“Random political acts produce random political results. Why waste even a rock?” — Abbie Hoffman<\/i><\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
In comments yesterday, a reader noted that he had the habit of lifting the digitus impudicus<\/i> every time he saw a cop car.<\/p>\n
Not meaning to pick on you, faithful commenter, but you raise something else along with that middle finger — the issue of useful (and non useful) actions on behalf of liberty.<\/p>\n
Raise a finger and what do you get? A cop who thinks you’re an ass***e and who’ll remember that should you ever run afoul of him. Are you more free because you give the one-finger salute to Officer Unfriendly? Do you help end police abuses? Do you de-legitimize the state? Nope.<\/p>\n
On the contrary, you are saluting the power the state has over your mind.<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
But this isn’t about one rare guy who chooses to salute the state. <\/p>\n
Life’s too short to waste time on gestures — or thoughts<\/i> — toward the state that don’t serve to liberate us from its grasp.<\/p>\n
Only one guy hereabouts might be raising a finger to the cops. Others might tsk tsk at him. Yet as we shake our heads, we (and I really do mean “we,” being as prone to this as anybody else) are giving the state and its mythical power more credence and more respect than it merits.<\/p>\n
The emails fly fast & furious: Oh, horrors, the fedgov has some new technology that’s going to read our minds! Or if we don’t vote for so-and-so we’re going to lose our gun rights! Or some horrific new regulation might forbid us from painting our house green or having more than six cats or scavenging scrap metal.<\/i> Whatever …<\/p>\n
It’s natural … absolutely natural and a key step toward our self-liberation to be alarmed & furious when we discover that The Government Is Not Our Friend. And it’s absolutely natural after that to spend some time OMG!ing<\/i> over every new revelation of government excess or overreach.<\/p>\n
But that’s a phase<\/i>. It’s a kind of adolescence of freedomista thought.<\/p>\n
How many people just get stuck there? Get stuck in a perpetual tizzy of fear, disgust, or rage? So off we go to a blog or a forum or a Facebook page and shout and pound our fists — or raise a metaphoric digitus impudicus<\/i> toward Our Eeeevil Overlords. And we neglect to move on to the next step, which is detaching ourselves from the state and refusing to honor the state even with our thoughts.<\/p>\n
Is all that fear and fist-pounding any more useful than raising The Big Finger toward cop cars? <\/p>\n
Nope. Just a more grownup — but less gutsy — salute to state power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Random political acts produce random political results. Why waste even a rock?” — Abbie Hoffman —– In comments yesterday, a reader noted that he had the habit of lifting the digitus impudicus every time he saw a cop car. Not meaning to pick on you, faithful commenter, but you raise something else along with that middle finger — the issue of useful (and non useful) actions on behalf of liberty. Raise a finger and what do you get? A cop who thinks you’re an ass***e and who’ll remember that should you ever run afoul of him. Are you more free…<\/p>\n