What Can I Do?
The inevitable question in response to advocacy for political change is: What can I do? Our analysis of the institution of state gives some hints about what may or may not work. In particular, our elitist model of political power - that the ruling elite make the decisions within the state apparatus - indicates that working "within the system" will not work. We recommend not voting at all, since voting seems to condone the state and its immoral actions. Similarly, begging the politicians through signing petitions is, if not futile, at the very least counterproductive. We should be trying to destroy the state's mystique of legitimacy, not enhance it.
As I see it, there are two major ways an individual can strive for change: 1) delegitimize the state, and 2) build alternative institutions.
Delegitimize the State
Do all you can to destroy the state's aura of legitimacy. This mainly involves education, since the "aura" is in people's minds. So long as most people see the state as the solution rather than the problem, freedom cannot generally reign. It will no doubt exist covertly, in Galt's Gulches, Costa Rican hideaways, and other isolated locales, but it will not gain broad enjoyment until most people desire to be free and have overcome their psychological dependency on the state. We know from history that revolution will not likely help (and may well hurt) if people's minds are not already "right" for liberty.
Here are some things you can do to crush sheeple's mental dependence on the state:
Delegitimizing the State
- Promote liberty in your conversations
- Promote liberty in public writings (letters-to-editors, web pages, articles, etc.)
- Correct others when they fall for statist bromides and myths
- Correct others when they fall for the stateholm syndrome
- Avoid statist puffery in language
- Challenge the statist paradigm
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