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police state is just another way to lose.
I learned that the thugs in authority don't care if people complain just
so long as they obey. Armchair dissent is useful to the authorities.
It's nothing more than window-dressing. They use it to create the
illusion that people are free. It's another lie. All political
dissent is regulated by the various election legislation. Any movement
that's actually dangerous is illegal. People are not free.
In the present situation, people have access to three kinds of behavior:
prohibited, required, and regulated. All behavior that isn't yet
included within one of those categories is being systematically legislated
into one or another of them, bit by bit. Regarding those categories,
people who are caught engaging in prohibited behavior are punished.
People who are caught failing to engage in required behavior are punished.
People who are caught engaging in regulated behavior without a license
are punished. Thus do you recognize a police state.
As my understanding of things grew, I spent some time trying to position myself so that I could survive without government authorization. I began trying to divest myself of obligations to government. I cancelled my Social Security number,3 rescinded my driver's license,4 abandoned my voter's registration, and did whatever other such things seemed appropriate at the time. It wasn't until 1987 that I finally broke away from the brainwashing machine. After GE, I worked at two more full-time engineering jobs but my career as an engineer was fading. After my third layoff, I realized that full time, permanent employment wasn't for me. I tried to find part-time or temporary work but my growing tendency to resist bad instructions was causing problems. I didn't stay long in any one job. At the time that the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 went into effect, I was doing temporary work for Manpower.5 When I went to the interview for my next temporary job after the effective date of the act, the woman who intended to interview me wouldn't even discuss my resumé with me until after I'd completed her INS Form I-9. It was a new employment requirement, mandated by the act. It required that I provide government documentation to prove that I was authorized to work. By then, I'd learned a lot about sovereignty and jurisdiction. I'd learned to recognize fascism6 when I encountered it. The lady seemed surprised that I would dare to object to her form. I told her that my father had fought a war with Hitler to end that kind of thing and that I'd starve before I'd complete the form. I walked out of the interview. The incident was only a small part of the larger change that was happening in my life at the time but it marked the end of my career as a corporate wage slave. I've been unemployed ever since then and I haven't filed a tax return since 1987. As a consequence of my resistance to authority, I was prohibited from participating in most of the things that most people take for granted. My life became inconvenient but I survived. I always had a place to live. I always had food to eat. I always had clothes to wear. I always had work to do. About ten years ago, while I was living on Lady Jan's farm, in Idaho, it occurred to me that, in a sense, I'd become John Galt.7 At the time, and in spite of my degree in nuclear engineering, I was living in obscurity and doing honest work. I wasn't doing anything that supported or legitimized the police state. I'd deprived it of my skills and I hadn't really lost anything important in the process. I was feeling good about myself. I'd enhanced my liberty and tried to preserve my integrity. I'd received a lot of help from a few of my friends and from one or two family members and things had worked for me very much as Ayn Rand had described them in her book. It eventually comes down to a question of what a man wants do to about his situation. U.S. citizens are slaves by definition.8 Most of them seem to be content with their condition. For now, at least, their slavery is reasonably comfortable. The problem is that, after slavery is well established, the slaves no longer
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have control over the rules. Everything
is controlled by the masters, not by the slaves. It's been shown
that slavery can become torturous. Becoming a slave can turn out
badly and the process is difficult to reverse.
If a man is to end his slavery and achieve freedom, then he must accept the fact that he can't do it by working within the system. The entire political and economic establishment is rigged against him. The best that he might accomplish by working within the system is to elevate himself from slave to thug. That's how cops, judges, politicians, and so forth get their jobs. Within the system, the only choices that are available to a freedom seeker are the choices that the authorities will allow. In fact, a man's perception that he has any choices at all is based on lies. Consider that, if a man's choices are arranged properly in advance, then he will choose to jump from the top of a tall building. All that's necessary is for the building to be burning under him. Then, nobody has to push him. He will choose to jump. His so-called choice doesn't mean that he wanted to jump. In fact, he didn't really have a choice at all except in the most corrupted understanding of the concept. That's how choice usually works in the United States today. It's like claiming that a system of capital punishment is merciful and enlightened because the condemned man is permitted to choose the method of his execution. The choice that he's permitted to make doesn't improve his situation or his future. Choice is another one of the lies. The next step that a man must take is to accept the fact that it isn't possible to correct the errors in the system. The choices that are available within the system are either to submit to it or to be punished by it. Changing it isn't an option. I learned a long time ago that attempting to change the system doesn't work. Opposing it only exercises its powers, and makes it stronger.9 The world is filled with police states and there isn't anywhere to run. Eventually, I came to understand the solution to the problem. The police states exist because people support them. Voluntary participation legitimizes them. Opposition only exercises their powers and makes them stronger. Therein lies the answer to the dilemma. The only way to successfully oppose a police state is by not opposing it. The only way to freedom is abandonment. The best way to do that is to do it gradually, by little increments. A man can start with little things like cancelling bank accounts and selling stock.10 Eventually, he'll have to divest himself of all of those entanglements that bind him to the system11 but before he can do that, he'll have to position himself. He can't quit cold turkey. That's what the little increments accomplish. They enable a person to gradually rearrange his life in such a way that he can survive without the necessity of cooperating with the government. Such a rearrangement of one's life is a bigger job than might at first seem to be the case. It might take a man most of his lifetime to accomplish it but it's a necessary step toward freedom. Someone who's considering the freedom option shouldn't make the decision lightly. He shouldn't even start the process unless he really means it. Freedom isn't easy. Freedom isn't for sissies. Freedom is a lifetime commitment. Occasionally, people have said things that, whatever the original context, are relevant to the freedom movement today. Leonardo da Vinci commented that resistance is easier at the beginning than at the end. John Philpot Curran warned us that liberty requires eternal vigilance. John Fitzgerald Kennedy observed that those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. However, as unlikely as it might seem, the award for brevity combined with power should go to Nancy Reagan. Granted, she made her statement for a different purpose but its applicable to the freedom movement. So, after a freedom seeker has positioned himself and, when hes confronted by an attempt to enforce upon him a condition of servitude, he can follow the advice offered by Nancy Reagan, back in 1982, in Oakland, California. He can just say the word. He can just say no. Stray Thoughts Sam Aurelius Milam III When In Doubt A soldier follows orders. A warrior thinks for himself. Never in Doubt Love is the wine of the soul. Passion is the whiskey.
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Acknowledgments My thanks to the following: SantaClara Bob; Lady Jan the Voluptuous; my mother; Dewey and Betty; and Eric, of Ione, California. editor
Court Quotes From Humor in the Court and More Humor in the Court, by Mary Louise Gilman, editor of the National Shorthand Reporter. Forwarded by Don G.
Tough Language Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by Don G.
Funny Signs Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by Don G.
Kids Are Quick Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by Sir Donald the Elusive.
Frontiersman Subscriptions and Back Issues Printed copies of this newsletter, either subscriptions or back issues, are available by application only. Cancellations If you don't want to keep receiving this newsletter, then return it unopened. When I receive it, I'll terminate your subscription. Reprint Policy Permission is hereby granted to reproduce this newsletter in its entirety or to reproduce material from it, provided that the reproduction is accurate and that proper credit is given. I do not have the authority to give permission to reprint material that I have reprinted from other sources. For that permission, you must go to the original source. I would appreciate receiving a courtesy copy of any document or publication in which you reprint my material. Submissions I solicit letters, articles, and cartoons for the newsletter, but I don't pay for them. Short items are more likely to be printed. I suggest that letters and articles be shorter than 500 words but that's flexible depending on space available and the content of the piece. Payment This newsletter isn't for sale. If you want to make a voluntary contribution, then I prefer cash, prepaid telephone cards, or U.S. postage stamps. For checks or money orders, please inquire. For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net. The continued existence of the newsletter will depend, in part, on such contributions. I don't accept anything that requires me to provide ID to receive it. In case anybody's curious, I also accept gold, silver, platinum, etc. Sam Aurelius Milam III, editor
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