Something there is that doesn’t love a government
Tuesday, November 6th, 2012Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
— from “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost
—–
The first polls are closing on the East coast as I start this. We know that, come January 20, some statist will occupy the White House and believe he’s the lord of us all.
He’ll preside over the growth of the welfare state and the warfare state.
He’ll claim the right to kill us at will or lock us up without due process.
He’ll preside over the destruction of U.S. currency.
He’d flunk a test on the Bill of Rights. And even if he managed a C- in theory, he’d get an F in practice.
He’ll continue the War on Drugs and the centralization and bureaucratization of health care.
He’ll serve powerful interests, which — it goes without saying — don’t include us.
He’ll grow the surveillance state and feed the paranoid Homeland (achtung!) Security state.
The country and the world will continue down the established path, despite the efforts of people outside of government to turn the course.
It will be a terrible state of affairs. All hail tonight’s victor, whoever he may be!
—–
And tomorrow … and on January 21, should we live so long … we’ll wake up and live in a world that goes on undermining the wall.
Our gardens will still grow.
Our friends will still love us (if we didn’t let the spites of politics get in the way).
Our families will still be as happy or as dysfunctional as they were before.
If we own guns, we’ll still own them. If we want more, we’ll still get them.
Whatever we want and can afford, we’ll still get, whether over the counter or under the table.
Despite the surveillance state, most of what we do will remain our own business.
Despite the growth of bureaucracy and enforcement, most of our activities will still slip between the cracks.
And no matter whether tyranny begins with an R or a D, a remnant of Americans — and others around the world — will continue holding, and teaching, and living, a different set of values.
And the more noisome the miasma that arises from the D.C. swamp, the more our little remnant will grow.
Thousands of those young people who discovered a rock star in old, wrinkled “wingnut,” Ron Paul, will be looking for a “what next,” and that “what” may, or may not, take political form. Thousands of those young civil libertarians who got buffaloed into thinking Barack Obama was their hero will be looking for liberty in a different direction.
Thousands of other people who don’t care anything about politics, but do care about things like alternative health care or wholesome foods, will look around and continue the process of withdrawal.
Withdrawal from the overly centralized, overly bureaucratized, over-lawed, de-humanized, grossly militarized, excessively criminalized, etcetera-fied everpresent Established System.
Withdrawal into alternative money and trade systems, health care systems, food-production systems, gun-manufacturing systems, lifestyles, and phyles of infinite description.
And beneath all that “passive” withdrawal lies the beating heart of the most powerful resistance. Pulsing and pushing as relentlessly as frost in the ground, slowly undermining the wall.
November 6th, 2012
Goddam.
That’s beautiful, Claire.
November 6th, 2012
Amen. And yes, it is.
November 6th, 2012
Thank you, Joel. That means a lot coming from such a good writer.
I’d been wondering all day what I’d write about the election outcome and never got a clue. Then while I was washing dishes after supper, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall” came into my head — a line I probably haven’t heard or thought of in decades.
The mind. It’s a very strange thing.
November 6th, 2012
Washing dishes, fleshing a deer skin, splitting firewood, and edging my parents’ lawn are the best ways to allow the crap in my mind to grow into something writable. Glad to see it isn’t just me.
November 6th, 2012
The small man
builds cages for everyone
he
knows.
While the sage,
who has to duck his head
when the moon is low,
keeps dropping keys all night long
for the
beautiful
rowdy
prisoners.
–Hafiz
And yes…Good stuff, Claire. Poetic, even.
November 6th, 2012
Thank you, Claire. That is comforting!
I’ve grown my network of freedom-minded individuals and families over the last couple of years and that has also been rewarding, comforting and satisfying, … no matter which pre-packaged statist does indeed end up with the microphone this time.
November 6th, 2012
“keeps dropping keys all night long
for the
beautiful
rowdy
prisoners.”
Now that’s poetry. And a great thought. Thanks, Beth.
November 6th, 2012
Thank you, JS — and glad to know you’re still around. I was wondering about you the other day.
November 6th, 2012
Wow, that helped a lot. I let myself get caught up with the mess forgetting that I never asked for permission from the powers that be to do anything.I was just worried about the speed at which we would move to total tyranny if we didn’t exchange tyrants. Glad you provided this post
November 6th, 2012
Oh yeah, I’m always peeking in. Hooked, I’m afraid! And a continuous thank you for all you do.
Looks like Crony Socialism beat Crony Capitalism. But I’m glad I read your blog earlier tonight because it offered me such an important reminder where true freedom begins. I’m ready to begin ignoring – withdrawing from – the distractions again and focus on growing my network. Ironically, my network consists of good folks from across the spectrum and a good portion of liberals, or progressives they tell me is the term. I think I’m going to have success drawing them away over the years simply because they’re in this group – they all believe in certain aspects of personal freedom of course, but many told me how they hoped a third party would eventually win a presidential election. That’s a start. I’m still passing around Bad Attitude and am currently reading Tom Sowell’s Intellectuals and Society. However, now nobody wants to debate me! Armed with knowledge.
November 6th, 2012
amen!
November 7th, 2012
If you still have the energy look up the list of pro-freedom initiatives that passed, many of them handily.
I’m hoping that leaders of both parties will take a hint from that trend, but I’m not holding my breath.
November 7th, 2012
Nice Job Claire. I must say that we now have a lot more debt than Greece. I’m simply not sure that Obama has the means to continue too much further down, “The State Uber Alles”, path. One interesting thing about the income tax is they are increasing it by a substantial amount but if we make less so will they. Like all socialists they are about to suffer the pain of reality. We can help reality taking route by not making money or supporting them in any way shape or form.
November 7th, 2012
According to the IMF the per person debt of the US is about 35 percent higher than Greece. I’m not sure they have much left to steal.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/us-person-debt-now-35-percent-higher-greece_660409.html
November 7th, 2012
Claire, this is the stuff by which the human spirit is renewed. It is, indeed, poetry; more importantly, it puts the wherewithal to make it back in action. Thank you!
I’ve been in a blue funk all day and went to bed early, only to read “four more years” on my computer screen a few minutes ago. I don’t know where this country is going, but it will surely be downhill. (And would have been with Romney as well, but probably not as fast. Or maybe I should wish it were fast to get it over with, so we can start over.)
There are times when this country feels like ‘one step forward, two steps back’, and we hope it will end soon. But for it to end for any of us, we would have to die – and I’ll be damned if I’m going to die for their incompetence and pigheaded Marxism! I may die in prison (for no health insurance), or on the street (homeless or by mugging), but not out of despair because some idiot thinks he knows more than I do about how to run my life.
In a few months I will be moving. Before that I plan to start a private venture, get rid of a number of extraneous items (and a few hanger-on ideas), and come to terms with 200 years of people-control that has turned American enterprise, courage and independence into a helpless, spineless amoeba. America is dead – it just doesn’t know it yet.
November 7th, 2012
Excellent post Claire and kudos to the Commentariat, too. Waking up this morning to the results, I don’t feel any particular elation or despair. I didn’t even bother to turn on the computer until after I had fed the animals, made coffee and lit the morning fire – same old same old. The course has long been set and will play out, for better or worse. My greatest emotion at this point is relief that the “campaign” is over and all the lies and distortions and half truths of political ads won’t be constantly screamed in my face.
November 7th, 2012
So true, Claire! Beautifully said. Thanks so much for the breath of fresh air. :)
November 7th, 2012
Thanks, your words resonate with many. While we may be not be heard, our passion is as deep as any.
November 7th, 2012
Thanks Claire, I badly needed that this morning
November 7th, 2012
Wow! Fight back smarter. Thank you Claire for the sensible, liberty-minded, self-owning encouraging words. Keep doing the stuff!
November 7th, 2012
We are the Little Folk–we!
Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and you’ll see
How we can drag down the State!
We are the worm in the wood!
We are the rot at the root!
We are the taint in the blood!
We are the thorn in the foot!
Kipling, “A Pict Song”
http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/pict_song.html
November 7th, 2012
Nicely said Claire, thank you.
November 7th, 2012
Thank you Claire. Resistance doesn’t have to be loud, theatrical, or large groups chanting together.
Thanks.
November 7th, 2012
Three quarters of my family is now at #8.
November 7th, 2012
Thank you Claire, that was very comforting. I woke up, actually that is a misnomer, I really never slept thinking the worse after I saw the results. However after reading your post this morning I remembered that I didn’t ask for permission before and I am not going to start now. I will simply continue building my personal freedom just as I have been for the last 4 years.
I am reminded of the line from the original Star Wars movie that Princess Leia said to the Imperial Commander… ” the more you tighten your grip the more star systems will slip through your fingers” meaning the tyrants will never win because the human spirit will simply not allow it and the elections will come and go, but how we deal with the day to day results of them will always remain on a trajectory of freedom.
November 7th, 2012
Joel said what I was thinking..
November 7th, 2012
@Samuel Adams- Cool! I don’t Kipple as often as I should.
And thanks, Claire. You do inspire good thoughts.
November 7th, 2012
Is it just me, or does the ever-more-encompassing convergence of the two Anointed Parties seem really promising to you guys too? I think it means they’re afraid.
Of us.
So they don’t dare let go the reins…but of course ever-tighter control is not sustainable.
I’m not saying everything will come up roses for everybody. But I really do think the current system is on its way out.
November 7th, 2012
I was hoping for a Romney win, not because I thought he’d be much better, but because it would’ve meant that people were dissatisfied enough with the status quo to change it. Granted, it would have been like getting a makeover when what you need is to dump an abusive husband, but sometimes that’s exactly what people do. They aren’t ready to face the big, scary, dramatic change that they need, so they try making small, superficial changes to see if it helps. It’s just part of the process for some folks.
Unfortunately, it would seem there are an awful lot of people who like the status quo.
November 7th, 2012
Beautiful, Claire!! Thank You! Don’t discount your many friends North of your Upper Border, ready to help where, when or as needed. We’ll get through this, together.
November 7th, 2012
Much ink will be spilled over this election, but yours, Claire is spilled in the right direction. We must look to the future and live life as it was meant to be lived.
November 7th, 2012
Thank you Claire,
For the lifted lamp.
On phyles:
We call ours a tribe, but we are out here where tribe is still a known cultural entity. Our tribe likes being a tribe. :) Most would need to figure out phyles. We know tribe. :)
Some of the tribe live close, some further away, some are in India, China, Borneo, and Egypt, as well as other scatterings I do not presently recall. We are a tribe of spirit and mind rather than of place or blood.
I think everyone in our tribe is happy to also be a part of the anarchist Nation. I use the term Nation in the sense of the Sioux Nation, for instance, not in the sense of political boundaries created or held by force.
Thank you for a wonderful way to greet this day after something happened which I was fortunate to miss entirely until someone called to discuss the comedy and the farce.
Thank you.
feralfae
November 7th, 2012
“Now that’s poetry. And a great thought. Thanks, Beth.”
Nah, thank you instead. That poem I posted describes, to a T, classic Claire-writing like this post.
Besides, if I have to be a prisoner, I darn well wanna be a beautiful, rowdy one. ;^)
November 7th, 2012
Our nation is now the obamanation “abomination” only on the surface for below are the puppet masters known as the Bilderberger Group and the trilateral commission “CFR”. After Reagan deregulated the banks allowing them to make risky investments with “our” money…the ones guilty of the ebb and flow of our personal monetary loss and their monetary gains… causing a global economic tsunami…the very same now sit in obama’s cabinet…if it were any of us…”regular citizens”, we would be buried beneath a prison with our life viewed as heinous criminals…instead, these individuals with the money spread a web of deceit that affects the judgement of those elected to serve us, in a manner which causes those we trusted to: abuse and manipulate our sacred foundation in order to serve themselves and abuse us…selling out our sovereignty for greed, power and a subverted ideology…history does repeat itself as all others attempting to rule the world…thank you Claire
November 7th, 2012
Beautiful, thank you for making me feel better tonight!
November 8th, 2012
So close, for much of the evening…and more divided than I think I’ve ever seen it….
It’s more work and more things for those of us who dodge or try to stay ahead of it (as much as possible)…..Fight smarter, indeed…..
November 8th, 2012
Present day America is a perfect example of “the Theory of Dissipative Structures”: simply, any system is conceived to account for all the available data at its time of inception. As time passes, more data appears-some fits- no problem- some doesn’t fit, inducing stress or “perturbation” until the whole thing is shaken apart and a new system of organization is implemented that accounts for all the known data. New data appears… Now consider: When America was founded, things moved at “horse & buggy” speed and the “doubling rate” of knowledge was measured in centuries; today, things move at nearly the speed of light, and the doubling rate of knowledge is measured in months. Most of our woes are thus accounted for, as well as the certainty that a new system will form in due course… “Duty is ours. Results are God’s.” Claire, thank you for your clear perspective and your inspiration. May your tribe increase.
November 8th, 2012
“Thousands of those young civil libertarians who got buffaloed into thinking Barack Obama was their hero will be looking for liberty in a different direction.”
I suspect they were all gone this time around. Problem is, all those young NON-civil-libertarians who still think he is the second coming.
November 9th, 2012
Yep … add me to the list.
Thanks Claire for the reminder that all of the “theater” that can be drummed up in DC or wherever is still just smoke in the wind as far as a Free person is concerned.
stay safe,
g
November 12th, 2012
You don’t have to care about fad diets or medicine from the middle ages to support ron paul and be a freedom lover.