Libertarian pundits are working to keep their jobs, not establish liberty.
They hack at this or that state proposal or criminal act, maybe show how it robs or restricts us, then declare the masses don’t understand, will never understand because of relentless propaganda, and all is lost. Or maybe the more optimistic will say we have to eliminate this or that part of government, without saying how to do it. Or they imply we can do it with the right people in office, if we can ever get honest vote counts again.
Most of all there is tacit if not explicit agreement that smaller government is the answer. Fewer laws mean more liberty, which means more prosperity, more of what might be called happiness.
They’re talking to a choir. They’re also talking to an audience that wants to know how to bring about the needed changes. But for that they only hear the same old same old.
Do you need examples? How many articles have you read about gold being real money and central bank fiat dollars being a subtle form of theft? Money (including a bought media) being the source of their power, why would they ever surrender their printing press? How many articles have you come across calling for the president to bring the troops home? Foreign wars are the Deep State’s gravy train. Why would they give them up cold turkey? Perhaps you’ve read writers who call for the elimination of the FBI, DEA, or CIA. Or calling for restrictions on the IRS or NSA. Or articles pointing out the wasteful budget of the military. More recently we read about covid mask mandates maintained in violation of science. Or how those safe vaccines are killing people of all ages in unprecedented numbers. Or how those who continue to refuse the shot will be treated like lepers.
That’s all good work, guys. The swamp is deep, so there’s no end to material. I’ve written one or two of those hits myself. But what’s the point? Entertainment? By shining a light on the ugliness to which we give tacit assent? To prep readers for a return to 1789?
The good old days were bad
If so, you’re putting readers on a ship that’s destined to return to where the bad stuff started. You call for small government — really small government, by which you mean a far smaller monopoly state. Staff it with Ron Paul at every position and it’s smooth sailing from now on. Aside from the fantasy in believing you’ll achieve it, and that it will fix everything, meaning no more bad laws or bad guys, there is no reason for sober readers to get excited.
The fix is not the same thing but smaller; the fix is eliminate the monopoly.
Ironically, it is pure American in concept. Americans have always hated monopolies without realizing they’ve been living under them.
A monopoly eliminates competition — by force of law. Without competition we are at the mercy of the monopolist. The state is the monopoly backing all other monopolies such as teachers unions and the medical and banking cartels. Get rid of the monopoly of force and you get rid of all coercive monopolies. You have government by a market restricted only by individual rights enforced by private police and courts, a truly democratic government of the people. Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Whatever might still be big but not without the threat of competition. No government favors, no bailouts. They swim on their own or sink. Or if they do get help it will be voluntary. Unlike today’s arrangement, all theft, including legal theft, is a crime under market government.
This means no FED, the creator of the depreciating dollar.
Most people and their kids still walk around masked. Most people will eventually be vaccinated. Most people want to stick with what they hope will continue working. Change it? No way. They’ll fall in line because it frightens them to think big.
But there is a way to start a new trend toward a fully free market. It’s done incrementally. I’ve discussed it at length in my book and cover the essentials in my YouTube movie, but it starts with getting people to affirm the idea of government by market forces only. They already live under market forces so it’s nothing new. They don’t have to march in the streets or campaign for Candace Owens (Farmer). All a person has to do is say “Aye!” in public, which at the moment amounts to giving a thumbs up for the movie on my YouTube channel.
But viewers have to vote. If they like the idea of market government they have to say so with a vote for the movie. When a critical mass of supporters is reached, momentum and ruinous government fiscal policies will take care of the rest.
Psychologist Nathaniel Branden once remarked that the goal of every conscientious psychotherapist should be to put himself out of business. If it is our business now to elaborate on the criminality of the political class, it would be a worthy goal for us as well.
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George Ford Smith is the author of nine books, including The Flight of the Barbarous Relic, Eyes of Fire: Thomas Paine and the American Revolution, and The Fall of Tyranny, the Rise of Liberty. He is also a filmmaker whose works include Do Not Consent- Think OUTSIDE the voting booth, Breaking Free from 2020, Last Day, and Risky Pinch Hitter.
