Memo to Government: We Do NOT Need Your Permission

"Do what you do—no one else does you as well as you."

We are born into a world where governments exist—where the fact that they boss you around and steal your money is a fait accompli. We grow up assuming that this is just the way of things.

Some of us do start to get wise, though. Bit by bit, we begin to realize that it’s a racket. Block by block, the wall comes down.

For me, one of those blocks involved garage sale permits…

We decided to have a garage sale and were made aware by neighbors that we had to buy a permit. “It’s just five dollars, though.”

This was a moment for me.

I don’t care if it’s just five dollars. It’s my driveway. It’s my stuff. It’s voluntary transactions between willing buyers and willing sellers. And it’s my five bucks.

I wrote “WE DON’T NEED PERMISSION TO EXIST” on a post-it note, slapped it on the garage-sale permit form, and hung it on the wall.

And one of the blocks in that wall came down.

I was still a somewhat mainstream conservative—in other words, I still believed that “limited government'“ was saving us from the “state of nature.” But I was definitely on the anarcho-libertarian trail. And this was a guidepost on that trail.

I was reminded of this moment yesterday while reading

Diamond-Michael Scott

’s article You Are Not Your License: Why The State Doesn’t Own Your Identity. He concludes,

So here’s the deeper question….If your identity is constantly up for approval, are you really free?

If you can’t move through life without a system authorizing your age, your name, your gender, your residence—then what kind of freedom is that?

It may be time to reimagine freedom not just as movement, but as recognition.

Not just as the right to vote or travel, but the right to be who you are without needing permission.

“The right to be who you are without needing permission.” It seems so simple once you really see it.

Yes, yes, I know. There’s good reason for ID. I get it. But there is also something creepy about it. Businesses insist upon “government-issued” identification and refuse to serve you if you do not have it. Sometimes, as Scott points out, they refuse to serve you if your government-issued ID has expired. Even when it’s obviously you in the picture.

Yes, it’s you. But it’s not REALLY you because the date on your government-issued ID has expired.

What?

How is my identity so wrapped up in this government-issued identification card? Do I need permission to exist? Do I not exist without it?

That was part of

Diamond-Michael Scott

’s point, and it was what was on my mind a few years ago when I was trying to figure out what to do with old, expired IDs and a pile of house keys from various homes and apartments in which I no longer live.

I know, I thought—I’ll make a sculpture out of the keys and title it “Where Am I?” And I’ll make a collage out of the old IDs and title it, “Who Am I.”

However, being more of a philosopher than an artist, I settled for making the statement rather than going through the effort of making the art. I put the keys on a carabiner with a “Where Am I” tag and hung them from the basement ceiling.

(It’s next to the dried-frog zipper pouch that a friend gave me 40 years ago—a souvenir from his family’s trip to Mexico City. Yes,

GrizzledAngeleno

, I still have it.)

Then, I took a lifetime’s worth of expired IDs, put them in a jar, and threw on a “Who Am I” tag.

It really is a lifetime’s worth—somewhere, buried in there, is my first savings account bankbook from when I was nine years old. (I had earned $60 doing some modeling for Teens and Boys magazine. Sixty whole dollars!)

Should I have thrown the IDs out? Nah. The statement is much better.

Yes, we need ID for various purposes (though we would be wise, as a species, to resist a switch to fully digital ID). But the philosophical realizations are important to keep in mind…

We do not need permission to exist. We do not gain our identity from the government. In fact, governments could cease to exist and we would still be here. We would still be who we are. The universe would still be what it is.

We are natural. Government is not.

I was talking about all of this with

Diamond-Michael Scott

yesterday evening and I realized that just a few minutes before, an appropriate song had been playing in my playlist. And since it’s #FreedomMusicFriday, you get to hear that song too.

It’s “Limbs,” by Bones UK—it’s super-groovy and the lyrics are spot on. Enjoy, and happy Friday!

Then my body is connected to my brain
Give it a name, I think we'll call it "Me"
Then my body is connected to my brain
Give it a name, I think we'll call it "Me"

I am who I am, no one else can be me
I come as I am, no one else does me as well as me
(Give it a name, I think we'll call it)
You are who you are, no one else can be you
(Give it a name, I think we'll call it)
Do what you do, no one else does you as well as you