Serfs and Sovereigns

Wearing masks when out in the streets of Portugal is no longer mandated. It's merely recommended, which means that compliance is a direct measure of how well the propaganda is working.

Compliance dropped below 50% on the day the mask mandate was lifted, but is now well above 50%, a mere two days later. I'm not sure what triggered the rebound. But people are clearly scared. I'd say that some 80% of the population is firmly in the grip of propaganda. The spin doctors can make a large majority of people do whatever they like by turning knobs on their propaganda apparatus.

This is why democracy invariably leads to feudalism. People don't think for themselves. They prefer the false sense of security that comes with mindless adherence to rules. 80% of people are serfs by nature. They don't want freedom, and will never vote for freedom. Liberty must therefore be seized directly by the liberty minded, as suggested in my book.

Liberty is by nature a network phenomenon. We achieve liberty through voluntary interactions with others, coupled with sovereignty over our private domains. We follow our own rules, and we consider all outside interference and demands on our properties as hostile infringements. Taxation and regulations are acts of war that we mitigate as best we can.

We must tread carefully because of our inferior strength relative to the state. But at no point do we accept outside interference as justified or morally acceptable. We may comply with their demands. But we never do so willingly, and it is this refusal to honor other people's arbitrary laws that separates the sovereign form the serf.

This is why libertarian parties are doomed. Such parties are unpopular with the serfs who make up 80% of the population, and inherently anti-liberty in that they seek to install liberty upon a reluctant populous through the machinery of the state. The correct way to achieve liberty is not through party politics, but through personal secession. We establish our own domains that we defend as best we can, alone or in partnership with others, and we let everybody else do whatever they please in their own lives.

Fort

By Albrecht Dürer - Collection privee, Public Domain, Link