“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority.” – Ayn Rand
Sometimes we have forgotten that in order to best protect ourselves, our families, and our liberties, we have to be two things: be responsible for ourselves and be able to negotiate from a position of strength. Over the years of my life, I have come to understand a few things. I believe that it is wisdom through trial and error (a lot of errors to be honest). I believe in the deepest fiber of my being that in order to truly embrace your God-given rights (natural rights), you need to be able to be independent. If you are to say “No” to these tyrants, you need to be able to do so from a position of strength.
I caught this entire series from the Mises Institute on secession and this got me thinking about this concept of truly being able to say “No” to our overlords. The entire series of speakers from the great Ron Paul, Tom Woods, Jeff Deist, and Brion McClanahan is totally worth about 2.5 hours or so of your time, but for this article I will focus on McClanahan’s portion.
I am truly grateful to the Mises Institute for introducing me to Brion McClanahan. I had read some of Woods’ books back in the day and McClanahan contributed to a few of them, but it did not really register with me at the time how great this man’s work truly was. I have since read every single one of his books and catch the majority of his podcasts. If you have not heard of Brion McClanahan before this, let this speech here get you started.
The last part of the speech about John Taylor of Caroline is the way forward in this world. You need to be able to say “No” from a position of strength. Why was he able to do it? Because he could always return to his farm. Now take this in the modern sense and apply this metaphorically rather than literally at this point. It means that in order to say “No” you need to be able to be in the position to do so. This means to constantly be bettering yourself to a position that when the opportunity arises, you are in a better position to do so. Obviously this will not happen over night, but I do believe that the game that is being played against us is one that is to force us into a corner and to get us to be dependent.
For example, I will refer to Marjorie Taylor Greene and the PPP loan that she accepted and got forgiven.
This is not an argument against those who were cornered into things or whether accepting these was right or wrong, but it is the fallout that I am talking about in this piece. She spoke out against student loan forgiveness and the people who control the White House’s Twitter page used her acceptance to discredit her. By her accepting and getting her PPP loan forgiven, she opened herself up to the attack. This has her now in a position of weakness as opposed to one of strength. If you take the government’s cheese, you will find yourself in a position of weakness. How do you avoid the temptation? You get yourself in a position of strength. You start taking steps to get yourself in order. No matter your stance on student loan forgiveness, if you accept it, they will silence you. I think that is the move forward. They bought compliance with “stimulus checks” during their COVID tyranny, but in the future it will be more like the PPP “loans” and if you opt in, they will castrate you for it. If you opt in for student loan forgiveness, you will always be discredited because you are now a castrated citizen. They want dependence. This is how they will march you into your own enslavement. Do not take the cheese.
How do you get yourself into a position of strength?
You start by taking a small step and then a slightly bigger step the next day. Jordan Peterson describes this by referring to the Matthew Principle from The Bible:
Start by doing something good. I break down independence into three catgories: financial, physical, and mental. If you come up with others, please share them with me. Apply these to yourself or figure out your own way to get stronger.
Financial:
This can be categorized differently by all of you depending on your circumstances, but use mine for an example. The overarching theme is to keep yourself from taking the bait. They will come after you in different ways because they will inevitably get you to opt into some program in the future. You may not get the chance to deny this in the future if too many people fall for the social credit system they will inevitably deal with, but if you get yourself into a position of strength, you can then get your friends to do the same and then so forth. The more people that get into a position of strength, the better we are as a society, but it starts at home.
Avoid bad debt.
Live within your means, but also try to change your circumstances.
Save enough money in case a catastrophe happens or your job tries to enforce more tyranny like they did during COVID.
Keep kids out of public schools. This is not always a possibility. I think this answer is one of those that cannot always apply, but if you find yourself in a situation where you have to do it, you need to deprogram your kids nearly every night. If you want to homeschool, I suggest the Ron Paul curriculum.
Pay off your debts. Short-term sacrifice for long-term rewards.
Prepare for disasters like power outages and supply chain disruptions. This also means maintaining the things that you own like your house and car to avoid big expenses. Maybe you start a garden, but do something to prepare.
These are just a few examples of things that you can do to keep yourself independent on the financial front. They will come for you in the future. The student loan forgiveness is the cheese they will put out in front of you. Pay off your debts yourself. This is how they will get you to be compliant in the future. Their plans will involve silencing dissent through buying your compliance and then using it for leverage against you and others. These are things that I try to do. These are not the only way, but the concept is to get yourself in a better situation piece by piece, one step at a time. This will open you up to moving upward exponentially. Upward movement will keep you from getting sucked into a trap by these overlords. You need to get financially independent to avoid becoming dependent on the state. Read books on money management. Get yourself stronger financially and you will be able to say “Yes” to opportunities when they present themselves and “No” to our government because you will be in a position of strength.
Physical:
After the COVID tyranny and the silencing of any dissenting opinion, the compliance of doctors to the medical tyranny that was enforced throughout the world, should have led you to this on your own. Start getting yourself in better shape physically. Decrease your reliance on western medicine. These people have lost credibility and the system needs to be avoided in my opinion. Even if you do not agree, to be overweight and unhealthy will get you into a position of dependence on western medicine. To get yourself in better health is to put you in a position to say no to these tyrants in the future.
Eat more whole foods.
Lose weight.
Increase muscle mass.
Take the proper vitamins.
Get started on a routine for physical health.
This is a very important one because the reliance on drugs and vaccines in the future will be a tool that they use to control you. They want you to be dependent on these medicines and will weaponize it against you like they did when they were denying people care if they refused their COVID jab. What they did was not science. Avoid being dependent on these systems of control. Get your physical health in order to put yourself in a position to opt out of these systems of control. Even if you disagree with my take on western medicine, to be in better physical health means less medical bills that can financially cripple you.
Mental:
Read good books. Control what you consume because what is out there is propaganda. Control what your kids consume because they will be used against you. It is the responsibilty of the parent to teach your kids history. This is the way to prevent the complete indoctrination of your kids if you cannot keep them out of public schools or even private schools.
Economics:
Austrian Economics: anything other than this is a lie and a failed study. The Austrian School is the place to learn about the business cycle and to learn about free markets. The Mises Institute is the place to go to learn about this field of economics.
History:
The Abbeville Institute: this is the place to understand true Conservatism.
Tom Dilorenzo’s books
Brion McClanahan’s books
Albion’s Seed: The Four British Folkways in America which is a must read for understanding American History.
Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America I have read this book twice in the past six months as it is not only an informative read but the passion of the writer is addicting.
There are many more good ones to read, but these are a few of my favorites that got me started on the correct path. The contrarian historical views are the place to go at this point. You can also get a great list of recommended reads in the historical field from the Mises Institute. Control what you consume and your mind will stay free. Avoid the traps set by fake conservatives today. They may strike gold every now and then, but avoid wasting time reading garbage. Jeff Deist wrote a great piece on how to develop yourself and avoid bad information in today’s world. Tom Woods has a recommended reading list for reference as well. To be the gatekeeper of your own mind will put you in a position of strength.
Conclusion:
In order to work towards keeping/gaining independence in this world, we need to start at home. To get yourself stronger first and then get your house in order. Then convince others to start as well. Then and only then can we start holding our governments accountable again. The move towards decentralization is essential for survival against these tyrants. In order to move towards that goal, we need to get ourselves stronger. Start with a small step today and then a slightly bigger step the next day. Then and only then will we be able to say “No” to our enemies because we will be doing so from a position of strength just like John Taylor of Caroline.