JOSIE the OUTLAW
On Being An Outlaw
Josie explains what it means to be an outlaw, and what it will take
to make society what it should be.
Most people would be terrified at the thought that their world
might soon transform into a state of complete "anarchy."
However, in one sense that is precisely what humanity needs.
To many, the term "anarchy" implies violent chaos and bloody
mayhem, and a complete breakdown of organized society--
a situation no decent person wants. What the word literally
means, however, is "rule by no one," a society without any
ruling class. And while people are right to believe that
authoritarian "law and order" is the opposite of "anarchy,"
they are wrong to put their faith in the former, or to fear the
latter. In fact, those events which best epitomize the negative
meaning of "anarchy"--chaos, death and destruction--have
always been the direct result of government. Yet many people
still fear freedom more than they fear government.
More and more people are now coming to realize that what
society really needs is not a new flavor of authoritarian
domination, but a complete absence of political power
(which should not be confused with a lack of cooperation or
organization). Whether "left" or "right," government is never
about getting along or cooperating; it is about one group of
people forcibly extorting and controlling everyone else. This
is why government, by its very nature, is fundamentally
incompatible with peaceful coexistence, is never moral or
legitimate, and never leads to peace or justice.
To improve the world, people need to let go of the statist
mythology they were taught, and embrace instead some very
basic principles: VOLUNTARYISM is the belief that all human
interaction should be voluntary, free from fraud, coercion or
violence; THE NON-AGGRESSION PRINCIPLE states that
it is wrong to initiate violence against another, and that physical
force is justified only when used to defend against aggression;
SELF-OWNERSHIP means that every individual owns himself,
and therefore owns the results of his time and effort.
These ideas are so simple and obvious that the average person,
when he hears them described, imagines that he already agrees
with them. However, most people--at least at first--fail to
realize that such concepts completely rule out the possibility of
government of any kind. Only a STATELESS SOCIETY is at
all logically or morally compatible with non-aggression, self-
ownership, and voluntaryism, because government, by its very
nature, is always coercive and violent, and--to one degree or
another, in one way or another--always infringes upon the self-
ownership of the individual. (Those who say they want a
"government" which only protects individual rights fail to
realize that any purely defensive organization would not be
"government," since it would have no power to tax or legislate,
would have no monopoly, and would have no special power or
authority.)
People are so accustomed to hearing "master plans" from
politicians that they often have a hard time imagining actual
freedom--a society that doesn't try to create a one-size-fits-all
agenda for everyone, where instead, people can organize and
cooperate in a million different ways. In other words, ANARCHY.
To achieve such a society does not require any election,
revolution, or political movement. It simply requires the people
understanding and embracing the ideas of self-ownership and
non-aggression, and letting go of the insane idea that civilization
requires each individual to abandon his own free will and
conscience in favor of blind obedience to a centralized ruling
authority. When that lie dies, perpetual war and oppression will
die with it.
As more and more people awaken to this truth, the power of the
beast known as "government" diminishes, and the power of
humanity grows. In a very real sense, the world really is on the
brink of "anarchy": a society of free, equal, peaceful human beings.
The age of statism and authoritarianism--and all the pain, injustice,
suffering and death it has brought with it--is nearing its end. The
age of peaceful coexistence, and a truly free and voluntary society,
is about to begin. Whether you will be one of those helping to
make this change happen, or one of those resisting it, is up to you.
The True Duty of a Jury: