Zenaan Harkness, zen@freedbms.net:

It seems that nearly everyone in this day and age is a statist to some
degree, Juan excepted :)

Why is this so, I have asked myself.

The state is a bully, and no one has escaped the experiences of being
bullied by the state - RBTs, license checks, seizing of bank accounts
outside of any court hearing nor any chance for the target to be heard in
a court of law with a righteous jurisdiction;
and anyway, the courts, that last bastion of freedom and justice against
the tyranny of the state, is almost completely, systemically,
instutitionally corrupt by any common man standard.

The state seizes taxes at every corner, violates our constitutions,
unilaterally attacks other states, and conspires year after year to
increase the burdens and the violations of its own constituents, namely we
the people.

The state (whether USA, Australia, etc) is nowadays so abhorrent, so in
violation of the constitution which created it, so outside of ethics,
morals, anything resembling higher causes or principles, it really is a
beast of epic proportion which must be slayed or transformed, or the
descent to total chaos war and bloodshed will once again happen, just
another war to end all wars.

Yet nearly everyone still clings to the state. Whether implicitly (it's
the best history has given us, other options would of course be so much
worse) or explicitly (driver licenses are our only hope to rid the world
of evil environment destroying cars).

'We' have lost faith in our fellow humans to a high degree. We don't trust
ourselves and so we don't trust our fellow 'citizens'. We put money,
creativity, leisure, life, family, mortgage and the rest before any higher
principle, in denial of the magnificence of that which we be, that which
we are, these incredible universes we stroll around in.

We expect "others won't stand behind me if I did take a stand against a
bully or a tyranny, because deep down I know I am probably unlikely to get
behind someone else taking a stand - especially since I haven't seen
myself do so yet, so I have no evidence suggesting I'm that way inclined,
so it's most likely true."

We hail the heroes "oh I think it's awesome that history proves that
someone comes along to fix things up every now and then - at a minimum on
average of every 400 years".

Yes this and endless more excuses for not supporing your local freedom
"fighters" even in a small way, fatalism is just one more excuse. I've
heard so many of them.

'We' live in golden cages. By historical standards, almost everyone in the
West can eat cheesecake every day, travel to friends and sights and events
one way or another, drape ourselves in silk and suede, or lounge on the
beach.

And the gold cage is never enough, the car or pushbike really needs to be
newer, faster, with better suspension, and I want more and my kids need to
go to more activities and events and and and... I have my life to live.

And the state redistributes the wealth of others to make our golden cages.
So we encage one another, binding our fellow man to tyranny,
binding ourselves to self serving, self centered, selfish non action.

Sleepwalking in comfort whilst the beast prepares its final meal.

Gee it's great that heroes come along and solve such problems in history
occasionally... now don't interrupt me whilst I shout down your Trump
rebellion and screem the benefits of The Democratic Platform
notwithstanding the evil that my state has become regardless.

Cowards most of us.

Wonderful speech, Zenaan. Gives so much food for thought & actions...
In the past 4 days i have read so much powerful stuff from you... something really great is going on in your head-heart-soul. DON"T STOP IT! :)

2016-06-12 6:54 GMT+03:00 Kurt Buff <kurt.buff@gmail.com>:
Try reading Lysander Spooner, Benjamin Tucker, Ludwig von Mises and,
most especially, Murray Rothbard. Maybe a bit of David Friedman, too.

Once you've made your way through their works, you can call yourself
educated in anarchism.

That's really great, Kurt. But Zenaan is asking WHY don't we act? Why do we live like SLAVES? and WHEN will we start putting great words (like in the books you listed) into ACTIONS?

Knowledge is NOT ONLY about "knowing" it in brain, you know... It's about incarnating it into actions = into ones physical life!

Even in this cypherpunk list, i believe there are 80% at least, who don't need more "insights/education of how everything sucks and how one should (at least try to) repair it".
BUT
as Zenaan says in his speech,- self serving (egoismus) and self delusion get the victory over all our great intentions and insights.

Cowards most of us.
.