by Eric Peters EricPetersAutos.com Recently by Eric Peters: The End of Buying Used?
Lenin asked, “What is to be done?”
The question facing liberty-minded people almost 100 years later is the same. But our answer should not be Lenin’s answer – violent lashing out.
I get e-mails from readers who are frustrated – rightly – about the state of things. About how Ron Paul was treated by the GOP apparat. About the seemingly relentless increase in (and brazenness of) state thuggery. They ask, “when do we do something?” “How much more do we take”?
And most of all: “What is the point of just bitching about things?”
Some urge action – taking the proverbial stand. But just as the time for action (physical action) had not yet come for our forefathers circa 1770, so also the time has not yet come for us. The issue, then as now, is whether intellectual action is to be preferred over (and as the necessary prelude to) physical action. Whether we – as isolated individuals – go out in the proverbial – and pointless – blaze of glory… . Or, whether we bide our time while we work to increase the number of people who get it – and thereby, increase the number of people who are on our side. Such that if it becomes necessary to act, we will not be acting alone – and not acting suicidally.
As in the 1770s, opponent of the current status quo have to have that critical mass of like-minded people on our side before we can hope for change we can believe in. Otherwise, we are just tilting at windmills.
We risk losing everything – to gain nothing.
No one can say for sure what the critical mass percentages are, but 20 percent seems about right to me. Five percent won’t do it. Ten percent might be sufficient. But we’re not going to get anywhere until enough people share our views – and far more importantly – reject the views that have led us to the current state of things.
And the only way to achieve that is by talking/writing about things from a liberty-minded perspective.
Bear in mind that the vast majority of people operate unconsciously on the implicit assumptions of collectivism and authoritarianism – because that’s all they’ve been exposed to since childhood. It is all they know. The state has been monstrously effective in programming people – or rather, logjamming their brains with statist preconceptions they never even think to question. Because they’ve been systematically brain-raped into not questioning anything. Many of these people cannot be reached. They’re either too far gone, or simply too invested in the system as it is.
But there are millions of people who can be reached. In particular, young people.
