1388: Jeff Deist – Personal Secession from the State

All of us can play a role in a bottom-up revolution by doing everything in our power to withdraw our consent from the state. —Jeff DeistDownload Print Quality (6144×7680) 399KB  |  Normal Quality (3072×3840) 220KB
  1. Secede from intellectual isolation. Talk to friends, family, and neighbors to spread liberty.
  2. Secede from dependency. Become self-sufficient with regards to food, water, fuel, cash, firearms, and physical security.
  3. Secede from mainstream media. Ditch cable, ditch CNN, and ditch the major newspapers.
  4. Secede from state control of your children by homeschooling or unschooling them.
  5. Secede from college by rejecting mainstream academia and its student loan trap.
  6. Secede from the US dollar by owning physical precious metals, by owning assets denominated in foreign currencies, and by owning assets abroad.
  7. Secede from the federal tax and regulatory regimes. Be as tax efficient as possible.
  8. Secede from the legal system by legally protecting your assets from probate courts.
  9. Secede from the state healthcare racket by taking control of your health, and questioning medical orthodoxy.
  10. Secede from your state by moving to another with a better tax and regulatory environment.
  11. Secede from political uncertainly in the US by obtaining a second passport; or secede from the US altogether by expatriating.
  12. Most of all, secede from the mindset that government is all-powerful or too formidable an opponent to be overcome.

All of us can play a role in a bottom-up revolution by doing everything in our power to withdraw our consent from the state. —Jeff Deist

All of us can play a role in a bottom-up revolution by doing everything in our power to withdraw our consent from the state. —Jeff DeistDownload Print Quality (370KB)
Normal Quality (219KB)
  1. Secede from intellectual isolation. Talk to friends, family, and neighbors to spread liberty.
  2. Secede from dependency. Become self-sufficient with regards to food, water, fuel, cash, firearms, and physical security.
  3. Secede from mainstream media. Ditch cable, ditch CNN, and ditch the major newspapers.
  4. Secede from state control of your children by homeschooling or unschooling them.
  5. Secede from college by rejecting mainstream academia and its student loan trap.
  6. Secede from the US dollar by owning physical precious metals, by owning assets denominated in foreign currencies, and by owning assets abroad.
  7. Secede from the federal tax and regulatory regimes. Be as tax efficient as possible.
  8. Secede from the legal system by legally protecting your assets from probate courts.
  9. Secede from the state healthcare racket by taking control of your health, and questioning medical orthodoxy.
  10. Secede from your state by moving to another with a better tax and regulatory environment.
  11. Secede from political uncertainly in the US by obtaining a second passport; or secede from the US altogether by expatriating.
  12. Most of all, secede from the mindset that government is all-powerful or too formidable an opponent to be overcome.

All of us can play a role in a bottom-up revolution by doing everything in our power to withdraw our consent from the state. —Jeff Deist

1356: Frank Dikotter – The Great Leap Forward

By unleashing China’s greatest asset, a labour force that was counted in the hundreds of millions, Mao thought that he could catapult his country past its competitors. Instead of following the Soviet model of development, which leaned heavily towards industry alone, China would ‘walk on two legs’: the peasant masses were mobilised to transform both agriculture and industry at the same time, converting a backward economy into a modern communist society of plenty for all.

In the pursuit of a utopian paradise, everything was collectivised, as villagers were herded together in giant communes which heralded the advent of communism.

People in the countryside were robbed of their work, their homes, their land, their belongings and their livelihood. Food, distributed by the spoonful in collective canteens according to merit, became a weapon to force people to follow the party’s every dictate.

Irrigation campaigns forced up to half the villagers to work for weeks on end on giant water-conservancy projects, often far from home, without adequate food and rest. The experiment ended in the greatest catastrophe the country had ever known, destroying tens of millions of lives.

—Frank Dikötter, Mao’s Great Famine