Had Enough Yet?

[CCTelander]

Since political activism seems to be the only alternative that garners any support around here, here's an idea in that vein that I think actually has some merit. Hell, it's possible that even many of those who normally eschew political solutions might find it worthy of their support.


An earlier version of this essay appeared in The Libertarian Enterprise

For each of us who demands nothing more from the civilization we live in — and contribute our efforts to — than absolute ownership and control of our own lives (and, as Ayn Rand noted, the products of our lives) there has been nothing but increasingly bad news for as long as most of us can remember.

Since the turn of the 20th century, collectivism — referred to by every conceivable euphemism: communism, progressivism, socialism, fascism, liberalism, environmentalism — has taken more and more and more away from us. It is insatiable. It wants everything we earn, everything we own, everything we ever hope to own. It wants our homes, our land, and our children. It wants our cars and our weapons. It wants our very lives and it strives for the means to observe and control them every minute, every step, and every breath.

Any ally we ever hoped we might rely on, every organization we turned to — or created ourselves — to put a stop to this horror, betrays us sooner or later. The Republican Party, the Democatic Party, unions, the Libertarian Party, the National Rifle Association, even the Boy Scouts of America are run by idiots, lunatics, crooks, and outright traitors. Most of these people are simply weak-willed sponges chosen for their abject compliance to whatever is considered politically correct at the moment. There isn’t a university in this country worth the sewage it generates.

http://elneil.rationalreview.com/2009/07/01/had-enough-yet/

It might even be combined with this idea for an effective one-two punch.

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2007/tle436-20070923-02.html

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2007/tle435-20070916-02.html

I'd suggest that it's well worth the time to read all three of those essays carefully, then read them again. Then give the ideas a little thought. Maybe, just maybe the ideas presented therein could produce some real results.

[CCTelander]

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[ScoutsHonor]

The drawback is, it requires our congress/critters to enact a law that would promote freedom.

Would they do it?

[CCTelander]

The drawback is, it requires our congress/critters to enact a law that would promote freedom.

Would they do it?

Probably not. But that, I think, isn't where the primary value of the idea is. If you could just make enough noise about it, show a significant level of popular support, it might cause at least a few of them to back off a bit on their socialistic agenda, buying us a little time. Much like RP's audit the fed bill, the value is not all to be found in actually getting it passed.

[ScoutsHonor]

Probably not. But that, I think, isn't where the primary value of the idea is. If you could just make enough noise about it, show a significant level of popular support, it might cause at least a few of them to back off a bit on their socialistic agenda, buying us a little time. Much like RP's audit the fed bill, the value is not all to be found in actually getting it passed.

Yes, I see your point....
Too bad we can't get some actual representation out of those fakers, though.

[YumYum]

Probably not. But that, I think, isn't where the primary value of the idea is. If you could just make enough noise about it, show a significant level of popular support, it might cause at least a few of them to back off a bit on their socialistic agenda, buying us a little time. Much like RP's audit the fed bill, the value is not all to be found in actually getting it passed.

When I read L. Neil Smith's articles, it hit me how short life is. I'm still young and everything is going to shit. He spent all his life as an activist, only to be disappointed that things have gotten worse, not better. Sometimes I think fighting our system may be a waste of time, but then on the other hand it is my future that I have to face. True change can only happen when everything collapses. After reading his thoughts, I've decided that all the bad news we hear about our government means that we are getting that much closer to the end of all the bullshit. As far as I'm concerned: bad news is good news.

[CCTelander]

When I read L. Neil Smith's articles, it hit me how short life is. I'm still young and everything is going to shit. He spent all his life as an activist, only to be disappointed that things have gotten worse, not better. Sometimes I think fighting our system may be a waste of time, but then on the other hand it is my future that I have to face. True change can only happen when everything collapses. After reading his thoughts, I've decided that all the bad news we hear about our government means that we are getting that much closer to the end of all the bullshit. As far as I'm concerned: bad news is good news.

I haven't been doing this as long a Smith has, but I was basically born into the "liberty movement," and have been an active participant since HS in the mid 1970s. And yes, it definitely DOES get discouraging at times.

But fighting it is never a waste of time. The trick is to do it intelligently, to use the very limited resources available to their absolute best effect.

One of the most valuable resources we have available is the knowledge and experience gained by those who have been doing this for long periods of time, which is one of the best things Smith brings to the table. He's seen a lot and learned a lot from it. He's made mistakes and learned from those too. If we're just intelligent enough to listen to people like him, we could probably accomplish a LOT more than we already are.

Something to think about, anyway.

[CCTelander]

When I read L. Neil Smith's articles, it hit me how short life is. I'm still young and everything is going to shit. He spent all his life as an activist, only to be disappointed that things have gotten worse, not better. Sometimes I think fighting our system may be a waste of time, but then on the other hand it is my future that I have to face. True change can only happen when everything collapses. After reading his thoughts, I've decided that all the bad news we hear about our government means that we are getting that much closer to the end of all the bullshit. As far as I'm concerned: bad news is good news.

Also wrt your comments.

Empires have collapsed before without the parent nation fading away into oblivion.

The Roman Empire collapsed, yet Italy remains. The European Empires all pretty much collapsed, but the parent countries still exist. Argentina and Zimbabwe have both experienced major economic upheavals, but those countries are still around too.

The US ECONOMY will collapse at some point, maybe very soon, maybe not for a decade or more. The problem lies in the fact that the US Government isn't necessarily going anywhere. Tyranny AFTER an economic collapse could be orders of magnitude worse than it is already, or it could be MUCH better, or even non-existent. That part's up to us.

The collapse itself isn't guaranteed to create any change at all. What really changes things is when the attitudes and beliefs of PEOPLE are changed.

Whetehr one believes that electoral politics is a good approach or not, NOTHING is going to really change until enough people are convinced that using violence, even by proxy through government, to get what they want is a bad idea. Do that and everything changes massively, for the better, almost automatically.

[constituent]

The problem lies in the fact that the US Government isn't necessarily going anywhere. Tyranny AFTER an economic collapse could be orders of magnitude worse than it is already, or it could be MUCH better, or even non-existent. That part's up to us.

The collapse itself isn't guaranteed to create any change at all. What really changes things is when the attitudes and beliefs of PEOPLE are changed.

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[newbitech]

Also wrt your comments.

Empires have collapsed before without the parent nation fading away into oblivion.

The Roman Empire collapsed, yet Italy remains. The European Empires all pretty much collapsed, but the parent countries still exist. Argentina and Zimbabwe have both experienced major economic upheavals, but those countries are still around too.

The US ECONOMY will collapse at some point, maybe very soon, maybe not for a decade or more. The problem lies in the fact that the US Government isn't necessarily going anywhere. Tyranny AFTER an economic collapse could be orders of magnitude worse than it is already, or it could be MUCH better, or even non-existent. That part's up to us.

The collapse itself isn't guaranteed to create any change at all. What really changes things is when the attitudes and beliefs of PEOPLE are changed.

Whetehr one believes that electoral politics is a good approach or not, NOTHING is going to really change until enough people are convinced that using violence, even by proxy through government, to get what they want is a bad idea. Do that and everything changes massively, for the better, almost automatically.

do behaviors and actions also fit in here?

[CCTelander]

do behaviors and actions also fit in here?

When attitudes and beliefs change, actions and behaviors usually change right along with them.

[CCTelander]

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[LittleLightShining]

When I read L. Neil Smith's articles, it hit me how short life is. I'm still young and everything is going to shit. He spent all his life as an activist, only to be disappointed that things have gotten worse, not better. Sometimes I think fighting our system may be a waste of time, but then on the other hand it is my future that I have to face. True change can only happen when everything collapses. After reading his thoughts, I've decided that all the bad news we hear about our government means that we are getting that much closer to the end of all the bullshit. As far as I'm concerned: bad news is good news.

"Let it not be said we did nothing." -- Ron Paul

[CCTelander]

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[CCTelander]

I thought this excerpt from one of the Smith essays was particularly interesting, and useful:


There is a way to knock another leg from under the three-legged stool of government, public schools, and media, a workable substitute for conventional politics that demands no compromise on the part of those who wish to be free. What's more, if the enemies of liberty possess no integrity, it can even make that fact an asset, instead of the frustrating liability it's always seemed to be.

From now on, whenever you hear reporters lying on radio or television, or read lies they've written in newspapers or magazines—about the internet, about your right to own and carry weapons, about Waco, about anything—wait for the next commercial, or take note of the nearest quarter- or half-page advertisement, the kind of ads that constitute a publication's "bread and butter".

Now ordinarily, if you did anything about any of the million lies a day the media spew at you and your children, it would simply be to complain about it to a friend in person or on the internet, or write a letter to the editor. A letter you know will be published only if it makes your side look like a gaggle of lunatics. A letter which, if it fails to serve their purposes, the editorial crew will snigger at obscenely, crumple into a sweaty little ball, and toss into the circular file—"Missed, dammit! How about three out of five?"

Instead of going through that useless empty ritual one more time, write your letter to that advertiser, telling him about what you've just read in the publication, or heard on the station, whose bills he pays with his advertising fees. Tell him the intellectual thugs whose wages he pays are lying about all the vital issues of the day. (Each of us has his own pet peeve, and you can stick to that if you prefer.) They're trying to help vile pressure groups and politicians deprive you of your rights. They're trying to get you injured or killed—and even worse, to get your children injured or killed—on his nickel!

Pretend you're a liberal, or that he is. Don't let it sound intellectual. Keep it easily understandable, expressed in short words and shorter sentences. Stick to one concept per letter. Make your pen or keyboard drip with emotion. Think with your tear ducts (and parts south). Tell him he's helping evil be perpetrated. He pays for it, therefore it's his fault. If he's the average guy who manages a furniture store, he won't know what to do with a letter like this, blaming him for all the world's problems. If he gets a dozen, and they all seem independent and spontaneous, he may quit selling furniture and join a monastery!

So now it's time to reverse yourself (remember, you're a liberal, or he is) and let him off the hook. Tell him that you don't necessarily hold him responsible. After all, we're men of the world. We know that newspaper and TV people are the "something worse" that scum keeps from floating to the top.

But don't forget to ask him this question: if the newspaper or TV station lies about something as simple and basic, for example, as the Bill of Rights, then why should anybody believe anything they have say about his goods or services? Don't threaten or bluster—nobody actually gives a damn in any case, and your guilt-trip was just a buildup to the punchline—simply demand an answer to your question. If they'll lie about A and B then why not C and D?

Now comes the most important part: be sure and send a copy of your letter to the newspaper or television station. But don't send it to the editorial department. Send it to the advertising manager. He'll pay close attention to it. He never gets any letters, except from the advertisers themselves, bitching that last Tuesday's grocery store double-trucker employed the wrong typeface.

Unlike the hairsprayheads and J-school graduates upstairs who only think they run the joint, he doesn't care that you can be credibly blown off as a "right-wing kook". He won't argue with you about what the Second Amendment "really" provides. And he won't sniff haughtily that your letter is eleven words over some 400-word limit. The only thing he cares about is advertising revenue.

If he thinks editorial's policy is fiscally harmful, he'll go straight to the top management and—provided you're consistent and persistent enough—the First Amendment be damned, they'll come down on editorial like a ton of bricks.

Before I wrote this column, I checked with Vin Suprynowicz, the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review Journal, celebrated syndicated columnist, and editor-in-chief of The Libertarian Enterprise. Vin's worked all his adult life at papers of varying size across the country. I asked him if the idea was sound and how many letters might be required to have noticable effect.

Vin astonished me by replying that six or seven letters a week for three to five months would probably do the trick. I'd thought it would take many times that number and at least twice that long. If he's only half right, then a mere 300 letters could, in only half a year, change the editorial policy of the most left-wing metropolitan birdcage liners. As if by a miracle (the usual kind, requiring lots of elbow-grease and skull-sweat on our part) the "little men" by whom we find ourselves governed will have lost one more pillar of support.

Naturally, there's no reason you can't wage this kind of campaign all by yourself. On the other hand, if you and your friends get together and hold a "Libertyware Party" on a regular basis—say, monthly—you can share any research you've done (you may find that addresses are remarkably hard to root out for certain national advertisers who want your money but don't want any other kind of contact with their customers) and plan ways to distribute your letters throughout the month in order to make them appear as independent and spontaneous as you want them to. Be sure you all use different kinds of paper or stationery, different ink colors, and different handwriting, typewriters, or printer typefaces. It sure beats standing in the rain collecting petition signatures.

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2007/tle435-20070916-02.html

If small groups around the country would undertake adding this idea to their activist activities I think that within a surprisingly short period of time, say within a year or two, a great deal could be accomplished.

I think it would be best to focus on LOCAL broadcast and print media outlets, and LOCAL advertisers, since the influence we have at the local level is significantly greater than at the national level.

Imagine what things might be like if even your local media outlets were actually printing and broadcasting something that at least resembled the truth most of the time.

[CCTelander]

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[cheapseats]

The drawback is, it requires our congress/critters to enact a law that would promote freedom.

Would they do it?

No.

[cheapseats]

Much like RP's audit the fed bill, the value is not all to be found in actually getting it passed.

Indeed not.

Audit The Fed calls for the notorious Fed to be audited by other arms/agencies of a notorious Government.

[cheapseats]

Yes, I see your point....
Too bad we can't get some actual representation out of those fakers, though.

We can.

Not by playing Softball, however.

The famed and acclaimed Political Process is a league BELOW Softball. More akin to T-Ball.

[cheapseats]

When I read L. Neil Smith's articles, it hit me how short life is. I'm still young and everything is going to shit. He spent all his life as an activist, only to be disappointed that things have gotten worse, not better.

That's right. Life is short and the world is big.

We don't get any of this time back, and our mobility grows daily more restricted - whether by price of gas, price of travel, necessary documentation, unsafe passage, dodgy welcome, you name it.

Contained on a postage stamp, workin' for The Man - sun up to sundown, age of Eureka Emancipation to age of Hallelujah Salvation.

UNCONSCIONABLE.

That is not Life, but Servitude.

For those who believe in God, it is an INSULT to God's limitless greatness.

Those who DON'T believe in God, I ESPECIALLY wonder what the hell YOU'RE waiting for.

[cheapseats]

Sometimes I think fighting our system may be a waste of time, but then on the other hand it is my future that I have to face.

However, we better get real about this and we better do it soon: FIGHTING THE SYSTEM the same-old-same-old way IS PART OF THE SYSTEM.

Lingering-more-like-languishing in THAT fight-more-like-game is not only a waste of invaluable time, it plays right into their hands - which is irritating beyond words.

Like lingering-more-like-languishing at war. Every single day that we do, some Assholes are makin' Big Bucks. They could do this FOREVER, and will. Like a "fight" wherein the longer, stronger arm of one can keep the other so far at bay that punches don't even connect. Like a cartoon.

[cheapseats]

I haven't been doing this as long a Smith has, but I was basically born into the "liberty movement," and have been an active participant since HS in the mid 1970s. And yes, it definitely DOES get discouraging at times.

Not me.

I woke up to this crapola this millennium. No way Jose am I gonna keep throwing good time after bad, sans Public Support. Fuck 'em. Survival of the Fittest.

Like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum and refusing to leave a store, 'cuz he knows the parent won't really leave him behind. WATCH ME.




But fighting it is never a waste of time. The trick is to do it intelligently, to use the very limited resources available to their absolute best effect.


Some fighting IS a waste of time, it must be owned.

Hence the expression, PICK YOUR BATTLES.




One of the most valuable resources we have available is the knowledge and experience gained by those who have been doing this for long periods of time, which is one of the best things Smith brings to the table. He's seen a lot and learned a lot from it. He's made mistakes and learned from those too. If we're just intelligent enough to listen to people like him, we could probably accomplish a LOT more than we already are.

Recall that things have gotten WORSE. Maybe this man is NOT a treasure trove of strategery, I dunno. But there ARE strategeries. Maybe the hapless American people should hire Bill Ayers as a consultant. Or the Mafia as protection.

The more I see, the less I know, but I know, one thing: When America means business, America imposes Economic Sanctions.

The bottom line IS the Bottom Line.

[cheapseats]

True change can only happen when everything collapses.

Collapse MAY be required before Individuals meaningfully change. I know it was so for me.

But that Societies can change without total collapse is evident by global encroachment of Socialism/Communism, even in Rugged Individualist America.

[cheapseats]

...The problem lies in the fact that the US Government isn't necessarily going anywhere. Tyranny AFTER an economic collapse could be orders of magnitude worse than it is already, or it could be MUCH better, or even non-existent. That part's up to us.

Y'know when people say GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE? Guns seriously help, it must be conceded.

Government has quite a lot of the say on this one.




Whetehr one believes that electoral politics is a good approach or not, NOTHING is going to really change until enough people are convinced that using violence, even by proxy through government, to get what they want is a bad idea. Do that and everything changes massively, for the better, almost automatically.

I agree CONCEPTUALLY, of course, that violence is the worst policy, yada yada.

HOWEVER, comma, NO ONE relinquishes Power without a fight - unless they're passing the mantle.

[CCTelander]

Indeed not.

Audit The Fed calls for the notorious Fed to be audited by other arms/agencies of a notorious Government.

Absolutely true. I'm not at all convinced that, even if 1207 passed and real audits were conducted, it would actually improve things much.

However, I am convinced that it's already done some good by putting the "bad guys" on the defensive, by making them sweat a little, by forcing them to expend time, energy and other resources to defend against it. Now, imagine if there were another 5, or 10, or 50, or 100 such bills and constitutional amendments floating around out there.

I don't think this approach will ever wind up winning the war. But I do think it's a more fruitful course of action for the political junkies among us than simply and exclusively engaging in electoral politics.