Liberty For All

by Larken Rose

Authoritarianism is so deeply ingrained in people that those who perpetrate evil in the name of “authority” often get indignant when you resist what they do, even if only with words. As long as the automatons are “doing their jobs,” they think they have the right to be spared any inconvenience, or even any criticism.

I, on the other hand, think it’s very important for the perpetrators of evil to feel the displeasure and/or animosity of their intended victims, even when the victims “comply” with authoritarian commands. Most evil is committed out of mere OBEDIENCE, instead of out of malice, and it takes a LOT of pressure to make people go against their obedience to authority.

Some people choose rather dramatic means of resisting. Here’s one example.

While I don’t advocate that people do such things, I certainly don’t condemn those who do, either. Most people have enough to lose that they don’t want to engage in civil disobedience (which, by definition, is “illegal,” and exposes people to significant retaliation by the control freaks).

But even if, like me, you “cooperate” with a certain level of injustice for your own safety and (relative) freedom, don’t ever give the oppressors the “sanction of the victim,” as Ayn Rand called it. In other words, no matter what you go along with yourself to avoid trouble, don’t ever talk as if the OPPRESSORS are in the right, and their VICTIMS are in the wrong. Whether it’s a power-happy beat cop, an IRS bureaucrat, or any other person who imagines himself to have the right to forcible control you when you haven’t committed force or fraud, be sure to politely remind them that what they are doing is evil, and that “just doing their job” doesn’t make it okay.

Because of how we’re all trained, like dogs, to grovel at the foot of every supposed “authority,” however, this is often a difficult thing to do. During my stay as a political prisoner, one guy I was in with was amazingly eager and willing to repeatedly, yet politely, tell various BOP “guards” (who didn’t actually “guard” anything, since it was a minimum security prison “camp”) that they are nothing but unthinking pawns of an oppressive regime. It was fun watching their reactions, which often took the form of existential insecurity under a flimsy veil of pretended self- righteousness. Authoritarians like to imagine themselves as the good guys, but somewhere down inside a part of them knows it isn’t true. I think those of us who actually believe in freedom should take every opportunity to remind the agents of evil that they aren’t the good guys. In other words, even when you must bow to the demands of tyrants as a matter of self-preservation, be sure to convey the message of: “I will do as you say because you have the ability to lock me up or kill me if I don’t. I don’t do what you say because your commands are justified. They aren’t.”

In short, don’t ever give your sanction and blessing to your own subjugation and victimization, even when you “comply.”

Find out more about Larken Rose at http://www.larkenrose.com