By

Joe Withrow

Author of “The Individual is Rising”

 

(Cognitive Dissonance – While I edited "The Individual is Rising" for Joe I am not participating in any revenue from the sale of that book. However I did purchase several copies for personal use as well as to give to family and friends.)

 

“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Modern society does not care much for the individual. National interest, public policy, and the common good are held up as the ideal. We still hear lip service paid to the individual rights of man on occasion, but only within the context of individual servitude towards one or another State-driven collective goal. Of course these goals are presented as moral and upright, but there is a little catch – no one can truly opt-out of supporting the chosen goals. The State, in all its benevolence, is going to take your money to support the collective goals of society whether you like it or not.

Sadly, most individuals buy right into their societal servitude because the default programming does such a great job of convincing individuals of their own ineptitude. The default programming steers individuals away from their own interests and passions and funnels them onto the same “lifestyle path” on which they are pushed to “be a productive member of society”.

The government educational system is the leadoff hitter in the programming lineup and children have been relinquished to the educational blob at progressively earlier ages over time. Kindergarten was developed to precede First Grade. Then Preschool was developed to precede Kindergarten. Now we have pre-Preschool in place to precede Preschool. We guess they ran out of creative names for this last one.

So the kids are herded into government schools where their creativity, critical thinking ability, and common sense are systematically destroyed. They learn to unquestioningly obey their superiors at all times and to ask for permission to go to the restroom. To top it off, the kids are spoon-fed faulty history and they are taught that government is a righteous institution forever and always seeking to make their life better. Their teachers are mostly decent folks, mind you; they just don’t understand what government really is either.

Perhaps worst of all, students are conditioned to never seek a deeper understanding of the world around them and to never focus on discovering and developing their passion. Instead, students quickly learn that grades and social status are the only worthy goals to be sought after.

The next leg of the default programming is college. The kids were constantly told for at least a decade that they absolutely must go to college in order to be successful in life, so they load up on federal student loan debt when they hit 18 and march off to whatever college will have them.

While there are certainly some exceptions, especially in the more specialized fields, most students quickly learn that college is just another system to be gamed and completed. Attaining the highest grades possible with the least amount of work is the name of the game for most students – just like it was in high school. Social status is still a viable goal as well, but the playing field has changed. Instead of football games and dances, social status is now earned in the basements of dirty fraternity houses with an abundance of crappy beer.

Students have been through 16-20 years of default programming within government-approved educational institutions by the time they graduate college. Amazingly, a vast majority of these students have learned nothing about money, capital, or finance, and most are completely oblivious to how the world that awaits them actually works. The poor saps that majored in finance or economics have actually learned less than nothing about money, capital, and finance and they come out with a completely warped view of the subjects.

Most graduates have seen each level of their education as an obstacle to struggle through so they take that mentality with them to the next level of the default programming – the corporate rat-race.

Once in the rat-race, our degree-wielding worker bees struggle through the work-week and then pursue all manner of entertainment every weekend, regardless of the cost. The dirty frat-house is traded for a metropolitan bar and the cheap beer might be upgraded to something a little better, bottom-shelf liquor perhaps.

Now that they are responsible adults, they watch the news and discuss current events around the water cooler at work. But there is a little problem: the news is propaganda mixed with celebrity worship which serves to warp priorities and paint a distorted view of how the world actually works.

Thanks to this wonderful system of default programming, most good citizens come to believe things like:

• The foreign wars raging in some desert thousands of miles away are being fought to protect my freedom here in the United States; after all, they hate us for our freedoms.
• The TSA must grope and harass all of us before we travel so they can keep us safe from the bad guys.
• Social Security is a noble program that just needs a little tweaking to make it more economical.
• The government absolutely had to bail-out the Banks with my money for my own good.
• The $17,500,000,000,000.00 national debt is no big deal – we borrowed it from ourselves.
• Quantitative Easing is a very complicated monetary procedure designed to stimulate the economy; it is in no way, shape, or form a method to steal from me and perpetuate a massive Ponzi scheme.
• The economy is recovering marvelously and my job prospects for the future are looking bright – my goal is early retirement!
• Everything will be wonderful if we can just get everyone to vote for better leaders.

Of course there is a major gap that cannot be explained between these beliefs and what is actually taking place in the world which creates a great deal of cognitive dissonance within much of the population.

The simple fact is: this is not what a free society looks like.

Okay, so American culture may be a little schizophrenic. So what? Why should we care? We believe in laissez-faire and non-intervention so how is it our problem?

Well, despite our best efforts we still have a sense of justice. We just can't keep quiet while the default programming converts unwary human beings with infinite potential into willing victims of the collectivist Ponzi.

You see, the default programming is designed to trick individuals into giving away their power – first to school teachers, then to professors, then to bosses, and always to government thugs and globalist bureaucrats. All of that personal power is then used to further strengthen the systems of enslavement. Of course the school teachers, professors, corporate middle managers, and the petty government officials and bureaucrats do not have a clue that this is what they are really doing – they have bought the propaganda proclaiming them heroes working for the common good of mankind.

Truth be told, we also have selfish reasons for opposing the default programming and schizophrenic culture – we are poorer because of them. The default programming has created a lifeless economy where zombies consume a very large percentage of the ever-dwindling wealth.

Roughly fifty percent of the American population is now directly receiving some form of payment or benefit from the government – this is common knowledge. On top of that fifty percent, there are numerous zombie industries consuming massive amounts of wealth – very nearly all of which is redistributed to these zombies from the small productive sector of the economy.

The military-industrial complex destroys massive amounts of wealth in order to build tanks and planes and missiles to sell to the government – much of which are obsolete by the time they are sold and the rest are used to cause havoc in faraway deserts (for democracy, of course). Government subsidized Big-Agra works to create Frankenfood which serves to squeeze the small-time farmer out of business and also wreak havoc on the health of the American population.

Meanwhile Big-Pharma works diligently to create dishonest drugs and government-mandated vaccines designed not to cure anything, but rather to temporarily placate all of the serious and not-so-serious symptoms that frequently plague people addicted to genetically-engineered processed food loaded with high fructose corn syrup and MSG while perpetuating sickness and obesity – at a massive profit margin of course. Local governments get into the wealth destruction act by authorizing and funding (at least partially) SWAT teams, military grade weapons, and sometimes even tanks for small police departments. Something about Middle America seems to scare the daylights out of the "authorities".

All of this misallocation of capital and wealth destruction is made possible by the Federal Reserve System and its banking sector which perpetually transfers wealth from all of us to the insiders while also conjuring money ex nihilo to purchase government bonds on all levels to keep the Ponzi going.

Of course zombies beget more zombies so the amount of wealth consumed and destroyed continues to increase over time. We are all poorer as a result; poorer in monetary terms as well as in ways that cannot be quantifiably measured.

So we feel obligated to call it out.

We just can’t help but envision a world in which the old principle of laissez-faire is respected and individuals are free to claim their natural-born sovereignty. We envision such a world where the capitalist principles of sound money, free markets, and property rights drive vibrant economies geared towards production, innovation, and wealth-creation. It’s a world where governments do not hold a monopoly of force over particular geographic areas and individuals are free to voluntarily associate with or disassociate from any society, organization, or institution that catches or loses their fancy. The only rule is that these societies, organizations, and institutions must respect the natural rights of all individuals.

Now we are not suggesting that this laissez-faire capitalist vision of society should be forced on everybody… far from it. We would just like for it to be an option. There can be other options as well.

Want to live in a socialist utopia? By all means! But your utopia would have to be a voluntary association of individuals. You know that 50% we mentioned earlier? We bet many of them would be happy to join you! We will be real interested to see if you can make it work for even a month without a coercive government to steal the fruits of individual labor and force individual servitude, however.

Speaking of, that is precisely what’s wrong with coerced collectivism as a societal structure – it requires forced individual servitude in order for it to limp along for any extended period of time. If this isn’t tyranny, we don’t know what is.

Liberty and Tyranny have done battle since the dawn of civilization. 'Democracy' was idolized in the early 20th century specifically to trick people into confusing one for the other. "We must make the world safe for Democracy!" Wilson cried as U.S. troops crossed the Rubicon.

The other warring nations on both sides must have looked at each other in confusion. "Why in the hell would anyone want to make the world safe for democracy?" they must have asked each other. After all, there was not one single nation that referred to itself as a democracy when World War I began. The Allied powers featured republican governments teamed up with imperial governments and constitutional monarchies to fight the Axis powers which consisted of imperial governments teamed up with both absolute monarchies and constitutional monarchies. There wasn't a democracy for as far as the eye could see.

There were 123 “democracies” in existence by the year 2007. By good old Woodrow's logic, peace and prosperity must have been raining down from heaven!

But as it turns out, roughly 500 million people have been violently killed in one government war or another since the world became safe for democracy. The Universe, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

Of course we know nothing will change until it all comes crashing down and hits rock bottom with a resounding thud. We know the masses will just point and laugh; if they even pay any attention at all. They could not care less about our laissez-faire vision, and our disdain for regulatory democracy might anger them. But we also know that there is a Remnant out there. These are the people who have conquered the default programming and are pretty peeved about being lied to for decades. It is the Remnant that gives us cause for long-term optimism.

Here's to a laissez-faire vision of Liberty... and to a world safe from democracy.

08-03-2013

Joe Withrow

For more of Joe’s thoughts on the “Great Reset”, the global paradigm shift, and regaining individual sovereignty please read “The Individual is Rising” which is available through Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions here.

A Book Excerpt

From

The Individual Is Rising

By Joe Withrow

 

(Cognitive Dissonance – While I edited this book for Joe I am not participating in any revenue from the sale of this book. However I did purchase several copies for personal use as well as to give to family and friends.)

From Chapter Ten - Creating the Future

Do you remember when, perhaps in your younger days, you used to ask yourself that difficult question, “What is the meaning of life?” But then external factors would come calling and you would have to go to class or to work or to see a friend or to watch a movie or whatever it was, so you put the question out of your mind altogether.

Our default programming leads us to believe that philosophical contemplation is both useless and weird. In fact, we are conditioned to focus on the pursuit of monetary gain, comfort, social status, and/or entertainment first and foremost. This meme is re-enforced by much of our mass media, which is why people tend to dress and speak like their favorite movie or music artists.

Not everyone is affected by the default programming in the same way and to the same extent, but most of us are influenced by it in some capacity. The default programming serves to keep our thought patterns within the lower realms of vibrancy; we are programmed to focus on the small picture and to put the big picture out of our mind. Our society is shaped by this focus on short term gain and instant gratification, and this has led to the degeneration of society over time.

Take a look around you and see if these statements are not true. Are the people around you engaged and interested in what they are doing? Do they enjoy life? Are they friendly and respectful? Do they genuinely care about their community and their fellow man?

Or are they immersed in a smart phone and completely oblivious to the world around them? Do they seem to be completely miserable and say they are ‘terrible’ when others ask? Do they appear completely uninterested in the well-being of everyone else around them?

There are certainly exceptions, but our observations suggest the latter circumstances rather than the former. And we think this is largely a result of the default programming.

In addition to conditioning us to seek comfort and entertainment, the default programming also inundates us with fear, worry, stress, and doubt. It trains us to believe that we are not good enough individually to be successful. It informs us that we are inherently bad people who must be monitored and policed; that we are not smart enough to take care of ourselves so we must have laws in place limiting our choices. It falsely declares that people with differing cultures are out to harm us and that there is a boogeyman around every corner.

The default programming has bankrupted our society economically, intellectually, morally, and spiritually. We contend that human beings are naturally attuned to the higher planes of thought vibrancy, however, and that it does not have to be this way.

We firmly believe the higher ideals of self-improvement, self-discipline, and self-government are what enable civilizations to thrive.   A renewed understanding and pursuit of these ideals is the key to putting our bankrupt society back on the right path.

Reforming society begins simply with reforming ourselves on an individual basis. Creating a future that respects the sovereignty of each and every one of us is all about changing ourselves and living those changes every day.

We firmly believe that life is an opportunity for each individual to ascend to a higher state of being; a higher state of wisdom. Each individual life is afforded unique opportunities and a unique experience. Deep down most of us know this to be true. This is why we once spent time contemplating the meaning of our life before we were thoroughly conditioned to focus only on immediate comforts and social status.

The collectivism entrenched in our society strives to suppress individual ascension and this is precisely why it is so unjust. Collectivist coercion limits experience and the opportunity for personal ascension therefore it is perpetually at odds with the human spirit. To hide this fact, collectivism has institutionalized dishonesty.

Society now considers it rude to be bluntly honest with others. We are expected to tip-toe around the truth and to tell half-truths or out-right lies so that no one has to confront the reality of our circumstances. This is why people get so angry when individuals are willing to question ‘authority’ and call out the status-quo. Society calls these individuals ‘conspiracy theorists’ in an attempt to pretend they are doing something dishonest or nefarious rather than simply pointing out the truth.

George Orwell wrote: “In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

 

It Is a Peaceful Revolution

 

History has given us many examples of subjugated peoples that violently rose up to oppose what they were against, but they did not have a vision for a better tomorrow and thus wound up in an even worse situation. It is much easier to know what one is against than to know precisely what one is for.

We do not have to physically raise up against the collectivist tyrants of our day as our ancestors once did. In fact, the historical record clearly shows that violent revolts never lead to enduring peace, prosperity, and individualism. The record shows, instead, that violence leads to just the opposite.

Fortunately, the technology and knowledge is available to us such that we have the ability to create a better future by simply focusing our individual creative energies on the matter. Collectivism engulfed America in a gradual manner, but it does not need to be unwound in the same way. If we seek to forcefully unwind collectivism then we must dedicate enormous amounts of time and energy to fighting directly against it. Such a strategy would inevitably result in an exhausting seesaw of successes and failures that would undoubtedly leave us tired and burnt out in the end.

Fighting is not necessary in the future that is being created; it is the creative faculty that must be utilized. Instead of focusing on fighting collectivism, we would be better served to focus on creating individualism. This is admittedly a blanket statement, but only because every single individual has unique talents, interests, and abilities that could be used to create better systems and better products in any field. There is not a singular blueprint for this as creativity cannot be centrally planned.

The meme of the past century was centralization and homogenization. The future that is being created is based on decentralization and diversity. History illustrates that the critical mass required to shape society is only 10-20% of a population, and we are rapidly approaching that number as more and more people are awakening to the blunders of collectivism.

Samuel Adams said: “It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”

The beauty of the philosophy of individualism is that it does not require everyone to agree on everything. All that must be agreed upon is the sovereignty and natural rights of the individual. This means that each individual is free to choose his or her level of involvement in society.

It is our belief that the respect for liberty and voluntarism does not require a specific type of government or societal structure. All governments and organizations must be voluntarily supported if they are to exist, and individuals may not be coerced into supporting any group or activity that he or she does not agree with.

While we have many clear historical examples of which societal structures are not compatible with liberty (communism, fascism, socialism, etc.), our belief is that a clear understanding of liberty and the sovereignty of the individual, paired with our technological capabilities today, could allow us to vastly improve upon those structures that have seemed to work reasonably well in history.

By Joe Withrow

 

The Paperback and Kindle eBook may be purchased here.

A Book Excerpt

From

The Individual Is Rising

By Joe Withrow

(Cognitive Dissonance – While I edited this book for Joe I am not participating in any revenue from the sale of this book. However I did purchase several copies for personal use as well as to give to family and friends.)

From Chapter Four - A New Paradigm is Forming

From the American perspective, one does not have to go back very far in history to recognize that the fundamental principles underlying our society have dramatically changed. The American spirit was once firm on the principles of personal liberty, property rights, free markets, and non-intervention. This is the spirit that attracted immigrants from all over the world to flock to American shores. Freedom was quite popular.

That spirit has been dulled over the past one hundred years and the principles underlying American society have shifted drastically.

Personal liberty was gradually traded for “the greater good for the greatest number” and the illusion of government provided security. Property rights gradually became subject to all manner of governmental rules and regulations. Free markets were destroyed by constant government intervention as America accepted the Keynesian/socialist notion that it was, and is, the role of government to centrally plan the economy.

But the future is calling and the paradigm is rapidly shifting. They won't mention this shift on the television or in the major publications, however, so those still mired in the 20^th century way of thinking do not yet realize that it is happening. But if we look around our world we can quite clearly observe the shift in motion.

Look at the explosion of alternative media resources on the Internet. While estimates suggest that only five companies (Time Warner, News Corp, Viacom, Bertelsmann AG, Walt Disney) control more than three quarters of all major media properties (television, cinema, book publishers, magazines, newspapers), there is now a myriad of alternate media sources working diligently to provide unfiltered news and information. The Internet has allowed alternative media to flourish, and people are beginning to see that most mainstream ‘news’ is little more than state propaganda.

Look at the explosion of books and documentaries based on the principles of personal liberty and free markets. More and more people are waking up to the reality of what has happened over the past century and they are trying to spread the message as best they can.

The deterioration of popular support for the corrupt political system and the equally corrupt and enabling mass media is becoming too obvious for even the ideologically blind to ignore. Support for politicians is at an all-time low in modern history and people are starting to realize that it is the entire political system that is corrupt rather than one or the other political party. For example:

• Michelle Obama recently cancelled a speech she was scheduled to give at a Kansas high school after nearly 2,000 people signed a petition in protest of her appearance.
• Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently cancelled her scheduled speech at Rutgers University as faculty and students publically protested her appearance citing her “efforts to mislead the American people about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”
• Attorney General Eric Holder cancelled his speech at a police academy graduation due to protests asserting that he was an ironic choice given his “tactics of obfuscation and redirection of blame”.
• Former Vice President Dick Cheney had to cancel multiple appearances in Canada because it was “too dangerous” for him.
• Former President George W. Bush had to cancel a speech at a Jewish charity gala in Switzerland because he was worried about possible legal action against him for alleged torture.

Read the comments sections on mainstream financial articles that suggest the economy has recovered and the Federal Reserve is the hero – people just aren't buying it anymore. To counter the teetering support for the political and financial systems, the mainstream media has been working hard to paint the status-quo in a positive light. Many people aren’t buying the rhetoric and they are actively calling the bluff.

Additionally, it is remarkable how many localities are pushing for secession throughout the world. Northern California, Texas, Colorado, Vermont, Scotland, Belgium, Bavaria, Catalonia, and Venice are all areas in which residents have voiced support for secession in some capacity due to the ills of government interventions.

Look at the explosion of support the Ron Paul Revolution attracted during his presidential campaigns of 2008 and 2012. Ron Paul’s efforts awoke a legion of young people dedicated to carrying the message of liberty forward. The seeds of liberty have been firmly planted in the minds of these young people and those seeds have only begun to blossom. We will truly witness the historical significance of Ron Paul over the next several decades as these young people develop into principled leaders with a clear understanding of personal liberty and free market economics.

As Ron Paul so often said: “The Revolution is alive and well…”

History has shown, repeatedly, that the human spirit cannot be conquered. You may be able to suppress the human spirit for one hundred years or so, but never forever. The human spirit will always rise.

History has also shown that the collectivist tyrants will do everything in their power to suppress the human spirit and maintain power, and the present day situation is no different. There are now cameras on every stop light and federal taps on every cell phone for this reason. Federally funded SWAT teams are now operational in nearly every town and city, and heavy duty military vehicles and equipment are deployed in every major metropolitan city for the same reason.

The PATRIOT Act, which effectively repealed the 4^th amendment, was passed for this reason. The National Defense Authorization Act, which declared the United States a battleground and every American a terrorist suspect, was passed for this reason. The Department of Homeland Security has purchased millions of rounds of hollow point ammunition, which is illegal under international law, for this reason. The REAL ID act, which requires States to upload every single American's photograph into a federally monitored facial recognition system, was implemented for this reason.

The power elite are not content to go quietly into the night, to be filed away into the dustbin of history's mistakes so seamlessly.

Instead, they are prepared to use force to maintain their lordship over the individual. They are prepared to meet the individual on the battlefield. What has completely gone over their head, however, is that the individual does not fight on the battlefield of force, but rather the battlefield of thoughts and ideas.

Victor Hugo once said "No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come."

Our time has come.

The revolution is already in motion. It is a peaceful and intellectual revolution - not one of violence or force, and that is why it will succeed. The collectivist power elite are ill-prepared to fight on the intellectual battlefield because the results of their ideology are in: they failed and they can no longer convince the individual otherwise.

Brushfires of liberty are burning in the minds of men once again. And what is so amazing is that this liberty revolution is not constrained to America this time; it is world-wide. Not only are Americans awakening to the long-forgotten principles of liberty, but so are individuals all over the world. There is a fierce anti-Euro, anti-collectivist movement sweeping all of Europe as these words are being written. Meanwhile, much of Asia is becoming more free-market oriented by the day.

History has demonstrated that dying paradigms are sometimes capable of holding on for much longer than anyone can believe. But they can never last forever. The current paradigm may be able to linger for a while longer, but make no mistake about it - a major paradigm shift is currently underway.

And make no mistake about it - the individual is rising.

By Joe Withrow

 

The Paperback and Kindle eBook may be purchased here.