I still hear some liberty advocates talking about how we can achieve freedom through the political system - by electing the right representatives, getting good laws passed, etc.
Big fan of Tom Woods. He's one of several freedom-fighters who kept me sane during the scamdemic. Mises Institute and FEE are great, too. I'll have a look at the others.
Thanks for re-sharing this. I always glean something insightful from each of your pieces.
I love reading Tom Woods' emails. Can't listen to his audio because of hearing loss, and he doesn't care. And he can't handle being disagreed with. He gets nasty. So in many ways, not that good an example. He has a friend named Allan Stevo. If you disagree with Allan, he is always gracious. He doesn't give an inch on his positions, but I firmly believe it takes a person who is completely sure of his convictions to be gracious to those who disagree. Stevo has been a strong opponent of masks and Covid shots, and as I understand it, a founder of Bitcoin, so he has the credentials. The difference is, he is always gracious, whereas Tom Woods is nasty to those who disagree. And to me that makes all the difference.
A couple of things... has "Liberty" ever existed? The 1828 definition of Liberty:
1. Freedom from restraint, in a general sense, and applicable to the body, or to the will or mind. The body is at liberty when not confined; the will or mind is at liberty when not checked or controlled. A man enjoys liberty when no physical force operates to restrain his actions or volitions.
There's more, but that's the gist. "Freedom from Restraint". Ironically "control" (rules, laws) are the opposite of liberty, thus a balancing act has to exist.
Our current times show that the little people have no liberty other than behind closed doors of their home.
**Then I have to question the popular presumption of "politics" whereby there's only a "deep state" and nothing older, more organized. To look behind that curtain is "conspiracy" which was coined by the CIA in the fifties. Politicians even wrote books then, and up to today, much research shows that your CIA, NSA, etc, (Deep State) are not in control but only glorified sheriff departments.
Politicians are paid pawns who follow orders, nothing more. There is no "Nanci Pelosi" et all planning anything other than "get this done" from their handlers.
Politicians are not in power. The WEF or world economic forum has been blamed for ruling the world as of late along with the WHO. NOPE. You can't solve a problem if you can't find the cause.
**The number one cause we're in this New Normal mess is the level of thinking, and lack thereof, that has allowed it to take place. With the help of Social Media, Smart Phones, we have the very ignorant able to make the Color Revolutions happen.
People today only delve in word labels without realizing the gears and engines that they represent. "Massformation Psychosis" has become a popular word that nobody knows in detail how it works or is created. Claiming it's mind control via repetition is ignorant. Now I'm offending people.
And that's another reason we're in the place we're in. People have no backbone. They get offended AND quit, instead of studying the details of what they believe the offense is. But this takes effort and a strong rational deductive mind--also gone extinct.
Frankly, people go after this voting thing because there's nothing else they're setup to do.
I think your final point is spot on. What we are faced with is a crisis of imagination. Most Americans have been taught since childhood that the way to "change the world" is to vote. And most of them grow up believing this at a deep level. So even when they can see that it's not working, they just don't have anything else in their toolkit, and so continue to bang their head against that wall.
Imagination. Great topic. Look at the writing of everything in how basic it has become, and frankly incompetent. Fiction, whether books or Hollywood, can't write to save their life. Advancing the plot through ridiculous character "mistakes" has become how scenes are designed. Anything goes other than rational articulation of human behavior.
Social media of any kind has people refusing to type more than a dozen words. Detailed paragraphs that make their point rationally...that's GONE.
Worst thing ever created was making it easy for people to post words on the Internet. At least with owning a computer you were required to have some intelligence to operate it. "Smart phones" allow any monkey to "like" or not, to use their thumbs to lather words they heard from the main stream.
Virtually nobody writes articles. URLs or links are shared and forwarded along with the dreaded Memes that yes, are funny, but so what? I ask people for details and they scatter. I ask them to prove their point and they vanish. People tell me I'm crazy, I can't see what's real...I say show me in detail and they have nothing.
All the above is tied to one's imagination which is tied to one's Intuition (connection with their inner spirit--not their church). I wrote an entire novel on it...nah, crickets. There's memes to glance at, tic-toc videos to laugh at.
Stick a fork in it, humanity is done like dinner. My only hope is this "Devolution" thing which based upon its behavior--it is real.
The other day, the popular with the people man, Andrew Cooperrider, was in the Primaries vs Donald Douglas who magically got elected (appointed) last year. Douglas won over Cooperrider with $400k of "attack ads". And there were those Voting "Machines", ahem COMPUTERS...that have never been used to throw an election, lol.
Where was Rand Paul? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Rand lives in KY. Gov dictator Beshear is in KY. KY has been illegally coerced and damaged by Beshear and his WEF, WHO puppet rulers. What does it take for a POPULAR name like Rand Paul to endorse a man like Cooperrider?? Trump endorses people all the time. And don't give me that State vs Federal crap either.
Rand's behavior = RINO. I don't care what he says. I care WHEN he says it. And Rand is always LATE or doesn't say it at all. People tell me he's scared of retaliation. Well in the words of playing hockey, if you can't take the hits, then don't get on the ice.
Thanks for resharing, I particularly appreciate this as I have just pressed publish on “To Vote or Not to Vote”.
My best lines …”By perpetuating the lie that voting can be an effective way of advancing liberty, it helps to direct people’s energy and focus away from efforts that actually do have the potential to advance liberty. And I don’t want to contribute to that”.
Reminds me of PJ O’Rourke’s book entitled Don’t Vote: It Just Encourages the Bastards. I have difficulty with the concept of voting and always have. When I have voted, it’s been third party. In 1980 I voted for Anderson. I love the concept of the Tenth Amendment but I attended a joint session of the NH State Legislature for a vote on adding language drafted by Thomas Jefferson in 1796 for the KY State Constitution that empowered the KY legislature to vote to not accept any law passed by Congress that was outside the purview of Congress in accordance with the Tenth. Well, the NH legislatures punted and voted it inexpedient to legislate. I started thinking about the Tenth long and hard. Even though many people enter retail politics by running for the school board or City Council just to make a difference, the skeptic in me sees many who start out there having aspirations for higher office. So, I started thinking that, even if such legislation were to be enacted affording a roadmap for States to thwart Congressional overreach, most would leave things alone in the hopes that they would have friends in DC to help them climb the Disraelian greasy pole.
One more thing: libertarian stance on war. Libertarianism stands for responsive force. If someone attacks your country or your people, you are allowed to use responsive force. I say wars that are responsive force are not only legitimate but necessary. Most people don't realize that Thomas Jefferson pursued the Barbary Pirates on the high seas and in their own countries. Is it better to fight a defensive war on OUR soil, exposing our civilians to random violence, or on THEIR soil. I say, fight on THEIR soil. Don't go meddling in wars that don't concern us, like Ukraine. But when they attack, take the war to their turf. Don't just say, well, if we make nice, they'll leave us alone. They won't. It is simply not consistent libertarianism to promote total pacifism. You owe it to your family, your children, to be willing to defend them with responsive force.
I've been more than just a "card carrying Libertarian" before, notably as vice-chair of a county organization within the LP. My experience is that Libertarians are all too anxious to "shake the dust off their sandals" and unwilling to do the things required to be truly competitive in politics. Political parties exist for one reason and one reason only, and that's to win elections. Libertarian Party organizations tend to be philosophical study groups and not real political parties, and I think that's another reason they're ignored electorally. Libertarians had a terrific opportunity to become electorally significant overnight had they endorsed RFK, Jr. Is he a Libertarian ideologue, nope. Does he support some Libertarian positions, yes. Instead, well, they augured in.
Your position makes absolute sense, given your beliefs. And we homeschooled even before it was technically "legal". That said, legalizing marijuana is not a path to liberty. Libertarians hold that we should not punish victimless crimes, and then proceed to call marijuana trafficking and use victimless. I was personally tricked into eating two cookies laced with marijuana. I never wanted to try marijuana, and that was an infringement in the sense of fraud. I was told the cookies were very good. My experience with that was one of the most terrifying of my life. My short term memory was shot to pieces. I was the designated driver, and I was petrified all the way home. This was before the really strong marijuana we have now became available. Marijuana trafficking is not victimless. It destroys the lives of the people to whom they sell, their families, and their communities. In Colorado, traffic deaths increased by at least 50%. Children wound up in the emergency room from having ingested marijuana. My insurance premiums have gone up drastically since marijuana use was legalized here. I am not paying more in taxes, but I am certainly paying more for someone else to put into his body whatever he wants. It doesn't matter WHY it is costing me more. The fact is, it IS costing me more, because of the actions of other people who claim to be free but are enslaved to their drug. I have studied marijuana deeply. It is dangerous and harmful. Selling it to someone is, in my opinion, an act of fraud. And libertarians believe that fraud should not be permitted. People who want to ingest whatever they please have co-opted libertarianism, and you all fell for it.
Big fan of Tom Woods. He's one of several freedom-fighters who kept me sane during the scamdemic. Mises Institute and FEE are great, too. I'll have a look at the others.
Thanks for re-sharing this. I always glean something insightful from each of your pieces.
I love reading Tom Woods' emails. Can't listen to his audio because of hearing loss, and he doesn't care. And he can't handle being disagreed with. He gets nasty. So in many ways, not that good an example. He has a friend named Allan Stevo. If you disagree with Allan, he is always gracious. He doesn't give an inch on his positions, but I firmly believe it takes a person who is completely sure of his convictions to be gracious to those who disagree. Stevo has been a strong opponent of masks and Covid shots, and as I understand it, a founder of Bitcoin, so he has the credentials. The difference is, he is always gracious, whereas Tom Woods is nasty to those who disagree. And to me that makes all the difference.
A couple of things... has "Liberty" ever existed? The 1828 definition of Liberty:
1. Freedom from restraint, in a general sense, and applicable to the body, or to the will or mind. The body is at liberty when not confined; the will or mind is at liberty when not checked or controlled. A man enjoys liberty when no physical force operates to restrain his actions or volitions.
There's more, but that's the gist. "Freedom from Restraint". Ironically "control" (rules, laws) are the opposite of liberty, thus a balancing act has to exist.
Our current times show that the little people have no liberty other than behind closed doors of their home.
**Then I have to question the popular presumption of "politics" whereby there's only a "deep state" and nothing older, more organized. To look behind that curtain is "conspiracy" which was coined by the CIA in the fifties. Politicians even wrote books then, and up to today, much research shows that your CIA, NSA, etc, (Deep State) are not in control but only glorified sheriff departments.
Politicians are paid pawns who follow orders, nothing more. There is no "Nanci Pelosi" et all planning anything other than "get this done" from their handlers.
Politicians are not in power. The WEF or world economic forum has been blamed for ruling the world as of late along with the WHO. NOPE. You can't solve a problem if you can't find the cause.
**The number one cause we're in this New Normal mess is the level of thinking, and lack thereof, that has allowed it to take place. With the help of Social Media, Smart Phones, we have the very ignorant able to make the Color Revolutions happen.
People today only delve in word labels without realizing the gears and engines that they represent. "Massformation Psychosis" has become a popular word that nobody knows in detail how it works or is created. Claiming it's mind control via repetition is ignorant. Now I'm offending people.
And that's another reason we're in the place we're in. People have no backbone. They get offended AND quit, instead of studying the details of what they believe the offense is. But this takes effort and a strong rational deductive mind--also gone extinct.
Frankly, people go after this voting thing because there's nothing else they're setup to do.
I think your final point is spot on. What we are faced with is a crisis of imagination. Most Americans have been taught since childhood that the way to "change the world" is to vote. And most of them grow up believing this at a deep level. So even when they can see that it's not working, they just don't have anything else in their toolkit, and so continue to bang their head against that wall.
Fortunately, there ARE other things we can do.
Imagination. Great topic. Look at the writing of everything in how basic it has become, and frankly incompetent. Fiction, whether books or Hollywood, can't write to save their life. Advancing the plot through ridiculous character "mistakes" has become how scenes are designed. Anything goes other than rational articulation of human behavior.
Social media of any kind has people refusing to type more than a dozen words. Detailed paragraphs that make their point rationally...that's GONE.
Worst thing ever created was making it easy for people to post words on the Internet. At least with owning a computer you were required to have some intelligence to operate it. "Smart phones" allow any monkey to "like" or not, to use their thumbs to lather words they heard from the main stream.
Virtually nobody writes articles. URLs or links are shared and forwarded along with the dreaded Memes that yes, are funny, but so what? I ask people for details and they scatter. I ask them to prove their point and they vanish. People tell me I'm crazy, I can't see what's real...I say show me in detail and they have nothing.
All the above is tied to one's imagination which is tied to one's Intuition (connection with their inner spirit--not their church). I wrote an entire novel on it...nah, crickets. There's memes to glance at, tic-toc videos to laugh at.
Stick a fork in it, humanity is done like dinner. My only hope is this "Devolution" thing which based upon its behavior--it is real.
The other day, the popular with the people man, Andrew Cooperrider, was in the Primaries vs Donald Douglas who magically got elected (appointed) last year. Douglas won over Cooperrider with $400k of "attack ads". And there were those Voting "Machines", ahem COMPUTERS...that have never been used to throw an election, lol.
Where was Rand Paul? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Rand lives in KY. Gov dictator Beshear is in KY. KY has been illegally coerced and damaged by Beshear and his WEF, WHO puppet rulers. What does it take for a POPULAR name like Rand Paul to endorse a man like Cooperrider?? Trump endorses people all the time. And don't give me that State vs Federal crap either.
Rand's behavior = RINO. I don't care what he says. I care WHEN he says it. And Rand is always LATE or doesn't say it at all. People tell me he's scared of retaliation. Well in the words of playing hockey, if you can't take the hits, then don't get on the ice.
Thanks for resharing, I particularly appreciate this as I have just pressed publish on “To Vote or Not to Vote”.
My best lines …”By perpetuating the lie that voting can be an effective way of advancing liberty, it helps to direct people’s energy and focus away from efforts that actually do have the potential to advance liberty. And I don’t want to contribute to that”.
Thanks!!
Reminds me of PJ O’Rourke’s book entitled Don’t Vote: It Just Encourages the Bastards. I have difficulty with the concept of voting and always have. When I have voted, it’s been third party. In 1980 I voted for Anderson. I love the concept of the Tenth Amendment but I attended a joint session of the NH State Legislature for a vote on adding language drafted by Thomas Jefferson in 1796 for the KY State Constitution that empowered the KY legislature to vote to not accept any law passed by Congress that was outside the purview of Congress in accordance with the Tenth. Well, the NH legislatures punted and voted it inexpedient to legislate. I started thinking about the Tenth long and hard. Even though many people enter retail politics by running for the school board or City Council just to make a difference, the skeptic in me sees many who start out there having aspirations for higher office. So, I started thinking that, even if such legislation were to be enacted affording a roadmap for States to thwart Congressional overreach, most would leave things alone in the hopes that they would have friends in DC to help them climb the Disraelian greasy pole.
One more thing: libertarian stance on war. Libertarianism stands for responsive force. If someone attacks your country or your people, you are allowed to use responsive force. I say wars that are responsive force are not only legitimate but necessary. Most people don't realize that Thomas Jefferson pursued the Barbary Pirates on the high seas and in their own countries. Is it better to fight a defensive war on OUR soil, exposing our civilians to random violence, or on THEIR soil. I say, fight on THEIR soil. Don't go meddling in wars that don't concern us, like Ukraine. But when they attack, take the war to their turf. Don't just say, well, if we make nice, they'll leave us alone. They won't. It is simply not consistent libertarianism to promote total pacifism. You owe it to your family, your children, to be willing to defend them with responsive force.
I've been more than just a "card carrying Libertarian" before, notably as vice-chair of a county organization within the LP. My experience is that Libertarians are all too anxious to "shake the dust off their sandals" and unwilling to do the things required to be truly competitive in politics. Political parties exist for one reason and one reason only, and that's to win elections. Libertarian Party organizations tend to be philosophical study groups and not real political parties, and I think that's another reason they're ignored electorally. Libertarians had a terrific opportunity to become electorally significant overnight had they endorsed RFK, Jr. Is he a Libertarian ideologue, nope. Does he support some Libertarian positions, yes. Instead, well, they augured in.
Your position makes absolute sense, given your beliefs. And we homeschooled even before it was technically "legal". That said, legalizing marijuana is not a path to liberty. Libertarians hold that we should not punish victimless crimes, and then proceed to call marijuana trafficking and use victimless. I was personally tricked into eating two cookies laced with marijuana. I never wanted to try marijuana, and that was an infringement in the sense of fraud. I was told the cookies were very good. My experience with that was one of the most terrifying of my life. My short term memory was shot to pieces. I was the designated driver, and I was petrified all the way home. This was before the really strong marijuana we have now became available. Marijuana trafficking is not victimless. It destroys the lives of the people to whom they sell, their families, and their communities. In Colorado, traffic deaths increased by at least 50%. Children wound up in the emergency room from having ingested marijuana. My insurance premiums have gone up drastically since marijuana use was legalized here. I am not paying more in taxes, but I am certainly paying more for someone else to put into his body whatever he wants. It doesn't matter WHY it is costing me more. The fact is, it IS costing me more, because of the actions of other people who claim to be free but are enslaved to their drug. I have studied marijuana deeply. It is dangerous and harmful. Selling it to someone is, in my opinion, an act of fraud. And libertarians believe that fraud should not be permitted. People who want to ingest whatever they please have co-opted libertarianism, and you all fell for it.