Your neighbor comes to your door and tells you, “I need about 30% of your income so I can maintain the neighborhood, keep the road in good condition, and keep the place looking nice.” Maybe you don’t really understand why he needs a percentage, so you suggest, “Just let me know how much the expenses are and I’ll pitch in what I can. I like to know what I’m paying for and make sure I actually want to pay for it.”
Your neighbor replies, “You don’t understand. If you don’t give me 30% of your income each year, I’ll have Bill from across the street come over with a gun and bring you to his house, where he’ll lock you in a cage for a few years. Joe, Tim, and I voted on this and decided this is best for the neighborhood, so you have to go with it.”
“I didn’t agree to anything,” you might say.
“But you live here, so it’s implied.”
“What if I refuse to go with Bill?” you might ask.
“You don’t have a choice. He’ll just take you.”
“What if I fight him?”
“Then he’ll shoot you if necessary. That’s what the gun is for.”
Obviously, this is extortion. Even today, you would be well within your rights to defend yourself, even with deadly force, if Bill did, in fact, come to take you.
But this is almost exactly what the government is doing to you.
We’ve started a YouTube show this week called “State of Madness”. I’ll be ranting about recent news articles over the past week that showcase the insanity of statism. Once you see it, it just doesn’t seem to stop.
My constant battle with ADD has me posting this 3 weeks after it happened.
On January 10th I noticed a tweet that, in essence, said that Ron Paul wants to stop “helping people”. I shot off a quick reply tweet stating that he is actually saying that people should not be forced to help others. Not knowing how much this person understands about the non-aggression principle I sent a link to Property Rights and The Non-Aggression Principle.
In my experience, once someone realizes you want zero government, this type of conversation heads right towards “what about the roads?”, but not today. Today I was confronted with questions about public parks and pools. Obviously it’s not easy to introduce the idea of non-aggression and no government in 140 characters, so I offered up two videos: Beautiful Freedom Part I and Part II. To this the response was:
Send me a link that addresses public parks, public pools, and public schools.
While you are at it, send a link which addresses public hospitals, public bus stations & public train stations – SEGREGATION
I know many people have been on the path to Anarchy for much longer than myself and they have beat their heads against the wall trying to have long discussions on similar topics. I simply put forth that one has to acknowledge that the government use of force and coercion is immoral or how can we really have a conversation about public facilities in a non-statist society? The reply was then “You’re speaking passed me instead of addressing my specific points — Get back to me when you can address specific points”
I wasn’t sure of the exact meaning of that reply but maybe I was committing some type of avoidance. On one hand, I felt like I might be missing an opportunity to shine some light. On the other, I had the gut feeling that I was avoiding a long debate based on the belief that violence and coercion should be used to fund, build, manage, and maintain public facilities. In reality, how could I know what type of facilities would evolve in a free society? Maybe there wouldn’t be public pools. Would that justify the use of force?
There was also the interjected statement that “Anyone using ‘libertarianism’ to justify segregation in PUBLIC schools, parks, pools, hospitals, bus stations >Is a downlow Nazi”.
That statement was the deciding factor to bow out of the conversation. It would have been a nice distraction if I had gone off trying to explain that nothing of the sort had been said or implied. But really, what is the point? How can you possibly convince someone that personal freedom is not racism if they want to justify State violence with claims of inevitable segregation? Is it possible to unravel that logic? This is an example of a conversation that would have you chasing your tail until your head is stuck up your ass.
The only case I can make is for myself. In a non-government society I would not choose to discriminate based on race, gender, or religion. If I owned a restaurant, I would want everyone to be welcome and to spread the word about my fine establishment. I certainly wouldn’t want to incur the expense of separate facilities or the backlash from the community, patrons, family, or friends if I imposed segregation.
I can only hope the other party feels the same. If, like myself, he would not discriminate then aren’t we in agreement that we don’t need government intervention? If his response is that somehow only the two of us are moral and decent and EVERYONE ELSE would be evil and discriminate then we have moved to the next cry for government intervention–the belief that most people are bad, and we should use force and coercion to make them good. The problem with this idea is that if only 2 people are good then you will have nothing but bad people running the government and inflicting rules and violence on others to get their way. The argument voids the solution.
This type of debate becomes a cycle that can end only one way, with my head up my ass. For this reason I respectfully declined to engage because I got my head out of my ass quite some time ago. ~PT
Have you been brainwashed? How fast did you just respond NO! Just like an alcoholic or a drug addict first we need to admit we have been brainwashed. Everyone has really. Marketers, parents, news channels, churches, and governments all use various degrees of brain washing and we all have fallen for some. The worst thing today is the control over television broadcasting, religion, and public education.
What can you do to help yourself? Avoid the repetitive illogical drones from all of the above. If you aren’t ready to break away from religion then you might want to try to reduce your exposure and start making your own decisions. I’m not telling you to denounce religion or stop believing in your chosen God, but stop letting others tell you what to think about your God and your own personal values and decisions. You know right from wrong.
Political parties are just the same, there is too much control and manipulation placed on you when you belong to a political party. This is no different than rooting for a football or baseball team when you have no personal relationship with any of the players, coaches, or management. It’s illogical. Why don’t you enjoy exceptional athleticism from both team’s players? Why do you cheer “your team” when they make a great play and you boo, hiss, and moan when the other team makes a great play. This is illogical.
How do you know you have been brainwashed? When someone makes a comment or statement you don’t agree with do you analyze it or do you blurt out an immediate response? Chances are you almost always have a prepared response for anything religious or political. To make things worse, after you blurt out your stored response you start thinking of ways to justify it. This is a sign that you might not be thinking for yourself.
What can you do to reprogram your mind? Bite your tongue. Use logic, reason, and in some cases science to dissect the statement and then draw conclusions that are based on reason and logic. Many times you will realize that you don’t really have enough information to form a reasonable opinion about something. Start asking yourself how you had an immediate answer for something you didn’t understand. It can be painful but it will be rewarding in the end. Once someone has power over your time, your religion, or your political ideology then they can tell you what to believe about politics, war, food, products, love, etc, and this is the real problem with giving someone that much power. Take back ownership of you. Start thinking for yourself and start living free.
When I discuss anarchism with someone who has a strong belief in taxes and the need for “The State” I know one of two topics is going to come up, if not both. “The Roads!” and “what about the police and criminals”? The Roads is covered in another post (What About The Roads?) but I want to address personal protection. It doesn’t really matter if we live in a free society or the current statist society these ideas about self defense still hold true.
First I want to ask anyone that does not have plans for self defense and protection of their own family, “why should I value your life or your family member’s lives when it is apparent you don’t”? Is that harsh? Maybe, but it is based on logic and reason. The question isn’t meant to point fingers or make you feel like an outcast. The question is just to get you thinking. It doesn’t mean others shouldn’t help you, it just asks why should they be prepared for your defense and not you? I am not just talking to men either. Women have the same responsibility. You can prepare yourself, delegate it to a lover, another family member, or pay for protection services but you still need a plan. If you have consciously agreed that you pay your taxes so you can have paid protection services then I can’t argue that you have not made a plan, but I do think that you are misguided, naive, and have a misunderstanding of government protection services.
If you and your family are the victims of a home invasion, the chance that any government agency will be able to arrive and defend you before any physical harm or theft takes place is very close to zero. Closer to zero than it is to 1%. At best, the police can return stolen property. They can not return a rape, a murder, or a beating.
I’m not telling you that you can prevent all crimes against you. I am just telling you that if you prepare, you have a much better chance of avoiding violent crime, or defending yourself and your family from violent crime. The Public Safety Department as you know it does not provide this service.
Even if you are a trained defense professional, you need to ignore the bravery and recklessness you see in the movies. The most powerful self defense technique is to avoid trouble.
First you and your family should discuss the following list of self defense ideas.
Avoid high crime rate areas
Don’t travel alone
Add automated lighting for night time arrivals
Add an electric gate and/or guest arrival buzzers for your driveway
Add reinforcements to your doors so they can’t be kicked in
Be sure you know who is at your door before you open it
Get a watch dog
Add surveillance cameras
Learn gun safety and arm yourself and family
Learn to use a knife and/or pepper spray for self defense
Learn a self defense art like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
All of these suggestions can help prevent or defend you against violent crime, today. If everyone learns self defense and all moral and honest people start protecting each other then even our current statist society will benefit. But how will it work in a stateless society?
First let me state that my personal belief is that a truly free society with no government will not exist until one of two things happen. A number of generations pass where a majority of people are raised by the non-aggression principal and just like slavery the government as we know it today will be banned as immoral. Or, failure of the current monetary system will send some of the largest countries into economic collapse and government will be ignored and over-ruled. I prefer #1 because that will be a beautiful thing but we will need self defense to be sure moral and good people survive and unite to defeat corruption and evil.
Just remember, if you are not willing to defend yourself and others then why should they defend you? It is really a simple answer to a common question. If you believe in freedom then don’t wait for it, start living your life the same way you say you will in a truly free society. Let’s start setting some examples.
Note: It is important to consider all firearms loaded regardless of what you think or are told about the weapon. Always keep firearms pointed in a safe direction regardless of what state or condition you believe it is in. Never put your finger on the trigger until the firearm is pointed at the target and you are ready to fire. That’s all it really takes to make them safe.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu teaches smaller often weaker individuals to defend themselves against bigger and stronger opponents. The art focuses on leverage, joint locks, and choking techniques. These techniques, when applied properly, can overcome an opponent without causing serious injury.
At face value, the purpose of law is to protect society from violence, theft, and other mistreatment. This, of course, sounds like a good thing. As a child, your parents and everyone who was most influential over you probably taught you to have respect for the law, and if you were to ever break any law you would be a bad person, as if the law is a shimmering code of absolute goodness and morality. Well, no. That’s wrong for many reasons.
Yes, the law states what actions must not be done, and law enforcement serves to deter the act before it happens, and to apprehend and punish the criminal after the law has been broken. Laws against murder, rape, and theft are made with good intentions. However, the law also dictates what you may do with your personal property; the law dictates whom you may marry; the law dictates what you may sell in a consensual transaction; the law dictates what substances you may put in your own body. There is no victim being protected by these particular laws; they are only a form of control.
Therefore, in our modern society, as run and dictated by “The State”, blind obedience to the law is a terrible thing to live by and a terrible thing to teach others. Most regulations that actually affect you in your everyday life are, at their core, mafia-like revenue generation schemes.
What about if you drive 15 miles per hour over the speed limit on a barren, four-lane, divided highway? A man in a costume may force you off of the road and tell you that you’d better pay up for breaking the rules.
What about if you build an addition to your house? Sorry, you were supposed to pay up for permission to build on your own property. Now you’ve got to pay more for not giving it up in the first place, or they’ll tear down your work.
Who was harmed by your “speeding”? No one. Who was harmed by you building onto your house? No one. These things aren’t about keeping anybody safe or protecting society from mistreatment; it’s about taking your money.
Everybody you know will most likely laugh it off and then remark that “you had it coming!” for getting caught stepping out of line and disobeying. This is absurd! It’s just like blaming a rape victim for “dressing provocatively” and telling her that she had it coming.
“Respect for the law” is a misled idea. The mafia creates all the laws that say that it is “legal” for them to steal your money and punish you if you don’t pay them their cut. Why should you respect that which doesn’t respect you? “Respect for the law” is a method of brainwashing to keep the people in line and to get the people to turn on one another. Nobody and nothing should ever be taken for granted because of a title or position; no law should ever be accepted merely on the grounds that it “is the law”.
Logical and rational thought is the only way to be free; not respect for the law.
Wait! Don’t go away! This is the truth that can set you free. At least stick around and use reason and logic to defend your love and trust of “The State”.
In this article “The State” refers to governing forces that create law, enforce law, provide public services and demand repayment of said services. This includes all federal, state, county and local government agencies and departments.
The day you are born and take your first breath outside your mother’s womb, you are deemed to be bound by a contract. This contract between you and “The State” is nothing less than enslavement. It doesn’t matter where you are born, imaginary lines have been drawn all over the globe like a spastic painter puts color to a canvas. Your role as a slave and the price you will pay is determined by the imaginary lines you are born within.
If you are already questioning this information, then you have probably been lied to your entire life. People you have loved, respected, defended, and looked up to like your parents, your grandparents, your teachers, your employers, your professors, and your government have not told you the truth. They either believed the lies themselves, or if they didn’t, then they were too weak, cowardly, ashamed, or selfish to tell the truth. You probably can’t save them, but you can save yourself, your children, and your grandchildren. Just admit and tell the truth.
You have probably heard all of your life that you have a contract with “The State”. How did you sign this contract as a newborn? How did your parents allow your rights and labor to be sold to “The State”? Didn’t they love you? How can your government borrow money on your ability to work and then make you pay those loans back?
It may not be your parents’ fault that you were born a slave, but they are complicit if they did not tell you that you were born into slavery and ownership. If they did not tell you how you can fight for your freedom and right of self ownership, then they were against you having freedom. If they told you that you can pray or vote your way out of slavery, then they LIED!
Think logically about the following scenario and try to use reason and logic before you draw any conclusions:
Sales Tax
Let’s say you grow up and decide you want to sell fruits and vegetables to people in your community. You find a farm and an orchard that will sell you produce at wholesale pricing. You decide to make your first purchase but a man JUMPS out of the bushes and tells you that you can’t buy wholesale unless you have a Sales Tax ID Number. You ask why and he replies, “Because everyone that exercises their right to buy goods and services from YOU owes ‘The State’ money and you will need to collect it for them.”
Lessons:
1) You are forced to be a part of this system or you will be refused the right of trade.
2) You become a collection agent for this mafia.
3) You will not be paid any wages for being a collection agent
4) The menacing man is an agent for this mafia and will do you harm because they pay him to.
You fear this man and his power so you get a Tax ID Number. Along with this number comes a long list of rules and regulations you must follow as a part of this contract you were forced to accept.
Income Tax
You have been selling your produce for a few months now and working for “The State” as a collection agency as provided by the contract you were forced into. The menacing man shows up at your door and demands to see your financial records. You ask why, and the man goes on about how you exercised your right to sell goods and services for more than you paid for them so you owe “The State” income tax. First the man demands $500 in fines because you don’t have a Tax Payer ID Number. He gives you a piece of paper with your very own Tax Payer ID number on it and more rules you are obligated to follow.
The man looks at your books and determines that you sold $10,000 worth of produce for $12,000 and demands a payment of $400 for income tax plus $600 in interest and penalties for not paying on time.
You tell him he is mad and you refuse to pay. He grabs you by the throat, throws you to the ground and drags you off to a cage where you spend 3 months of your life. During this time your parents, relatives, and friends visit and tell you that you should have paid your share.
You decide paying these taxes is not such a bad thing after all and you VOLUNTEER to pay the income tax from this day forward.
Employers Forced to Comply and Steal
Your business is surviving so far because you raised the price of your produce to help cover the taxes, but now you have competition because of your higher prices. You know the only way to survive now is if you can sell in quantity, so you decide to hire employees.
Fearing more time in jail and penalties, you call “The State” and ask what you need to do to comply with regulations on being an employer. They are very polite and thank you for calling before hiring, and then the agent reminds you of the severe penalties you could have faced had you not received your Employer ID Number first.
You receive your Employer ID Number and a book of rules and regulations you must follow or face more jail time, or possibly injury, or death. In the book, it makes you an agent of this mafia once again.
1) You must collect income tax from your employees’ pay and send it to “The State”
2) You must collect Social Security payments for the mafia
3) You must match the Social Security Payments out of your own funds and send it to the mafia too.
4) You must make sure your employees have a Tax Payer ID number so they can comply too
Theft and Terrorist Threats
Where did this right to force both collection duties and payment of taxes come from? Why don’t you have a choice? It’s simple, you are a slave and the threat of force, violence, and death are the foundation of these taxes and collection obligations. It’s nothing less than terrorism and you give in to it every day.
Conclusion
If you can’t work without giving “The State” a cut, then you are not free. If you can’t trade with another individual or business without giving “The State” a cut, then you are not free. The government mafia demands a cut of transactions that they neither provide goods or services for. When they do claim to provide a collateral service during a mutually beneficial transaction, it is a forced service, not voluntary. If a government wants to provide services, then you must be able to opt-out of those services or pay for those services as needed, or you are not free. This works between individuals and businesses, so it should be the same for “The State”-run mafia, but they continue to use force to sell their goods and services.
There are plenty of other areas that we could discuss, like property tax, which denies a person the right to home ownership, but you only need sales tax and income tax examples to see the real criminal activity at work and to recognize that you are not FREE.
Continuing Education
Beautiful Freedom by Stefan Molyneux
The State is Not Great: How Government Poisons Everything by Jacob Spinney
In the United States of America, we are taxed on almost everything. You are taxed when you buy a bottle of water from a vending machine; you are taxed when you buy a car; you are taxed for owning that car through obligatory registration; you are taxed every time you buy fuel for that car. When you are paid wages for your work, you are taxed. When you own land and a home, free and clear, you still pay the government rent in the form of property tax. To even call property tax “rent” is being generous, when in fact it is a protection racket, like every other tax, and you will be forcibly removed from your own home if you refuse to pay it.
Do you know where all that money is actually going?
You don’t. There’s not enough time in the day for you to know where that money is going, with countless government agencies plowing through tax dollars at ever-ballooning rates, and an obscenely large tax code. Nobody actually seems to know just how long the U.S. federal tax code really is; figures range anywhere from about 17,000 pages to around 70,000 pages. There’s no way that even the taxmen know what is contained in this code.
Perhaps the worst part of it all is that they’ve trained us to willingly keep records and fill out ridiculous forms upon ridiculous forms, or even pay others who have undergone training to do all of this for us, all to have our money stolen from us and used for purposes we’ll never know.
If I suggested that everybody stop paying taxes today, and don’t give the government another penny, what would your first reaction be? You might be thinking “But who will take care of the roads?” (Or more likely, you’ll be thinking “I don’t want to go to prison,” but we’ll look past that for now.) That seems to be the most common response to such a suggestion, but the answer is simple. This isn’t a video game, where a hand in the sky places roads wherever they’re needed, and where a lack of money will cause the roads to spontaneously degrade and wash out at an accelerated rate. This is real life, where workers and machines will work just as well to build and maintain roads, regardless of whether it’s funded by tax money or private money.
I won’t sit here and tell you where the money for everything would come from if the government no longer had stolen money to pass around, but my point is that you are paying every day for things that you don’t even know about, and most people subscribe to this and accept it as a fact of life.
Once you take a step back from this insane “fact of life” and realize just how evil taxation is, you’ll wonder… why pay taxes?
NOTE: In no way am I suggesting that you actually stop paying taxes. This is only a philosophical discussion on the immorality of taxation.
What is the non-aggression principle? Simply put, it means that you never initiate force, threats, or violence against another person or their property. If everyone lives by this simple rule, then you have a brand new world. Great things will happen and the babies, puppies, kittens, and rainbows will flourish.
It DOES NOT mean that you can’t use force to protect yourself or your property. Non-aggression and property rights are often considered the two fundamental principles of libertarianism, with some argument about which one is the real foundation. At this stage of your journey, assuming you are new to both philosophies, I don’t think you need to sweat the details or be too concerned about the difference between libertarians and anarchists.
While the term “libertarian” sounds like a much nicer word than “anarchist”, there are many similarities. Anarchy has taken a beating from propaganda, so I don’t care which label you choose as long as you continue down this path. Because of the similarities, it is easy for libertarians to understand and often migrate towards anarchism. Some refer to “pure” libertarianism as anarchism. You will also see terms like “anarcho-libertarian” and “minarchism”, but don’t get caught up in the small stuff. Understand and live by the non-aggression principle and let’s get the ball rolling.
Does this sound crazy or insane to you? It won’t after a couple of weeks. Your eyes will widen and you will feel refreshed. You are being lied to and you are being directed by network television. I hate to tell you this, but you are brainwashed. That’s what mainstream television is for. It’s not just the advertising; many, if not most, television shows are laced with propaganda. If you think they are not being paid or coerced to control your opinion, then you will have a hard time adjusting once reality sets in, but it is worth it. Isn’t it time to unplug?
Did you know the CIA admitted to having agents in the media to sway foreign and American opinions and control the news? Read more about CIA influence on public opinion. Watch this House Intelligence Committee hearing from 1975:
Did you know the Government is attacking health foods, vitamins, and even fresh milk? Some of your favorite TV shows and news reporters are being used to discourage you from using these products in an effort to funnel more business to pharmaceutical and agricultural companies that pay politicians big money and offer them sweet jobs after they leave office. This corruption leads to more government control, coercion, force, and possibly even death to citizens that resist the tyranny. Watch this Raw Milk Protest because you probably missed it on your network news channel:
What you won’t see is the mainstream news exposing the over reaching Government, like this video of Federal raids on farmers:
Your television is not just lying to you—it is withholding the truth. You would expect the mainstream media to be informed about political candidates both national and international, wouldn’t you? Have you ever heard the news mention that Herman Cain was deputy chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (1992 to 1994) or that he was chairman from 1995 to 1996? Did you know Nancy Pelosi has seen substantial gains in her stock market portfolio and she may have used non-public information she was privy to as a congresswoman? Did you know that it’s not illegal for members of congress to use non-public information for personal financial gain; that it is not considered insider trading? Days, weeks, or even months before you are aware of events that are capable of making waves on the stock market, your congressman may have already made his or her trades, and many do.
Did you hear that the new Prime Minister for Greece is a former vice president of the European Central Bank, and he was also a member of the board of the Federal Reserve in Boston? Did you hear the new Prime minister of Italy was formerly with Goldman Sachs? Did you know that both of these PMs have been placed in power without a vote by the people?
If any of this is a surprise to you, then you owe it to yourself to seek a new media outlet and experience reality disconnected from the propaganda machine.