Friday, May 31, 2013

On the Freeman Experience

If you're unaware, there are a very small number of people in the world, calling themselves "Freemen of the land." 
These men, (it's always men, I've never seen a Freewoman, I presume they exist,) carrying on about their lives, not insuring their cars, not paying any particular heed to any law at all. 
I quote wikipedia:

"Freemen on the land" are people who claim that all statute law is contractual, and that such law is applicable only if an individual consents to be governed by it. They believe that they can therefore declare themselves independent of government jurisdiction, holding that the only "true" law is common law, as they define it. The "Freeman on the land" movement has its origins in various United States-based groups in the 1970s and 1980s, reaching the United Kingdom soon after 2000. The phrase "Freeman-on-the-Land" (FOTL) first appeared around 2004 and was coined by Robert Arthur Menard.

 The problem I have with this idea is that laws, for the most part, exist because we have need for them.  Laws protect us from each other. (Some laws protect us from ourselves, for instance "drug laws," but for the sake of today's discussion, I need us to come to a consensus on the matter.) 
So, hopefully you and I can agree that a lawless society would be, at the least, more dangerous and unpleasant than the reality (I hope) we currently inhabit. 

Whether or not the Freeman are correct in their claim of the "contractual" nature of personhood is purposely not part of our discussion. I don't think that it's true, but I also don't care, because laws are like suggestions, we still have people that break them every day. So in the end, as always we are responsible for our own actions, legal entity or not.

See, these Freemen aren't fighting oppression from tyrannical governments, this is not some coup d'etat. They are Canadians, American's, English, spoiled. They don't want to pay their income tax. They tie up courtrooms fighting speeding tickets. They're fucking around. 

The problem isn't the laws we put upon ourselves.
A person will be what he or she wants, short of another to make him or her something less.
(Again, personal responsibility.)
The real problem is the laws we put upon others. 
Our governments (the governments of the Freemen, the governments of the Western Paradigm,) are not despotic. (Okay, well maybe they are a little, they certainly do whatever they want.)
But it hasn't come to a place where we're lighting torches and marching on the corridors of power.
Not in the way that Syria is, for instance.
When a government is really messing with you, you know it.

Fucking Freemen. Give me a break.
Our government, this very week came up against three hurdles in it's capitalist alien agenda to turn us all into molemen. 
1.) BC decided to "let science decide" if the pipeline from Alberta's tar sands to the Pacific should go ahead. (wink)
2.) Somebody thought it would be a good idea to let reporters be Senators. (Speaking of moles.)
3.) Tom Mulcair has a pair. 

(Sorry for non-Canadians, this last paragraph wouldn't make much sense. Let's just say that our Neo-Conservative Prime Minister is having a hard time explaining his parties' shenanigans.)

The point is: The truth has a way of coming around, with or without your help. 
Laws aren't decreed when we decide to go to war. We volunteer. 
Personal responsibility.
When the government reinstates the draft. 
Then we need Freemen.
When the government destroys a nation's best interests, bit by bit, in the name of commerce. 
Freemen aren't going to cut it. 
Personal responsibility.