RE: The Day The Constitution Failed
Good article as usual. I have a feeling I will be resteeming quite a bit of your work.
I don't know the page yet, but years ago I was studying some research by a guy talking about taxation being unconstitutional, and how to be a sovereign citizen.
He had analyzed a lot of bills and there were bills that seemed to Incorporate the United States, and depending upon the actions taken by the people as to whether they signed up for something like a Social Security Card they became an ASSET belonging to that corporation.
So there were in fact TWO versions of the United States. Now I realize this is a huge statement without backing to support it. I am only working off of memory of something I read quite a few years ago. I am not stating it is true.
Yet I do think it has bearing on what you yourself write about here.
If it is true that bills and amendments to the Constitution created such an entity then indeed that would NOT work within the framework of the original constitution, however, due to the ability to amend the Constitution there are a VAST number of things that do not work within the framework of the original Constitution.
Income Tax is one of those. So if this little hint from a distant memory that I mention has merit that might be a pretty big, scary, and interesting rabbit hole to explore.
The Constitution itself was a coup by the Hamiltonian faction to escape the Articles of Confederation, because that document made it too difficult to enact their plans for an American Aristocracy as quickly as they wished without being too obvious about their intentions. There is no salvation from Great Men or ancient documents signed by dead people. But even setting that aside, Lysander Spooner was right when he said the Constitution had no authority.
Sovereign Citizen theorists imagine the dragon of The State can be made subservient again if the proper rituals are followed and the right documents are cited. Their failure is in believing government was ever a benevolent institution.
Yes, I quote Spooner frequently. Some of my personal favorite quotes come from him. I wrote a post on that just a few days ago actually.
Yes, the Sovereign Citizens still miss the point about government. Yet, it is interesting to see within the government the TWO versions of it that seem to exist.
Also you and I deciding Anarcho Capitalism is how we are going to live starting right now does not stop them from throwing us into jail, seizing our homes, etc. So while that is our desired destination (Ancap) we still have to protect ourselves from the negatives of reality/system that is around us.
We can hopefully educate more people though and every step is closer to achieving that goal.
If we were to do away with government TODAY and say Let's be Anarcho Capitalists... it'd work for you, myself, and some others, but the vast majority of the population does not have the critical thinking or awareness for it. We'd end up with the CHAOS they like to pretend Anarchy means simply because the population was not prepared to be self responsible individuals, and did not understand the Non-Aggression Principle.
So my personal goal is to attack it from the critical thinking angle. I'll try to get more people using critical thinking that they don't teach in schools and then at least more and more of them will have the necessary mental tools for the things we believe will work to actually be achievable.
It is a long term goal. I realistically think it would take several generations to be completely ready.