Looking back on the American Revolution, John Adams (in 1813) wrote:
“But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations.”
Those frustrated by the seemingly relentless advance of authoritarianism – especially those who’ve given up and are ready to “go down fighting” – might consider Adams’ words.
I grant that defensive force may become necessary at some point. Some of us, as individuals, may find ourselves with our backs to the wall and no better option.
However, I also maintain that absent a change of heart and mind, violence will solve nothing, ultimately. People forced to submit and obey only submit and obey for as long as you are able to force them to do so. But convince them, through moral persuasion, that a given thing is wrong and any laws to the contrary will be rendered nullities at a stroke. They will lose all legitimacy and thereby become unenforceable.
Why is chattel slavery no longer practiced in most parts of the world? It is not because it is against the law. It is because a critical mass of people find it morally repellent.
This is the key to everything.
The wheel turns, perhaps slowly.
But it does turn.
And we must be patient, else risk losing everything.
Consider the “war” on (some) drugs, for example. Year-to-year, it’s hard to discern the shift, but if you’re old enough to remember the ’80s, you will agree that general attitudes have markedly changed and with them, the laws. How many states have decriminalized or are on the path to decriminalizing the use/possession/sale of marijuana? This would have been inconceivable circa 1985 because very few people – most especially those seeking public office (who had a prayer of being elected) would openly defend/argue in favor of decriminalization, much less legalization.
Today, a critical mass of people no longer regard the possession/sale/use of marijuana to be criminal. And, accordingly, it has become very hard for the state to justify the brutalities visited upon those who do use/possess/sell marijuana.
The wheel turns.
Not perfectly, in fits and starts. But it is moving in the right direction. Probably, most people who currently agree that pot ought to be decriminalized (if not outright legalized) are not yet ready to extrapolate the principle to other arbitrarily illegal “drugs.” But – and here is the beauty of it – consciously or not, they have accepted, implicitly at least, that merely to ingest a substance, produce a substance, sell a substance – while perhaps a vice – is not a crime.
This is huge.
Similarly, while imperfect, more and more people have at least implicitly accepted that what consenting adults do in the bedroom – and even whom they choose to spend their lives with – is their business alone. We may not agree, some of us, with their activities or arrangements, but how many would wish to see people imprisoned or otherwise have violence done them on account of such things? In the past, you’d find many who would. Today, there are fewer such. A great deal fewer such. The changing attitudes are reflected in the changing laws.
Consider the philosophical – the moral – significance of this. Of the principle that’s been – so to speak – smuggled into people’s minds. people’s minds It is a resurfacing of the old American ideal: He ain’t bothering you. Leave him alone. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized.
Because it scales.
If one accepts in principle that it’s no crime – though perhaps a vice – for adults to smoke pot or to engage in various consensual sexual acts – then it is only a matter of time before that principle begins to be applied to other things. It is the critical first step toward conscious acceptance of the non-aggression principle (NAP), the moral idea that using violence against peaceful people is always wrong. While you may disagree with your neighbor, dislike him personally, believe that he ought to do this rather than that … so long as he ain’t bothering you, leave him alone.
Once people grok this, everything will fall back into place. Demagogues (whether Team Red or Team Blue or some other team) will find increasingly less receptive audiences as people begin to recoil from aggressive violence, no matter how it is couched or justified.
It may take time for these baby steps to become galloping great leaps forward. But progress is being made. Whether they realize it or not, many people have already embraced non-aggression when it comes to a variety of things that – within recent memory – most people (a working majority, anyhow) fully agreed constituted criminal acts worthy of violent response. Having questioned the moral propriety of some of these things, they have necessarily taken the decision to question all such things.
It is no coincidence that “law enforcement” is sliding into general disrepute – even outright loathing. And the same goes for “authority” generally. People are questioning. And beginning, many of them, to see. Our task is to encourage this. And to be patient. To resist the temptation to lose hope – and lash out.
The wheel turns.
Give it time.
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Baby boomers suck! I know I’m generalizing somewhat, but that morally repugnant generation has done more to fuck up this planet than any before it.
Interesting….
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/is-it-ok-to-bring-a-loaded-rifle-into-an-airport–this-guy-did-it-173401866.html
Also note the comments, overwhelmingly pant-pissing sheep wanting to give up his rights… Sad.
Yup.
Pathetic.
50% tax hike, pension reductions or bankruptcy, financial shitstorms on the way for Chicago
Here’s more good background and opinion re: Jade Helm –
http://www.alt-market.com/articles/2588-when-the-elites-wage-war-on-america-this-is-how-they-will-do-it
Dear Phil,
Here’s some BAD opinion re: Jade Helm, from SALON.com.
https://www.google.com.tw/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=salon+jade+helm&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gfe_rd=cr&ei=0NZMVbOQMoqC9AXO74D4DQ
“Right-wing lunatics think the military is planning to invade Texas. Here’s why.”
I guess that makes me (and Brandon Smith) right-wing lunatics.
BTW, did you know Lee Greenwood, proud singer of “God Bless the USA,” is Canadian?
I guess he never studied Canadian history.
Talk about your Stockholm Syndrome.
There are 955 million Americans, Lee missed most of ’em. Soon there’ll be a transcontinental update to Lee Greenwood’s tune that sings of the pride from Baffin Island to Tierra Del Fuego.
Proud to be Latino American!!
#OneAmericaPolicy
I won’t call them ostriches. I think they have their heads stuck somewhere other than in the sand.
Questions arise:
If Jade Helm is indeed about implementing a martial law takeover would the government admit it? Of course not. So the only assurance we have that it is merely just another training mission is the trustworthiness of government officials.
How would training for domestic martial law training look any different than the professed training mission of JH? How would the training be any different for overseas contingencies versus training for domestic martial law? Logistics and languages would be different between the two but I doubt that the JH participants will be speaking in foreign tongues when they engage with the local populace. (Although Spanish might be used given the demographics and geography of the states involved.)
Why these select states and why now? They are mostly border states. Could this be a prep for a border dispute, an invasion into/from Mexico? Just speculating here.
And getting back to the trustworthiness of government (I can think of no bigger contradiction), why do so many people keep sending their kids to join the military? Conservatives will answer that the troops are not the problem but rather it is the government officials who are the problem. Well if the officials are so wicked and incompetent (and they are) then why should anyone let alone their own precious children be serving them?!
“why do so many people keep sending their kids to join the military?”
Laurence Vance keeps asking the same question – especially of ‘Conservative Christians’ – on the LRC Blog.
Laurence Vance does indeed do great work on this topic. I look forward to his exposing more war worshiping Christian churches come this memorial day.
Dear SB,
“Why these select states and why now? They are mostly border states. Could this be a prep for a border dispute, an invasion into/from Mexico? Just speculating here. ”
Not unreasonable speculation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconquista_%28Mexico%29
If one operates on the premise of “national sovereignty” rather than individual sovereignty, Mexico arguably has a right to take the Southwest back, by hook or by crook.
Could Jade Helm be a preemptive measure to nip any such Reconquista in the bud?
“Could Jade Helm be a preemptive measure” – or maybe just a warning shot across the bow.
I’m too far away now in Maryland, but if I were still in TX, I might welcome being under Mexico’s much lighter thumb in comparison to what we have now.
Fred Reed seem to think it’s ok to live in Mexico. Although I realize everything he writes needs to be taken with a box of salt.
I read the various libertarian thinkers who like various third world countries. Pretty much it amounts to the attitude of the population not obeying government and government not being able to do much about it. They still have all the do gooders and control freaks and if chosen for enforcement they can still ruin your life. I don’t get the attraction. Maybe it’s because their neighbors don’t love the government.
Furthermore corrupt government loves to target foreigners because there’s little push back on them.
Dear Brent,
“Furthermore corrupt government loves to target foreigners”
That could be a concern.
PtB, that would be a salt block.
BEVIN, “Could Jade Helm be a preemptive measure to nip any such Reconquista in the bud?”
Actually I am more inclined to think it would be a case of the US going into Mexico. TPTB have been pushing for a North American Union for some time now and have thus far had success in erasing the border towards this goal. Perhaps they are now going to settle the question as to which murderous cartel is going to rule this union, the one in Washington or one of those in Mexico?
If that is the case, they will likely use “The War on (Some) Drugs,” as Laurence Vance calls it, as their excuse.
As far as creating a North American Union by force, do they not remember 1812?
Yeah, that’s the ticket! Yeah.
Dear SB,
Could be… could be.
Sometimes it’s hard to guess what psychopaths are thinking.
skunkbear, posse comitatus, the very thing the constitution has to keep military from being used against civilians. I knew they were going to do this 20 years or more ago when they said the National Guard could legally be used in the drug war. T’aint so but that’s how they swung.
When I lived with Mexicans there were two camps. The olders ones, mainly women, were always lamenting the “government” not doing enough of this or that, not enough money for schools, not enough socialist stipend issued to them every month. The younger ones had that look in their eye that said “I’m getting fucked”. They knew a free economy was the only way they’d ever have anything and they knew the power of the gun.
One day I was among a family and a bunch of young muchachos visiting. I asked, knowing full well you can’t legally own a firearm in Mexico, how hard it would be to get some good hardware like an AR. Immediately half a dozen young men were vying for position to get me whatever I wanted. I mentioned an AR and they responded with an M-16 they could get immediately for me if I’d just hand them $300 and they’d be back in an hour. I posited I might like and HK like a lot of their security forces use. Oh yes, just whatever you want and how much ammo?
Sure seems to be lots of ordinance for a country with such restrictive gun laws. I let it be known I didn’t want any forces coming over my compound wall or breaching the gate without my being armed. One guy pops up and says I have just the thing for that and pulls out a US frag grenade. They gotta get through this before they get me and it will take a while for them to recover.
As far as I know these were just young men, not narcos or working for narcs.
Fred Reed lives in a fairyland world in Mexico. I promise he wouldn’t walk the back streets of towns like I did. And I nearly had a knife fight late one night because of some gang members following us. Fred could have used his vocabulary to stun them into submission I guess.
Those libertarians who think open borders are fine forget the disproportionate difference in open borders with all having the same rights and open borders where the alien has more rights than the natives.
I have Hispanic friends who get mad as hell because they have to compete with aliens who get everything they need paid for, can move goods from Mexico to Texas at will and pay no taxes in doing so.
I’ve gone into those damned check cashing places that shouldn’t be legal to help employees cash my checks and understand about every 3rd word that’s said.
I wouldn’t have written checks but I couldn’t take the taxation of not being able to show where my expenses were and labor was the largest expense.
This country is so screwed it’s hard to believe and I never would have believed it could be this way even 40 years ago.
The libertarian love of countries like Mexico I think comes from the fact that the government isn’t nearly as organized or efficient as in the USA but when they pick someone to steal from or murder they are every bit as good at it and getting away with it as some people have found out the hard way.
I just don’t see these countries as much of an escape from the USA. It’s a trade off and while I am not much of a target here at home moving to some third world country is a great way to become one. And it’s not like the US government is going to stop demanding tribute from me. Governments like to go after foreigners and others without local support systems. That’s why the people who run (own?) the federal government in the USA have been spending the last century weakening the family.
Open borders is one of those things that work once the whole world is libertarian. Another thing I don’t understand is why many libertarians can’t grasp that open boarders doesn’t work until after the welfare/warfare corporatist state is gone and gone world wide. Then we won’t need pasports, visas, and so forth for crossing arbitrary imaginary lines. Until then immigration remains a tool to rule over us.
Walter Wiliams is always a good read, and almost always makes a lot of sense. But today he has gone statist – obey the occifers!
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/05/walter-e-williams/are-white-cops-the-key-problem-in-black-neighborhoods/
That was bullshit. He has no way of knowing what would have happened. If his crystal ball is that good why isn’t he more powerful. He’s out of touch……completely.
Some of you guys know my story so I’m not going to repeat it again. To say the least, I was incredibly abused for defending myself against tyranny. I also served in the military in what I thought of as a time of peace and ended up being sent to war to slaughter innocent people.
These events left with me with a very deep seated anger. For a while I allowed my anger to become the focus of my life. It nearly destroyed me actually. Not that I am still not 100% completely pissed off. I am, but I realized that my anger needed to be focused in a way that actually works! Violence for the sake of violence isn’t going to solve anything. Also I am a rather violent person. I was raised that way. I grew up fighting, hell we had boxing at Christmas time on one side of the family and on the other side I fought bare knuckled with everyone from cousins to uncles. My family sat around and bet on it and so did I. I was told to “never pick a fight but always end it”. The problem is that there was always an easy way to get someone else to throw the first punch.
I think our government would love nothing more than for us to throw the first punch! This would leave them with the “moral high ground”. Are we willing to give them that? It would actually destroy everything that the Liberty Movement has been working for. As a movement we would be done, even if we succeeded in tossing the criminals out of office.
Take a look at the French Revolution. The people as a majority had a flaming anger that exploded, the good died along with the bad. But what did it lead to? Take a look at the change that came from it in regards to Anarchy? Proudhon the original Anarchist was replaced in the minds of the people with Marx! No longer was gradual change towards Volunteerism and Mutualism accepted as the way forward. Instead, it was replaced all over Europe, because of impatience, with the idea of violent revolution and those revolutions installed tyrannies in place of liberty! Proudhon’s place in history became a side-note and his own term “anarchy” become synonymous with Chaos!
As much as a I HATE our government I do not want to see history repeat itself. I want them defeated badly enough to put my anger/desire for revenge aside for the greater good and for me that is not an easy thing to do.
The revolution must be won in the minds not on the battlefield.
Just in case anyone is interested in reading the original Anarchist’s works here they are. http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/proudhon/ProudhonCW.html
– Today’s Atta Girl Goes To Lonnie Colbert!!!
Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade, is marching in women’s high heels to raise awareness. To ensure our Soldiers are educated on the subject. To better take care of our families and always be ready to deploy and take care of each other.
We want our spouses to thrive while they are back home waiting for their Soldiers. At the event, Capt. Lonnie Colbert, company commander for Delta Company, was recognized with a size 14 red high heel mounted on a plaque for being the most motivational leader.
– Today’s Atta Girl Goes To Lonnie Colbert!!!
Americans 35 years and younger are tied for dead last when their skills are compared with other advanced nations. It won’t be long before all the government’s promises are broken.
Especially for the millions on welfare, expecting health care and pensions. And especially the pensions and health care of retired soldiers. The US always breaks its word when the time comes. It will happen to all heroes and clovers and all their children, just wait. Machiavelli explains things in “The Prince.”
There are two ways of fighting: by law or by force. Laws come naturally to men, force comes naturally to beasts. In order to succeed, the prince must learn how to fight both with laws and with force—he must become half man and half beast.
When a prince uses force, he acts like a beast. He must learn to act like two types of beasts: lions and foxes. A fox is defenseless against wolves; a lion is defenseless against traps. A prince must learn to act like both the fox and the lion: he must learn, like the fox, how to frighten off wolves and, like the lion, how to recognize the traps. In dealing with people, a prince must break his promises when they put him at a disadvantage and when the reasons for which he made the promises no longer exist.
In any case, promises are never something on which a prince can rely, since men are by nature wretched and deceitful. A prince should be a master of deception.
However, a prince must be careful to exude a virtuous aura that belies his deceitful mind. A prince should present the appearance of being a compassionate, trustworthy, kind, guileless, and pious ruler. Of course, actually possessing all these virtues is neither possible nor desirable.
But so long as a prince appears to act virtuously, most men will believe in his virtue. If the populace believes the prince to be virtuous, it will be easier for him to maintain his state. Moreover, men will judge their prince solely on appearance and results.
Thus, it doesn’t matter to the people that a prince may occasionally employ evil to achieve his goal. So long as a prince appears virtuous and is successful in running the state, he will be regarded as virtuous.
A prince must also avoid robbing his subjects of their honor. A prince will be despised if he has a reputation for being fickle, frivolous, effeminate, cowardly, or irresolute. If a prince is regarded highly by his subjects, he will be shielded from conspiracies and open attacks.
A prince should worry about two things: internal insurrection from his subjects and external threats from foreign powers. Defending against foreign enemies requires a strong army and good allies. A strong army always leads to good allies.
A prince can defend against internal insurrection by making sure he is not hated or scorned by the people. This is a powerful defense against conspiracies. A conspirator will have the courage to proceed with his conspiracy only if he believes the people will be satisfied when he kills the ruler.
But if the people would be outraged by the ruler’s death, the conspirators will never have the gall to carry out the conspiracy. By default, conspiracies are at a disadvantage. They require the support of many people, each of whom faces severe punishment if the conspiracy is discovered. Furthermore, each of these people can profit richly by informing the prince about the conspiracy. A prince has on his side the entire government, his allies and the laws of the state. If he secures the goodwill of the people, he seems invulnerable in the eyes of conspirators.
To a certain extent it is ALL about appearance, results don’t matter. But if the results get too bad, then appearances no longer matter, and all bets are off.
Who said anything about going down fighting? I plan to live thank you very much, and the authoritarians can go down fighting.
lowell, for some reason this made me think of a Davy Crockett quote “You can all go to hell. I’m going to Texas”.
The Free Republic of Liberland is a self-proclaimed micronation, situated on an unclaimed parcel of land at the western bank of the Danube river between Croatia and Serbia, It was proclaimed on 13 April 2015 by Vít Jedlička.
Man forms tiny European nation, 160,000 sign up to become citizens. It’s 7 square kilometers, or 1,729 acres in size.
Motto: To live and let live. The goal of the state is to create a society where righteous people can prosper without inefficient state regulations and taxes. The founders are inspired by countries like Monaco and Liechtenstein. According to the official website, all requests for citizenship are accepted, excluding only communists, neonazis, and other extremists.
Liberland – how a state is formed.
The world’s newest country was just declared on disputed territory.
Liberland is a new micronation
http://boingboing.net/2015/04/21/liberland-is-a-new-micronation.html
Dear Eric,
One of the biggest mistakes the “We must begin shooting now!” crowd makes is to falsely equate impatience with “courage”, and conversely patience with “cowardice”.
The problem with rushing ahead without first laying the ideological foundation, is that even if you “succeed” under those terms, you will simply replace Statist Tyranny A with Statist Tyranny B!
Larken Rose explains it pretty well toward the end of this short 4 minute clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYbpICtfFwo
Here is the transcript:
Larken Rose demolishes the Myth of Authority in four short minutes.
Excerpted from “Larken Rose vs. Tom Willcutts (Anarchy vs. Authority)”
“The problem does not exist in Washington DC, and the solution is not doing something to that thing over there. And a lot of people assume that anarchists want to go take the government and make it not be there. And that’s not what I want.
I want people to stop hallucinating that the gang of crooks in DC has any right to do anything. Because if you look at the Mafia, nobody imagines that they have the right to rule. And that usually restricts the amount of violence they can do.
Now mostly the Mafia makes its money off of government created black markets — prostitution, gambling, drugs, alcohol when that was illegal. Because you can’t run a gigantic extortion racket if your victims don’t believe you have the right to do it, and they have guns.
Now in the case of government, the problem is not that there’s this big nasty gang. It’s that the vast majority of the victims of this big nasty gang imagine an obligation to obey it because they imagine it to be authority.
Nobody imagines the Mafia to be authority. They’re big, they’re scary, they have the ability to hurt people, the ability to scare people and take your stuff. But nobody thinks it’s righteous and legitimate. Nobody calls them government.
The problem with government is that it’s not an organizational tool. It is by definition an entity that is imagined to have the right to do things that mortals don’t have the right to do. Such as steal, and they call it taxation. Such as initiating violence, and they call it law enforcement. Such as committing murder, and they call it national defense.
The problem is not that there’s this gang over there, and we need to fix that. The problem is that people are imagining the gang to have the right to do things that human beings don’t have the right to do, such as initiate violence. And I would use the example when people say: if there wasn’t a government some other big gang would just spring up and beat us up.
Imagine, put yourself in a position where okay, you’re the bad guy, and I’m going to give you about 100,000 people, only 2,000 of them are armed. It’s your job to rob a hundred million people of a huge chunk of what they earned every year. You only have 2,000 armed agents and then a bunch of paper pushers. How would you rob a hundred million people?
There is only one way you can do it. Call yourself government and dupe your victims into imagining that them handing over their money is “paying their fair share for the good of society” and calling your gang the IRS.
But if the victims of the IRS stopped imagining law and authority and government to be real, and just recognized them as a gang of thugs, they could ignore the IRS out of business overnight. Because the victims outnumber the perpetrators a gazillion to one. It is only the belief in the legitimacy of the ruling class, the belief that we are obligated to obey it because it’s authority — “It has the right to rule, we have the obligation to obey.”
That belief is a lie. And that belief is the entire problem. And when that belief is gone, and sooner or later it will be, when that belief is gone, you don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to abolish it. You don’t have to vote it out. You don’t have to have a revolution. The people simply ignore it. And we could because we outnumber it and we outgun it by a huge margin. But most of the victims imagine an obligation to obey the gang of crooks in DC.
When that changes, the world changes. Until then revolutions don’t do any good. You knock it over, we’ll put up another one. Just as long as people still believe that government can be legitimate, they’ll bicker over who should sit on the throne and what kind of throne it should be. You know, a parliament, or a congress, or a king, or whatever. But as long as they believe in authority, they will set up a new God and it will stomp on them and oppress them to varying degrees, and it will happen over and over again.
When people give up the belief that one man can ever have the right to rule another, it ends, and it ends forever.”
BEVIN, thanks for the Larken Rose link. Spot on.
“It has the right to rule, we have the obligation to obey.”
This is indeed the greatest “bubble” in the history of humanity, the biggest lie ever told.
When this bubble eventually bursts – and it will – humanity will go in one of two directions. Either one of a return to the law of the jungle where might alone makes right or humanity will advance forward unlike ever before but this can only happen through the widespread adoption of the NAP.
I hope some day humanity will look back and view the idea of governments with the same appalling way it now does as the throwing of virgins into volcanoes or slavery or the earth is flat etc.
The revolution must be fought, as much as possible, on our terms and that is through the mind.
Dear SB,
Sure thing!
Sad to say, many people whose hearts may be in the right place, still haven’t completely caught on. They still don’t fully understand why tyrants are able to rule people.
They still think the struggle is external and physical. They think it’s all about whether one “has guts” and is willing to rush to take part in a “Gunfight at the OK Corral”.
They don’t realize that lining up the Ceaușescus against the wall and shooting them is merely the easy part of the process, dare I say, the “fun” part. That is merely the part where you get to put the icing on the cake. They forget you have to bake the cake first before that can happen.
The real struggle, the real day to day effort, is internal and mental. It is gruelling and thankless. Explaining to people why they are not obligated to obey “officials” and pay “taxes”, only to have them laugh in your face.
That is what Etienne de LaBoetie talked about centuries ago.
La Boétie’s writings include… Discours de la servitude volontaire ou le Contr’un (Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, or the Anti-Dictator).
The essay asserts that tyrants have power because the people give it to them… La Boétie linked together obedience and domination… By advocating a solution of simply refusing to support the tyrant, he became one of the earliest advocates of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. Lew Rockwell summarizes La Boétie’s political philosophy as follows:
To him, the great mystery of politics was obedience to rulers. Why in the world do people agree to be looted and otherwise oppressed by government overlords? It is not just fear, Boetie explains in “The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude,” for our consent is required. And that consent can be non-violently withdrawn.
Note the key! It is not just fear… for our consent is required.
Withdraw the consent, and guess what?
Game over!
BEVIN, LaBoetie is good stuff indeed. I got introduced to him via my readings of Bastiat years ago (a French connection of sorts) but I had forgotten his brilliance too. Thanks for the reminder.
Submitted for consideration: Which is worse, the people who follow the “authoritah’s” orders to dig their own graves and then stand in them so they can be shot or the people who follow the “authoritah’s” orders to do the shooting?
Good question.
I’ve started watching a TV series called “Vikings”.
It’s interesting watching people obey “authoritay” in form of some feudal lord. A Norse “Earl” in this case.
If one has seen through the myth of authority, the dynamics of mass obedience are morbidly fascinating.
I appreciate the optimistic developments noted here, but I don’t think that they represent any broad-range shifts in the thinking of the populace. They reflect greater awareness on certain, specific issues (for most people. There are some who are getting a clue more generally).
Just look at the large number of people (and the voices in the media) who are publicly calling for widespread forced injections (mandatory vaccination) following the hysteria surrounding a few cases of the measles. The Booboisee is alive and well and has no reservations about unleashing aggression against groups they have been indoctrinated into fearing and hating .
Very true sentiments and well said Mr.Peters.
When it comes to leaving people alone and minding their own business, folks should consider that government is now trying to convince people to spy and report their friends and neighbors. When people wake up to the Non Aggression Principle and realize that short of an in progress Murder, Rape or Robbery they have no duty to do anything nor should they be reporting people just because others do non violent harmless behavior they personally do not like. Do not become a snitch for the violence cartel we call government. Instead grab your camera and film the violent crime especially if it is cops doing the violence then put it on Youtube or other media. They can not stand in the light of Facts and truth, our non violent 3rd party observation and reporting to the world can change the perception of thinking people to our view better than violence. “It’s difficult for someone to see a problem when his income derives from not seeing them” . Just remember not to be an enabler to government, shun them perhaps in time they will go away.
“violence cartel ”
Good one!
“violence cartel”. I should probably ask permission…..but I’m going to abscond with that one. Excellent Robert….mighty fine.
Yes, people are freer to smoke pot, but if they let their kids walk home alone from school they face jail time.
Eric the wheels turn so slowly we will be long dead before any tiny advancements are made
Even in corrupt Illinois if a transponder isn’t read they just charge the toll after looking up the plate, but in VA the crony capitalist arrangement charges thousands of dollars for what is just part of the business of automated tolling. (transponder not being read due to one glitch or another)
http://thenewspaper.com/news/46/4681.asp
Not to mention that there are increasing numbers of toll roads being built that demand transponder payment, there are no other provisions made.
This support call out is for Oath Keeper members only. Joseph Rice of the Josephine County Oath Keepers chapter was asked by miners to provide security as they faced threats from the BLM.
He has done an excellent job of organizing security for the miners and their property, as you will see by reading below. This is not a “standoff” with the BLM or any other agency or department. This is a security operation in defense of property rights and unalienable individual rights. It may grow into more, but at present I repeat — This is NOT a standoff.
Boots on the ground are urgently needed now.
This is a request for assistance for the Josephine County Oath Keepers who are on site at the Sugar Pine Mine located in Josephine Co. Oregon. They are looking for cool, calm, experienced, and qualified Oath Keepers for positions. Quiet PROFESSIONALS.
They will vet everyone who applies and only those qualified, vetted persons will be allowed on site. To volunteer one must contact Joseph Rice. Please do not go to the mine — you will be turned away. All incoming volunteers must report to the staging area after first having given Joseph Rice notice of your impending arrival.
Josephine County Oath Keepers is requesting that you provide assistance, volunteers and supplies. You can go to their web site at this link:
Josephine County Oregon Oath Keepers
–
When: Thurs, April 23, 12:00 Noon
Where: BLM Office, 3040 Biddle Road Medford, OR
The miners will arrive to serve papers to the BLM in their ongoing attempt to find a legal resolution to the matter.
——————————
–
Mine spokesman Kerby Jackson said the miners were now calling for a “peaceful protest” at local Oregon Bureau of Land Management offices around Oregon on Thursday. Jackson said the owners were meeting with their attorney on Monday.“We are calling on all miners, loggers, farmers/ranchers and freedom lovers everywhere who are tired of government abuse to tell the BLM … that they are sick to death of the way that they have been conducting themselves,” the Sugar Pine Mine website said.
The War on the American People
Modern Militia Movements Forum
I wish, I wish, I wish the majority would begin to see that the whole racketeering, extortion racket that we call government is literally nothing more than a bunch of privately owned corporations whose business model is to steal from them by demanding licences, fees, permits, taxes etc. I wish we could understand that none of these things are necessary to a functioning society. Sadly, the brainwashing is complete and people will defend these intrusions (crimes) as being indespensable tools to assure their “safety.” It’s sick and it’s sad. I see very little progress being made on this front.
Nope. That is the whole point of Eric’s piece, that it is not hopeless. The wheel does turn. Despite all the efforts of the Ministry of Propaganda, the brainwashing is far from complete and deteriorates every day.
Yes the white people have been emasculated to the point of not even wanting to survive. A living beings strongest drive is self preservation. the media has brainwashed (with an enema) it out of the people. Go to a barbecue and tell the people that immigration and other policies are white genocide and you will be thrown out by the white people there
When someone talks about a revolution I’m always reminded of Bluto’s speech at the end of the second act:
https://youtu.be/q7vtWB4owdE
Things are building to a climax. Yes, people are opening their eyes to what the U.S. has devolved to and those that control The State see it too. This is why, despite the growing re-legalization movement of marihuana you see increasingly draconian actions on the part of GovCo. In the case of pot they, the real Drug Cartel of Big Pharma and Govt., see the handwriting on the wall and will fight to the death to keep their industries of “legal drugs” and Criminal Justice System that reaps them HUNDREDS of billions of dollars a year, alive. They will use the guns of government to maintain it.
However.
The truth is, authoritarian police states cannot long survive. They inevitably implode under their own contradictions. See the Soviet Union. The same will be true here. I can only hope and pray that our next revolution will be as peaceful as theirs.
“Probably, most people who currently agree that pot ought to be decriminalized (if not outright legalized)”
No law can make anything “Legal”. I am so sick and tired of hearing that something has been “legalized” by the Fascists Government that I could scream ! Everything is legal until some narcissistic SOB panders to some pee-brain voter or economic interest to squash our god given freedoms.
One of the things, never spoken of today (Non-PC), is the Yankee idea that Evil resides in an object. Best example: Guns are bad. Weed is a close second. It then naturally follows that “We must pass a law”. This is from the very same groups that spurn religion, but then ensconces its sectarian values into law. They do not see the parallels to Mosaic Law, their values, and “We must pass a law”. All the same !
As your article so well states, If you are not hurting somebody else, leave me alone.
Laws cannot make things legal. Period, Damn it !
Hi Jack,
I hear you, but legal (or not) is used accurately here. Whether a given thing is morally right – or wrong – is one thing. It does not necessarily entail a codified statute. This is what I assume you’re referring to.
But “legal” pertains to laws – and laws (as such) do not necessarily comport with moral right/wrong.
But they are laws nonetheless.
I think he’s talking about the difference between making something Legal and making it Not Illegal. The first implies the addition of a new law permitting a behavior that was allowed prior to the passage of the law that didn’t allow it. Given the stupendous size of the current legal code, I’d be more in favor of removing obsolete laws by repealing those that aren’t needed any more than adding a new one.
Right chiph – let’s just chuck all the ‘laws’ and start over – or not!
I think all federal laws should expire every 6 years (corresponding to the term of one senator). If it’s important, they can pass it again. If not, it’s gone.
If your response is that you’d hate for them to waste time passing laws that really should be in effect, then–well–we don’t have much in common!
Also, not that the Constitution is valid, but in order to bring things in line with what “they” claim is the highest law of the land, all executive orders and Federal Register filings should be of NO effect unless validated by Congress.
While I agree that there does seem to be a noticeable growth of those embracing the one and only true moral philosophy, the NAP, is gaining some ground I am also cautious about it because I think there are many who profess adherence to NAP but they do so only between individuals. I think some, if not many, do not agree that government wealth redistribution should be abolished altogether. The racket is too large and engrained in the very fabric of the US amerikan police state.
They want people to be left alone to do pot and be gay (FTR I support both) but they also want their gubment handout too.
It is a question of numbers. And this is what concerns me. There are way more big gubment lunkheads than there are freedom lovers. This has always been the case.
So while there is evidence of a small hope rising I will still keep my powder dry.
I was looking for a place to insert this comment. I think in response to yours is appropriate based upon your observation, “There are way more big gubment lunkheads than there are freedom lovers.” In the article above, Eric claims the gradual acceptance of marijuana use in the general public indicates a corresponding acceptance of the NAP. I wish it were so. But I think back to the days of alcohol prohibition. When it became overwhelmingly obvious this particular attack on personal freedom destroyed social cohesion the laws creating prohibition were rescinded. One would have thought there would have also been a concomitant public appreciation of the NAP. There was not. Within a relatively short period of time the forces of alcohol prohibition coalesced around drug prohibition. Where was the public outcry protesting that alcohol prohibition was a failure and so too would be other drug prohibition for the same socially destructive reasons? There was none. The masses, even today, really don’t care. There is a little more coverage of the drug law issue if only because the internet makes more information available. Give ’em bread and circuses. That’s all they want.
I am John Adams of the Founding Borg.
Article I. Resistance to the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution I have authored and mandated is futile. You will be assimilated.
Article II. It is the duty of all men in society, publicly and at stated seasons, to worship the Supreme Borg Being, the great Cube Creator and Preserver of the Universal Collective. No assimilated subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping the Supreme Borg God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience, or for his religious profession or sentiments.
Article III. As the happiness of a people and the good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend upon assimilated piety, religion, and morality, and as these cannot be generally diffused through a community but by the institution of the public worship of the God of Borg Perfection and of the public instructions in piety, religion, and morality:
Therefore, To promote their happiness and to secure the good order and preservation of their government, the people of this commonwealth have a right to invest their legislature with power to authorize and require, and the legislature shall, from time to time, authorize and require, the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies-politic or religious societies to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of Borg Protocol and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily
And every denomination of Assimilated Christians, demeaning themselves peaceably and as good subjects of the commonwealth, shall be equally under the protection of the Borg Law; and no subordination of any sect or denomination to another shall ever be established by law.
– For we are the Founding Borg. Anything you write or do after this is irrelevant. It matters only that you have been assimilated. And that you will ever continue to be assimilated. For we are the Holy Borg, and we seek the Glory and the Perfection of the One True Religion of Borg Assimilation. We Borg-eoisie are your vanguard of eternal perfection and beacons of total enlightenment and divine purpose. Your lives as you have formerly known them are over.
Eric’s sentiments on this thread remind me of the “Freemen” up in Montana about 20 years ago. They shouldn’t have been singled out and attacked, but they were. Fast forward to last year in Nevada. Like them or not, the Bundy Ranch shouldn’t have been attacked, but they were. Except, many people showed up to support them. Things that happened 20 years ago, don’t get by now–with zero resistance–because of the internet and, as bad as I loathe it, social media. I have talked and associated with more like minded people in the past couple years than I did in the previous 10. We are growing–still outnumbered as hell–but growing.
Almost no one knew who Ron Paul was 20 years ago. Now, almost no one doesn’t. He talked about the FED, free markets, Austrian economics, libertarianism, and non-intervention on national TV. In a republican presidential election of all places. I’ll concede that there is more bad happening now than there was 20-30 years ago. On the flip side, there is more good happening too.
The article also brought “Isaiah’s job”, a short paper by Albert Nock to mind. For those who haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. It isn’t religious like it sounds–for all my agnostic/atheist friends.
Thanks for pointing out instances of patriots resisting tyranny.
But, here’s the rub. Did what happened to the Freemen change anything? Would things change more of some guy at Bundy ranch would have attacked a BLM pig? No. It would have been worse. The masses would have justified violent actions and murder because the protesters are “crazy”.
It was because people said we are peacefully going to stand our ground. We have cameras recording, in case you guys want to escalate a situation for no reason. The non-violent resistance sent a message that many are sick and tired of what has been going on the past couple of decades. we don’t want more Ruby Ridges, Waco’s and Freemen instances. We are here to stop it.
That’s how things change. At some point, you may have to fight. But there is no point in being a lone man fighter. It will change nothing and may even have serve as justification for the state to mass murder–again.
If you want to see the wheel turning in a positive manner look to the growth,over the last several years,of the non-compliant “underground” economy. The number of people “going Galt” is astounding.
Great point Jerry.
RAMROD participates in the “non-compliant underground economy”. Are you a participant; or, merely a libertarian scholar who studies it? Please provide your favorite example for your claim of “astounding growth over the last several years”. Obviously, I don’t expect you to further support your claim with reference to any records. None-the-less, you have brought up a fine example of patriots who refuse to submit.
While I endorse not just decriminalization but, LEGALIZATION of marijuana, that will not effect the political/philosophical sea change we’d like to see.
While I support legalization of homosexuality, I’m concerned by the mass media force fed celebration of All Things Homosexual. It very soon will lead to a new twisted form of affirmative action. And that is never conducive to liberty.
So I do not see the groundwork for a fundamental change that you do.
When the masses stop being hypnotized by the NFL and DWTS, and begin to seek out the truth about 9/11, Sandy Hook, the Boston Marathon bombing, the Seal Team Six “capture” of OBL….and other false flags and mass deceptions, THAT is when I will begin to once again have hope for America.
Don’t see ANY sign of that yet. And not holding my breath.
I agree with your comment.
Furthermore, The solution to the Holocaust was not to legalize Jews. The solution was capture, trials, executions.
The war on drugs- and other vices- is a persecution. Obviously it is not a replica of the Holocaust; the principle is the same; millions of lives have been destroyed beyond recovery.
Hi Mike,
I’m often inclined toward complete pessimism, but then I remind myself of some of the things I mention in the piece. Ancap has brought up some others. The Titanic doesn’t stop (much less turn) on a dime. But there is some positive directional shift occurring. The big question in my mind is whether it will be possible for the non-Clovers, those who are waking up, to ever find a way to live in peace with the Clovers. Some form of separation will probably be necessary. The form that will take remains to be seen, of course.
Yes, but the Titanic did stop on an iceberg!
I think what we’re seeing is the beginnings of a massive movement that no one knows about. 10 years ago, when I mentioned anything other than gun rights to friends and coworkers it usually fell on deaf ears. These days most people have at least been exposed to libertarian thinking, and many more than before agree. Just because those in power only see the tip, doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of ice under the surface.
I certainly agree that it has to be a transformation of the hearts and minds. The problem today is that vast numbers of people receiving government subsidies have been morally compromised, perhaps hopelessly so.
Yes, time marches on & positive change is always possible.
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
___________________
“Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of
a new bureaucracy.”
“There is hope, but not for us.”
(Franz Kafka)
The saying “too little, too late” comes to mind here, but I do appreciate Eric’s sentiment. By and large, people ARE starting to blink their eyes open to the grim realities of our world, but at a pace not nearly quick enough to push back against the invaders. I fear that the monsters in control of the machine have anticipated this slow awakening and have adjusted accordingly. Although, I admit that this gloomy way of thinking accomplishes nothing – if we believe in our hearts that it’s too late to save ourselves, we’re probably sunk.
Even the most statist Jews eventually realized the truth, often when they fires of the crematorium were in their faces. Seriously, how long do you have to deny something before it can’t be denied? You know plenty other people who’ve been victims but somehow think you’ll be exempt? Sorry, but cue Forrest again.
Eric, do you live in the same country as I do? “Progress is being made”, I see living in the U.S.A. as getting worse: more murders by police, foreign wars that will never end, war on (some) drugs that will never end but change focus, swat teams that are used more than ever before.
Perhaps, you would like to reconsider your premise.
Hi Ramrod,
It’s worse in terms of what’s happening, certainly. But it’s better in that more and more people are aware of what’s going on and are concerned about it.
For example: Ten years ago, I did not get much in the way of agreement from my middle class work associates, neighbors and so on when I would criticize run-amok cops (and cops, generally). Now those same people all nod their heads in agreement.
You have a point there, Eric. We are living in the U.S.A. which is similar to Nazi Germany: more and more Germans became aware of what was going on and became concerned about it when Nazi hired guns rounded them up and put them in cattle cars going to death camps.
Thanks for the optimism. Now, I can relax and forget about resistance.
“Thanks for the optimism. Now, I can relax and forget about resistance.”–Ramrod
Ah, the snarky straw man comeback. Well put though, for the self righteous “I’m more libertarian/anarchist/liberty minded than you” asshole that Ramrod is. Not to mention your Bob Dole fetish of referencing your self in 3rd person.
Dear ancap,
LOL!
What makes it even more pathetic, is that RR is clearly not “more libertarian/anarchist/liberty minded than you”.
RR clearly still has warfare statist cobwebs inside his head.
Hi Ancap,
Bob Dooooole … ah, memories!
I don’t think it is necessarily getting worse.
For example, police brutality. Is that increasing, or was it always there? Before the internet we were only aware of it if the local paper bothered to report it or if we personally knew the victim. Now we know it if it happens all the way across the country, and we also have access to every past incident, on camera via youtube. No wonder we have the perception it is getting worse! But it may be “sampling error”.
War on guns? It’s dying; Obama was the best gun salesman ever. War on drugs? It’s dying too. Schooling? Home schooling is growing fast. Non-standard sexual preferences? Who would prefer going back into the closet? Free speech? Is writing a letter to the editor of the local paper better than posting your article on the Internet (with a potential readership a thousand times as large)?
gun rights getting better?? ahhah when you could walk into a hardware store and buy a Thompson machine gun or order it or any other gun from a sears catalog then gun rights will be getting better
There is a long way to go before I’d consider gun grabbers a non-threat. I say it will never happen. My first pistol, when I was 14, mail-order. My first shotgun, walked in as a kid and plunked down my money. Funny you mention Thompsons. When I bought my shotgun I could have bought a Thompson for $75. And then you could order one surplus but like new that had been “de-commissioned” for nearly nothing. I knew a guy who bought one. It had a ball stuffed into he barrel that was easily tapped out, voila, a fully functioning full auto Thompson. He bought it for no other reason than to get some yah yah’s ultra cheap since the surplus ammo was going for nearly nothing too.
Dear Eric,
Yes, For example, people are posting stuff like this, which shows they are catching on.
https://www.facebook.com/pandaunite/photos/a.486974971319177.98235464.214899805193363/1088001834549818/?type=1&theater
Why consent to live in a country against your will. They have the power over you. True. But they only have authority if you grant it to them. Their cunt tree is no ’tis of me.
I live in the USA only so much as they force me. I give them no consent. I grant them no authority. I hope the whole rotten thing collapses tomorrow.
I’m based out of Zustand Stadt Berlin today myself.
Where truly does Eric reside?
He should avoid the Bix Nood Vermeiden areas of Roanoke downtown, Rocky Mount, and Martinsville near Eric’s Bauernhof. Too many roamin gnomes causing too many coercive wealth transfers. Starve those monkey cagers.
If he uses WalMarkt @ 2400 N Franklin St Christiansburg, VA 24073 and gives no quarter to Bix Nood enemy territory listed above, he can fight a Kultur battle thru the market. You don’t have to enter the U.S.A. killing fields of White Privilege at all. A lifetime of trade soon triumphs over a few bold gestures in the longterm.
The first Klan that disbanded in 1870 was the most effective force that ever fought the District of Criminals of Mordor. Don’t give any business to the Section 8 areas. Never patronize any government loving businesses. Shun the white devil coercive traitors in your midst. Don’t even acknowledge their existence. You can make a big difference with your wallet and your untamed spirit.
Maybe you are being a little too pessimistic Ramrod. While there might be slightly more murders by police today, that isn’t the point. The thing that matters most is that ever increasing numbers of mundane Americans are starting to see the police as the rotten thugs they have always been.
“Mundane Americans” continue to support the “rotten thugs” with jury verdicts. I don’t see that anything that is important has changed life in the police state.
Call Nevada Speaker of the House John Hambrick and leave a message.
The nation has been watching, waiting, praying, and holding their breath in anticipation to see if AB408 a bill if passed would restore the land of Nevada back to it’s rightful owners. The politicians have changed the Bund Bill, AB408, from it’s original attempt it’s time to demand they change it back!
Friends,
Our efforts on Nevada AB-408 have been perverted during the political process. It no longer contains the original intent of the Bill you supported.
Hambrick needs to know that you do not support the bill as it stands and he needs to allow the bill to be amended on the ‘Floor of the Assembly’.
You do NOT need to be a Nevada resident to do this. They need to know the world is watching. Please call him now, and email as well.
[email protected]
775-684-8827
– – – –
The Next Bundy Ranch: Militia Men And Oath Keepers Swarm To Southeast Oregon’s Sugar Pine Gold Mine.
Oregon BLM Standoff ‘Green Light’ Call To Action!
Rick Barclay Sugar Pine Mine Owner
“The BLM is trying to bully me, force me off of my land. I refuse to budge. I am not leaving. They are not taking me out of here. This is a constitutional republic. We’re a nation of laws.
Sugar Pine Mine Call to Action
Sugar Pine Mine Oregon
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/sugar-pine-mine-oregon-blm
When do cops go on trial for murder? The most they get is “paid administrative leave” -a vacation for a few weeks, while they are investigated by that same police force that hired them. Unless the DA gets involved, which isn’t going to happen, there’s not much more than a civil case. And even if the victims’ family gets something from a civil case, it does’t come out of the cop’s pension, it comes from the taxpayers.
Eric_G – right, even if (miracle of miracles) a phero is found to have used excessive force, e.g., the worst they get is loss of employment (and related pension). Most can easily be hired by a different department and remain ‘LEO’s.
We need to demand an end to qualified immunity and a return to personal responsibility and accountability. If they are afraid of judgments against them, let THEM purchase insurance.
Immunity for persecuters [sic] also need to be eliminated.
The sheriff in my county of Idaho is currently waiting for his trial to begin on May 6th. He isn’t charged with murder or anything like that. He is charged with 3 felony counts of misuse of public funds for signing up for a cellphone under a department employees name, then having his wife use it. He was also charged with another felony count which was dropped. He charged his lifetime NRA membership to the county credit card. He got off–not because he didn’t do it–but because it was 2007. The statute of limitations got him off. He faces up to 33 years if convicted. There is new evidence of witness tampering and intimidation that may come into play also.
This isn’t a libertarian thing or a win for anarchy. But it is a push in the right direction. I support anything that may start to hold people accountable for their actions. Think of how much better behavior the next sheriffs office will be on if the guy they replaced is sitting in the slammer for 10-15 which is likely, if they go easy on him. He could get more. Many of the people don’t even realize the magnitude of just getting him charged with the felonies.
The best place–really the only place to effect a sea change in policy and thought is right where you live. Understanding that it is hard to have any effect if you live in a place like Chicago and other big cities. If there were ever a reason to move out of the city now, it’s when SHTF.
Secession is still somewhat heretical, but I have had many people listen to me without laughing it off totally–at least in my face. That’s progress and it takes time. The police–as a group–are helping plant seeds of anarchy. Their actions, like those of the British soldiers in the 1700’s are beginning to bear fruit. That fruit isn’t in their favor.
When political office holders, government employees and so forth are charged with something it is usually because someone with more power or career aspirations is able to execute that as a self serving move in the internal game they play. When it is not that it is because they need to make an example of someone because their way of life would be threatened if they didn’t. There’s usually nothing liberty oriented about it. Not that this doesn’t have beneficial side effects, it does, but the motivation isn’t usually rooted in liberty.
It’s not rooted in liberty. But it isn’t career aspirations either. The side effects of it are the only thing I’m excited about.
It is actually grass roots that got the attorney generals office to put together grand jury investigation into the matter. The grass roots aren’t really liberty minded……but I still support the effect it will have on the next sheriff.
If we must have a sheriff, it may as well be one who is worried about scrutiny on his every move. The sheriff’s a round here are used to getting away with whatever they want.
Improvements have to start somewhere. The next sheriff will probably be a statist idiot, but less so than the previous one. That’s positive and a step in the right direction.
Time to get the eyes checked – or the brain. I first read that as “That fruit isn’t in their flavor.”
A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.
We need to do away with both Team Red and Team Blue, along with any other colors, and NOT replace them.
“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.”
Emma Goldman
and THAT, is wisdom. well said.
i still want to GTFO, but thanks for the optimism today.