25A027 A is A by Jim Davies, 7/8/2025

There's a universal natural law, called the Law of Identity, or more informally "A is A". It holds that anything - an object, a person or group of persons - is what it actually is, rather than what some may pretend it is. Seems obvious, perhaps hardly worth saying; but no, it's very useful. Here are some examples to show why.

A Dollar is one; you know what it looks like. That's its usual name. But it's not; it's a piece of good-quality paper, printed at the top with "Federal Reserve Note." So it's some kind of bill (that's what a "note" is) - hence it doesn't even pretend on its face to be a "dollar" and nobody has even defined it as a "dollar." Congress defined a dollar as 371.25 grains of silver (equal to 24.06 grams) in its 1834 Coinage Act. Today's "dollar" doesn't even resemble 24 grams of silver, and if today you wanted to acquire one of those true dollars you'd need not 1 but 28 of those bits of paper. A is A.

Town Hall is said in New England to be where the local government meets and enacts laws, or ordinances. Anyone can attend, and usually as many as 5% do so. They make rules for everyone to obey, and set penalties for non-compliance. This process is called "majority rule." But in truth it's a small minority, and even if it were a large one there is no known way for those present to acquire valid authority over all self-owning residents. To describe it as a local "government" is therefore false. A is A.

Policemen are hired agents of local and other governments, and often appear in smart, special costumes with badges and guns, and claim to have special powers over us ordinary rubes. So much so that if one orders you to submit and you run away, he does not get blamed if he shoots you dead. Fiction: people with special powers. Reality: thugs in fancy threads, licensed to bully by other people who have no known way to acquire or issue valid licenses to bully. A is A.

Schools are called centers of "education", ie the process of helping children to learn how to think. Reality, according to one experienced teacher: they teach confusion, regimentation, indifference, dependency, low self-esteem and living without privacy. A is A.

War is governments' favorite pastime, and is called national "defense". In reality it is usually about offense, is always fought by those supposedly being "defended" so as actually to defend their rulers, and always consists of legalized mass murder. A is A.

Driver Licences are so named to indicate the holder has learned how to drive safely; a skill that remains for life, yet we are forced to renew them every few years. Reality: they are a primary form of ID, so that government can more readily track us. A is A.

Social Security is a large pension scheme, in which premiums are paid by everyone working, and benefits are collected after retirement. The premiums are fixed, but the benefits come at the whim of Congress and in all its history to date have been less than half what an honest, competitive retirement plan would pay for the same premiums. It is therefore not "social" because it's compelled, nor "secure" because it has no guarantee of benefits. A is A.

The whole of government claims to be a good and necessary cohesive agent for any society - or at worst, necessary; the least evil of available options. One needs to squeeze hard to get any supporter to explain its purpose, but usually it comes down to defense (see above under "war") and justice; a harmony-keeping, benevolent overseer.

Reality: far from being the "least" of evils, government is by far the greatest; it is a vast engine of poverty, misery, deprivation and death. It completely violates man's natural self-ownership right, it exceeds theft by worst of regular thieves, and the mass-murder of the most notorious of killers, by several orders of magnitude; it operates without even the pretense of a contract, and routinely over-rules the terms of agreements made voluntarily by real people. A is A.

Government is a disease, masquerading as its own cure.