Slavery or Freedom

by Scott Lazarowitz
Jun. 03, 2013

Have you ever thought about the morality or legitimacy of politicians forbidding you to have a vegetable garden in your own front yard, or buying or selling raw milk, or merely having a lemonade stand without a local bureaucrat’s permission?

You see, when the armed bureaucrat is arresting the peaceful raw milk seller, the harmless vegetable gardener or the little lemonade proprietor, those arrestees are not the criminals here.

Those otherwise peaceful people have harmed no one, but they are the victims of the actual criminal, the one who is violating their rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. He is the aggressor and the criminal, he is the one who should be thrown in jail!

Much of what the State does now is largely criminal in nature: the violent enforcement of "victimless crimes," the warrantless spying and searches, the prosecutorial misconduct and asset forfeiture, and the drone bombings and murders of innocent civilians overseas, just to name a few.

Even the President and Congressmen – rubber-stamped by the Chief Comrade Roberts – ordering every individual to buy health insurance, are giving an unlawful order, in my opinion.

And the people in a supposedly free country have an inherent right to resist these government crimes and unlawful orders!

So besides the dictates of loathsome bureaucrats, Americans are also enslaved by the government-protected banking cartel and legal tender laws, and the sadistic impulses of the "law enforcers" who actually enforce – and often with malice aforethought – all those Soviet-like rules, orders, and prohibitions of the loathsome bureaucrats.

But millions of people still cling to this horrifying, increasingly-totalitarian State – the U.S. Congress, Supreme Court, state legislatures, local police, etc. – as their Savior, voluntarily choosing to be slaves to these bureaucratic worst of the worst in society.

And the faithful cling to their Rulers, despite how contemptuously those Rulers view the people whose hard labor funds the Rulers’ paychecks.

Unfortunately, most people tend to go into denial about what’s really happening to America, even though they see the growing totalitarianism right before their very eyes.

So here is a very well done video by Larken Rose which not only refutes the assertion that "it can’t happen here," but describes how totalitarianism is happening here, and only getting worse.

As part of our enslavement, the State demands involuntary payments for nothing, while simultaneously locking out entrepreneurs, laborers and immigrants alike.

The current IRS scandal, for example, as Robert Murphy points out, is that those complainers amongst our fellow hoi polloi want to be exempt from the same criminal wealth-seizures the State inflicts on everyone else.

But the complaint should be that everyone should be exempt from any transaction that is involuntary, coerced, compelled, or accompanied by threats from the taker.

"But we must pay for government’s services," some people cry.

Yes, we must pay for huge bureaucracies such as the FDA and HHS so they can take care of the fat cats of Big Insurance and Big Pharma. That sounds fair.

And we must pay for DEA, FBI and local police S.W.A.T. raids to make sure that innocent, peaceful civilians who have harmed no one have their homes broken into and even be murdered for no good reason. Check.

And we must pay for more wars and false flags to provoke more foreigners and take care of the fat cats of the military industrial complex. (Except we can’t actually say that out loud. Shhh.)

But the enslaved State-faithful live their lives with rationalization, knowing full well that their labor and livelihoods are being raped by genuine shysters.

I wish more people could understand the inherent immorality and undermining of the rule of law caused by any form of compulsory State taxation, including sales taxes, for example.

You see, when you have a transaction you then have a contract, which is presumably voluntary. However, the transaction is supposed to be between the two traders, neither of whom voluntarily consented to a third-party intruder coming along and seizing part of the trade.

But if third parties (such as government bureaucrats) were allowed to intrude into other people’s lives, contracts and property, then what’s the point of having any laws against trespass, theft, or harassment?

And the government’s thuggish restrictions on employment, entrepreneurs and immigration lock out those who want to start a business here but can’t. That is because of the government’s union protectionism, costly red tape or, because of minimum wage laws prospective entrepreneurs can’t afford to employ enough laborers including entry-level workers.

You see, in the current collectivist slavery, the U.S. government assumes ownership of the capital and labor of both American and immigrant entrepreneurs and workers. Just as Americans are slaves of their government bureaucrats’ restrictions, mandates and other intrusive trespasses, so are prospective businesspeople and immigrants.

I’ll never understand the collectivist anti-foreigner crowd, those who believe in some sort of communal ownership of the whole territory with total disregard for private property and freedom of trade. (Are they closet communists? Who knows.)

And now we have ObamaCare, which is now compulsory, just like the dysfunctional government-run retirement scheme.

I can’t believe that Americans would bow to their government’s demand to report their private medical or insurance status, and allowing such private information to be entered into government databases. Absolutely shameful!

And similar to the Nazi-like "If You See Something Say Something" campaign, doctors will be obliged to report patients’ gun ownership, and report on patients’ "abnormal" behaviors or their criticism toward the government, etc.

The deniers don’t think this is a big deal, but this really is right out of Nazi Germany.

Both doctor and patient are made to follow orders like prisoners, and any mistake one makes in various payment matters or reporting matters could cause one or both of them to be heavily fined (i.e. robbed) by the State, or even jailed.

Following the Boston Marathon bombings, there was a completely unconstitutional police siege, door-to-door searches mainly in nearby Watertown. Heavily militarized government police ordered residents to leave their homes while the homes were searched, without warrants, without probable cause. Some media propagandists even denied that such illegal behavior even occurred.

Will the "authorities" be knocking on the doors of those reported by doctors to have criticized government-run medical care? Or a patient who mentioned that he and his wife had an "argument"?

In contrast, in a free society the people would never allow government police "authorities" to harass innocent people who are not suspected of having committed actual crimes, or order innocent people out of their homes as happened in Watertown. Such a suggestion would be absolutely absurd to freedom-loving people.

Frankly, a government monopoly on policing and security shouldn’t exist anyway, and can easily and more economically be replaced with private providers. Boston was a great example of why market law is morally and practically better than martial law.

And when we have freedom (as opposed to the current slavery and government disarmament of the people) there would be no records of which private civilians have what weapons and who doesn’t.

For some reason, the ignoramuses and chicken littles don’t understand that such an atmosphere would discourage would-be muggers, rapists, burglars, murderers, mass shooters, and government thugs from committing their crimes.

But sadly, most Americans, hypnotized by hours of television watching and constantly staring at their cell phones like zombies, defend the criminality of the State.

And economically, a real free market (sans slavery) would be this: the workers, producers, and salespeople voluntarily contract with other employers, clients, customers, laborers, shoppers, for some kind of goods, labor or services, in exchange for some kind of monetary compensation and/or other goodies. And any third-party such as a government bureaucrat who intrudes into such associations or contracts demanding reporting or receiving a take from the laborer’s compensation or traders’ income is nothing but a criminal and will be treated as such.

With freedom, American business owners can hire whomever the employers feel are the best-qualified and who can best serve their customers, the treasured consumers. And such employers would have the freedom to pay workers whatever the employer decides the workers’ labor is of value, regardless of what government bureaucrats or union meddlers have to say about it. And yes, the workers actually benefit from a real free market.

The consumers are much better served as well, when there is freedom than under the current slavery.

And in the much preferable scenario of medical freedom, because there will be no government regulations, red tape, mandates, restrictions, protectionist patent laws, taxes, licensure or other governmental intrusions, the prices for medical care, medical equipment, insurance, pharmaceuticals or supplements will be much, much lower and more affordable to most people.

With freedom, the medical patient sees a doctor of one’s own choosing, or doesn’t see a doctor at all. It’s the individual’s choice. No government involvement here.

And one contracts with a third party insurer if one wants to, and doesn’t do so if one doesn’t want to.

No bureaucrats involved here. No fascist Nazi-like orders from non-productive apparatchiks like Nancy Lugosi and Chief Comrade Roberts.

And the patient’s payment is between doctor and patient, including whether the patient wants to pay with cash or use a third-party insurer, or can receive services for free, for that matter.

Also, the conversation between the doctor and patient is between doctor and patient only – there is a confidentiality and trust which will not be broken into by the bureaucratic burglars of Leviathan.

If it’s none of the neighbors’ business, then it’s none of the government’s business, I always say.

And no ObamaCare-Patriot Act-Complex tyranny. No government databases. No billion-dollar boondoggle NSA domestic spying centers in Utah.

And with guns, regarding background checks and databases, as mentioned, a free society would have no records of civilian arms ownership (or have any other government-run databases of any information on innocent private people!).

However, if government agents such as local police or the feds must be armed, there should be privately-run civilians’ databases of government employees’ weapons possessions, and other matters as well.

A database on the Internet into which all government employees or prospective employees, armed or not, must enter their complete personal background information including school records, criminal records, gun ownership, etc. And if you don’t like that, then don’t work for the government!

Besides making it uncomfortable for anyone to work for the government, free people must shun government employees, as Jim Davies noted.

Then, we would hope to have fewer and fewer government employees to enslave us, and harass, extort, expropriate, burglarize, mug, rob, search, abuse, assault, unlawfully detain, unlawfully arrest or jail, taser, shoot, or murder the people.

In a society of real freedom, all relationships, associations and contracts are to be voluntary. Restoring private property rights, the individual’s right of self-ownership, and the non-aggression principle is just common sense, after all.

With freedom rather than slavery, no more compulsory government Social Security, tax-thefts, land-thefts, IRS, the Fed, or any other such illicit monopolies and criminal rackets in Washington.

The people really have to decide, and soon, whether they want to continue being slaves, or whether they want to live in a land of real freedom.

You know, some people who are afraid of the necessary decentralization process will bring up the collapse and decentralization of the old Soviet Union, and how millions of people just couldn’t handle such sudden freedom. But that was because the government bureaucrats who had been in control made the process gradual and painful.

Then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, Perestroika and Glasnost schemes were "only expedient measures to preserve the centrality of the Soviet Communist Party and to salvage what was left of the socialist system," according to Russian-born economist Yuri Maltzev, author of Requiem for Marx.

Those Soviet bureaucrats were the real "bitter clingers" there, the power addicts who couldn’t let go of their little fiefdoms.

And that is exactly what we will experience here in America, by decentralizing gradually, as the bureaucrats attempt to preserve their central planning crimes.

As Murray Rothbard wrote,

Holding back, freeing only a few areas at a time, will only impose continuous distortions that will cripple the workings of the market and discredit it in the eyes of an already fearful and suspicious public …

To achieve genuine freedom, the role of government and its advisers must be confined to setting their subjects free, as fast and as completely as it takes to unlock their shackles. After that, the proper role of government and its advisers is to get and keep out of the subjects’ way.

So, now it is time for a "Requiem for Soviet Amerika," that’s for sure.

We must resist the evils of collectivism, socialism, and compromise, as Rothbard observed.

There is no other way out of the Rulers’ Soviet-style legislative trespasses, and their constantly provoking foreigners to justify their parasitic war bureaucracies, but to dismantle that Leviathan apparatus.

It is finally time to undo the slavery of central planning, the shackles of State monopoly, and the lawlessness of authoritarianism, root and branch.
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Scott Lazarowitz [send him mail] is a writer and cartoonist, visit his blog.