March Away From, Not On, Washington

It’s being labeled a historic event, although few are willing to talk in terms of actual numbers, but the latest March on Washington, held on September 12, is what the mass media likes to call the largest ever “conservative” gathering in American history.

Funny how they like to use that word as a sort of catch-all to describe anyone and everything opposed to nearly total government everywhere at all times. Don’t like paying taxes? You’re a “conservative.” Own guns? “Conservative.” Don’t like the United Nations? “Conservative.” Feel you should run your own life your way? You get the picture.

To suggest that everyone who showed up for this event in D.C. on Saturday is right-wing, with all of the authoritarianism and inconsistency that implies, is a preposterously shallow propaganda ploy. It seeks to create a single enemy, an easily defined cadre to be isolated and then rigorously and righteously opposed by big government leftists. “Conservative” bad, “liberal” good. To intelligently include any wider variety of small to zero government philosophies would be to actually participate in getting the readers, viewers, and listeners to think. That won’t do for a media whose job it is to dumb down and control the population.

Undoubtedly there were a lot of right-wingers at Saturday’s shindig. I’m quite sure there were also strict constitutionalists, Libertarian Party folk, Patriot and militia groups, Alex Jones 9/11 truthers, populist types – maybe even a few anarchists. I’m arguing the anarchists shouldn’t have been there (if they were).

Don’t get me wrong – I’m all in favor of letting government people know you want them the hell off your back and out of your life without exception or compromise, but that should always be done within the context of a manner that shows you don’t care about them. You’re not begging them for anything or to even act in a certain way – any more than you would beg a robber, murderer, or thief to pretty-please change their ways and not be so cruel or heavy-handed. These despicable individuals are to be shunned, ignored, ostracized from society altogether. You don’t send that message by showing up in crowds of thousands at the seat of government. You do it by ignoring them in favor of your own life and personal pursuits. You do it by not working a government job, not voting, paying as little in tax as humanly possible, homeschooling your kids, and staying away from political campaigns and bureaucrats.

In the long run, Saturday’s event will likely have little effect – sure, it might sway a few “blue dog” Democrats to vote against Obamacare or tax increases for the rest of their current terms in office, but it won’t seriously undermine anything. Now, instead, imagine the effect if the percentage of eligible voters participating in November, 2010, were to drop into the single digits? Imagine if the same percentage of parents stopped sending their kids into public schools. Imagine a like portion of soldiers, IRS agents, and policemen all walking off the job and entering the private sector job market. Where would this leave the politicians and bureau-rats? How much power would any of them exercise over anyone then?

There are precisely no answers to be found in legitimizing the inherent illegitimacy of government by pandering to it as an institution. The only effective means of reducing government at all is by advocating its fullscale dissolution. The only way that happens is by walking away altogether. When, unlike Obama and his political cronies, you’re ready to effect some real “change,” that’s all you’ll need to do.

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Fighting Fascism
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Free Markets & Capitalism?
Organization Theory
Conscience of an Anarchist