Do You Know the Way to...Liberty?

            STR Column by Jim Davies, published on December 02, 2004

I doubt it. Happily, there's now no shortage of great Internet sites and books where one can salivate over the delights of a free society and bemoan the results of government infestation; but so far I haven't noticed a credible proposal for getting from the latter to the former in practice. A Zero-Government Society (ZGS) remains a dream; and like the vulture in a drought who said to his mate "I'm so hungry I could go KILL someone," I figured to do something about it. Before I shed this mortal coil, I want to taste a ZGS for real. 

So I've done it; prepared a practical how-to plan, that is. It now needs your input, your critique, before the named components are prepared and ready for action. I want to know what's missing, what's puzzling, what's wrong. So I hope, dear Reader, that you'll take a little time now and offer your thoughts. 

This article is a summary; a more detailed (2,500 word) version can be studied here, and it has a feedback form. 

The Plan's name might be "Liberty in Our Lifetime" or, more intriguing and more descriptive, "1 by 1, by 2027," but the essence is to Educate and Replicate. Let me explain. 

I am convinced that every human being has the ability to reason; that all are in that sense rational. It seems self-evident; animals work on hard-wired instinct, we work on brain-power. It's a distinguishing characteristic of homo sapiens. 

I am also convinced (how about you?) that, reasoning from first principles, there is no rational alternative to the free market, i.e., a ZGS. 

Therefore, it must follow that if the nature of a ZGS is explained well and patiently enough, every person considering it must eventually conclude that we are right. Therefore, it must be possible to scrape off the rust deposited by eight generations of government schooling and turn everyone--yes, everyone--into an eager market anarchist. All that remains is to show how. 

The method I propose is one-by-one replication, boosted by an interactive learning facility. 

Test it this way: Motivated as you are, would it seem feasible for you to identify ONE friend and during the next 12 months with the major assistance of an online, interactive School of Liberty, bring him or her to a good understanding of the free market and to a commitment to do in the following year for one of his friends what you are now doing for him? 

Please assume that that online School exists, and is powerful stuff and will do nearly all the teaching work for you. Your role would be just to motivate your friend to start, and then to monitor progress and perhaps deal with some questions along the way. Then do it again the following year, and again in each following year. 

Feasible? I suggest it certainly is. 

By the magic of compound arithmetic (100 x 2*22), if 100 of us started doing that in mid-2005, the whole US population would consist of well-trained anarchist teachers by the year 2027. Hence the name option above: 1 by 1, by 2027.

Notice three distinctive features, not previously seen: 

1. Everyone, not just "opinion leaders," is to be enlightened. No doubt, that will be a tough job with the hard core of government junkies; but remember that every human is rational at root, and that attitudes will change with time. There is a 23-year period involved here, and today's hard case will be less resistant when, two decades hence, he finds a sizeable fraction of his colleagues and neighbors telling him they no longer believe in government. He may even sense the coming collapse and want to prepare a parachute. 

2. No action whatever will be asked of those who graduate from the School--except to replicate themselves once a year, as explained above. No political activism. No tax resistance. No sabotage. No violence. No emigration to the South Pole or to Outer Space. Nothing that each might not be inclined to do anyway. He will just be asked to live a normal life, to be patient, to study some more, to salivate for a free society pretty well exactly as we do here today on this web site and elsewhere, and to enjoy the anticipation of seeing it happen by 2027, well within the lifetimes of most who are reading this. The Plan would create 200-300 million "sleepers," awaiting completion. 

3. Once the complete population understands and desires a ZGS, those of its members then working in some way for the government will simply walk away, like John Galt, and tell the boss to shove it - if the boss hasn't already quit, himself. Government will then evaporate like flatulence in the wind, for nobody will remain to work for it.

Don't know about you, but that doesn't seem to me too hard. Re-educating someone isn't easy, but one a year for a maximum of 23 years seems achievable. What do you think? 

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