Lawyers, Guns and Money


Wolf DeVoon

Recommended Posts

Lawyers, Guns and Money
anti-state.com
by Wolf DeVoon
5/11/2005

Living free has its awkwardnesses. It offers almost zero leverage to project power and influence. No power to raise an army. Insufficient influence to force a billion Catholics to utter slightly different magic words.

Freemen tend to be loners, living on the margins of society by choice or side-constraint. If you don't file tax returns, it's red flag scary to have W-2 employment. If you speak your mind in public and mention the right to resist tyranny, please do so with both eyes wide open, alert to the consequences. Federal prosecutors delight in treason and tax evasion cases. They're slam dunk red-white-and-blue resume builders. During a "time of war," acknowledging the simple truth that the U.S. is an imperial aggressor can get you fired if you teach in Colorado (Ward Churchill) or life in prison (Ali Al-Timimi) if you teach in Virginia.

Hence, a hefty majority of pleasure seekers worldwide prefer the Me Generation tactic of selling one's mind and body wholesale to gain a sizable pot of plunder by fair means or foul, supposedly to bask in the lap of liberty later on as a retired recluse who likes to prune roses. Go in peace asshole and sin no more, that's the philistine fantasy of redemption – as if delayed gratification will automatically absolve all guilt, no matter how personally reptilean or complicit one was in maintaining the state (U.S., U.K., P.R.C., Russia, etc).

Redemption doesn't work that way in reality. Once an asshole, always an asshole. I've seen them by the jetload in Costa Rica. Made a pile of money working construction or in real estate or dope dealing with a Top Secret security clearance – now pretending to be Average Joe Nice Guys, no different than anyone else, except they have a couple million bulging in their back pockets and a cyclone fence topped with razor wire around Home Sweet Fortress, a hilltop bunker overlooking the Pacific that they never feel quite free enough to exit for a breath of conversational fresh air. It's so-o-o much easier and less threatening to hire a squad of hapless, interchangeable whores to boss around the kitchen and poolside.

Prostitution has prerequisites and job qualifications. Whatever you propose to put on the street has to be just what the johns like to fuck, forgive my french. Independence, self-respect and courage automatically disqualify you from innumerable opportunities. Can't cheerfully clean toilets at Goldman Sachs if you're disloyal to The Way Things Are. Can't drive a car or ride an airplane without faking your obeisance again and again, like a slave. Can't order hillbilly and Hispanic grunts to die in combat, unless you wave Old Glory in one hand and a Bible in the other, singing a bellicose battle hymn from the teleprompter.

Look, let's cut to the chase, shall we? Whether rationally or in defiance of an uncomfortable truth, you have chosen (or are perhaps considering) a fugitive's life, perpetually on the run, an outlaw by definition as an anarchist. That's not the sort of thing one does on weekends for fun, while working 9 to 5 as a hamburger flipper for Homeland Security.

The learning curve is so steep that few can succeed as Permanent Tourists, like vagabonds of old. There are very, very few opportunities for advancement unless you master offshore banking and the arcane science of anonymous proxies. Hawala is strictly a family business, so don't ask where you can get started. You can't. And steer clear of those well-intentioned barter exchanges. Don't put your name on anything. Don't join anything. Go underground ASAP and get to know some real anarchists – the criminals who contradict government 24-7 as a career. They'll show you how to get alternate identity papers. They'll teach you life on life's terms, after which it's a good idea to exit stage left. Quietly use that new birth certificate and relocate, preferably with a new hairstyle and new shoes.

There are hundreds of cities at home and abroad to disappear to, so it doesn't have to be Borneo or outer space. Two or three thousand miles does a world of good, separating you from friends and family. Family is a personal security issue. If you keep phoning home, your freedom is fairy dust. I personally believe that family ties and best buds are the chief obstacles to liberty. Government is historically and inherently unable to accomplish much of anything, whether in Vietnam or Iraq or searching for Taxpayer 309-51-3272 whose identity got blurred by lack of current information and a database glitch. Friends and family are much sterner foes than bonehead government. Anarchy means standing on your own two feet, no obligations. None.

Paradoxically, all this can be and must be achieved in the comfort of your own living room, no matter which brain you pilot solo into the great Unknown. Anarchists are people. We find it easy and natural to fall in love, laugh, conceive kids, work for a living, keep pets, chat with neighbors, watch TV, and everything else that normal people do. No one begins life ex nihilo or sprung from the head of Zeus fully armed. Life is a series of challenges and blunders mixed with difficult decisions. No matter where you start, no matter who clings to your emotional jacket sleeve, the core issue is always autonomy and moral independence.

"The moral is the chosen, not the forced." [Ayn Rand]

Okay, okay, lighten up – once in a while Old Potato Face got it right, no matter what else you or I think of her. The purpose of market anarchism is moral freedom. What you do with that freedom is a personal and individual headache. Consorting with criminals for a time usually persuades sensible people to try another career path. But clinging to old cronies, parents, church elders and holy writs is absolutely toxic to moral freedom. For 30 years or so I was an Objectivist, although excommunicated several times starting in 1973 when Rand ordered my name struck from The Ayn Rand Letter subscriber list. A "student of Objectivism" in good standing is akin to being an Amish female. You can't question the Good Book or the Big Cheese too openly or, like archangel Lucifer, you'll be summarily banished from further contact with the elect.

I bring this up to emphasize the importance of looking beyond the canon of history, however wonderfully enlightened our forefathers and mothers were. Moral freedom and market anarchism exist for the valhalla of fresh discovery. The implicit goal of Liberty, for all concerned including the least privileged, is to glimpse a vista Unknown to others.

The fate of future generations hangs on this question, for without adventurers and innovative leaps away from the beaten path our innocent progeny are damned. All it takes is one or two Voltaires and a McElroy every thirty years to keep mankind free of stagnation and periodically pop the balloon of institutional group think. As an anarchist, you're 100% prequalified to help search out strange new worlds, perhaps build one as a test. Our team built a humdinger. Took seven years and $7 million, attracting three hundred participants on six continents. Now it's your turn at the helm of history.

Most of the big stuff is paradoxical. The fate of the world is yours to squander as you see fit, and you are under absolutely no obligation to anybody except yourself. Thomas Edison tinkered on projects for his own pleasure, nonprofit. Edison's customers were few and disgruntled; Tesla and Westinghouse made power generation and transmission practical. Rich benefactors helped Edison keep tinkering. He went broke six times, had to romance new investors for practically each new project. No time or inclination for children or home life. That's the cruel lifestyle of an innovator, attempting something unique and unprecedented.

Crime is not unique. Freedom philosophy already has a pantheon of honored heroes and heroines, plenty of precedent – so, moral freedom is meaningless if you wobble along the tried and true NAP libertarian path. There is an anecdote I trundle out on such occasions. Tibor Machan was lounging on my patio, getting hot under the collar, and suddenly thundered: "It's important to be right!" – to which I replied: "It's more important to be original."

This being the case, I recommend some handy travel accessories. Look for a good lawyer. I have three and I'm always hunting for more. Good lawyers are knowledgeable, sympathetic, and sworn to confidentiality. They'll help you create corporations, move money, and deflect angry Romulans when you goof up. Error is an important part of R&D. My Los Angeles attorney has counseled and represented me for 25 years, often pro bono. He dislikes working for free (don't we all?) and I try not to abuse that privilege. His specialty is tax shelters and offshore trusts. I never had any dough to hide, but I needed contracts, intellectual property documents, structured negotiations with screwballs, etc. Good lawyers are a gift from Madison. They ain't supposed to be personal friends or flunkies. Treat your attorney like a medical doctor. If you have a legal ailment, your advocate's job is diagnosis and therapy. Don't fib to him or evade his questions.

You'll also need a gun from time to time. Learn to shoot a 9mm automatic, a .45 automatic, a .38 revolver, and a spoonsized .22 or .25, which are the most widely available sidearms. You don't need to buy a gun or carry one, unless you happen to be in a dodgy situation. Such contingencies are rare, and you'll have ample advance warning that, oh shit, maybe it's time to carry a gun. If and when that happens, there is no comfy interval to learn how to shoot and likely no practice range nearby. That's the point of studying self-defense long before it's needed. Expand your options by learning karate. Buy a road map and compass, so you know where the emergency exits and campgrounds are. Simple boy scout stuff. Be prepared.

Lastly, put some money aside for emergencies. A few thousand bucks on a debit card is enough. Try not to spend it. Wherever you go in life, whatever project you find yourself creating, make sure that it's a paying proposition right from jump street. Don't touch your reserve fund, the sole purpose of which is to ameliorate a genuine emergency. I've had several such emergencies. In Central Java, I had to rescue two damsels and myself on expired visas. In Holland, a big project (my first feature) went kablooey. In 1979, when Three Mile Island blew up, I suddenly needed a hotel room in Washington and a plane ticket to Harrisburg. In Sydney three years later, I bailed a mother of two out of jail and hired a lawyer to defend her. So, no matter what you think you're doing or how Plan A is supposed to proceed, hold back a couple grand for disaster relief.

In other words, pick up the three tools of state: lawyers, guns and money. They're helpful and rightly yours to explore the Unknown terrain of a freer, less irrational future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Federal prosecutors delight in treason and tax evasion cases. They're slam dunk red-white-and-blue resume builders. During a "time of war," acknowledging the simple truth that the U.S. is an imperial aggressor can get you fired if you teach in Colorado (Ward Churchill) or life in prison (Ali Al-Timimi) if you teach in Virginia.

Ward Churchill lost his tenure and his professorship because of plagiarism1 and research misconduct. Ali Al-Timini was not a professor in Virginia but a self-styled lecturer on Islam -- he was convicted of, essentially, terror charges, eliciting members of a Jihad network to make war against the USA overseas in Afghanistan. Treason? It seems so, as "on Sept. 16, 2001[... ]Timimi told his followers that 'the time had come for them to go abroad and join the mujaheddin engaged in violent jihad in Afghanistan'"2

[...] Thomas Edison tinkered on projects for his own pleasure, nonprofit. Edison's customers were few and disgruntled; Tesla and Westinghouse made power generation and transmission practical. Rich benefactors helped Edison keep tinkering. He went broke six times, had to romance new investors for practically each new project. No time or inclination for children or home life. That's the cruel lifestyle of an innovator, attempting something unique and unprecedented.

This seems to be larded with a bit of fiction. Edison was a prolific inventor (and holder of valuable patents). Tesla worked for Edison (and quarrelled, and died broke and miserable by all accounts). Westinghouse favoured AC over DC current (and of course AC mostly won). Edison had two wives, with three children by each. He may not have married and fathered as much as Wolf, or participated in child-rearing to a greater degree than any of us here, but -- If Edison is being used as an example of a 'cruel lifestyle,' the example does not do its job. I have no idea where to find information on his six bankruptcies ...

(these may be picayune corrections. Wolf is a good writer, punchy and engaging, so he may be using examples on the fly, from remembered details rather than from on-the-desk research. I really enjoyed the story from Constitution of Government in Galt's Gulch, "Walking to Ayrshire." When he writes the unvarnished biography, his prose is rich and compelling, full of complex emotions. He is not afraid to expose his heart)

__________________

1. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/plag/5240451.0002.004/--ward-churchills-twelve-excuses-for-plagiarism?rgn=main;view=fulltext

2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/13/AR2005071302169.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20140704_5.jpg

If ice had the same density as salt water one could not see an iceberg at all and accidents at sea would be more frequent and worse.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wolf:

I loved this essay.

I am a lawyer, a black belt in Okinwan Kenpo, and am decently well off.

What do I do now?**

------

**Just kidding. I work most Saturdays because I love what I do, have pretty good health, cherish my family, and study the Stoics, of late. This is sufficient for tranquility of mind, and maybe even flourishing. Good enough for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now