For many reading this, you have probably already discovered, if by sheer luck or research, that you are not free. You are living in a slave state and depending on which geographical area you live in, it could be more or less tyranny; but tyranny all the same. Take for example, the USSA, the so called “free country”: it employs agents (police, military, other bullshit ABC agencies) that carry out orders on behalf of an overarching institution of violence. This institution, the State, is able to cross into the spatial realm (see Second Realm Book on Strategy) through culture, such as pieces of cloth that people violently and religiously protect, songs, fervent nationalism, and a dying love for captors, so much so that many would rat out other fellow citizens for not subscribing to the popular authoritarian narrative of loving government because it provides safety, security, and all one could ever want in exchange for compliance and docility.
Some wonder, how could I ever fight against the grain of a multi-trillion dollar ruling class with dependent parasitic minions at their beckoned call? Some (wrongly) turn to politics as a solution, thinking that if “we” could just get people in there, then somehow, if a stars-aligning rare event takes place, then–and only then–can they begin to think about their own liberty. Well, to be perfectly frank, this is completely ass backwards. In Ayn Rand’s, The Virtue of Selfishness, she writes:
An Individualist is a man who lives for his own sake and by his own mind; he neither sacrifices himself to others nor sacrifices others to himself; he deals with men as a trader – not as a looter; as a producer – not as a Attila.
Once you realize that it’s a fool’s errand to try and single handedly change a servile society that is not only dependent on its servitude, but would be reluctant (if not violently opposed) to giving it up, the more you will come to understand that self-liberation is the only real solution to liberty. The State would like nothing more than to send you off on some wild goose chase, collecting ballot access petitions in the rain, pursuing misinformation, launching and staging revolutions where the end result involves begging the masters to loosen the chains, and spinning your wheels until your inevitable demise. THEY DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOU, so stop begging them.
But, where do you start? Some don’t go diving head first into a full on exit from slavery; that would be a little like moving a house plant to the outside or uncaging an animal after a lifetime of captivity. Instead, make a smart and thoughtful exit without becoming too comfortable with your current state-of-affairs. The goal is to break away, not to linger around for years on end and then wonder–wow, where did the time go? Where did my life go?
Some Things I Have Been Doing
Quit Following the Herd
This may sound callous or even cold, but there are people around you that you interact with daily that may not have your best interest in mind. If you have come to this point, where you agree that self-liberation is key and have read many individualist books on the topic, congratulations you are a rare breed. I’d be willing to bet that there are only about 0.01% of the current population would share the title “individualist”, and even more rare to find someone that embraces the non-aggression principle and the ideas of voluntaryism.
But, the point is not to be pessimistic, just recognize that 99% of people (including those you interact with) are part of the collective, servile society. I’m not pitching some kind of isolationism or a type of hermit-like existence, but in order to break free from the herd, it may be necessary to not follow them so blindly. For example, your friends are always out partying (nothing wrong with a good party), but then criticize you for reading books and spending more and more time in the wilderness…this guy must be off his rocker, they must think. Speaking from personal experience, at some point I had to say, you know what, I’m not going to sing your sacred anthem, listen to your simple minded songs, and participate in your distractions anymore. And, to me, that has made just a little bit more of a difference in my own self liberation.
I go where I want, when I want, and do what I feel like doing.
Spend Days on End in the Middle of Nowhere
The wilderness is a great place to think and meditate, and to paraphrase Thoreau, bring life to it’s simplest terms.
I like to go and spend the day out in the middle of the woods where (preferably) no one is around. Winter is a great time for this, since most are nestled comfortably in their square boxes in front of the telescreen. I have been on many trails near my geographical area and love observing nature’s spontaneous order. There are no central planners out here telling the birds to fly or the deer to find soft patches of green vegetation just beneath the frozen snow. I could spend a day out there and accomplish more mentally than in an entire week cooped up at a desk feeding tax revenues to the parasitic class.
Eventually, I’d like to increase the time out in the woods to weeks, but this obviously requires preparation and proper supplies, particularly during the winter months. It’s quite easy to find plentiful edible foods on the trail, but winter is more difficult so I’ll have to bring out more food for lengthy trips. You could be free by making less and less trips back to society for supplies and have a system for storage, but this is something to work towards. Spending a few hours or even a few days working on hardening yourself for harsh environments will benefit you.
Living in a society that is designed to make you comfortable (so as to extract taxes from you) has made you soft and dependent.
Reading & Learning
I have come to realize that if the ruling class/the State does not want you to know something; it is buried, just never mentioned by their outspoken, progressive intellectuals, or is buried in misinformation so as to distract you from what is really going on. There is a ruling class (them) and then there are the peasants (you). They make rules and you follow them. They steal from you and you pay. They murder and are violent and you are docile and complacent or simply don’t think twice about it because it is not happening to you.
I’m not sure how exactly it first occurred to me, but it was through reading Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard that I realized these most obvious things. From then on, it just took a bit of curiosity to continue reading book after book, dozens of volumes on Austrian economics, and then eventually the principals of voluntaryism.
Voluntaryism is the doctrine that relations among people should be by mutual consent, or not at all. It represents a means, an end, and an insight. Voluntaryism does not argue for the specific form that voluntary arrangements will take; only that force be abandoned so that individuals in society may flourish. As it is the means which determine the end, the goal of an all voluntary society must be sought voluntarily. People cannot be coerced into freedom. Hence, the use of the free market, education, persuasion, and non-violent resistance as the primary ways to change people’s ideas about the State. The voluntaryist insight, that all tyranny and government are grounded upon popular acceptance, explains why voluntary means are sufficient to attain that end. -from voluntaryist.com
Thanks for reading, if you got anything out of my ramblings please feel free to throw me some Bitcoin at the following address:
1dG1vhLmevVqPUp7RdjuMkUqbTmPA2fVx
Until next time, peace,
Josiah
