Is A Police State Worth Fighting For?

by Simon Black.Posted Dec 22, 2010.

In 43 BC, over 2,000 years ago, warring consuls Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian were duking it out with each other over control of Rome following Julius Caesar’s assassination the prior March.

Each had legions at his disposal, and Rome’s terrified Senate sat on its hands waiting for the outcome. Ultimately, the three men chose to unite their powers and rule Rome together in what became known as the Second Triumvirate. This body was established by a law named Lex Titia in 43 BC.

The foundation of the Second Triumvirate is of tremendous historical importance: As the group wielded dictatorial powers, it represented the final nail in the coffin in Rome’s transition from republic to malignant autocracy.

The Second Triumvirate expired after 10 years, upon which Octavian waged war on his partners once again, resulting in Mark Antony’s famed suicide with Cleopatra in 31 BC. Octavian was eventually rewarded with nearly supreme power, and he is generally regarded as Rome’s first emperor.

Things only got worse from there. Tiberius, Octavian’s successor, was a paranoid deviant with a lust for executions. He spent the last decade of his reign completely detached from Rome, living in Capri.

Following Tiberius was Caligula, infamous for his moral depravity and insanity. According to Roman historians Suetonius and Cassius Dio, Caligula would send his legions on pointless marches and turned his palace into a bordello of such repute that it inspired the 1979 porno film named for him.

Caligula was followed by Claudius, a stammering, slobbering, confused man as described by his contemporaries. Then there was Nero, who not only managed to burn down his city, but was also the first emperor to debase the value of Rome’s currency.

You know the rest of the story – Romans watched their leadership and country get worse and worse.

All along the way, there were two types of people: The first group was folks that figured, “This has GOT to be the bottom; it can only get better from here.” Their patriotism was rewarded with reduced civil liberties, higher taxes, insane despots, and a debased currency.

The other group consisted of people who looked at the warning signs and thought, “I have to get out of here.” They followed their instincts and moved on to other places where they could build their lives, survive, and prosper.

I’m raising this point because I’d like to open a debate. Some consider the latter idea of expatriating to be akin to ‘running away.’ I recall a rather impassioned comment from a reader who suggested, “leaving, i.e. running away, is certainly not the proper response.”

I find this logic to be flawed.

While the notion of staying and ‘fighting’ is a noble idea, bear in mind that there is no real enemy or force to fight. The government is a faceless bureaucracy that’s impossible attack. People who try to do so usually discredit their argument because they become marginalized as fringe lunatics. Violence is rarely the answer, and it often has the opposite effect as intended, frequently serving to bolster support for the government instead of raising awareness of its shortcomings.

Unless/until government paramilitaries start duking it out with citizen militia groups in the streets, this is an ideological battle…and it’s an uphill battle at best.

Government-controlled educational systems institutionalize us from childhood that governments are just, and that we should all subordinate ourselves to authority and to the greater good that they dictate in their sole discretion.

You’re dealing with a mob mentality, plain and simple. Do you want to waste limited resources (time, money, energy) trying to convince your neighbor that s/he should not expect free money from the government?

You could spend a lifetime trying to change ideology and not make a dent; people have to choose for themselves to wake up; it cannot be forced upon them. And until that happens, they’re going to keep asking for more security and more control because it’s the way their values have been programmed.

When you think about it, what we call a ‘country’ is nothing more than a large concentration of people who share common values. Over time, those values adjust and evolve. Today, cultures in many countries value things like fake security, subordination, and ignorance over freedom, independence, and awareness.

When it appears more and more each day that those common values diverge from your own, all that’s left of a country are irrelevant, invisible lines on a map. I don’t find these worth fighting for.

Nobody is born with a mandatory obligation to invisible lines on a map. Our fundamental obligation is to ourselves, our families, and the people that we choose to let into our circles…not to a piece of dirt that’s controlled by mob-installed bureaucrats.

Moving away, i.e. making a calculated decision to seek greener pastures elsewhere, is not the same as ‘running away’…and I would argue that if you really want to affect change in your home country, moving away is the most effective course of action.

The government beast in your home country feeds on debt and taxes, and the best way to win is for bright, productive people to move away with their ideas, labor, and assets. This effectively starves the beast and accelerates its collapse. Then, when the smoke clears, you can move back and help rebuild a free society.

Regards,

Simon Black
for The Daily Reckoning

Simon Black is an international investor, entrepreneur, permanent traveler, and free man.

kenn

Any suggestions as to where? In Roman times their was a little bit more room…
ana

Unfortunately there is no free society anywhere these days. Just as we haven’t had free markets for at least a century. One can only hope to choose the least bad option.
TC

Well said.
There is an awful lot of room down under and north of 49th. Lots to room in Siberia too but even Putin find it too tough …
TM

Our freedoms have eroded and continue to do so. There still persists among many I speak to, a belief that, because we are Americans, we are different than all the other empires that have rotted from within.

Denial is a killer. Thank you Mr. Black for the most interesting read I had today.
mike

…a police state happens where there are too many laws on the books, and the crushing weight of enforcement is brought to bear upon the masses…unlike most bakeries where there are only enough shelves for the fresh donuts…
Warren

Thank you, Mr. Black. You present the dilemma we face in a cogent manner. My barber is a very intelligent man; all sorts have sat in his chair over the decades so he knows some things. He says Costa Rica is a fine place where some of his friends have moved.
J McKean

ana is correct. There is no place to go where the coming World Government cannot reach you. Arm yourselves, stock up on food and water and get out of stocks and bonds. Militias fighting in the streets will be a reality much sooner than you think. The US code and many state constitutions establish unorganized militias. Get yourself and others ready to defend the last free country on earth.
http://myrnabeard.co.cc/ Myrna Beard

Thank you, Mr. Black. You present the dilemma we face in a cogent manner. My barber is a very intelligent man; all sorts have sat in his chair over the decades so he knows some things. He says Costa Rica is a fine place where some of his friends have moved.
Le Petomane

You poor paranoid androids. What makes you think the USA is any more free than it is prosperous right now, or that there are not other places in the world full of freedoms riches and wonders. These comments are further evidence that you yanks are in need of help. I’d like to offer a suggestion. Your people elect the government which then represents not the people but the corporations. Their purpose then becomes not truth justice and the American way but profits profits and more profits. Note where your jobs have gone. I suggest you take back your government by banning corporate donations and other influences on representatives.
Nick

Being a run away from a communist country with a dead sentence for my believes, I applaud this article. Bravo Simon, Bravo Le Petomane. With people like You, I still have some courage left to be hopeful. At a time when people where suffering from mental and financial desperation Soviets where maintaining huge army and brutal police force for harassing their depressed people at every corner, bus station and airport. When you frighten people, you can do everything with them. They where creating big net of military bases all over in Europe, Africa and the Ocean. Creating and maintaining local conflicts and opened a big one in Afghanistan. The empire got worst and worst and its economical system collapsed under the heavy burdens of pressure from everywhere. Time run out.
http://www.newsuperhuman.com personal development

Wrong. You’re stuck in the archaic notion of nation states. America no longer exists – it has become powerless and irrelevent next to multi-national corporations of oil conglomerates, war machines and legal drug pushers.

Big brother is coming, like it or not. If you think moving to Costa Rica is going to solve your problems smoke some more crack. Violent revolution is the only way to take back power to the people.

Big brother will win, not because we’re not moving to Costa Rica, but because we don’t have the balls to fight anymore.
Bob Ferguson

We are living in the waning years of the “second empire.”. I define the empire as the culture which controls the worlds 1-military 2-language 3-financial 4-social trends. The Roman culture did this, and no other until America, England even did not have the reach.
What the next dominant empire may be we can’t see since we are “inside” this one. This empire begun by the great America founders built on the lessons of failed European experiences, where are the lessons from today being studied and applied? Can we be talking about India? Possibly China, that might be a long reach.

The Amish have prevailed by following conservative and disciplined
life styles,
gman

You’re right, it makes no material sense to fight for rights and freedom. Much more cost-efficient to run away and let someone else do the dirty work creating a country worth living in, which you will then grace with your presence.

Who is the bigger parasite, you or the beast?
Richard Head

Would be nice to pack up the children, grand kids and head for the hills, if we could find a place the New World Criminals did’nt have control of. Try packing up all your supplies and personal protection equipment (if you know what I mean) and leaving the country. Not to mention the greeting you may receive at your destination. I still suggest, with fantasy, plan for the best, but prepare for the worst. Hopefully you know what that means. But you must share what you know. Exspose the Evil when you see it, and draw the mental lines in the sand. There will be an event that you cannot accept. Life is not that Precious, to be compromised for slavery. My problem is that I never wanted to dispatch the messenger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnbiRDNaDeo Eduardo

Some places that come to mind immediately:

Australia/Tasmania, Canary Islands, Costa Rica, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, Uruguay, Southern Chile/Argentina.

To be part of a small group for safety/protection in a move to Spanish-speaking countries is recommended.
http://www.spazgraphic.com/theology.html Spaz

Nice article but seriously anywhere you go ultimately will end up the same way. It’s a new world order, not a new American order. I’m really not so sure that an extra year or two is worth it.
Kevin

Test
Jesse

Good point of view, I concure, but we have to ask ourselves if we want to be stripped when the ball completely falls. What means do we really have to get our stored food, weapons, precious metals, and personal transportation already prepared to this new country without being raped? We can’t even fly with an open soda. We would be relocated but naked before new wolves. Other thoughts appreciated.
http://stevequayle syonia

My thoughts exactly…move where?…make preparations…with what money? Oh,yeah and FYI, we got a brand new electric meter today so now THEY can tell me that I need new appliances,because these use too much energy(I already knew that).I mean really folks this ‘labor’ is comming right along.’ Before she travailed,she brought forth,before her pain came ,she was delivered of a man child.’ Isa 66:7 Look up people, your redemtion draws nigh!
db1

The states need to call for an Article V convention to address the holes in the constitution that has allowed Washington to run amok. The states can overrule and/or bypass Washington.

The states have the power to redefine this country, and its constitution, as needed.

Washington only thinks they have unchecked power. It’s time for the states to show them where the real power is.
Rocky Stone

I all ready new that , but at least im not the only one. The other option is total revolution.
http://GreatRedDragon.com Edward Ulysses Cate

The problem this time in history is that’s there’s no place to run. That’s why I wrote:
There’s No Place To Run, Jim Rogers!
back in February of 2008 at http://GreatRedDragon.com

The enemy is the sociopath. They only make up less than 1% of the population, but the other 99% can’t seem to get their mind around the fact that there are people who lie and steal from others with no empathy nor conscience. Quit electing them and stop doing business with them, and they’ll shrivel on the vine.

We’ll have to do it some time no matter what, so why not sooner than later. Why give in to the bully in the neighborhood?
Robert

Escape is a valid choice. But it’s like getting away from the flue. Avoiding the flue is a valid immune response. But immunity is better. And in order to achieve it you have to deal with it directly. A number of misconceptions stand out in your article: The idea that those who leave and build their lives elsewhere will return when things get better; the idea that if good people leave the system will collapse; the idea that government is a faceless bureaucracy only. Actually, many people in government think it is as insane as you think it is. If the good leave, the bad and the ugly remain; the government will revolve around them. People who build their lives elsewhere tend to stay elsewhere. Therefore change must occur. It isn’t a noble idea. It requires pragmatic actions. Most people are not accustomed to having to take such actions. People in positions of power within government are already very pragmatic. The ultimate problem is that eventually you run out of places to escape to, and then you have got to overpower those who are abusing you. You can develop the skills to do so if you stay and fight. If you leave, when they time comes to deploy such skills, you don’t have them because you never developed them. So staying is not a noble idea. It’s necessary.
paul

O Lord, Please give us a King to rule over us like our neighbors (because we are not smart enough to rule ourselves).
?Judges?
Big Jon

It seems to me that Russia is the only country (and maybe China) to oppose the NWO and basically flip them the bird. Russia is beating to it’s own drum and is not part of the NWO plan. Does that make it a good place for escape? Not likely.

I’m thinking about a 3rd worldish kind of place where services are decent and you could essentially vanish (not literally)- Philippines perhaps, maybe Paraguy.
Canuck

There is no where you can go that won’t soon be experiencing the same thing. I am in Canada, we are simply lagging slightly behind the U.S. in our inevitable collapse. Fleeing is not the answer, there are no “greener pastures”.
J McKean

Please notice that people like Le Petomane that say there are other places on earth with liberty never name any. The reason is that there aren’t any. Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, what a joke! My forefather signed the Declaration of Independence. I will gladly give my life fighting this tyranny! For those of you who wish to go, I understand your reasons. I ask not your counsels. May your chains lay lightly upon you and may history forget that you were our countrymen.
http://www.dailyreckoning.com bigtom

i know fully well what you are saying. They do make fools out of those pointing the finger at them and saying, ‘people, the gov’t is screwing you.’ But to run and hide when it is really only a minority of people in actuality destroying this system? No. It is to inform the people, no matter how dumb they may seem to what is happening to them, that is the greater good. Is a life worth living if it’s not worth fighting for? I’ve spent time in many a foreign country. You are not as far away as you think!
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