Life, Love, and Liberty

To be frank, I sort of still lean towards the more pessimistic myself. I see the Democratic candidates as being kind of to the left of the Republican wing of the ruling class, but there is plenty of common ground still. Obama and Hilary both can’t seem to imagine healthcare reform that doesn’t include threatening government violence against those who don’t want to buy insurance. Obama doesn’t go as far as Hilary, because he says only parents will be forced to buy it for children, but it’s still a wholesale attack on the principle of individual liberty.

So, Americans will have a choice between corporatist health insurance or neo-fascist “liberal” mandated health insurance. Hilary recently said she might garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy into it. What a great way to help the working class. If this be socialism, then I’ll pass. What happened to empowering workers rather than exercising control over them? Isn’t that what’s wrong with the present system? Being offered two varieties of fascism is not enticing.

I mean, we have to get beyond thinking of politics in terms of domination and coercion. A whole new paradigm needs to be developed, and the anarchist tradition holds the key to this.

People assume that either large corporations or large government agencies have to run things, but this is not true at all. Anarchist thinkers — among others — have developed conceptions of “order” that rely on decentralization of power, and there is a wealth of literature out there about neighborhood self-sufficiency, worker’s self-management, and so forth.

And, this is a crucial matter of survival for countless people. The planet is being devastated by countless tyrannical regimes and other oppressive entities. For god’s sake, is there no place free from this savagery? Am I doomed to abandon any political dreams, so that I don’t have to endure the pain of living in fear? Truth be told: I want to speak like Emma Goldman did. Not so much, because I want to create a celebrity persona, but, because I want to touch people with my words. I want to ignite the passions and intellect of others, so that they can begin the ceaseless journey for truth. Endlessly back and forth I go, between this desire to just refuse all constraints and speak my mind, and a desire to withdraw in preservation of my life.

Below is an article about the price we pay for centralizing power: http://fff.org/comment/com0802a.asp

What makes me despair is knowing that the above bill effectively criminalizes some of my thoughts. Just calling yourself an anarchist is enough for them to make a case of “promoting ideologically based violence”. Somehow, I don’t think that my serious reservations about the use of violence will be taken that seriously by them. Regardless, it is the grossest of hypocrisies for a government that routinely uses violence to promote its social objective of stopping people from enjoying pot, and slaughters people by the thousands in impoverished nations to preach about violent ideologies. And, the mere promotion of proportionate resistance to this is grounds for making someone’s life a living hell. Totalitarianism isn’t only about Nazi esque stormtroopers marching in parades. It’s also about forcing emotionally sensitive and aware people to cower in fear.

Politicians would be well advised to look in the mirror once in awhile. Who is really the violent one here? Me or George Bush? Or the Democratic senator (I can’t remember if there were multiple sponsors) who introduced this bill?

Enough for now. I love to write, but I have only so much tolerance for thinking about the United States regime right now. And, I imagine that you might be turned off by excessive length.

More to come!

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