emotion controlled zombies
Most of what I do can be summed up like this: I tell people, “You should be free” and they tell me, “No, I shouldn’t” – Larken Rose
http://www.larkenrose.com/
Most of what I do can be summed up like this: I tell people, “You should be free” and they tell me, “No, I shouldn’t” – Larken Rose
Yes, I’ve run across the “social contract” argument a number of times–usually stated in that smug, self-satisfied way that only the truly deluded can manage…and accompanied by that smarmy, “I-know-better” tone.
But social contract is pure bullshit; Rousseau himself specified it into such a small corner it, like the Oroboros, swallowed its own ass and disappeared with a “pop!”.
See Stefan Molyneaux demolishing Social Contract here.
His argument, in a nutshell, is thus:
If Social Contract is good and valid, I should be able to go to a neighborhood and announce I’ve bought everyone a car. They have a choice; Volvo or BMW. I’ll take a vote and they’ll get the majority choice. They must send me a check for $30,000 for the car…or else.
Thus I’ve become government and implemented Social Contract. Except, if I did that, I’d be jailed. How is it moral for government? Which, by the way, doesn’t even exist. Show me government–there is no such thing. There are people who believe they are “government” and act that way–but it’s not an entity in itself.
And I’ve often heard the “love it or leave it argument”, too.
Both piss me off beyond compare!
I wish I’d seen Stefan’s analysis years ago. It would have saved me a lot of angry discussion if I had such a quick way to crucify Social Contract.
Dear meth,
I left a comment at the Stefan Molyneux video.
Bevin Chu
1 second ago
Dear Stefan,
“The government is a crime syndicate with a flag, and the social contract is an offer you can’t refuse.”
— Bevin Chu
Reply
·
If pushed they will simply say that they, unlike a true slave, can leave the nation if they so choose.
Not without the Massah’s “permission slip” they can’t and they’ll have to pay a heft fee for that. In the olden days the slave owners were at least honest in calling it what it was: a “slave pass.” Today it’s called a “passport.”
Yes, liberranter, you are right. I read one time that the birth certificate originated with slaves also. If one owned chattel property and that property produced offspring, without a bill of sale from the auction house, how could one prove that new slave belonged to then? Why they’d get a birth certificate from the state! That way Mr. Jones from the farm down the road couldn’t come along and say that little Tom or little Sally belonged to him. It’s much the same as branding, ear tags, lip tattoos, bio-chips and their respective bloodline registries for cattle or horses.
So nowadays, in order to get a passport, drivers license, marriage license (all of which are “slave passes”), we have to go to the state and get a *copy* of our “Certificate of Live Birth.” Hmmm. Since the state holds the original, I think you can surmise what they assume our status to be. You’ll also notice that you aren’t allowed to hold the certificate of origination or the actual title to your motor vehicle either. You get a “Certificate of Title”, which transliterates to “we the state hold a valid Title to this vehicle and here’s a permission slip stating you may use or transfer possession of said vehicle subject to our terms, fees and conditions.” If you’re in Virginia, read the fine print on the back of your car “title” sometime; it’s very enlightening.
We don’t get title to our land or house either; we get a “deed” instead. It is my understanding that a “deed” is ‘color of title’; it walks like title, it talks like title, but since you still have to pay the county / city / state rent every year, it ain’t title. “Personal property taxes” apply to boats, aircraft, farm equipment, shop tools and even livestock in the Communist-wealth of Virginia. That which one must pay rent on one does not own. Don’t believe it? Don’t pay those taxes. Pretty soon, the sheriff will show up with his thugs and ask you to hand over your stuff and or move off your property. Then they will auction it off and take the money. If you object strenuously they will subdue you, chain you and put you in a cage. If you really resist they will shoot you down like any other recalcitrant slave. All of this helps explain why the state believes they have the right to a portion (or if you break their rules, all) of the fruits our labor. Amerika: Land of the fee, home of the slave…
Exactly. The land of the free moniker is a sad, sick, joke. On top of that you’ll have some poor schmuck who then enlists in the military with the delusion that they’re “defending” this corrupt system! You could just as easily call them and others who believe this sort of swill as “trustees” on the Federal plantation.
If pushed they will simply say that they, unlike a true slave, can leave the nation if they so choose.
Not without the Massah’s “permission slip” they can’t, and they’ll have to pay a hefty fee for that. In the olden days the slave owners were at least honest in calling it what it was: a “slave pass.” Today it’s called a “passport.”
I’ve run into this very thing, too. What I find is that many, many people are simply happy slaves. They have been conditioned all their lives and have completely bought into the lies. They believe that they are protected. They like their lives and affluence. They are just fine with how things are, and have no problem with widespread fraud, extortion and violence. They also ignore two facts:
1) That moving to another country is, in most cases, just choosing to join a different plantation, choosing a different system of slavery.
2) That it is much more difficult to “legally” change citizenship than they make it sound. It isn’t a vacation trip. It can easily take a million dollars, when it is possible at all, to actually complete the process and grease all the hands.
In the end, I think the cattle just refuse to acknowledge that they are, in fact, cattle. Even those who are willing to do so basically just say “being a cow ain’t so bad.”
and where do you run? Where is a place where one can be free of Washington DC? The only ones I can think of are those places that are even more repressive than what we find here – China, Russia, Iran, …..
Yup – that’s a daunting reality.
Seem to me the best we can do is stand as clear away from the explosion as possible – and hope to survive it.
There really is nowhere to go. So, we must turn around and take a stand where we are.
It’s all a man can do at this point.
Look up Simon Black and Doug Casey for info on where to relocate to.
Here’s a couple links:
http://www.sovereignman.com/
http://www.caseyresearch.com/
Hi ghost,
This subject – expatriation – has been discussed at length here. While the idea sounds good, it is no easy thing to actually do unless you’re retired and drawing income from investments or already wealthy enough to retire early (and can transfer your assets out of the country). Otherwise, you’ll need to earn a living – for most people, no easy thing to do in a foreign country. Or, start over – again, no easy thing to do – especially if you’re not 25 anymore.
Yes, I understand that “freedom isn’t free.” But it’s glib to just say: Expatriate! It involves giving up most of what one has worked for and built over decades, including friends and family and home and hearth.
Also, none of the places mentioned are really free, either.
I’ve decided to stand my ground.
Excellent analysis and game plan Eric! I’ve been explaining to people for years that the war of federal aggression didn’t abolish slavery; it abolished individual Liberty and state sovereignty. We’re all on the national plantation now, north and south, and have been since 1865. There’s no question that governmental oppression has become impossible to ignore (even for the most obtuse Americans, Clovers aside) over the last few decades. But (dis-)”Honest Abe” laid the groundwork for our current system of gun-vernment oppression nearly 150 years ago. Being held in an insidious and officially sanctioned system of involuntary servitude is much like pregnancy: at first it you can’t tell, but there’s no being “a little bit” of slave any more than one can be a little bit pregnant. You either are or you aren’t.
Awesome!
Toss it in the woods!
I was mentioning some time ago about GIS being used as an event triggered time machine database. The government was working on a means of storing and extracting months worth of earth time data for analysis. I was explaining why modern milita confronting such a superpower would not work because of this technology they possessed. I incorrectly called it Global Information System. Its real name is Geographic Information System. From Wiki:
A geographic information system is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data. The acronym GIS is sometimes used for geographical information science or geospatial information studies to refer to the academic discipline or career of working with geographic information systems.[1] In the simplest terms, GIS is the merging of cartography, statistical analysis, and database technology.
A GIS can be thought of as a system—it digitally creates and “manipulates” spatial areas that may be jurisdictional, purpose, or application-oriented. Generally, a GIS is custom-designed for an organization. Hence, a GIS developed for an application, jurisdiction, enterprise, or purpose may not be necessarily interoperable or compatible with a GIS that has been developed for some other application, jurisdiction, enterprise, or purpose. What goes beyond a GIS is a spatial data infrastructure, a concept that has no such restrictive boundaries.
In a general sense, the term describes any information system that integrates, stores, edits, analyzes, shares, and displays geographic information for informing decision making. GIS applications are tools that allow users to create interactive queries (user-created searches), analyze spatial information, edit data in maps, and present the results of all these operations.[2] Geographic information science is the science underlying geographic concepts, applications, and systems
Excellent article Eric like usual.
Off the subject while I was debating Cloverina last night, I was also researching water hemlock. I remember my dad talking about how deadly it is and I wanted to make sure I never accidently rubbed up against the shit. While there I then bumped across a link on castor beans, found it interesting that castor oil was denatured castor beans that are extrememly deadly if consumed raw (never knew that). The poisoin ricin is scary sounding and researching it a bit further, I found a story about Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov whowas killed by poison dart filled with ricin and fired from an umbrella in London in 1978. Of course he was a victim of government terrorism and his crime was speaking out against the communist government on radio (http://articles.cnn.com/2003-01-07/world/terror.poison.bulgarian_1_poison-ricin-assassination-bulgarian-dissident-georgi-markov?_s=PM:WORLD). After that I felt sick thinking about all the dissidents who have been killed by their loving masters. Just a few years ago I believe Putin killed some poor guy with a radioactive isotope. And then we jump to our own country with Bradley Manning and Julian Assange, these psycopath politicians are all the same. You speak out against them and draw any crowd you’ll be lucky to live freely or at all for more than 2 weeks. I’m quite suprised Ron Paul is still standing considering the powerful message he delivers.
I originally was thinking about that new genetical engineering they were trying to use a ruminant type bacteria that would convert indedible carbohydrate (cellulose) to edible carbohydrate (glucose). Hence grass to food (sugar) and then to fermentation to alchol. I had mentioned that even grass could be eaten if true, but upon some reconsideration I realized that things like water hemlock often grow in pastures and would make mowing and consuming somewhat of a dangerous proposition. Sometimes I think a little too much actually. That started me down poisonous plants that live in the wild, and finally to the above article. It amazes me when I think about it how human have progressed in such a short time frame from gatherers to something of our current nature. The potential for humanity is huge.
Excluding politicians and government workers they are like water hemlock just plain poisonous to prosperity and the human race.
Hi guys been reading eric for 6 mts now this is my first time commenting so… Hotrod the lie they tell us in the public institutions is that we’ve come along way, but just like everything else its misinformation. Archaeological evidence proves that the the law of thermodynamics is in full effect we are all getting a lot less intelligent than our forefathers. There is evidence of brain surgeries, prosthetic, dental implants , micro circuitry , and the list goes on and they’ve found working model airplanes in two thousand year old tombs in south America. So i guess my point is we really havent come that far but weve been led to believe we have all for the sake of the slave masters and their global diabolical plans.
Knowledge is power
The past is hidden from us. On purpose I believe. The ruling class has always had access to what survived from very very ancient times. When “kooks” discover more of it, the ruler’s intellectual class dismisses it and often destroys the evidence.
I’ve been preaching against “economic” slavery for 20 years and lost more than a few friends over the argument…appears they were brainwashed years ago and can’t see things for what they are. Maybe ignorance IS bliss, but I can’t turn my back on reality.
Jeff,
Me either. Once you’ve been down the rabbit hole….
I’ve shed several friends, including an old college friend I thought I would be friends with for life. But we grew apart as friction increased over our political (ethical-moral) differences. His tub-thumping religiosity and patriotism; “love it or leave it,” economic Babbittry – and so on.