What’s an Outlaw to Do?
When all the world has gone insane … when all the news about freedom is bad … when you’re tempted to say, “Screw it” and give up hope, remember:
We are a silent army
An army of the mind. An army without hierarchy, without officers, without commands. We are an army of the intellect and the spirit that can never be targeted, bombed, or shot into submission.
We are invisible, which sometimes discourages us, but which is our secret strength.
We are masters of subversion
The subtle statement that gets our neighbors thinking. The helping hand extended. The act of independence. The idea that bursts the boundaries of the box. These are our weapons.
The power of self-defense is the defense of all. The power of one person to change minds becomes the power of many minds changed.
The power of defiance is a beginning. The far stronger power of creative disregard becomes a weapon of mass construction.
Just when change seems most unlikely … change happens.
Shrug
Withdraw your consent. Stop cooperating.
You have no obligation to bear all the world’s pains. You have no duty to accept whatever’s imposed upon you against your will. The only obligations you must carry are your self-obligations — and with creativity they may be made lighter.
You owe nothing to those who want only to use and abuse you. You owe everything to your highest self.
Live
Don’t let the bastards grind you down.
Don’t grind yourself down by focusing on the bastards. Have a life. Have your life.
Be a trickster
It tips the hierarchy. It enlivens the world. It surprises. It generates thought. It’s fun. It annoys the bastards. Why not?
Be dashing
Like a True Outlaw. It beats the heck out of being dashed.
Breathe
Pray. Meditate. Watch a sunrise. What works for you. Freedom is spiritual before (and after) it’s political.
We are everywhere
The man next to you on the subway may be a Freedom Outlaw.
The woman who does your hair. The bright young college student running for student-body president. The kid who delivers your pizza. The little girl across the street playing with her cat. You may never know them. But your allies, or potential allies, are out there. Everywhere. Anywhere.
Be steady
When all around you are following fads, pursuing witch hunts, or reacting hysterically to the moment’s cynically managed news, be steady. Later, you’ll have nothing to regret while others — if they’re at all conscious — come to their senses and blush at the follies that swept them out of their sanity.
We will never “fix the world” but …
We can form a web of light around it. We can en-light-en ourselves, lighten our load, and throw some rays into the darkness.
We can go sane and lead a few along the way.
May 5th, 2011 at 4:37 am
Thanks for this reminder, Claire, and summation.
“Freedom is spiritual before (and after) it’s political.”
Freedom Outlaws are all “spiritual” before we can become political.
May 5th, 2011 at 5:03 am
Thanks Claire. This was a much needed read, and reminder, for our home today.
May 5th, 2011 at 6:28 am
Thank you, Claire!
This reinforces the idea that “cautiously looking around” may be a sign of enemy-hunting paranoia or it could be carefully looking for allies.
May 5th, 2011 at 6:41 am
That’s quite beautiful, thanks for the smile you gave me.
May 5th, 2011 at 6:47 am
Very well said!
May 5th, 2011 at 7:00 am
Thank you, guys. :-)
Wendy McElroy also has a great reminder of what matters:
http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.3951
May 5th, 2011 at 7:44 am
That was beautiful, Claire.
May 5th, 2011 at 9:10 am
Ay-men, preach it, sister..great words for this sunny Thursday. If you don’t mind, I want to add one tiny comment-something I learned in high school..a great many “important” things can be totally and completely ignored,and many of these “important” things involve fees/permits/filling out of endless forms…a great starting point is learning what youcan ignore.
May 5th, 2011 at 9:28 am
Thank You :)
This is copied and hangin on the wall….
May 5th, 2011 at 9:53 am
Excellent as always!
May 5th, 2011 at 10:24 am
That was excellent. Thank You
May 5th, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Thought provoking and inspiring as always!
May 5th, 2011 at 2:32 pm
I’ll be using that one. :)
May 5th, 2011 at 4:33 pm
You knew just what I needed to read. Thanks!
May 5th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
I like the words…Freedom Outlaws. I think I’ll start walking with a little swagger.
May 5th, 2011 at 6:12 pm
This is good ol’ fashioned, vintage, brand-new Claire-writing. :^)
May 5th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Very well said, ma’am, and timely too.
May 5th, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Thanks, Claire, this is lovely and so true
May 5th, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Well said Claire.
Stay Safe,
gooch
freedomoutlawsdotcom
May 5th, 2011 at 9:04 pm
http://overgrowgmos.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Henry-David-Thoreau_sm.gif
May 5th, 2011 at 9:11 pm
An outstanding reminder of why we care about Freedom & Liberty in the first place. We must not spend every moment fighting for it and fail to enjoy what we have at this very moment.
Kerodin
III
May 5th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
I am an old man.
All these years I have been trying to “fix” our oppressors.
You have made me realize we can’t fix ‘em.
Whatever it is to be free, I will now just DO IT.
Even if the bastards kill me for it, I will have been free for that time, and I will then be free forever after.
And it will have annoyed them.
With any luck, some of the bastards will follow my sterling example and become free, too, to the great annoyance of the other bastards.
May 5th, 2011 at 11:25 pm
One of my favorite ways of dealing with the world, is to go insane. Then the rest of the world would seem, finally, sane in comparison.
Besides nobody wants to get involved with a nut, so they’ll leave you alone.
: }
May 6th, 2011 at 7:03 am
just what I needed to hear after watching the fed-propped banks attack silver, lie about unemployment #s, inflation accelerating, etc …
lex axa carborundum!
May 6th, 2011 at 7:12 am
I never forget that, “The woman who does your hair. The bright young college student running for student-body president. The kid who delivers your pizza. The little girl across the street playing with her cat.”, may be the one that turns you in for *suspicious behavior* just because. Be very cautious.
May 6th, 2011 at 9:23 am
I might wind up draped in chains, shackles and manacles, dropped in the darkest hole of the dreariest prison, but I will never cease to be Free. I’m the one that gets to decide, not some govt employee.
May 6th, 2011 at 10:17 am
https://secondrealm.net/
The crypto-finance community is already forming a shadow economy.
Withdraw your consent!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjo
May 6th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Collectivists, Statists and blood suckers of all types want you to think you are alone and weak. Like they used to say in the ’60s, ‘Free your mind and your a$$ will follow’.
May 6th, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Marry me Claire! ’cause I’m your Freedom Outlaw Huckleberry….
May 6th, 2011 at 11:17 pm
Take back the Slut!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42927752/ns/us_news-life/t/cops-rape-comment-sparks-wave-slutwalks/
Did you know there were this many?
May 7th, 2011 at 9:54 am
Thanks, Claire. That was just what I needed this morning!
May 7th, 2011 at 11:00 am
So who all is working on getting thier local agora started?
May 7th, 2011 at 6:59 pm
[...] Hot Little Article at the backwoodshome website, and have yourself a read. Claire Wolfe is a premiere freedom advocate, and she can boost one’s freedom spirit, when it starts to flounder. Her current work, titled “What’s an Outlaw to Do?” points out that real americans that love freedom, (I am thinking that is YOU and ME) can be weapons of mass construction. ha ha I love that term. mass construction. We can promulgate that little spark of liberty in others , keep their candle of liberty lit, and fan those liberty candles. Fan them into flames. Flames that are constructive of that love of freedom. That keep that freedom fire burning in the minds and hearts of real americans everywhere. [...]
May 8th, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Glenn Jacobs – Here’s to being annoying *toasting*