A must hear talk by Lysander Spooner (read by Matt Prichard) on giving up your autonomy to the criminals during voting season. Spooner's article was written circa 1867.
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32 comments for “BEFORE YOU VOTE: “No Treason. The Constitution of No Authority” – by Lysander Spooner”
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Spooner takes on the idea of a perpetual social contract and IMO crushes it. Thanks Jan for posting this on this day. Emma Goldman said, “if voting changed anything, it would be illegal” and I see nothing to disprove her conclusion.
Thank you Jan, I reposted on my FB page.
I’m delighted to say, not being a follower of “the news,” that I had forgotten all about the US election until this GM episode appeared today.
I had forgotten until this AM when I saw an email. I had listened to this talk yesterday and thought, well shit! Better get something out. I haven’t watched TV in years. We do watch movies, but never tv.
Same here. We watch some movies but tv is a no no.
Most movies ARE tv, insofar as they transmit the ruling intellectual fashions and political correctness.
Admittedly I may have missed this info, but, when (what year)was this treatise written?
I just looked it up, 1867. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Treason
Listening to it I thought it was much more recent.
It says at the beginning that it was read by someone else.
Thanks Sarah 🙂
If the 47% of Americans that didn’t vote, voted in someone that knows the steps to remove government. And not have full fledged corporatism ie Anarcho Capitalism. Then the votes would be priceless. But instead we have these tools wishing to silence the people by asking them not to vote. They are the ones that put Obama in office.
Did you listen to this talk, and to the 4 Larken Rose talks, before you started name calling?
Sure did. I thought my mentioning anarcho capitalism would have been the clue that I have, but I guess not.
If the 47% of Americans that didn’t vote started working towards the actual solutions to the problems inherent in the vacuum created by the need for government, their lack of voting would be meaningless, because they wouldn’t be looking for an outside source to solve their problems. And if the 53% of American who did vote, instead decided to pop Uncle Sam’s teat from their mouth and work locally to bring about the change they wanted to see, we could all get up from the sandbox and say hello to a world of possibilities.
Simply dragging one’s lazy ass off to push a button every few years like a caged rabbit waiting for its food pellet will merely perpetuate the root problem. Voting is like the fast food of accountability and personal integrity. Bringing about real change starts with oneself, and any permutations from that original event depend entirely upon the integrity of that original source. If you want change, you have to become that change; embody it; exemplify it.
From Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle, Chapter 3:
“The sham spectacular struggles between rival forms of separate power are at the same time real, in that they express the system’s uneven and conflictual development and the more or less contradictory interests of the classes or sections of classes that accept that system and strive to carve out a role for themselves within it. Just as the development of the most advanced economies involves clashes between different priorities, totalitarian state-bureaucratic forms of economic management and countries under colonialism or semicolonialism also exhibit highly divergent types of production and power. By invoking any number of different criteria, the spectacle can present these oppositions as totally distinct social systems. But in reality they are nothing but particular sectors whose fundamental essence lies in the global system that contains them, the single movement that has turned the whole planet into its field of operation: capitalism.”
The problem with the “lazy asses” (anarchist) is they have no step one. They’re all talk, and although ideas begin to become a reality with talk first, these old theories new comers like Rose have latched onto, anarcho capitalism, are extremely flawed.
Step one in removing government is to become government. ie a true democracy. Once a people can get it in their heads that they can govern themselves. we can begin to ween people off of government. This will not happen in our lifetime. It’s hard to get people to listen. they want it all, or nothing. And so they get it all, this system, by doing nothing.
And yet, the Constitution has no authority..
definatly worth digging up a little A Ralph Epperson to go along with the Constitution of No Authority–
–“Congress shall rule in ALL cases ,whatsoever.”
Actually , that the Constitution does NOT have MY name on it should be my first logical clue there.
Trying to get the common man to see the legal twighlight language in the document is risky, you will be called a Commie, terrorist, or a hater of freedom….little do they know!
Little do they know!!!
Like it or not this system is set up to be changed. The constitution can be amended. Laws, for the most part, come about from public outcry. Whether you like it or not the constitution/bill of rights does give you rights, it is 100% legal, and it’s authority is defined by the supreme court.
But what I am telling you do nothing “lazy asses” is you’re never going to change anything when you continue to make sure the career elitist politicians stay on office. YOU put Obama in office. YOU DID, along with the rest of the insane people that bitch and moan and do nothing at all about it. Worst of all, you wish to silence the people, you are being mind controlled to promote the elitist agenda by begging people to keep silent and not vote. A republic is code for the elitist must always rule you. A democracy is something no country in the world has ever had. A true democracy is the people governing themselves within the constitution/bill of rights so that no “mob rule” can infringe on the rights of an individual. We the people are not out to take our own rights away. The mob is in the white house and they are breaking the rules. You put them there by doing nothing about it.
You dont have the first clue about what Democracy is, what it means and how it really effects you.
Can you define Democracy? Not what you THINK it means–what it really means.
just asking….
oh, and you can predict the future too?
Of amounts to the non-agression principal. If someone or something uses violence to force anything against my volition on me, then it is immoral. I mean really, is it that hard to see the fact that the government has a monopoly on violence? Do you know of anyone else in the world that can legally murder? It would be sad of you really believe that we all should be threatened with violence in order to be robbed of what we earn, to be allowed to live where we were born. Sounds like being born into slavery to me. Enjoy your “slave suggestion box” every four years.
Never say clearly in a sentence or two what can be inflated to an obscure page, and half that borrowed..
Do you think that the people voted/vote in the president? If you do then, go back and read the constitution because that is unconstitutional/wrong.
Jan,
Thank you for posting this. I went to vote on Tuesday, after struggling with what I know is worse than a scam, it’s a trick intended to give up individual sovereignty. My intent was to vote against all of the issues that were to amend the Michigan constitution, and/or steal more liberty. Then, I broke down and voted against the incumbent deceiver and chief. I did this knowing full-well that Michigan would go with whatever Democrats were listed!
Deprogramming oneself is a life long process. I will recommit myself to being an Individual.
We carry on…
Ted
“Deprogramming oneself is a life long process.”
It takes a moment of clarity. Oh, wait.. it might take YOU a lifetime.
Ted, didnt you have anything better to do?
Evidently not, if being adulated by the shut-ins in the T&H chatroom or writing fantasies about hanging out with Jesus are the alternative.
Robert42,
Please supply your last name. You and I need to meet and “talk.”
Ted
Volunteerism opens the door for all types of prejudices.
Exactly how so, Lily? How does the current system not entirely based on violence and crime? If you’re going to make a statement, at least back it. Making a statement with ZERO substantiation means absolutely nothing. Hopefully you listened to this entire talk and the 4 part with Larken Rose before you commented.
1. I’ve listened to all of your podcasts, read all of your written posts, and watch all videos posted on here as well. I’ve also listened to Rose else where many times.
2. I wasn’t talking about the current system.
3. The US has a history of voluntarism not working. For an example in NY those that donated to the fire department got a sign to put in their window that they donated, and they received top priority. A lot of people died as a result.
If a volunteer doesn’t want to treat blacks, or poor people, the same, they don’t have to.
In the small minority view of the fantasy called anarchism, this small minority that wishes to force it’s view onto the majority that do not want it, the view opens the flood gates for all types of prejudices to thrive. One doesn’t have to be a brain surgeon to understand that. I realize anarchism has gained popularity recently. and many are jumping on that bandwagon of group think. But you need to stop, and try and think long term, without a blatant disregard for history, and likelihood. This idea that capitalism should be unrestrained. Is total slavery to big business. The fact that trade goes unbalanced, is a debt and central bank creator. The group think you sub to, is actually fighting for what it think’s it’s against. It’s quite sad how critical thinking is not being applied.
What are your thoughts on Henry George?