5 Reasons to Abandon Politics

[klamath]

Because this isn't a thread about methods; rather, we're discussing the reasons why someone would want to opt out. I'm more interested in talking about ideas right now as this is the Political Philosophy sub forum.

Besides, some methods are dangerous to one's physical freedom, if you catch my drift. It's unwise to post it on a public, searchable forum. Some things you only share with close friends and family. But since you're seeking, I'll share a few...some I've done, others my friends have done.

Stop voting
Don't endorse political candidates
Don't participate in any political or civil campaign
Refuse to participate in the hero cult of police and military
Turn your TV off
Homeschool your kids or send them to a private school
Leave or don't join nationalistic organizations (e.g. Boy Scouts)
Don't give to "charities" or funds that support civic organizations (encourage private enterprise instead)
Grow your own food
Barter more
Reduce your debt

Shall I go on? There's lots of little practical steps one can take and it will begin to have a cumulative effect.

Tried it that way nearly 50 years ago and it was only through elections I was able to get some peace of mind. People that that tried your route around here are gone.

 

[Bastiat's The Law]

Good point. We need to be chiseling from multiple directions.

They are not mutually exclusive endeavors. I can donate to Greg Brannon's Senate run and Ben Swann's independent media project and be all the happier. The problem stems from anarchists continually poking their nose into the political activism part of the movement and this forum, not to help, but to recruit followers and attempt to frame everything into an either/or proposition. I'm not convinced they are a positive or productive group.

 

[Matthew5]

Tried it that way nearly 50 years ago and it was only through elections I was able to get some peace of mind.

Did you previously opt out due to frustration or moral obligation?

People that that tried your route around here are gone.

Not sure what to make of your statement. I'm assuming you mean no longer active members of RPF?

 

[Matthew5]

They are not mutually exclusive endeavors. I can donate to Greg Brannon's Senate run and Ben Swann's independent media project and be all the happier. The problem stems from anarchists continually poking their nose into the political activism part of the movement and this forum, not to help, but to recruit followers and attempt to frame everything into an either/or proposition. I'm not convinced they are a positive or productive group.

Positivity and productivity is subjective, I suppose. An anarchist might counter that living the NAP and pushing for voluntary, peaceful interactions without the state is both positive and productive. I guess it's neither though for someone who has a political agenda.

Maximizing freedom seems to be a common goal, but there is two opposing methods to achieving that goal. I still believe there's a way to work together, even if we have to strain alittle to find that path.

 

[Matt Collins]

Matt, change in the truest sense of the term will not come from politics in whole. Not this time around. You can continue to think or imply that and I know that you're trying to do good things (generally speaking) but political science is absolutely not the science of change. These are interesting times. Very delicate times.

You fail to understand that EVERYTHING is political, especially revolutions, secession, etc.

 

[Matt Collins]

An anarchist might counter that living the NAP and pushing for voluntary, peaceful interactions without the state is both positive and productive.

I would agree with that, but the only way to move close to those goals is through politics. The people who determine policy work through the political process. This is why we need to have like-minded people elected and we need to put pressure on those who are already elected to move policies closer to our agenda.

 

[Matt Collins]

we're discussing the reasons why someone would want to opt out.

Of course many of us would like to opt out, but we can't opt out because the government has more guns than we do.


Every law is the result of the political process. If our people aren't involved, then we're getting run over.


When taxes go up that's the result of politics.
When substances are made illegal that's the result of politics.
When people are killed or injured in senseless foreign affairs, that's the result of politics.
When they raid your house for whatever reason, that's the result of politics
etc...

Stop voting

And let them win? That's hardly a plan... how about running your own candidates and get them to win so that they can change policy? Or how about putting pressure on the politicians so that they will follow your agenda instead of someone else's agenda?

 

[Matt Collins]

post how you personally are free by not being part of the political process.

Ignoring the political process doesn't make anyone free, in fact just the opposite. It makes them subjects of the political process. Getting in there and fighting for your rights makes you free, if you're not feared then you're not respected. Either you have power to stop from getting run over by the government, or you get run over by the government.

 

[Matt Collins]

people will always interact together. And most will choose to interact in a social format. Politicking will be involved in that social process. Yet the original topic was as it pertained to American government and political systems. It's a sham that should be avoided and local interactions should be focused on.

Human interaction IS political by its very nature. And governments are determined by people coming together and interacting. Commerce is very much as political as government is. Politics is the adjudication of power, and power is defined as the ability to get other people to do what you want them to do.

 

[Matt Collins]

Since you're a politician,

lolz, epic fail, I am NOT a politician

One has a limited supply of energy and time, right? So I have to choose where to invest that energy. Given all the variables of politics and the current system, what are my odds of gaining total freedom? Because we don't want to expend all our energy for just a little freedom, our goal is total. The odds aren't great. If we use history as our teacher, since this is your chosen method, we can see that politics returns microscopic yields, especially over the past 150 years. Despite all your political efforts, you (being politicians and those that run the machine) have failed. And that's with an even larger percentage of those participating in your game! Government has grown, debt is astronomical, and freedoms disappear on an annual basis. Therefore, why would one invest their precious time and energy into such a low-yield system?

Things are only the way they are because our people have sat dormant and not been involved in trying to fix it. The progressives have infected the government and grown it over the last 150 years. We can do the same and shrink it.

 

[Matt Collins]

On the agro/anarchist side, they believe that all political games and government can be boiled down into one thing, violence/force. And any participation in that system makes you a participant in that violence and makes you guilty of perpetuating that cycle of violence.

What they are missing is that they don't have a choice in whether or not to participate. If you're not doing politics, then politics is doing you.

 

[klamath]

Did you previously opt out due to frustration or moral obligation?



Not sure what to make of your statement. I'm assuming you mean no longer active members of RPF?

My family dropped out because we wanted to be free with total personal responsibility.
When the feds came after us and others doing the same thing we choise to fight the feds through the US laws and political action. The others condemned us and swore they had "natural" law on their side... They are gone and my family is still here.

 

[Matt Collins]

Slave owners argued that owning slaves is part of "human nature."
"Show me a society that didn't own slaves! Even the great democracy of ancient Greece had slaves," they said.
We teach our children that owning slaves is wrong. When we start teaching our children that dominance of any kind is wrong, politics will be an embarrassing past mistake.

And it was, but fortunately a lot of humanity evolved out of that mindset and matured. Segments of humanity will do the same in regards to government, but it will be a long slow process just like ending slavery was a long slow process in most places. In the mean time I can get more freedom than I have now by pushing around elected officials through the political process.

 

[Matthew5]

lolz, epic fail, I am NOT a politician


Things are only the way they are because our people have sat dormant and not been involved in trying to fix it. The progressives have infected the government and grown it over the last 150 years. We can do the same and shrink it.

Anyone involved in the political machine is a politician, in my opinion. Whether on your own behalf or not...I'm assuming you get paid?

And who has sat dormant? Seems to me that there's been 100s of thousands of politicians and MILLIONS of political activists in the past 150 years. The results of your efforts still bear witness. You can't blame progressives when your political ideology has had just as much game time.

 

[Matthew5]

My family dropped out because we wanted to be free with total personal responsibility.
When the feds came after us and others doing the same thing we choise to fight the feds through the US laws and political action. The others condemned us and swore they had "natural" law on their side... They are gone and my family is still here.

Gone in what way? Did the government end their lives or lock them up?

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Of course it does. Politics is politics regardless if it's your family, your church, your school, your club, your government, your job, etc. That's my point.



Maybe, but the people who get elected make the rules, and then have it enforced at the point of a gun.

Who elected Janet Napolitano? Ben Bernanke? Many of the rule makers are entirely unelected-but appointed or simply hired by political elites. Nice wishful thinking, though.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

Abandoning politics is like abandoning economics. You can say you do it, but in the end all you do is make yourself an ignorant slave. But then ignorance is bliss, I suppose.

Economics is necessary to prosperity.

Politics is necessary to predation.

If one goes away, our lives become become destitute and primitive, and in many cases end. If the other goes away, there stops being an institutionalized robber-killer class committing trillions of dollars worth of horrors and abominations 24 hours a day.

I, personally, vote that politics goes away. You want to keep it? You're supporting the blackest evils and abominations humanity can invent.

 

[klamath]

Gone in what way? Did the government end their lives or lock them up?

evicted them with federal marshals and burned their places.

 

[Matthew5]

Economics is necessary to prosperity.

Politics is necessary to predation.

If one goes away, our lives become become destitute and primitive, and in many cases end. If the other goes away, there stops being an institutionalized robber-killer class committing trillions of dollars worth of horrors and abominations 24 hours a day.

I, personally, vote that politics goes away. You want to keep it? You're supporting the blackest evils and abominations humanity can invent.

+rep

Being a victim of the state shouldn't justify it's continuation.

 

[IDefendThePlatform]

In the mean time I can get more freedom than I have now by pushing around elected officials through the political process.

A year or two ago I would've agreed with this statement, but I now think its false.

I can get more freedom in my life best by taking the time and resources I would've put into chasing politicians and using it to pursue agorism/bitcoin/gold&silver/self-defense/cyber-privacy.

And I haven't had a chance to watch the video you posted to my earlier response but I will if I get time.