19A027 The Demolition by Jim Davies, 7/2/2019    

- of government, that is. The biggest and most vital job facing any self-respecting seeker of freedom. How can it be done?

It grieves me a good deal, that most otherwise good libertarian folk have given this key question so little rational, systematic thought. No wonder there is so little progress. Step #1, of course, is to resolve to get it done: to scrap the lot. Failure accurately to identify the objective will doom any plan.

To demolish anything (a building, a bridge, an enemy army...) the method is obvious: you identify that upon which it most heavily depends, and then destroy it.

A tall building rests on pillars, often of steel embedded in concrete or rock, and welded or bolted to other steel beams in a lattice. So explosives are placed which slice through the pillars, removing the support. If an enemy occupies France, invaders will figure out where the defenses are least concentrated, and storm that beach. And as Etienne de la Boëtie so brilliantly said, when you withdraw support from a tyrant, he will collapse like a statue whose plinth has been pulled away. That's all we have to do.

Government seems to rest upon three pillars (if you can think of a fourth, let me know.) They are votes, money, and labor.

Votes?

They make a big fuss about the importance of elections, but it's really all fluff. Many a government has got along with no votes at all; monarchs did it routinely. All votes do is to increase the deception, boost the illusion that government is in some way legitimate. So if the voter turnout fell from 50% or 60% down to 5%, there might be a few tremors in the houses of power, but very little would change. Non-voting is proper, noble, right and ethical, but not critical.

Money?

Government is by definition not a market participant, so cannot earn money, so must steal it; and nobody can function without it. However since 1914 it's been simple to create "money" out of nothing, so this pillar also is non-critical; even if there were a widespread tax strike, government would simply print what it needs, or fabricate some with a keystroke.

That's true now of the Feds, but it could also be true for the States. No, it's not constitutional, but since when did that matter to any of them? Could it work, with each of the 50 States issuing its own paper currency? - sure it could. It did, in Europe, for most of the 20th Century. The Pound, Franc, Deutschmark, Lire, Krona, Drachma, Markka, Peseta etc were circulated quite easily; at every airport, rail station and Hochstrasse bank there were Bureaux de Change where any could be exchanged for any. An inconvenience, but it worked smoothly enough. It could here too.

So while it would cause some well-deserved alarm if (say) 10% of all home owners stopped paying prop-tax in some State, it could quite easily print up the revenue shortfall. Removal of the financial "pillar" will not suffice.

Labor?

Here's the nub of it: government absolutely and irrevocably relies upon those working for it. Indeed, it consists only of those working for it; if they quit, it quits, it ceases to be. This, therefore, is the support that must be withdrawn.

The QuitGov site makes the case to those now in government employ, and is based upon rational ethics; that is, to do the right thing for reasons of self interest, ie self-respect. It's good, and maybe will suffice for a few to tell their bosses to take the job and shove it, but for most is probably too brief. It's a big decision, to walk out on an overpaid occupation with a nice pension waiting. More persuasive depth will usually be required.

Enter, The On Line Freedom Academy - though by now, it's mostly Off Line because most will have downloaded the course to CDs and thumb drives. Same acronym, happily: TOLFA. That interactive school systematically presents the intellectual imperative of human liberty, and leaves government theory with nowhere to go. Its end product will be a population so disgusted with government that nobody will work for it. The central, indispensible pillar will have been demolished.

Notice, it's labor that needs to be withdrawn, not necessarily the muckety-muck Pols who busily craft directives at the top of the heap. They are so deeply brainwashed that they will quit only when the currency on their pay checks becomes worthless; but it doesn't matter. So long as their employees quit, the bosses will be helpless. A quick idea of how this will appear is offered in my LRC article The Fix, and with more detail in Transition to Liberty.