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Group Actions, Frowned Upon
by Paul Bonneau
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Attribute to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise

It's interesting what can happen when people get together in a group.

Not all of it is good, of course. Everyone knows of the flash mobs ransacking shops these days. However even those can be instructive. For one thing, they form quickly, with little if any prior organization. And, they use current technology (Twitter I think).

The Egyptian opponents to the Mubarak regime also used such media for their gatherings.

Could this example be useful to freedom lovers?

I recalled some striking examples, never mentioned in any schools, of old-timey "flash mobs" that appeared in Rothbard's history Conceived in Liberty. They usually came about when some colonial legislative body decided to raise taxes or pass some unpopular law. The peons would get together and lay siege to the place and generally push the legislative body to change their evil ways. Or, some person, similar to Cuomo's first gun control victim, would be arrested by the authorities; subsequently a mob would form and bust him out of jail.

I came upon this again today with an article by J. D. Tucille describing a 19th Century "flash mob" that snatched an escaped slave from the hands of the police.

There are lots of such actions. There were those naughty vigilantes—who as far as the Ministry of Propaganda is concerned do not bear close examination, since one might form a sympathetic view of them otherwise. And there was the recent Jarbridge Brigade.

But think how much more viable such "freedom flash mobs" could be, with Twitter and social media?

It's no wonder when a country is invaded, the first thing that is done, is that the invader grabs hold of every communication vehicle it can find.

The US as an occupied country, held by the lizard people in Washington DC. By some fluke these alien invaders have not yet grabbed the best communications tool ever invented by humans, the Internet. In fact they had a hand in developing it, no doubt to their later chagrin. Maybe we ought to start using it. Next time some poor schmuck gets grabbed by the goons for nothing, we should get our torches and pitch forks (not to mention battle rifles) and see if we can bust him out of jail. It would be a domestic version of Bastille Day.

It's going to happen at some point. We have plenty of precedent; you might even call it a voluntary association. Freedom mobs are as American as apple pie.

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