Free Philadelphia!
I want to say a word or two about the little bit that I've learned about the Free State Project, and the Voluntaryists who blog on FreeKeene.com. As far as I've been able to make out, the Free State Project is trying to focus attention on New Hampshire because it is one of the least populated, least taxed and least "governed" (i.e. by the taxing State) states in the U.S. One can only imagine that it is hoped that if sufficient numbers of liberty-minded activists move there, eventually New Hampshire or a portion thereof might be able to secede from the U.S.
But I am far less interested in the Free State Project, than I am in the bloggers on FreeKeene.com, because FreeKeene.com is, at least based on what is found on the website masthead, a Voluntaryist presence. (I refrain from calling it a "group", in deference to the strenuous opinion expressed in a few of the blogs that I've read there, that the bloggers "belong to no group" and are "just individuals". I can appreciate why this is stated so firmly and so frequently, as they may want to avoid federal prosecution under R.I.C.O.) And I tip my hat to these bloggers, and to the LP, and to the Free State Project, for working hard to get the message out to Americans that we live in a society that is not nearly as free as we think it is, and which, more importantly, is becoming less free with every passing year.
But I think that the marginalization of these sort of activists continues apace, and I will explain why. The "framers" were (many of them) extremely creative, highly intellectual, multi-talented, and deeply courageous men. But America has changed! Those sort of men are mere myths to the vast majority of Americans. And the LP is a party of virtually nothing BUT ideas. Once you understand the danger of the ever-growing national State, you want to talk about it, and sometimes to yell about it, and sometimes to screech about it. I was there! Just a few weeks ago, I was there. I had long and intense conversations with my two more intellectual sisters. I did not really budge either of them! Not with all the logic and reason that I see in such sparkling relief, in my head!
Here's the rub: Americans understand, in an elementary school sort of way, that ideas are very important to the American people. But now, what they really want, is solutions. For the problems of TODAY. And also, the fact is that for Americans, the American State is a "brute fact", like the air we breathe. They can't do the mental gymnastics required to think things through, with that thing gone.
So, my understanding (which I invite correction of) is that the Voluntaryists of Keene (or at least the ones on FreeKeene.com) are mainly following the civil disobedience route, in an attempt to show the people of Keene, and NH, and the U.S., how big a sham civil liberties are in America. But here's the problem: you've chosen a "happy" state to do this in! One of the most free states in the union! So, you will annoy the residents (I know this is happening), and you will be nothing more than a curiosity to the rest of America, because NH is a tiny, peripheral curiosity of a state to most Americans.
I live in the immediate outskirts of the city of Philadelphia. I am 38 years old, and except for the last six years, and the four years I was in college in New Jersey, I was a resident of Philadelphia. Philadelphia does not get all the media attention that L.A., Chicago, NYC, and even Boston and S.F. get, but one could easily argue that the Philadelphia metropolitan area is one of the most important urban regions in the world, let alone in the U.S.
In the true agorist (unfettered free market) spirit of friendly competition, I would like to suggest a challenge: I'll strive to rid this 5 million person "city-state" of all statist oppression (in my lifetime would be great), and you see what you can come up with in the 1.3 million person state of New Hampshire. Or maybe you can tackle the Boston metro area, and get Keene into it as well (even though Cheshire County isn't part of the Boston MSA)?
You gotta have faith!
But I am far less interested in the Free State Project, than I am in the bloggers on FreeKeene.com, because FreeKeene.com is, at least based on what is found on the website masthead, a Voluntaryist presence. (I refrain from calling it a "group", in deference to the strenuous opinion expressed in a few of the blogs that I've read there, that the bloggers "belong to no group" and are "just individuals". I can appreciate why this is stated so firmly and so frequently, as they may want to avoid federal prosecution under R.I.C.O.) And I tip my hat to these bloggers, and to the LP, and to the Free State Project, for working hard to get the message out to Americans that we live in a society that is not nearly as free as we think it is, and which, more importantly, is becoming less free with every passing year.
But I think that the marginalization of these sort of activists continues apace, and I will explain why. The "framers" were (many of them) extremely creative, highly intellectual, multi-talented, and deeply courageous men. But America has changed! Those sort of men are mere myths to the vast majority of Americans. And the LP is a party of virtually nothing BUT ideas. Once you understand the danger of the ever-growing national State, you want to talk about it, and sometimes to yell about it, and sometimes to screech about it. I was there! Just a few weeks ago, I was there. I had long and intense conversations with my two more intellectual sisters. I did not really budge either of them! Not with all the logic and reason that I see in such sparkling relief, in my head!
Here's the rub: Americans understand, in an elementary school sort of way, that ideas are very important to the American people. But now, what they really want, is solutions. For the problems of TODAY. And also, the fact is that for Americans, the American State is a "brute fact", like the air we breathe. They can't do the mental gymnastics required to think things through, with that thing gone.
So, my understanding (which I invite correction of) is that the Voluntaryists of Keene (or at least the ones on FreeKeene.com) are mainly following the civil disobedience route, in an attempt to show the people of Keene, and NH, and the U.S., how big a sham civil liberties are in America. But here's the problem: you've chosen a "happy" state to do this in! One of the most free states in the union! So, you will annoy the residents (I know this is happening), and you will be nothing more than a curiosity to the rest of America, because NH is a tiny, peripheral curiosity of a state to most Americans.
I live in the immediate outskirts of the city of Philadelphia. I am 38 years old, and except for the last six years, and the four years I was in college in New Jersey, I was a resident of Philadelphia. Philadelphia does not get all the media attention that L.A., Chicago, NYC, and even Boston and S.F. get, but one could easily argue that the Philadelphia metropolitan area is one of the most important urban regions in the world, let alone in the U.S.
In the true agorist (unfettered free market) spirit of friendly competition, I would like to suggest a challenge: I'll strive to rid this 5 million person "city-state" of all statist oppression (in my lifetime would be great), and you see what you can come up with in the 1.3 million person state of New Hampshire. Or maybe you can tackle the Boston metro area, and get Keene into it as well (even though Cheshire County isn't part of the Boston MSA)?
You gotta have faith!
posted by Joel GL at 4:08 PM
1 Comments:
I'd like to note that I watched Sam Dodson's first interview after he was released from jail, and I was very impressed. I realize that I have done nothing, and have placed nothing on the line, yet, and people like Sam are putting themselves in very unpleasant situations because of their bedrock beliefs in what is right. I applaud them.
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