Life, Love, and Liberty

Randolph Bourne once penned an essay titled “War is the Health of the State” that continues to have relevance for our times. War has rountinely led to the expansion of the Federal government’s power over society. An extremely dangerous continuation of this trend occurred recently. We were witness to the grotesque spectacle of our imperial emperor invoking the name of justice to sanctify his latest power grab.

“We will meet our obligation to protect our people. And no matter how long it takes, justice will be done,” Bush said at a White House bill-signing ceremony. “With the bill I’m about to sign, the men our intelligence officials believe orchestrated the murder of nearly 3,000 innocent people will face justice.”

No justice is to be found in the ability of someone to declare himself above any meaningful constraints on imprisoning individuals. To speak of justice being served in the context of a legalized suspension of habeas corpus makes a gross mockery of the term. Provisions of the bill dealing with the immensely important issue of torture further cement the damage done. Seemingly warding off danger in this area:

The law protects detainees from blatant abuses during questioning — such as rape, torture and “cruel and inhuman” treatment

While simulateously allowing this:

The legislation also says the president can “interpret the meaning and application” of international standards for prisoner treatment, a provision intended to allow him to authorize aggressive interrogation methods that might otherwise be seen as illegal by international courts.

Given the Bush administration’s rather narrow view of what constitues torture stated in the infamous Gonzales memo:

In the view expressed by the Justice Department memo, which differs from the view of the Army, physical torture “must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.” For a cruel or inhuman psychological technique to rise to the level of mental torture, the Justice Department argued, the psychological harm must last “months or even years.”

I’m not optistimic about this power to set aside international standards not being used to order treatment that amounts to torture.

This legislation serves as yet more evidence that what need be transcended is the entire notion of the state coupled with the deferential attitude towards aritificial authority it embodies. Organizations posessing a monopoly on the provision of a legal framework have every incentive to abuse that power. What ultimately allows this kind of authority to be exercised is a cultural attitude of indifference towards it. Such a phenomenon being prevalent in the context of a statist legal system is especially dangerous because of the inability to opt out. It’s time we abandoned the idea of monocentric law along with cultural apathy regarding power in favor of liberty. Here is the wider totality that need be addressed in any attempted resolution of this problem.

Brad Spangler and Roderick Long are to be thanked for launching the Center for a Stateless Society. I plan to contribute writings and encourage others to do the same.

Here’s the celebratory press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A tiny think tank has set out on a project to provide ongoing news commentary in order to promote their set of views, known as market anarchism.

AUBURN, ALABAMA — October 10, 2006 — Center for a Stateless Society — The Molinari Institute, a market anarchist think tank, today launched a new media effort aiming to put their agenda to abolish government front and center in US political discourse. Dubbing their project the Center for a Stateless Society (www.c4ss.org), institute officials laid out plans to publish and distribute news commentary written by anarchists with radically free-market oriented views on economics — taking market anarchism out of the realm of academia and obscure internet blogs in order to put it in the public eye.

Molinari Institute President Roderick Long explained “For too long libertarians, and I mean anarchist libertarians, have treated market anarchism almost as an esoteric doctrine. It’s time to put market anarchism front and center in our educational efforts, time to start making it a familiar and recognizable position. The Center for a Stateless Society aims to bring a market anarchist perspective to the popular press, rather than leaving it confined to scholarly studies and movement periodicals.”

Naming longtime radical libertarian activist and freelance web developer Brad Spangler as the first Director of the Center, Long unveiled the Center’s new web site at www.c4ss.org for Molinari Institute supporters and the public.

Said Spangler “I’m honored to accept the post. In anticipation of this moment, we’ve developed a database of thousands of US media outlets for email distribution of content which these publishers will be able to use free of charge. Additionally, the c4ss.org web site makes use of stable, reliable and “free as in freedom” open source web technologies. We’ve developed the site in such a way as to make maximum possible use of social bookmarking services, web syndication feeds and search engine optimization techniques. With this site, we aim to awaken more Americans than ever before to the brutal reality that all governments everywhere are essentially nothing more than murderous bandit gangs — and show them the shining light of hope for a world without the State.”

###

ORGANIZATIONAL SUMMARY The mission of the Molinari Institute is to promote understanding of the philosophy of Market Anarchism as a sane, consensual alternative to the hypertrophic violence of the State. The Institute takes its name from Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912), originator of the theory of Market Anarchism. The Center for a Stateless Society is the Molinari Institute’s new media center.

CONTACT
Brad Spangler
Center for a Stateless Society
media@c4ss.org
http://www.c4ss.org/

This is a very exciting project! Having quality market anarchist material published in the mainstream could make an impact.

A pamphlet for informing people of ideas that might be useful in attacking the drug war’s prohibition on any particular substance.

Looking for tactics to combat the criminalization of ______(insert illict drug)?

Here are some that might be helpful.

-Passing out Fullly Informed Jury Association (http://fija.org/) materials in an effort to get defendants off by a refusal of jurors to convict. If done in conjunction with information challenging the government line, jurors might end up exercising jury nullification.

-Peaceful protests, sit-downs, and lock-downs at courthouses where people are being tried on drug charges in an effort to complicate the procceedings.

-Encouraging groups of individuals to agree ahead of time not to plea bargain on a drug offense. Defnese lawyers could then demand that a speedy trial be given in all cases or the defendants be let off. Such a paralyzing of the system could bear fruit.

Readers should know that all of the above carry risks. Jurors could be held in contempt for exercersing the right of jury nullification. See http://www.levellers.org/jrp/kriho.new.htm for an example.

Reading Resources

General

Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use by Jacob Sullum.

The Case for Legalizing Drugs by Richard Lawrence Miller.

Drug Warriors and Their Prey: From Police Power to Police State by Richard Lawrence Miller.

Specific

List material pertaining to specific substance in question.