'Course, there's also the problem that if you go in with a defensive attitude, you'll draw hostile attention to yourself both from "the authorities" and from ordinary people -- people you might well be able to win over without needing any defense at all.
While acknowledging that Boston's ideation is not suffering from any persecution-complex, but is all-the-while yet aware of the embedded infrastructures of socialist mind-wash which exist in contemporary thought-patterns within the public (which simply through legislative control of existing State governments has certain leverages which could be used against anything culturally akin to "freedom of individuals", if said State saw cause for alarm---thereby justifying in reality a subtle stance of defensiveness), I'll offer my opinion in harmony with your statement.
The reality of the mechanistic police state, its hierarchy, tiers, and the penetrations of its extensions, does, in and of itself, introduce a general wariness among wakeful people. We know it's there, and we know we're the targets as it depletes a world-full of targets by simply dominating global governance, economics, and global media productions of popular thought-insertions world-wide.
But that's "them". We're "us".
We know that defensiveness *always* attacks. We know that defensiveness itself, as a condition of human mentality, harks of an outsourcing latent fear. We also know that action which proceeds outward from the vortex of fear is always, and can only be, futile. (Even in instances in which some temporal appearance of "victory" occur---in the long run is where our children share in the results of our short-term thinking, yes?) A nation who's governance relies upon pre-emptive war as a legitimate trigger for military aggression usually has a population which has been conditioned in fear. That is hardly a secret these days.
By the same token, a freedom movement such as FSP and the recent pulsations from the bosom of the great unconquered West has the choice of how one might formulate the establishing of one's goals in freedom. Either as a defensive venture, or as an extension of the vision of liberty.
We already know we're right. Liberty is popular among people, especially when it's gone. At the current rate of fedgov's ominous intrusiveness into everyone's personal lives, the ongoing "wake-up" which is growing in America advances its numbers in almost quantum-like rates. There is no valid reason for liberty's voices to be defensive. There is every valid reason for liberty's voices to smile forward, extending in the one hand the blessings of peace and in the other the truth of Nature in Life, which needs no defense.
I think that back in the 1960s we used to call it: "positive thinking".
I'm sure that by now you know that Boston T. Party will be at the GWCII. (JJ Johnson of the Sierra Times and Iloilo Jones of FIJA will also be there.) I'm looking forward to a eye-to-eye conversation over coffee with Mr. Party. My impression of him thus far is that he is more "Serious" than he is "Defensive". One thing I'm noticing at present is that in the upcoming GWCII there shall participate three western States who may be willing to discuss secession with British Columbia and Alberta. Boston's Wyoming and my Montana and the GRR's (Ghost of Ruby Ridge's) Idaho are in it. I see no reason to be defensive. Simply conceiving "liberty" while living under the most powerful governance device in the world's history IS defense. Therefore, let our actions be of a positive nature, filled with the focused glory of our inalienable birthrights as human beings, owing no apology to anyone, offering no threat to anyone, and trusting in the truth instead of succumbing to illusions spawned of fear.
The announcement for the GWCII is up, btw. I saw your gracious commentary to the Steering Committee about why you cannot attend, but I often hope at times, personally, that certain circumstances might take unforeseen twists and allow you to get free to come and join us there. It could be another round of history in the making. By whatever grinning cast of the Muse's dice, you're one of America's most inspirational and commanding liberty fighters. And I think you're right: defensiveness is not our best-chosen style. Candidness, honesty, forthrightness, bravery, peaceful happiness, lovingness, creativity, honor, responsibility, personal sovereignty, and all such attributes of our higher souls should be the guiding lights of our decisions and the rays by which we see to take our actions. Against such, there is no defense, nor abiding threat.
Salute!
