Freedom is kind of a mind thing. That means in your mind, there is no such thing as governments, society and having to live to please someone. Even the tyrants can't touch you.
It totally get that. I also believe that we are always in a state of nature (as opposed to the enlightenment way of looking at it, as a condition in the absence of government). But…
Other people exist, and they do things. Including doing things [by force) to other people. And so far, I do not know of anyone who has been able to manifest that fact out of existence.
FWIW (perhaps nothing), I believe that the mind — which is a form of psychic energy, created by the brain’s consciousness — survives physical death, when the last breath/spirit leaves this body of matter and the brain dies. The same mind that we develop while in the body we take with us to the post-death phase of our mortal probation. And this same mind is resurrected with the body. The mortal probation continues after the resurrection and only ends at (what is called in the book of Revelation near its end) the great white throne judgement. Again, for what it’s worth.
I want to own arms. Lots of weapons of all kinds. And I want to do so without gubbamint 'approval' or 'licenses' or 'permits.' I want frags and mines and RPGs. I want a MK19 and 5000 rounds of frag ammo. I want a battery of mortars, ready to go. I want 3" rocket artillery with a 5000m range.
Well then I hope you can soon. And when you do, I will not be the least bit frightened of you because I do not believe you will use them in any offensive action.
What we don't want, can't be withheld, or taken away.
Even a king is not free if he wants adoration from the people.
Inherently, freedom is to be in control, but we know how ridiculous that is. My freedom trespasses yours, unless I'm alone on an island. I can't have all the oxygen, food, land I want. Restraint then, boundaries in all we do, is to be free.
Even my freewill is not free. We have a will, but not completely free; one subject to our nature, desire, appetites.
Psalm 23 says in part, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."
Gal. 5 "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free."
John 8:32
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Yeah, but you don’t need all the land and food and air. And (virtually) no one has any interest in acquiring all of it. And your acquisition of some of it in no way harms my freedom.
I react to it largely because this hypothetical that someone might come and suck up all the resources is often used to justify limitations on property rights. That is a bad place to start.
For many people, the thing that constrains their freedom the most is their families. I was talking with a Nigerian man who had established a successful inport/export business in South Africa. I asked him -- why South Africa? Are the business laws in Nigeria that bad? Oh, he replied, the business laws in Nigeria are pretty bad, that is true, but the main problem with Nigeria is that my relatives live there. As soon as my business would begin to prosper, they would all be there, demanding free goods and money, and if I didn't give it to them they would burn the business down. All the money I made would be spent according to the will of my grandmother's sister, who just rewards her favourites. So in Nigeria, there is no point in being industrious. It's like living with a 90% tax rate. Here, I get to decide how to invest my money. And I do send some back to my relatives. But I send it to a cousin in the Christian church who makes sure that the money goes to the people who need it and not the people that please my great-aunt.
Yikes! I wonder how common a phenomenon that is. They would not get away with that anywhere in the Anglosphere, in Europe (that I am aware of), and apparently in South Africa. I wonder what makes the difference…
Getting rid of polygamy, cousin marriages, and having a law system that was not based on divine revelation, or worse, 'what the spirits said to me last night' seems to be crucial. Also, there are people in South Africa who face the same problems. They might do fine in Nigeria ....
Freedom feels like a dream and you know it's a dream so you're flying or leaping and you don't have to be anywhere or do anything because you don't need or want for anything.
Back in the early sixties I quite enjoyed reading Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat, which became a 12 novel series. Humorous satire about Jimmy Bolivar, a master thief, living in the cracks, luxurious cracks, of society until he got caught and became a villain catcher happily ever after. I did and do take to heart Bolivar's avoid notice and you'll be right.
Yep I'd say all things considered I'm pretty free. I do pay the the government rent, property taxes but my yard is big enough and remote enough I can pretty much do what I want. I can and do set up targets for some plinking, have raised few animals on the property, even raised a couple of children that didn't turn out too bad.
I do also take to heart and note often Albert Camus' quote; "The only way to deal with and unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."
There’s freedom TO and there’s freedom FROM and there’s the internal feeling of freedom ITSELF. I seem to generally focus on freedom FROM, e.g. the end of the Pathocracy. When I think of the generations of psychopaths who have been constantly working toward totalitarian world domination — and how their domination, i.e. aggressive coercion, has played out during world history — I think of the enslavement of the masses and the murders of people who refuse to be enslaved. I also think of the United States Department of Defense deadly countermeasures named “Covid-19 vaccines”, which sure does look like a deliberate depopulation plan to this (rational?) suspicious observer.
I also think about the truth and how the truth can set one free and how the divine messiah declares “I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life” and how He prayed to the Father on the behalf of His disciples and children “Sanctify them through (or in or by) thy truth. Thy word is truth” and “Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” Knowing God and Christ obviously includes knowing the Truth. Hopefully I’m more focused on eternal life than I am on this mortal mundane existence in a world controlled by the money power of the psychopaths, who (arguably?) are devils incarnate.
I hear you. On all the first paragraph, I am right there with you.
But on the second…I am just not willing to surrender this world to the psychos. I may have to accept the limited role I can play. I may have to go along to get along in certain situations, so as to not make myself pointlessly into a martyr. But I cannot bring myself to just focus on the next world and not try to do my best to fight for this one.
I think that those of us who focus on eternal life in heaven automatically get attuned to answering the question “What must I do to be saved?” Once salvation is assured in this world, the focus turns to sharing the message of the Way with others. What better Way to “fight for this world” than to struggle for the salvation of souls in this world? Serious question.
Yes, that is a good way. It would certainly produce less violence than many other ways. Unless, of course, religious people go back to trying to force others to think their way. In history, the line between evangelism and forced conversion was often blurry.
I don't think that American Christians, for example, would go there, since most also have a classical-liberal substrate. But I do have friends for whom that is a concern. Though I do not immediately share their view, I do respect it enough to give it due consideration.
Whenever we attempt to use force — aka domination aka aggressive coercion — or leverage (even in the name of [so-called] “help”) — it’s my understanding that we are doing so from our own will from our own volition and that we have departed from God’s will. I think that the only power from God that we have been given to show others the Way of salvation is kind and gentle and loving and patient influence, allowing the person we’re trying to influence to ALWAYS make up his or her own mind for himself or herself. God doesn’t dominate. But when a people have ripened in iniquity, they bring judgement upon themselves. Sometimes “judgement” is having depraved murderers rule over you until your lives become unbearable and the stress becomes overwhelming. I think that this is what’s happening now to the country and to the world.
The problem is that the psychopaths at the top of the power hierarchy are mostly hidden. They employ their henchmen to do their dirty work and, even then, the henchmen utilize middle management. A group of enlightened radicals and rebels, wise to the ways of the psychopaths at the top, will have a nearly impossible task talking them out, having to work through various levels of management first. And management has “the law” behind them to support them. The radicalized rebels are caught between a rock and a hard place.
I suppose that this is why I’ve surrendered from the idea of saving the world or saving the country. I try to only work with individuals and small groups. One small group I think has things mostly figured out are the Suspicious 0bservers. https://youtube.com/@suspicious0bservers?si=F8X7MWGPdmIzkXkU
It’s probably the power struggle of all power struggles. I know — or have the assurance of faith/trust — that the Good will prevail. I just don’t know HOW.
If only feeling were being. Revolution is only revolting from something; it must be to something. That is why the results of the French revolution and the Russian revolutions brought about so much horror and why the American held so much promise. As I have often said, escape is hardly ever the answer; wherever you go, you are there. Wherever I go, I am there. Feeling free and yearning to be free is pointless if I am not free. It is because we are in bondage that we submit to bondage. We're addicted to bondage. It frees us from our responsibilities. It is the ultimate "not my fault."
Point taken. The point I was trying to make was that getting rid of external coercion can be dangerous for people who remain under internal coercion. It's like Jesus said about casting out a demon and it returning with its friends and making his life even worse than it had been, ala the French and Russian revolutions.
Thanks for introducing Dorothy to me, this is a great song.
At first I thought this was a new song as the thumbnail looks like the scene from the Maui Fires last year, but I checked the date and it's from 5 years ago.
It’s so sad. I haven’t felt free to speak my mind since the early 90s. Political correction was rearing its ugly head back in the 90s when I went to college and you were already afraid to explain to people the very obvious that more perversion means more disease, and less safe children. You couldn’t even say it then. It was pretty much the 80s when I was able to say whatever I wanted.
"I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me." (c)
I have those moments of "DramaDRAMAAAAAH!!! All is lost" (I am a woman, I don't know if that's obvious from the name?...) but of course I am free, whatever happens. Even if I forget it, even if I go mad, the truth resides outside me and beyond, thank God.
Thanks, but it’s just observation: in the aeons I’ve spent here, not one govt initiative has saved smb I care about from their illnesses, nor has it cancelled the sunrise.
Another Great post Christopher - Thank you! Unfortunately I see our freedoms constantly eroding and believe the Big Hammer is comin g soon. Likely it seems brought on by one or more of the following: Big War in the Middle East, WWIII in multiple obvious and not as obvious locations, the next Plandemic(s) and Rape-jab, Martial Law declared because of the Migrant and/or Reactionary situation, election or no election insanity, if elections happen the other side not accepting the results = potential Civil War and so on. I hope I'm wrong, especially for the younger people!
Larken Rose's YT channel has really helped me see the possibilities of freedom in dark times like these. He's really served as a voice of reason on how the masses will only allow things to go so far before they will just start saying "No" to things.
Covid was a disastrous time, but what we did see was that the power of "No" really held up for those who spoke it. We weren't killed, thrown in jail, etc. It's almost like when you understand the "game" and know how to play it, there really is nothing they can do to you. I mean they can't kill us all.. There are people already living in the mountains in caves, it's just preposterous to think that the entire world will be exterminated. I feel there will always be a tribe to be a part of, and a home to call home.
There's great odds that you've probably seen the Jones Plantation video on Larken Roses's channel, but that really put voting into perspective for me. It's hard not to vote, but I ask myself, have we really seen improvement within most countries over the last 50 years on average? Is living becoming easier or more difficult? Taxes going up or down? We may be given some good years, but the decline that follows is usually far worse for the general population, despite the money printing that continues to happen to prop things up.
After all, the people who are 35 trillion in debt are giving you a credit score.. That just blew my mind wide open.
To wrap up, I feel there will always be some sort of hope and a move that we can make on the chess board. We just have to stay informed and a part of communities that have their heads on straight. Thanks for all you do here Chris.
I, like you, do not feel hopeless. Despair doesn't solve anything, and there is always a path forward.
I get your feelings about voting/not voting. I have been coming around on that for more than a year now, and I am not 98.5% comfortable with not voting.
There is freedom, a huge sense of relief, just from knowing that the government is illegitimate and that I owe no obedience to it (without forgetting that from a practical standpoint there are things I must allow it to do to me or I'll be killed).
There is freedom when I go hiking every week and explore some place I've never been before: though it may be a small piece of the world, it has its own fascinating and unique characteristics which I delight in experiencing. It also doesn't hurt if the signs have said that everyone must stick to the official trail, but I might, just barely might, have slipped away to somewhere else.
Still, it is true that I don't know what true freedom would feel like. Knowing that I could start my own business of any sort without going hat in hand to the government for permission. Knowing that I could keep everything I earn from my endeavors and not have the requirement to disclose any of it to the government. I know these things would be wonderful, but unless and until I experience them, I don't know what they'd feel like.
Freedom is kind of a mind thing. That means in your mind, there is no such thing as governments, society and having to live to please someone. Even the tyrants can't touch you.
It totally get that. I also believe that we are always in a state of nature (as opposed to the enlightenment way of looking at it, as a condition in the absence of government). But…
Other people exist, and they do things. Including doing things [by force) to other people. And so far, I do not know of anyone who has been able to manifest that fact out of existence.
FWIW (perhaps nothing), I believe that the mind — which is a form of psychic energy, created by the brain’s consciousness — survives physical death, when the last breath/spirit leaves this body of matter and the brain dies. The same mind that we develop while in the body we take with us to the post-death phase of our mortal probation. And this same mind is resurrected with the body. The mortal probation continues after the resurrection and only ends at (what is called in the book of Revelation near its end) the great white throne judgement. Again, for what it’s worth.
I want to own arms. Lots of weapons of all kinds. And I want to do so without gubbamint 'approval' or 'licenses' or 'permits.' I want frags and mines and RPGs. I want a MK19 and 5000 rounds of frag ammo. I want a battery of mortars, ready to go. I want 3" rocket artillery with a 5000m range.
When I can own all that, I will be free.
Well then I hope you can soon. And when you do, I will not be the least bit frightened of you because I do not believe you will use them in any offensive action.
Well, the best way to be free is to go be free. Just be ready to deal with the tyrants, should they come to stomp you down for setting yourself free.
Which feels strangely inevitable somehow.
But then again, maybe they will collapse and have bigger fish to fry.
They have lost already. They will, however, do a fair amount of damage before they finally are defeated.
💪
Chris
From K Kristofferson
“Freedom is just another word for nothin’ left to lose
Nothin’, don’t mean nothin’ hon’ if it ain’t free, no-no
And feelin’ good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues
You know feelin’ good was good enough for me
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee”
As sang by Janis Joplin
Tusen Takk
Jon
Yes, nothing left to lose.
What we don't want, can't be withheld, or taken away.
Even a king is not free if he wants adoration from the people.
Inherently, freedom is to be in control, but we know how ridiculous that is. My freedom trespasses yours, unless I'm alone on an island. I can't have all the oxygen, food, land I want. Restraint then, boundaries in all we do, is to be free.
Even my freewill is not free. We have a will, but not completely free; one subject to our nature, desire, appetites.
Psalm 23 says in part, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."
Gal. 5 "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free."
John 8:32
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Yeah, but you don’t need all the land and food and air. And (virtually) no one has any interest in acquiring all of it. And your acquisition of some of it in no way harms my freedom.
I'm just saying theoretically I am limited, restrained, by what I want. How much is enough? Just a little bit more.
Yeah, I get you.
I react to it largely because this hypothetical that someone might come and suck up all the resources is often used to justify limitations on property rights. That is a bad place to start.
I agree. I don't like restraint. I like freedom. We'll always be only relatively free within the scope of our needs/wants and those of the society.
One day...
I would be willing to be part of a generational project, if that is what is required.
For many people, the thing that constrains their freedom the most is their families. I was talking with a Nigerian man who had established a successful inport/export business in South Africa. I asked him -- why South Africa? Are the business laws in Nigeria that bad? Oh, he replied, the business laws in Nigeria are pretty bad, that is true, but the main problem with Nigeria is that my relatives live there. As soon as my business would begin to prosper, they would all be there, demanding free goods and money, and if I didn't give it to them they would burn the business down. All the money I made would be spent according to the will of my grandmother's sister, who just rewards her favourites. So in Nigeria, there is no point in being industrious. It's like living with a 90% tax rate. Here, I get to decide how to invest my money. And I do send some back to my relatives. But I send it to a cousin in the Christian church who makes sure that the money goes to the people who need it and not the people that please my great-aunt.
Yikes! I wonder how common a phenomenon that is. They would not get away with that anywhere in the Anglosphere, in Europe (that I am aware of), and apparently in South Africa. I wonder what makes the difference…
Here is one theory. https://www.lorenzofromoz.net/p/four-cities-and-some-forests?utm_source=publication-search
Getting rid of polygamy, cousin marriages, and having a law system that was not based on divine revelation, or worse, 'what the spirits said to me last night' seems to be crucial. Also, there are people in South Africa who face the same problems. They might do fine in Nigeria ....
Very interesting article!
I am glad it got to the Germanic stuff. When it mentioned the four cities and Roman law, I thought, "but what about…?"……… but then it got there :-)
I'd bet that you would enjoy reading a series he wrote, but pubished on Helen Dale's substack. https://www.notonyourteam.co.uk/p/worshipping-the-future
Got too much to write myself to read all that. (Oh how I wish I had more time in every day!) Did you read the whole thing?
Yes, but as it came out, not all in one sitting.
Freedom feels like a dream and you know it's a dream so you're flying or leaping and you don't have to be anywhere or do anything because you don't need or want for anything.
Right! I read libertarian/anarchist sci-fi, and it makes it so easy to forget/escape. Same thing for the three days at FreedomFest!
Free? Pretty much actually.
Back in the early sixties I quite enjoyed reading Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat, which became a 12 novel series. Humorous satire about Jimmy Bolivar, a master thief, living in the cracks, luxurious cracks, of society until he got caught and became a villain catcher happily ever after. I did and do take to heart Bolivar's avoid notice and you'll be right.
Yep I'd say all things considered I'm pretty free. I do pay the the government rent, property taxes but my yard is big enough and remote enough I can pretty much do what I want. I can and do set up targets for some plinking, have raised few animals on the property, even raised a couple of children that didn't turn out too bad.
I do also take to heart and note often Albert Camus' quote; "The only way to deal with and unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."
I love it!
There’s freedom TO and there’s freedom FROM and there’s the internal feeling of freedom ITSELF. I seem to generally focus on freedom FROM, e.g. the end of the Pathocracy. When I think of the generations of psychopaths who have been constantly working toward totalitarian world domination — and how their domination, i.e. aggressive coercion, has played out during world history — I think of the enslavement of the masses and the murders of people who refuse to be enslaved. I also think of the United States Department of Defense deadly countermeasures named “Covid-19 vaccines”, which sure does look like a deliberate depopulation plan to this (rational?) suspicious observer.
I also think about the truth and how the truth can set one free and how the divine messiah declares “I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life” and how He prayed to the Father on the behalf of His disciples and children “Sanctify them through (or in or by) thy truth. Thy word is truth” and “Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” Knowing God and Christ obviously includes knowing the Truth. Hopefully I’m more focused on eternal life than I am on this mortal mundane existence in a world controlled by the money power of the psychopaths, who (arguably?) are devils incarnate.
I hear you. On all the first paragraph, I am right there with you.
But on the second…I am just not willing to surrender this world to the psychos. I may have to accept the limited role I can play. I may have to go along to get along in certain situations, so as to not make myself pointlessly into a martyr. But I cannot bring myself to just focus on the next world and not try to do my best to fight for this one.
I think that those of us who focus on eternal life in heaven automatically get attuned to answering the question “What must I do to be saved?” Once salvation is assured in this world, the focus turns to sharing the message of the Way with others. What better Way to “fight for this world” than to struggle for the salvation of souls in this world? Serious question.
Yes, that is a good way. It would certainly produce less violence than many other ways. Unless, of course, religious people go back to trying to force others to think their way. In history, the line between evangelism and forced conversion was often blurry.
I don't think that American Christians, for example, would go there, since most also have a classical-liberal substrate. But I do have friends for whom that is a concern. Though I do not immediately share their view, I do respect it enough to give it due consideration.
Whenever we attempt to use force — aka domination aka aggressive coercion — or leverage (even in the name of [so-called] “help”) — it’s my understanding that we are doing so from our own will from our own volition and that we have departed from God’s will. I think that the only power from God that we have been given to show others the Way of salvation is kind and gentle and loving and patient influence, allowing the person we’re trying to influence to ALWAYS make up his or her own mind for himself or herself. God doesn’t dominate. But when a people have ripened in iniquity, they bring judgement upon themselves. Sometimes “judgement” is having depraved murderers rule over you until your lives become unbearable and the stress becomes overwhelming. I think that this is what’s happening now to the country and to the world.
The problem is that the psychopaths at the top of the power hierarchy are mostly hidden. They employ their henchmen to do their dirty work and, even then, the henchmen utilize middle management. A group of enlightened radicals and rebels, wise to the ways of the psychopaths at the top, will have a nearly impossible task talking them out, having to work through various levels of management first. And management has “the law” behind them to support them. The radicalized rebels are caught between a rock and a hard place.
I suppose that this is why I’ve surrendered from the idea of saving the world or saving the country. I try to only work with individuals and small groups. One small group I think has things mostly figured out are the Suspicious 0bservers. https://youtube.com/@suspicious0bservers?si=F8X7MWGPdmIzkXkU
Maybe, in one way or another, the psychopaths will get hoisted on their own petard and solve our problem for us.
It’s probably the power struggle of all power struggles. I know — or have the assurance of faith/trust — that the Good will prevail. I just don’t know HOW.
If only feeling were being. Revolution is only revolting from something; it must be to something. That is why the results of the French revolution and the Russian revolutions brought about so much horror and why the American held so much promise. As I have often said, escape is hardly ever the answer; wherever you go, you are there. Wherever I go, I am there. Feeling free and yearning to be free is pointless if I am not free. It is because we are in bondage that we submit to bondage. We're addicted to bondage. It frees us from our responsibilities. It is the ultimate "not my fault."
I generally agree.
Trying to make oneself internally free is a worthy goal. But it is no substitute for the genuine absence of external coercion!
Point taken. The point I was trying to make was that getting rid of external coercion can be dangerous for people who remain under internal coercion. It's like Jesus said about casting out a demon and it returning with its friends and making his life even worse than it had been, ala the French and Russian revolutions.
Ah yes—that makes sense!!
Thanks for introducing Dorothy to me, this is a great song.
At first I thought this was a new song as the thumbnail looks like the scene from the Maui Fires last year, but I checked the date and it's from 5 years ago.
Dorothy kicks a$$. I have a soft spot for crazy-chick hard rock.
She's awesome. I don't think she's crazy at all.
Passionate. Intense. Uninhibited.
Better adjectives?
Way better!
I can’t remember if I sent you Dead Sara already.
https://youtu.be/y5vr_Vhoumc?si=vv2dcKUJlZ0u8rEv
I don't remember either, but I have this and seven others in my playlist, so probably :-)
It’s so sad. I haven’t felt free to speak my mind since the early 90s. Political correction was rearing its ugly head back in the 90s when I went to college and you were already afraid to explain to people the very obvious that more perversion means more disease, and less safe children. You couldn’t even say it then. It was pretty much the 80s when I was able to say whatever I wanted.
Yeah, I was feeling it at U-Mass and elsewhere in the 90s. But I was a loudmouth and mostly just said what I wanted!
Yes, my college was not far from UMass. lol I didn’t go there, but several in my family did. UMass Amherst was even worse.
Let's see—what was in the area but not as bad as U-Mass…
Hampshire and Smith were worse, so was it either Mt. Holyoke or Amherst?
"I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me." (c)
I have those moments of "DramaDRAMAAAAAH!!! All is lost" (I am a woman, I don't know if that's obvious from the name?...) but of course I am free, whatever happens. Even if I forget it, even if I go mad, the truth resides outside me and beyond, thank God.
Love that song :-)
And I love your outlook!
Thanks, but it’s just observation: in the aeons I’ve spent here, not one govt initiative has saved smb I care about from their illnesses, nor has it cancelled the sunrise.
🧡🌞🧡
Another Great post Christopher - Thank you! Unfortunately I see our freedoms constantly eroding and believe the Big Hammer is comin g soon. Likely it seems brought on by one or more of the following: Big War in the Middle East, WWIII in multiple obvious and not as obvious locations, the next Plandemic(s) and Rape-jab, Martial Law declared because of the Migrant and/or Reactionary situation, election or no election insanity, if elections happen the other side not accepting the results = potential Civil War and so on. I hope I'm wrong, especially for the younger people!
Maybe so. We will have to see. But we have to get started on a plan either way. We cannot just wait in fear of what might happen.
Right. I'm not in fear at all but I have to say what I see. What Plan?
That's what this book is about. A plan.
I know! Looking forward to it!
Not going to use my own words as they are inadequate. Apologies for lack of attribution.
“Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.”
“Better to live as freemen under an outward form of captivity, than as captives under the appearance of liberty.”
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” ~ Goethe
All excellent notions!
Larken Rose's YT channel has really helped me see the possibilities of freedom in dark times like these. He's really served as a voice of reason on how the masses will only allow things to go so far before they will just start saying "No" to things.
Covid was a disastrous time, but what we did see was that the power of "No" really held up for those who spoke it. We weren't killed, thrown in jail, etc. It's almost like when you understand the "game" and know how to play it, there really is nothing they can do to you. I mean they can't kill us all.. There are people already living in the mountains in caves, it's just preposterous to think that the entire world will be exterminated. I feel there will always be a tribe to be a part of, and a home to call home.
There's great odds that you've probably seen the Jones Plantation video on Larken Roses's channel, but that really put voting into perspective for me. It's hard not to vote, but I ask myself, have we really seen improvement within most countries over the last 50 years on average? Is living becoming easier or more difficult? Taxes going up or down? We may be given some good years, but the decline that follows is usually far worse for the general population, despite the money printing that continues to happen to prop things up.
After all, the people who are 35 trillion in debt are giving you a credit score.. That just blew my mind wide open.
To wrap up, I feel there will always be some sort of hope and a move that we can make on the chess board. We just have to stay informed and a part of communities that have their heads on straight. Thanks for all you do here Chris.
Thank you for these excellent comments.
I, like you, do not feel hopeless. Despair doesn't solve anything, and there is always a path forward.
I get your feelings about voting/not voting. I have been coming around on that for more than a year now, and I am not 98.5% comfortable with not voting.
And yeah—they're not gonna get all of us.
I'd start with the freedom from being labeled. "To be or not to be that is the question."
This seems like an issue of lower concern to me. Why do you deem it of higher importance? (Honest question.)
I feel more free outside of a box than inside of one.
For sure!
But how is a label the worst sort of box, as opposed to, say, a neo-totalitarian government?
There is freedom, a huge sense of relief, just from knowing that the government is illegitimate and that I owe no obedience to it (without forgetting that from a practical standpoint there are things I must allow it to do to me or I'll be killed).
There is freedom when I go hiking every week and explore some place I've never been before: though it may be a small piece of the world, it has its own fascinating and unique characteristics which I delight in experiencing. It also doesn't hurt if the signs have said that everyone must stick to the official trail, but I might, just barely might, have slipped away to somewhere else.
Still, it is true that I don't know what true freedom would feel like. Knowing that I could start my own business of any sort without going hat in hand to the government for permission. Knowing that I could keep everything I earn from my endeavors and not have the requirement to disclose any of it to the government. I know these things would be wonderful, but unless and until I experience them, I don't know what they'd feel like.
I agree with and feel my own version of everything you just said.