Hello SOLO, its been awhile (yet again). I wish I could say things here in The United Police States haven't gone as poorly as I expected for liberty since the last time I waxed prophetic on the subject some six years ago, but alas, my dire predictions have largely come to pass. Everything which has happened here in the once-land-of-the-free has lived down to my expectations, and my observations of the overarching, net effect trend over all that has happened in the United Police States since I have been of voting age confirm the dramatic decline of individual liberty. First and foremost, a steady decline into the (now no longer) satirical nickname I've given this country of my birth, that is, Police Statism, in all its horrific mutations, and its violent by-products ripping apart already economically vulnerable communities under prohibition. Second, the surprisingly slow (at first) but no less sure "replacement" of the otherwise legitimate external (always with the possibility of internal) threat from communist totalitarianism to Islamic statism. Third, the absolutely brutal effect of now over 100 years of centralized banking combined with centralized education on the general working population, exacerbated by punishing productivity directly through income taxation and indirectly by several hidden taxes varying state by state. Fourth, a culture navigated directly by modern media into being at war with its individual components and arbitrarily defined "groups" instead of the central government and central banking system which collectively has so obviously failed in their alleged purposes for the betterment of the citizenry. I have many other disturbing observations as I have watched my country slowly sink like the Titanic, but these are the four I am prone to mention now.
To elaborate, Police Statism is on a drastic incline, as if law enforcement wasn't already a brutally abusive, corrupt, and yes, I'll say it, racist practice to begin with. Without even getting into the fear of terrorist attacks, which while grounded in reality, create a whole new set of excuses for police overreach, what I see now is the fruits of over 40 years of Nixon-inspired drug warring tearing apart the weakest parts of society, and among many other evils, reinforcing the opportunism of left wing pundits and race baiters. Right wing pundits are quick to defend "rare" instances of "white" cop on unarmed "black" violence (oh for the days when we leave the primitivist notion of race behind us altogether) by deflecting onto "black on black" violence, as if that violence emerged out of nowhere instead of as an extension of a *deliberately* failed policy of drug prohibition. Not twenty miles from where I live, police officers "raided" a cannabis dispensary only to be caught on camera eating the "confiscated" wares. That is only one of hundreds of recent examples from the last few years of overt corruption (don't get me started on the recent "submarine" where 40 million pounds of confiscated cocaine was "lost" by the American Coast Guard) and hypocrisy such as New Jersey's lovely Chris Christie making statements about drug users lack of self control while two Tony Soprano's could fit inside a single one of his suits. Individual rights, the American Bill of Rights, and common sense have vanished from American law enforcement.
The United States has almost always had a legitimate threat. Totalitarian Fascism was a real threat as it cut across Europe and the Pacific; America was surely next. Totalitarian Communism was was a real threat, cutting across the globe in an orgy of self-destructiveness which while doomed to fail, left a large trail of dead bodies in its wake. Islam (and I mean the 15-25% active jihadis pursuing the literal word of the Koran violently as well as the 75-85% peaceful, generally-but-not-always silent, possibly intimidated, undoubtedly irrelevant Muslims) is a legitimate threat, and conveniently replaces the previous two of the last century. While I have no doubt the threat posed by Islam is absolutely real, I can't help but notice how its prominence and effectiveness against America seems orchestrated. Don't get me wrong: Islam can and should be dealt with *extreme prejudice* due to the simply stated and non-refuted or re-interpret *requirements* presented in the Koran. But I am absolutely convinced the political opportunism created by this otherwise legitimate threat will be used against *anyone* the American government arbitrarily defines as a "threat" which will likely include all who are critical. While I am alarmed by the real threat of Islam, and support at least constant surveillance of *all* Muslims (a project big enough to make even the most avid statist happy), I am equally if not more alarmed at what little will be left of individual liberty when the threat is alleviated. I am as suspicious of my government as I am of the more obvious threat of Islam.
Centralized banking, with its boom and bust cycles, and income taxation, has brought the American middle class (myself included) to its knees. This observation hits so close to home I will end up writing the least about it. Smashing the Federal Reserve and the IRS utterly, completely and irreversibly can't happen soon enough. Not only am I personally enraged at these two particular institutions, I would so enjoy bitch slapping the minimum wage advocates and their apply-leeches-to-the-bleeding approach with a "there, now your income is two to four times more valuable, and you get to keep all of it, now shut the hell up!" statement once and for all.
The culture wars and the tribal collectivism is another observation driving me berserk. The gay marriage thing. States rights issue? Did the Supreme Court have the right to override State law? And did anyone notice how a trade agreement which will ruin America even more than it already is over time was passed earlier that same week that the White House was lit up in rainbow colors? Okay here is my take on the Supreme Court decision: individual rights trump state rights trump federal rights. Marriage is, religion aside, a *contract* between two individuals. Neither the state government nor the federal government should have the right to interfere with a voluntary contractual agreement between two consenting adults. The only time the federal government should have the right to supersede state government is when individual rights are being violated by the state government. However this evolves or gets interpreted or enforced over time, we will see, but so far, so good as far as I can tell. What isn't so good is the no doubt deliberate timing of the decision, which overshadowed the dubious TPP agreement. Interesting to note, the political activism guru which is the author of Obama's political playbook, Sal Alinsky, talks a great deal about deliberate distraction. So does Machiavelli.
There is a lot more which disturbs me which I have not even touched on regarding this once great land of mine. A little observation on myself now: I see my "grand observations" on the sad state of affairs in the country of my birth have taken on the form of 6 year cycles. I emerged from University cured form left-anarchism, and most of the way from anarchism, in 1992, and applied my youthful energy into Libertarian activism. For six solid years, I not only "acted locally" (pushing grass roots activism in my then-home of Huntington Beach, California and throughout the locality of then-not-as-infamous Orange County), but I "thought globally" having picked up on the bold LibertariaNZ Party forming in amazing New Zealand. I sought out an active exchange of information and of mutual reporting. After six years of devoted activism, I took a solid six years off to make an attempt at a normal, non-activist life, and the exchange of updates slowed into nothing.
I came back to discover the Sense of Life Objectivists, and dabbled a bit for about another six years having this new forum for commentary as well exchange of information and ideas, and allowed myself to settle comfortably into the more appropriate for my age "slacktivism" - until I dropped off again about six years ago, only to resurface now. I'm not planning on dropping away in six years time (assuming I'm not locked up in a FEMA camp somewhere) but I am going to try and pace myself a bit. More to come. Eventually.