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The Paradise Perspective: Commentary from a Free and Compassionate Alternate Reality Volume 1, Number 39 Remember, Remember This Fifth of November by Glen Allport Exclusive to STR - 1 - Every
person knows what is wrong with the world and what would make things
right. This knowledge is buried deep within us and usually stays hidden
because it is painfully at odds with the world as we find it. Yet
the knowledge is there, born anew within every child. Occasionally we see
this truth in action, as when someone takes a stand in favor of freedom
and compassion even at great risk or cost. Examples include those who helped
save Jews and others from the Nazi death camps, those who protected
victims during the Turkish
genocide against Armenians, monks and others who oppose
the current regime in Myanmar, the Americans who rebelled against
British tyranny, Americans who participated in the Underground
Railroad (including jury members who refused
to convict fellow citizens for the "crime" of aiding an
escaped slave), and millions more. -
2 - Today,
November 5th, is the anniversary of a famous event: the foiling
of the "gunpowder plot" to blow up Parliament in -
3 - Planning
to blow up Parliament did not work well for Guy Fawkes in 1605. He was
caught just before setting off his bomb beneath Parliament and then
tortured at length and finally executed. His co-conspirators were caught
and executed as well. Even
had Fawkes succeeded, the result would have been the deaths of perhaps
hundreds in the Parliament building and the resumption of British tyranny
under new leadership. Killing or driving out a tyrant almost never results
in anything one could call "freedom," but instead sparks an
often-bloody power struggle as varying factions fight for control of the
coercive State apparatus. Partial exceptions – where tyranny was
decisively reduced even though coercive State power was retained –
include the For
every such (temporary) success, there are hundreds of failures where one
tyrant is overthrown only to be replaced immediately by a new one. Violent
revolution has an extremely poor record, and is more likely to harm the cause of love and freedom than to help. -
4 - Yet
something must be done to
advance the cause of love and freedom – something with a real chance of
success, and of at least partial
success in the near term. The exponential growth of technological power,
combined with our traditional plagues of widespread emotional damage and
systematic use of coercion by the State, could lead to conditions of
greatly enhanced tyranny (or something worse, including extinction) that
cannot be undone. I believe such danger is more a likelihood than a minor
possibility. If
you think tyranny is difficult to overcome now, just wait until it is
further enabled by the technology of 2015 or 2025, or beyond. For
most of my life I have been pessimistic about the chances for a healthier
and freer world. The positive forces pushing things in the right direction
have always been met by even stronger resistance in the other direction;
the nascent spirit of freedom in the American colonies was opposed and
corrupted by the drive for power and of Power's willingness to inflict
suffering for gain (slavery in the South and genocide against the Indians,
for examples). The pro-power faction in early After
growing in fits and starts, the federal government came into its own as a
coercive power in the 20th Century. An income tax and a central bank were
created in 1913, and the So
yes: something must be done to
begin turning the tide back in the direction of love and freedom. But
what? -
5 - The
tiny freedom movement in this country (the Libertarian
Party's Badnarik campaign for president in 2004 raised and spent just
over $1 million and received 397,265 popular votes (0.34%), yet no other
pro-freedom organization is anywhere near the LP's size) is nearly
invisible against the high-powered, massively-funded, and well-entrenched
opposition. That opposition includes not only the two old power parties
but also the military-industrial complex, the corporatist elite, the
teachers and college professors who are not only paid by the State but
loyal to it and who inculcate that worldview in students, the millions of
researchers and scientists paid by government grants or working in
government labs, the owners and many of the writers and talkers of the
mainstream media, and – well, millions of other people, right down to
your aunt Maggie who wonders why the federal government isn't doing more about health care and every other problem in the world. Americans
who understand and want real
freedom – voluntaryists who want freedom from coercion generally,
including freedom from the State – are so small in number, it appears,
as to make even the Libertarian Party seem monolithic. -
6 - Despite
that, millions of people are
interested in freedom – or at least, in more freedom than we have now.
These people are seldom "joiners," however, and getting them
together is famously difficult. Creating a large working group of
libertarians (or use whatever term you prefer) is often likened to herding
cats. Most
of those interested in freedom have a different understanding of freedom
than did, say, Thoreau – who felt "That government is best which
governs least" was too weak a sentiment, preferring "That
government is best which governs not at all." Still,
one has to start somewhere. People walk before they can run, they learn to
add before mastering calculus, and they begin to question authority and
tyranny in limited areas before understanding that systematic coercion is always
evil and counter-productive to the real needs of a healthy society.
Abolitionists and voluntaryists can welcome newbies to the freedom
movement or we can oppose them on grounds of their imperfect understanding
of the concept. Which do you suppose will be more productive? -
7 - I
mentioned above that I have been generally pessimistic about our chances.
In the last few months, however, my spirits have been lifted substantially
by Despite
such details, the Paul campaign is a huge breath of fresh air. Paul plans
to end the An
example of why I find Paul's campaign so positive: You may have noticed
that today's date is hotlinked at the top of this column; the link is to This
November Fifth, a grassroots effort to generate "the largest one
day political donation event in history" for the Ron Paul campaign. I
expect the group will succeed at that, although they may fall short of
their $10 million numeric goal. Either way, the group will have created
both a solid influx of cash for Paul's campaign and a newsworthy event
that will get coverage on the internet and, almost certainly, in the major
media (however reluctantly). Paul raised just over $5 million in the last
quarter, a number that put him well above the lower ranks and which
generated massive publicity for the campaign, including interviews on the
major networks. Spontaneous
action by unpaid volunteers is the hallmark of the Paul campaign – which
is another way of saying that genuine support of his campaign by real
people is far larger than the phony
polls would suggest. There are literally thousands of volunteer,
self-directed efforts in support of Dr. Paul already, and things are just
getting started. People are creating
videos
and signs,
writing songs,
designing and printing up campaign material, designing and running websites,
paying for billboards,
joining Meetup groups, and doing
hundreds of other things that an "official" campaign would never
have time or money for – or might never think of, for that matter. In
many cases, the amateur materials are more appealing than the official
campaign ads. Paul's campaign is already third
in the GOP in cash on hand (when you subtract the debts of other
campaigns) but his massive volunteer force puts him dramatically ahead in
many ways – even Mitt Romney's personal millions cannot buy the level of
visible support Paul is getting. This
is the decentralized, emergent power of free human action at work: while
the pro-corporatist, pro-war, pro-torture, pro-IRS, pro-Federal Reserve, tyrant
wannabe candidates struggle to generate citizen interest, the one
candidate who actually supports the ideals of the American Revolution –
who not only says so but who
has a long record to back that up – is enjoying so much volunteer
support that it dwarfs his official campaign. And Paul repeatedly points
out that it is the message of freedom people are responding to, not him
personally. Unlike most politicians, he is personally humble yet confident
and sure of his message. The
Ron Paul campaign website is
http://ronpaul2008.com. Paul's new book A
Foreign Policy of Freedom is already a
bestseller at Amazon. Before you dismiss Paul for being a minarchist
instead of an anarchist, consider the benefits of a largely unscripted,
decentralized, spontaneous and volunteer campaign that is bringing
together millions of Americans for the cause of freedom – and exposing
many millions more to the idea of freedom for the first time in their lives. The ancient Chinese saying "May you live in interesting times" is meant as a curse. Sometimes, however, "interesting" can be positive. We are living through just such a time and I encourage you to make the most of it. Glen Allport is the author of The Paradise Paradigm: On Creating A World of Compassion, Freedom, and Prosperity and maintains paradise-paradigm.net. This is one in a series of columns on the human condition.
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