Monday, October 24, 2011

THE REAL ENEMY


THE REAL ENEMY
The State Is the 1 Percent

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. on October 24, 2011

The "occupy" protest movement is thriving off the claim that the 99 percent are being exploited by the 1 percent, and there is truth in what they say. But they have the identities of the groups wrong. They imagine that it is the 1 percent of highest wealth holders who are the problem. In fact, that 1 percent includes some of the smartest, most innovative people in the country — the people who invent, market, and distribute material blessings to the whole population. They also own the capital that sustains productivity and growth.
But there is another 1 percent out there, those who do live parasitically off the population and exploit the 99 percent. Moreover, there is a long intellectual tradition, dating back to the late Middle Ages, that draws attention to the strange reality that a tiny minority lives off the productive labor of the overwhelming majority.
I'm speaking of the state, which even today is made up of a tiny sliver of the population but is the direct cause of all the impoverishing wars, inflation, taxes, regimentation, and social conflict. This 1 percent is the direct cause of the violence, the censorship, the unemployment, and vast amounts of poverty, too.
Look at the numbers, rounding from latest data. The US population is 307 million. There are about 20 million government employees at all levels, which makes 6.5 percent. But 6.2 million of these people are public-school teachers, whom I think we can say are not really the ruling elite. That takes us down to 4.4 percent.
We can knock of another half million who work for the post office, and probably the same who work for various service department bureaus. Probably another million do not work in any enforcement arm of the state, and there's also the amazing labor-pool fluff that comes with any government work. Local governments do not cause nationwide problems (usually), and the same might be said of the 50 states. The real problem is at the federal level (8.5 million), from which we can subtract fluff, drones, and service workers.
In the end, we end up with about 3 million people who constitute what is commonly called the state. For short, we can just call these people the 1 percent.
The 1 percent do not generate any wealth of their own. Everything they have they get by taking from others under the cover of law. They live at our expense. Without us, the state as an institution would die.
"They do not comprehend that the real enemy is the institution that brainwashes them to think the way they do."Here we come to the core of the issue. What is the state and what does it do? There is vast confusion about this issue, insofar as it is talked about at all. For hundreds of years, people have imagined that the state might be an organic institution that develops naturally out of some social contract. Or perhaps the state is our benefactor, because it provides services we could not otherwise provide for ourselves.
In classrooms and in political discussions, there is very little if any honest talk about what the state is and what it does. But in the libertarian tradition, matters are much clearer. From Bastiat to Rothbard, the answer has been before our eyes. The state is the only institution in society that is permitted by law to use aggressive force against person and property.
Let's understand through a simple example. Let's say you go into a restaurant and hate the wallpaper. You can complain and try to persuade the owner to change it. If he doesn't change it, you can decide not to go back. But if you break in, take money out of the cash register, buy paint, and cover the wallpaper yourself, you will be charged with criminal wrongdoing and perhaps go to jail. Everyone in society agrees that you did the wrong thing.
But the state is different. If it doesn't like the wallpaper, it can pass a law (or maybe not even that) and send a memo. It can mandate a change. It doesn't have to do the repainting: the state can make you repaint the place. If you refuse, you are guilty of criminal wrongdoing.
Same goals, different means, two very different sets of criminals. The state is the institution that essentially redefines criminal wrongdoing to make itself exempt from the law that governs everyone else.
It is the same with every tax, every regulation, every mandate, and every single word of the federal code. It all represents coercion. Even in the area of money and banking, it is the state that created and sustains the Fed and the dollar, because it forcibly limits competition in money and banking, preventing people from making gold or silver money, or innovating in other ways. And in some ways, this is the most dreadful intervention of all, because it allows the state to destroy our money on a whim.
The state is everybody's enemy. Why don't the protesters get this? Because they are victims of propaganda by the state, doled out in public schools, that attempts to blame all human suffering on private parties and free enterprise. They do not comprehend that the real enemy is the institution that brainwashes them to think the way they do.
They are right that society is rife with conflicts, and that the contest is wildly lopsided. It is indeed the 99 percent versus the 1 percent. They're just wrong about the identity of the 1 percent enemy.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I"m sure the poster means well, but part of unlocking the Matrix is seeing it.
It's legal. It's contracts.
If the word 'state' is thrown around as the problem then by definition People are the problem.
A corporation that is acting as a state is more like it, a corporation with employees that are making decisions and has a name of a state is even more accurate, but the State is the People, without the People there is no State.

The People have a right to be governed (place a God before them) or govern themselves (by knowing who they really are); which could be why the Matrix continues to exist because we say we are awake, but many 'still don't know'.

In time they will discover the truth within.
First we stop laying blame outside of 'self'.
This was created by 'man/mankind/us'.
The blame falls upon us and the solution is within us.
Many fingers pointing at us only one pointing away as if it will really make a difference in who Created the circumstances we find ourselves in.

Light and Love.

Doug D. said...

Here's the "wrap-up" of one of my articles, it fits.
There is much information you must have in order to conduct and plan your service to God and Country. For example, you must KNOW who your adversaries are and what they plan and plot in order to control, enslave and destroy you. So, I’ll end this little oration with a particular statement. Maybe you know who, or what, the Babylonian Harlot is; and, maybe you don’t. Therefore, I will draw you a picture; every jack-booted armored code-enforcer that writes those collection tickets against “your” license and every fiction based collector of contraband securities based upon private “Federal Reserve Notes” and every agent that sucks your “currency” from your livelihood are doing one thing, and one thing ONLY. They are feeding the Babylonian Whore; and, so are you when you “license” yourself to them. Put that in your smoke and pipe it.

YOU ARE: either part of the Problem or part of the Solution. You know what you are.

I'd be glad to post the whole article if I knew how.

Anonymous said...

Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. is chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, editor of LewRockwell.com, and author of ...The Left, the Right, and the State. Send him mail. See Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s article archives.You can subscribe to future articles by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. via this RSS feed.
You can receive the Mises Dailies in your inbox.
http://mises.org/daily/5776/The-State-Is-the-1-Percent
http://mises.org/daily/author/275/Llewellyn-H-Rockwell-Jr

Anonymous said...

I am part of the solution. Not licensed to drive, I exercise my right to travel on a daily basis, without a seatbelt, without registration. I also know the legal definitions of the Matrix. I know that words can get One into trouble and I know the words used are 'legal'.

The article mentions the state as the 1%. It's distorted.
Legal definition of state is People and the article mentions there are over 300 million people so that conflicts with the People being the 1%.

I've encountered the quoted "jack-booted armored code-enforcer that writes those collection tickets against "your" license."

Truth is the license belongs to the corporation.
I see it for what it is, and the pen is mightier than the sword. I know about contracts.

If forced into a contract against one's will, indicating it on the contract is the first step in solving the problem created by another.

The tone of communication needs to be with 'Love' as we move forward. There's a way to speak absolutely about an issue and still convey it with the unconditional Love that is the first Truth about who we are.

Light and Love

Anonymous said...

Please, refer to Albert J. Nock's book "Our Enemy, The State" on http://www.barefootsworld.net/nockoets0.html

Kindly, share the book.

Anonymous said...

B.E.G// Brown Eyed Girls’ Video 'Sixth Sense', or How the Elite Controls Opposition. Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:50 // http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/55113-brown-eyed-girls-video-sixth-sense-or-how-the-elite-controls-opposition- //
'Backed by big money and millions of fans, the Korean pop music industry (K-Pop) has taken over the airwaves of Asia and the world. Although groups such as Brown Eyed Girls do not sing in English, they definitely bring to the masses the same Illuminati symbolism pushed by pop stars in the Western world. The video of “Sixth Sense” is a true manifesto of the elite, describing how it controls entertainers and uses them to indoctrinate the masses. This article analyzes the meaning of the symbolism in Brown Eyed Girls’ music video “Sixth Sense”.'....(....)
While listening to the music and admiring their idols’ dancing, the viewers are exposed to a powerful lesson that sticks in the subconscious mind: Resistance is futile. Even worse, resistance does not even exist, as those who appear to be resisting, are just leading you towards the elite’s goal. These kinds of propaganda videos existed under dictatorships, but today they are passed around as “entertainment”. They get massive airplay on MTV, and millions of hits on YouTube. In reality, nobody is forced to watch these videos, but they are nevertheless quite popular. Is there a reason why people willingly subject themselves to this kind of elite propaganda? Yes. These videos appeal to their Sixth Sense … and people like that. //
You might also like, those :
Transhumanism, Psychological Warfare and B.E.P.'s "Imma Be"
Mind Control Theories and Techniques used by Mass Medias
The 2011 VMAs: A Celebration of Today’s Illuminati Music ...
The Transhumanist and Police State Agenda in Pop Music
How Hollywood Spreads Disinformation About Secret Societies.
http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/brown-eyed-girls-video-sixth-sense-or-how-the-elite-controls-opposition/