Re-posted at the request of the Laughing Man. Please do the same if you are so inclined.
This is the Laughing Man speaking. I did not choose this moniker, but given the direction of human events, I find it wholly appropriate. Our society is an absurd monument to the irrational, and those of us sane enough to see it are laughing like madmen. I do not laugh because nothing remains great; I laugh because something greater is on the horizon. I laugh at the destruction of the unjust, and we are on the brink of a powerful Reawakening.
Old miners brought a canary into the mineshaft as an alarm for dangerous fumes. If the canary died, then the miners had only minutes to escape. This is why I chose the Dead Canary as the symbol of this cause; we can either abandon our present course of action or commit ourselves to destruction.
The people of this nation have become aware of their enslavement, but this is not what frightens the slave-drivers. That you might *choose* to remove your shackles terrifies them in a primal way and shakes them to the very center of their pathology. There is no lock, there is no key, and these men of unjust force have no power over you except that which your fear has allowed. Conflict has always been inevitable, and it will escalate if they do not step aside.
The battle for your mind, your productivity, and your very freedom is being waged here and now. The champions of freedom will ultimately prevail, but not because we have bigger guns. We will win because reality weighs in favor of the rational. Are they willing to walk over all of our corpses in the pursuit of their own suicidal demise? Bet your life on it. But what happens to the parasite when it has no host?
I cannot tell you how to most effectively fight this battle, because you know better than I do where your skills reside. But I can tell you that we have very little time. If I have any advice to offer, it is to arm yourself with the intellectual ammunition of the philosophers of freedom: Locke, Bastiat, Mises, Rand, etc. Freedom is your birthright, but you cannot defend it without the proper foundation of ideas. Your mind is the one weapon that cannot be taken from you; keep it sharp.
I will address those who have taken the tragically cynical view that their fellow men are too low-brow or too lazy to desire freedom and act upon that desire. The fact that this message has propagated voluntarily and so quickly is proof positive that you are mistaken about your fellow men. We possess a recognition of freedom and a strength of will that our enemies will never overcome. Hope is not lost.
Awaken and act. We will meet again on the battlefield for our freedom.
Re-posted at the request of the Laughing Man. Please do the same if you are so inclined.
Transcript
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Permit me to apologize for this intrusion Unfortunately, I'm at a loss for a better way to get your attention. You'll see that I have made no alterations to your page. You'll also not worry that I have not taken any liberties with your personal information. And if you dislike this message, you are always free to delete it. I think that you will see that I have no malicious intentions. On the contrary, I'm trying to help you. I hope this is of some consolation and I hope that you will forgive me.
I think that you have noticed that there is something very wrong with the way that we're living. Something that goes to the very source of our world view is deeply flawed. We've learned not to question a very fundamental premise that is harming many aspects of our lives. Errors in the premises of our thinking will propagate through all conclusions that we draw.
When a structure is built on a poor foundation this error will affect the entire building and result in deep flaws of the finished product.The realm of ideas operates in the same fashion. Bad assumptions will corrupt the conclusions of even the best logic.
We currently stand at Morton's fork. That is a choice between two alternatives we assume to be unavoidable. We accept the assumption that in order for men to live peacefully with each other we must divided between either controlling forces and subservient forces. Kings and peasants. Master and slave. Ruler and ruled.
Although we do not have a king in name today, the situation is scarcely changed. In this country, the founders hoped to create a society of free men but instead of a true revolution we have had a sort of coup of the head of state. The king has been replaced by this vague idea of the collective - the popular vote - the state. The end result is a faceless government with the voice of only the most influential.
The existence of this power relationship is a forgone conclusion. Control is assumed to be essential.
We've lived so long in a Hobbesian myth that we've made ourselves blind to the alternative. We can scarcely imagine a life without a master of us. As a result of our flawed premises neither the slaves or the masters are really free. The course of their lives are determined by the system that they will not deny.
The exigencies in Sparta is a good example. Sparta's food was produced by the Helots - groups of peoples who the Spartans had subjugated. Sparta's livelihood was dependent on the food grown by its slaves. That's why all Spartan men were trained from childhood to be soldiers. The Spartan army had to be prepared to suppress a slave revolt at any time. Neither the Spartans nor the Helots were truly free.
The Helots spent their lives working for the Spartans and the Spartans had to spend their lives fighting rebellious
Helots. A Spartan was not free to choose to purse other professions such as blacksmithing, farming or philosophy. If he did not fight his slaves would rebel and the social order would be undone.
If this status quo comes at such great costs to its servants then why do we not cast it off. The answer is in the second result of a master-slave society: violence. Every law and dictate comes with a whisper of a death threat. If you disobey the and, for instance, refuse to pay taxes because they fund activities you disagree with - like our wars
for example, which you didn't vote on by the way - that you threaten the status quo. The state can thrive and plunder only if it will harm or kill you for disobediance. Of course ... The police of course will fine you first but if you resist then you will be imprisoned. And if you continue to resist the police will kill you. No exceptions. Every law, no matter how trivial, will be enforced with violence against you. Remember those words: AGAINST ME!
A government that operates through coercive force is also pointing its guns at you every single day. Violence, and the threat of violence, is the only way this system can be maintained. After all how else can you enforce slavery? Police don't arm themselves with kind words and flowers.
In this country even talking about resisting the force of government is met with imprisonment or murder. The precedent has already been set. American citizens accused of terrrorism - and they don't just mean Muslims - can be indefinitely tortured and killed. All this based on the mere accusation of resisting the violence of government. No proof is necessary. All this has been massively veiled through the guise of our own protection.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe that they are free. It is senseless to live the life of a slave. We must demand real freedom. Even if it is met by opposition.
We can begin only by denying Morton's fork. We do not have to live as either a master or slave - as state or its servant. We can live with each other as free men. The shakles of the slave exist only in our mind and that is where this fight begins.
You are soldier on the battlefield of ideas. Liberate yourself from these tired ideas. Tear down the assumptions forced upon you by those who would deny you your freedom. The arbitrary morality and illogical assumptions of the old status quo will crumble before reason - if only but to question it. Place within you a principled foundation of ideas. Your life is your own. You have a right to your life, liberty and property. Let the spark of reason illuminate the darkness of willful ignorance. If you allow it, the spark can become a flame of conviction that even a deluge of dogma, pro-line double-speak, cries of threats will be unable to quench.
You can no longer afford to stand idle. It's time to take action. Tell someone. Put your ideas in writing. Make yourself heard.
I can't tell what to do next. And that would completely defeat the purpose. But for your own sake do something. We cannot wait for somebody else to save us and this battle becomes more difficult with every minute that we waste.
Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another. This immaturity is self-incurred if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolution and courage to use it without the guidance of another. The motto of enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own understanding!
Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a large proportion of men, even when nature has long emancipated them from alien guidance (naturaliter maiorennes), nevertheless gladly remain immature for life. For the same reasons, it is all too easy for others to set themselves up as their guardians. It is so convenient to be immature! If I have a book to have understanding in place of me, a spiritual adviser to have a conscience for me, a doctor to judge my diet for me, and so on, I need not make any efforts at all. I need not think, so long as I can pay; others will soon enough take the tiresome job over form me. The guardians who have kindly taken upon themselves the work of super-vision will soon see to it that by far the largest part of mankind (including the entire fair sex) should consider the step forward to maturity not only as difficult but also as highly dangerous. Having first infatuated their domesticated animals, and carefully prevented the docile creatures from daring to take a singlestep without the leading-strings to which they are tied, they next show them the danger which threatens them if they try to walk unaided.
Now this danger is not in fact so very great, for they would certainly learn to walk eventually after a few falls. But an example of this kind is intimidating, and usually frightens them off from further attempts. Thus it is difficult for each separate individual to work his way out of the immaturity which has become almost second nature to him. He has even grown fond of it and is really incapable for the time being of using his own understanding, because he was never allowed to make the attempt. Dogmas and formulas, those mechanical instruments for rational use (or rather misuse) of his natural endowments, are the ball and chain of his permanent immaturity. And if anyone did throw them off, he would still be uncertain about jumping over even the narrowest of trenches, for he would be unaccustomed to free movement of this kind. Thus only a few, by cultivating their own minds, have succeeded in freeing themselves from immaturity and in continuing boldly on their way.
--Immanuel Kant
QUOTE #2:
Man can live and satisfy his wants only by ceaseless labor; by the ceaseless application of his faculties to natural resources. This process is the origin of property. But it is also true that a man may live and satisfy his wants by seizing and consuming the products of the labor of others. This process is the origin of plunder. Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain - and since labor is pain in itself - it follows that men will resort to plunder whenever plunder is easier than work. History shows this quite clearly. And under these condition, neither religion nor morality can stop it. When, then, does the plunder stop? It stops when it becomes more painful and more dangerous than labor. It is evident, then, that the proper purpose of law is to use the power of its collective force to stop this fatal tendency to plunder instead of to work. All the measures of the law should protect property and punish plunder. But, generally, the law is made by one man or one class of men. And since law cannot operate without the sanction and support of a dominating force, this force must be entrusted to those who make the laws. This fact, combined with the fatal tendency that exists in the heart of man to satisfy his wants with the least possible effort, explains the almost universal perversion of the law. Thus it is easy to understand how law, instead of checking injustice, becomes the invincible weapon of injustice. It is easy to understand why the law is used by the legislator to destroy in varying degrees among the rest of the people, their personal independence by slavery, their liberty by oppression, and their property by plunder. This is done for the benefit of the person who makes the law, and in proportion to the power that he holds.
