Happy John Galt Day!
The following celebratory message from ClaireWolfe, one of the most tireless, prolific, entertaining and insightful writers for Freedom and Liberty among us. BW
Mythperceptions and a vision of freedom
Urge people to free themselves, or even offer a little good news about freedom, and somebody is bound to retort with some anti-freedom myth. Two big ones that have made appearances in recent comment sections here at Ye Olde Blog are:
Government is so powerful it’ll stop us. (It’ll disarm us, cut off our ‘Net access, round us all up and put us in camps, etc.)
Yes, but there will still be people who … (Want to take our guns, support government programs, can’t handle freedom, etc.)
That second one doesn’t look like a myth on its face. There will always be people who want to use power to oppress others. There will always be people who don’t hold our values (in fact, from year-to-year we may not even hold our own values). But the statement expresses a myth: We can’t be free until everyone agrees with us.
And you know what? Those statements are just a big lazy pair of excuses.
Government’s biggest power is this: it’s better than any human force on earth at perpetrating violence and creating chaos. Yes, it’s excellent at that.
But fer cryin’ out loud! Take our guns? Deprive us of the ‘Net? Round us up? Or whatever other giant sweep we may fear? Just go ahead and let some government try.
Then we’ll see how “powerful” government is.
All you have to do is look at the drug war, a battle the fedgov’s been waging since 1937, and that’s been all-out for decades. Yeah, it’s damaged millions of lives. Yeah, it’s killed people. Yeah, yeah, yeah, to all the bad things. And you can still get damn near any drug you want in any place you go looking for it. More potent and cheaper than ever.
Some “power.” That’s the all-mighty force you’re so afraid of?
And all those Other People who want to repress us or who just can’t properly wrap their brains around the ideas of Rothbard or McElroy or whoever … so what?
You really think you can’t be free until everyone’s converted to your point of view? Then you’re just another futile, door-banging proselytizer (except I’ll bet you don’t even bother banging on doors; you just sit and whine about how people are so stupid or so wrong).
You really think you can’t be free until everyone thinks like you? Well, that’s a damned handy way to say, “I don’t really want to be free.” Because — thank gods — we’re never going to have a world where everybody’s on the same political page.
All we really need to do is keep other people’s (bad) ideas from controlling how we think and live. Yes, it would be very nice if we could wrest gummint from their control-freaking little hands. But barring that, we always have the freedom to shrug them and their opinions and their laws and regulations off our shoulders.
They’re our shoulders, after all. Our minds. Our bodies. Our property. Always have been. Always will be.
And OMG, with the amazing freedom technologies and attitudes expanding all around us, we have more help, more inspiration, and more allies than ever in world history.
We live in scary times — and in a world of freedomista wonders.
Is it dangerous to be free when others around you aren’t?
You betcha.
But if you insist on safety and conformity above all, if you insist the every, single condition be just so before you’ll make a move, then you don’t know the first thing about freedom and you never will.
Quit making excuses. Get out and do some freedom.
Government is so powerful it’ll stop us. (It’ll disarm us, cut off our ‘Net access, round us all up and put us in camps, etc.)
Yes, but there will still be people who … (Want to take our guns, support government programs, can’t handle freedom, etc.)
That second one doesn’t look like a myth on its face. There will always be people who want to use power to oppress others. There will always be people who don’t hold our values (in fact, from year-to-year we may not even hold our own values). But the statement expresses a myth: We can’t be free until everyone agrees with us.
And you know what? Those statements are just a big lazy pair of excuses.
Government’s biggest power is this: it’s better than any human force on earth at perpetrating violence and creating chaos. Yes, it’s excellent at that.
But fer cryin’ out loud! Take our guns? Deprive us of the ‘Net? Round us up? Or whatever other giant sweep we may fear? Just go ahead and let some government try.
Then we’ll see how “powerful” government is.
All you have to do is look at the drug war, a battle the fedgov’s been waging since 1937, and that’s been all-out for decades. Yeah, it’s damaged millions of lives. Yeah, it’s killed people. Yeah, yeah, yeah, to all the bad things. And you can still get damn near any drug you want in any place you go looking for it. More potent and cheaper than ever.
Some “power.” That’s the all-mighty force you’re so afraid of?
And all those Other People who want to repress us or who just can’t properly wrap their brains around the ideas of Rothbard or McElroy or whoever … so what?
You really think you can’t be free until everyone’s converted to your point of view? Then you’re just another futile, door-banging proselytizer (except I’ll bet you don’t even bother banging on doors; you just sit and whine about how people are so stupid or so wrong).
You really think you can’t be free until everyone thinks like you? Well, that’s a damned handy way to say, “I don’t really want to be free.” Because — thank gods — we’re never going to have a world where everybody’s on the same political page.
All we really need to do is keep other people’s (bad) ideas from controlling how we think and live. Yes, it would be very nice if we could wrest gummint from their control-freaking little hands. But barring that, we always have the freedom to shrug them and their opinions and their laws and regulations off our shoulders.
They’re our shoulders, after all. Our minds. Our bodies. Our property. Always have been. Always will be.
And OMG, with the amazing freedom technologies and attitudes expanding all around us, we have more help, more inspiration, and more allies than ever in world history.
We live in scary times — and in a world of freedomista wonders.
Is it dangerous to be free when others around you aren’t?
You betcha.
But if you insist on safety and conformity above all, if you insist the every, single condition be just so before you’ll make a move, then you don’t know the first thing about freedom and you never will.
Quit making excuses. Get out and do some freedom.
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