Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission
Recently, I have been spending far more time reading thought-provoking books, than paying much attention to real-time politics. A couple of very good reads have been “The Libertarian Mind” by David Boaz, and “The Conservatarian Manifesto” by Charles C.W. Cooke. Then, I read “The Great Divide – Why Liberals and Conservatives Will Never, Ever, Agree” by William D. Gairdner. While I highly recommend all three, they left me even more pessimistic regarding the possibility that America could ever return to the constitutional republic of Liberty-loving citizens that it once was. We certainly can never vote our way to freedom.
Thus, I decided it was time for my annual re-reading of my all-time favorite book, “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World” by Harry Browne, which I have read at least once a year since 1979 to keep me grounded. Just as I gratefully finished doing so, a new book I had pre-ordered from Amazon popped into my Kindle, which I have only just started reading. “By The People – Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission” by Charles Murray again suggests that the grand experiment in Liberty of our Founding Fathers is effectively dead. Yet, it promises to offer a way we might rebuild it in a new incarnation, by civil disobedience rather than with ineffective traditional political processes.
Then this morning I stumbled across:
Interviewed by Jonah Goldberg, another favorite of mine, it is an excellent presentation with a 20 min. audience Q&A session afterward. I know asking anyone to spend an hour watching a video is a lot; but I would suggest that one might get more out of it than any TV program, even on FOX News. Be prepared, however, to be inclined to buy and read his book. Of course, then we might have a useful subject for discussion hereabouts, that doesn’t require that we choose the lessor or two evil politicians. 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º
Will buy and read today. I saw an interview with Mr. Murray on last night’s Stossel show where he spoke about the book.
Troy
Great! I look forward to discussing it when we are done. Thanks for mentioning Stossel. It should be on my DVR, so I will go watch it. 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º
Oops! I had the DVR set only to record Stossel on the FOX News channel, so I missed the Business channel showing. It should be repeated tonight on both, so I will see it later. 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º
I really enjoyed this book (and now Saint J9 is reading it). I thought I was a pretty well rounded student of our history but, to my delight, I learned a number of things that were not formerly that clear in my mind.
As to the main theme, that of organized civil disobedience of nonsense regulations and the selective enforcement thereof, I could not agree more. I sincerely hope Mr. Murray can convince the Koch brothers (and others) to be major underwriters of the Madisonian Fund.
The only real hazard I can see in his proposal is that it may well be too late. That is to say, we may be further down the road toward dictatorship than even Mr. Murray thinks.
On a side but somewhat related note, it is clear (to me at least) that the administration is working their best to stir up civil/racial unrest in order to justify martial law.
And, their “handling” of the ISIS/ISIL and Iran situations further enforce my sincere belief that the administration in the hands of traitors. Further complicating the situation, most of those in power who are not outright traitors are so corrupt as to be of no use whatever in helping curb administration abuses of power.
More later as I further “digest” Murray’s proposals.
Troy
I had a very similar reaction to it, Troy; most particularly the elucidating history lessons. Part I is worth rereading just to allow the history to sink in; and Chapter 5 is especially compelling. It superbly makes the case that there is no possible way to roll back the collectivist crap through normal political processes like education, debate, and voting. Regrettably, I must concur with your other observations. Did J9 like the book?
Since I now walk a minimum of five miles a day, I spend a lot of time listening to various podcasts. One such that I have found quite enjoyable is “Conversations with Bill Kristol,” available on iTunes. They are really interesting hour-long plus interviews with well-known guests, which are often revealing trips down memory lane. One episode, in July of last year (long before this book was published), was with Charles Murray. I highly recommend it, and have just found that it is also available as a YouTube video. Since we seem to have similar tastes, you would probably appreciate many of the other Kristol interviews I have enjoyed, e.g. Newt Gingrich, Britt Hume, Joe Lieberman, Dick Cheney, Peter Thiel, Bill Bennett, Charles Krauthammer, Fred Barnes, etc. Enjoy, if and when you find the time. 🙂 â—„Daveâ–º