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[Editor’s Note: I recently came across the following article by Skye d’Aureous & Natalee Hall (full attribution below), and as is usually the case with VonuLife, it was so relevant and insightful that I found it worthwhile to republish it here, in article, audio, and video format. Comments by Rayo are the italicized indented portions in the list. In the near future, keep a lookout for the entire collection of VonuLife, from issues 1-17, to be released via Liberty Under Attack Publications. Please enjoy.]
WHAT IF THERE WAS A MILLENIUM…AND NO ONE CAME?
By: Skye d’Aureous & Natalee Hall (found in VonuLife #1, May 1971, condensed from LIBERTARIAN CONNECTION Aug. 26, 1970)
We were born, educated, and have lived all of our lives in a society which is psychotically out of touch with reality in many respects. Do not be so naïve as to think that this total immersion in the surrounding near universally-accepted fantasy world has left your unconscious mind untouched. We NOW know enough of laissez-faire to interpret incoming data within a rational framework. What of the years in the past that we spent filling our minds with improperly comprehended data? We were born among sheep, raised by sheep, educated as, by, and for sheep – and before we knew better, some of it got through. Conscious recognition, re-evaluation, and correction of unconscious is necessary if a theoretical knowledge of laissez-faire is to lead you to actual concrete freedom rather than sterile word games.
Your conscious mind will find the following statements obvious. It is very unlikely that your unconscious mind fully accepts and works with all these premises, i.e., these premises have not been fully INTEGRATED into your mind. Liberate more of your mental faculties from unconsciously accepted servitude by seeing how many interesting consequences you can develop from each of the following statements. These are heuristic tools; they are useful guiding principles for self-liberation – they are not a blueprint. Play around with them enough so that you gain an unconscious familiarity and facility in using them…
- The general population does not know what freedom is.
- The activities of the general population are not good indications of when and how YOU can be free and at what cost.
- An overall decrease in freedom for the general population does not necessarily mean a decrease in freedom for you unless your actions are essentially the same as those of the general population.
- (Comments: You can’t watch most people to determine when YOU are free. Most people will not take advantage of freedom – this has been true in the past and will continue to be true for quite some time into the future. Regardless of the opportunities, their lives will continue as usual. Don’t be conceptually blinded by paying too much attention to the general populace; freedom’s initial manifestations will be more subtle than that.)
- A rational person is only interested in freedom he can obtain in his own time.
- A rational person does not count upon gaining freedom at some vague time in the future by means of sweeping social changes or other means of which are beyond his control…
- Freedom is not a monolithic indivisible entity. It is not a word. You are free when you can do what you want without coercive interference.
- (Comment: Before you can decide how free you are and how to become freer, you have to determine what you want to do. What do YOU (not the general population) want to do?)
- Freedom is not free. It would be nice if it were, but there are people willing to coerce. Making some freedom for yourself requires purposeful action. You must know what you want to be free to do, and you must organize your resources toward the end of creating that freedom for yourself.
- Your desire for freedom does not imply an effective ability to choose between 100% or 0% freedom. Your effective range of choice – i.e., what you can get – depends on your desired actions, your resources, and how you use them.
- You will not suddenly become 100% free! You will have to do it yourself, a carefully planned step at a time.
- Your present condition of freedom is probably far from optimum for your most desired range of actions and for your present resources. Your approach to this optimum must be discovered by careful planning and investigation. You do not have automatic knowledge of this subject, and living your life like the general populace will get you what they get.
- The State and its agencies will NEVER proclaim themselves abolished, offed, impotent, or irrelevant.
- There are not pigs EVERYWHERE and they are at very few places all the time.
- What the State claims to control is not the same as what it does control. YOU will have to investigate and decide for yourself. This is a corollary of 11 and 12.
- The State will not become impotent in all geographical areas at the same time.
- The State will not become impotent in all areas of human action at the same time…
- You will see the effects of progressive freedom among small numbers of people and in small groups before you’ll see it in large groups.
- People who have gained relative freedom from State coercion for a particular range of actions will usually not loudly advertise to the minions of the State. You either have to think it up and do it yourself with your group, or you have to become skilled at reading between the lines and knowledgeable about less widely read material – but you still have to do it yourself. If you are successfully doing it, chances are that you will meet others who are successfully doing it, and you can then do it better together. What’s the “it”? That’s up to YOU!
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