No Revolution

I’ve received a few emails from folks wondering what it would take for people to figure out that the United States government is a police state. And, also, what it would take for people to look beyond it towards a different system. However, there are some things we must consider carefully here. For example, if we were to say that we wished to create a new country, are we not then making the very same mistake? Was this not how the United States government came into existence, after all?

Before anything can be done, we must examine where people are getting these ideas about government, to begin with. The idea that some fictitious concept is “better” than the rest of them around the globe is an illusion, after all. That is to say, the United States saying it’s the “greatest nation on Earth” is a dogma to which the American people cling in order to say this: “I know thus-and-so to be true.” True according to whom?! The United States government, of course, who told them that. Because if one carefully investigates the facts, a nation that has cities with vast numbers of people sleeping on the sidewalks cannot call itself “great”, save for its ability to extend military power. And destroy the planet should a military gambit fail and a “last ditch” threat is then required to make good on. Therefore, do we wish to re-create a system such as this? Of course not.

Again, the first thing that needs to be liberated is one’s own mind. As long as people are attached to this concept of “The United States”, nothing whatsoever can be accomplished except departing from said country or simply ignoring it as much as possible. People are attached to the dogmas that proliferate from the United States government because their own egos need to be able to say, again: “I know thus-and-so to be true.” That is, I know I am an American and live in the greatest nation on Earth. I know the United States military will win the war in Iraq. I know we will defeat terrorism. I know the War On Drugs can be won. However, none of these things are true. These are illusions the government creates to keep people imprisoned in the best concentration camp ever devised, which is their own minds.

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One cannot simply create a new State and economic system and suppose everything will just magically fall into place. After all, that is precisely what happened after the Russian Revolution that birthed the Soviet Union. They had high hopes for a totally new, never tried system that would ensure everything they dreamed of. But what happened was they dragged in all the same problems from Czarist Russia and added new deceptions and illusions and created a Potemkin Country where before existed Potemkin Villages. The very first thing that must occur is people need to shed concepts of a “State” where thus-and-so takes place and this-and-that is done for them, regardless of what those things are.

The concept of revolution itself is as follows: A man comes to a river and wishes to get across. Thus, he builds himself a raft and ferries himself across the river. But upon reaching the other shore, he says unto himself: “This raft has served me well. I have spent a great deal of time constructing it and this gives it value. It would be a waste to abandon it here on the shore. This is what I shall do! I shall now construct a cart with which to carry it along with me!” Can this man be called wise? Of course not. The whole mission was just to cross the river. But this man then turned it into a mission to preserve the raft he built to accomplish the mission which was only to cross the river! This is exactly the entire premise behind a revolution to install a new government.

In fact, the government itself is both the raft and the cart. They become not the means to an end, but the end of itself and unto itself. The entire time is spent preserving the raft and the cart and it is then forgotten what the reason to cross the river was in the first place. No? Consider this: The American Revolution took place to supposedly provide freedom from an authoritarian government that had oppressive taxes. But what has happened since? The United States government is far more authoritarian and has, even more, taxes than did the British government it replaced! We are carrying around the raft upon the cart and we have long since forgotten why we crossed the river in the first place.

Thus, were we to create a new government taking these ideas with us, we will simply make the same mistakes again. Why? Because one needs people that have abandoned the need to have a government that runs things and puts forth ideology and so forth. That is, once one has an ideology that needs a revolution, one has already lost that revolution. Because that ideology will become a government which then becomes a State and the State will then engage in the usual hypocrisies they all do. It is tempting to say if we only had thus-and-so take place, or this change of government, or this economic system, everything will become perfect. However, if one carefully investigates history, one can see it is littered with such utopian experiments that failed. We are living in one called the United States of America.

It requires personal effort, first and foremost. The concept of “State” must be abandoned. The concept of needing a government has to be abandoned. Because when one does not need a government, only then can a better community be possible. What? Yes, it is true. It is that people need a government that a government is able to control them and dole out freedom sparingly. If a government is not needed, in that people are clinging to it as an expression of their own ego, then a government has no ability to force unjust laws and taxes upon people. Americans cling stubbornly to the ego-self of “I am an American!” because they feel this ego-self can be extended to everyone else around the world. That an American is powerless against his own government does not occur to him. Instead, he makes the mistake of thinking forcing a different government on Syria demonstrates how much power he has.

So when we are talking about a new system, we must first sit down ourselves and begin by creating that within our own minds. We need to shed these illusions we have been taught by the government from early childhood on. We need to see these illusions for what they are: Carefully crafted deceptions and sleight-of-hand magic shows the government puts forth to entertain the masses. So long as people are entertained by endless wars, non-stop conflict, ego-self perpetuation by identifying it with the State, and mindless media images and false idols, no new community is possible. Sorry, but this is the reality. We live in a nation of people currently unable to see beyond the flashy images and loud music. These people still vote and believe it makes a “difference”, which is the ultimate illusion.

Hopeless? Not so. He who frees his own mind first cannot be imprisoned by any government. They can slander him, criticize him, call him a “bad American”, or even un-American and he simply does not care. Why? Because he is no longer attached to any of those concepts. He has no ego-self invested in the State which defines itself as “American” and needs no approval from the State to feel whole or complete. The State has nothing to offer him and, therefore, nothing by which he can be ultimately controlled. If this were not so, the government would not invest vast sums in propaganda and state-sponsored peer pressure efforts to keep the illusion up and running. The State does not fear a revolution. They have enough tanks and men to put one down and enough propaganda to cause the majority to cheer the revolutionaries stood against a wall and shot. What the State fears is being ignored. That is one thing tanks cannot defeat.

Of course, one cannot ignore the State when they tax you. Yes, this is so. But what if you were to define value to what is not the government’s currency? Yes, create an Underground Economy with its own barter system or precious metal buy-and-sell method. This is a topic for another day. But the way to stop the government is to first excise it from your own mind. That must come first.

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