 |
|
|
L. Neil Smith's THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 238, September 14, 2003 Evil, demented, twisted, disgusting little trolls
Professional Paranoid, Part III
Exclusive to TLE
In Part I of "Professional Paranoid," I explored the idea that there are no terrorists of note in the United States, giving a specific example as to why this is so. If terrorists existed, there is nothing to prevent this country from looking like Israel or Iraq. The fact that no terrorist attacks have occurred in more than two years is proof that no one is actually trying. In Part II, I [cited] statistics of terrorism, easily proving that in the United States, you're 9,683% more likely to die in an automobile accident than in a terrorist attack. I also proved that the current draconian, anti-freedom measures put in place by the big-government, tax-and-spend Republicans don't make America more safe. In fact, these laws make us far LESS safe. In Part III, I'd like to examine the real enemy of freedom in the United States. It's neither terrorists nor Middle Eastern religious nuts. Recall from Part II that in the entire history of the Republic, there have been 3262 fatalities due to terrorism. From 1992 - 2001 alone, there were 315,856 automobile-related fatalities. In any given year, there are over 280 million victims of government. The statistical likelihood of being killed in a car accident is very low in the United States. The chance of being killed in a terrorist attack is far closer to 0% than 1%. However, it is literally a 100% certainty that you will be a victim of government policies. First and foremost among these policies are those that allow government to steal money. The Federal government steals about 30% of everyone's income, while State and local governments steal another 20%. Through immoral policies that add taxation at literally every point of production of every good and service in America, consumer prices are inflated by some 800%. Via immoral, Unconstitutional interference in the finance industry, government has driven the value of Federal Reserve Notes to a tiny fraction of what they were when I was a child. It is a 100% certainty that you will have half your money stolen from you, pay eight times what you need to for everything you see on every store in America, and that it will require more money every year to make the purchase. Compare this to the utterly negligible risk that you'll be a victim of terrorist attack. Morally, the Unconstitutional Federal nanny-state encourages a slave mentality. Rather than believing that we are each born free individual who may do as we please, an intrusive government fosters the belief that rights are bestowed from government, to give and take as it pleases. As I pointed out in Part II, Federal policy has no impact whatsoever in a terrorist's ability to carry out misdeeds (not, as I pointed out in Part I, that any of them are actually trying). The architect of these immoral, Unconstitutional policies aren't idiots: they know full well that their policies have no use in preventing or punishing terrorism. Why, then, do government officials feel compelled to force these policies upon not only us, but every American born after 9/11? I've been alive almost forty years. My father is a clinical psychologist who worked for many years in the security wing of the Nebraska state mental hospital. This is the wing that houses individuals so sick that they are a danger to other prisoners: serial murderers and rapists, pedophiles ... the Jeffrey Dahmers and John Wayne Gaceys of the world. For many years, I literally had no conception that it was unusual for a boy's father to go to work through a pair of six-inch steel doors adjacent to a guard station encased in bulletproof plexiglass. In my adult career as an professional paranoid, I'm rather well-prepared. When asking the question, "Why do my elected officials insist on doing things I know for a fact have no positive impact on American life?" I'm not inclined to be charitable. Seminal libertarian author L. Neil Smith once pointed out that individuals who insist on implementing policy that can are easily demonstrable as harmful are either stupid, insane, or evil—possibly all three. [see http://www.webleyweb.com/tle/libe202-20021209-02.html] America's "War on Terror" is easily demonstrable as harmful to American life. The politicians who support it are either stupid, insane, or evil. I reject out of hand the notion that the majority are stupid. I don't think stupid people get elected to Congress or the Presidency. A few, perhaps, but not all. Insane? Possibly, though not in the way most people think of it. Elected officials at the Federal level are certainly power-mad. They each have a burning desire to amass as much personal power as possible and maintain it for as long as they can. If any one of them could arrange to be crowned Emperor of Earth, they would. Fortunately, each of them is actively working toward his own coronation, so the political in-fighting tends to keep any one of them from rising to a position of prominence. Certainly many elected officials suffer from some form of personality disorder, but one would be hard-pressed to prove it without psychological testing. So in general, aside from a large dose of power-madness, insanity (e.g. the inability to understand that their policies are harmful) seems unlikely. What's left? Evil. Our elected officials are just plain evil. Their power madness leads them to take any and every measure possible to consolidate their power. If that requires enacting policies and programs that harm millions of individuals, they'll happily do it. Fortunately, even evil, power-mad politicians run the risk of offending their voters so much that they won't be re-elected. This has the tendency to temper their actions. Certainly, if they thought they could get away with it, there isn't a single elected official who wouldn't vote to levy a 100% income tax, nationalize every industry in the country, and take America directly to tyranny (as opposed to doing it a little bit at a time). However, if they enacted such a measure, they'd almost certainly be voted out. So they sit, scheming and making deals with other selfish, power-mad weasels in smoky, badly-lit back rooms. Then an event like September 11 occurs. Suddenly, millions of people are frightened. Their judgment disappears. They scream to their elected officials, "We don't care what you do to us, just GET THOSE BASTARDS!" And the politicians smile and take full advantage of the situation to enact policies that would otherwise get them voted out of office. Who, then, is the true enemy of freedom in the United States? Terrorists who haven't struck in two years and only three times previously in the entire history of the United States? Or evil, power-mad politicians who spend all their waking hours scheming and taking away as many freedoms as they possibly can—every single day? One day—and that day is probably much closer than any of us think— the politicians will come to the ugly realization that the United States has gone the way of the Soviet Union and every other communist regime in the world. You simply cannot steal everyone's money AND drive up prices AND devalue your currency and expect the country to survive. I would suggest that the present recession—which shows no real signs of improving—is symptomatic of this. One day, elected officials will sit in their offices in Washington scheming and passing laws that only they and a few deluded souls who think the United States still exists will pay attention to. Our elected officials probably won't notice that the United States fell until the rest of us have built a truly free society and promptly left this rock for the stars. They're evil, no question about it. They're demented, twisted disgusting little trolls deep down in their evil souls. They're intent on making themselves Emperor at everyone's expense, without even understanding that they'll never be able to accomplish their goal. So let them have their fun. No doubt they'll make our lives a little more miserable in the meantime, but as Princess Leia so wisely noted, "The more you tighten your grip, the more systems will slip through your fingers." Let them tighten their grip—and like the professional paranoid, keep a keen eye out for a place to squeeze through. Freedom, Immortality, and the Stars!
TLE AFFILIATE
Great deals on great computer hardware -- Tiger Direct! Help Support TLE by patronizing our advertisers and affiliates. We cheerfully accept donations!
|
|
|
|
