An epic debate between Stefan Molyneux of Freedomain Radio and Michael Badnarik, 2004 Libertarian Presidential Candidate on the question ‘How Much Government is Necessary?’ at Drexel University, Philadelphia, July 5, 2009 Full audio of the debate available at http://fdrurl.com/phillydebate

It is not dollars, treasuries, bonds and debt that is being sold by your government.

It is you….

George Orwell wrote that, “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

You have probably heard confusing phrases like the trade deficit, the falling dollar, the national debt, unfunded liabilities and so on, which all sound vague and actuarial and vaguely – well, “not me.”

The reality behind these accounting phrases is perfectly monstrous.

When someone — a foreigner, say — loans money to the American government, what are they getting in return?

Well, they are getting promises of interest payments, and eventual repayment of the principal.

Where does your government get this money?

The government is not a business; it does not generate profits in the free market, so where does it get the money to repay its creditors?

Do you see where this is going?

Are you beginning to understand that it is not dollars that are being sold, or bonds, or agency debt, or treasuries, or anything like that.

Where is your government going to get the money to pay off its creditors?

It is not pieces of paper or contracts or computer bits that are being sold.

There is only one thing that the government has to sell.

Governments have only one asset that they can use as collateral.

Your leaders are selling you.

When China lends $800 billion to your government, what they get in return is a guarantee that $10,000 dollars — plus interest — will be taken from your family at gunpoint and shipped overseas.

When a farmer gets a loan from a bank, he uses his livestock as collateral. It is the milk and meat his cows will produce in the future that he will use to pay off his loan.

The bank is buying a share in his cows.

You are the livestock your leaders use as collateral.

The people that you cheer for and throw parades for and drop balloons behind and donate money to are selling you to Chinese rulers, to the Japanese, to the Nigerians, to South American drug lords with accounts in the Caribbean banking centers, to Russia, to Korea, to Egypt, to Colombia, to Chile, to the Philippines, to Malaysia — and anyone else who is willing to give them a few dollars in return for the blood, sweat and toil of your future.

The flag that you praise and the anthems that you sing and the rulers that you weep and kneel before have as much loyalty to you as a plantation owner had to his slaves.

And sadly, plantation slaves had more pride than we do.

Plantation slaves did not generally praise their masters for selling them off, for auctioning off the lives, hopes, dreams and futures of their own little children.

We can understand that cattle may lick the hand of the farmer who lowers an axe to its neck, because cattle are dumb beast that cannot comprehend their real relationship with the farmer, and his imminent plans for them.

What is our excuse?

When we chant “USA” “USA” “USA,” when we cheer and bow and beg and scrape and sing and weep with joy that some new farmer now presides over the wholesale dismantling and sale of our family’s future, when we love with obsessive emptiness the leaders who laugh while they auction us off to every tin pot dictator and stockbroker the world over,what is our excuse?

Has our pride been so broken that we lunge with pathetic joy at every new silver tongued demagogue who pretends to care for us, even a tiny little bit?

In the future, our children will ask why we knelt and cheered as they were sold on the auctioneer’s block.

This video — and my life’s work – is my answer to my child.

What’s yours?

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via  http://freedomainradio.com/

The Matrix is one of the greatest metaphors ever. Machines invented to make human life easier end up enslaving humanity – this is the most common theme in dystopian science fiction.

Why is this fear so universal – so compelling? Is it because we really believe that our toaster and our notebook will end up as our mechanical overlords?

Of course not.

This is not a future that we fear, but a past that we are already living.

Supposedly, governments were invented to make human life easier and safer, but governments always end up enslaving humanity.

That which we create to “serve” us ends up ruling us.

The US government “by and for the people” now imprisons millions, takes half the national income by force, over-regulates, punishes, tortures, slaughters foreigners, invades countries, overthrows governments, imposes 700 imperialistic bases overseas, inflates the currency, and crushes future generations with massive debts.

That which we create to “serve” us ends up ruling us.

The problem with the “state as servant” thesis is that it is historically completely false, both empirically and logically.

The idea that states were voluntarily invented by citizens to enhance their own security is utterly untrue.

Before governments, in tribal times, human beings could only produce what they consumed — there was no excess production of food or other resources. Thus, there was no point owning slaves, because the slave could not produce any excess that could be stolen by the master.

If a horse pulling a plow can only produce enough additional food to feed the horse, there is no point hunting, capturing and breaking in a horse.

However, when agricultural improvements allowed for the creation of excess crops, suddenly it became highly advantageous to own human beings.

When cows began to provide excess milk and meat, owning cows became worthwhile.

The earliest governments and empires were in fact a ruling class of slave hunters, who understood that because human beings could produce more than they consumed, they were worth hunting, capturing, breaking in – and owning.

The earliest Egyptian and Chinese empires were in reality human farms, where people were hunted, captured, domesticated and owned like any other form of livestock. Due to technological and methodological improvements, the slaves produced enough excess that the labor involved in capturing and keeping them represented only a small subset of their total productivity. The ruling class – the farmers – kept a large portion of that excess, while handing out gifts and payments to the brutalizing class – the police, slave hunters, and general sadists – and the propagandizing class – the priests, intellectuals, and artists.

This situation continued for thousands of years, until the 16-17th centuries, when again massive improvements in agricultural organization and technology created the second wave of excess productivity. The enclosure movement re-organized and consolidated farmland, resulting in 5-10 times more crops, creating a new class of industrial workers, displaced from the country and huddling in the new cities.

This enormous agricultural excess was the basis of the capital that drove the industrial revolution.

The Industrial Revolution did not arise because the ruling class wanted to free their serfs, but rather because they realized how additional “liberties” could make their livestock astoundingly more productive.

When cows are placed in very confining stalls, they beat their heads against the walls, resulting in injuries and infections. Thus farmers now give them more room — not because they want to set their cows free, but rather because they want greater productivity and lower costs.

The next stop after “free range” is not “freedom.”

The rise of state capitalism in the 19^th century was actually the rise of “free range serfdom.”

Additional liberties were granted to the human livestock not with the goal of setting them free, but rather with the goal of increasing their productivity.

Of course, intellectuals, artists and priests were – and are – well paid to conceal this reality.

The great problem of modern human livestock ownership is the challenge of “enthusiasm.”

State capitalism only works when the entrepreneurial spirit drives creativity and productivity in the economy.

However, excess productivity always creates a larger state, and swells the ruling classes and their dependents, which eats into the motivation for additional productivity. Taxes and regulations rise, state debt (future farming) increases, and living standards slow and decay.

Depression and despair began to spread, as the reality of being owned sets in for the general population.

The solution to this is additional propaganda, antidepressant medications, superstition, wars, moral campaigns of every kind, the creation of “enemies,” the inculcation of patriotism, collective fears, paranoia about “outsiders” and “immigrants,” and so on.

It is essential to understand the reality of the world.

When you look at a map of the world, you are not looking at countries, but farms.

You are allowed certain liberties – limited property ownership, movement rights, freedom of association and occupation – not because your government approves of these rights in principle – since it constantly violates them – but rather because “free range livestock” is so much cheaper to own and so more productive.

It is important to understand the reality of ideologies.

State capitalism, socialism, communism, fascism, democracy – these are all livestock management approaches.

Some work well for long periods – state capitalism – and some work very badly – communism.

They all fail eventually, because it is immoral and irrational to treat human beings as livestock.

The recent growth of “freedom” in China, India and Asia is occurring because the local state farmers have upgraded their livestock management practices. They have recognized that putting the cows in a larger stall provides the rulers more milk and meat.

Rulers have also recognized that if they prevent you from fleeing the farm, you will become depressed, inert and unproductive. A serf is the most productive when he imagines he is free. Thus your rulers must provide you the illusion of freedom in order to harvest you most effectively.

Thus you are “allowed” to leave – but never to real freedom, only to another farm, because the whole world is a farm. They will prevent you from taking a lot of money, they will bury you in endless paperwork, they will restrict your right to work — but you are “free” to leave. Due to these difficulties, very few people do leave, but the illusion of mobility is maintained. If only 1 out of 1,000 cows escapes, but the illusion of escaping significantly raises the productivity of the remaining 999, it remains a net gain for the farmer.

You are also kept on the farm through licensing. The most productive livestock are the professionals, so the rulers fit them with an electronic dog collar called a “license,” which only allows them to practice their trade on their own farm.

To further create the illusion of freedom, in certain farms, the livestock are allowed to choose between a few farmers that the investors present. At best, they are given minor choices in how they are managed. They are never given the choice to shut down the farm, and be truly free.

Government schools are indoctrination pens for livestock. They train children to “love” the farm, and to fear true freedom and independence, and to attack anyone who questions the brutal reality of human ownership. Furthermore, they create jobs for the intellectuals that state propaganda so relies on.

The ridiculous contradictions of statism — like religion — can only be sustained through endless propaganda inflicted upon helpless children.

The idea that democracy and some sort of “social contract” justifies the brutal exercise of violent power over billions is patently ridiculous.

If you say to a slave that his ancestors “chose” slavery, and therefore he is bound by their decisions, he will simply say:

“If slavery is a choice, then I choose not to be a slave.”

This is the most frightening statement for the ruling classes, which is why they train their slaves to attack anyone who dares speak it.

Statism is not a philosophy.

Statism does not originate from historical evidence or rational principles.

Statism is an ex post facto justification for human ownership.

Statism is an excuse for violence.

Statism is an ideology, and all ideologies are variations on human livestock management practices.

Religion is pimped-out superstition, designed to drug children with fears that they will endlessly pay to have “alleviated.”

Nationalism is pimped-out bigotry, designed to provoke a Stockholm Syndrome in the livestock.

The opposite of superstition is not another superstition, but the truth.

The opposite of ideology is not a different ideology, but clear evidence and rational principles.

The opposite of superstition and ideology – of statism – is philosophy.

Reason and courage will set us free.

You do not have to be livestock.

Take the red pill.

Wake up.

via  freedomainradio.com

The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching plan, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole…Their secret is that they have annexed from governments, monarchies, and republics the power to create the world’s money…” THE MONEY MASTERS is a 3 1/2 hour non-fiction, historical documentary that traces the origins of the political power structure that rules our nation and the world today.

The modern political power structure has its roots in the hidden manipulation and accumulation of gold and other forms of money. The development of fractional reserve banking practices in the 17th century brought to a cunning sophistication the secret techniques initially used by goldsmiths fraudulently to accumulate wealth. With the formation of the privately-owned Bank of England in 1694, the yoke of economic slavery to a privately-owned “central” bank was first forced upon the backs of an entire nation, not removed but only made heavier with the passing of the three centuries to our day. Nation after nation, including America, has fallen prey to this cabal of international central bankers.

The success of the central banking scheme developed into a far-reaching plan described by President Clinton’s mentor, Georgetown Professor Carroll Quigley, “to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank….sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the levels of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.”

Segments:

1. The Problem;
2. The Money Changers;
3. Roman Empire;
4. The Goldsmiths of Medieval England;
5. Tally Sticks;
6. The Bank of England;
7. The Rise of the Rothschilds;
8. The American Revolution;
9. The Bank of North America;
10. The Constitutional Convention;
11. First Bank of the U.S.;
12. Napoleon’s Rise to Power;
13. Death of the First Bank of the U.S. / War of 1812;
14. Waterloo;
15. Second Bank of the U.S.;
16. Andrew Jackson;
17. Fort Knox;
18. World Central Bank;

Also recommended: “Firewall: In Defense of Nation State” http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=8415519765816415310

Are We Rome?: Fall of an Empire, Fate of America Cullen Murphy, writer, editor at large, Vanity Fair The rise and fall of ancient Rome has been on American minds from the beginning of our republic. Today we focus less on the Roman republic than on the empire that took its place. Depending on who’s doing the talking, the history of Rome serves either as a triumphal call to action, or as a dire warning of imminent collapse. Esteemed editor and author Cullen Murphy ventures past the pundit’s rhetoric to draw nuanced lessons about how we might avoid Rome’s demise. Working on a canvas that extends far beyond the issue of an overstretched military, Murphy reveals a wide array of similarities between the two empires: the blinding, insular culture of our capitals; the debilitating effect of corruption; the paradoxical issue of borders; and the weakening of the body politic through various forms of privatization. Most pressingly, he argues that we most resemble Rome in the burgeoning corruption of our government and in our arrogant ignorance of the world outside: two things that are in our power to change. In lively, richly detailed historical stories based on the latest scholarship, the ancient world leaps to life and casts our own contemporary world in a provocative new light.

Inspired on the book, THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND by G. Edward Griffin, FIAT EMPIRE discusses the effects of the Federal Reserve System on the U.S. economy and explains why the debt-backed “fiat” money it issues is no longer Constitutional. This 60-minute documentary is an excellent primer for the citizen or student who wants to get an understanding of how money is created and why the U.S. government has entered into a partnership with elite Wall Street banks. Featuring Ron Paul, Edwin Vieira, G. Edward Griffin and Ted Baehr, FIAT EMPIRE is a free public service film, however you can get the Director’s Cut (complete with 120-minutes of additional interviews) and/or quantities of DVDs (in the event you wish to disseminate this information to your family, friends and associates). Go to http://www.FiatEmpire.com for higher quality DVDs or go to http://www.FiatEmpire.tv to watch it for free. Lastly, follow the progress of our new documentary, ORIGINAL INTENT, at http://www.FiatEmpire.com/producers and get involved as a donor, crew member or associate producer.

Determined to find the law that requires American citizens to pay income tax, producer Aaron Russo (“The Rose,” “Trading Places”) set out on a journey to find the evidence. This film which is neither left, nor right-wing is a startling examination of government. It exposes the systematic erosion of civil liberties in America since 1913 when the Federal Reserve system was fraudulently created. Through interviews with U.S. Congressmen, a former IRS Commissioner, former IRS and FBI agents and tax attorneys and authors, Russo connects the dots between money creation, federal income tax, and the national identity card which becomes law in May 2008. This ID card will use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips which are essentially homing devices used to track people. This film shows in great detail and undeniable facts that America is moving headlong into a fascist police state. Wake up!

Very few people know anything about what really goes on behind the scene when it come to U.S. foreign policy and the corporate interests that drive it all. Our government is controlled by powerful corporate interests that have literally hijacked the powers of government and our military to advance their own selfish agendas. This interview should totally blow your mind. John Perkins was one of the men working behind the scenes to expand a global empire primarily through economic blackmail where they seduced third world leaders into taking out enormous loans that were impossible to repay so we could then U.S. corporations could swoop in and acquire control of their natural resources. If you’d like to end the reign of corporate colonialism and rid our government of their influence, please join the revolution at The Kick Them All Out Project

“Covertly recruited by the United States National Security Agency and on the payroll of an international consulting firm, he traveled the world—to Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other strategically important countries…Perkins reveals the hidden mechanics of imperial control behind some of the most dramatic events in recent history, such as the fall of the Shah of Iran, the death of Panamanian president Omar Torrijos, and the U.S. invasions of Panama and Iraq.”

According to his book, Perkins’ function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank and USAID. Saddled with huge debts they could not hope to pay, these countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States on a variety of issues. Perkins argues in his book that developing nations were effectively neutralized politically, had their wealth gaps driven wider and economies crippled in the long run. In this capacity Perkins recounts his meetings with some prominent individuals, including Graham Greene and Omar Torrijos. Perkins describes the role of an EHM as follows:

Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

The epilogue to the 2006 edition provides a rebuttal to the current move by the G8 nations to forgive Third World debt. Perkins charges that the proposed conditions for this debt forgiveness require countries to sell their health, education, electric, water and other public services to corporations. Those countries would also have to discontinue subsidies and trade restrictions that support local business, but accept the continued subsidization of certain G8 businesses by the US and other G8 countries, and the erection of trade barriers on imports that threaten G8 industries.

In the book, Perkins repeatedly denies the existence of a “conspiracy.” Instead, Perkins carefully discusses the role of corporatocracy.

Perkins began writing Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in the 1980s. “Threats or bribes always convinced me to stop” he says in the book.

Read the Book Online

This interview is done by Ron Eggleton at the July 2006 Vets for Peace national conference at the University of Washington in Seattle. Perkins discusses his first hand experience with how large corporations and the U.S. use bribery, assassination, and the military to thwart democratic governments that are not open to exploitation of that nation’s peoples and resources by U.S. multinational corporations. This interview is 30 minutes. – Alliance for Democracy