Flight or Fight

Each day brings news of new government plans to "fix the economy" in ways guaranteed to make matters far worse. The problem is convoluted... they are trying to fix THEIR system, which has failed; the people who befouled their own system are in charge of fixing it, and they truly have no idea what they are doing; the rule of law would solve the problem, but that is being suspended in the emergency; none of the politicians responsible will be, or can be, held accountable; Americans have agreed to be divided and conquered - although there is no particular difference between Obama or Bush, people carry signs saying "hooray for our side." Regardless of how things progress or turn out, those responsible for the mess or any complications will bear no burden. We are embracing fascism, which presents no particular problem to the vast majority who live under such a regime. History demonstrates life goes on. There are shortages and violence, but the battles are on the fringes.

Those aware of the problems and are concerned seem to respond in one of two ways: flight or fight. The flight people are seeking country living to escape the coming horrors of city life. Many are arranging to escape to overseas, even securing foreign passports (the problem with this plan is our economic problems are hurting people overseas even worse: move there, and you have no idea who has reason to hate you, but they know who you are.) Either way, you better have your own business.

Then there are those who propose to fight. Public traded arms companies in USA are seeing their stock shoot up, and there are waiting lists in USA for guns and ammo. What is available is expensive. Security services have taken note, and are well prepared to deal with anyone or any group that proposes to battle it out with the powers that be.

The problem with those who fight is violence only strengthens the bad guys, and should the "good guys" win, they always turn out to be worse than the old bad guys. A line from Star Wars is "Resistance is Futile." This is what Solzhenitsyn had to say:

"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you'd be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. Or what about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur – what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked. The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!

If... if... We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation. We spent ourselves in one unrestrained outburst in 1917, and then we hurried to submit. We submitted with pleasure! ........... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward."

~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago: 1918–1956, Page 13, read the whole page.

I've occasionally reflected on how all those innocent people came to be in camps in Russia, and Solzhenstyn's view is they (he) deserved it, for lack of love of freedom. Yikes!

I've read the Gulag before, and I picked up this quote today from a fellow intimating we should learn from Solzhenitsyn and be prepared to resist violently. I think the fellow is making a mistake. Solzhenitsyn is only recounting what misery convicts stewed in once in the Gulag. In other places in the book Solzhenitsyn recounts how millions starved to death in the Ukraine where resistance was in fact offered. The problem is not the lack of violence, the problem is lack of love of freedom.

Read the whole quote, about how people applauded all the government trepidations. Then read 1 Samuel 8 where people demanded oppression. Violence serves the beast.

Divide and conquer is complete. All those on the right who blasphemously believe all honor and glory and power belong to the military and police got what they wanted under Geo Bush, and will get even more under Obama. All those on the left who blasphemously believe all charity flows from government got more than politically possible with Bush expanding welfare more than any president before him, and they will see their dreams completed under Obama. Both sides will cheer like liberated Soviets in the coming years, while blaming the other side for what problems do emerge. The powers that be have nothing to fear, no matter what happens.

I should do what any self-respecting Taoist would do in these circumstances: I should grab a jug of wine and flee to the mountains where I write poetry and watch the slow motion train wreck in progress from afar. But I enjoy being a merchant. And the powers that be have needs right now. While very small potatoes are being hounded for hiding assets in safe havens like Switzerland, the bad guys will need a safe place to keep their ill-gotten gains, get medical help when it will no longer be safe under the coming single payer system, and otherwise have a safe haven in a dangerous land, something like Hong Kong was to Communist China in the bad old days of that regime. If nothing else, just to spend some time where it is safe to speak freely. USA will need a Hong Kong.

Secession is out of the question, but USA might adopt a "one country, two systems" policy, with an autonomous region, and cross between the District of Columbia and a Foreign Trade Zone. I recommend Washington State. There need be nothing violent in achieving this, just a straight business transaction with the powers that be. A New Hong Kong (Xin Xiang Gang?) will provide what the powers that be need, and freedom loving people will get what they want. The left and right wing who adore big government can sell off their assets in this free land to those who prefer to move in and live free.

There is a problem: even a relatively free market economy needs far more small business than we have now to provide all of the goods and services necessary in such a land. We lost a generation of entrepreneurs in the dotcom and real estate boom. I doubt there are enough people who know how to compete in business to support a free market. Just look at all shameful lines of the young, well educated, privileged people standing in lines looking for work. The trade shows in China are crowded with their peers from other countries who love freedom and will thrive. Rarely do I see a young American there, or any age for that matter.

Solzhenitsyn is gone. Get big or get out is the rule in USA. The most radical, positive, nonviolent act a person can make is to start a business. But one has to love freedom.

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