The beast survives mostly because so many have been brain-washed into worshiping it. Withdraw your consent. Stop believing that the state has ANY authority whatsoever over anything you or anybody else does. Spread that meme until enough of us believe it that the state atrophies and dies. They have only enough force to keep a handful of unruly serfs in line. Toe that line until that handful grows to an avalanche, and the curtain is permanently withdrawn from the wizard.
Right on, Bill. The beast itself is a fiction, but a fiction with fangs. The unwashed masses continue to worship it, even in their hatred for it, simply because they have been brain-washed (influenced) into worshiping it. This fictive monster has only the power We The People grant to it. I'll recall for readers on this thread a conversation I had way back in 2001.
I had moved to Montana from Georgia. I had found a job in Bozeman, but lived about forty miles west of Bozeman. Along my route home each evening, I kept noticing a Saloon at a little spot on the map called Norris, Montana. One evening I stopped in there for a shot of Scotch and just to check out the Saloon.
Guy next to me at the bar overheard my conversation with the barkeep, and interjected at a point that there were some legal matters I should look into for the purpose of establishing my sovereignty. I asked him to explain more, and he told me about the various "forms" I could get from the Secretary of State (of Montana) and from other "government offices".
Told him I was already "free" and did not need any damned papers to prove that to myself. He assured me that if I did not want to be accosted by the government I needed to get my papers in order. I replied that the government does not have a brand on my ass, and that I am a self-owner by Natural Law, and did not need to prove that to any government office. I bought him a drink and wished him well, releasing him to his highest good, and forgot all about the subject. We parted in a friendly fashion, and I felt a bit embarrassed for him, because I knew that he was not free at all. I knew that because he obviously "re-cognized" the existence of government in his own mind, and was unconsciously supporting government by seeking to work the government's system to his advantage. But it is as you said -- the dude was still worshiping the government by the fact that he "re-cognized" it. He totally missed my point about dis-empowering the beast by refusing to recognize it.
There is cognition, and there is "re-cognition". Both are Mental functions, activities inside our minds which imply the invisible existence of what we generally refer to as "Will". What motivates the thought-structure which affects one's perception is a matter best known by the silent soul, and most folks are not interested in looking that deeply into themselves. Habitual thought patterns rule the day for most mortals enmeshed in flesh, and that fact is seldom questioned by most people. However, such unconscious, unexamined forces within Psyche dictate anyone's perception, which dictates anyone's level of awareness. Perhaps life is a process of "obviation", and as the years roll by for any individual the subtle becomes more obvious, one experience at a time, in small gradations usually, slowly building the habitual matrix of perception in which a person feels most comfortable. Government worship is folly, just as much as ignoring the power of government is folly. Government will kidnap, rob, and even kill anyone who gets in its way. It is a beast, albeit a mindless one, so I keep myself out of its way. I've been behind bars a long time ago, and the memory of that reminds me that I wish to avoid a repetition.
As you know, Bill, I work hard at helping people discover their sovereignty as individual souls born with "unalienable rights". I love to expose government treachery and the deceptions embedded in hidden history. I try to suggest to people in non-assertive ways that their passage through the bone gates of birth is the only fact necessary to claim one's freedom. There is an intelligent way to get that point across to people, without insulting them, and then there is the way used by mothercirce, who started this thread. The latter way does not work, for it smacks of preposterous BS.
That said, I would like to invite mothercirce to meet one of my dear friends who lives here in Montana. This man has a sizable following around the State, and in fact, he now has a nation-wide following. I videoed him in a courtroom about a year and a half ago, and that video has received about six million views. More than four million, seven hundred thousand views are registered on one YouTube channel alone. Another channel, a news channel out of Bozeman, Montana, has over eight hundred thousand hits; and there are other channels featuring the video with lower view-totals. The busiest three YouTube channels total over six million views. It is an eight-minute video, and during that time "ernie" ran the judge right out of her courtroom, got up himself, and walked out. I filmed it, gave the film to his mother, and she gave it to some dude in Billings, Montana, who got the ball rolling. It's his channel which has received the 4,700,000 views. To add to the views-total on that channel, simply go here and enjoy watching ernie send the judge packing --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06VzxxDTnB8Did the reader watch that one? Good. That is the introductory, and it reveals that ernie speaks of several things mothercirce has brought up on this thread. But ernie has been studying this approach for many years, and has prevailed several times in court, although I stay worried that he'll go to jail any time, because the man is fearless -- and -- he is dedicated to the war against the government. I'm trying to keep him out of jail long enough to get the movie completed, but have no valid hope that he'll remain free for even a few more weeks.
Like I said, this man is a dear friend, and he's also a member in The Mental Militia. I am making a movie about him as we speak -- it will be released in early September this year. I want to make this very clear for readers here -- I live by a different relation to government, different than ernie holds. I am not endorsing his approach, but am fascinated by it, all the more so because I know him so well and know that he is a totally honorable, reliable, and dependable friend who will help his fellow man without being asked. He's just a damn good country gentleman, a traditional freedom-loving Montanan with a totally fierce attitude about the abuse of power wielded by "government". And he speaks the language mothercirce will absolutely love. Here is a preview clip from the movie I'm making about ernie. I think it's about twenty-two minutes. I know that some here will not really appreciate it, and I do not live by the perspectives which ernie holds, but I do think anyone would find this to be an unusual, and possibly interesting, twenty minutes --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUtvMjWFgloI'll close my comment with that much. Just know that I'm not done with ernie, lol. As he and I discuss things, he offers me perceptions and I also offer him some of mine. What is really cool is that neither of us insists that the other hold one's views. We are living freedom as best each of us can, in different approaches, yet we're very happy and cordial friends and neighbors in Montana.
Salute!
Elias