PRELUDE (FOR STEEMIT READERS ONLY)

I wrote this some time ago with the intentions of expanding upon it and eventually publishing it on Amazon.com as an E-book for sale. It has just been sitting in my google docs account collecting dust

As a relatively new member to Steemit, I figured I would put this on here for free because I think this is too important to be sitting in a unpublished document. I put a lot of my heart into the creation of this document (I call it a book) and I hope that it is received in the way I intend it to be.

As a secondary but no less important purpose for my posting this book, I hope to receive constructive criticism. In a way I am presenting this book to Steemit for peer review. If it is accepted well I will probably continue working on this. But as of right now this book only exists in this "rough draft" form.

This post may be a little long for a steemit blog post, I considered splitting it up into multiple sections. If this particular post is not well received I will probably split it into smaller sections and release one at a time, until then please enjoy my hard work, and thank you so much for reading.

If you find this content worthwhile, please don't forget to upvote this post, leave a comment, and also follow me.

America:

A libertarian perspective, and a declaration of peace and innovation.

Introduction

I write this book, not to re-define the United States of America. I write this book however with the hope of un-defining it a little bit. I believe that this place that we call America is on the brink of a very pivotal time. I also believe that “WE” ( the people who live in this place) are at some point in the near future, likely going to have to make some tough choices, and are at risk of entering into some rather tough circumstances.
I do not intend this book to be political, however, many may interpret it to be as such. I do not intend to try to persuade people from one type of thinking to another, or from one party to another. This is not about left and right or blue and red. This book is simply meant to inspire hope, and ideas of peace and freedom.
Many of the ideas in this book do not live in the past, they exist in the future. I believe that the future is only what we make of it, and that if enough people are having the right conversations that our future can be one of prosperity, freedom, and success.
This is the way that I see things, and I hope that reading my thoughts will inspire a conversation in your life.

What is America?

I have spent a good deal of time now asking people everywhere I go, What is America? Many people have a hard time answering the question because they have never actually thought about it.
Is America a government? Is it an organization of people who collect taxes and administer laws?
Is America a geographical location? Does it exist as a space between arbitrarily set boundaries set up by men at war?
Is it a tribe?
A culture?
Is america even definable?
What is America to you, when you hear the word America what do you actually think of?
I think that this is a very important question. Many people call themselves patriots, and say that they love America, however I believe that when pressed, many of these people would have a hard time telling you what it is that they actually love.
Take a minute and think about it for yourself, and I will tell you the conclusion that I have come to.
I believe that America, at its core, is an idea. I believe that it is an idea that emcompasses liberty, freedome, justice, peace, and hope for the future. But really it is an idea that cannot be simply defined as I just did, because it is an idea that lives in the hearts of every person brave enough to stand up for it, and does not mean the same thing for all of those people.
America should be simply the antithesis of tyranny. It should be a place that is simply defined by its greatness. It should be a place where every person is free from slavery and oppressive violence. Where people do not have to live in constant fear of powerful forces threatening their lives and their families. America should be a place of kindness and love, and by this standard my friend I would contend that right now, at the time that I am writing this book, we do not live in America.

A power hungry government.

The problem is that this America has slowly been taken over by powerful people, seeking more power. Who these people are doesn’t even really matter. Is there a secret organization slowly plotting to take over the world? Maybe, but I don’t care and neither should you. Because the fact of the matter is, whoever these people are, weather they are just everyday people elected into powerful positions and then corrupted by that same power, or an elite group hiding in the shadows, the only way that they actually obtain any power is because we give it to them.
The United States Government, as it exists today is probably one of the most wicked coercive and violent forces in existence.
Yes, it may not actually be the most tyrannical, but that is not because they don’t want it to be. It is only because we have not relinquished the rest of our power to them yet.
Power always corrupts and the more power that we relinquish, the more the people in power are going to want, simply because that is the nature of being in power.
There is no such thing as a government that decides to shrink itself. As long as we continue to relinquish our freedoms to these people they will continue to take and the more they take, the further we get away from the real Idea that is supposed to be America.

Questions of Morality.

I say that this is not a political book, because I do not wish to examine ideas of “politics” with parties, elections, and polarized stances on specific emotional topics. I wish to instead talk about some of the ideas of governance themselves and the system that those ideas exists in today.
I think that in order to examine these things we must look at them from a standpoint of morality, which can be difficult because we all might have a slightly different opinion of what is moral and what is not. But I think it gets much simpler when we draw things out to their ultimate conclusions.
When I think of morality I am reminded of a beach that we used to go to when I was a child. It was a beach in Dana Point California, close to my grandmother's house, and we used to like to go there because it was a nature reserve. The whole beach was covered with interesting rocks and seashells. It was the kind of beach that you couldn’t really walk on barefoot because the whole ground was nothing but large rocks and shells. There were also interesting caves and coves to explore on the rock faced cliff that stood tall over the ocean front. My sisters and I always enjoyed finding the most interesting shells and collecting them to look at and show each other. I always wanted to take some of our findings home but my mom told me that we couldn’t take them home because if everyone who went there took some home then there wouldn’t be any interesting rocks and shells left for other people to look at.
As a child I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that all of those rocks, seemingly without end, could be hauled off of that beach one at a time by people who came to look at them. I was blinded by short sightedness in my desire to keep the treasures that I had found and would get very upset that I couldn’t take any home.
I think that in this same way most of us become short sighted when it comes to ideas of morality. When you look at the whole beach covered in rocks you think, what could be the harm of just taking one? There must not be anything morally wrong with taking one rock so I think I will just slip it in my pocket. But with ideas of morality you must take things to their ultimate conclusion. What if there was only one rock left on the whole beach and you took it and put it in your pocket to take home? Obviously that would be a terrible thing to do, there would then not even be one beautiful stone for people to see as they visited the beach, and it sure wouldn’t be much of a nature reserve anymore.
Now I know that this analogy is very simple, and it is simple on purpose. I just want to illuminate the fact that in order to look at things from a standpoint of morality, you must take things to their ultimate conclusion. I will be drawing some harsh conclusions in this book and I would like you to try to look at my conclusions with this analogy in mind. At any actions ultimate conclusion, what is the result?

Just a means to an end.

I would like to just take a brief time here to also talk about the ends justifying the means. This is a concept that I spent a lot of time and energy considering. I also asked many people this question “Do the ends ever justify the means?” The prevailing answer that I got and the answer that I instinctively knew to be true was “No” but It took me some time to figure out why.
The conclusion that I finally came to is that the ends can never actually justify the means because there is really no such thing as the “end”. We live in a world where matter cannot be created or destroyed. When one thing ends another thing always begins. One thing always begets another. All we ever have are choices and consequences, actions and reactions. When one thing ends it always starts another thing anew.
As human beings with linear lives that begin and end we tend to look at the rest of the world as we do our lifeline. But contrary to that idea, the real world functions more as a spiral that continually loops forward in time. Every action has consequences. Just like going back in time a million years and stepping on a butterfly. The most seemingly insignificant things that happen today could have and will have long lasting unpredictable effects into the future.
Since there is no such thing as the “ends” all we ever really have are the means and if we want to live our lives by just and moral means we can not take shortcuts, rationalizing our actions as being justified by the ends.

Taxation is slavery.

Now lets just dive in head first with the number one problem that plagues the people of America. Taxation the way it exists today is the moral equivalent of slavery. I know that might be a bold statement but like I said, it is a question of morality, so let's take taxation for what it's worth and play it out. Let's say this year a person pays ten thousand dollars of taxes to the United States Government. Let's also assume that this person makes about a thousand dollars a week. Well the math is very simple. That person would have had to work ten whole weeks of his or her life, (until about the middle of March) before actually getting to keep any of his or her own money. One hundred percent of all that person's labors within those first ten weeks would be taken from him or her. This in and of itself is not really that terrible of a thing I suppose, because if people were given the option to contribute a percentage of their earnings to a governing organization to take care of certain things, I bet many (if not most) would willingly contribute. But the sad truth is that they don’t ask for the money, they just take it, and they take it under the threat of violence and even death.
I know that under the threat of violence and death sounds like a harsh way to put it, but think about the consequences of not paying your taxes and the underlying question of morality. What happens if you refuse to pay? Well they come after you, trying to arrest you. If you resist arrest, they will use violent force against you. If you forcefully resist arrest, they will simply hurt you, even kill you and not think twice about it.
I am not trying to blow things out of proportion but that is the unfortunate truth. when you spell it out in plain english, they are saying, give me ten weeks of your labor every year or you will face the consequences. Your three options are, pay with dollars, pay with imprisonment, or pay with blood. You have no option other than to pay.
There is no possible scenario where that is not the moral equivalent of slavery.
In the past the powerful people in this country enslaved a small percentage of the population one hundred percent of the time. Now they simply enslave most of the people a small percentage of the time.
What do you think would ultimately give a person more power and wealth? enslaving ten percent of the people one hundred percent of the time or enslaving one hundred percent of the people ten percent of the time? And by the way having everyone be ok with it because they don’t even realize that they are being enslaved.
The second would obviously be the preferred method of enslaving people and that is exactly what they have done. And so long as we continue to keep our heads in the sand and pretend like there is nothing wrong with the enslavement of the general population they will continue to exploit our labors to their own “ends”.

The morality of Laws.

I have also spent a long time contemplating the morality of laws, and I would like to share with you my conclusion.
Once again I would like to take things down to their simplest, most basic implications, because I think that is the only way to really understand what is going on.
First of all I would like to point out, that just like failing to pay your taxes, the ultimate consequence of breaking any law is ultimately death.
Take a minute and follow the logic of breaking of any law to its ultimate conclusion. Let's say that you get a simple speeding ticket. What happens if you refuse to pay it? Eventually they put a warrant out for your arrest. And if you resist arrest when they come for you? Once again they are going to use force and violence to take you into custody. And if you forcefully resist them as they try to put you into a cage for going “too fast” on the highway? Once again they will simply punish you with death and not think twice about it. You have three options, pay with money, pay with incarceration, or pay with blood.
Pay the ticket or they will have no problems using guns to make you do it one way or another. The saddest the part about the whole thing being that we actually have bureaucrats robbing people at gunpoint on the side of the road every single day and most of us are ok with it. Police officers are given a quota of tickets that they are supposed to write every day and they are robbing people on the side of the road under penalty of death just to collect more revenue for a corrupt and powerful government.
I for one cannot morally support any law that exists, in which I would not be personally willing to take action against the person breaking that law. I believe that to morally support any law, the person who is supporting that law must be willing to execute the punishment for breaking that law. And with the ultimate penalty of breaking any law being death, I believe that it is morally imperative that we are very careful as to which laws we actually choose to support.
I would not be willing to shoot someone for going five, ten, fifteen, or even twenty-five miles over the “speed limit” (a number arbitrarily set by the organization that enforces it). So I can not in good moral conscience support that law.
There are however some things that people could do, like attacking my life or my family, of which I would have no problem personally enforcing a law against. These are laws that I can morally support, and are honestly laws that, if I wanted enforced, I would be remiss to expect anyone but myself to actually enforce them.
After all, at the end of the day, is not every single one of us ultimately responsible for the safety of ourselves and our families?
I understand that we all might have a different opinion on what laws a person morally ought to be willing to enforce. You might have a different list of laws that you would be willing to enforce than I do. But at least if we started looking at law through this lense of morality, we could start having a productive conversation of the boundaries that the law enforcement powers such as police departments should actually be granted and their proper roles in our lives, if any.

United we stand.

One thing that is abundantly clear to me is the fact that the powers that enslave us (whoever they are) are determined to make and keep us divided.
Everywhere you turn the people are being divided into groups. It's always race wars, and religious battles. Pro Choice vs Pro Life and Gays vs Straights. It’s left vs right, red vs blue and republicans vs democrats. The list is endless and the intent is clear.
What we need to understand is that this is all by design. There are not two political parties that we need to choose from, hoping rally forces beat the other side. The whole thing is one giant con. A ruse designed to divide the people so that they are easy to manipulate. Because as long as we are fighting amongst each other, we will be too busy to pay attention to what is really going on.
I believe that it is imperative for the survival and freedom of generations to come, that we cease and desist all dispute amongst each other, and begin to pay attention to the real enemy. We must put our differences aside and stand on principles of freedom and liberty or we will forever remain slaves to the powers that be.

Tyranny encroaches.

I am writing this book because I see a very bleak future for the people of America. I see a future unfolding for my children that I would not wish upon anyone. We have relinquished too much power, and the United States Government is like a snowball rolling down a hill. It has reached critical mass and there is no stopping it. It will just continue to get bigger and bigger until it inevitably crashes.
It is a runaway train that will abolish anything that stands in its way, and to be quite honest with you, I don’t think that there is anything that we can do about it.
The fed continues to print billions of dollars every month, and the “national debt” continues to rise. Laws continue to be written and manipulated for the benefit of few, while the rest of us fit the bill, and the people who are supposed to be fixing the problems are the very people who create them.
This is not the way things should or could be. We do not have to live our lives being bullied by powerful people who intend on keeping their power at any cost, because the bottom line is that the only reason they have the power to begin with is because we give it to them.
Let me make this perfectly clear. I have absolutely no hope whatsoever for the salvation of the organization that is the United States Government. I don’t care what party you are hoping is going to take over power and outmaneuver the “bad guys”. I implore you to abandon all hope. The foundation for the salvation of our future does not exist in the White House, or The Pentagon, and it most definitely does not exist inside any political party or politician trying to get your vote.
The more that we rely on these means to save us. The further we allow tyranny to encroach.

Rewriting the Future.

Ok so the system is unsustainable, the dollar will most likely collapse, and the government is so corrupt that it is beyond salvation. This may seem like a bleak future indeed. But I am here to let you know that through all of this I find a blinding light of hope. A chance to become more than we ever thought possible. A chance to transcend the limitations of society. A chance to rewrite the future.
We obviously can’t do anything about the past, as it has already happened. But we also do not have to let the past define us. When it is all said and done, what exists today does not actually have to define what will exist tomorrow.
I believe that sometime in the very near future there will be an opportunity for drastic change. A window if you will, for the people of America to rewrite the future forever.
Let's say for example that the dollar collapses tomorrow. Something is going to replace it right? Well what if we replaced the dollar before it collapsed? And when I say “we” I am not talking about the United States Government, I am literally talking about you and me, about we the people. What if the people decided that we didn’t want to trade in dollars any more. What if you and I decided that we were happy to trade with something completely different. What if you and I decided today that if we came across a viable alternative to US dollars that we would just start using that instead. What If we were committed to innovating our own solution? What if we started enrolling others in that commitment. If we started today do you not think that we could literally rewrite the events that would precede the collapse of the dollar? Just because the dollar collapses does not necessarily mean that the economy has to, because after all it is not the dollar that drives the economy, it is the necessity of trade between individuals.
If we were committed to independence, and started today, do you not think that we could innovate ourselves away from any potential calamity, and literally rewrite the future before it happens? If we started today, could we not restructure our entire understanding of governance. Could we not change the rules before we are destroyed by them.

If you can’t beat them, Ignore them.

In my opinion there is really only one realistic path to liberating the people and escaping the state of slavery that we exist in today. That path is not a violent revolution. If you haven't figured it out by now I am talking about the path of innovation.
What do you think would happen if the government collapsed tomorrow? Could we govern ourselves? If we did govern ourselves what would that look like?
What if a solar flare took out all communication across the country and we were left to figure thing out for ourselves? How could we not just survive, but thrive?
What if there were enough people committed to freedom that we were able to just stand for it together? What if we just all stopped sending the government money?
I believe that the future can only be won through ideas. I believe that we are actually currently at war with powers that be, but it is not a physical war, it is an intellectual war. We are in a constant battle of ideas and I am sad to say that I think they are currently winning.
More and more people every day are becoming dependent on the government in ways that they don’t even realize. Our food is subsidized and controlled, our electricity and water is subsidized and controlled. Welfare is out of control, and more and more people are getting “tax refunds” for taxes that they have never actually played.
And the people are being told that this is normal, that this is necessary. People are being led to believe that they need to be controlled and enslaved for their own benefit.
Meanwhile tyranny encroaches further and further. But I write this book to help sway the balance in the other direction. If freedom will prevail, it will only prevail through the spreading of the ideas like the ones in this book. More people have to be willing to say enough is enough and figure out how to simply circumnavigate the powers that be.
The good news is that I honestly believe that there is hope. I think that we have enough time, but we must start now, because there is a lot of work to do. We literally have to innovate our way away from them. We have to figure out how to do everything on our own. Providing electricity without the government controlled grid for instance, would probably be one of the most challenging obstacles to overcome. There are new breakthroughs all the time in this field though and I do believe that if enough of us were truly committed to innovating solutions, anything is possible. I believe that we do not have to resort to violence. I believe that we can simply innovate ourselves away from the control of the government and I am here to enroll you in that possibility.
We live in a unique time, because we live in the communication age, and never before have ideas spread so easily. Never before have ideas like the ones in this book been so easily spread to the masses. In times past innovation has been purposefully thwarted by powerful people because of greed and reckless ambition, but information today is very hard to stop. With inventions like Bitcoin, and information sharing mediums like podcasts and social media platforms like steemit, we have never been in a better position to invent life changing technology.

But who will build the roads?

Every time I talk about circumnavigating the organization that is the United states government people always have “but what about” questions. But what about the schools? But what about the roads? But what about the Military? Everyone has something that they think the government does well and can not imagine a world where there is not a overseeing power making big decisions for them.
So let me make this clear. I am talking only about circumnavigating the Government itself, I am not talking about the elimination governance all together.
Like I said earlier, I believe that most people, If given the choice would willingly contribute to some sort of organization that would help us with issues of governance. I have no moral qualm with the idea of a governing body. Only with the idea of coercive forces enslaving us for power.
This is all part of the conversation that we should be having. Part of the innovation process. If we were to forget about everything that we already know and start fresh. What type of system could we create? I believe that we could create a system free of slavery, violence, and coercive forces?
The bottom line is that the need for roads and bridges will ensure that they get built, and if we were all having the proper conversation, today, there is plenty of time to figure this stuff out before we are in a bind and chaos ensues.
Of course there will always be problems. This world that we live in is not a perfect place and we all have very different ideas about things, but the problem is that we are not even having the right conversation. We are all busy arguing about who should be the next President, when in reality it doesn’t even matter.

What happens when they come with the tanks?

This section is probably the pinnacle of the book. If you get anything from reading this book I hope it will be the ideas of this section.
Civil war is most definitely a possibility. The people are more divided now than they probably have been in a very long time. The police are more militarized than they have ever been in the history of the country, and weapon technology is beyond what most of us could have ever imagined it would be. Meanwhile people across the country are scared and stockpiling their own private arsenals of guns and ammunition. The controlling powers of the US government most definitely have to be considering the possibility of a violent revolution. As tyranny grows ever closer, people begin to feel the need to fight back, to resist the coercive forces that seek to enslave them ever further. I believe that this is a natural response and do not blame people for preparing themselves. But the question begs to be asked; what happens when they come for the guns? What happens when they come with the tanks?
Any person with a general understanding of the military forces and weapons that the United States government controls would not have a hard time imagining the one sided battle that would ensue if the people decided to revolt violently against the controlling powers. If there were actually a civil uprising and the government were able to deploy its military arsenal against the people, there is absolutely no way that we could possibly win that war. That is of course only if they were actually able to deploy it. Which brings me to my next question. Who is going to drive the tanks?
There is a story I heard recently of an ancient people who were being attacked by an overwhelming force. They were of course scared of the attacking army but they had already decided that they were committed to peace. These people were actually so committed to peace that they had taken all of their swords, bows, spears and other weapons and buried them in the sand to never uncover them again. So when the attacking army descended upon these people, they did not resist. They did not put up a fight, they simply got down on their knees and prayed. Many of them were slaughtered as they prayed but what ended up happening was the attacking forces became weary of killing these praying people. In numbers far greater than the number of people who were killed, the people from the attacking army decided to lay down their own arms and join with the praying people. Most of the praying people, as a result, lived. It was a dedication to peace that actually stopped the killing. Who knows, if they had decided to fight back in an all out war, they may have all been slaughtered. The fact that these people were committed to peace changed the hearts and minds of the attacking forces.
I am not saying that we should all bury our weapons in the ground. To the contrary I believe that it is good that we are all armed, as it is our own responsibility to defend ourselves and our families. But what I am saying is that I think there is a lot of power in a commitment to peace. Unlike the people in the story, we do not have to wait until the army attacks to start winning people over. We don’t have to wait until we are being helplessly slaughtered by the masses to begin convincing our brothers not to bear arms against us.
The bottom line is that in order for there to be a civil war; in order for the controlling powers to raise up their arsenal against the people, there actually has to be other people who are willing to sit in the tanks and pull the triggers. An armed military force of today attacking regular people, would not be much different than the slaughter of the unarmed people that happened in the story. Personal firearms, while being great for home protection, would come nowhere close to defending against modern military forces.
So what is our hope? Well like I said, we are fighting a war right now that most people are unaware of. An intellectual war of ideas. If there are enough people to man the tanks, jets, drones, and ships, there is going to be nothing that the rest of us can really do to resist. But I believe in a world where people refuse to mercilessly slaughter their fellow human beings with military machines. I believe that if enough people commit to peace, just like in the story, others will follow. I believe that the future is won through the very conversation that I am having with you right now.
We must talk about ideas of morality. We must understand that the ends never actually justify the means. We must understand the coercive forces that we are up against, and strive to circumnavigate them peacefully through ideas and innovation.
This country is not lost, and America is not lost. The hope for a future full of prosperity, freedom, and success for the masses is not lost. It just does not exist inside the parameters of this organization that we call the United States Government. It lives inside me and hopefully after reading this book it lives inside of you too. It is only ideas that will win the future. The people must stand for something, and that something must be peace.

A declaration of peace and innovation.

I want to start rewriting the future today. There is no time to waste, we must begin right now. There are many people like myself who live in America who have been growing increasingly aware of the tyranny that is slowly enveloping us. There are many theories on what can be done to change the path that is currently in front of us, and in this book I have laid out some of the most important concepts relevant to the matter in the way that I see them. I hope I have helped you to maybe see some things in a light that you hadn’t before. Like I said it was not my intention to change your entire way of thinking, only to open your mind to the possibility of looking at the things you already believe in a new light. Through this book I hope that I have opened your mind to the possibilities of a free and peaceful future that does not involve a coercive government.
But just like when the founding fathers created the possibility for a free people when they signed the declaration of independence. I too would like to create the possibility of a free and peaceful people through a new declaration. A declaration of peace and innovation.

I declare that we can be a free people. A people not bound by the chains of violence and slave labor. I declare that I am committed to peace. I declare that I am committed to innovation. It is through these things that liberty will be won. I declare that if the time comes to fight, I will not needlessly aggress upon my fellow man. I shall not needlessly aggress upon others, nor shall I stand idle while others needlessly aggress upon me. I will fight only for liberty, and only for what is moral and just. I am committed to the idea that the ends never justify the means. I am committed to supporting my neighbors, regardless of our differences.
I declare that I will only support any law that I myself would be willing to personally enforce.
I understand that I am ultimately the only person responsible for my own safety and well being.
I believe that we can overcome all things if we are committed to working together, and I declare that I will be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

That is my declaration this day, and I would like to enroll you to be a part of it. Don’t just read this book and take no action. Make a declaration. It does not have to be exactly like mine but I invite you to make a declaration of your own. When you declare something in your life you open up new possibilities into your future. They say that if you always do what you have always done than you alway get what you have always got. I am inviting you to create something new this day just as I did. Create a new possibility for yourself in your life now. Create a possibility and declare it just as I have.
We can win, but it will take many of us who are dedicated to these ideas.
This is a beautiful land on which we live. I am proud to be a part of this community, and I thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. Now with a commitment to peace and innovation, let’s go make a difference in this world. Let’s start the right conversation and see how the world will react to a truly free nation. Let’s create the real America.