Quote of the Day, 6/14

Legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways; hence, there are an infinite number of plans for organizing it: 

tariffs, 

protection, 

bonuses, 

subsidies, 

incentives, 

the progressive income tax, 

free education, 

the right to employment, 

the right to profit, 

the right to wages, 

the right to relief, 

the right to the tools of production, 

interest free credit, etc., etc. 

And it the aggregate of all these plans, in respect to what they have in common, legal plunder, that goes under the name of socialism.

--Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

Sound familiar?

I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice.

-- Friedrich August von Hayek

 

The Road out of the Matrix; Declaration of Principles

Its been about two years since the beginning of the financial crisis, and about two and a half years since I made the decision that I wouldnt and couldnt vote for John McCain or Barack Obama.  My gestalt, long before I began to really understand why I had such an idea, was that voting for McCain would be the same as voting for Obama.  Both would support expansion of government, and expansion of the military industrial complex, raise taxes, continue to run deficits.  My life wouldnt change.  Personal freedom would continue to erode, the Constitution would be ignored by those who took an oath to preserve and protect it.


 I started to surf the net, reading through the websites of the various third parties.  I was coming off of a staunch Neoconservative phase.  My tendency in politics had always been to favor personal freedom.  The primary mandate of any government is to protect individual freedoms and property rights.  I am liberal in my dealings with individuals, giving most people the benefit of the doubt that they are more likely than not  to be a thoughtful and reasonable person.  Why?  The golden rule.  Treat others the way you want to be treated.  That is how I wish others would treat me when I first meet someone.  Do I expect it?  No, just wish and hope for it.


So two years ago, checking out third parties, I came across the Libertarian Party, started reading about libertarianism in general, and one web link leading to another, came to mises.org and lewrockwell.com.  I read about Austrian Economic theory and learned how to differentiate Austrian theory from the predominant Keynesian theory.  I read about how Law and Government is perverted by socialism and special interests in Frederic Bastiat's The Law.  That was the beginning of my road out of the Matrix.


Well!  If you are the kind of person that has faith in the system of government, believe in good intentions of the local police, have faith in the strength of the US economy and the US dollar, well think again!  Dont read those websites, and stay in blissful ignorance.  Keep watching CNN, MSNBC, read the New York Times, obsess about Dancing With the Stars, and spend hours playing Farmville on Facebook.  Dont worry about approaching doom!

Unfortunately for me, I'd rather know the truth about my world than feel good.  Morpheus gave me the red pill.  I dont regret taking it.


I went from an upstate NY raised public school educated kid from the suburbs, supporter of the Neocon wing of the Republican Party, to a radical arch conservative -- what I want to conserve in my government is the original intent of the founders of the republic, even if it means secession from the United States.   I now mentally recoil from the word "indivisible" in the Pledge of Allegiance.  I used to just say the words.  Now I think about what they mean.


This year I started geneological research.  As I made discoveries about my family in particular, I read related historical documents, books, and essays, and what I learned has forever changed my understanding of the history of this country.


 I found out that my North Carolina native father, and thus myself, are directly descended from founders of Jamestown, New Amsterdam, and the Newtown settlement  of Long Island.  Our family emigrated a couple of generations later, in the 1740's into North Carolina, and there we stayed.  My six great grandfather with the same last name as myself fought at Guilford Courthouse in 1781.  My three great grandfather in the same line fought in the 16th North Carolina Infantry as a private. He was a landowner, was not a slaveowner, and fought for North Carolina's right to secede from the Union.  He enlisted in May of 1861, and was parolled at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9th.


I am directly descended from 6 veterans of the army of the Confederate States of America.


I was always intrigued by the War Between the States growing up.  Now I see the war through an entirely different perspective.  Why would so many men of limited means fight tooth and nail for all those years?  To protect slavery?  Many had no slaves.  They may have benefitted from slavery indirectly, yes.   These were the men who stayed true to the original intent of the Constitution and Articles of Confederation.  The country was founded on the idea of secession from Great Britain.  It was founded as a Confederation of Independent States.  They appointed a Federal organization to represent the interests of the individual States.  Eventually this Federal entity morphed into a National entity, backed by military and monied mercantile, industrial, and financial interests, clothed in patriotic garb.  These were and still are the Yankees against which my ancestors fought.


Since 1865, this entity has grown without pause, and it eventually unfettered itself from the restraint of gold and silver based money system  -- and became the light version of European fascism.  Our now giant and powerful government teeters on the brink of what Naomi Wolf calls a "fascist shift".  Tyrannical and totalitarian elements are everywhere, if one chooses to look.


The oldest and still true concept of a Yankee is that of a busybody, but the kind of busybody that gets in your face and really interferes with your function and your interests.  This is the personality type that has dominated the US government since 1860.  We as a people havent lived in a voluntary Union of independent States since 1860-61.  My family was brought back into the United States at the point of the bayonet.  Eventually we forgot about the bayonet.  Some of us even moved up North.


But now I know about America as a voluntary Union.  I know about Nullification, Interposition and the Principles of 1798.  I know about and understand the desire for individual sovereignty and state sovereignty through Secession.  I will never again be passive.  The goal of my political and educational efforts, such as they are, will be to diminish the role of the Federal, State and Local government in the lives of individual Americans.  Since voting is like peeing into a hurricane, especially if you are a guy like me living in the heart of Yankeedom, the best choice is to blog.


Freedom in America is not the Freedom From Want of the Progressives and Liberals.  Freedom in America is the natural right of the Individual to be free to choose their own path, to succeed or fail on their own, without the help or interference of the government.  Scary, but that is what I want.  I hope you want it too.  I know many will never be able to accept the idea, so I think people need to vote with their feet, and the country should break into pieces.  That way we can each live our principles.  That way I can move to the South and smirk when the socialist Northeastern nation goes bust.


I will pray for the return of real servant government, State sovereignty, and independence of the States from the National US government of Empire.  Let the states rearrange themselves into distinct cultural and political entities so that more of us have a chance at Happiness, Freedom, and Property.