Total Privacy = Total Destruction Of The State

by Michael Suede

The state cannot exist without invasions of privacy. ?Without invasions of privacy, taxes could not be imposed. ?If all transactions and accounting records were private, incomes and revenues could not be verified. ?Tax evasion could not be prosecuted because no proof of incomes could be obtained.

Further, state currencies could not be imposed. ?If all transactions were private, the state would have no way of knowing what unit of account its subjects may have used to conduct their trades in. ?If a secret private currency were to run along side a state issued currency, the state issued currency would eventually become worthless.

If a person could be paid in secret, not have to pay taxes or the cost of inflation, and knew they could never be caught because the transactions are totally private, and the private currency was accepted everywhere the state currency was, wouldn?t they try to avoid the state issued currency in favor of the private currency??Because of these facts, all forms of privacy are abhorrent to the state.

The state, which is nothing more than a large group of brainwashed individuals who believe they have been granted the legitimate right to control others through the use of force, depends on having total information of all its subjects doings in order to maintain its own survival. ? But survival of what? ?Survival of the belief system. ?There is no ?thing? that anyone can point to and say, ?there is the state!? ?The state isn?t real. ?The state is a belief in peoples? minds.

Since the state is nothing more than a belief that resides in the minds of certain people, the cult members that compose a ?state? must continually check their subjects for signs that belief in the cult might be waning. This natural paranoia of cult members is what drives the expansion of the surveillance state. ?The Snowden leaks have made it clear that the NSA is just as concerned about what its own subjects are thinking as it is about foreigners.

Again, the NSA is just a group of cult members who believe they have the legitimate right to invade the privacy of everyone on the planet to ensure that the belief in the death cult called the American government is not being threatened. ?Since the state isn?t a physical ?thing,? but a belief, the NSA isn?t ultimately concerned about protecting ?things.? ?The cult of the NSA does what it does because they are terrified some other cult belief system will throw them out of power.

Why should Americans be concerned with what the Chinese are doing? ?Americans? are simply people who believe that living under the death cult of the American state is superior to that of living under the Chinese state ? otherwise why bother having any American state at all? ?Why not just let the Chinese run things? Why not hand over the American government to the Chinese? ?What does that question even mean? ? Does it mean handing over the belief in the legitimacy of one death cult to another death cult? ?What the hell?

The state is a belief ? not a thing. ?In order to get someone out of a cult, you have to seclude them from the cult group. ?Privacy is a key component when it comes to the toppling of cult belief systems. ? If I were to transport you to another human world where all transactions were private (no states), would you stand in terror, waiting to be struck down by terrorists or criminals? ?Of course not. ?You would quickly come to accept that as the reality of how things should be.

If the entire world views it as normal to have complete transaction privacy, you would view it as normal. ?It would be ABNORMAL to assume you, or anyone else, had the legitimacy to peek inside peoples? pocketbooks. ?Obviously the death cult called a ?state? could not exist in such a world.

Even if an entire population were to fully believe that the human condition could be improved by having people elect leaders from the masses, and then granting those few elected people the power to use organized threats of violence to assume control over resources; in a world where violating privacy was impossible, the public couldn?t impose such a system on themselves even if they wanted to.

Privacy.

Dig it.

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Why People Tolerate a Total State

by Wendy McElroy

?Why do so many people not realize America has become a total state??

Anyone who points out the politically obvious and is accused of panic-mongering has considered this question. The NSA's massive spying, the TSA frisking their children, the IRS targeting people politically, the longest war in American history, the militarization of law enforcement, the indefinite detention of prisoners at Gitmo...nothing, nothing seems to budge some people from the belief that the US is the freest, grandest nation on earth. It is an article of faith as deeply held as any belief in God.

But why?

Libertarian Class Analysis

There is no one answer but a good place to start is with a libertarian theory of class analysis. Karl Marx is usually credited with originating class analysis and the Marxist version is the one that most commonly comes to mind. Namely, people are classified based on their relationship to the means of production. Are you a worker or a capitalist?

But class analysis as an analytic tool did not originate with Marx. It was produced by 19th century radical liberal (that is, libertarian) historians who wrote in post-Napoleonic France: Charles Comte, Augustin Thierry and Charles Dunoyer. Their mentor was the great classical liberal economist J.B. Say. Perhaps the best presentation of this version of class analysis occurs in Franz Oppenheimer's book The State. Here he presents the two antagonistic principles upon which most societies operate: the economic and the political means. Or Society and the State.

Oppenheimer wrote, ?I mean by Society, the totality of concepts of all purely natural relations and institutions between man and man.? It consists collectively of all voluntary exchanges of labor and goods, including intangible 'goods' like culture. It is a productive and peaceful means that brings mutual benefit to all involved or no exchange would occur.

Oppenheimer wrote, ?I mean by it [the State] that summation of privileges and dominating positions which are brought into being by extra-economic power.? It consists of the systematic appropriation of labor and goods, including intangible ones like freedom of speech. It is a non-productive and violent means that benefits the thieves and harms the productive.

This one insight is the basis of libertarian class analysis: Society and the State were in basic and constant conflict with each other. The analysis classifies people based on their relationship to productivity. Are you part of an industrious Society or do you belong to the parasitic State?

Oppenheimer explained the social dynamics set in motion by the political means. Parasites naturally multiply and drain ever more resources. As the political means comes to dominate, however those who produce means see an ever diminishing return from their productivity and, so, they have little incentive to labor beyond subsistence. Society stagnates, which means there is less for the parasite to drain. And, yet, the State is now bloated and it needs an increasing amount of resources. Since it no longer has the consent and cooperation of the productive section, it must use conquest. The American State is at the stage of attempting to conquer American Society.

The Political Means Dominates America

The State is not merely the politicians and officials who run the visible structure of government. It includes every civil servant and bureaucrat. The largest employer in America is the federal government. According to the Office of Personnel Management, there were approximately 2.79 million civil servants as of December 2011. But this number is for ?civilian? personnel only and does not include uniformed civil servants, such as law enforcement. Of course, every state, county and city ratchets up the civil servant count with their own employees.

The State also includes the people whose political support is purchased by the stolen labor and goods, such as disability recipients. The ranks of these recipients is swelling as the individual states aggressively encourage the unemployed to pursue disability (a federal expense). For example, in New Mexico, the number of disability recipients jumped 58.7% in nine years. NPR recently (03/22/13) ran an in-depth analysis that estimated the total number of people on disability to be ?about 14 million Americans who don't have jobs and who don't show up in any of the unemployment measures we use.? Disability is only one 'welfare' program among dozens and dozens.

The State includes people ostensibly in the private sector whose job is to facilitate the theft of labor and goods ? for example, lawyers who hit productive businesses with dubious suits based on Nanny State laws. Employees in the military-industrial complex, suppliers to the military, subsidized banks and corporations, the list of those who survive on tax money goes on and on.

This is the first reason why so many people will never recognize that America is deteriorating; it is not deteriorating for them because they are the beneficiaries of the political means, and the police state works to their advantage. They benefit through money and pensions but many also benefit through acquiring status or power over others. A vast number of government employees could never earn these advantages based on merit in the private sector. They have a deep vested interest in not seeing themselves as the enemies of Society. Nor are their families likely to turn against the source of food on their tables.

The Tipping Point Theory

But why are people who are not tax consumers seemingly blind to the danger of the present State? Among the many explanations, I think three are commonplace.

They may not be blind but merely silent.

Or they may not be discontented. The Austrian economist Murray Rothbard once told me how his parents lived far better during the Great Depression than they had before it. They both held onto decent jobs and prices were very low. Such people are not fertile for a discussion about the economic calamity being inflicted by a State under which they prospered.

Equally, people who have never experienced the direct violence of the state are inclined to dismiss disturbing reports from those who have. As long as they live in relative comfort, these people allow the State to process their lives. They go about the business of living instead of focusing on matters they do not control. For many, it will take a tipping within their own lives or within society at large for the business of living to include a recognition of how dangerous the State can be.

A tipping point is the critical point at which an accumulation of minor changes triggers a major and often irreversible one. The build up to a social tipping point occurs on an individual basis. The Arab Spring is an example. Enough people became individually dissatisfied to form a mass protest movement. And it happened with sudden ease. The key is ?enough individuals? need to become dissatisfied for a tipping point to occur. Before it happens, however, the people who simply want to live will tend to ignore political problems out of a feeling of isolation or helplessness. Afterward, some will awaken. Perhaps they will be appalled at the brutality the State heaps upon those who challenge it, perhaps a family member will become involved in a protest, perhaps they will simply cease to feel helpless..

Conclusion

I suspect America is close to a social tipping point. If so, it will be caused by a bloated State consuming more and more from a Society that is already half on its knees.

How many individuals need to feel the tipping point within themselves for it occur in a general manner? The nineteenth century libertarian Benjamin Tucker estimated the figure at 10%. If 10% of society said ?no? to a law, then the law would become unenforceable. The number or percentage is impossible to measure, of course, but it is almost certain to be far, far less than 50%. Fortunately, history has rarely required a majority for social change to occur.

Whether or not the outcome of such a tip would be Society or more of the State depends as much upon how many people become reluctant to say ?yes? as much as it does upon the 10% who say ?no.?
_
Wendy McElroy is a frequent Dollar Vigilante contributor and renowned individualist anarchist and individualist feminist. She was a co-founder along with Carl Watner and George H. Smith of The Voluntaryist in 1982, and is the author/editor of twelve books, the latest of which is "The Art of Being Free". Follow her work at http://www.wendymcelroy.com.

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Dawn of the Drones: The Realization of the Total Surveillance State

By John W. Whitehead

?To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is it's justice; that is it's morality.? ? Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, 19th century French philosopher

Imagine a robot hovering overhead as you go about your day, driving to and from work, heading to the grocery store, or stopping by a friend?s house. The robot records your every movement with a surveillance camera and streams the information to a government command center. If you make a wrong move, or even appear to be doing something suspicious, the police will respond quickly and you?ll soon be under arrest. Even if you don?t do anything suspicious, the information of your whereabouts, including what stores and offices you visit, what political rallies you attend, and what people you meet will be recorded, saved and easily accessed at a later date. It is a frightening thought, but you don?t have to imagine this scenario. We are only a few years away from the realization of this total surveillance society.

Congress has just passed a bill, the FAA Reauthorization Act, mandating that the Federal Aviation Administration create a comprehensive program for the integration of drone technology into the national air space by 2015. The FAA predicts that there will be 30,000 drones crisscrossing the skies of America by 2020, all part of an industry that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year. This mandate is yet another example of the political power of the military-industrial complex, Congress? disdain for the privacy of American citizens, and the rampant growth of government. With this single piece of legislation, Congress is opening the floodgates to an entirely new era of surveillance, one in which no person is safe from the prying eyes of the government. This may prove to be the final nail in the Fourth Amendment?s coffin.

Attempts to integrate drone technology into the national air space were underway long before Congress put its stamp of approval on the FAA Reauthorization Act. In fact, the FAA authorized 313 certificates for drone operation in 2011, 295 of which were still active at the end of the year, although the agency refuses to say which organizations received the certificates and for what purposes they were used. However, we do know that the FAA had already approved drones for use by the Department of Homeland Security, US Customs and Border Patrol (which uses the drones to conduct surveillance and counternarcotics missions), and certain state and local law enforcement operations. For example, in June 2011, a family of cattle farmers accused of stealing some cows were spied on with a Predator drone before being apprehended by police.

The fact that drones?pilotless, remote controlled aircraft that have been used extensively in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to assassinate suspected terrorists, as well as innocent civilians?are coming home to roost (and fly) in domestic airspace should come as no surprise to those who have been paying attention. The US government has a history of commandeering military technology for use against Americans. We saw this happen with tear gas, tasers, sound cannons and assault vehicles, all of which were first used on the battlefield before being deployed against civilians at home.

Thus, while 83% of Americans approve of the use of drones abroad, and 65% approve of using drones to assassinate suspected terrorists abroad, even if they are American citizens, it remains to be seen how those same Americans will feel when they are the ones in the sights of the drones. Needless to say, they won?t have to wait too long to find out.

While there are undoubtedly legitimate uses for drone technology, such as locating missing persons, there is no legitimate reason for the government to collect a constant stream of information on the whereabouts of Americans. However, if this drone program is implemented in the way that Congress intends, we will have drones armed with ?less-lethal? weaponry, including bean bag guns and tasers, flying over political demonstrations, sporting events, and concert arenas. Eventually, these drones will be armed with the lethal weaponry that is currently being used overseas in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The power of these machines is not to be underestimated. Many are equipped with cameras that provide a live video feed, as well as heat sensors and radar. Some are capable of peering at figures from 20,000 feet up and 25 miles away. They can also keep track of 65 persons of interest at once. Some drones are capable of hijacking Wi-Fi networks and intercepting electronic communications such as text messages. The Army is currently developing drones with facial recognition software, as well as drones that can complete a target-and-kill mission without any human instruction or interaction. They are the ultimate killing and spying machines.

In addition to the privacy concerns, the safety of drone technology has been called into question. There have been a handful of high-profile crashes involving American drones abroad, including in Iran, the island nation of Seychelles, and most recently in Somalia. The Iranian government claimed they brought down the drone flying in their territory via a computer hack. This is two years after Iraqis were able to hack into the live feed of a few drones using ?$26 off-the-shelf software.? Mind you, back in October 2011, the US military admitted that their drone fleet had been infected by a ?mysterious virus.? The faultiness of the drone technology and the fact that amateur hackers can access the controls and camera feeds are reason enough to ground these devices indefinitely.

Unfortunately, with the wars abroad winding down, America has become the new battleground in the war on terror, to the delight and profit of the military-industrial complex. In fact, with companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin making their influence felt among members of Congress (Boeing spent over $12 million lobbying in 2011, and Lockheed spent over $11 million), you can be sure that their technologies will continue to be purchased by the government, even when there is no need for them. Thus, in the same way that our domestic police forces are now armed with mini-tanks and grenade launchers taken from the military?s armory, it was simply a matter of time before drone technology made its way back home.

While most Americans are unaware of the electronic concentration camp which is slowly enveloping our society, a select few groups are working to push back against government control. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the FAA, demanding the records of the drone certificates which the FAA has issued to various agencies, but it is unlikely that the implementation of this technology can be stopped. Based upon the government?s positions on wiretapping, GPS tracking devices, and Internet tracking technologies, it is also unlikely that our elected officials will do anything to protect the American people from the prying eye of the American government.

We can sit around waiting for some member of Congress with a conscience or some judge concerned about the coming tyranny to push back against the drone empire from within. However, until the American people succeed in raising their collective voices against this technological tyranny, the powers that be will continue on the path to total control, and the condition of our civil liberties will become more dire with every passing day.
__
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He is the author of The Change Manifesto (Sourcebooks).

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Next The Arrests: Your Future?
Most Americans haven?t awaken to the fact they are subject to an array of recently passed Fascist Laws including The National Defense Authorization Act and perhaps soon?the Enemy Expatriation Act that U.S. Government can unleash against the public. Congress gave U.S. Government the power to arrest and indefinitely detain Americans without probable cause or bringing charges. Detained U.S. Citizens now have no right to an attorney or trial or right to learn the charges against them?if any. If that isn?t Fascism what is?

Each day it is increasingly clear U.S. Government will in the future, use (vague) new Police State laws?to arrest and indefinitely detain lawful Americans that exercise 1st Amendment and other Constitutional Rights e.g. on mere suspicion of supporting or being involved in terrorism or being a belligerent?to shutdown public dissent. Soon there will be 30,000 drones in U.S. air space photographing Citizens? movements, recording what Americans say on the street, inside their home: facilitating the arrest of Americans on suspicion because of what someone said?and or forfeit their home and other assets under Patriot Act Section 806.

Americans appear powerless to Stop their government turning into a Police /Surveillance State. If U.S. Government Americans tomorrow there would be no Congressional Elections, what could they do? Without elections how could U.S. Citizens elect new representatives to change a ?Police State Government?? U.S. Government is now on the threshold of having surveillance cameras and drones most everywhere; and TSA Checkpoints in addition to airports?on highways, at bus and train stops and ports. Government intends to monitor without warrants?journalists, U.S. Citizens? emails, phone calls, Internet Activity, and faxes. Soon Americans won?t be able to arrange a 1st Amendment meeting, business or doctor?s appointment or other activity without government knowing about it in advance. It is foreseeable Americans under constant police / government surveillance may be afraid to attend peaceful protests and political meetings out of fear they might be arrested or lose their job, especially if they work for a government agency or contractor. That happened in Nazi Germany.

Considering the Fascist direction U.S. Government appears headed, it won?t be a surprise in the future to learn Americans have been arrested for posting an opinion or article on the Internet or verbally expressed an opinion against an entity of U.S. Government or coalition partner?arrested under the Patriot Act or Defense Authorization Act?or deemed by U.S. Government (someone likely to engage in, support or provoke violent acts or threaten National Security) to justify incarceration of American writers, publishers and ordinary Citizens.

Americans should ask who are the players behind getting passed the Patriot Act, The National Defense Authorization Act; that caused Introduction of the Enemy Expatriation Act and similar recently passed legislation that brought America to the edge of Fascism.

FBI Wasting No Time Building National Network of INFORMANTS

A New FBI Flyer is being distributed to U.S. merchants that says Paying For A Cup Of Coffee With Cash is potential terrorist activity and urges Coffee Chop Owners to report customers.

Ridiculous? Since the real estate crash, the ascendancy of the ?Lesser Depression? and near record unemployment, millions of Americans no longer have credit cards, bank accounts or debit cards to pay for their coffee and other inexpensive items. Are these millions of Americans to be considered potential terrorists according to the FBI because they paid cash for a cup of coffee or cheap store item? On the surface the new FBI merchant Flyer appears absurd: if one in 50 coffee shops reported a customer paying cash for a cup of coffee, an already under staffed FBI would be crushed responding to calls. The new FBI Flyer provided merchants fails as a propaganda vehicle because it is absurd to think in this economy small business owners are going to report customers paying cash for inexpensive items??as potential terrorists.? However looking below the surface, the FBI has done something "brilliant" here that even the East German Secret Stasi never thought of to develop an army of national informants. It took the Stasi two decades to build an army of neighborhood and other informants to spy for the communist government. The FBI flyers that ask merchants and businesses to inform, to report customers paying cash for something so small as a cup of coffee will (definitely attract Americans) that want to be government informants; the FBI won?t have to spend years like the Stasi Police coercing Citizens, shaking the bushes to find informants to build its U.S. network of American informants. The Stasi developed an army of several hundred thousand informants; neighbors spying on neighbors, workers reporting workers. It got to the point East German married couples were afraid to discuss things inside their home and would leave the house to talk. Is this the direction America is headed?

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"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened..." - Winston Churchill

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