The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed — and hence clamorous to be led to safety — by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
— H.L. Mencken
By David Tulis / Noogaradio 1240 AM 101.1 FM
We live in a servitude that is partly our own making. Its effects are that we cooperate in national economy, we expect constantly other people to pay for benefits we receive, we have places on the public dole without realizing it, we foreshorten our outlook time horizons to suit present consumption, and we tolerate relationships with entities and people we should look at with revulsion — or dread.
5 ways by which we reduce ourselves
2. Voluntary action
3. Disregard for constitutional protections
4. Ignorance of law
5. Belief in statements made by state actors without authority
But there are more —
6.Voting franchise
7. Registering for selective service, social security
8. Filing 1040 tax form, “voluntary compliance”
9. Belief in media reports describing proper relationship with states, corporations
10. Apathy over status, disregard independence
Avatar reduction therapy
I’ve made this list in reading Nullifying Tyranny[;] Creating Moral Communities in an Immoral Society by James Ronald Kennedy and Walter Donald Kennedy. If it has a shortcoming, it may be that its scope is “big picture” or geopolitical whereas often our submission to the good people in Nashville and Washington and their agents is in terms of nitty gritty details.
Certainly my rankings can be disputed. Perhaps the linchpin is submission to the U.S. tax system through voluntary compliance. But I propose that this point is later because it is preceded by other, more important acts, namely contracts. By contract and application for benefit we reduce our legal status and have attach to us obligations to continually report to the state and its agents. By license we use our cars on the road. By license we yield constitutional rights to marry the girl of our choice. By license we enter an occupation that we agree beforehand — before any reading of law or statute — belongs to the state and is taxable and controllable by government.
By application we obtain proof our child belongs to us. By petition we enroll him in a state school, having complied with vaccination rules that need not apply to us. We lack connection and support from friends and neighbors, so rely on corporations to ensure us, guarantee payments for medical care and the value of property in our houses in case of fire. No one of these things is a linchpin locking us down for good. And any one of them can be shown as not implying our yielding on all the other points.
Consent once given is not necessarily permanent. But until we start the long process of obtaining liberty, we support the status quo.
Our consent to the state and its corporate handmaidens creates what is fair to describe as our avatar, the legal fictional identity that is the target of hackers and identity thieves, for with it they gain access to credit in our name and by which they steal the property of others. And by it government has a handle by which it can interact with us, for I suspect the state cannot deal with flesh and blood people as flesh and blood. It seems able to address and regulate them as corporations.
Atomization — undoing its woes long term
Christendom holds the promise of reducing the size of this avatar and the number of connections he has with the flesh and blood person who is the real you — the natural person. A more greatly self-governing person will tend to have a smaller avatar than one who depends on the state for many ordinary wants. A less self-governing man will have a larger avatar and will live life under its management. The more we yield to the atomizing influences of the modern state, the less we have other people with whom to engage — and the more we expect the welfare state to be our guide and help in time of want.
Paul gently urges believers to end their bondage to men — as they are able. “Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.” (Corinthians 7:21-24).
