April 25, 2010 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
12:00
| 
| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| This is the true nature of heroism. | |
| This is the heroism that you can achieve now, today, this very moment. | |
| All moral souls oppose evil. | |
| And there is only one fundamental way to fight evil. | |
| Expose it. | |
| These days only a crazy minority are Nazis or Klansmen or Stalinists or follow any of the hundreds of evil and discredited ideologies that have so infested and cursed the world. | |
| Once very popular, all these evil beliefs have been exposed for what they are. | |
| Justifications for violence. | |
| Statism is no different. | |
| Statism is just another justification for violence. | |
| Violence can only be justified by pretending it is voluntary, through the fantasy of a social contract or voter control of the system. | |
| But taxation and the prosecution of nonviolent activities is the initiation of force, pure and simple. | |
| We all know that. | |
| In the future, statism will be put in the same category as any other violent bigotry, and people will look back in shock that such an immoral doctrine was so widely praised and accepted. | |
| In the present, though, in the world that you and I live in, the violence of statism remains invisible. | |
| And that is not the fault of the statists. | |
| People only look at the material benefits of statism for particular groups rather than the violence at the very root of the system. | |
| When the violence of statism can finally be seen, the ideology of statism will collapse. | |
| What is the state? | |
| The state is nothing more or less than the collective delusion that the state is not violent. | |
| How can we correct this delusion? | |
| Not through argument, but through action. | |
| An abstract delusion cannot be conquered by an abstract argument. | |
| Words can be manipulated. | |
| Reality cannot. | |
| How do we reveal to people the violence of the state they support? | |
| By revealing that it is personal. | |
| Statism is intolerance and arrogance and aggression. | |
| Statism means wanting the government to use violence against people who disagree with you. | |
| These are the words of the true hero. | |
| If you like the war on drugs, or the military-industrial complex, or the endless legal predations of state-sucking corporations, or the welfare state, or the war on terror, or the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, or the government monopoly on counterfeit currency, or the auctioning of the unborn through national debts, or the slow crushing of children's minds in state schools, then I say, hey, no problem at all. | |
| If you like what the government does, then I say, go ahead. | |
| Write them a check. | |
| If you think that the government actually helps you or protects you or is needed at all, then I would never dream of using violence to stop you from acting on your beliefs. | |
| I would never support the use of violence against you for what you believe. | |
| All I ask in return is the same goddamn respect. | |
| I do not support the government. | |
| The government does not speak for me. | |
| I was born into this immoral and violent system and I reject it completely for damn good reasons, both moral and practical. | |
| If you want to pay for the government, I would never use violence to stop you. | |
| Will you grant me the same respect? | |
| Will you allow me to withhold my time and money and obedience from this group of well-armed strangers that you like so much? | |
| Or do you support the use of violence against me for disagreeing with you? | |
| Do you want me thrown in jail for disobeying your masters? | |
| This is what saving the world comes down to. | |
| This is the true nature of heroism. | |
| In my own life, I have asked everyone who claims to care about me whether they are willing to reject the use of violence against me. | |
| I have been patient and persistent and intransigent in my demand for the right to peacefully disagree with those who say they love me. | |
| Those who have rejected the use of violence against me I hold close, as kindred spirits, as true brothers and sisters. | |
| Those who continue to advocate the initiation of force against me, well, That is a sad, sad tale. | |
| A man cannot pay to have his wife beaten and then reasonably claim that he loves her. | |
| People cannot really love me and also support the use of violence against me. | |
| I know that if a man wants me thrown in jail for disagreeing with him, he has only fear and hatred in his heart, and cannot love himself or me or anyone or anything. | |
| I do not break bread with those who want me dragged off to prison for acting on my rational convictions. | |
| I do not have people in my life who want the government to use force against me. | |
| It's just a matter of self-respect. | |
| Wanting me kidnapped and imprisoned for peaceful activities is a deal-breaker for me in any and all of my personal relationships. | |
| This is how the violence of the state becomes real to those around you. | |
| When you identify it, expose it, and act on it, If you have a friend who threatens to brain you with a baseball bat if you disagree with him, you would never imagine him to be any kind of real friend, but rather a dangerous and deluded monster. | |
| But that is exactly what statists believe and advocate and praise and want and act on. | |
| If you're against racism, how long can you attend KKK picnics before your beliefs become pretty much ridiculous? | |
| If you oppose the state, how long can you pal around with status before your beliefs become pretty much ridiculous? | |
| Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you have to do any of this. | |
| I'm not saying that you have to confront anyone with the violence they want used against you. | |
| You're perfectly free to keep your dedication to freedom as a kind of hobby and keep talking and reading and debating about abstract topics that never change anyone or anything. | |
| My only point is that you have probably absorbed thousands of hours of heroic stories and never once heard this idea. | |
| You have watched hundreds of tales of superpowers that you can never achieve And never once heard about the superpower called truth that you can speak right now. | |
| And that is my whole point. | |
| No one ever talks about the moral powers you already have because they are absolutely terrified that you will actually use them. | |
| We praise the heroes of history who braved imprisonment and maiming and torture and death to fight for freedom. | |
| Yet we recoil from exposing the violence of statism for fear of offending our statist Aunt Millie. | |
| In my recent video, The Story of Your Enslavement, I said that to see the farm is to leave the farm. | |
| The farm is not the state. | |
| The farm is everyone who praises the state, who praises the use of violence against you. | |
| In my video Heroism Part 1, I said that integrity is truth in action. | |
| Once you get that statists want to use violence against you, What would it look like to act in accordance with your values? | |
| To act with integrity about the truth you know? | |
| To laugh and chat with those who support you being arrested, tried and imprisoned? | |
| Of course not! | |
| True heroism makes violence visible. | |
| The truth of this world is that we cannot fight evil. | |
| Once evil is seen, it is always rejected. | |
| Do not cover it up. | |
| To expose evil is to save the world. | |
| To cover up evil is to serve evil. | |
| I don't have statists in my personal life. | |
| I will not help them pretend that their bigotry and intolerance and lust for violence is acceptable or allowable or moral. | |
| Aristotle wrote that integrity requires us to honor truth above our friends. | |
| Real friends don't want you kidnapped by the state. | |
| Reveal the gun. | |
| Live the truth. | |
| Leave the farm. |
Export Selection