About Mike Gogulski, future stateless person
May 26th, 2008 by Mike Gogulski | Posted in diary
Welcome to nostate.com, I’m Mike Gogulski, future stateless person.
I live in Bratislava, Slovakia, where I work as a translator, editor and proofreader. My professional activities are detailed on my main website, www.gogulski.com.
I plan to renounce my American citizenship in protest of what has become an American Empire, a nation that I see riding an express train to police state dictatorship with flags flying, anthems blaring and deluded, complicit masses cheering it along the track. Hopefully, others will be motivated to do the same by my example, though I recognize inertia as the most powerful force in human affairs.
My political philosophy — which could be variously termed anarchism, anarcho-capitalism or individualist anarchism — informs this decision, but it is my disgust over what America has become — in bloody, murderous, thieving contrast to what it professes — which motivates it.
I have not attached a specific date yet to my renunciation, but I have lately (mid-May 2008) decided to no longer make it conditional on the US government opening its next atrocious act on the world stage. I had told myself as long as two years ago that I would renounce when the US attacked Iran, exploded a nuclear weapon, deployed a bio-weapon, declared martial law, annexed a territory or canceled an election. I became very involved for that reason in watching the news closely for signs that any of those eventualities might be approaching. In doing so, however, I’ve come to the realization that I need no more justification. The United States’ record, as a domestic and international governmental entity, is beyond appalling, and I need no further reasons to denounce it and renounce my association with it. Perhaps I am late in doing so.
Loosely, my plan calls for me to enter the US Embassy in Bratislava sometime between late August and early October 2008 and renounce my citizenship. I have some things to put in order meanwhile, both personally and to minimize or acclimate myself to whatever horrors await me on the other side of becoming an official unperson.
This website is my chronicle of the journey, my release for the disillusionment and rage I feel and, perhaps, my support group and sounding board. Stay tuned.
You can find full contact information for me on my professional site. Instant messaging from people I don’t know will be largely ignored. Flames will be responded to in kind. Donations to the cause are accepted graciously via my commercial data page, or via the various advertising and affiliate crap you’ll find around the site.
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7 Responses to “About Mike Gogulski, future stateless person”
By Kent McManigal on Jun 8, 2008
While I cheer your actions if you feel it is important to do this, I also see it as giving more importance to “citizenship” than it deserves. I say, ignore it.
By anon on Jun 9, 2008
Hello. I am a fellow anarcho-capitalist. A few things struck me as odd in your post.
1. Canceling an election was once part of your criteria for canceling your US citizenship. That would make it appear that you find an objective difference between a large amount of people using force on someone and a small amount of people using force on someone. Why?
2. Slovakia is a State. You will not be stateless once you renounce citizenship. Furthermore, Slovakia resorts to the same methods of violence the US does domestically. Namely, imprisoning tax evaders and shooting them if they attempt to escape.
3. Renouncing citizenship really accomplishes nothing, either in principle or in effect. You will still be supporting another system of violence with your tax money. Of course, I am using the word “support” loosely here because the reality is that paying tax money is essentially a form of self-defense.
In effect, I’m willing to bet you’ll be paying more taxes in Slovakia. I’m not so sure about this assertion though.
4. Renouncing citizenship is actually quite hard (especially US citizenship).
By Mike Gogulski on Jun 9, 2008
Dear anon,
Thanks for writing.
1: I don’t personally believe that democracy as practiced around the world today is a good thing. That said, most people do, and canceling an election would reveal American democracy for the sham that it is. It would also be a historical event to pin my own little crusade to. As for the second part of your question, I don’t really follow what you’re asking. In general terms, though, I believe we can look at human actions and classify them in binary terms (good or bad) but also in relative terms (less bad or more bad).
2: Though I live in Slovakia, I am not a citizen of the country. By renouncing my sole citizenship, I will in fact become stateless. And of course I’m aware of the nature of the state here, as everywhere.
3: Arguably true in an objective sense, but my motivations are primarily subjective. We’ll see what is accomplished. As to the second part of this, yes, it’s yet another system of violence which I am compelled to support through taxation. I happen to believe, though, that if I am to seek that my taxes go to support lesser rather than greater evil, that the lesser is to be found here.
4: I know. It promises to be quite a ride.
By Mike Gogulski on Jun 9, 2008
Dear Kent,
Perhaps you are right, but this is a subjective thing, the motivation for which I described elsewhere thus:
Citizenship of a state carries with it both duties and privileges. We can likely both agree that the duties are odious and shedding them would be a delight. As for the privileges, the main ones that concern me are the right to be physically present in its territory and a claim to the state’s protection. I do not want the empire’s vaunted “protection”, certainly, and I don’t need it. Being unable to visit the country to see family and friends is a sacrifice however, but one that I am willing to make.
The motivational story goes something like this. I grew up as nearly every American child does subjected to the standard public-school brainwashing program of American exceptionalism, and it took long years to begin waking up from that, and even longer years to see the full extent of the monstrosity that America’s perversion of “liberty” has created. America is indeed exceptional: it is exceptionally evil. Must I list the empire’s crimes, at home and abroad? They should be well known to those reading this already.
Note that the usage of the words “America” and “American” here are directed at the institution of the state, not the majority of the American people, and certainly not at the territory itself.
So, I seek to divorce myself from the evil that I see and which lays claim to me by means of citizenship. It’s nothing specific now, it’s the whole bloody, thieving, murderous history. I had been telling myself for a time that I would renounce when missiles started flying toward Tehran, or when the US detonated a nuclear weapon in war, or declared martial law at home. As I’ve worked closer to this act, though, I have had to realize that I don’t need some *new* imperial horror to pin my protest to, there is plenty going on already, and a blood-drenched historical record as well.
By Kent McManigal on Jun 9, 2008
I accept no duties except for those I explicitly agree to, from the state or from any individual. I do what I must to keep the state from killing me, just as I would when dealing with any insane aggressor. I also make a distiction between “America” (the people and the ideals) and the “United States” (the government which illegally occupies America).
By Acumensch on Jun 11, 2008
To the first comment about giving more to “citizenship” than it deserves - but renouncing this symbol, or showing that it is possible, is exactly what is needed.
By Ozzy on Aug 14, 2008
Mike
Kudos to you. Much of what you wrote here and in your blogs resonates deeply with me; indeed, I have experienced identical thoughts, including the desire to renounce my US citizenship, though my timeline is tied to my family and personal obligations rather than to external events. Just wanted you to know I understand understand what you are doing and why, and I also understand the amount of courage - both physical and intellectual - this will take. Well done and fare thee well.