Free State Observer

I frequently get the feeling that I’m in the minority amongst New Hampshire liberty activists for having a “normal” job. I define “normal” as on a schedule of Monday - Friday, 9 - 5 (officially, anyway; the reality often exceeds those boundaries). I have health insurance. I pay extra for long-term disability insurance, so that if I come down with cancer, get in a car accident, or whatever, I won’t become either destitute or a burden to others. I save for the proverbial rainy day. And I pay taxes. Boy, do I pay taxes.

I laughed, with a tinge of mania, when my annual Social “Security” Statement arrived a week ago. It informed me that I’ve already paid over $55,000 towards my retirement “benefits”, which I’m sure I’ll be able to start collecting back at age 67, right after monkeys start flying out of my butt. Until then, I’m on my own. No, scratch that; even if monkeys DO fly out of my butt, I’ll be on my own.

Some make the argument that ’tis virtuous to not “feed the system”. My taxes pay for wars. Do I lay awake at night, racked with guilt over that fact? Um, NO. No more than I’d feel racked with guilt over being mugged, repeatedly. Angry, frustrated, impotent; these things I feel. But guilt? The government is like my friendly neighborhood pimp. I sell my services in the marketplace; he pockets a percentage of my take, with the clear understanding that if I hold out on him, he’ll beat me senseless.

Anywho, I just read an old article by Murray Rothbard on this exact subject, and most unsurprisingly, he puts it far better than I ever could. Preach it, Murray:

Libertarians in a State-Run World

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Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase that means “First, do no harm.” The phrase is sometimes recorded as primum nil nocere.

Nonmaleficence, which derives from the maxim, is one of the principal precepts that all medical students are taught in medical school and is a fundamental principle for emergency medical services around the world. Another way to state it is that “given an existing problem, it may be better to do nothing than to do something that risks causing more harm than good.” It reminds the physician and other health care providers that they must consider the possible harm that any intervention might do. It is invoked when debating the use of an intervention that carries an obvious risk of harm but a less certain chance of benefit. Since at least 1860, the phrase has been for physicians a hallowed expression of hope, intention, humility, and recognition that human acts with good intentions may have unwanted consequences. A closely related phrase is “Sometimes the cure is worse than the ill.” source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primum_non_nocere

A common statement made when liberty activists are arguing with one another about the best way to proceed is “At least we’re/they’re/he’s doing something.” I don’t know where this idea came from, but it sure makes me want to smack people upside the head sometimes, in hopes that some common sense will be jarred loose from whichever internal part of their brain it’s currently trapped. There are plenty of life scenarios where doing something is not necessarily better than doing nothing. If you’re overweight and out-of-shape, going out and running five miles is not better than staying on the couch, if those five miles trigger a heart attack in your shocked and unprepared body. If you’re in Vegas with your life savings in cash in your wallet, betting it all at the blackjack table isn’t necessarily safe, wise or better than doing nothing with it.

Now granted, we’re all operating with unknowns. Inside-the-system activists (which I will abbreviate as ITS) have never actually succeeded in getting someone like Ron Paul elected to the Presidency (or a governorship… or a Senate seat… or even a Congressional district outside of Bumfuck, TX). If something miraculous happened and this occurred tomorrow, there would undoubtedly be unexpected hurdles and side effects prior to achieving the presumed goal of making our society freer (like, oh, say, the President still has to deal with CONGRESS). Outside-the-system activists (which I will abbreviate as OTS) have never (talking about the last 50 years in the U.S. here, not the whole history of history) actually succeeded in making a state or a town free of the coercive grasp of government. I could write a whole science fiction novella about the possible ramifications of the abrupt removal of coercive government from a community unprepared and ill-equipped to handle that, but I’ll save myself some time and just refer you back to the news coverage of the aftermath of Katrina, where the jackals of human society lost no time feeding off their slower and weaker neighbors.

What’s my point? We’re all operating with imperfect information, and no one truly knows the quickest, best path to creating a free society. (Freeing yourself is a different subject which numerous philosophers, political thinkers and spiritual leaders have addressed elsewhere; for starters, I refer you to the excellent How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World by the late, great Harry Browne ). But to blindly argue that all strategies are equally valid, and doing something is always better than doing nothing, is to willfully turn off the analytical, pattern-recognizing part of your brain that can project likely outcomes from actions not yet taken.

Ben Franklin advised: Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of. I see people in both the ITS and OTS groups running around like chickens with their heads cut off, breathlessly doing something and acting self-righteous about it. If you’ve thought about what you’re doing, believe you know what the consequences will be, and you like those consequences, then more power to you. If you’re not sure, or haven’t even begun to think about it, your brain is your friend and wants you to use it.

Another thing: back seat drivers. We all hate them. However, to argue that if someone doesn’t live in New Hampshire, and/or is not engaged in the specific type of activism in which I am engaged, they cannot possibly have anything of value to say to me about what is going on here… I mean, seriously? Are we that full of ourselves? The beauty and power of media (the written word, and more recently, audio and video) is that it enables us to communicate asynchronously with people in other times and places, and to, God forbid, learn from someone else’s insights or wisdom. Why not keep an open mind when advice or critiques are offered?

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Observers of the Free State Project are undoubtedly aware that civil disobedience has been growing in popularity as a method of promoting limited/no government in New Hampshire. I have been struggling with this concept for, well, crap, years now. It’s been just over three years since I expressed some befuddlement over why someone would choose to get arrested. All of a sudden, in a paranoid and hungover blast of clarity, I think I get it.

The goal of civil disobedience is communication.

Allow me to continue to milk the Matrix-is-a-metaphor-for-the-21st-century cow. We are born slaves. Within moments of birth, we are taken away from our mother’s (hopefully) loving arms and isolated in a glass box, tended (hopefully) by frazzled, overworked strangers. If we’re male, the end of our penis might be cut off… for our own “health”, or because that’s what God wants. Within weeks, we’re probably carried by our parents to a temple of some sort where we are lifted into the air in front of family and friends and a public apology is made for our very existence. Our innate evilness and unworthiness is proclaimed. Some sort of voodoo priest in ceremonial garb then sprinkles magic water on us, says an incantation, and suddenly we’re not evil anymore.

At this point, if we had the mental maturity to comprehend what was going on around us, we might very well be considering the possibility that the events of our first few weeks of life don’t bode particularly well for the years ahead… which are all about control.

First, you must learn to control your body. You may only release waste in authorized areas. You may only cry and scream in designated areas. You must lie down and try to sleep at specified times.

Next, you learn to not notice that your mind is being controlled. You must report to location X at exactly clock-time Y. You must think about the multiplication table. Or George Washington. Or sharing your toy. You may only speak to your friends at designated times. You may not laugh, cry, shout, or go to sleep, outside of designated places and times. You must use your “indoor voice”. You must learn to walk single-file. You must follow instructions, whatever they may be. If you don’t, you will be beaten and/or drugged.

Childhood prepares you for adulthood, at which point you are expected to become a productive slave. (In true Orwellian fashion, the State will refer to you as a “consumer” rather than a “producer”.) Find a niche within the global industrial complex, perform some sort of service which may or may not meet any actual human need, and give over half of your pay to the State. Have children, and plug them promptly into the Matrix… or they will be removed from your care. When they reach physical maturity, the State may request that one or more of them travel to a distant area and engage in mortal combat with some people, for some reason. You are to consider this a mark of great pride. Comply, always using your “indoor voice” and walking in single file, or be imprisoned.

As in the Matrix, the State has Agents. Treat them very gingerly. So much as present the appearance of a physical threat to one of them, and you will be swiftly tasered or shot.

If, for whatever reason, a red pill has made its way down your throat, you may choose to chip away at various facets of the Matrix by, for example, not putting your children in public school; not drugging your children… or yourself; not buying into the Judgmental-Old-Guy-in-the-Sky form of control. I don’t mean to denigrate any of these activities; I applaud them. But all of these things don’t change the fundamental fact that you’re a SLAVE.

You may choose to engage in electoral politics, running for office or helping others to do so. Writing bills, or fighting bills. The State loves this strategy. You expend your limited time, income and energy in an utterly futile attempt to replace a few low-level bureaucrats with slightly less restrictive individuals. Ultimately, this changes nothing. You, and everyone you know, remain a SLAVE. (And please don’t forget to use your “indoor voice” in the Legislative Office Building.)

There is only one way to kill the Matrix: unplug enough of the people who feed it. Enable them to see the world for what it is, rather than for what they have been led to believe it is. Ironically, no one can be forced to unplug. All sorts of evidence may be laid in front of someone’s eyes, but if they choose not to see it or to grasp its implications, there’s nothing you can do about it. (Exhibit A: Zeitgeist, the Movie ) All you can do is get your pirate signal out there, over and over, and hope that enough people will hear it, and will listen.

Which brings me back (finally!) to civil disobedience. I’ve blogged here before that it doesn’t seem like a good time to me to hang out in jail; sitting in court, paying fines, and dealing with paperwork doesn’t sound all that great, either. I’ve been baffled by those of my friends who intentionally tweak the noses of Agents in various ways to willfully get themselves arrested. CD is self-destructive, sacrificing a bit of your own precious life for the benefit of others. That’s a charitable interpretation; a less charitable one is that some people derive adolescent pleasure out of sticking it to “the Man”, getting a friend to film it, and hoping they look cool when it’s posted on YouTube. And some people simply let their authority issues overwhelm their good sense, needlessly getting themselves into trouble. (My mother used to refer to this as “cutting off your nose to spite your face”.) The monk who set himself on fire to protest the Vietnamese government’s treatment of Buddhists is one of the world’s most famous civil disobeyers; his image has become iconic. A guy who took a picture of the incident won a Pulitzer. But the monk himself is, you know… dead now.

So why do it? A well-executed act of civil disobedience is a pirate broadcast. It sends a message out into the Matrix, which some will notice, and a smaller number will hear. It shines a light on the Matrix itself, enabling those ensnared within it to observe its clinging invisible mesh. It reminds the viewer, if only for a moment, that something as trivial as failing to use your “indoor voice” can result in ludicrously excessive punishment. Ideally, it makes the viewer wonder what life might be like outside of the Matrix.

So where does all this leave me, your faithful first-person-narrative confessional-tone blogger? I swallowed the Red Pill a year and a half ago, and have spent the time since shell-shocked and sulking in a corner of the Nebuchadnezzar, eating slop that may or may not taste like Cream of Wheat, glaring at those still trapped in the Matrix and blaming them for their own predicament. Productive….. not!

I’m not about to rush out and battle an Agent; I am no Trinity. Call me craven, but I fully intend to run (pay, bow, kneel, suck, whatever it takes) to avoid getting tased or caged. But I also intend to find a way to boost the pirate signal, to make myself useful and, hopefully, free the minds of at least a few more people.

Wake up.

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tribe - noun any aggregate of people united by ties of descent from a common ancestor, community of customs and traditions, adherence to the same leaders, etc.

They came from the Seacoast (on the eastern border), Salem (on the southern border), and Winchester (on the western border). They came from the city (Manchester) and the country (Barnstead, Grafton). They came from all over New Hampshire, by way of states all over the U.S. (Maine, Washington, California, South Carolina, Kansas, Georgia). They came to help me move into my new home.

None of my blood relatives came to help me (in fact, none of them even did me the courtesy of acknowledging that I’d invited them to do so). None of my coworkers, some of whom I respect and enjoy, and some of whom live in the same town as me and told me they’d help me, actually showed up to do so. But every single New Hampshire Porcupine, to a person, who told me they’d come to help me, kept their word and did so. Several brought their children, and put them to work as well. Kids hauled my garbage, searched my house to find where my shell-shocked cats were hiding, and planted a shrub in my garden as a housewarming gift. Every single one of these people could have found a more enjoyable way to spend a beautiful warm Saturday (it was even the birthday of two of the kids (twins)).

These people are my tribe. I have a tribe! One and only one thing unites us, but that one thing is enough: the realization that we don’t need government. That, in fact, government usually/always (opinions differ on this point) does more harm than good. The government certainly didn’t help me move. It didn’t carry any furniture down my stairs. It didn’t come over, shake my hand, hand me a business card, and say “I live down the street. If you ever need anything, call me.” It didn’t rent me a truck (a private business did that). It didn’t provide me a modern-day place to “hunt and gather” enough “bananas” with which to buy a house (four entrepreneurs who founded and run my company did that). All it did was leave a nasty note on my car for I’m not sure what reason (parking too long on a public street by the U-Haul office?) warning me that if I didn’t move it soon, I’d get towed.

The actual move took very little time: about 45 minutes on the loading end, 30 minutes on the unloading end. The rest of the afternoon was spent eating, drinking, joking, gossiping and debating political philosophy. And when it comes right down to it, that’s what life is all about. There are certain timeless and universal truths. Babies are cute. Cats do funny things. Charred meat and beer taste good. People fall in, and out, of love. And we hairless apes still, after, what, 6 million years?, are arguing about how best to live together in relative peace without stealing each other’s bananas. And that’s OK! So maybe the occasional four-letter word was shouted (in front of the children, no less!). Each of us respects the others’ right to keep the bananas they’ve picked themselves.

For the first time in a long time, I have a sense of hope. I suddenly understand on a different level that it’s not about improving the government, or finding a way to coopt it, or take it over, or defeat it. It’s about learning to work with it, or around it, or flat-out IGNORING it. And in the meantime, we’re teaching our children, and earning our livings, and building our homes, and living our lives. Good, decent lives. With gossip. And beer.

Excuse me for quoting a politician, but it really is a good line: Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem. If you, like us, understand that… and also understand that there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch (aka TANSTAAFL), that you need to find an honest way to earn a living and put a roof over your head and bananas in your belly… then I invite you to join us here in New Hampshire. (But please, don’t come if you haven’t grasped both halves of that last sentence; we have ways of dealing with those types…)

Join the Free State Project now.

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Yesterday was the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November. In the United States, that means it was election day. It boggles my mind how much time, energy and money is poured into this annual event, which becomes especially crazed every four years when it includes the election of the President. On the radio the other day I heard that it’s estimated that $8 has been spent for every vote that will be cast for President. On a local level, I have several personal acquaintances who have spent hundreds, or in some cases thousands, of dollars campaigning for themselves or others.

Like the Ron Paul Revolution of last year, this whole phenomenon leaves me cold. It’s like a fever that almost everyone I know has caught, but I seem to be immune. Call me crazy, but if every single so-called liberty lover who is running for office in New Hampshire this cycle succeeds in getting elected to the state house, I don’t see how that’s going to affect my life one bit. The state is in a deep financial hole. The country is in a financial hole so deep, there’s no possible way to climb out of it. It’s like a train without brakes that’s screaming downhill, and all these people are fighting tooth and nail to get a hold of the controls; it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a train without brakes screaming downhill! No matter who’s steering, we’re all gonna go splat.

So this is how I spent this Tuesday. First, I went to work. I earned a full day’s wages, and I’m using those wages to bolster my personal financial position. Maybe I’ll pay off a little more of my grad school debt. Maybe I’ll buy a soon-to-be-outlawed gun.

Secondly, I voted. Long-time readers of this blog and/or viewers of the Ridley Report may recall my stating several months ago that, thanks to the rantings of Stefan Molyneux among others, I have come to the conclusion that politics is inherently immoral. I still believe that. But at the same time, I ain’t no pacifist… if an abusive political system is going to be shoved down my throat, I’m going to take what tiny action I can to minimize my pain. L. Neil Smith put it so well on his blog, I’ll just quote him here: “I have no use for those who fastidiously disdain to protect themselves or their loved ones, either with weapons or by voting defensively. I tried that path for a while, myself, and it leads directly to where we are now, a broken subject people, nearly in chains.”

One thing I’m *not* doing is running for office myself, or helping anyone else do so. I’ve had a few debates with myself about this. At times, I had to stop my hand from writing a check for personal friends for whom I have great respect who are running for office here in New Hampshire. But the truth is, I think they’re misguided. Downsize DC, an organization I admire and sponsor financially, explained my opinion better than I could myself in one of their almost-daily dispatches during the past week, so I’ll just quote them here (gee, this copy and paste thing is neat!):

Today we’ll compare the cases of Alan Greenspan, Ron Paul, and John Stossel, beginning with this . . .

If you oppose fiat currency and centralized government banking, and would like to abolish the Federal Reserve and legal tender laws in favor of free market banking and free market money . . .

And you think the best way to achieve these things is to put the right people — people who believe as you do — in positions of power, then . . .

It would have been reasonable to assume, prior to seeing him in action, that Alan Greenspan was the “right person” to head the Federal Reserve.

You could have justifiably assumed, based on Greenspan’s previous writings and statements, that he would use his position to not only control the damage done by the Fed, but also to argue for its abolition.

None of these things happened. Instead, the opposite happened. Greenspan betrayed every economic principle he had previously professed. Putting a presumed “right person” in a position of power did not have the right result.

To contrast with this example we can compare the case of Ron Paul. Ron Paul has always said the right things, and done the right things too.

Two different “right people” have produced two different results. What are we to conclude from this?

We conclude that you cannot tell in advance whether or not you’re entrusting power to the “right person.” The person you trust might turn out to behave like Ron Paul, or like Alan Greenspan. This means there is a huge probability that the time and money you invest in a presumed “right person” will turn out to be wasted.

Even if your chances of actually choosing a “right person who will behave in the right way” is as good as 50-50, that still means your time and money will have been invested to zero result. The good work of the 50% of “right people who do right” will be cancelled out by the bad actions of the people who betray your trust.

But we think it’s even worse than that. We do not think the attempt to choose “right people who will actually do right things” can possibly produce anything close to 50-50 results, even assuming that a majority of other voters choose as you do. The reason for this is simple . . .

The incentives of government power are structured to entice the people who have power to do bad things. We could choose many examples to bolster this claim, but there is one huge example that should suffice . . .

The Republicans told us for years that they would reduce the size of government, if only the voters would give them full control of both Congress and the White House. Eventually they gained that full control, and look what they delivered — the hugest spending increases ever.

We believe this example is devastating to the “elect the right people” strategy. And lest you think the problem is merely a Republican problem, just get ready for what the Democrats do. Obama has already betrayed his supposed principles in the case of his warrantless spying vote, and we predict more betrayals to come. Obama is not change, he is stasis.

We are supposed to be able to rely on the Democrats to protect civil liberties, and upon the Republicans to control government spending, but we cannot, because the incentives encourage the constant expansion of centralized government power in all directions.

And the prospects for a third-party solution are even worse, given winner-takes-all voting, gerrymandering, campaign finance laws, and a persistent partisan tribalism that limits the extent to which any third party can ever grow.

But there’s a further problem. How do you get a majority of Americans to vote for your supposed “right person?” You might argue for education to achieve this goal, but assertions are easier than results. The difficulty is highlighted by the example of John Stossel of ABC . . .

John Stossel has a mighty megaphone. His voice is far larger than that of any other person or institution advocating for downsized government. Every few months he produces excellent hour-long shows puncturing the myths of government programs. He reaches more people more powerfully than all other downsizing advocates combined. If you missed his latest installment, we strongly urge you to watch it.

But . . .

Even John Stossel’s mighty megaphone produces but a whisper in a hurricane. Aligned against Stossel’s one-hour shows are around-the-clock news coverage, political advertising, and teaching in our schools that constantly promotes the idea of more-and-more government “solutions.”

Even John Stossel, with his mighty megaphone, is fighting a losing battle.

The only way to win the battle is to have superior forces and superior funding. It will require a huge army that funds outreach capable of reaching everyone, everywhere, EVERY DAY. But what kind of institution could build such a force?

Will a think tank or a political party do it? We think not. Think tanks are think tanks. They are NOT grassroots organizing vehicles. Political parties ARE grassroots organizing vehicles, but to convince someone to join you must NOT ONLY convince them of your ideas, you MUST ALSO convince them to betray their old identity. It’s a doubly difficult task. Or . . .

If the vehicle you choose is a third party then the task is triply difficult, because the rules are rigged against you, and to change the rules you would need resources of people and money that the rules themselves prevent you from obtaining. We speak from experience.

We are humbly suggesting that we need a non-partisan, or even anti-partisan institution that educates, recruits, and imposes pressure on the politicians, all at the same time. We further suggest that such an institution should be structured so as to impose the smallest possible cost on each individual participant, so as to maximize both recruitment and participation.

I’ll drink to that.

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I’ve been an activist in the small-l libertarian movement for five years now. And man, has it taken years off my life! I’m not sure how much of a difference it’s made in the grand scheme of things (although yesterday, my shrivelled heart was warmed to roasting when I heard one of San Francisco’s finest FORMER libertarian activists, now a New Hampshire Porcupine, refer to himself as “one of the First 1000″ (currently featured on the front page of Pledgebank as a success story). But it has surely taught me an awful lot about human nature, and about my own strengths and weaknesses. I’ve discovered I can do things that people who “knew me when” frankly wouldn’t believe if you told them. I’ve also discovered I have some big-assed flaws that bite me in the ass time and time again, even when I’m fully aware of them. It’s all very strange and mysterious and so much more strenuous than lying in bed with a good book and a package of Pepperidge Farms cookies, but when all is said and done, I’m glad I’ve done it. I wouldn’t be who I am today without these years of experiences, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

So now, on the cusp of the end of my 30’s (noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo), allow me to share with you a few pearls of wisdom I have gathered over the years. Some of these I’ve learned from observing others; most I’ve figured out on my own, usually by making a complete ass of myself in the process. I make no claims to actually following these rules consistently, but on a good day, I do try.

Volunteers - The Rules of Engagement

– the primary currency of the work world is money; the primary currency of the volunteer world is thanks and appreciation
– Never underestimate the capacity of most people to enjoy having their asses kissed (whether deservedly or not)
– Never put it in an email unless you’re comfortable having it forwarded to the worst possible recipient
– The person with the grandiose title is not necessarily the person performing the duties associated with the title.
– Actions speak louder than words.
– Praise publicly and often; criticize privately and infrequently
– Leaders of volunteers, like coaches, must inspire and motivate.
– If you want something done, do it yourself.
– Sadly, many volunteers, even self-described libertarians, cannot be trusted to keep their word. Deal with it.
– A few volunteers, even self-described libertarians, will actually try to scam a free lunch or will fail to pay their bills. Appalling, but true.
– There are always more backseat drivers than actual drivers. Deal with it.
– A disproportionate number of libertarians are lacking in basic social skills.
– Don’t respond quickly in anger. Enforce a cooling-off period.
– Put yourself first. All the volunteering in the world won’t keep the heat on through a New Hampshire winter or take care of you when you’re old.
– Don’t take it too seriously. In a hundred years, we’ll all be dead.

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I have loved Bond (, James Bond), movies all my life. I love the exotic locales in which the stories take place; Bond’s supreme self-confidence, skill, knowledge of a million subjects, fluency in a thousand languages, cool head under pressure, horrible puns, outrageous car chases, bleeding edge gadgets, deadly aim and ultimate success against every megalomaniacal bad guy. Yes, many of the scenarios are laughable, but that’s part of the fun; I laugh my arse off while watching these movies. But watching a Bond flick recently, it suddenly occurred to me that I actually ought to HATE Bond, the ultimate nationalist tool.

Bond uses all his skills and determination, lays his life on the line a thousand times, for what? “For Queen and country”. “For England”. He is the world’s most dangerous (and destructive, judging by the way he totals his ever-so-expensive taxpayer-funded cars) lapdog. “M” tells him to fetch X, in obscure nation Y, and he does so. He unflinchingly murders anyone who gets in his way.

The irony is that his supreme cluelessness is repeatedly pointed out to him, in movie after movie, by the bad guys and the beautiful-women-who-love-him-and-die. In Goldeneye, the dishy villain Alec Trevelyan refers to him as “Her Majesty’s loyal terrier” and speculates on what Bond’s funeral will be like: “a small memorial service, with only Moneypenny and a few tearful restaurateurs in attendance”. Yep, that sounds about right. He has nothing to show for his life but dozens upon dozens of corpses, and some really nice tuxes.

We never even get an inkling of Bond’s own political views in the films (I haven’t read the books). Does he side with the Conservatives or Labour? He doesn’t care. He is the posterboy of successful government brainwashing.

Another random observation from Goldeneye: the bad guy aspires to lofty heights of horribleness in retaliation for some geopolitical event that occurred decades earlier which resulted in the death of his parents. Americans today should keep in mind that every random Afghani or Iraqi who is killed can potentially inspire another 911-caliber terrorist somewhere down the line. Hate is a powerful motivator, and there’s no surer way to inspire someone’s lifelong hatred than to kill someone he loves.

James Bond is perfectly comparable to “the Operative” in the movie Serenity. But in that film, the message to viewers is exactly the opposite. The Operative isn’t the good guy; he’s the *bad* guy. At the end of the film, when he’s had the veil of government brainwashing removed from his eyes, to his credit, he walks away from his former life of murderous whoredom for the pimp-daddy Alliance.

Of course, Serenity didn’t get a sequel, while Bond lives on, decade after decade. The pretty face playing the movie role changes periodically, but the Big-Brother-Knows-Best message remains the same.

Damn it, Bond… “why can’t you just be a good boy and die?”

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It’s primary day in New Hampshire. In towns all over the state, starry-eyed Free State Project early movers are standing at polling places (and from the looks of the sky, will soon be standing in a thundershower), holding signs, bright smiles plastered firmly to their faces, asking that their fellow New Hampshire residents choose THEM (or one of their friends) to be their elected representatives instead of those other guys who want to be their elected representatives. With very few exceptions, they’re all running as Republicans. Because, as we all know, the Republican Party stands for limited government.

What’s wrong with this picture?

I’m reminded of the excellent, if controversial, cartoon entitled No More Kings by the talented anarchist comic Dale Everett, creator of Anarchy In Your Head. A play on the popular Tolkien Lord of the Rings series, it shows Ron Paul holding out his hand, stating “Give me the ring, Frodo! With its power, I can lead the forces of liberty to victory.” I believe Everett’s goal was not to put down Ron Paul or his legions of fans; by all indications, if there is an incorruptible human being in American politics today, he’s the one. It was to show that the way to dismantle a corrupt and immoral system is not to attempt to put yourself in charge of it, confident that you will run it ever so much better than your neighbor (who, of course, is thinking the exact same thing).

Meanwhile, many hard-working political activists were shocked (SHOCKED!) when the Manchester Board of Aldermen used legal chicanery to refuse to put the spending cap for which they’d worked so hard gathering petition signatures on the November ballot. See the ridleo here.

Open your eyes. Freedom doesn’t come from an elected official (even if that elected official is your friend). It doesn’t come from a political party. It doesn’t come from any of the options printed on your ballot. It certainly doesn’t come from any piece of paper detailing the specifics of how a group of strangers can dispose of your property without your permission.

Thoreau had it right 150 years ago. “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

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