Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

"When asked how she managed to save hundreds of enslaved African Americans via the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, she replied bitterly, 'I could have saved thousands — if only I’d been able to convince them they were slaves.'" — Robin Morgan, 2008

One of the fundamental documents of American history is the Declaration of Independence. It contains a ringing endorsement of human freedom and dignity. It says, in part:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed—that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

Various authors have pointed out that there was a counter-revolution in 1787 when Alexander Hamilton and the bankers and wealthy commercial interests, allied themselves with George Washington and the elitist military officer cadre, and substituted what author Ken Royce calls a Hologram of Liberty, meaning an image of freedom, not the real article. Many of the revolutionary war heroes wrote criticisms of the "constitution," and were known as the Anti-Federalists. The very most compelling book along criticising the counter-revolution is The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith.

In it, El Neil writes about the possible world line or narrative thread we would have been living in if only Jefferson had penned "… deriving their just powers from the unanimous consent of the governed…". As you can imagine, with such fine words to guide them, the heroes of the American revolution would have overthrown Hamilton and Washington, executed them as traitors, restored the Articles of Confederation, done away with the national bank and the national debt, along with Hamilton's confiscatory whiskey tax, and soon enough done away with most all other aspects of national government. The amazing prosperity possible in such a narrative thread is also well-described by El Neil.

What About You?

You live on a plantation, and you are a slave. Most of your income is stolen from you in taxes or in regulations. Most of the things you are allowed to own are a shadow of what is possible.

You are a slave, so you are expected to be somewhat clean and tidy. The overlords who believe they rule you don't want to encounter you and smell your body odour, nor see your filthy clothing. However, actually providing you with clean water in abundance would seem to cost them money they are not prepared to pay. After all, if they buy more capacity for additional water systems and sewer systems, they would not have as much money left over for their slush funds and corrupt payoffs. They tell the city workers that they are saving the money for the pension programmes, but we all know that's nonsense.

However, through this process of monopolising water distribution and then skimping on its actual production, the plantation owners make available to you only lame showers, dishwashers that don't work, and laundry machines that don't clean your garments. Jeffrey Tucker has written several essays on this topic which are second-to-none. See them here: https://fee.org/articles/your-shower-is-lame-you-dishwasher-doesn-t-work-and-your-clothes-are-dirty/ and here: https://tucker.liberty.me/filthy_laundry/

Flow controllers on your faucets and low-flow toilets are meant to "conserve" water. But water is an infinitely renewable resource. For at least thousands of years we have understood the water cycle on Earth, that evaporation produces clouds, clouds produce rain, rain in the mountains flows down to the sea, and sea water evaporates back into clouds. The idea that we are ever going to run out of water on a planet whose surface is mostly water is idiotic. But, it is nonsense that gets repeated for a purpose: to keep from paying to expand the water systems that service homes and families other than those of the privileged class.

Mind you, slaves also don't deserve safe water. So, in Flint Michigan, water was piped to homes using lead pipes, providing extra corrupt benefits to the contractors, while actually harming a great many people. But, those people don't matter to those in power. They literally could not care any less about anyone else being hurt.

#MuhRoads

The same attitude is pervasive. Roads are not for you to travel upon, they exist so that contractors can be paid corrupt fees and politicians and bureau-rats can be provided kickbacks. Whereas the technologies exist to have 50-year roads, most American roads are built with a 20-year life, so that more corruptly allocated contracts can be arranged. Thus when you travel, you find long stretches under construction, and even longer stretches where construction may be anticipated but all they've paid for are cones and speed traps.

All the way back in 1974 a fellow named Moller invented an air car using ducted fan technology. Of course, slaves cannot be allowed to have air cars. Air cars would disrut the aforementioned corrupt allocation of contracts for roads and bridges, obviate the need for many additional highway lanes, and generate opportunities for new companies rather than the existing auto, tire, and fuel conglomerates that enjoy crony profits.

The story goes on and on. You can look around and see any number of things that you, as a slave, are provided in meagre quantity and terrible quality. Much of the food you eat is only an image of wholesome food, while actually being factory produced, with terrible pesticides, herbicides, hormone additives, and deadly genetic modifications to make it possible to produce a great amount of what looks like what food used to be, but is not good for you to eat. You see people every day who are suffering from malnutrition. Overweight is a symptom of many kinds of malnutrition; the food isn't healthy so a glut of carbohydrates fails to slake hunger. Diabetes, hair loss, and many grave illnesses result.

Health itself is compromised for billions because useful remedies are kept from the public. Very wealthy persons, such as David Rockefeller or Elizabeth II are able to get all kinds of special treatments, but published literature about effective treatments for, e.g., Ehlers Danlos syndrome doesn't result in actual treatments being available. The Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies approve deadly drugs, prevent the sale of life-saving medicines and medical techniques, and otherwise destroy public health.

Light Your Own Fire

Even things as simple as electric lights have been replaced with crap. A 60-watt bulb used to be bright and warm, and three of them would light up a room. Today's swirly fluorescent and LED substitutes claim to have the same light level, but do not, as anyone can tell by turning on two lamps, one with old-style incandescent and one with new-fangled bullshit bulbs. Doing so saves those who monopolise the distribution of electric power from needing to build new plants to serve the needs of actual customers. They don't have to compete, since the government enforces their monopoly. And so they don't want to be bothered with actual provision of services. Remember, electric utility employees have underfunded pensions, too.

Feel free to add to my listing of these issues. I'm sure you have encountered specific instances in your life where something you used to enjoy, in your car, in your audio equipment, in your home, or at the office, has been replaced with a hologram, a substitute, a fake, a misrepresentation.

My Solution

It is my view that living free means ignoring the laws, deriding the monopolies, and getting out from under the system. Hackers have provided us with decentralised access to information, 3-D printers, and alternative crypto-currencies. Some of us are building rural communities where we would grow healthy food, serve it in brightly lit restaurants, and make human dignity available to the sovereign individuals.

There is no reason to think that the vast majority of slaves on the plantation are ready to rise in rebellion. There are reasons to think that perhaps as many as 100 million, maybe even as many as 140 million, do not take politics seriously, don't vote, don't make any effort to file tax paperwork, don't respond to the census. They should be encouraged to remain as distributed as possible, since large collections of freedom enthusiasts are likely to be bombed by the powers that be, including with nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

In my opinion, therefore, small, largely rural communities widely separated and located in the areas between major conurbations in the United States and elsewhere might be the best long-term strategy. There are many strategic advantages to rural locations, since food, power, water, and many other resources move from the provinces into the cities.

My advice: Stay away from big cities, stay hidden, stay free, and prepare for the worst things you can imagine. The plantation owners are not done making your life miserable.

Jim Davidson is an author of 4 books, entrepreneur, and founder of the Resilient Ways Foundation at ResilientWays.net which is financing a rural community in Ohio and a theme park in Kansas with customer advance payments using their Resilient Way token.