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Fighting the Culture War
by Jim Davidson
[email protected]

Special to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise

"Words will always retain their power. Words are the means to meaning, and for some, the annunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country."
—V for Vendetta

Here we are again on the eleventh of September with another meaningless anniversary of events very few people understand, about which only a small number know the exact truth. And the endless nonsense being spewed, not only by the people in power and their sycophants in the lamestream media, but also by those who stand in the gap in opposition to injustice, continues to set my teeth on edge. Today I'm told, "They hate us because our government has been killing them."

Yes, I have travelled. People don't hate Americans, they hate the USA government. And it isn't my government. It isn't your government. The idea that they hate us is mistaken. And the idea that you have any least say in the policies of the USA government is nonsense. It is childish nonsense, and you know it.

The people who set policy are the people with money in the big banks and the big government contractors, especially the ones in concrete, steel, defence, and prisons. A majority of Americans were against the bank bailouts (according to this Fox News story and others), but they happened. They happened because the filthy foul scum in the big banks wanted to steal the recovery, so they demanded the bailouts, and they were rewarded by the people in congress and the White House they have bought. A majority of Americans are against the war in Iraq, but it continues. (According to [a poll from] April 2007, 58% of the participants stated that the initial attack was a mistake. In May 2007, the New York Times and CBS News released similar results of a poll in which 61% of participants believed the U.S. "should have stayed out" of Iraq. from Wikipedia)

The military occupation of Iraq continues because it serves the interests of those with the money to buy the politicians, buy them with campaign contributions, buy them with lobbying fees. These evil men and women make the bombs and ammunition used to slaughter children, they are drowning in blood though it never touches them, and they do not care about anything but their profits. They are horrid, wicked, evil people, and they know what they are doing is about their profit at the expense of the suffering of others, and they do not care, at all.

Grow up. Stop calling it "our government." Stop telling their lies for them. Disgusting.I'm told that "we" are not a nation of laws, nor a constitutional republic, now. So I ask, when were "we" and I'll give you a pass on the pronoun from hell, ever a nation of laws, or a constitutional republic? Would that have been in the period after 9 states had ratified the constitution, when they engaged in acts of war on Rhode Island to force that state to ratify? Or in 1794 when there were draft riots in major cities? Or when George Washington marched 12,950 men across Pennsylvania and killed 12 of them in the process. When was there this utter fantasy of a constitutional republic? In your dreams.

I have not met most Americans. I'm quite sure you have not either. But the argument that a great many people have no idea about basic facts does seem consistent with what we know bout people. People live in ignorance and pretend to have knowledge. They live in servitude and pretend to have freedom. They live in poverty with big screen televisions and imagine they've got it so good.

You can argue that "our government" doesn't mean the one we chose, or would choose, but the one that oppresses us. Just as a slave might have said, "our master" not out of choice, but to describe a particular person to the other slaves in the cattle pen. But that's not how it is being used. The term "our government" is being used as "the government of the people, by the people, and for the people" in the pretence of you having any say in it. But what Lincoln really meant was "the government that enslaves the people on behalf of the people who own the government."

Whose side are you on? I'm on my side. I'm a sovereign. I'm king of me. And I'm not granting any feoffs in exchange for any vassals, because I don't want to rule anyone else. So my side is mine. I have assumed among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which I am entitled. Pull up a seat at the table. It is a 7 billion-sided polygon. Get yer own.

When I use the term "majority of Americans" I'm referring to actual polls I've seen. If you want to win the culture war, upgrade the dialogue. If you are going to annunciate the truth, if you are going to use words for their power, then write the words that mean what you actually mean, and say what you want to have said. You don't know most Americans, you haven't met them. You don't actually have any evidence that most of them think.

No, they have a pretty good bead on things, they think only enough to get through the day, get that big screen TV turned on, and get their shows. They can think their ways through setting up Tivo or whatever people are using to watch afternoon soap operas at midnight.

You aren't going to fix them. You aren't going to save them. On a good day, "sauve qui peut" meant "save who you can." But idiomatically, it has always meant, "Save yourself."

In the fight for a better culture, today's essay has a theme song: "What about me," by Quicksilver Messenger Service.

And it has a sponsor: SMART

Jim Davidson is an author, entrepreneur, and anti-war activist. His 1990 venture to offer a sweepstakes trip into space was destroyed by government action as was his free port and prospective space port in Somalia in 2001. His 2002-2007 venture in free market money and private stock exchange was destroyed by government action in 2007. He's going to Mars if he has to walk. His second book, Being Sovereign is now availble from Lulu and Amazon. He is currently working on a book about travel to Mars with John Wayne Smith, a book with international fugitive Chad Z. Hower on his story, a book on sovereign self-defence, and a book compiling his letters and essays in The Libertarian Enterprise from 1995 to 2010. Contact him at indomitus.net or indsovu.com. Come visit IndSovU teams at gatherings in October 2011 in Indiana, December 2011 in Florida, and March 2012 in Austin, Texas. Or join State Busters.

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