From the Mouths of Philosophical Adolescents
Young Americans in their 20s and 30s overwhelmingly seem to think Barack Obama is part of the 99%. I don't hold much hope for these people. But that generation of propagandized dreamers could perhaps be forgiven their economically illiterate and morally bankrupt world-improvement-via-theft-and-violence tendencies. After all these people got hip to the Internet in their teens and 20s, but weren't exposed to it at a young enough age to provide resistance to the tide of statist programming to which they were exposed.
The generation after them, however… Ah, there might be some hope for these young Americans yet!
These young people have seen a considerable segment of their slightly older peers falling in love with Ron Paul and his free market message (bless his fundamentalist Christian Republican minarchist heart). And very importantly, instead of three major networks and a few major newspapers shaping their minds, these younger people have had access to Internet, particularly YouTube where they learn from folks like Dayna Martin and Stefan Molyneux. This doesn't mean that statism will be cured in just a couple of generations, but I'd say this is a teasingly promising start.
Last month at Porcfest I met a young man named Jeff Maxim who wonderfully embodies this promise. Last I checked Jeff had a mere 15 years of life, yet he's come further morally than almost every other human being on the planet. And he's a zippy writer, too. He submitted the following to me just a few days ago…
“People often forget that freedom is a two-sided coin: independence and responsibility. The same can be said for the two sides of slavery – dependence and conformity. Slavery tries to make you a smaller, weaker person. While freedom requires you be independent, strong, and crave your own individualistic path with your passion as the shaping tool. The transition from these two drastic opposites can be enormously discouraging and frightening. It can feel like being thrown into water from an unconscious sleep and not knowing how to swim – barely treading water, trying desperately to hold on. That is because the muscles or skills needed to exist in a state of freedom are the ones starved in a state of slavery.
The difficulties do not end there. I have not mentioned how everyone around you will likely be explicitly against what you are doing. Though this journey is exhausting at times and incredibly hard, for me there is no other way.
I am an anarchist, an atheist – a philosopher!
For me, living in the idle conformity of society is a waste of the rich possibilities that life can have to offer. I must live radically different from everyone else – a life according reason and evidence, not by the acceptance of the herd. But this is not some idealistic suicide pact but a well thought out decision to surpass the past and discover the uncharted possibilities of truth.
I have morgue optimism of how poorly people live and the disastrous effects on the lager scale of humanity’s unfolding tale. From early on, I have realized that living life by philosophy, reason and evidence, that one can actually achieve things that they never thought were possible. As the saying goes ‘The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.’ When you combine ecstatic enthusiasm and the tools necessary for concrete progress, you have a marvelous recipe for success.”
It does my little, black heart good to share this. It speaks to the spirit of TDV. Freedom requires developing some psychic muscle that is atrophied in most of us due to a life in a collectivized, highly regulated tax farm. The entrepreneurs and the expats among us are those who through whatever happy accidents are able to resist the atrophy. And they're the people to whom TDV reaches out to help with analysis and actionable advice in its subscription newsletter. It's these people who will go anywhere to make good on some opportunity to profit by filling needs. They start businesses in other countries. They get second passports because they know better than to put all their eggs into one geopolitical basket.
If you're one of these people, sign up and get all the benefits of TDV subscription by clicking here.
Regards,
Gary Gibson
Editor, The Dollar Vigilante
On Sundays, before we get to the Week in Review, we like to tell you about what was in the week’s TDV subscriber-only publications that looks for better ways for you to survive The End Of The Monetary System As We Know It (TEOTMSAWKI).
This week we published an edition of the Dispatch which kicked off with my “Memory Hole”, this week a consideration of Ben Bernanke. Next, in Jeff Berwick’s “Vigilantes View”, TDV’s Editor-in-Chief gave us some travel tips as only Jeff could. Ed Bugos updated us on investing in his “TDV Portfolio: Review & Outlook”. Then, TDV’s St. Petersburg, Russia group moderator, Sean Armstrong, had a detailed look at being an expat in Russia. Next, Sandy Sandfort had a look at Silent’s Circle’s encryption technology, followed up by Christopther P. Casey’s engaging essay, “America: In Memoriam”. Finally, we looked at founding father, Thomas Jefferson, in our profile.
Here’s what we wrote about this week…
MONDAY, July 1
Goverment's Spirit Crushing Hatred of Lemonade
Wendy McElroy on the absurdity of state control.
“There are the seemingly laughable regulations: the Florida law requiring vending machines to sport labels that urge people to report if the label is not present; or, the three regulations buried in the Obamacare health bill that dictate the treatment of burns from flaming water-skis. Then, there are the regulations that directly cripple people's ability to use their bodies and property to feed themselves and their children.”
TUESDAY, July 2
How the Government Uses Citizenship as a Weapon Against You
Jeff Berwick on the USSA’s newest weapon: your citizenship.
“The time is coming when the gentle prodding of the USSA imperial police state will become a naked mugging with overt threats of violence and kidnapping. Capital controls and border controls to keep in both money and people are coming. What's happening to Snowden is just a taste of what's coming to Americans that the US doesn't consider nearly as troublesome.
I think we're the only ones who weren't surprised by this. Edward Snowden seems to have become aware through very painful personal experience. Meanwhile, that message still mostly falls on very deaf, nation-state-worshiping ears.”
Wednesday, July 3
Western Nations Lock Arms Against Latin American Nation and Snowden
Gary Gibson on the West’s long reach in their fight against Edward Snowden.
"We hate to toot our own horn too much, but it looks like we were right about something else: painting the Western nations with one broad brush. For years we've been saying that the Western nations are equally unsafe for your money and freedom and are marching lockstep with the USSA into collapse and tyranny. Today they've proved us right yet again.
Today both France and Portugal banned a Bolivian military plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales from their skies. They suspected the plane might be carrying Edward Snowden whose whistleblowing recently and very publicly embarrassed the USSA. Two other Western cronies — Spain and Italy — also banned the aircraft from flying over their countries.”
THURSDAY, July 4
A terrific TDV Fourth of July post from Christopher P. Casey.
“July 4th is the day in which the Declaration of Independence was adopted as the rationale for the separation which had just occurred. The fact that Americans started celebrating the 4th, and not the 2nd, means their Independence Day was not the celebration of an act, but the acclamation of an underlying reason. It means Americans recognized that while many nations have been birthed in revolution, few have been reared in principle. It was perhaps the proudest distinction of Americans as they recognized this holiday far before the Federal government codified it as such.”
FRIDAY, July 5
Feedback Friday – July 5, 2013
In this week’s Feedback Friday: Consistency in politicians, precious metals, property titles in Galt’s Gulch Chile, and Mexico after the dollar collapse.
SATURDAY, July 6
The Weekend Vigilante — June 29, 2013: Welcome to the Police State
In his weekly address to TDVers, is in Santiago Chile and describes the drastic evolution of the region.
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Thanks as always for reading or subscribing!
Managing Editor
