Occasionally I
feel the need to try my hand at writing. Occasionally.
This is probably just as well, since I’m more of a doodler than a
writer. No doubt, many might agree after reading this. In my defense,
only by writing will I ever improve. But occasionally, events transpire,
or many events pass, that move me to try to put my thoughts to words
in some coherent fashion to share with others. My other concerns
are: that there is little I can say that someone else hasn’t already
said better, and that I’m no authority on anything really, except
possibly, myself and my life. Of course, we’re all experts in our
own lives and circumstances. The exception is politicians, who are
not only experts on their own lives, but due to advanced genetic wisdom
and almost superhuman virtue, are experts in each of our lives as
well.
That last comment is obviously untrue. Politicians are looking out for themselves, just as you are – with the exception that they steal and murder for a living, whereas you probably do not. But for all intents and purposes, politicians might as well be supermen today. I say that because mere mortals, such as most people, don’t stand much of a chance in hell of putting an end to politicians’ superhuman evils today.
I readily admit to being something of a fatalist or entropist, at the very least a pessimist, in matters concerning the empire and it’s minions. I’m unaware of any example in all of recorded history, of a people turning back from the verge of empire or police state, toward liberty and civilization. So historically speaking, there is every reason to think that civilization will have to endure the rise of the American imperial police state and the death, destruction and misery it will cause as we meekly thunder into a New Dark Ages, and history repeats itself yet again.
However, there must yet be the smallest particle of idealism still within me. That tiny particle causes me, ever more rarely, to wonder all manner of things. Such as…
When so many other people can, why can’t teachers see the amazingly open market for new, innovative and creative education alternative opportunities? The entire evolution/creation, constitution/empire debates beg for education choices that parents can choose from – and that’s just in history. Teachers could command much better pay, providing they satisfy their customers – parents and students. Beyond general education, specialized education would expand choices and options for parents even more. But sadly, such possibilities are not to be seen or realized. They conflict with imperial indoctrination. And since we as a society, condone institutional theft, parents are unable to afford to educate their children and pay for empire-mandated indoctrination at the same time. That may be all right if we only want children to become obedient tax slaves who rarely or never realize their dreams.
Don’t accountants and imperial theft agents see any potential for increases in business if people were NOT robbed of more than half of everything they earn? I know if I wasn’t robbed of some $10,000 every year, there are some investments and home improvements I might like to make. Multiply me by some 200 million people, and you’d think the opportunities would become blatantly obvious. A rough calculation shows that in the 20-some years I’ve been working, the empire has stolen some $300,000 from me (just in income theft). If you figure in my parents and family, then the empire has stolen an easy $1 million from us (as my parents struggle to retire). Not only is that a sizeable figure, but also it represents countless hours of living and working, time that cannot be replaced – confiscated by the empire.
Will doctors ever become sick (haha) of being bureaucrats and choose to treat patients again? That one is admittedly weak and I lack the space here to go into my experience with the state of health care today. However, since all doctors are part of the AMA, and since the AMA supports the empire, and since the empire routinely steals and murders, it follows that the AMA supports theft and murder. Ergo, any doctor who is a member of the AMA is doing harm and in violation of the oath they swear to the contrary (which is why I’ll as soon die of appendicitis before voluntarily seeing an AMA doctor). But breaking oaths is part of what being an imperial bureaucrat is all about, and doctors are no different than their political cousins. Each and every imperial senator and congressvermin premeditatively lies through their teeth when swearing their oath to uphold the Constitution (with the notable exception of Ron Paul).
None of these influential and powerful people have any qualms about murder, theft or the coming state-imposed Dark Ages it seems, despite the obvious potential to improve their own lives, not to mention the lives of their fellow countrymen. Why? Just to grab a slightly bigger piece of the wealth the empire has stolen from their fellow countrymen, their students, their patients, or their customers?
The reasons are doubtless as varied as the people involved. One of the key reasons is that each of them is only an expert of their own life. Being a supporter (if only by association) of murder and theft is simply a part of their life they must overlook to survive. Another key reason would probably be that most of them are unwilling to go against the collective evil of their peers and face possible ostracism (or worse). For example, Republicans are just dying to get rid of Ron Paul from their ranks for defending the Constitution, a heinous crime for a politician.
Perhaps the single greatest reason for not opposing the murderous, thieving regime in power is just plain old fear. Of course, when you live under a regime that heartlessly gasses and burns young children to death, then gives medals to the murdering imperial agents, you have to have a moment of pause before deciding to stand in front of the imperial tanks. It certainly scares my particle of idealism to death.
But even that isn’t exactly the fear most Americans have – at least not while basking in the warm glow of their televisions. Sure, many, many Americans might agree that their government has exceeded its constitutional authority, that the government is wholly or mostly corrupt and quite possibly evil to boot. But a vast number of Americans seem to relish the idea of living under an evil empire. Too many Americans look upon their total subjugation and enslavement with a childlike anticipation of the arrival of Santa Claus. There are parents who possibly dream not of sugarplums, but of their children being kidnapped by the empire to die fighting thugs hired and trained by the same empire… well, maybe not their children. Perhaps they dream of having their families (aka. imperial resources) torn apart by FEMA agents to work in fields or refineries as dictated by the emperor, for “the greater good” [newspeak for: the good of politicians and their friends] … well, maybe not their families.
That may sound outlandish. Surely parents don’t wish for those things, right? However, despite living under an unconstitutional, child-murdering police state, only 500,000 or so people in 2000 voted against theft and murder. A full 100 million people voted for a policy of theft, murder and carnage. They seem to think this will create peace and prosperity. And they call me a dreamer. As an anarchist, I don’t put a great deal of faith in elections. Let’s face it, if simple vote counting software is proprietary and beyond public scrutiny, then you can be pretty sure that massive vote fraud is taking place on behalf of the empire. Although many freedom-lovers would argue whether or not electing libertarians is even a viable solution to the nation’s woes, voting for murderous thieves certainly doesn’t help. That’s also why I choose not to vote at all. My reason for mentioning imperial voting is not to plug for the Libertarian Party. (You don’t vote for king! – MP) But it does point out the shortcoming in another oft-discussed strategy for reclaiming liberty: protests.
I remember
the images of student protests in
So, if voting and protesting are effectively useless against the empire – and if there are only some 500 thousand (maybe a million) freedom-loving Americans living in the empire alongside some 100 million murderous thieves, what can freedom-lovers do short of moving to some isolated place? That’s the question I and many libertarians and anarchists of all flavors often ask. The answer is sadly: nothing.
Although I wish Bob Schulz the very best luck and fortune, the fact is that the empire is going to imprison him at least. And even if 500 thousand liberty advocates joined him in his struggle, the IRS will dedicate themselves to imprisoning all 500 thousand and stealing everything they own to fight and frighten anyone else from joining the effort. The imperial media will scarcely cover any of it. Don’t count on the Imperial Court even hearing a case about the empire’s abuse of its constitutional powers. Every justice (read: jester) on the Imperial Court has his/her mouth firmly planted on the emperor’s member. Of course, the 100 million murderous thieves won’t even notice another 500 thousand souls in their imperial prison camp system (since they don’t even notice the 2 million already rotting away there).
So that’s it. The two most likely means of reining in the empire: ending state-sanctioned theft and a general strike – both lack the critical mass to succeed. Where does that leave us?
We can look forward to becoming more and more reclusive, (or is that elusive?) as people become more wary and afraid of the IRS, DEA, ATF, FBI, OSHA, EPA, FDA and other swarms of officers harassing us. (Claire Wolfe has already provided excellent ideas for things liberty advocates can begin doing to prepare for the future, such as hiding your guns and hoarding some gold.) Americans will learn to fear and hide from imperial agents, as well as from their neighbors and families, for fear that they may be informants for the empire like D.A.R.E. children. In a few years, perhaps Americans will be able to live as Russians did 10 and 20 years ago! Wouldn’t that be something to look forward to? And there are some 100 million Americans looking forward to that very future.
I said earlier that others have already said it well. An example is Nicholas Strakon of The Last Ditch, who wrote, “we might as well forget about fomenting a cultural and intellectual revolution in our time. It's too late. Our adversaries are completing their revolution; we are out of time. But whatever happens to American civilization in the near term, people will go on inhabiting this land for centuries, even millennia. We must — in Orwell's words — "extend the area of sanity little by little," from individual to individual, in hopes of reaching out to that posterity. Those "post-Americans" — perhaps living under a regime weaker than ours — might derive a timely warning from our legacy, assuming it survives the memory hole of our regime.”
Outreach and persuasion might still offer some long-term potential toward reaching a critical mass. But the empire is also busy devising more ways of killing and imprisoning its subjects (you). Although it is theoretically possible that the empire might make some particularly savage blunder to rile people from their cathode-ray slumber, it’s unlikely. If the empire waged an unjust war on an innocent people, stole an entire nation’s wealth, assassinated a popular leader, burned innocent children alive, or clandestinely planned the death of thousands of its own subjects, I don’t believe it would be enough to rouse Americans to action. After all, since Americans condone and encourage theft, murder and slavery, it will take more than the empire merely stealing, murdering or enslaving people to convince them that something might need to be done. What exactly it would take, I shudder to imagine.
For now, teachers will not see the opportunities for ingenuity, creativity and diversity, so they won’t unite to revolutionize freedom in education. Accountants will continue to stifle their (and our) potential earnings by being part-time government hacks and will never unite to do anything other than work with the empire to bankrupt all our futures. Doctors will treat patients less and less in their zeal to partake in the empire’s stolen booty, and health care will continue its kamikaze decline into medievalism, because doctors will never unite to do no harm.
There are no doubt diamonds in the rough and there are certainly other professions that receive stolen wealth from the empire, or do work directly or indirectly for the empire, and otherwise joyfully aid the empire in it’s mission for absolute power and control of as many people and resources as possible, for the benefit of a few, at the expense of generations of many. But within their fields, like the rest of us, they are too few and afraid of losing everything up to and including their sacred honor, in pursuit of freedom from oppression and tyranny. As if abolishing individual and state sovereignty wasn’t enough, the empire’s policy of taxing civilization into paralysis and stagnation has done much to keep us divided and busy slaving endlessly for our imperial master, instead of living what used to be the American dream: to live life and raise a family free from oppression by tyrants, mobs and fools (like some 100 million Americans I can think of).
Like the Russian civilization they admire, those 100 million Americans look forward to a day when all free thought and creativity is stifled, and people forget how to accomplish the basic means of living and taking care of themselves and their families. There are already signs of stagnation in the economy, in education, in healthcare, and other areas of society commandeered by the empire. The empire needs predictable, seldom-changing conditions to control and dominate effectively. People have been taught (by imperial schools) that changes not approved by the empire are bad. And it is this very stagnation of civilization, which will bring about the end of the empire. But don’t hold your breath. Even a dying empire can take hundreds of years to finally decay and crumble – bankrupting the civilization that created it along the way. I suspect the empire will enslave and kill me long before then. It’s already halfway there.
-- Anonymous, July 03, 2002