We Must Become Radically Free

Defeating tyranny begins within each and every one of us (DN 4.21)

Note: As I mentioned last week, we are in the last portions of Chapter 3 (Who), wherein we are wrapping up a few final notes before moving on to the main event (How). I know we are all eager to get there—please be patient with me. Next year, we will be moving from theory to practice.

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

—Albert Camus

Rarely are quotes so perfect. I might quibble with Camus’ use of the word “only,” but other than that, he is spot on. Tyranny is impossible unless the majority of human beings are willing to comply. And most are. Some are even eager.

The more radically free we become in our minds and attitudes, the freer we become in our lives. And the more people who become radically free, the harder tyranny is to impose.

We have every incentive to become more radically free as individuals, and as a family of freedom-loving people.

So how do we do that?

Here are a few thoughts:

Be more moral

Among natural-law proponent Mark Passio’s many compelling arguments is the contention that “As morality increases in the aggregate, freedom increases in the aggregate.” What are we to understand from this?

He is speaking specifically of adherence to the moral principles that emanate from the facts of nature. This is the basis of true, universal morality. We are naturally free, self-owning beings with inherent authority over own actions and choices. No one has any inherent right to compel us in our person, property, or liberty. Thus, each individual has a just claim to his own self-ownership.

There is no more universally recognized moral principle, even if it is only tacitly recognized by some. Without this bedrock belief, morality’s foundations become quicksand. Passio’s point, then, is that a people who know how to behave themselves require less governance, and are thus capable of greater freedom.

Anthony Bruni recognizes that this fact gives government officials some very perverse incentives:

This is why government needs to facilitate moral decay. Because as people grow less moral, they are easier to govern. … The real trick is that it gets us to go along with all this. It makes us complicit, and then we are easily enslaved. Not to be hyperbolic, but it’s all quite demonic.

I replied with a conclusion similar to that reached by many classical liberal thinkers of the past and present:

People who are degenerate need to be governed.
People without a moral foundation must be given a foundation of force.
People who are not in control of themselves must be controlled from without.

But…

People with a moral foundation do not need to be given one from outside.
People who are in control of themselves do not require external control.
People who are civil and polite do not need to be told how to behave.

The first step to radical freedom is to be better people.

First and foremost, this means following the principles of natural morality. These principles tell us what we must not do. They are essential.

They are also enforceable. When someone directly trespasses our person, property, or liberty, you have a natural right to react.

Being better people is also about the sorts of things we should do—kindness, sharing, and helping others voluntarily. These things are not enforceable, but they make a society healthy. And healthy societies do not need the stern hand of government to keep everyone in line.

Be less addicted

When I use the word “freedom” without any further qualifications, I am referring to what we might call “true freedom”—freedom from external constraints imposed by others. The moral substance of any society is built upon this most important kind of freedom.

But there are other kinds of freedom too. One of these is the freedom of mastery.

A virtuoso musician’s fingers are far freer than a beginner’s. She can take the music anywhere her creativity desires. An expert who knows his subject can speak or write far more effectively on that subject than a novice. His words flow more freely. You get the idea.

Yet there is also a freedom that comes from mastery of oneself. An alcoholic may not be subject to any external constraints imposed by others, but he certainly isn’t free. He is enslaved to his own addiction.

To be more “absolutely free,” in Camus’s words, we must get our bad habits under control. Habits in manageable moderation are fine—and often fun. But once they become addictions, they bind us to their power, and we become less free. So we should definitely work on that.

Special bonus: when you truly begin to master an unhealthy addiction, you don’t just feel freer…you also feel more powerful.

Be less afraid

The more powerful one feels, the less prone we are to fear. Unfortunately, our overlords and their many minions seem to hold all the cards right now. It’s easy to feel small, helpless, and afraid.

We must fight that tendency. As we have discussed in detail before, there are many reasons why we are more powerful than we think.

Strength in numbers

The Internet, for all its censorship, really is fueling a new great awakening. This awakening does not just apply to some small Remnant. The overreach of the last decade has triggered what may be the largest move of normies out of Normie Town in human history.

Our numbers may still be small overall, but they are growing. And movements do not need majorities by any means. A critical-mass minority—even a very small one—is all it takes.

Unpredictable and predictable disasters

There are also black swans waiting at the edge of the lake. Some, like sovereign debt and unfunded liabilities, are known. Some are things we haven’t predicted or even imagined yet.

Major shifts and collapses do not happen regularly, but they do happen. Empires fall. Dictators are toppled. Regimes are changed. I am not rooting for any one particular form of collapse. I am just noting that nothing lasts forever—including tyrannies. We must be ready to adapt and react.

No fate

The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make.

You are here. You are surviving. You know the truth.

It may be a cliché, but it is true: the snakes who want to rule us are far more afraid of us than we are of them.

Be more hopeful

“It is hopeless. We cannot win. Psychopaths will always rule us.”

Despair is paralyzing. When we feel like there’s no hope, we do nothing…so nothing gets done. If you are mired in despair, you are enslaved by it, just like with any addiction.

We have spoken of this many times before (You Are Stronger Than You Know. And There Is Hope!, Choose Hope: Despair ain't going anywhere, etc.), so there is no point in belaboring the subject.

Hope is essential. A person with unshakeable hope is one of the most radically free people there is.

Hope is also contagious, so do yourself and others a favor by becoming more radically free. Put down the doom-scroll. Focus on the future. Build it!

Be more you

Our work on The Distributed Nation is centered on the individual. The individual human person—and especially the consent of the individual human person—is the fundamental unit of moral concern in any society.

There is nothing more terrifying to our overlords than the individual who knows he is an individual. Want to be more radically free? Be the you-iest you that you can be.

Be less compliant

In the next chapter, we will discuss the fundamental problems with revolution as a strategy for liberation. As romantic as it sounds, and as long a pedigree as it has, it is fraught with fatal problems. We will have to employ other approaches.

That said, you need to have adopted a revolutionary mindset yesterday.

The default human viewpoint is that we are slaves in need of masters. Most people proceed through life based on the tacit or explicit assumption that humans are terribly rotten…and so the only solution to our rottenness is to give the most rotten among us inescapable power over the rest. This is deemed to be an unchallengeable article of faith.

Another default assumption for many in the freedom movement (especially, though not exclusively, conservatives) is that there was some golden age in the past, and if we just vote a little harder, we can return there. And then somehow remain there through the magical power of … something.

We have dealt with this fallacy here, here, here, here, and in many other places. It is a pipe dream. An understandable pipe dream, but a pipe dream nonetheless. To continue to believe these things is to surrender without a fight.

The evolutionary leap is to realize that you are a freeholder of your own person, property, and liberty, and that NO ONE has any legitimate authority whatsoever upon you. The “tacit” social contract is fundamentally morally illegitimate. It might have been a necessary step 250 years ago, but that does not mean we have to stick with it forever.

Once, your fate was in the hands of kings. Now, your fate is in the hands of voting majorities (with kingmakers and bankers pulling the strings). In the next evolution, your fate will be in your own hands.

A polycentric future does not mean chaos. In fact, government’s systematized violation of consent, initiations of force and theft, and the permanent state of war are the real chaos. A polycentric future means a consensual order.

How that will work is not our subject at the moment. Realizing that you are not a slave in need of a master is our subject at the moment. It is awfully hard to be radically free until you grasp this.

As to how we go about being less compliant in a practical sense, without getting pointlessly martyred, that too will be a subject for our next chapter.

Be civil…but not pushovers

Another topic we have discussed at length is the value of nobility and civility (here, here, here, here, here, and here). Those ought to be baked into our cake now.

Yet we must also remember not to be pushovers. As Dave points out, the trust game reveals that once civility is met with a couple of instances of incivility, a new strategy is required:

The summary is that when you are the 'always civil' you will get wiped out by the uncivil. However the always uncivil themselves die out to hybrid strategies immediately afterwards.

The ideal strategy was what they called 'copy-kitten'. Kitten in shorthand for "will return trust with trust" and copy for reciprocal action. They said forgive once or twice but afterwards return incivility for any instance of incivility - however if they flip back to being civil then you can eventually return it as well once they are consistent once or twice.

Of course, when the power mismatch is vast, as it will be with government so long as our numbers are small, responding to their serial violations of individual consent with incivility may not be the best plan. We will have to be cleverer than that. And we will have to be patient and be willing to play the long game.

Be your own hero

Back in April, Kris Bayer made an interesting point. Many of our stories focus on heroes. This is an ancient and important archetype, but it includes a tacit assumption: everyone who isn’t the hero needs a hero to save them.

To some degree, this reflects reality. Most people don’t do anything significant. They don’t step out of line or put themselves on the line. They just keep their heads down. Very often, it really does take a hero.

There is a powerful lesson we can draw from Bayer’s point: You have the power. You are a being of immense potential. If you activate that potential, amazing things can happen. Find your power.

Like galloping on a horse, it can be scary—but it’s worth the ride.

As far as I can recall, there is only one thing that President Obama ever said that I agreed with:

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

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Cover page | Preface | Introduction 1 | Introduction 2 | Introduction 3 |

(Part I) Why: 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 1.10 | 1.11 | 1.12 | 1.13 | 1.14 | 1.15 | 1.16 | 1.17 | 1.18 | 1.19 | 1.20 | 1.21 |1.22

(Part II) What: 2.0 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 2.10 I 2.11 | 2.12 | 2.13 | 2.14 | 2.15 | 2.16 | 2.17 | 2.XX | 2.18 | 2.19 | 2.20 | 2.21 | | Where: 3.0 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 3.10 | 3.11 | 3.12 | 3.13 || Who: 4.0 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 4.XX | 4.XY | 4.6 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 4.10 | 4.11 | 4.12 | 4.XZ | 4.13 | 4.YX | 4.14 | 4.15 | 4.16 | 4.17 | 4.18 | 4.19 | 4.YY | 4.YZ | 4.ZX | 4.20 | 4.21