How can we consent to anything? The government is making it all up as we go along. Remember, these people are some of the dumbest on the planet who have no place else to go.
Yes, and I have no sympathy when they lose their jobs. There are only two means to get what one wants in this life: coercion and persuasion. They use coercion. The police and the IRS just wield the guns for them.
I would be cautious. If you read the paperwork for a passport it includes a loyalty oath. I am not willing to consent. Same for the driver licence - I do not consent. Same for the voter registration and the voting day signature to get a ballot. Same for the signature on the tax filing forms. I am not saying that their contracts are legit. I am saying that they will assert that what you sign is an agreement to their terms.
So I stopped. I stopped voting, registering, filing, renewing their stuff.
You have choices to take. I know all the reasons other people choose to file and obey and renew. All I want to say about it is: I stopped and I am an example that you don't have to sign their stuff.
These are good points. I have certainly met others who are getting away with it too. My big question is whether y'all are getting away with it de facto or de jure, and if it's de facto, does there come some point where the "authorities" decide to come club you?
Oh. I have been clubbed. Hard. Had the red laser dots on my chest. But never for not filing. Never for not having papers. I don't go through check points. I know they don't want me at the aeroport "gate" areas even with family.
The thing about filing is you sign where you say that you are a taxpayer and know about the penalty for perjury. So? Are you? If not, you really need to stop signing a document that says you are.
Do they send letters? Back when I had an address, yes. You know how I got them to stop sending letters? I never answered even one time. Not by mail. Not by calling. Not a word. And they never sent another.
Now, of course, I don't have any address. I even tried to get a letter here and the post awful won't deliver it. Yes, general delivery is hard without a photo identity card. But an old friend and rebel who is Apache hooked me up with a tribal membership identity card. No benefits, no fees to pay. Just my picture and a bunch of identity stuff.
There are about fifty million of us Americans who neither are on payroll nor get food stamps.
There are about 125 million of us who don't ever file tax papers. About 110 million refuse to vote. A third of the country refuses to return the census papers every time they roll it out. Lotta rebels.
I guess you would say defacto. I have only had one confrontation which I think I have already described. After years of driving without a license or registration I was finally stopped by a local Sheriff's deputy as I had a plate that just had HAT on a white background. As I stood on my right to travel and not to be interrogated I was handcuffed and taken to the county jail 75 miles from my home and my pickup was impounded. I was not taken to a magistrate as required by Texas law but was put in a frigid holding cell with just a thin T shirt and kept there for around 36 hours with a cold cement floor and stainless steel bench, no bedding. They would not put me in general incarceration as I would not give them birthname or SSN. After thirty six hours they took me to local homeland security office to be fingerprinted against my consent. The data base returned nothing so they took me back to jail. To shorten the story I spent over a week in jail and finally met during that time with a magistrate who I informed that I would contest on both jurisdiction and standing and after that time a bailiff came and said Mr. Bailey you are free to go. I never went before a judge, I never made a plea, (and the ticket from the deputy covered about four pages) did not pay a fine. I continued to drive on the county road and was stopped a couple of times, once by Sheriff Dodson himself, but although he insisted not drive on the pavement he admitted that he was not going to arrest me again.
Wow, a fellow soul. I am sure you have had to deal with the inconveniences that result from taking such a stand as well JIm, but I have certainly found a way to survive in this disfunctional world so far, and have most of what is important to me in my life, and I give a great deal of respect to anyone else who takes such a stand. I sometimes thought I was the only one doing that, and I didn't care if I was the only one, but lately I have found several who have taken similar approaches. I know if enough people did these schemes would collapse like a wet paper bag. I started with refusing to file 1040s at the end of 1960s, I have deceived the deceivers on occasion as well with careful thought and creativity trusting in an unseen Power and have had almost no unpleasant confrontations with these supposed "authorities" so far since I decided to exit the banking system after 911. When someone indicates that their personal code of morality as shown by their actions that they believe it is okay to participate in deceptive, coercive, systems of intimidation and theft it indicates a certain sort of stupidity and willful ignorance and should I be controlled by such people? No, and I don't think it is immoral or unethical to deceive them, or even to resist with force, but that second reaction is not what I have chosen, they have arranged for pretty much a monopoly on that relying on manipulation to make it seem reasonable. I am a man of peace, I can be gracious to the ignorant, but there are lines that I will not cross.
The Creator's nature shows us this in all herding/grouping animals.
The man leads, the woman follows him.
He needs to have clear purpose, which also helps his neighbours.
The woman can then be his helper. She is made to do so.
The two become one; the man's purpose and the woman help.
-----
Larger groups are problematic.
All groups must have hierarchy.
Which unfortunately means the group members must conform
Without conformity, even a group of two fails.
Therefore groups need to have limited time periods and specific goals.
Groups need to automatically dissolve, and then members negotiate afresh.
Truly sovereign men do not do well with any other man being the leader.
Which is why a clearly defined group, with clear end times, can be set up for that kind of man.
-----
There are two types of men; sovereign or followers.
Jesus was teaching to both types. Different verses for different folks.
A follower must accept that they must conform at times,
that their ideas may be ignored.
A sovereign will accept that he will often exit groups, even of two men.
He knows his ideas must be developed, without any overlord.
A sovereign can be respectful to other men's ideas,
and he can be polite and friendly,
yet he will never allow other men or women to encroach upon his 'territory'.
His territory is his mind.
He chooses what ideas to plant in his space.
He chooses what people he will allow near,
and he invites people to leave when they are disharmonious.
Land is not essential - natural disasters can leave his 'land' unusable.
His mind is always his.
People whom want to spend much time with him need to show conformity
and agreement to his ideas.
A sovereign must see himself as his own hero of his life story.
He also must require his woman to see him this way as well,
not by force but by gentle persuasion that he has it 'all thought out,'
and that he plans and does not let his emotions rule him.
A woman of a kind nature wants to see her man in this way.
She wants to know he is strong, and thoughtful, and see dangers far in the future.
She wants to help him when he dreams of helping others.
A sovereign man will spend much time to learn his woman's mind and heart.
He will then learn how to share with her in such ways she will agree with him.
Through persuasion and logic, not force and emotion.
That man will spend his whole life sifting into his soil of his mind's territory,
to weed out old ideas and plant the seeds of new ideas he has made his own.
He is heroic by his virtue of being his own farmer of his mind,
where he cultivates his body, and stops any addictions.
He stops handing over his energy to entertainment, to politics, to media, to pretend leaders, to messiah movements, even to rigid belief in one perfect version of history or even 'perfect' books.
He tests everything. Weighs everything.
he has no need to hide because he is the master of his own domain.
In the case of the distributed nation, there will be no leader or central authority as such, nor will there be any totalizing system. Just a shared reverence for the simple, universal principles of natural law, and some shared goals when they come up. A new kind of group. A new kind of nation.
Somewhat like the Amish. yet even they have group leaders.
So the smallest group is a group of two. A man and the woman whom has freely given her loyalty to him.
Infinite groups of two. The men choosing to group together to complete projects, then disband.
A man can have his own workshop. Now he can have complicated machinery, and build upon that. Even said complicated machinery can be build by many subgroups of two.
A focused sovereign man can achieve amazing feats.
Someday I will have My acre of land... Until then, I endure, targeted, elderly, disabled, denied assistance, lost everything, destitute, and homeless, sheltering on friends’ floors and using Their web on My 15+ year old laptop.
And working to free Humanity from the systems the moneyed psychopaths control (legal/governmental).
Not sure what agencies You have in mind, but I have found that no matter where I go, being targeted and all, things do not play out in My favor. [shrug] But if You can give Me an idea of what agencies might help, I will see what I can do...
Ahhh. Well, I have enough food, and clothing. And I have sheltered in places that offer shelters but never want to go back to THAT! LOL! The floor is fine at a friend's. Compared to the nigh Naziesque aspects of the shelters I have been in.
So I'm not sure what I would get out of those.
And speaking of private charities... In this piece I offer My experience as a temp (decades ago) at the MDA:
Yeah, I have read through charity navigator rating, and others. Some do a good job of making sure that more money goes to the actual cause and less to large salaries. Others do an abysmal job!
Aside from soup kitchens and clothing give-aways, I have not encountered a “charity” that really does the job. A also worked for the Salvation Army, and though I did not get an up-close on the finances, I was told, when I asked for Them to help someOne, that They has no money for it…
I skimmed this and found this. You said, Every person has complete, exclusive, inalienable ownership of himself or herself. You are the sole owner of your life, body, being, choices, thoughts, and actions.
So does this ownership imply that it is property? I ask because I am studying AJ Galambos’ theory.
Also, a right is a legal term I think. I’m curious if that word implies a State.
I love the inquiry! And the fact you respond to commenters!
"So does this ownership imply that it is property?"
—Yes. "complete, exclusive, inalienable ownership of himself or herself. You are the sole owner of your life, body, being, choices, thoughts, and actions" constitutes dispositive decision-making authority over oneself. And dispositive decision-making authority is how we generally define a property right. "This is yours—do what you want with it."
"Also, a right is a legal term I think. I’m curious if that word implies a State."
—That's just a word thing. Words have many different meanings, and people can grant them whatever meanings they wish. "Right" is the word that we have to describe a particular phenomenon. Then people go about defining it in different ways. And some will insist that it implies a state (a contention with which I strongly disagree).
Some do the same with "person." Because the word "person" is sometimes used in government language, some will insist that any use of it implies some sort of government meaning. I strongly disagree with that, too. I will not sanction government taking the words "rights" and "person" from me, or from our species. To blazes with that.
FWIW, I define a "right" as each person's
"Exclusive, inalienable, and necessary title to personal control over an infinite range of thoughts, choices, and actions—held by each in equal measure to all others, violated through coercive force, and justly defensible via protective force."
"I love the inquiry! And the fact you respond to commenters!"
—Thank you for noticing. I spend hours every day replying to people. And, rarer still, I don't distinguish between paid and free subs (though I might have to start doing so at some point).
80% of what I do is not behind the wall anyway. So really, I am relying on people to choose to support me, to help keep me going—even though they can get most of my stuff for free.
Hiding in plain sight. I like that, it is the approach I have taken thus far for life within a slave plantation. I look like all the other slaves. I don't confront the beast that claims to own me directly. When I go through the checkpoints I look like all the other ordinary slaves. If they ask if I am a citizen I never say yes, rather something along the lines of "native born in 'California' or some such. Never questioned. They recognize that I am a local and mostly just wave me on through. I don't use their inventory number and I don't pay most of their taxes or conform to most of their requirements, regulations etc. but I don't confront them directly for the most part. I don't think that it is necessary if enough people simply are not cooperative in their slavery, resist in small but significant ways, look outside the box for ways to stymie their efforts to control, and vote with your money or their feet, not at the ballot box. Support what looks like valid efforts of individuals or organizations working to defeat some of the worst offenses etc.
I moved to the only place I could find that didn't require building codes, property restrictions or state income taxes and that was remote Texas where going through them is pretty hard to avoid. Nevertheless I went through them several times a week while I was building my cabin and I had no driver license, expired plates, no registration on the vehicle I owned. It looked like a little contractors truck with a rack on top and expired California plates. I drove that pickup and others for 15 years out here driving as far as El Paso, Midland/Odessa, and back an forth through the border checkpoint south of Alpine frequently.
People. Members are people. I know many people are reluctant to join things. I don't agree to wear the same outfit or pay membership dues. Uniformity isn't helpful.
There will be no outfits. No totalizing program, and definitely no uniformity. I have written about this throughout the book. And yeah, by nature, we're not joiners!
If you say that people are members then they will ask about electing officers and having a committee to represent their interests. It's a trap.
The alternative to operating by committee is operating by entrepreneurship. Michael van Notten brought this idea to Liberty International in 1983 and it has made all the difference.
Yes, I have been giving this a lot of thought. I want to help people get what they need. Customers is better than citizens. I think that is a much better model.
Well there are many old rebels in the world. And we get called a lot of names.
George Fox founded a group and went to the LORD in prayer about what to call the people in his group. Jesus told him "friend." You see it in the Gospels. Jesus calls his followers friends. So George called his group the society of friends.
Later an English aristocrat named Gervase Bennett was torturing George in the Tower of London. They took some time for a meeting with a stenographer at a little table near the torture chamber and Bennett asked why George wouldn't pay the official tithe and there would be no more torture. George picks up the Bible and says, "Because I tremble at the word of God. So shouldest thou." And Gervase mocked him saying, "Oh. You tremble do you? You quake? We should call you a quaker." Which is what other people call us ever since.
If you are ever on the West coast you should come visit. We have pie.
You should plan to have a meeting. I suggest you go to a science fiction convention to see how it is done. Talk to the organizers and say, "I was told that smofs make lists." smofs= secret masters of fandom (plural) and take notes.
I suggest you plan a big meeting. I can recommend a bunch of speakers. Make it really big once a year. Meet regularly every week.
It is how we started the L5 Society for real. Talk from 1975 to 1981 and then a conference in Los Angeles. The second year (1982) we held in Houston. The plan was "L5 in 1995" but we had to postpone for that location because of Mark Hopkins and the nationalist socialist followers of Werner von Braun.
Barn or garage or an abandoned building you rent or a church basement. We always went with hotels and college buildings for L5 Houston. I know everything about hotel contracts to get the best deals. The guys at L5 New York were insistent about meeting at a restaurant in the private meeting room and that kinda worked for them. Lotsa ways
How can we consent to anything? The government is making it all up as we go along. Remember, these people are some of the dumbest on the planet who have no place else to go.
Yes, and I have no sympathy when they lose their jobs. There are only two means to get what one wants in this life: coercion and persuasion. They use coercion. The police and the IRS just wield the guns for them.
I would be cautious. If you read the paperwork for a passport it includes a loyalty oath. I am not willing to consent. Same for the driver licence - I do not consent. Same for the voter registration and the voting day signature to get a ballot. Same for the signature on the tax filing forms. I am not saying that their contracts are legit. I am saying that they will assert that what you sign is an agreement to their terms.
So I stopped. I stopped voting, registering, filing, renewing their stuff.
You have choices to take. I know all the reasons other people choose to file and obey and renew. All I want to say about it is: I stopped and I am an example that you don't have to sign their stuff.
These are good points. I have certainly met others who are getting away with it too. My big question is whether y'all are getting away with it de facto or de jure, and if it's de facto, does there come some point where the "authorities" decide to come club you?
Oh. I have been clubbed. Hard. Had the red laser dots on my chest. But never for not filing. Never for not having papers. I don't go through check points. I know they don't want me at the aeroport "gate" areas even with family.
The thing about filing is you sign where you say that you are a taxpayer and know about the penalty for perjury. So? Are you? If not, you really need to stop signing a document that says you are.
Do they send letters? Back when I had an address, yes. You know how I got them to stop sending letters? I never answered even one time. Not by mail. Not by calling. Not a word. And they never sent another.
Now, of course, I don't have any address. I even tried to get a letter here and the post awful won't deliver it. Yes, general delivery is hard without a photo identity card. But an old friend and rebel who is Apache hooked me up with a tribal membership identity card. No benefits, no fees to pay. Just my picture and a bunch of identity stuff.
Good workarounds—though they will be harder for some than for others to apply.
There are about fifty million of us Americans who neither are on payroll nor get food stamps.
There are about 125 million of us who don't ever file tax papers. About 110 million refuse to vote. A third of the country refuses to return the census papers every time they roll it out. Lotta rebels.
I guess you would say defacto. I have only had one confrontation which I think I have already described. After years of driving without a license or registration I was finally stopped by a local Sheriff's deputy as I had a plate that just had HAT on a white background. As I stood on my right to travel and not to be interrogated I was handcuffed and taken to the county jail 75 miles from my home and my pickup was impounded. I was not taken to a magistrate as required by Texas law but was put in a frigid holding cell with just a thin T shirt and kept there for around 36 hours with a cold cement floor and stainless steel bench, no bedding. They would not put me in general incarceration as I would not give them birthname or SSN. After thirty six hours they took me to local homeland security office to be fingerprinted against my consent. The data base returned nothing so they took me back to jail. To shorten the story I spent over a week in jail and finally met during that time with a magistrate who I informed that I would contest on both jurisdiction and standing and after that time a bailiff came and said Mr. Bailey you are free to go. I never went before a judge, I never made a plea, (and the ticket from the deputy covered about four pages) did not pay a fine. I continued to drive on the county road and was stopped a couple of times, once by Sheriff Dodson himself, but although he insisted not drive on the pavement he admitted that he was not going to arrest me again.
Oh, and by the way the original deputy who arrested me became a good friend and supporter.
Lucky!
Wow, a fellow soul. I am sure you have had to deal with the inconveniences that result from taking such a stand as well JIm, but I have certainly found a way to survive in this disfunctional world so far, and have most of what is important to me in my life, and I give a great deal of respect to anyone else who takes such a stand. I sometimes thought I was the only one doing that, and I didn't care if I was the only one, but lately I have found several who have taken similar approaches. I know if enough people did these schemes would collapse like a wet paper bag. I started with refusing to file 1040s at the end of 1960s, I have deceived the deceivers on occasion as well with careful thought and creativity trusting in an unseen Power and have had almost no unpleasant confrontations with these supposed "authorities" so far since I decided to exit the banking system after 911. When someone indicates that their personal code of morality as shown by their actions that they believe it is okay to participate in deceptive, coercive, systems of intimidation and theft it indicates a certain sort of stupidity and willful ignorance and should I be controlled by such people? No, and I don't think it is immoral or unethical to deceive them, or even to resist with force, but that second reaction is not what I have chosen, they have arranged for pretty much a monopoly on that relying on manipulation to make it seem reasonable. I am a man of peace, I can be gracious to the ignorant, but there are lines that I will not cross.
I stopped in 1993. I don't file. I don't renew. I don't agree with their papers please mentality.
I believe God is with us to save us.
Great graphic with the circles! Helpful to have for those of us who benefit from visualizing information.
Thanks, and yeah, visualization helps so much!!
Do what a man believes he has to do
regardless of the consequences.
The smallest group is two; man and woman.
The smallest group must have a hierarchy.
The Creator's nature shows us this in all herding/grouping animals.
The man leads, the woman follows him.
He needs to have clear purpose, which also helps his neighbours.
The woman can then be his helper. She is made to do so.
The two become one; the man's purpose and the woman help.
-----
Larger groups are problematic.
All groups must have hierarchy.
Which unfortunately means the group members must conform
Without conformity, even a group of two fails.
Therefore groups need to have limited time periods and specific goals.
Groups need to automatically dissolve, and then members negotiate afresh.
Truly sovereign men do not do well with any other man being the leader.
Which is why a clearly defined group, with clear end times, can be set up for that kind of man.
-----
There are two types of men; sovereign or followers.
Jesus was teaching to both types. Different verses for different folks.
A follower must accept that they must conform at times,
that their ideas may be ignored.
A sovereign will accept that he will often exit groups, even of two men.
He knows his ideas must be developed, without any overlord.
A sovereign can be respectful to other men's ideas,
and he can be polite and friendly,
yet he will never allow other men or women to encroach upon his 'territory'.
His territory is his mind.
He chooses what ideas to plant in his space.
He chooses what people he will allow near,
and he invites people to leave when they are disharmonious.
Land is not essential - natural disasters can leave his 'land' unusable.
His mind is always his.
People whom want to spend much time with him need to show conformity
and agreement to his ideas.
A sovereign must see himself as his own hero of his life story.
He also must require his woman to see him this way as well,
not by force but by gentle persuasion that he has it 'all thought out,'
and that he plans and does not let his emotions rule him.
A woman of a kind nature wants to see her man in this way.
She wants to know he is strong, and thoughtful, and see dangers far in the future.
She wants to help him when he dreams of helping others.
A sovereign man will spend much time to learn his woman's mind and heart.
He will then learn how to share with her in such ways she will agree with him.
Through persuasion and logic, not force and emotion.
That man will spend his whole life sifting into his soil of his mind's territory,
to weed out old ideas and plant the seeds of new ideas he has made his own.
He is heroic by his virtue of being his own farmer of his mind,
where he cultivates his body, and stops any addictions.
He stops handing over his energy to entertainment, to politics, to media, to pretend leaders, to messiah movements, even to rigid belief in one perfect version of history or even 'perfect' books.
He tests everything. Weighs everything.
he has no need to hide because he is the master of his own domain.
In the case of the distributed nation, there will be no leader or central authority as such, nor will there be any totalizing system. Just a shared reverence for the simple, universal principles of natural law, and some shared goals when they come up. A new kind of group. A new kind of nation.
Somewhat like the Amish. yet even they have group leaders.
So the smallest group is a group of two. A man and the woman whom has freely given her loyalty to him.
Infinite groups of two. The men choosing to group together to complete projects, then disband.
A man can have his own workshop. Now he can have complicated machinery, and build upon that. Even said complicated machinery can be build by many subgroups of two.
A focused sovereign man can achieve amazing feats.
Sure. But if people want to form larger groups, they are, and ought to be, free to do so. I am not going to coerce anyone, ever.
Someday I will have My acre of land... Until then, I endure, targeted, elderly, disabled, denied assistance, lost everything, destitute, and homeless, sheltering on friends’ floors and using Their web on My 15+ year old laptop.
And working to free Humanity from the systems the moneyed psychopaths control (legal/governmental).
I hope you will get that acre of land!
On the rest—are there any private agencies who can offer some help?
Not sure what agencies You have in mind, but I have found that no matter where I go, being targeted and all, things do not play out in My favor. [shrug] But if You can give Me an idea of what agencies might help, I will see what I can do...
I just meant private charities—churches, etc.
Ahhh. Well, I have enough food, and clothing. And I have sheltered in places that offer shelters but never want to go back to THAT! LOL! The floor is fine at a friend's. Compared to the nigh Naziesque aspects of the shelters I have been in.
So I'm not sure what I would get out of those.
And speaking of private charities... In this piece I offer My experience as a temp (decades ago) at the MDA:
They Say It’s All About the Money (article): https://amaterasusolar.substack.com/p/they-say-its-all-about-the-money
I think You will be shocked.
Yeah, I have read through charity navigator rating, and others. Some do a good job of making sure that more money goes to the actual cause and less to large salaries. Others do an abysmal job!
Aside from soup kitchens and clothing give-aways, I have not encountered a “charity” that really does the job. A also worked for the Salvation Army, and though I did not get an up-close on the finances, I was told, when I asked for Them to help someOne, that They has no money for it…
This moneyed world is so ghastly.
I’m curious how you define property! Just land? What?
I skimmed this and found this. You said, Every person has complete, exclusive, inalienable ownership of himself or herself. You are the sole owner of your life, body, being, choices, thoughts, and actions.
So does this ownership imply that it is property? I ask because I am studying AJ Galambos’ theory.
Also, a right is a legal term I think. I’m curious if that word implies a State.
I love the inquiry! And the fact you respond to commenters!
"So does this ownership imply that it is property?"
—Yes. "complete, exclusive, inalienable ownership of himself or herself. You are the sole owner of your life, body, being, choices, thoughts, and actions" constitutes dispositive decision-making authority over oneself. And dispositive decision-making authority is how we generally define a property right. "This is yours—do what you want with it."
"Also, a right is a legal term I think. I’m curious if that word implies a State."
—That's just a word thing. Words have many different meanings, and people can grant them whatever meanings they wish. "Right" is the word that we have to describe a particular phenomenon. Then people go about defining it in different ways. And some will insist that it implies a state (a contention with which I strongly disagree).
Some do the same with "person." Because the word "person" is sometimes used in government language, some will insist that any use of it implies some sort of government meaning. I strongly disagree with that, too. I will not sanction government taking the words "rights" and "person" from me, or from our species. To blazes with that.
FWIW, I define a "right" as each person's
"Exclusive, inalienable, and necessary title to personal control over an infinite range of thoughts, choices, and actions—held by each in equal measure to all others, violated through coercive force, and justly defensible via protective force."
"I love the inquiry! And the fact you respond to commenters!"
—Thank you for noticing. I spend hours every day replying to people. And, rarer still, I don't distinguish between paid and free subs (though I might have to start doing so at some point).
I appreciate the opportunity to discover if I want to subscribe and pay or not before I’m forced upfront. Thanks!
Right on, Kris.
80% of what I do is not behind the wall anyway. So really, I am relying on people to choose to support me, to help keep me going—even though they can get most of my stuff for free.
Thank you for the question, Kris. I think this will provide ample answer. https://christophercook.substack.com/p/stop-saying-property-ownership-bad
However, if, after reading it, you find it has not answered all your questions, please let me know.
Hiding in plain sight. I like that, it is the approach I have taken thus far for life within a slave plantation. I look like all the other slaves. I don't confront the beast that claims to own me directly. When I go through the checkpoints I look like all the other ordinary slaves. If they ask if I am a citizen I never say yes, rather something along the lines of "native born in 'California' or some such. Never questioned. They recognize that I am a local and mostly just wave me on through. I don't use their inventory number and I don't pay most of their taxes or conform to most of their requirements, regulations etc. but I don't confront them directly for the most part. I don't think that it is necessary if enough people simply are not cooperative in their slavery, resist in small but significant ways, look outside the box for ways to stymie their efforts to control, and vote with your money or their feet, not at the ballot box. Support what looks like valid efforts of individuals or organizations working to defeat some of the worst offenses etc.
Good ideas.
I myself don't go through checkpoints.
I moved to the only place I could find that didn't require building codes, property restrictions or state income taxes and that was remote Texas where going through them is pretty hard to avoid. Nevertheless I went through them several times a week while I was building my cabin and I had no driver license, expired plates, no registration on the vehicle I owned. It looked like a little contractors truck with a rack on top and expired California plates. I drove that pickup and others for 15 years out here driving as far as El Paso, Midland/Odessa, and back an forth through the border checkpoint south of Alpine frequently.
These are good thoughts, Hat. I am taking notes.
People. Members are people. I know many people are reluctant to join things. I don't agree to wear the same outfit or pay membership dues. Uniformity isn't helpful.
There will be no outfits. No totalizing program, and definitely no uniformity. I have written about this throughout the book. And yeah, by nature, we're not joiners!
Excellent.
If you say that people are members then they will ask about electing officers and having a committee to represent their interests. It's a trap.
The alternative to operating by committee is operating by entrepreneurship. Michael van Notten brought this idea to Liberty International in 1983 and it has made all the difference.
Yes, I have been giving this a lot of thought. I want to help people get what they need. Customers is better than citizens. I think that is a much better model.
Right! I like that too. Customers or clients that implies choice and friendly lawful competition for your patronage.
Yup.
But I am not sure that quite fits either. Maybe. Not sure. I want it to be more than commercial, too, and those words definitely scream commercial.
Friend. Humans. Fellow. Person (as Jim says above). Maybe not "ally," since the left have kind of soiled that word.
Or maybe we just come up with the name for the nation itself, and then we get it from that.
(Like, if you were doing Xandara, it would be Xandari.)
Well there are many old rebels in the world. And we get called a lot of names.
George Fox founded a group and went to the LORD in prayer about what to call the people in his group. Jesus told him "friend." You see it in the Gospels. Jesus calls his followers friends. So George called his group the society of friends.
Later an English aristocrat named Gervase Bennett was torturing George in the Tower of London. They took some time for a meeting with a stenographer at a little table near the torture chamber and Bennett asked why George wouldn't pay the official tithe and there would be no more torture. George picks up the Bible and says, "Because I tremble at the word of God. So shouldest thou." And Gervase mocked him saying, "Oh. You tremble do you? You quake? We should call you a quaker." Which is what other people call us ever since.
Friend is good.
If you are ever on the West coast you should come visit. We have pie.
You should plan to have a meeting. I suggest you go to a science fiction convention to see how it is done. Talk to the organizers and say, "I was told that smofs make lists." smofs= secret masters of fandom (plural) and take notes.
I suggest you plan a big meeting. I can recommend a bunch of speakers. Make it really big once a year. Meet regularly every week.
I'd like some pie!
I was at some of the earliest Star Trek conventions ('76 for sure, and '75 IIRC), but I was little. Talking with organizers is a good idea.
I have been thinking a lot about meetings, etc., down the road, and I will continue to give it thought!
It is how we started the L5 Society for real. Talk from 1975 to 1981 and then a conference in Los Angeles. The second year (1982) we held in Houston. The plan was "L5 in 1995" but we had to postpone for that location because of Mark Hopkins and the nationalist socialist followers of Werner von Braun.
I will likely start sooner, but smaller, and work up to that.
Yes. Many small science fiction conventions become larger. I am serious. The ones that have been around for years are who know how to do it.
I'd like to start with a barn party. Now I just need a barn.
Barn or garage or an abandoned building you rent or a church basement. We always went with hotels and college buildings for L5 Houston. I know everything about hotel contracts to get the best deals. The guys at L5 New York were insistent about meeting at a restaurant in the private meeting room and that kinda worked for them. Lotsa ways
We Don't Hide at All - says it all!
Thank you for the Excellent Recap Christopher!
Thanks, AV. I am glad to have your thoughts and support.