No Government (Or As Little As Possible)

How the few control the many

The first music video* I ever made (and the first in my series of Beige “micro-fillums”) was approximately 19-20 years ago, around the time I moved to San Francisco. A confirmed lover of wordplay, I had taken a ton of photos of all the clever and creative handmade signs at the anti-war rallies downtown, and later stitched them together in iMovie to make my earnest but naïve plea:

Two decades ago I was far from realizing that the two dominant parties were simply the left and right wings of the same bought-out bird, presented to the gullible public as an illusion of choice. Thus I try not to cringe at my younger, ignorant self encouraging people to vote (yikes… the number of times I placed that sign “Next Time You’ll Vote” in my video, as if voting would have made a difference to the intended outcome; war would always happen regardless). But hey, at least I was sincere in my “civilized nations do not drop bombs on innocents” stance as I imagine most thinking and feeling people, both then and today, are.

*SIDENOTE: It’s embarrassingly pixelated too because at the time I also knew very little about photography, filming, resolution, video-making, etc. (Oh, how much I’ve learned since then, am still learning, and am still keen to learn).

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Oh man, I’ve learned so much in the last 2.5+ years, enough to fully grock that government is a con-trick, as cleverly depicted in this Larken Rose animated video, How The Few Control The Many:

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Yesterday I chanced upon this short video by the brilliant Carey Wedler who answers the knee-jerk response, “so you’d rather do nothing?!?” (cringe, I used to say things like that to non-voters!)

As she writes:

The question is a reflection of how severely government has permeated our consciousness—that voting is considered the only option.

Here is Carey’s excellent summary of solutions with the transcript underneath for those that would rather see the points in text:

It is once again the most important election of your lifetime but if voting and democracy work, why haven't all these ‘most important elections’ lowered the stakes? Here are 5 solutions more effective than choosing masters for others based on mob majority rule:

1. VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLAR

• Stop giving your money to corrupt crony industries that make toxic products with the approval and often subsidization of the government you've been voting to reform for decades.

2. DISOBEY

• Break the law: ignore unjust edicts criminalizing victimless behavior that often serve as authoritarian control, revenue generation or both.

• Starve the system by lowering your tax burden wherever possible.

• Engage in jury nullification against victimless crime cases.

3. OPT OUT & DISRUPT

• Adopt technology that respects your privacy and isn't beholden to shady criminal intelligence agencies.

• Embrace alternative currencies to challenge the fiat monopoly.

4. GET INVOLVED

• Create local networks and get involved in your community.

• Help those who need it rather than calling it “compassion” to outsource that help to the violent, inefficient, corrupt government that has neglected and harmed them in the first place.

5. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOURSELF

• Take responsibility for your well-being.

• Learn to defend yourself so you don't have to rely on trigger-happy and useless police.

• Take charge of your health which includes cutting out government-subsidized poison so you're less dependent whenever possible on the corrupted healthcare and pharma systems.

• Cultivate your own emotional and spiritual healing so you stop barfing your unhealed trauma into politics and letting propagandists manipulate and exploit you, and so you can give compassion to yourself and others because hatred and dehumanization feed the system.

BONUS ROUND (the most effective thing you can possibly do for lasting change):

• Forget about questioning politicians or parties seeking power… reject the power itself! That's invariably the root of all the problems you're voting to change and has been no matter how glorified or sanitized the system of government — which is always rooted in violent control — real power for change lies with individual people working together.

• Believing the myth that “we, the people, are the government” only further empowers the unchecked ruling class.

• No matter who wins an election the government keeps its authority.

• No matter how good the intentions, voting is a fool's errand because you're never going to get accountability or effective change from people with a monopoly on violence who believe that makes them superior to you.

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“No Government” is actually a way of life!

Let me remind you of this great remix of Nicolette’s song (2 minutes):

Here’s the original song with the official video:

And choice lyrics I’ve extracted:

No government is a way of life.
No government means to trust your friends.
I know who I am and you know who you are.

If everybody knew what they wanted, there'd be nothing, nothing left.
People would do what they wanted, and there'd be no government.

….

Life has me tempting, refreshing me, making me stretch.
My body is flowing and happy and feeling refreshed.

My choices, believe me, are infinite easy.
Exciting and mystical choices before me.
They tell me my life is a journey in no government.

If everybody lived in their bodies,
We'd have so much, so much time.
Touching would be such a pass-time,
And we'd have such lazy days.

We'd have such lazy days,
For we'd kiss them away.
People would worship each other,
And we'd have loose, lazy ways.

No government is an easy time.
No government is an exciting life.
We'd work for ourselves, and we'd love for ourselves, and for no government.

There'd be no suffering.
There'd be no government.
People would see and let them be, and we'd have no government.

There'd be no government, there'd be no government.
People will see and let them be, and will be no government.

I love the lyrics of the full, original song! Let them inspire you to be your best self too!

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And now, after all that… ha, guess what? I did actually vote!

A few days ago, like many in the US, I went out to cast my vote at the midterm elections. It was not as my former innocent self, believing it would change anything (and especially not in the state I live in), but solely to show my contempt for the supremely corrupt Gavin Newsom and his cronies (the link takes you to just one example of his questionable shenanigans from April 2020, at the height of the Covid Pandemic).

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