A State, in the words of the great Murray Rothbard, is nothing more then "a gang of thieves writ large". If human life thrives on peace and non-aggression, government is its antithesis.
That's really tough for many people to accept, much less entertain. They've been conditioned to think otherwise. Naturally, the "gang of thieves" provided the conditioning.
Right now, a new gang of thieves has come into being, but (unfortunately) most people will fail to recognize it as such.
Take a look at The Islamic State (or ISIS) that has cropped up in the Middle East. Such a gang of thieves did not exist just a few years ago. It took the foolish workings of a much larger gang of thieves (the U.S. government and its Middle East invasions) to create the perfect environment for ISIS to hatch.
ISIS unfortunately did in fact hatch, and they're as brutal as you would expect a "gang of thieves writ large" to be. The lust for power brings out the worst in humans who embrace it.
While American kids are being brainwashed by their very own gang of thieves about "We the People" and "social contracts", they're missing the formation of a government right now! American adults are no better. They won't recognize it either. And how could they? After all, they went through the same compulsory 18 years of brainwashing too.
By the time the 18 year "system" spits you out, you most likely end up believing that the gang of thieves is actually your savior. You'd never survive in a world that thrives on peace and non-aggression without it. You need the gang of thieves in order to be safe and "free".
ISIS has formed in the Middle East, but very few will realize that this is government laid bare. This is government without the suits and ties, and the "journalists" who make excuses for its barbaric acts. Government is brute force. It has a monopoly on its turf. You obey, or else.
Where does ISIS get the money to fund the horrible things that it does? Why the very same place that every government gets its funding.
BusinessInsider reports:
...the biggest slice of the ISIS budget may come from taxing the "Caliphate's" captive population, a source of wealth for the group that's harder for international actors to control.Taxation. The cornerstone and heartbeat of every "gang of thieves writ large".
While it's almost impossible to know the exact breakdown of the Islamic State's balance sheet, experts estimate that its biggest source of revenue is taxation.
Many early Americans had a great distaste for government. They got a glimpse of what it was like with the King residing across a vast ocean. When the cat was away, not only did the mice play...they became incredibly prosperous.
Yet even after they tossed the King, early Americans still believed that a gang of thieves was necessary...."a necessary evil" as Thomas Paine said in error. With that as the dominant belief, the best that these early Americans could come up with was to create some "rules" for this "necessary evil". They would try to "chain it down" with rules.
No dice. The chains were demolished....and it really didn't take very long at all.
There is only one cure to the "gang of thieves" disease: Dropping your belief in its necessity. That's it! No need for revolutions. Peace does not sprout from the seed of violence. America is living proof of that. No need for Constitutional Conventions. That's also a fool's game. America is living proof of that as well.
Just a change in belief.
Human life, which thrives on peace and non-aggression does not need a group of men with a monopoly to steal and use aggressive violence. It is not "a necessary evil".
With that one change in thought (regardless of what anyone else thinks) you've done your part to weaken the "gang of thieves writ large."
Chris Rossini is author of Set Money Free: What Every American Needs To Know About The Federal Reserve. Follow @chrisrossini on Twitter.
I wish I could tell Murray Rothbard that Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis approved the final version of the statue of Minerva, the goddess of war to stand atop the U.S. capitol in April 1857, acting under a democratic president. Minerva was unveiled to the roar of 34 cannons firing from the defensive fortifications of Washington D.C. during the height of the American Civil War, on December 2nd, 1863, by a Republican administration.
ReplyDeleteMinerva had possessed the elite of the British colonies since Paul Revere first drew her flying above the crowd in a political cartoon during the Stamp Act rebellion of 1765, and had first been used to represent America in a political cartoon in 1782. In 1811 Minerva was designed as a colossal statue to adorn the front facia of the U.S. Congress, but was delayed by the War of 1812, and the U.S. Capitol had to wait another 52 years, and several more wars to finally find her permanent home atop the U.S. Capitol dome. There she has stood for another 152 years menacing the planet, as she and her ancient twin Athena have been fed in blood rituals on their festival days, by Democratic and Republican administrations alike.
What would Murray Rothbard think if he knew that on Athena's festival date of April 19th, we have witnessed the Declaration of War over Cuba in 1898, the 1993 Waco slaughter, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and the martial law like search for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the streets of Boston in 2011? Would Murray be shocked if he knew that on Minerva's festival dates March 19th-23rd, we have witnessed Hitler's Enabling Act in 1933, the invasion of Iraq utilizing "Shock and Awe" in 2003, the Security and Prosperity Partnership joining Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. in 2005, the Affordable Care Act in 2010, and the fraudulent humanitarian intervention in Libya by the U.S., and NATO in 2011? Would Murray weep if he knew that the U.S. military invaded Panama and butchered 10,000 people during Saturn's festival dates between December 17th-23rd in 1989? And finally would Murray understand the utter degeneracy of America's elite like Herbert Hoover, General Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush meeting in the woods of Monte Rio, California by the liminal space of the gods known as the Russian River, to drink, and be merry as they celebrate Neptunalia in late July by holding the "Cremation of Care" ritual in front of Minerva's great totem owl?
I wish I could ask Murray Rothbard how he would react if he realized U.S. citizens are viewed as nothing more than fungible game pieces in a game that exists beyond the frame of reference of ordinary Americans, as they applaud cannon fodder going off to be sacrificed to the gods.
"There is only one cure to the 'gang of thieves' disease: Dropping your belief in its necessity. That's it! No need for revolutions. Peace does not sprout from the seed of violence. America is living proof of that."
ReplyDeleteHuh? This is poetic sounding and seductively appealing to the peace-loving mind but demonstrably false.
Employment of defensive force against aggressors who forcibly assert their rule is required to be free. Imagine if 99% of the population dropped its belief in government but swore off using any violence to resist it. The 1% who maintained their belief in government and its violence would continue to use their guns to tax and enforce their laws on peaceful dissenters, just as occurs routinely now.
America is living proof more than belief change is necessary. America only exists only because of a brutal, hard-fought war of revolution against the British.
Sure but didn't John Adams say that "the Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the hearts and minds of the people... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution."
DeleteThat's why every bit of MSM, every TeeVee show, and every Hoolywood movie contains pro-gov't propaganda so as to counteract any "awakenings."
Canada and Australia exist without any hard fought war. Canada did have to turn back an aggression by the states, demonstrating your point about the need for defensive forces.
Delete" America only exists only because of a brutal, hard-fought war of revolution against the British."
DeleteYou're missing the point entirely. You're responding to the statement "Peace does not sprout from the seed of violence. America is living proof of that.", not 'America did not sprout from the seed of violence'.
America was indeed born in war, and hasn't been at peace ever since.
EdD, thanks for clarifying. You're right. Maybe that interpretation didn't register with me because it makes absolutely no sense. The logic of that statement is patently fallacious. It claims because America is currently violent and was born of violence that proves violence cannot birth peace.
DeleteThat is akin to claiming because I am woman who was born of a woman, that means women are only capable of birthing women and cannot birth men. Bzzzt. Wrong.
Violence is not only capable of birthing peace, it is necessary for birthing peace and maintaining it. That is, "peace" as defined as living in an environment as absent of aggression as possible. Self-organizing, competing anarchic systems arising in a setting where all men have equal rights would serve to optimally disincentivize aggressive violence while fully respecting self-ownership and property rights.
Pacifism cannot birth peace thus defined. Pacifism can only birth eternal victimhood at the hands of the men that inevitably arise and always persist in some small numbers who doggedly attempt to live at the expense of others by initiating force against them. Many of whom are currently ensconced in our government apparatus and associated elite.
Hollow Daze, yup, that's why I said "more than belief change is necessary." Belief change is necessary but not sufficient.
Delete"Violence is not only capable of birthing peace, it is necessary for birthing peace and maintaining it."
DeleteThere's no logic in that statement, but it seems somehow to resonate with you. You also seem to confuse clear thinking in terms of strategy with pacifism. Have it your way. Maybe you'll manage to start a shooting war where some of us are trying to rear children without bring yourself to a bad end along with those around you.
I'll leave you to your illogical musings.
EdD, I make no statement about the best choice of when and where to employ what means. Stoic endurance of recurring injury can be a necessary self-preservation tactic when confronted with overwhelming force from a leviathan aggressor. Defensive strategy is an entirely different discussion.
DeleteWhat I am saying is Rossini's claim that changing beliefs alone will see government disappear outright is as absurd as claiming changing beliefs alone will see aggression disappear from the human race outright.
Humans by nature experience all kinds of base impulses including motivations to live as parasites. A certain number of people will always indulge such impulses and attempt the shortcut of obtaining resources by aggression rather than production. The shrewdest of these will assert for themselves a church or state grant of elevated moral authority to do so. They will cite public interest, common good, name of the people, and all that jazz.
Those who have made this their core competence in life, their sole means of survival, have literally everything to lose from government going away. Many of these people are not going to just go gently into that good night. Many will not just walk away from their lives of state-connected advantage, prestige, comfort, wealth, or power to take jobs flipping burgers in a competitive free economy. For them, government is not about philosophical beliefs. It is about immediate, tangible, personal incentives. They will fervently cling to state propaganda, double down on their assertions of state authority, and escalate the initiation of force against peaceful people who don’t obey.
If liberty is to ever be obtained, at some point or another some goodly number people are going to have to be willing to stand up to these types and resist their aggressions with more than just words. This is called self-defense. Unfortunately, life doesn’t make it optional.
Those who deny this necessity, who refuse to employ force to defend their lives, property, and children when the proper time comes because they have had their conception of self-defense whitewashed into meaninglessness or purged from their comfort zone entirely, cannot expect to ever be anything other than a slave.