If enough people made it a big deal that trees should be purple instead of green, then a large enough vote would spew millions of dollars into that effort. That’s what we’re dealing with here. A lot of Americans think that some humans are just a little less human than others [...]. It’s war, child-rearing, incarceration, immigration, you name it. There’s nothing more human than a straight, adult, law-abiding, Christian United States citizen.

In addition to thinking the new Star Trek movie — which I haven’t bothered to download yet — was “awesome”, Ryan also writes of symbols and of the self-tyranny of mind:

This is a new century, new generation. It’s the Information Age in hyperdrive. So, it’s possible now for more people to learn what Anarchy is and what it really represents besides overblown images of mass protests and violence. But it’s also possible for people to discover what ideas, concepts, social graces, beliefs, opinions and general knowledge keep them chained. The most immediate, most oppressive system is in my mind and yours. It’s the one that keeps all this static. We hesitate all the time because of outdated, state-induced, society-prescribed knowledge and systems of thought.

Well good golly, Miss Molly! Seems like someone else has learned to color outside the lines.

Welcome to my RSS reader, Ryan!

From the Stanwood/Camano News, Camano Island, Washington:

Troubles brew for island coffee stand

16 September 2008

They say “no man is an island,” but on Camano Island, at least one man has claimed himself sovereign. Randy Harless has declared sovereignty by renouncing his citizenship and claims his status prevents him from being held accountable for laws of a government he is no longer a part of.

“Privileges are not to be granted by the government,” said Harless. “Our government has overstepped its bounds extremely.”

Now, big troubles are brewing.

Sovereign Coffee: The Randy Lee Harless espresso stand

When Harless bought Log Cabin Espresso, located on SR 532 near Good Road, earlier this year, and renamed the establishment Randy Lee Harless, he put his declaration of sovereignty to the test. At the end of July, Harless was notified by Island County Public Health of the suspension of his 2008 food service establishment permit. Failing to respond to notification of continued violations of health codes, Harless was notified he must immediately cease all food service operations.

“It’s my right to own a business,” said Harless. “I don’t need permission.”

However, when the permit was revoked, Harless was advised that he could not request a new permit to operate a food service establishment in Island County for a minimum of six months. Nonetheless, the stand remains open for business, offering coffee, espresso and other drinks, along with muffins, homemade donuts, croissants and bagels.

“I think Roger Case is grasping at straws,” said Harless. “He has no legal standing here.” According to Harless, his actions are a stand against tyranny. “Nobody stands up for their rights anymore,” he said. “The health department comes along, and they want to have power to control every move of what goes on here.” Harless said he has taken back that control over his establishment. “Under my sovereignty, I have granted myself a health permit,” he said. The sovereign espresso stand owner said he is ready for a legal challenge. “I’m expecting it,” said Harless.

Dr. Roger Case, Island County health officer, disputes the validity of Harless’s sovereignty claim. “He’s in violation of public health code,” said Case. According to Case, anyone operating a business in Island County has to follow the law. “The place needs to be closed,” he said. “It’s not safe for people to eat there.”Case said that the matter could have easily been cleared up months ago. “We’ve been trying to work with him for some time,” said case. “He has not been willing to comply with code.” Harless’s failure to comply with the order to cease food service operations will result in Superior Court action, said Case.

(my comment left at the newspaper’s website)

Leaving aside the inanity and delusion that is democracy along with the hysteria from the annoying county bureaucrat, bravo for Mr. Harless. He’s a real agorist (agorism.info) revolutionary. He’s going to suffer from a poor choice of tactics, though, as one of the prime criteria for the US government to accept a renunciation of citizenship is that there be no demonstrated intent on the part of the renunciant to live inside the territory claimed by said government.

I’m kinda doing the same thing, though without the coffee stand and the same class of tactical error. I hope Mr. Harless manages to stay out of prison, but this doesn’t look good for the man.

More on how to actually renounce your US citizenship here: http://www.nostate.com/

Do you see how the agony of moral corruption can be transferred from one person to another?

– Stefan Molyneux, On Truth: The Tyranny of Illusion

Yeah. Ouch.

It is time — arguably, it is past time — for you to get your family and your wealth safely outside the borders of the United States. America has become a police state that is moving quickly toward total surveillance and, in typical American fashion, the resulting society will almost certainly be the “the best and the biggest” tyranny in the world.

Dear Libertarians,

Most of you have staked all of your hopes on Ron Paul. He has been defeated, during the course of the popularity pageant we call the democratic process.

The Libertarian Party has existed for more than thirty years, with no concrete results under its belt except a few local, irrelevant posts. Perhaps you believe it is the only solution. Perhaps you believe that the sole alternative to political evils is a violent revolution, and thus prefer the evils to violence, and call it “necessary” (as if anything evil could be necessary).

Suffrage is… powerless and unreliable. It can be exercised only periodically; and the tyranny must at least be borne until the time for suffrage comes. Besides, when the suffrage is exercised, it gives no guaranty for the repeal of existing laws that are oppressive, and no security against the enactment of new ones that are equally so.

Lysander Spooner

Or perhaps you may now be coming to the same realization that Anarchist writers have written about for centuries:

No political means have ever produced lasting freedom. Political means can engender nothing but the sustenance of political means. Only disengagement and principled resistance can produce lasting freedom.

With very few and very temporary exceptions, no government has ever been made smaller by political means. No successful movement for freedom in history has ever been guided by any other principle but disengagement and principled resistance.

From Étienne de la Boétie, 16th century precursor of the modern Anarchist movements, to Murray Rothbard, founder of the modern Market Anarchist movement, all are in agreement: disengagement is the best way to oppose the ever-growing State.

The surest sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. Libertarians, is what you’ve been doing working, and if not, why do you keep doing it? Has the constant compromise of your principles (culminating in the nomination of Bob Barr for candidate, who is about as libertarian as George Bush) resulted in any success?

Gradualism in theory is perpetuity in practice.

William Lloyd Garrison, on the emancipation movement

You believe in smaller government. We are on your side. But libertarianism cannot be fulfilled by political means, and it cannot be fulfilled by violent revolution. The only way through which libertarianism can be fulfilled is disengagement. This is the method that Market Anarchists have always preached and followed.

How can disengagement succeed where political means and violent revolutions fail? Because the State can only survive when we, the people, believe in its legitimacy and treat State law, State “justice,” war, taxation and democracy as “necessary evils.” If a mere 10% of the people in any society refuse to vote, refuse to pay their taxes, refuse to recognize the legitimacy of State courts and the State police, establish their own voluntary courts and security, and promote a peaceful, voluntary way of life to the majority, then the State will be exposed as the criminal gang that it is.

If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible. If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, ‘But what shall I do?’ my answer is, ‘If you really wish to do any thing, resign your office.’ When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished.

Henry David Thoreau

But most of you do not want Anarchy. This is well understood. However, some Market Anarchies in the past have had a legislative or law enforcement structure (e.g. the well-documented example of Iceland). I would like to submit to you that the establishment of such a structure is far more likely than any Libertarian political victory. Once the State is dissolved, I believe that most people will readily join the principles of freedom that you espouse: “as long as you don’t harm me, I won’t harm you.”

Ron Paul had a lot of good ideas, but he was wrong about one thing. He believed that the “role of government” was to protect and serve us. No government in history has ever done this. The role of government is to cheat, steal, and kill, for the profit of its members. We constantly observe this to be a fact in all its actions.

Hitch your wagon to ours. We have the ideals, the arguments, and the methods to change society forever. With your help, we cannot fail.

Francois Tremblay, in the name of all Market Anarchists
Mike Gogulski, in his name alone