Liberty and Self-Empowerment

...by Jack Greene (that be me)

Condensed from the original version published in written format and video format circa 1999.

"Liberty, n. Freedom from political coercion. Freedom to choose. Freedom to manage one's own life and property."

For many people, the critical connection between personal and empowerment and liberty is obvious. We also understand that it may make some people uncomfortable when we point out this inextricable connection. For them, the connection may not be obvious at all...

From the following you will be able to see more clearly:

---That the "Mainspring of Human Progress" is liberty
---What liberty is and is not
---Why liberty is vital to your own personal empowerment
---How self-identified advocates of 'the little guy' are often his worst enemies
---How to cut living costs and take better care of 'natural resources'
---How to end the national debt(!)
---What you can do to help make good things happen for everyone

First we need to distinguish between liberty and license. Liberty and license are two very different concepts! Each may grant us the freedom to choose our actions, associations and thoughts. The critical distinction is that liberty requires us to take responsibility for our actions by honoring our neighbors choices. With this balance, peace is the default so our property and person are secure. License, on the other hand, allows us to run roughshod over the choices of others, with no thought to the consequences. When those others eventually retaliate, feuding begins and our property and person are in jeopardy. (See Dr. Mary Ruwart's HEALING OUR WORLD)

To enjoy liberty ourselves, we must grant that same liberty to others. This code of mutual respect means we won't defraud, assault or steal from our peaceful neighbors, regardless of how much we may disagree with their choices. We never raise our hand against a neighbor except in self-defense. When members of society have liberty, peace and harmony naturally follow.

Contrary to the popular theme, liberty is NOT about politics!

As a matter of fact, liberty is the absence of politics. Politics is about who will have license to impose their will on others, limiting their choices. Without choice, we are trapped in someone else's idea of who we ought to be.

At its core, politics embodies the various justifications used by certain institutions and people to exercise power over other institutions and people. Poltics is about tribes, kingdoms, bureaucracies, dictatorships and group-rule of one form or another. It is the systematic disempowerment of a subset of our neighbors so that they are unable to pursue thier own dreams. Politics often feels "dirty" because it is!

Liberty is the opposite of politics. The slaves fleeing the pre-Civil War southern states, the Jews fleeing the ovens of Auschwitz, or Cubans fleeing Castro's domination were not engaging in politics, they were escaping its consequences.

There are stark examples of the recognition that to grow, even to live, we must be free to make our own choices. Self-empowerment starts with liberty.

Did you know there is, and always has been, a countermovement to the personal empowerment movement? In fact, our opposition arrived on the scene first! There are always, and always have been, individuals and groups ready to be our masters. For whatever ill-intentioned or well-intentioned reasons, they want to make our choices for us. Theirs has always been a message of dependence, subservience, disempowerment.

In many cultures and geographical locations, freedom and liberty do not exist. From primitive tribal barbarism to sophisticated mega-states, whole groups of people live this very day in slavery. In primitive cultures, superstition and mysticism support the tyranny. In the modern mega-states there is a whole body of philosophy, political science and culture-speak forming the foundational justification for suppression. The tyranny is, of course, usually portrayed to be for the good of the suppressed.

For those of us born mostly free of tyranny, it is hard to imagine what life would be like in those conditions. This helps explain why people born into an environment with a great deal of freedom (such as the US) often take it for granted. They don't understand or appreciate their heritage of liberty, even as they see others risking their very lives to reach our shores.

Wise men throughout the centuries have warned that we must be eternally vigilant to protect our freedom. They were not referring wholly to rifles and bullets, but more fundamentally to awareness, understanding and appreciation of the nature of liberty.

Liberty, like love, cannot be forced. It fluorishes only in the absence of force. Accepting self-responsibility is the first step to self-empowerment. Self-empowerment presupposes freedom to exercise choice. If we are unable to make choices relevant to our own property and welfare, we are dependent upon, and subservient to, others. We are not free.

Part of the confusion coming from rampant non-integrated thinking today is that liberty means democracy. It does not. Democracy entails the imposition of the will of the majority over the minority. Although democracy is a palpable improvement over tribalism, monarchy or oligarchy, it has also brought about everything from segregation laws, to Adolph Hitler, to confiscatory taxation, licensing and regulation.

There is no criminal action made moral by voting. Legal perhaps, moral no. Frederic Bastiat, in his 1850 masterpiece "The Law," identified the "legal" taking from some persons to give to others to whom the property does not belong as LEGAL PLUNDER. Author Ayn Rand referred to forced redistribution of other people's property as MORAL CANNIBALISM.

We cannot force, by ballot or bullet, human progress. Whatever your passion---your career, your family's education and health, even curing world hunger and disease---betterment in any area of human endeavor is rooted in freedom. Wherever men are free to creat and reap the rewards of thier risked time, energy, money and blood, humanity fluorishes. That is the story of mankind (See Rose Wilder Lane's THE DISCOVERY OF FREEDOM).

Significantly, being a proponent of liberty is rooted in optimism. We believe in our individual capabilities, the overall benevolent nature of our fellow human, and the widespread abundance of expanding wealth and opportunity for us all.

Dislike of liberty, on the other hand, is rooted in fear. Fear of responsibility, fear of incompetence, fear of relative loss of power and prestige, fear that someone else will have more (money, property, luck, love, sex, etc.) than we do. These fears manifest a poverty consciousness and are profoundly disempowering (see Ludwig von Mises THE ANTI-CAPITALISTIC MENTALITY and Helmut Shoeck's ENVY). And these fears play right into the hands of those whose passion is control over others.

Often we see proponents of self-empowerment who have a complete disconnect when self-empowerment runs into its primary adversary: the State. They may express shock and dismay and say we are bringing up the subject of "politics." How can we promote personal power, self-confidence and independent thinking while turning our heads from the platform required for their development?

Such disconnects reminds us of another time when the forces of apathy were confronted by the facts of reality, to the discomfort of most. See Patrick Henry's 'Liberty or Death' speech. http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/henry.htm

Those words were shocking for many then, as they are to many now! "Liberty" has been a 'shush-word' of our culture---"Don't say it"---reminiscent of when words like "cancer" were only whispered. This reality blockage results in non-integrated thinking, crippling our decision-making processes by failing to take into account the unspeakable. We can't solve problems or take advantage of opportunities whose existence we deny. How much does this non-integrated thinking cost us?

HERE IS JUST ONE EXAMPLE:

In our real world the federal and state government own over half the US land mass. It doesn't take an economist to figure holding that much of
ANYTHING that is useful off the market drives the price of what is left THROUGH THE ROOF!

Can you imagine how inexpensive land, and the resources it offers, would be if it weren't corralled by the State? And what would happen to the national debt if this idle abomination were sold on the open market with the proceeds going to ending the prospects of slavery for future generations?

There's a favorite saying that hasn't been applied here, for the same reasons we have this absurdity in the first place:

"FOLLOW THE MONEY."

Let's do that! Let's ask WHO would be the biggest beneficiaries from the horrific kind of land and resource policies currently being enforced? Before answering, also consider that this practice is one of the cruelest taxes on the the most vulnerable---the so-called 'little guys' whose interests their self-decribed protectors would have us believe they have foremost in their mind! We are talking about one of the most insidious and regressive forms of taxation ever devised...

Conversely, who would be the 'losers' if the obscenely artificially high prices were to settle at half their current levels? It's easy:

The 'losers' would be those currently holding title, to the articially high-priced PRIVATE land and it's contents. Who are they, largely? Moneylenders, particularly large banks and financial institutions (See Lysander Spooner's NO TREASON: THE CONSTITUTION of NO AUTHORITY) and the businesses who are already harvesting or mining the resources from the land they control. They do not want new competition resulting in lower prices (see Gabriel Kolko's THE TRIUMPH OF CONSERVATISM which documents the late 19th and early 20th century behind-the-scenes partnership of government and big businesses, which kept those established businesses relatively immune from new competition, all under the guise of "anti big business" legislation and regulation.)

Then there are the crocodile tears of concern about the 'national debt'. If a big chunk of public lands was sold, there could be a breath-taking reduction of this debt. Myths to the contrary of how "we owe it to ourselves" who does collect the interest on this gargantuan debt? Primarily big banks and other financial institutions. And who pays for this debt? TAXPAYERS!

Remember in the classic Old West movies when the local cattle baron (and bad guy) would dam up the water supply so farmers competing for the open land where he feeds his cattle would starve or have to move elsewhere? This meanie didn't want to pay the going price for the land he wanted. And he was ready to use his hired guns to make sure he won. We hated this guy and couldn't wait for the Duke and Gabby to ride into town and make things right. Well bad guys like that still exist, only they've gotten a lot smarter!

Pretend, for a moment, YOU are part of the group of old-line established lenders, foresters and oil companies. How would you keep prices up on the lands that are security for your loans and your products safe from cheaper competition? You could work harder to improve your efficiency, products and services. Maybe...or...

Wouldn't it be easier if you could simply get laws passed that would stop your future competitors in their tracks? What if you could, through the political process, keep new land and resources off the market and therefore unavailable to your would-be competitors?

Now you wouldn't dare try overtly doing this by nationalizing half the country in the name of FatCat Preservation. Although they're getting close, the voters aren't that naive. You'd wind up like the bad guys in the old Westerns. But(stroke chin menacingly)...

What if much of the country was legally off limits to private ownership and development? That could work. But how would you pull off such a grab as that?

HERE'S HOW:

Conceive, support and fund any "worthy" cause you could invent and promote (surreptitiously through third parties) which would deny access to land and resources. Convince a majority of gullible voters that somehow "We all own" these properties together and "we must keep them pristine and pure for everyone," especially animals and children. You fund slick front organizations to employ political and environmental rhetoric to posture as friends of the 'common man. nature, etc.'

All the while, publicly your company seems to be the unwilling subject of this well-intentioned legislation that will save the earth from the likes of you. You'll have the state educators, news media and politicians clamoring to be on your bandwagon. After all, they're on your payroll directly or indirectly too.

Meanwhile your potential competitors and the public are forced to fund all the chaos you generate with THEIR tax monies. Sweet!! The Duke and Gabby won't stand a chance against you because no one knows they're being robbed!

So massive amounts of money go into permanently institutionalized promotions to "save" rain forests, natural habitats, rare and endangered species, ecological 'balance', nature's beauty, etc. Think of how the employees in this new "industry" will vote. Yowzah!!

The "enemies" of environment are labelled "selfish polluters," greedy capitalists, strip miners rich industrialists and callous developers, Bambi killers. Well intentioned (for the most part) environmentalists, conservationists, animal preservasionists, Sierra Clubbers, and all the children they can influence are the unwitting pawns of the very people they believe they oppose. You've cheaply and safely locked the door on your pesky competitors forever and you're ready to go on to the next delightful scam, currently called "climate change."

All the propoganda about saving the land from developers, sprawl, polluters, greedy corporations, ecological disasters, the NRA, has eventuated in a set-up that keeps the rich rich, and...you know the rest.

There is no "We own it" in government. If this still troubles you, think about this: In any meaningful sense, you do not "own" an iota of anything operated or held off the market by government. Not the national parks, not government housing, not the educational system, the money supply, not the IRS. Ownership in reality means the ability to improve, exchange or dispose of at your discretion. Can you sell your imaginary piece of the government largesse? Can you borrow money against it? Or ask yourself this, if it's mine, how can I be arrested for trespassing on it?

Why not release the land and resources to the open market (people who will have a direct stake in making it useful)? It would be a monumental bonanza, notably benefitting those with the least the most! There would be less poverty (not good for control freaks and shysters), far less dependence (anathema to control freaks and shysters), and WAY much more disposable income for whater we choose to spend it on (heresy!!).

We are already doing an end run around stifling statism. "Hooked on Phonics," home schooling, FedEx, are just some examples of how problems get solved, not institutionalized, when people are free to innovate, free to choose. Remember, the folks who want your kids in public schools send theirs to private schools. Same for retirement programs, modes of transportation, etc. (See Nancy Pelosi's Air Fleet, the President's $100 a lb Kobi beef parties, ad nauseam).

Closing on notes of encouragement and optimism for your own liberty and self-empowerment:

"Laissez-faire does not mean: let soulless mechanical forces operate. It means: let each individual choose how he wants to cooperate in the social division of labor; let the consumers determine what the entrepreneurs should produce...Laissez-faire means: Let the common man choose and act; do not force him to yield to a dictator." ---Ludwig von Mises, HUMAN ACTION

"The two ideas of human freedom and economic freedom working together came to their greatest fruition in the United States...We have been forgetting the basic truth that the greatest threat to human freedom is the concentration of power, whether in the hands of government or anyone else...Fortunately we are waking up...again recognizing that good objectives can be perverted by bad means, that reliance on the freedom of people to control their own lives lives in accordance with their own values is the surest way to achieve the full potential of a great society." ---Milton Friedman, FREE TO CHOOSE

Copyright 1999. Jack Greene

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