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The
Root Cellar
Recent
columns by Root Strikers
Ponzi
Reconsidered
"The
biggest [Ponzi scheme] of them all by far, however, was launched just 15 years
after Charles Ponzi's was closed, is still running after 73 years, and is
called 'Social Security Insurance'." Column by Jim Davies.
The
Confessions of Osama Bin Laden
"Who
robbed you of $12 trillion from your Social
Security system? Was it me or those you elected? Why won't your newsmen
ask that question? Was it me who robbed you of trillions in Iraq? Was it me or
those who you willingly elected? Republicans and Democrats? Was it me
who rendered your banks insolvent? Was it me who disrupted Wall Street and
destroyed investor confidence? Was it me who threatens to topple the global
economic system? Or was it your own elected leaders?" Column
by Douglas Herman.
Golden
Weight on the Market
"Keynes
was wrong when he said 'in the long run, we are all dead.'
In the long run, Keynes is dead and the rest of us suffer in a world
based on his false philosophy." Column by new Root Striker Bill
Butler.
Globalization:
Spreading the Wealth (of Mistakes)
Column
by Les Lafave.
A
Novel Takes Flight
Jim
Davies reviews George Smith's new book The Flight of the Barbarous Relic.
Who's
Your Daddy?
"But
at least the American children, who apparently number in the tens of millions,
have elected a good-looking, suave, urbane, well-educated, charming,
disarming, and eloquent Daddy. Those
of us who have willfully become political orphans will have to endure Four
More Years of Daddy love and Daddy hate. Daddy’ll
get drunk, bang on the door to be let in, piss in the shrubs, curse the
neighbors, dent the fender, pass out, make excuses, apologize, bring Mommy
some flowers, and make empty, vacuous promises.
The media will fall in line on either appropriate, socially acceptable
side (democratic socialist or national socialist), dutifully report where
Daddy went wrong, and where he’ll make it right when McObamaton or W.
McObamaton is elected to Daddy Office next." Column by B.R.
Merrick.
Beware
the Man on the White Horse
"I
often say I don't have any heroes. I
don't need any. And neither should
you. If somebody can pose
themselves as a hero and sell you a sense of salvation (half-baked though it
be), then they own your mind and they own you, for you are in debt to them,
and you are beholden to them. More
than any aspect of the political, economic, or social system, it is this kind
of psychological domination that the lover of liberty recognizes and opposes with
every fiber of his being. The man
on the white horse brings no real 'change'; he serves to distract your
passions and lure you back into the fold so that you don’t demand real, radical change."
Column by Marcel Votlucka.
Farewell,
Marshall
Jim
Davies reflects on the life of libertarian activist Marshall Fritz.
Individuals,
Secede!
"The
colossal stupidity of the American people is on grand display today.
Some people are bubbling over with elation while others have been
trampled by a mighty political hangover, neither group seeing that they were
in fact making a non-choice and lending their support to a quantifiably
meaningless charade that enhances the power of the state at their own expense."
Column by Will Groves.
Libertarians,
the Party's Over
"Stop
paying attention to and believing the mainstream media, especially what the
bastard politicians say in their worthless speeches and endless platitudes.
Shut government out of your life as much as possible...."
Column by Alex R. Knight III.
What
Is the Purpose?
Column
by NonEntity.
Bernanke
Clowns Around, Exceeds Stock Market Expectations
Column
by new Root Striker Les Lafave.
Protecting
Your Assets
Column
by Retta Fontana.
When
Is a Voter Truly Sovereign?
"There
may be as many different preferences for president as there are voters, but
only one person will win. Voters
who prefer someone else or non-voters who prefer no one at all must endure the
election results -- for years. If
the political methodology were imported to the market, everyone in the country
would end up wearing one size, style, and brand of shoes, even if their choice
was to go without them." Column by George F. Smith.
A
Dollar in Peril
"What
great sport this farce would be--if it were not so terribly, tragically,
fatally sad." Column by Jim Davies.
Voting
Sophisms
"So,
what happened? These are the
politicians that the voters chose to represent them.
This is the President that the people asked for.
This is the Congress that the citizenry demanded.
Is it possible that voters made a mistake?" Column by
Mike Powers.
Eagerly
Awaiting Creative Destruction
"The
loss of freedom always begins with someone sticking their nose where it
doesn’t belong and that gets easier the closer people live together."
Column by new Root Striker Will Groves.
Grand
Theft America: "All Your Wealth Now Belong To Us"
Recommended
"By now, the original idea of
America
– as a haven for mankind and a
place where freedom from tyranny was the plainly-stated and largely-attained
goal – has simply been lost. The concept and benefits of freedom are no
longer understood by the majority of Americans; the all-powerful State and its
shackles are now everywhere, including deep in the mind of the average person."
Column by Glen Allport.
'Crash
Course' Caveats
Jim
Davies reviews Chris Martensens' online course. (Editor's pick)
Signs
of Autumn
Recommended
"That is directly where my pushing of a button on an electronic voting
screen leads. It leads to the threat of violence from the government that is encouraging my
participation. I am...engaging in a violent act by silently threatening
those with whom I disagree." Column by B.R. Merrick.
(Editor's pick)
Crop
Seeding in America
Recommended
"The
state’s money removes the idea of limited means, and since it’s controlled
by the state, it removes the idea of limiting the state.
Given the federal influence on education, media, and just about
everything, should we be surprised no one is on center stage calling the
government a counterfeiter?
" Column by George F. Smith.
I
Don't Mind If You Keep Voting, But Do You Mind If I Keep Laughing While You
Do?
MUST
READ "I
don’t care who the candidate is. I
don’t care what issues to which he seems to gravitate.
I don’t care about his record, his leadership qualities, the
apparent first-lady-ness of his wife (or her husband), his insider-ness
or his outsider-ness, his race,
his height, his weight, how well he speaks, how wonderfully he
photographs, the nation of his birth, how likely it might be that he’s
fun to drink with, or his appreciation for unique uses for a fine
cigar." Column by Wilt Alston. (Editor's pick)
The
Meaning and Value of Gold
MUST
READ "Can
gold prevent such horrors [the
democide of the 20th Century]? No, not entirely, but gold can and does reduce
the likelihood of such horrors when used as a nation's money. Gold as
money provides a strong limiting factor on the resources available to
government, and in so doing, gold saves and improves the lives of millions."
Column by Glen Allport. (Editor's pick)
Not
to Worry, They're on Our Side
Recommended
"It’s pointless to look at their campaign platforms.
They’re made up of words, and words to a politician are like drops of
water on a hot skillet – they sizzle, then they’re gone.
We know a priori both candidates are certified, homogenized, lobotomized
statists, otherwise they wouldn’t be the two contenders." Column
by George F. Smith.
Notes
on Democracy: Mencken Vents His Spleen for His Era and Ours
Recommended
"Read onward as Mencken’s delightful microscope tears into the
presidencies of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and
Franklin Roosevelt with relish—exposing them and their adoring
constituencies for what they are. If Machiavelli took off our blinders and
exposed the rancid underbelly of tyrants in The Prince, Mencken did the same for democracy in this gem of a book."
Column by Lawrence Ludlow.
Everyday
Anarchy, Part 5
MUST
READ "When
we think of a truly free market...we understand that we do not have to work
for years and years, and give up thousands of hours and tens or hundreds of
thousands of dollars, to satisfy our wishes. If I want to shop for vegetarian
food, say, I do not have to spend years lobbying the local supermarket, or
joining some sort of somewhat ineffective advisory board, and pounding lawn
signs, and writing letters, and cajoling everyone in the neighborhood – all
I have to do is go and buy some vegetarian food...." Column by
Stefan Molyneux.
The
Loopy Dynamics of Feedback
Recommended
"In
any rational reality there would be some kind of reciprocity between the
actions of humans in relations with each other.
Somewhere along the line there arose the idea of 'sovereign immunity.'
And even though we realized a couple of centuries ago that the idea of
'sovereigns' having power over others is really, really stupid, we still think
it is all right for hired thugs to be completely devoid of any responsibility
for their actions." Column by Nonentity.
Everyday
Anarchy, Part 3
MUST
READ "The
statist looks at a problem and always sees a gun as the only solution – the
force of the state, the brutality of law, violence and punishment. The
anarchist – the endless entrepreneur of social organization – always looks
at a problem and sees an opportunity for peaceful, innovative, charitable or
profitable problem-solving." Column by Stefan Molyneux.
Spread this one far and wide.
Scapegoating
and the Anti-Immigrant Hysteria
MUST
READ
"...Americans, like most people, would rather not look too closely at
their unattractive traits. We like to pretend that we are self-sufficient,
honest people. But our desire to rely upon and preserve the welfare state
reveals the truth about who we really are. Instead of facing up to the theft
and self-deception that surround our support of the welfare state in its
various manifestations, we simply project
our traits onto people who seem different because they are poor and desperate
and have nowhere else to go to make a better life. Furthermore, when we accuse
these immigrants of 'breaking our laws' to come here, perhaps we should
remember that the kind of laws they are breaking are the kind that were firmly
in place in the Soviet Union before it fell – laws against making a profit,
earning a good living, and creating one’s own destiny. In other words: laws
against freedom." Column by new Root Striker Lawrence Ludlow.
The
Anarchist Vote
MUST
READ "I like
this analogy because it reveals how voting is an act of submission: When
you no longer resist tyranny, but agree to submit to the threat or use of
force and do as you are told, when you no longer question the higher
authority because you are allowed to choose your supervisor.
In the process you condemn your offspring and future generations to
be subjects of this authority establishing an institution of tyranny that
eventually is accepted unquestioningly, perhaps even
celebrated." Column by Mark Davis.
Danger
Is My Middle Name--And So Is Yours
MUST
READ
"Nothing is completely safe,
including eating and breathing. And if nothing is safe, then throwing people
in prison for doing something that endangers them is insane, even without
considering the dangers of arrest and imprisonment, which are substantial.
Using coercion to "save people" from their own choices is a huge,
horrifying mistake that can only lead to ever-larger disaster, because the
list of dangerous activities includes everything
that people might ever do." Column by Glen Allport.
Money
Recommended
"Without the United States
federal government, the Fed would
not exist and the money used by Americans would be gold and silver – things
which could not be counterfeited constantly to supply 'money' for war, for
special interests, and for other groups and purposes opposed to the interests
of the average American. Nor would Americans be forced to literally borrow
money – money created from thin air – from a privately-owned central bank
(as our government does now) and then pay interest on it as part of the
national debt. What a scam!" Column by Glen Allport.
The
Worst Way to Do Anything
Recommended
"What have we bought with all that money? Thousands of dead American
soldiers, many thousands more injured, 655,000 (and counting) dead Iraqis,
cancer-causing depleted uranium poisoning in Iraq (and DU particles are being
spread around the planet on the winds), a ruined Iraqi infrastructure (which
had already been wrecked in the first Gulf war and which a decade of sanctions
kept in poor repair), millions of Iraqi refugees fleeing the mess we have made
of their country, an increased threat of terrorism in America, widespread use
of torture by our own government, a sharply lower opinion of America by people
in other nations, and (on a separate invoice, for additional money) a police
state here at home."
Column by Glen Allport.
My
Son: Klan Reformer
MUST
READ "But
what you’re doing, what you’ve been doing for 20 years, is telling people
that the Klan can be good if only the right
person is in charge. You’re giving people false hope, because the Klan can never
be good." Column by Stefan Molyneux.
E-Passport:
Doorway to the Panopticon
MUST
READ "The logistics of trying to interconnect 189 governments’
databases quickly escalates well beyond the realm of 'nightmare'
into some kind of Lovecraftian singularity of technological
horror." Column by Scarmig.
Importing
Freedom
MUST
READ "Immigrants
weren’t in charge when we lost our freedoms. White guys were.
Millions of 'illegal immigrants' threaten you somehow? Compared to your
neighbor who votes Democrat or Republican and demands his Social Security? Puh-lease!"
Column by Stefan Molyneux and (new Root Striker) Wilton Alston.
A
Short Guide to Market Anarchy Deconversions
Recommended
"[Market anarchy] means
everyone is allowed to live the way they want, according to their value
system. Everyone has different value systems, and all that statism does is
impose the ruling class value system over everyone, creating social warfare.
In an M.A., there would be no more need for social warfare because everyone
would be free to live the way they want." Pamphlet by Andrew Greve,
Aaron Kinney, David Pearson and Francois Tremblay.
The
Two Great Evils and the Hammer of Infinite Power
Recommended
"There is no doubt that the
Hammer of Infinite Power is coming; the leading edge is already here. It smote
Hiroshima
and
Nagasaki
in 1945. If the power to vaporize
a city with a single bomb is not sufficiently god-like for you, just wait."
Column by Glen Allport.
Murdering
the Group, Saving Individuals
MUST
READ "It’s the
same with immigration, the national debt, welfare, the war on terror and all
the other state-driven and media-obscured questions of the day. Obsessed by
details, blind to the obvious, we are like swimmers in shark-infested waters
worrying about cramps." Column by new Root Striker Stefan Molyneux.
How
We Can Get There From Here
MUST
READ "So
the main task to be completed in my opinion is to so educate every member of
society one by one as to convince him that a zero government society is the
only kind consistent with his human nature and the only one that will maximize
his pleasure in life; and that must be done by
reason. So the two obstacles
to surmount are the vast numbers involved, and the ugly fact that most people
have been so well indoctrinated that they are barely open to reason; they live
rather by myth, prejudice and superstition." Column by Jim Davies.
Are
You a Submitizen?
MUST
READ "How
has it come that we no longer see each other as people? How can we reverse
this trend? The next time you are asked for identification, consider the
ramifications of participating in this system. Who owns you?"
Column by NonEntity.
The
Preamble Reconsidered
MUST
READ "And
so it was 'ordained and established'--the wind was sown. Today, we reap the
whirlwind." Column by Jim Davies.
Legalize
Methamphetamine!
MUST
READ "The
question of who gets to make decisions about the disposition of
certain property is central to understanding freedom.
Who gets to decide what activities are too dangerous for you?
Should I get to decide what activities are too dangerous for
you? What about your
neighbor? Or the majority? Or
the president? Or
Congress? Or some judge?
In a free society, the owner of the property gets to decide
how the property is used.
Because you own your body, I assert that you should decide
how your body is used or abused." Column by Marc Victor.
How,
Why?
MUST
READ "There
is a certain suspension of disbelief attendant to those social and political
theories endorsing endless and boundless murder, theft and fraud (i.e.
"statecraft"); one must believe, with the naive faith of a child who
believes that world hunger can be eradicated by making a law that everyone can
have ice cream for dinner if they want it, that one may kill the goose bearing
golden eggs and still have eggs every day for the taking. The iron laws
of time, human desire, and economics are in the process of refuting that
belief; its defense rings hollow, there are no believable Utopian adherents of
this philosophy anymore, only those that make no pretense about wanting to
kill millions of people and suck the marrow from their bones for the sake of
their own glorification and what they conceive of as a better world, organized
by boot heel and rifle butt." Column by Szechuan Death, who sounds
like a libertarian Mark Morford.
SpyChips:
How Major Corporations and Govt. Plan to Track Your Every Move With RFID
MUST
READ Chapter 1
of a new book by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre. You can buy the
book by clicking on the link at the end.
Defining
Anarchy
MUST
READ "To
define anarchy as statist-government failure is such an obvious distortion of
the concept of a free society that it is hard to decide where to begin to
dismantle such thoughtlessness. I
like to begin by simply pointing out that at least four layers of
statist-government agencies still claim jurisdiction over the area known as
New Orleans
(city, parish, state and federal). The
undeniable fact is that they all four failed to provide the services they had
promised to provide when they were justifying the theft of individual
resources called taxes." Column by Mark Davis.
Serene
Outlaw: Henry David Thoreau in His Second Century
MUST
READ "At
times, Thoreau thundered at his readers like a Calvinist preacher,
rhapsodized like an Indian prophet, stung like a gadfly or chided their
sensibilities as a droll friend. The
odd collection of essayists who write for Strike The Root, and the thousands of
readers who peruse the columns there may hardly reflect on the moralist under
whose portrait their work appears, but by striving to write essays on a variety
of topics, many of them dedicated to the rights of individuals, they keep his
standards alive."
Column by Doug Herman.
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