Tim May said
It's time to take direct action against the bozos who keep restricting our freedoms. I used to be more moderate, favoring more civil measures to rein them in. This isn't working. They're pressing in at every level. They are declaring war.
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From: jcaldwel@iquest.net
Organization: People in Green
To: jcaldwel@iquest.net
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 13:26:57 +0000
Subject: Slaves
Priority: normal
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Continued from previous message Rescinding your social security number is another thing that I would have said a year ago, "OK, it's an option, but it's a grandstanding option. It's waving and saying, 'Hey, hey, I'm a troublemaker. Put me on a list.'" But I am going to be rescinding my social security number formally, writing to the Social Security Administration and saying, "Nope. Not my number, folks." It may be a grandstanding gesture, but that number is a slave's number, and I'm getting rid of it, pure and simple.
Now a lot of people -- a lot of people _here_ -- are doing these things already. I know people right here in this group who haven't paid taxes in years. I know people in this group who don't have a driver's license, who _have_ rescinded their social security numbers, or whatever, and I think that's great. In fact Rick White came up with a really good term the other day when we were talking. He talked about "individual secession" as a means of combating the government. We were talking about ways of avoiding violence, and he suggested "individual secession" as a means of accomplishing that. I think it's great, and I think we all need to do it. But I also think that the result of quiet secession -- of just quietly withdrawing your consent, your support, your participation in the system -- the result of that is something like what happened in the Soviet Union. Eventually the system collapses, but what's left? You have black markets. We like black markets, because they're free markets. But they are corrupt markets that are run by gangsters, eventually. We need free, open markets. We need to declare freedom and live it publicly, instead of by hiding. I think individual secession is good, but we need to make noise doing it. And not polite noise. We libertarians are very polite people, very well-mannered. We sign our little pledge, and we do the right thing, because that's the kind of people we are. But we need to make noise. We need to say, "I'm withdrawing. I'm withdrawing, and here's why, and come get me." And that goes against everything I personally believe. One reason you never heard of Claire Wolfe until six months ago was that although I've been an activist, I have tried to keep a low profile and tried to be really quiet, because I didn't want the IRS knocking on my door, or kicking it down as the case may be. I didn't want the ATF coming in to say hello at four in the morning. But I don't care any more. I _do_not_ care any more, and I think we're coming to a confrontation point anyway, and if that's what happens, so be it. I think there are a lot of other things that you can all do and probably all _are_ doing; probably a lot of you are ahead of me. That's why I like coming down to Arizona; I learn from what people in Arizona are doing. But certainly, withdraw to the extent that you can from the banking system. Set your political priorities -- don't waste your time on things that aren't working. Like for me, I was always always sitting down writing stupid letters to my congressperson, as if my congressperson cared. I felt like I was doing something. But one of the things I've learned since those days is to do is prioritize. And that means don't even bother any more. Don't even talk to them any more. I think everybody should be studying warfare, in one way or another. Whether that's the personal warfare of going up to Gunsite and learning how to shoot in combat situations or whether that's studying _The Art of War_, reading books by Mao, or Che Guevara, or Sun-Tzu. I think we all need to be doing that, even if we don't want the confrontation. None of us _want_ the confrontation, but I think we'd better be prepared for it in those ways. I think we should all be getting out of government jobs -- with one exception. With one exception, and this is something I've just been thinking about. I've decided that over the last thirty years some _wonderful_ libertarian has been running the IRS' computer system. And I say, "Thank you out there, whoever you are, and keep it up! Good job!" So anybody who's in a position to do unto the ATF or unto the EPA what has been done to the IRS, definitely go for it. One of the things that we can do, whether we're looking for confrontation or not, is to establish some virtual communities. And here's where Michael Voth comes in. Michael of the Coconino libertarians, and Kevin Burt of the Laramie County libertarians of Cheyenne Wyoming, cooked up this notion of "cousin counties". You know how we have "sister cities" all around the world? Well, we now have a "cousin countyship" between Laramie and Coconino libertarians. We don't exactly know what we're going to do with it yet, but we have our own "virtual community", and it is somewhat of an act of...well I don't think we care enough to _defy_ the national hierarchy, but we're going to make connections despite the hierarchy. Some day we may need a "safe house" in Coconino; some day they may need a "safe house" in Laramie County. Some day we may need to be stations on an underground railroad for getting patriots to safety. We may need to be stations on a supply line, and we have that connection established. We have a relationship with each other already, and we'll do what seems appropriate with it. That, unfortunately, brings us to the national party, or higher-up-the-line parties. I think -- and this is just a personal viewpoint -- that the best thing that the state party could be, or the best thing that the national party could be for individual libertarians is a support group to help us establish networks with each other; to help us keep connections with each other; to help us learn from each other; what works and what doesn't work; what did they try over in Alabama that might work in Nevada, or that was a disaster and might not work anywhere? Your state organization is great for that, I think, to the extent that I know it. Unfortunately you're one of the few that is. And unfortunately, of course, we have National. The national party. The commissariat of Washington, D.C. What is the national party? It is a top-down fund-raising organization that is into telling us what we should do, not learning from us and helping to spread it around. And certainly some of the things that we should _not_ do, according to National...we should not have people like L. Neil Smith at our gatherings. He has been declared "unfit" by the national party. And I hope you all recognize that. [Applause for Smith, who was sitting in the audience.] Also, a year or so ago, those of us who got the "Libertarian Volunteer" got an issue that listed the "twelve most terrible things" that have ever been done at local party meetings. One of them was to discuss "Should There Be A Libertarian Party?" I mean, that's shocking. How _dare_ we talk about such a thing? So here we are at a time when we need individualism, autonomy, quick action and networking, being saddled with this sort of dinosaur with the little pea-brain up here in Washington, DC, trying to communicate down to us, thinking we're its tail or something. Yhey are so busy trying to be like the other folks in Washington, D.C. that they are very quickly forgetting that they _are_ libertarians. But I'm sure they're quite good at fund-raising; I've hear wonderful tales about their fund-raising. In fact, something quite interesting that I heard the other day indirectly from Neil: Harry Browne is criticizing _me_ as one of the people who was damning him for his fund-raising and odd campaign spending practices. Well, I never did. I would have. I would have been happy to, because of what I have heard from Vin Suprynowicz and Neil Smith and other people. But it didn't happen. So, National is giving us enemies lists and fund-raising corruption, among other pleasures of politics. Heck, they're headquartered in the Watergate, after all! What are we going to do with these people? They think that success is raising a lot of money whether it goes to any good cause or not. They think that success is being invited to the cocktail parties with the Democrats and the Republicans. They think that success is having libertarianism favorably mentioned in the Washington Post.
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Continued from previous message OK, if I were favorably mentioned in the Washington Post, I would do everything I could to change my ways! Wouldn't you? Who wants to be favorably mentioned by people who think that every bit of dissent is _hate_speech_? Who think that anyone who is not a Republican or a Democrat or in the mainstream is some sort of crazy? No. No thank you. Hunh-unh. No thanks.
We try very hard to be acceptable. The national party is trying to be
acceptable and there's nothing wrong with that. It's human. I mean we want to
be accepted from the moment we're born. But the question is, to whom do we want
to be acceptable?
I don't want to be acceptable to the same people that the national party
wants to be acceptable to. I want to be acceptable to you guys. And I want you
to be acceptable to me, because we are going to need each other some day. I
want to be with you when we prepare.
I don't care whether you're preparing even for the same eventuality that
I'm preparing for. I don't care if you're a pacifist. There is room for
many differences. But we've got a role to play, and it's we, not national, who
are going to play that role.
Something is going to happen. I wish I could tell you what it was. I've
been talking to people and everybody's going through the same thing --
"Well, I think it might be this", "I think it might be that", "I think it
might be the other" -- we don't know. But it's coming. Whether it breaks
with the suddenness of an earthquake, or whether it comes like a storm
that you can see rolling toward you for hours, it _is_ coming.
And the big question for all of us, when this hits, is, "Do I want to be
polite and acceptable or _do_I_want_to_be_FREE?"
Free, of course! I mean, it's easy, right? It's easy! So let's do it! I
have absolute confidence you guys are going to be _able_ to do it. And
when it all comes down, I want to be here, if not physically in Arizona, I want
to be in your virtual community.
So thank you for your guts. And thank you for having me here. And thank
you for being brave enough to talk about things that National doesn't want you
to talk about, and to do things that National doesn't want you to do. My
congratulations and gratitude to all of you.
*****
NOTE on the health care database: I have since been fiercely corrected on
this point. I may have been overstating the present danger of such a
database, though I believe the danger remains grave for the near future.
The health care bill (available from the Library of Congress' Thomas web
site as HR 3101 or Public Law 104-191) establishes a federal database for
reporting medical fraud and abuse. I don't believe this is the problem,
however it was part of the confusion. Later, in Sections 1171-1175, the
bill outlines a plan for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to set
standards for the electronic transmission of all health care data. These
"standards" do not constitute a database, and I thank the critic who corrected
me on that issue. However, the secretary is directed to set one standard _by
which all medical data will be electronically communicated_. The standard must
include a "unique identifier" for every individual whose medical information is
ever transmitted (Sec. 1173). In doing that, Congress is clearly allowing the
Clinton administration to create a de facto single, nationwide system to which
federal (and other) bureaucrats will have easy access, almost certainly via our
social security numbers. If this does not rapidly become the feared federal
database, it will nevertheless allow the government, researchers and others to
run rampant through the various private or state databases that will use the
federally defined standard. I regret any confusion. But I urge you to keep your
eyes open and your heads up...not that it will do you much good when
bureaucrats are secretly slurping your medical data -- law or no law -- into
their computers.
(c)Claire Wolfe 1997
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America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work
within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.
-- Claire Wolfe, "101 Things To Do 1Til the Revolution"
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/1797/essay.htm
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