This article was originally published by Brandon Smith at Alt-Market.com
Human Courage And Kindness Stand As Obstacles To The Void
However, there is constant disagreement among activists on solutions to these problems, and there are several reasons why this conflict persists. Let’s examine them…
Ease Versus Struggle
This is one conflict that I don’t think many people recognize or pay much attention to, but it stands as a key weakness that derails effective action. There is a distaste among some liberty activists for the idea of self sacrifice and struggle in achieving freedom. The reality is most fights are won through persistence and force of will; there are no shortcuts to defeating tyranny. There are no secret weapons. There is only indomitable spirit. That’s it. It doesn’t matter if you have a movement of 100 people or 100 million — any goal is achievable, but only so long as you accept the cost of pain and sacrifice required.
In my years working in the movement I have seen hundreds of poorly conceived silver bullet “solutions” rise to prominence and then fail or disappear entirely. In every case there is a period of overblown excitement while practical strategies are completely ignored. A perfect example would be the current love affair among a subculture of activists with cryptocurrencies. The concept of rebellion on a virtual level is certainly alluring to those who fear real world work and a real world fight. A fantasy of defeating the establishment with ease appeals to those who fear struggle. This is something the powers-that-be take full advantage of.
To defeat concerted technocratic centralization requires nothing less than a willingness to risk everything without the promise of reward. The sooner people realize that there is no easy path to a freer society, the sooner we can act effectively.
Thinking In The Present Versus Thinking Ahead
One truth that I consistently try to point out to activists is that they may never see the benefits of the fighting they do today. They must fight with the expectation that they will not see the light at the end of the tunnel. Successful freedom fighters do not necessarily fight for themselves so much as they fight for the next generation. They fight so that their children can live without tyranny, not only so they can live without tyranny. This idea seems to bewilder some activists, and I blame this on the self serving nature of our society and its addiction to immediate gratification. Even among the best of us, there is a tendency to only plan in the now and seek solutions in the now.
Real rebellion requires long term tactics. Deeply rooted tyrannies are whittled down over time, sometimes over the course of multiple generations. They are not defeated overnight.
Optimism Versus Nihilism
I have seen many liberty analysts attacked as “doom and gloomers,” but this accusation is usually wielded by ignorant people with little understanding of how freedom movements function. They do not function on “doom” or “fear porn,” but on a healthy dose of reality coupled with the optimistic philosophy that knowledge is power. What the skeptics do not grasp is that we work to comprehend the intricacies of a crisis because we have enough optimism to foresee that the crisis can be stopped, or that something better can be built.
We are not “doom and gloomers,” we are actually issuing a rallying cry, because we know that “doom” can in fact be averted.
The real “doom and gloomers” are actually the nihilists — the people that blindly dismiss the possibility of victory. These are the people that do not want to hear about strategies or solutions; they only seek to criticize because they do not have the intelligence to offer up a solution of their own. These are the people who are constantly saying “Yeah, you’ve told us about the problem, but what are YOU going to do about it,” when they should be asking themselves “What am I going to do about it?”
Isolation Versus Community
This is perhaps the defining argument of my years as an analysts and macro-economist, and it is something I continue to fight for to this day. The greatest weakness within the liberty movement and in America as a whole, in my opinion, is the refusal to take the necessity of community seriously. Whether it be because of laziness (ease), because of paranoia or because of too much exposure to Hollywood fantasies of the survival world, many people have adopted the philosophy that preparation for crisis is best done in isolation. In other words, the “lone wolf” mentality.
In almost every historic or modern societal collapse on record, it has been organized communities of people with necessary skill sets that have had the most success in survival. And, it is these communities that offer the most dangerous threat to oligarchies. So, the question becomes, what do you hope to accomplish? Do you seek to survive? Then community is the best possible option. Do you seek to fight back against the encroachment of authoritarianism? Then numerous voluntary communities prepared for disaster are the best weapon.
Does the nail that stands up get hammered down? Possibly. But without community, you ensure that you will always be a nail, and never the hammer. Isolated preparedness is a recipe for failure.
Localization Versus Centralization
As much as liberty activists rail against the problem of centralization, they tend to fall victim to their own centralization schemes. Community only matters when it is VOLUNTARY and within arms reach. This means that internet based communities, while encouraging because they can reveal our true numbers and make us feel as though we are not alone, also tend to centralize our activism within a false framework, isolating us more than uniting us.
A web based community is not a community, just as a web based solution is not a solution. If you are not utilizing the web in part as a tool to build localized community in the real world, or a localized economy in the real world, then you are wasting your time with web activism.
What internet activism does do, unfortunately, is give people a false sense of security, and it prevents them from pursuing real community in the place they live. I have heard on thousands of occasions from activists who claim that “no one around them is awake and aware;” they claim they are alone in the midst of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. This is nonsense. In every part of the country I have found liberty-minded people in droves, often all in the same town or city within easy driving distance. And, the people who claim they are alone are usually the people who have never tried to look, or to organize. Why? Because that’s hard work, and their virtual community on the internet is so much easier.
The Source Of All Freedom
Beyond the internalized conflicts within liberty movements, there is a defining methodology at stake. The gravitational pull that strengthens communities, the fuel that drives optimism and a respect for the future, the thing that makes us all more than what we seem to be on the surface, the thing that catches authoritarians off guard, is our propensity for courage and human kindness. Without these two things, any fight against tyranny is destined to implode.
Endeavor requires risk, and all risk requires courage (or perhaps stupidity, but courage can often be mistaken as stupidity). The greatest endeavor in the history of mankind is the endeavor to live free. This is one of the few things in the world actually worth fighting or dying for. It only follows that such a fantastic goal would require ultimate risk.
Courage is the willingness to take risks while knowing full well the consequences of failure. In some cases, courage means taking action while knowing that there will be consequences even in success. Sometimes, there are no benefits to the courageous beyond the knowledge that they have benefited others. The fight is not about profit. The fight is not about personal survival. The fight is about something much more. Something difficult to define, but intuitively felt.
Taking terrible risks with the intention of benefiting others, many of them not even born yet, requires human kindness. Kindness in itself can be a form of risk. A self-absorbed sociopath or narcissist will never achieve greatness, because greatness requires actions that are counter-intuitive to self preservation. A person who embraces moral relativism will also never accomplish much for the future. Kindness requires moral resolve, not moral “flexibility.”
It is these two characteristics that will help to dissolve the conflicts within liberty activism listed above. It is these two characteristics that defeat tyrants, and so it will be these two characteristics that tyrants will seek to undermine. It is difficult to conquer a people when they are not afraid of sacrifice and when they are not afraid to organize in the real world. It is difficult to isolate people with selfishness when they are driven by the empathy inherent in kindness. ALL solutions, all practical strategies rely on the existence of these two forces within a movement.
As 2017 comes to a close, it is my hope that every liberty activist prepares for more dangerous days ahead. But above all else, their preparations must flow from a foundation of struggle and self sacrifice, foresight and endurance, community and practicality, courage and kindness. If not, then really, what is the point?
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Its that the parasites want to robb the productive. And eventually only have the very wealthy and peons and slaves to do their bidding. and its those gews who are doing it..
Does anyone know, by chance, the name of a conservative website that has a format very similar to the Drudge Report? I just can’t remember the damn name. Thanks in advance
Brandon is dead wrong about lone wolves vs community. Lone wolf great OPSEC, community, it is blown, then you die. Community is like socialism and communism as there will be givers and takers. In the end one will kill the others for their stuff. In community you are only as strong as your weakest link. Lone wolf is self sufficient and strong and doesnt need the dead weight freeloading useless eaters consuming the fruits of his labor. Lone wolf moves stealthy. Community is slow, noisy and a target. For some reason the weak always want to choose community. The strong prepared and self sufficiant dont need anybody or dead weight freeloaders. Brandon must have got his thinking from Hillary’s “It takes a village” idiot book. lol
TSB, aka CSS, damn good points. My original plan was to be lone wolf until I got the arrangement for the BOL in 2013. But fortunately all my relatives ARE the individual self-sufficient type who pull all of their own weight. Call any one of them a freeloader and you’ll find yourself in a fight damn quick. They all already have all of their own shit. I’m the only “outsider” allowed into that community just because I’m family. Still at the BOL having fun til’ Sunday when I have to go back. [SIGH] Time flies when you’re having fun.
TSB, I forgot to add I like the comment comparing Brandon to Hillary’s book, OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! HAHA!
He made no good points. Smith is lightyears over your heads.
No man is an island. Every body has to sleep sometime. The smallest group should be 3 couples. Rotate your shifts. 8 hours down time. 8 hours community time. 8 hours your personal time. Less chance of burnout. Every body gets sleep/rest. Every body helps out.
The bigger your group, the more area you will need to grow your survival. It takes more space than most people think to grow a YEAR round food supply WITHOUT fertilizer. I figure around ten acres per person for crops for your food and your livestock. The one exception would be aquaponics. Good luck.
As a lone wolf, nobody knows when I am sleeping or awake and on a recon mission or on an opps mission. My entire security apperatus is unknown and part of my deception and illusion. My community is my 350 Ft 6 ft tall barbed wire fence and motion detectors. In a community the gate is open and strangers wander in and out and blow your OPSEC. YOUR KIDS are your biggest OPSEC blowers as while you are at work they have their friends over at your house sanding then all your coolest and latest prepping supplies you have hidden. In a community, everybody knows your sleep shift and will murder you in your sleep and cover it up. Just ask the late Justice Scalia who was murdered at his hunting camp when sleeping. A lone wolf sleeps when he likes. I have taken grounds patrol in the middle of the night walking fully armed around my Parameter. Stealth train with force multipliers. The weak are always drawn to communism and community because they are lazy and not self sufficient. Unless you can 100% trust them, but then yet you really never know until they are battle tested. Talk us cheap that they have your back. They could sell you out if captured. As a lone wolf nobody really knows what preps I have as to outsiders I may look as the gray man no threat cause there is just one of me. Try showing up anywhere in a community group and many will classify you as a mob and deny you access and tell you to go away or be shot. A lone wolf is a leader and plays chess. A community plays sheep huddle hoping someone else will take the lead and provide for them.
Survive alone = die alone, and for certain. Worst plan ever. This is the kind of thing I would expect a fed disinformation agent to promote – keep people isolated from each other and easily killed one by one, uselessly hiding in holes trying to protect their measly food storage, completely incapable of growing sustainable food for themselves because that requires group effort and group security, and never fighting back against the banksters because they’re so focused on just making it to tomorrow and fighting everyone else they can’t worry about the big picture.
+tharsheblows
Lone wolf is the dumbest possible strategy. As soon as you run into a group of dudes without morals, and you eventually will, they’ll kill you and your family if you’re lucky, but probably rape and torture you all first. You won’t last six weeks into a collapse without help from others. Plus, God forbid you get sick and need someone to watch things for you…what an idiot, lol!
See as a lone wolf you can only guess as to my preps and strategy. The best strategy is to make your opponents think you are weak and unprepared. Then I can pick the community off one by one like sitting ducks. Its demoralizing and very effective. Then I steal their women and their cattle. Always look for the egotustic chump in the community who thinks he is the boss and pointing and ordering everybody around. He gets taken out first and the group fails and falls into chaos. Sun Tzu
When you say you would take out the “ineffective chump” leader first, you make the case against yourself.
You misunderstand in excess.
Even BH1776 misunderstood. When you bleat against community, you misquote Brandon. He said “voluntary community”. There’s a difference.
I don’t say this for your benefit; it is for any readers that may have given credence to your words.
it is not the gews, it is NRA members who piece by piece are convincing people that only reason to have arms is fer squirrel hunt’n?
“The reality is most fights are won through persistence and force of will; there are no shortcuts to defeating tyranny.”
Well said, Brandon. I have been telling this community for seven years that to defeat tyranny, Patriots must organize: increase your power in a group; magnify your voice in an organization.
The best way is your personal participation on the local level as all politics are local. Find a local Tea Party organization in your area and network among them. Then infiltrate the Republican Party and purge the RINOS by voting in the Primaries, for real Patriots.
I have encouraged this community to do this on a regular basis and have suggested that you make a small financial contribution to those Patriots who support your views. In 2018 Trey Gowdy will be up for re-election. He has probably been the most effective Representative in a generation and the most determined voice to defend the US Constitution.
Support Trey Gowdy. Send him $10, at least. As his war chest fills, others will take note of his fund raising power and his influence, already considerable, will increase. America needs 534 more Reps in Congress like Trey Gowdy.
We can make it happen, particularly now that we have a real Patriot in the Oval Office willingly to attack all critics, fake news organizations spewing propaganda, and the Deep State itself.
If not US, who ??? If not now, when ??? 🙂
DK,
Well said! Agree whole heartedly!
Lone wolves have a role for specific missions but ultimately cohesive superior numbers using an indirect, asymmetric approach make for a winning strategy!
To All, Happy New Year of the (under) Dog ? Deplrables!
Louisiana Eagle ?
Patriots have the Left on the run in America and their Marxist pronouncements in the media continue to reveal their true political colors.
Now its time to intensify our defense of liberty and double down on our efforts to expose and decimate the Left at every opportunity through a sustained effort.
Many naysayers here said over the years that voting didn’t matter; if it did the PTB wouldn’t let US do it. What a difference a vote makes. What a difference a year makes !!!
The naysayers LIED to you, My Peeps. 🙂
Beautiful and thank you. I think Socrates would agree.
How To Defeat Tyranny: “There Are No Shortcuts… No Secret Weapon… Only Indomitable Spirit”
Our present descent into tyranny while the people do nothing, suggests that America suffers a case of mass insanity.
Nah. Everybody is waiting for someone else to do something.
Gives credence to the bumper sticker that says:”Quit bitchin’-start your own revolution.”
“Our present descent into tyranny while the people do nothing, suggests that America suffers a case of mass insanity.”
FTW, one of the top statements of the year.
That’s the goal of the dumbing down of America, creating dumb liberal minded followers.
The priveledged left wins again……just sayin
Until we finally say enough and start killing them.
You’re right Menzob, I’ll be damned if I keep turning the other cheek. Once you’ve had both sides smacked, it’s game on. I agree with the article that we – us here – will have to fight not for ourselves solely; rather, for those to come. Most of us here are old enough that we’re not breeding much. I’ll be happy to die to ensure my grandkids inherit an earth that allows them the chance to be free.
Enough is now.
The indomitable snowman is my trouble right at the moment
The Achilles Heel are the Congressional Primaries. Few vote. Grassroots candidates stand a chance without big $$$ backing them.
Eat the Rich.
And in another attempt to add to the list of mental disorders so you cannot own a gun, the WHO says playing video games is a mental disorder.
ht tp://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/12/26/video-game-gaming-disorder/
Every person can fight Tyranny. It starts by boycotting and cutting the TV cable cord of Lie Propaganda TV pollution of the brain. Get out of the cities and phony taxes. Be self sufficient and off their GREED Grid. Stop feeding the beast that is destroying your freedoms. Stop paying taxes or minimize your tax liabilities as much as possible. Stop shopping at Amazon and ditch all Google and Apple Products and get off Fraud Book facial recognition spy ware site for F@cks sake. Stupid is..
The tyranny is much too far advanced to slow down or reverse in my view. Ain’t going to happen. Some signs of that happening, I’m still waiting. Trump is nothing more than an extension of total tyranny, he advances that agenda without fail. Stuck in the two party bamboozle. The wealthy got their grossly enriching tax cut to no benefit but their own. That must mean price hikes across the board for lifes necessities will be curbed because of the successful tax swindle. Think again.
The desire for a “quick fix” is the sin by which liberty dies.
So called “conservatives” have jumped on the bandwagon of stupid embracing a “Convention of States” or “Article 5 Convention” in order to amend the Constitution because we do not force our elected thugs to follow it. A balanced budget and term limits are the bait they use to entice state legislators to call for a convention. What the naive do not realize is that the Articles of Confederation incorporated term limits, they were discussed during the debate in the summer of 1787 and dismissed. When term limits are imposed power does not cease to exist it simply flows from the elected politician to the hired staff who know far more about the rules and procedures of the legislative body and who know the lobbyist representing the various factions. (aka special interests).
Likewise, anyone who comprehends our current debt based monetary system knows that without a continuous increase in the national debt (owed to the privately owned federal reserve) then the increase in currency is stopped and depression ensues.
The convention they desire is the gateway to their regional governments and subsequently world government with a global citizenship, global currency and global religion.
There is no “quick fix” solution to repair the generations of people that have been indoctrinated into the love of socialism by the idiots running public “education.” We have elections every other year but without an electorate that understands we already possess all of the tools necessary to restrict the burgeoning police state in the Constitution if only we could elect wise and honest lawmakers who respected their Article 6, Clause 3 oath of office.
Our other, almost insurmountable problem is the loud mouthed tin foil hatters proclaiming America is a privately owned corporation, fringe on the flag means a different law, non resident aliens and wages cannot be taxed and other silly nonsense. Guys like Steve Quayle and others are as detrimental to our cause as Beer Bellied Bob and his Band of Bigoted Buffoons prancing thru the woods decked out in XXXL camo with their AK’s, AR’s, MRE’s and cheap, Chinese radios. Just a tidbit of info, if your group is not established by state statute or charter, your officers are not appointed by the governor of your state and you are not training according to the discipline prescribed by Congress (see Article 1, Section 8, Clause 16 of the US Constitution) you are lawfully indistinguishable from the Crips or the Bloods.
The author is correct on one thing; lone wolves may have better “opsec” however if you are lacking support from your S2, S3 & S4 your time is limited with nothing to show at the end other than becoming part of the food chain a little later than the mobs of ignoramuses in the cities. For liberty to live on the fire must be kindled in the hearts and minds of the youth that they may one day seek to survive and thrive without the “security” provided by the Department of Homeland Security.
Even the lions are afraid of the rats.