Governments and Statists are an Anachronism

I listened to a debate today between Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute and Doug Casey on Kerry Lutz' fine Financial Survival Network that frankly shocked me.  I'll tell you why in a moment.  But first, some background.

I'm fairly new to the intellectual discussion of liberty.  While I've been anarchist minded since my early adulthood I was only officially beknighted an anarchist by Doug Casey himself somewhere around 2004.  Before then I thought what most of the brainwashed public thought, that the word anarchy meant violence and chaos.  I hadn't even heard the word libertarian until that same evening.

But I've dug my head deep into the virtual library that is the internet for the last eight years reading everything I can get my hands on.  So, I've been coming onto things somewhat like a newbie... or a virgin you might say. This parallels my experiences of being the father of young children. As we go through life, unless we are incredibly careful, we get tied down with all sorts of intellectual baggage that simply makes no sense in a rapidly changing world.  That is why having a young child around is a laugh a minute as they point out ways of seeing things that you would never, in a million years, have imagined. Everything is new for them, everything is questioned – their inquisitive nature allows us to see the world with fresh eyes. Like the kid who asked his mom why she had two.  Is one for hot and one for cold milk?

And so, like a newborn anarchist I've wandered the world.  I have read quite a bit about liberty and freedom, but I haven't met many who call themselves “libertarians”.  I always assumed that anyone who denotes themselves as "libertarian" was "on the same team" as me.

AN ANARCHIC AWAKENING

Well, there have been three distinct moments in the last month where I realized that is simply not the case.  It's not the case at all.

The first was when I was invited to an LA cocktail party hosted by Reason.com.  Reason proclaims it is "libertarian" so I couldn't wait to get to the party and have some interesting freedom minded conversations.  To be honest I was shocked by what I heard – one starry eyed attendee celebrated Barack Obama’s calls for socialized medicine during his State of the Union. I quickly became castigated just for mentioning I am an anarchist.  The top speaker at the event was the former mayor of Washington, who everyone cheered heartily.  Apparently he closed down a few public schools.  I could tell that my question, "Why not close all of them?" would have been met with great distress so I didn't bother.  In fact, just mentioning I lived in Mexico just drew glares and puzzlement.  Why would you live there, it's so dangerous, they'd ask... right before I headed into Hollywood and saw some things that really scared the crap out of me.

The next thing that awoke me to the world around me was when I went to FreedomFest in the Bahamas.  It is Freedomfest after all, I thought some people might be interested in Freedom.  I was on a panel with Richard Rahn a self described “Libertarian Conservative”. Rahn, a senior fellow at the “libertarian” CATO Institute, seemed disgusted to meet me after I was described as a prodigy of Doug Casey's and then he went on to natter on about how governments need to change how they regulate banks.  To give you a sense of the type of worldview that CATO espouses, check out the following blog post from CATO celebrating the “death” of Osama Bin Laden:

All Americans celebrate the news that we have been waiting to hear for over nine and a half years: Osama Bin Laden is dead. The operation that resulted in his demise is a credit to the prowess and professionalism of the men and women in our military, and our intelligence and law enforcement agencies. All Americans — and the world — owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

I've since learned that this particular species of statist is what Lew Rockwell calls a "beltway libertarian". The model of the “beltway libertarians” is to whisper in the ear of the king, and hope that he changes his ways. Accordingly, the name of his speech was "Nine Countries That Did It Right".  Yeesh.

And then, today, I was listening to the debate between Yaron Brook and Doug Casey and it was all crystallized.  Doug attempted to be cordial with Yaron, stating that Randians and anarchists are on the same team to which Yaron stated that they weren't.  Anarchists are against freedom and are for tyranny, he said!  I almost choked on my coffee and Baileys!

He went on to gush about how the US Military is such a force for good.  Yes.  He said that.  And, in some sort of bizarre, perhaps early onset of alzheimers, paranoid statement, said that if it weren't for the US Military spending more than the rest of the world combined that the "barbarians would be on our shore'.  Yes.  He said that.

BRAINWASHING OF THE PRIOR GENERATIONS

In fact, most of these so-called libertarians seem to really love the US Military.  You know, the one that kills more men, women and children every year than... anyone.  For decades in a row.

Poor guys.  They've been brainwashed.  They need to watch "The New American Century" to see what happened to them.  They've been systematically lied to their whole lives... by many of the same people decades ago who are still around today.  Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld and other scoundrels have a sick belief that the only way America can be prosperous and safe is to always have an enemy.

The Soviet Union was certainly a murderous totalitarian state, but the Military Industrial complex was happy to have an “Evil Empire” that would require a permanent war footing.

And, when the Soviet Union fell they scrambled to find a new enemy.  They chose muslims.  It could have been anything really... it could have been pygmies.  Close call pygmies!

The entire US is a big propaganda pit.  That's why Americans seem like complete morons when they leave their protected walls and go out in the world and try to talk to the unbrainwashed.  Because they rattle off all sorts of nonsense that can only make sense to someone who also has been brainwashed.  “They hate us for our freedom”, "If we didn't go to Europe in World War II we'd all be speaking German now," etc.

If you don't believe propaganda surrounds Americans like an ubiquitous blanket just look at the movies.

RAMBO III - LIBERATOR OF THE MUJAHEDEEN

Try to get a copy of US Government propaganda in its golden years with Rambo III.  It's hard to find nowadays - a bit embarrassing to all involved.  For those who forgot this piece of expertly packaged patriotism, John Rambo was sent in to defend the Mujahedeen (soon to be the Taliban) of Afghanistan from the Soviets.

I just re-watched it today and here is some of the dialogue:

US military officer: You talk peace and disarmament to the world and here you are wiping out a race of people (in Afghanistan)

Soviet officer: We are wiping out no one!  I think you are too intelligent to believe such absurd propaganda

US officer: You expect sympathy?  You started this damn war and now you have to deal with it

Soviet officer: And we will.  It is just a matter of time before we achieve complete victory

US officer: (laughs).  You won’t get victory.  Every day your war machines lose ground to a bunch of poorly armed, poorly equipped freedom fighters.  The fact is that you underestimated your competition.  If you’d have studied your history you’d know that these people have never given up to anyone.  They’d rather die than be slaves to an invading army.  You can’t defeat a people like that.  We tried.  We already had our Vietnam!  Now you are having yours.

Soon after, Rambo and an Afghan horseman ride into a beautiful valley and the horseman states, "This is Afghanistan.  Alexander the Great tried to conquer this country.  Then Genghis Khan, then the British.  Now Russia.  But Afghan people fight hard, they never be defeated."

Then as Rambo enters into the Mujahedeen camp the music turns sweet and angelic.  The Mujahedeen riders depicted as heroes and freedom fighters, little doughie eyed kids looking up to the strong American to help them out of their horrible ordeal.  The rest of the movie is to be expected… bombs, explosions, heroic music and Rambo defeating the entire Soviet Army single-handedly.

But the irony of the whole thing today is the point.

So, where is Hollywood with "Rambo V: Return to Afghanistan", to once again free the Mujahedeen from the latest occupying force?  Not. Going. To. Happen.

STATISTS OF ALL FORMS ARE AN ANACHRONISM

In the debate, Doug Casey finished off by stating that governments are an anachronism.  I'd add to that.  Statists are also an anachronism.  Mostly older and heavily scarred from decades of brainwashing, these so-called libertarians cling to the need for government.  What they actually have is a fear of freedom.

And, really, given what they've been through, you can understand.  But it's time to step off the stage folks.  You are embarrassing yourselves.  Since the advent of the internet ALL of these topics have been talked over countless times by great minds worldwide (Stefan Molyneux being one of the topmost but there are thousands of others) and anyone who looks objectively at the discussions cannot possibly think the violent and coercive state has any positive role in modern life.

Yaron Brook not only embarrasses himself with his out-of-touch, anachronistic comments but he actually outs himself as a traitor to Ayn Rand by his statements.  He uses the collectivist words "we" and "us" with great abandon, something for which his supposed idol, Ayn Rand (a friend of Doug Casey's by the way), warned against.  And, he states the necessity for a coercive government countless times in the debate.  But, let's listen to what Ayn Rand said:

"In a fully free society, taxation—or, to be exact, payment for governmental services—would be voluntary. Since the proper services of a government—the police, the armed forces, the law courts—are demonstrably needed by individual citizens and affect their interests directly, the citizens would (and should) be willing to pay for such services, as they pay for insurance."

Let me know when payments are voluntary, Yaron.  And, if they are, don't be expecting a cheque.

CONSERVATIVE LIBERTARIANS

Most of those listed above, including Richard Rahn of Cato, publicly call themselves "Conservative Libertarians".  A libertarian means that freedom is of your utmost concern... choosing things to which you think freedom applies and choosing other things to which it doesn't is disingenuous at best, cognitive dissonance at a minimum and mostly just outright fraudulent.

If there is one group, the "conservative libertarians" or the anarchists who don't deserve to even be mentioned on the freedom political spectrum it is "conservative libertarians".  Take heart that out of respect to the memory of Ayn Rand, Doug Casey didn't wipe the debate floor completely with you today, Yaron.  The millions of anarcho-capitalists rising up worldwide will do you no such courtesy.

That is a guarantee.

The Internet Meme and 15 Minutes of Fame

It was late Wednesday evening and a funny take on "Libertarians" crossed our Facebook newsfeed.

We laughed.  Then, literally 3 minutes later, another crossed our path on Anarchists.

It was quite funny as well!  How strange though that this particular style of humor would come out on two topics we enjoy at nearly the same time.  But then another flashed across our screen from our friends at The Silver Circle Movie:

OK, wait a second.  We get it!  This has turned into a meme.  It had only been about 10 minutes since we saw the first one and numerous were flooding through now.  Already they had gone from having a point about a topic or a person to almost mocking of the meme itself:

And then about 15 minutes after the first one went public it reached the ultimate in mockery:

It was at that point we announced the internet meme officially dead.  Exactly 15 minutes from its birth!  Andy Warhol was right!

But we couldn't resist one final one:

Join our Dollar Vigilante Facebook page to receive these memes in real time, before they die: https://www.facebook.com/DollarVigilante

Bring On The Robots

A fun thing to think about is bringing people back from the dead.

Like, Jesus, for example.  Boy, he'd be surprised to find out that his teachings of self-ownership and anarchism got turned into him being a zombie god that people think can hear him from where he lives in outer space and ask him to make it so they win football games.

Or, wouldn't it be great to bring Thomas Jefferson back from the dead and take him to the Jefferson memorial where Adam Kokesh (possibly one of the only men in the business whose been handcuffed more than me) got headlocked and arrested for dancing (read my short novela on how that would go down here).

As HL Mencken said, "Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood".  And, boy do we ever seem to misunderstand them!

1984 AN INSTRUCTION MANUAL

George Orwell Lived HereOne of the most interesting would be to bring back George Orwell, the man who wrote the dystopian novel, 1984, which ended up being an instruction manual for most western nation states.

The only thing he got slightly wrong was the date.  If he had chosen 2004 it would have been slightly more accurate.  After all, in 1984 we could still go to a Van Halen concert and dance to "Jump" without being overly watched, videotaped, regulated and abused by the law.  Not so much anymore.

UNMANNED DRONES TO MAN THE SKIES OVER AMERICA

Even Orwell may be shocked to hear that Congress has just passed a bill, the FAA Reauthorization Act, mandating that the Federal Aviation Administration create a comprehensive program for the integration of drone technology into the national air space by 2015. The FAA predicts that there will be 30,000 drones crisscrossing the friendly skies of America by 2020.

Currently all drones are “piloted” by desk jockeys who sit in air-conditioned offices, occasionally dealing some death at the push of a button. Imagine some publicly "educated" kid who’s played Black Ops in his basement his whole life and is completely unattached to anything resembling real life sitting behind the joystick - only a finger twitch away from you being blown into bits…

"When is the pizza coming in? Blowing up wedding parties sure does build an appetite.”

So in this brave new world of big brother, with eyes in the sky 24-7 keeping Americans "safe", it would seem that the US military is being influenced by another pop-culture icon, namely the Terminator series.

Hunter-Killer

For those of you unfamiliar with the Terminator movies, they are set in a dystopian future where an integrated autonomous strategic defence computer becomes self-aware and sets out to exterminate the human race.  The star of the terminator movies is - in another twist of cruel fate - none other than the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who plays an autonomous killing machine known as the “Terminator”

Taking a cue from the radical environmentalist James Cameron (who recently fled the US), DARPA has come up with the first generation of completely autonomous drones, the X-47B.  This robot plane will be able to carry up 4,500lbs of ordinance and will be almost completely undetectable – and we are sure the Pentagram will soon be asking the FAA to clear the skies for its menacing presence.

Future hunter-killer

The LA Times, in a profile of the latest and greatest to come out of the military-industrial complex, asks, "New drone has no pilot anywhere, so who's accountable?": 

"Although humans would program an autonomous drone's flight plan and could override its decisions, the prospect of heavily armed aircraft screaming through the skies without direct human control is unnerving to many."

So let’s get this straight: unmanned, armed, autonomous drones will be scouring the continental USA for targets (sovereign citizens, marijuana growers, Ron Paul Supporters) in the Global War On Terror?

But hey, all is not lost, it looks like the Iranians have already found out a way to commandeer US drones – live by the sword of technology and you will die by it.

During the interview, Salami stated, “The U.S. plane that we recently took over is not much more advanced than our drone technology. However, a combination of achievements and advancements in the areas of intelligence and aeronautics and guiding and controlling has been used in this aircraft, which can (help us make) technological achievements."

Most humans today, especially in the government indoctrinated US, have had rational and logical thinking bred out of them to the point where you could never communicate with them on anything except for the repetition of mantras they are told to repeat.

We'll take our chances with the robots.

At least if the robots have some form of artificial intelligence... better than non-existent intelligence... we may be able to talk some sense into them.  Maybe in the not so distant future, there will be a DDoS attack on the Pentagram’s servers, and the power will once more return to the hands of the people.  Armies of programmers from around the world, like those who work with Anonymous, could find a way to short circuit or reprogram the drones.

Who knows, maybe we could get them reprogrammed and send all 30,000 en route to Washington DC, programmed to disarm the very police state that created them.

Subscribe to The Dollar Vigilante today to get information and insights into the best ways to escape from the coming drones and where and how to go elsewhere.

Pay Attention to Government Statistics At Your Own Risk

Evan Esar, a mid 20th century humorist, defined statistics as being "The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures".  He'd have to change that quote if he were still alive today when it comes to government statistics.  Government statistics are the science of producing unreliable facts from unreliable figures.

Not only are the conclusions they reach from the data completely at odds from reality but the data itself is so contorted that Cirque de Soleil should be jealous.

In the Disgraceful State of the Union address, Barack O'Bomber stated, "In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005."

And the US Government's unemployment statistic looks to have backed off from near 10% to what is now proclaimed to be 8.3%.

This photo included in the propaganda piece, "Job Gains Reflect Hope a Recovery Is Blooming" from the New York Times at a California job fair is almost scientifically put together to convey feelings of happiness and hope at all the new jobs that have suddenly became available!

The woman in back is smiling and the nice lady in the red dress is going through what appears to be pages and pages of job options for the woman in front who looks on with a pen and paper surveying all her countless options.

There's just one problem.  There has been no change in the jobs outlook in the US.  O'Bomber, should it come as a surprise, lied?  And there was no big increase in jobs in January.  All that happened was, inexplicably, 1.2 million people just dropped out of the labor force between December and January.  1.2 million people who wanted to work in December all of a sudden aren't interested in working anymore a month later.

While you certainly couldn't blame anyone for not wanting to work given the fact that the US Government offers free food, spending cash and even helps you pay your mortgage.  But, even that is not likely what really happened.  What happened was "government accounting".

The Labor Force Participation Rate which plainly shows the amount of people who have a job as a percent of the population has, thanks mostly to massive unemployment, but also helped along by government accounting tricks has now hit a 30 year low of 63.7%.

There really is only two reasons to look at almost any government economic statistic or it's parroting in the mainstream media.  One, is for entertainment purposes.  And the second is to be aware of what the masses are being told so you can best see how you can take advantage of their misguided belief in the government statistics to profit from their ignorance.

At The Dollar Vigilante we are always trying to find the truth through the thicket of government lies and propaganda to make better investing and life decisions.  Subscribe today to be a part of our community of dollar crash survivors.

The Dollar Vigilante Kidnapped and Handcuffed in Palm Springs

Well, so much for me not having any police troubles in Palm Springs!

On Saturday I proudly wrote that I was not the reason that a number of squad cars were called to the California Investment Conference.  In fact there were two separate assaults on the Mercenary Geologist, Mickey Fulp, at the conference so I was enjoying being out of the spotlight for a change.  That was, until Saturday evening when I apparently committed the crime of “walking down the street” (which actually is a really rare, circumspect thing to do in California).

Handcuffed in Palm SpringsI swear, I do not try to attract the police but in the US it is nearly impossible to avoid… and if you don’t smile and bow down they’ll be on top of you in an instant.  I and a TDV subscriber, Ken J., decided to leave a bar called the Nest because the average age of the partiers was around 75 years old and were walking a few blocks to another place when a squad car pulled up and started shining its big, bright light at me.  Confused, but not overly surprised, I stopped, and he hopped out.  Three other squad cars were right behind him and surrounded us.  He immediately put me in handcuffs and the next thing I knew I was in the back of the squad car.

I asked him what we had done and he told us that he kidnapped us because we had been drinking and were walking down the street.  But, he stopped trying to charge me with anything as soon as he saw my Dominican Republic passport.  He actually let out a little sigh when he said, “You’re not American?”

I responded that I wasn’t and he put down his ticket book where he appeared to be ready to write out a fine.  He then zeroed in on Ken, who is a local slave and who they have complete power over.  He spent quite a while trying to get Ken to tell him where his car was so he could “drop us off there”… after which he’d pull Ken over for a DUI, without doubt, but Ken was too smart to fall for this obvious ruse.  In the end, the cop actually drove us back to the hotel.  It was sort of like a free taxi service, but in handcuffs and against your will.

DANGER DANGER EVERYWHERE

It is amazing how many warnings there are for everything in California.  Here are just a few ones that I saw.

I didn't know that!  Thanks for the totally random warning, California!

Or how about some more random, vague warnings about how if you hang around there you'll get cancer or won't be able to have babies.

Probably the most ridiculous is this warning on a slow moving walkway.  Yes, the voice repeats every 10 seconds, “Warning: The Walkway is Deadly”.

That walkway is many things...  but, deadly?  Yeesh.  

MEXICO

I’m on a flight from Houston to Mexico City now, so I should be safe from being kidnapped again now until the next time I go back to the US.  I like the style in Mexico so much more… there aren’t warnings for anything.  I prefer it that way.  I had an American friend mention once that there should be a warning sign beside a small, 2 feet deep hole in the sidewalk that he saw.  I had to explain to him, “Here we don’t need warning signs.  What we do here is just not fall into the hole”.

It works pretty well.