Here’s the political issue that matters: Government is crime.
When your local City Hall tells you which trees you must plant in your yard, that’s a crime against you.
When your state taxes your income in order to give your money to people who did not earn it, that’s a crime against you.
When the federal government dictates the specifications of the products you can buy and the tariffs you must pay to obtain products you want still more, that’s a crime against you.
We are not a family composed of 300 million strangers, we are each one of us individual human beings, each with our own minds, our own lives, our own families, our own hopes, dreams, wishes and plans. When the government impedes your life in any way — that’s a crime against you.
We don’t need to reduce this or reform that, we need to rid our civilization of this systemic criminality.
That is the message we should be hearing from the newly-elected presumptive friends of human liberty. If the new Congress is not committed to individual rights, then it’s just more Collectivism-on-the-Cheap: All the intrusiveness but even less satisfying!
Nobody is going to change anything overnight, nor very dramatically very soon. But if we don’t start making dramatic changes in the way we govern ourselves, we will succeed only in enslaving ourselves and our children.
That is what we need to focus on: Ridding our society of all criminal intrusions into the lives of individuals innocent of all wrong-doing.
So-called technological and economic “miracles” will result, of course, but that’s irrelevant. It is wrong to prey upon individual human beings, no matter what the nature of the predator. It is no less an abomination to be enslaved by a democracy than by an aristocracy or a dictatorship. It was freedom from all forms of tyranny that the American patriots fought to win for themselves and their children.
If you want freedom, demand freedom — which can only mean individual freedom. Demand that your governments stop committing crimes against you and your neighbors.
If you’re not willing to do this, you and the people you elect to represent you in government, then you might as well stand down. Individual liberty is the only just political philosophy, and if you won’t fight for it now, then collectivist tyranny will complete its conquest of the once-free world in due course.
A Question says:
A libertarian view?
Or opposition to the concept of management?
January 26, 2011 — 8:16 am
Greg Swann says:
> opposition to the concept of management?
If you claim you have the authority to manage your livestock, I will agree with you. Is it your claim that you or someone or “everyone” has the authority to manage human beings as if they were livestock?
January 26, 2011 — 10:00 am
Sean Purcell says:
The most important aspect of being a good coach in sports, is the ability to say the same damn thing over and over in different ways until you’ve reached every player on the team… Good on you Greg.
January 26, 2011 — 11:46 am
Greg Swann says:
> Good on you Greg.
Bless you, sir. Thank you.
That essay is 443 words including the headline. I’m trying to write for viral propagation, ideally getting into the spam-letters sent out by so many older email users. This is as close as I get to charity. There’s no money in it for me, but I want to spread this meme, if I can.
January 26, 2011 — 11:55 am
Nicole Arsenault says:
(duplicated comment-sans city-in the event that you view ‘City info’ in the name as Keyword Spam-just trying to be respectful:) )
Preach it! I thoroughly enjoyed this read, but I am surprised you haven’t incited any differing takes on the situation. Yet!
I plan on tweeting this momentarily to help you further your platform! Keep up the good, thought-provoking work.
January 26, 2011 — 12:55 pm
Greg Swann says:
Good on ya, Nicole. Thanks.
January 26, 2011 — 12:58 pm
Nicole Arsenault says:
Anytime! I try to follow the rules, sometime. 🙂 I will be back to read more. Just about to add your blog to my Google Reader…
January 26, 2011 — 1:18 pm
Teri Lussier says:
>It is no less an abomination to be enslaved by a democracy than by an aristocracy or a dictatorship.
I love it! I’m stealing it. I’m hammering this into one particular head at the moment. Hammering is too strong a word- we keep tossing options and opinions back and forth as his brain absorbs and attempts to make sense of the world. Interesting conversations to be sure and I’m forced to be on the top of my game, so to speak, in order to keep up. I visit BHB for back up and reinforcements. You keep writing, I’ll keep preaching (just Southern talk, I’m not really preaching).
January 27, 2011 — 5:48 pm
Tom Bryant says:
Simply and beautifully stated, Greg.
January 28, 2011 — 9:33 pm