Getting There

Column by Jim Davies, rejected by Lew Rockwell on August 19, 2019

Recently in LRC there's been a very welcome series of articles by Atilla Sulker about how a free society might be achieved in practice. I hope it doesn't oversimplify the core of his thinking to summarize it by saying that libertarians have to focus on education, so that when the inevitable collapse of government takes place, the people will ready and able to replace it by a free-market system. It reflects a similar idea held by Dr Ron Paul; I call it “Prepare for Collapse.”

Others have proposed forming a kind of “Galt's Gulch” or enclave for lovers of freedom, situated sometimes on an island, or on a floating city, etc. These do not aim to change America or the world as it stands, rather to escape from it; so whatever their merits I'll pass them by here.

Comparable is the Free State Project, in which libertarians are moving to New Hampshire with the aim of turning that into a free-market zone, to act as an example and magnet to the rest of the country.

There are other ideas. Joe Jarvis in the Daily Bell for instance has promoted secession; first terminate the Federal Government so as to revert to 50 separate ones which will compete for creative populations by offering low taxes and business incentives etc, with the result that the more-free ones will prosper more than the less-free states and so decrease the size of even state governments over time. Subsequently, cities and towns may secede from the 50 States, then neighborhoods and villages from counties, and so on until government takes place only within individual households.

In passing, I notice that for the first time ever, the LP may choose a nominee who proposes to terminate the Federal Government outright: Adam Kokesh. He promises, if elected, to complete what equals the first stage of that plan.

It's good that any plan be formed, examined, tested, tried out. Below, I'll describe another; but as a preamble, will state what any strategic plan, for any purpose, must have. These are the essential components; if any is missing, the proposed plan is not a true plan but a non-starter.

1. An ultimate objective must be very clearly stated and understood
2. Way points must be anticipated, if possible with measures and times
3. Resources required must be listed, along with sources
4. Dependencies and contingencies should be named as far as feasible

Those are all prerequisite for a plan. They do not guarantee success. Their absence, however, does guarantee failure. They will be out of date and in need of revision shortly after beginning to implement the plan; but without those elements, there is no plan.

I'll leave Atilla and Joe to show how well their ideas conform to those criteria, and describe a third one and show how well it fits them.

A Third Proposal

I call it the “TOLFA Plan”, though it can actually be used with any freedom school that may improve on that one – The On Line Freedom Academy, which is now largely off line on CDs and other media, but currently is still at tolfa.us .

It also emphasizes - and provides - liberty education, but does so in order to cause or trigger a government collapse, not in order to be ready for one that may or may not ever take place. Hence, that collapse is sure and its timing can be predicted.

The idea is for one person to learn freedom in some depth, enough to cause him to despise government as an immoral, un-natural and destructive entity, using that interactive Academy or anything better that someone may make available. That graduate then does two things, as a natural outcome: he or she resigns any government job he may hold, and finds and mentors one friend through the course. That person then does likewise. Hence, the set of people who know which way is up and who will not work for government doubles, every cycle; and the suggested cycle is once a year.

28 cycles completes the education of the entire adult US population and leaves the whole government sector with nobody to work for it. Job done.

Now let's run that plan against the criteria listed above._.

1. The objective is the complete termination of all government in America, as rapidly as possible

2. The way points are formed by an exponential growth; a doubling every cycle of non-candidates for government work, who are prepared to take responsibility for their own lives. It will begin to bite into government work-force needs after about 22 cycles, and then devastate them.

3. Needed resources are trivial; a CD or equivalent once per cycle, by each participating student. If (as I expect) the Academy web site is removed by enemy action, it will not matter at all.

4. During preparation and launch there were other contingencies, but those are now history. The big ones still remaining are (a) that each student will actually do the work, quit any government job he holds, and recruit one friend to do likewise, every cycle. This workload is very light, but vital. Appropriately, it leaves responsibility for success with plain folk who need and want it – not with some class of Libertarian Leaders or élite. Then (b) it's essential that during the two or three decades needed, there is no nuclear war or other government-caused disaster that destroys humanity; but that is common to any possible plan.

That's it; rather simple, and fully effective. My free e-book Transition to Liberty imagines how it will progress, and what measures government will take against it – and fail. There is no “head” which hostile government action could cut off; it's 100% decentralized and hence, not vulnerable. It's ready now for immediate use – go to tolfa.us and download the course and then copy it to those you introduce.

It is based, of course, on the genius of Etienne de la Boëtie: the withdrawal of support from the tyrant. All it adds is the particular type of support to be withdrawn; not just votes, or money, because he can manage without those; rather it withdraws labor, upon which he totally depends. Government, in fact, consists only of those working for it. Take them away, it ceases to exist.