Is government trying to provoke you? I believe it is. It's setting a trap.
If, by doing provocative things, government can trigger you into acting, your actions become an excuse to crack down harder- which will trigger more people to act. Like a feedback loop.
It's part of the reason for anti-gun legislation. It's part of the reason the two main factions of authoritarians love the fight over the issue of "immigration". It's why the real solution to crime is criminalized.
It's why government officials decided to paste a divisive new "holiday" over a traditional religious holiday, as if no other days were available-- a slap in the face to a significant number of believers. Doesn't this look calculated to anger and divide?
Government needs to divide the population; it needs excuses to destroy any remaining shreds of liberty. They do things to you, hoping to cause a reaction giving them the excuse they need. Don't hand them another 9/11.
You may believe I'm pretending to read their minds. No, I'm watching their actions. The effect is the same regardless of their inner thoughts. They do things which anger you; if you react, they have an excuse to cancel you from public life or even make you a political prisoner.
They want-- they need-- to get a reaction they can use against your remaining liberty. If you believe they wouldn't do this, you don't understand the history of political government and those who seek to use its power.
This doesn't mean you have to take it. It means being smart enough to know government is a failed system on borrowed time. No one has the right to govern another. Nothing can create this imaginary right. Going through the motions in spite of this tears society apart by destroying the lives of individuals.
The best solution is for you to stop supporting "your side" and stop complying with "their side". Don't go along. Withdraw all support for any politician or political theater. Ignore them as much as possible. Stop making them relevant to any part of your life, your opinions, or your economic future. Starve them out by making them irrelevant. You don't need to rebuke or renounce them-- they're not that important. If you can't walk away cold turkey, wean yourself. Grow liberty, not tyranny.
Whatever you do, don't get drawn into a fight which will only empower them. It's probably what they want most.
"It’s why government officials decided to paste a divisive new 'holiday' over a traditional religious holiday, as if no other days were available -- a slap in the face to a significant number of believers. Doesn’t this look calculated to anger and divide?"
ReplyDeleteWell, the assertion that any such thing happened looks calculated to anger and divide.
I'm surprised that you fell for it, though.
I’m non-religious. I’m surprised you missed the effect it had.
DeleteIt had no effect, since it didn't happen.
DeleteYou're right and I was wrong.
DeleteThe only reason I believed it happened was because I'd never heard of it until I saw the *effect* it had on the religious people I know.
Most of those religious people believed what they were told by people who wanted to exploit their sincerely held religious beliefs. I don't blame them. Nor do I blame you. There's always too damn much idiocy going on to keep track of it or to not sometimes miss the details.
DeleteBut that was what happened -- an attempt to exploit.
"Trans Visibility Day" (or whatever it's called, I can never remember) is on the same date every year.
Easter falls on different days each year according to some kind of formula -- I think it may have to do with an older calendar system, lunar or something.
So, OCCASIONALLY, Easter is going to fall on the same day as some other "holiday." No biggie. People can celebrate one holiday, or more than one, or none at all.
Personally, I don't see why presidents feel the need to issue holiday proclamations and that kind of thing. But if Easter were to fall on, say, "President's Day" or "Patriots' Day" or whatever, I wouldn't expect a president to actively avoid mentioning the non-Easter holiday just because Christians consider Easter an important holiday.
If I'm not mistaken, Easter is on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox-- a very pagan formula for setting a date for a Christian holiday, it seems to me.
Delete“No one has the right to govern another. Nothing can create this imaginary right.”
ReplyDelete“The best solution is for you to stop supporting "your side" and stop complying with "their side". Don't go along. Withdraw all support for any politician or political theater. Ignore them as much as possible. Stop making them relevant to any part of your life, your opinions, or your economic future. Starve them out by making them irrelevant.’
This is good advice if your intention is to liberate yourself. If, on the other hand, your wish is to create a society of liberated individuals, that necessitates an association with others who believe the same thing which in effect puts you on a ‘side’ again. I believe that being a ‘free’ individual may be attainable, however difficult. The possible existence of a sufficiently large number of such individuals to actually constitute a ‘society’ however is not anything I have ever seen the evidence for in this species. Most people lack the desire (or the ability?) for self-sufficiency and personal responsibility which are the prerequisites of real liberty and are eager to submit and obey in return for the mere promise of safety and security. It also appears that the characteristic nature of any collective ‘group’ is inherently restrictive and hostile, even contrary, to the liberty of the individuals comprising it.
My side- my team- is liberty. I'm thrilled to find anyone on the same team. The political teams aren't on that team, though. Not consistently.
DeleteThey like this freedom or that freedom, or believe the military misdefinition of "liberty", but they aren't on Team Liberty.
As much as I'd like to help create a society of liberated individuals, I can't let that be a goal. I'd feel like a failure every day of my life in that case.
What I can do is be as liberated as possible, encourage others to join me, and just live my life in spite of those who don't want me to. And celebrate the fact that I do keep running in to people who are on Team Liberty. Maybe the society of liberated individuals will grow from the ground up as long as we don't give up and join the statists.