Government is like a cancer…

in #freedom7 years ago (edited)

Very few people, even among government workers, have taken time to consider a precise definition of government. Governments get away with what they do because their true nature is obscured by propaganda. Most definitions describe “government” as the people in charge, but the foundation of control is always the threat of force. The authority claimed by governments is unique because it is considered license to use force or coercion against peaceful people. There is simply no way around it: government is control by force.


Government apologists claim it’s acceptable for a government to do something that an individual would never be allowed to do. This is why governments come up with special words to obscure what they’re really doing. War is mass murder. If an individual commits murder on their own, it is a crime and they should face consequences. But if an individual commits murder as part of a massive organized effort they might get a medal. Taxation is theft. If an individual kidnaps you for not giving them half your income, they go to jail. But if someone does that to you on behalf of government, they get a nice salary as a tax collector. No justification for these actions changes their fundamentally immoral nature. Nothing about the “divine right of kings,” the “will of the people,” or the “rule of law” has the power to justify an immoral act. Violent enforcers are essential to governments because without them, their threats would be meaningless.

To say that governments are premised on immorality is not to say everything they do is immoral. They often claim monopolies over very important functions in society, like helping the poor or protecting natural resources. The poor would be much better off and the environment would be much better protected if we did not entrust those functions to the same people who make war. Even when a government gives money to someone in need it must first steal that money from someone else. No noble act can excuse theft, as much as governments would like us to believe.

Government is fundamentally immoral because it is based on violating the rights of individuals. As much as we have progressed, it has not been because of governments but despite them. As free, beautiful, independent human beings, we own ourselves and should never let anyone tell us otherwise. We deserve self-rule. We deserve to be in charge of our own lives. No one has the right to control others by force, even if they claim to have the majority behind them.

It may be that in the course of society’s development, some control by force was inevitable. Out of weakness, we support some institutionalized violence only because we haven’t figured out a better way. We may have been convinced that government is a “necessary evil,” but because persuasion is always more powerful than coercion, it is inevitable that we will render it unnecessary.

Government is like a cancer. Less government is better than more government, just as less cancer is better than more cancer, but as long as it exists, it’s a threat. As long as society accepts the idea that force is the way to solve problems, the only limit on violence is what enforcers cannot be convinced to do. Government today could be described as a global tumor. While it can be eradicated locally, we will only be safe when it has been completely abolished.

Government is control. Government is exploitation. Government is a protection racket. Government is disorder, violence, and conflict! Government is an idea “so good” that it has to be forced on us. Government is a group of people claiming a monopoly on the initiation of force in a specific territory. Government is the institutionalization of our worst desires to control, dominate, and take advantage of others by force. Governments reflect our tolerance for oppression, and all we need to do to defeat them is demand self-government.

Chapter 1 Section II From FREEDOM! by Adam Kokesh

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I am the author of FREEDOM!, a book endorsed (I mean banned) by the US Department of “Justice.” You can get a copy here. I’m running for Not-President in 2020 on the platform of the peaceful, orderly, and responsible dissolution of the United States federal government. You can find out more here. I am currently on my #TaxationIsTheft tour! You can find an event near you here. Whoever has the top comment on this post after 24 hours can claim a free signed copy of FREEDOM! by sending me a message with their address.

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"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished, unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." - Voltaire

Still have to burn through this book. Been following your stuff since Iraq Vets Against The War.

It's only 100 pages long and there is an audio version too! Very easy.

I know right! I've been stuck reading long history book for my podcast.

Thanks for the support, let me know your thoughts when you get a chance to read it!

I belong to a culture of people who had no formal government for thousands of continuous years and yet managed to prosper and thrive. Just look at the wiki entry on Coast Salish people. There is no word for government in our sacred language. No word or even concept for tax. And yet one of the cardinal rules of the community was that everybody was taken care of and nobody would be hungry or go without clothing or shelter... no matter what -- A Siem (or high honored person) was the first to eat and the last to starve. So I respect immensely that you are trying to build a new culture where such constraints on freedom won't be happening. I am just very lacking in hope that it will happen. I watched a movie last night that seems to indicate where things are going "The Circle". In it, we are moving towards a system of voluntary total surveillance and total control. If we can't get people to give up smart-phones where the govt and it's organs can spy on you continuously, what hope is there for the kinds of reforms that freedom lovers would wish for? It just makes me unbearably depressed.

Excellent comment ! Thank You for the reminder !
Also just watched the Circle ... pretty much made me sick, but thats where were at now ...

Read More, Reason More ... JTS

OMG -- wasn't that movie THE WORST???? It really creeped me out. I thought it was going to be a cautionary tale... otherwise I would have bailed and not watched... but it was just straight-up propaganda for the Surveillance state!

agreed. to be honest I stopped watching at least 3 times .. i'm 56, i saw this coming so many years ago ... I read Orwell's 84 when I was 14, changed my life ... as a matter of fact I'm listening to Robert Heinlein audiobook .. Like me he damn sure is anti statist ... been reading him since about 10. Thanks for the comment btw ..just got back on steemit. Good Luck ! /bow

Read More, Reason More ... JTS

I was horrified but I kept thinking.... "she''s going to see the error of her ways... this is going to end well... this is all a big set up for her seeing how horrible she is becoming.... And I couldn't believe that even after her friend gets killed she is still a big fan of both the Surveillance State AND the LynchMob mentality that is being created by it... the only thing she cares about is that she''s the head of the lynchmob... Oh my word.. it made me quite ill. The first seriously challenging book I read was "Lord of the Flies" when I was in grade 2... I've always had a problem trusting crowds and mobs since then... The combination of total surveillance ALL the time and the e-lynchmobbing that is going on and is highlighted in that movie as a positive thing... just make me very afraid.

Read George Orwell 1984 ... I'm 56, I read that when I was 14 ... opened my eyes and changed my life .... Been into computers since i was 18, been an electronics since 21. .... so this movie just showed me what all the "Kids" are into, well, the SHEEP anyway .. I have been talking about this since I was very young ... it is ALL REAL and very scary INDEED and sickening !!!

HUGS well... you aren't alone. There are, I believe many people who feel like we do, but they are keeping their heads down, and not saying much... I can't live like that... but i know lots of people that have to for their job security and so on. :(

Wait, is The Circle a legit propaganda movie? I saw it, thought it was a satirical story... I pretty much just laughed at the peoples' sheep mentality through it all.
Anyways, I have hope for society -- in the long run. Short term, not so much. State's rise and fall, freedom (vice versa) with it. But those are States, society has come far. Slavery has been abolished, and peoples' acceptance of it as well. The mentality from the Viking age, that the strong should rule the weak is gone.
Society moves towards liberty.

I can see how you would see The circle as satire... these days, sometimes I have a very hard time telling the difference. I think it was supposed to be a movie about the benefits of all this hideous surveillance and how if you just have the right people in charge it's all wonderful... But you're right.. it was very confusing. It's almost as if there were 2-3 people who were in charge of the movie and who did not agree on the direction it should go. It was a confusing hot mess of a film if you ask me. I kept waiting for the main character (who was introduced to the audience as being very bright) was going to realize how awful the ideas she had were... I kept waiting for the lightbulb to go off, and for her to redeem herself. I thought when the black programmer dude spoke to her that they would eventually do something about the issue and try to turn things around. It was just plain weird.

I also really though the the main character would wake up. But after her friend was killed, in the last scene, she smiled at the damn drones! It was just straight up wired...

That is why it struck me as propaganda.... and not very good propaganda at that.

Well said! Sounds like you have a lot of good things to say.

Good luck in the next Not-election!

Thank you for your support!

Spot on. I'm hoping to see the day when government is gone.

Follow and support my campaign to make this happen! http://kokeshfornotpresident.com/

Yes very well said. And we all know the cure for this cancer, yet many don't use it because they have been told the cancer need big pharma dugs that cost a fortune :)

Thanks! And very true!

Hey Adam ! I just got back on steemit, glad to see you here ! Keep speaking the truth and spreading the word. Can't wait to read Freedom! Here is a link to share, wish more people would have read this back in the day, perhaps we wouldn't be in this statist society we are in. Orwell FTW !!! And one of my Faves "The Law" FRÉDÉRIC BASTIAT ....

https://mises.org/system/tdf/thelaw.pdf?file=1&type=document

Good Luck Bro ! Keep fighting the "Good" fight !

Read More, Reason More ... JTS

Thank you for your support!

If six people shared a house and two of those individuals decided to start enforcing how the others should live their lives, set limits on what chemicals they could put into their bodies and what words were allowed to leave their mouths the remaining 4 would be like 'fuck you'! It's only the threat of force like you mentioned or even violence that makes us adhere to governmental principles otherwise we'd be like those 4 hippy housemates and we'd be telling the government to go fuck themselves.

Well said!

KOKESH FOR NOT PRESIDENT!!!!

Thank you for your ongoing support!

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As Murray Rothbard explained, they are stationary bandits.
http://amzn.to/2flIODs

Governments are criminals gangs, charlatans and extortionists etc! To blindly obeying the law is one of the most evil thing you can do!

I agree with you! Except there is no way for a 300M population to live in harmony unless there is a centralized force to keep those as many perceptions in line through that use of force. That said, our founders had it right. The government should be 'limited'. Our problem now is that half the Nation believes government to be the solution to problems...sigh