You Are an Individual

Guest post by Jesse Mathewson.

The act of voting is a simple one, you make your way to the nearest voting booth, and after being barraged by endless television promotions and signage, you choose the one you believe is most likely to do what you want, and the least likely to do what your neighbors want. You know that government is necessary; after all, look around you, there are far too many people who obviously cannot care for themselves. You believe that being born places you in a contractual relationship with the State, and that voting and otherwise supporting what your government does are important.

Every voting season you may occasionally join some friends and go to a rally or two. At these rallies you rekindle the smoldering embers of freedom, and promote voting by placing a candidate’s sign in your front lawn, proudly showing your affiliation with the person that best represents the ideals and desires you have for the nation. You join your friends in complaining about the current administration, and blame them for every wrong doing outside of the black plague. You see, it doesn’t matter what history has shown us, all that matters is right now and tomorrow.

You attend your chosen church, or family dinner and question the rising prices of everything. You question the violence you see in the media, and the wars. And you realize that to fix this, it is necessary to simply vote again, for when something doesn’t work the first several hundred times it doesn’t mean it won’t again, it probably just needs a different point of view. And just like a lazy day floating in the sun on a pond you slowly fall asleep, content in your continued action to stay free.

Stop.

Wait.

You struggle for a breath, not sure what’s wrong. The lazy summer day is lost as dark clouds slowly creep across the sky. The waves wash over your body and you begin to sink, and in that moment your eyes are opened as they never have been before. In that split second, clarity invades your mind and you realize that your entire life up to this point has been for naught. This transformation is often as physical as it is emotional and mental.

Your journey of peaceful intentions is an act of initiatory aggression against those who may not agree with your ideas or values. You realize that you have endorsed a policy of “might makes right”, through a democratic process that masquerades as free choice and liberty. You realize that the government must have war to exist, for without the fantasy of protection for yourself and all those around you being a constant, you the voter would quickly lose all desire to support such a loathsome beast as is government.

So with your eyes wide awake, and your brain on overload, you promote true liberty. At first it is very simple; after all, even though you know what you supported before was wrong you have not yet come to understand exactly why it is. You study, steadily siphoning knowledge up as you traverse your life.

The first changes are minute, easily missed by those who live around and with you. However, the more you study and the less you promote the state, the more prominent the signature you begin to leave on their radars. You want to believe that everyone can see what you see, that everyone can understand and agree with your desire for real peace, and your subsequent desire for true liberty. However, as with all major changes, some family may disagree, some friends may leave. This is not a negative, it is truly a positive. For you are those with whom you surround yourself.

More importantly, you have realized that you are only responsible for yourself, your decisions and those whose care you have been entrusted with. Further understanding comes as you realize the only property you truly own is yourself; and with that understanding you begin to look at the world differently. You understand that you may reside on the land that you hold title to, and that you may have goods of varying types. However, while these things are legally yours, those laws that ensure your ownership are a result of the state with which you have become disenchanted.

It is the understanding that everything as it pertains to the state that you once fully promoted is wrong simply because it is based in the use of initiatory aggression that allows you too easily to slip into a more laid back lifestyle. You begin gardening perhaps, or speaking with others, or possibly start your own business. Gone is the stress from the daily issues that flash by us faster than a supernova from the many and rarely varying sources of news. We understand now that some people will in fact intend harm against others; however, we also understand that most people are good once separated from the cult that is state worship.

You understand that the people so wrapped up in trying to get ahead are simply spinning their proverbial wheels against an onslaught of red tape and lies. The people you once saw as simply stupid and classed in the worker-side of things you now see as simply not having the time or energy to find the truth. No longer do you care as much if someone is illegal, on SSI, scamming the system, or otherwise. The reason for this is quite simple, the state they are scamming is robbing you, and these people, and they are doing what they have been taught. Might makes right, after all.

Sadly, you also understand that until the state is no longer seen as necessary by the masses of indoctrinated adherents, no peace is possible. There can only be endless cycles of war, racial unrest, bigotry and more. The state itself promotes these problems with one hand hidden, while the other is seen as “helping.” The only way a system of governance can maintain order is by creating chaos and promoting a fix for it. You have seen that if government really worked it would effectively work itself into oblivion.

Over time you find that there are hundreds, thousands, even millions of individuals who have begun to or already do think this way as well. You find a definition for what you now believe; the non-aggression principle allows no equivocation. All that matters is that no intentional harm is done to another human. You have found liberty, you understand freedom, and you are an individual.

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Selected content picked by the editor of Everything-Voluntary.com.