Since this whole concept of modern democracy started about 200 years -or so- ago, we have seen an increasingly relentless curtailment of our freedoms by governments. Essentially, you don't have any more of them. Your freedom is completely gone. This is true even when new governments are formed through revolutions. It would seem that nowadays governments come with pre-packaged freedom-busting implementation kits. Take a look at the places that have recently (and not so recently) undergone revolutions (you can find a convenient list in Wikipedia searching for "List of revolutions and rebellions") and you will find that the goal of all politicians in those places is to achieve a "modern state" (whatever that may mean). It used to be that democracy, particularly after a revolution, was a Do-It-Yourself affair. The thinking was: "we just got rid of their laws and now we are going to do it our way". Well… those days are over. The current thinking is "we just got rid of their laws, now we are going to repurpose them". In these terms, revolutions are meaningless since people are replacing one type of tyranny for another, usually more subtle but equally (if not more) dangerous. Why maintain an army of terror police (state security) and physical prisons (concentration camps) if brainwashing and creating mental jails is so much more economically productive and efficient. Armies and camps are exceedingly expensive; if you don't believe us, just ask the KGB or the Nazis. Even they had to extract as much economic value from the unfortunate slaves they submitted in order to pay for the infrastructure and employee salaries. In ultimate analysis what modern governments want is docile slaves. Slaves that are self-sufficient. Slaves that create wealth for the state without complaining. Slaves that can take all kinds of economic abuse. In a word, slaves that can be trusted to pay their taxes in full an on time.
People believe that freedom is defined by what you can do without having to ask permission to do it or without being sanctioned for it. This is part of the story, yes, but this is not the whole story. At its most profound level, freedom means:
Being unbound from artificial and externally imposed limitations
In this sense, you are indeed a slave.
Think of it like this.
If your only choices are A or B just because the government says so, those are not real choices. What about C or D or F or QQ or F1T? Why not those? Ahhh… well… you can't have those. The government say so. You are not free to choose. Your choices have been artificially restricted.
This process is very serious indeed. Consider the following.
Every single product, anywhere in the planet, whether legal or illegal is regulated or has raw materials or components that have somehow been regulated at one point in their manufacturing process (see for example You The Slave ). The same goes for services. There isn't a single service on earth, anywhere on the planet that can be performed or received without being regulated or interacting with some sort of regulation.
Of course you don't believe us. That's fair. Do perform the following experiment: pick a service, any service, and you will quickly realize that those services are regulated by labour laws. Pick a product, any product, and you will quickly realize that those products are regulated by environmental laws. And this is just from a cursory investigation. As you dig deepen you will find a universe of laws, rules and regulations that apply to everything. Even the air you breathe. There are labour laws, industrial laws, health and safety laws, union laws, special interest groups laws, treaty-derived laws, medical laws, biological laws, judicially-derived quasi-laws (precedents), decrees, regulations, by-laws, edicts and so on. The list is endless. Of course, many of those laws are obsolete, ineffective or simply ignored. This could not be otherwise, yet, this does not mean they are not in the books; they are still there.
Yet, somehow this did not happen 200 or so years back. Why? What are the reasons for us to need these laws now if we did not need them 200 years ago? Some people say that it is technological evolution, but this is not true. Consider than 200 or so years back they also had their technological evolution yet, they did not have equivalently curtailing laws. They felt that it was up to every person to decide if things were OK or not.
Other people say that things are now more complicated. This is also horse manure. When was the last time in history when things got simpler? Never! Yet 200 or so years ago they did not had laws controlling everybody's behaviour even considering that by their standards, their time was also "more complicated" than before. They did not feel the need to restrict complication. They believed that was up to everybody to un-complicate matters.
Yet other people say that there is more danger today than before. However, the mortality rate (excluding war) has been decreasing steadily over time, particularly since 200 years ago (you can see a neat graph in Wikipedia searching for "Life expectancy"). Where is this "growing" danger? If anything we should be less monitored today than ever before. 200+ years ago no politician would have even though in intercepting, reading, copying, analyzing and classifying mail… yet today electronic surveillance is at all times high (see for example They Want Everything ).
All these attacks to our freedom must be countered by a new morality, something that enables us to survive until political evolution comes. You can see the new precepts of this new morality in the picture at the top of our article. Just in case, we will list them again:
- Misbehave
- Have a good time
- Remove all evidence
- Deny everything!
But why? Why would we advocate this? Simple. These were our freedoms before the onslaught started 200+ years ago. They are still our rights. It is up to us to enforce them anyway we can. We can't fight the system, this is impossible. But we can go around it and we should. This strategy is nothing but common warfare tactics. It is also the way of the future (see for example When Countries Dissolve).
It is critical to remember that we do not owe our restrictions in freedom to society (at least not as implied by politicians - see Dont Talk To Us About Society ) As a matter of fact, we don't owe these restrictions to anyone, least at all politicians. These imposed and artificial curtailments are not "for our own good" because we, the people, one by one, are the only ones that can determine what is "good" or "bad" for each one of us, one at the time. It used to be this way and eventually it will become this way again. Meanwhile, we must enjoy our life anyway we can… which in ultimate analysis is all we have before death catches up with us.
You, of course, have the right to think otherwise. We fully recognize your right to do so and the freedom to exercise it… unlike governments who do not (see for example Freedom Of Speech Is A Figment Of Your Imagination if you have any doubts).
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
