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Don't Look Back; Move Forward
by Kent McManigal
dullhawk@hotmail.com
www.KentForLiberty.com

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

I don't really look as though I belong in the 21st century. I don't act like I belong here, either. My personal views are based on mutual respect and taking responsibility for oneself. Because of my appearance and opinions, people mistakenly believe I live in the past. I have been accused of wanting to return to "the good old days" when a person could walk down the street carrying a gun and not be noticed, except by people who wanted to "talk guns" with him. To a time when self-reliance and individuality were valued, not feared. To an era when a person's personal life was fodder for whispered gossip and raised eyebrows; not an excuse to toss the flash-bangs through his window, kick in the door, taser the survivors, and make a brutal "arrest" on the floor—beside the bloody bodies of the puppies.

Yes, I do long for those days, but not as a consequence of going back to a past that is forever gone, if it ever really existed in the first place. I don't want to return to a time before the treasonous National Firearms Act of 1934. I don't want to go back to a time before torture was excused and embraced by the US federal terrorists. I don't want to go back to a day when people were owned by others, or treated as second-class people because of the amount of melanin in their skin. I don't want to go back to a time when it was acceptable to beat someone to death because the love-of-their-life happened to be of the same sex. I don't wish to return to a time when only the strong survived. I want to move forward to a future beyond these things. To a future where these failures are well understood and detested by ordinary people, even the mostly apathetic ones, not just by sensitive "Yahoos" such as myself. Even if I had a time machine, going back is not an option.

I wish to progress into a gloriously bright future where, as long as you do not attack, threaten, or steal from someone, your life is nobody's business but your own. A future where your guns are understood to not be a threat as long as you use them properly. A future when there is no longer any government promotion of racism or sexism. A future where the strong are not punished for being strong, nor are the weak rewarded for being weak. Where the strong are comfortable and self-confident enough to reach out and help the weak when they need it. Any government that survives will be too busy struggling to justify its continued existence to torture anyone. It will also be struggling to not anger any of the ordinary people, its bosses, who could shut it down at a moment's notice.

Why is getting rid of the myriad stupid laws looked upon as a retreat? Why must the future be a tangled mess of laws that either prohibit or mandate every second and every action of a person's life? That is a rather defeatist attitude if you ask me. Is there no hope that people will realize that laws do not cause good behavior? Maybe they have already realized it.

Murder has been illegal for thousands of years, yet it still happens. Pass counterfeit "laws" that criminalize self defense, and murder happens even more frequently, with less danger to the murderer. It's the same with theft, kidnapping, rape, and the rest of the real crimes. Not only do they still occur, but quite often they occur at the hands of the agents and enforcers of the government; with official sanction. How is that good?

Weapons, guns specifically, are just tools. Tools of all sorts will continue to be used, for good and for bad, regardless of the state's wishes or demands. Guns will continue to be constructed as long as humans understand simple physics, and have a desire to project force beyond the reach of their arms. Unless government can eliminate the desire for recreation, the need for food, the drive for self defense, the appreciation of mechanisms, and curiosity. Simple possession of a tool, or anything else for that matter, can never be the basis of a legitimate law. All that matters is how you use that tool. Do not attack an innocent person with it and no one should even notice that you have it with you. Unless their motives are corrupt.

"Drugs" are a part of being human. Humans used mind- and mood-altering chemicals before they were even human. If you doubt that, you have not observed animals very closely. Did these chemicals cause our extinction, or did they, just perhaps, help guide our evolution into what we are today? Why is chemical use seen as a problem by the control freaks? Does regulating the use of those chemicals solve anything, or does it cause the destruction of lives, families, and ultimately the very fabric of decent society? Did the prohibition force humans to seek ever more powerful, laboratory produced, chemicals? These are questions that should be considered.

Law pollution helps no one except for those who get their jollies (and paychecks) from passing and enforcing the laws. It is time to leave this diseased practice behind. It is time to discard the failed policies of the past and the present. Move into a new era of true liberty. It may look a little like the mythical past in some ways, but it will be immeasurable different, and better, in others. Only by getting on with civilization and rejecting the evil that is currently "national policy" in the US police state can we advance to a fresh, free future.

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