{"id":12727,"date":"2010-07-20T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-21T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=12727"},"modified":"2010-07-20T20:58:40","modified_gmt":"2010-07-21T03:58:40","slug":"reasons-to-be-cheerful-part-3-0-1-you-are-ungovernable-other-people-have-power-over-you-only-because-you-have-surrendered-your-own-sovereign-authority-to-them-and-they-cant-stop-you-from-takin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12727\/reasons-to-be-cheerful-part-3-0-1-you-are-ungovernable-other-people-have-power-over-you-only-because-you-have-surrendered-your-own-sovereign-authority-to-them-and-they-cant-stop-you-from-takin\/","title":{"rendered":"Reasons to be cheerful, Part 3.0.1: You are ungovernable: Other people have power over you only because you have surrendered your own sovereign authority to them — and they can’t stop you from taking it back."},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s start with this idea: You are a sovereign soul. I have a lot more to say about the nature of the self, within this series of posts and throughout my writing, but, in a political context, this is the most important fact of your life: You cannot be governed.<\/p>\n

All of human history, ultimately, is an attempt to contravene and negate and obviate this simple fact, and it is for this reason that every human civilization — so far — must be rated a failure. Some have been better than others, of course, and I sing the praises of the Greeks not just for what they did in the Hellas of old, but for what they are still doing all over the world. The Greek idea — each man has the right and power to own and control his own life and property — undergirds the best approaches we have seen — so far — to truly human civilizations.<\/p>\n

And the United States — for a while — was the best-ever expression of that Greek ideal, the freest civilization ever yet seen on the earth. But like the polities of the Greeks before us, American society carried within it the seeds of its own destruction and the horrors visited upon you every day in the news are those seeds bearing their full fruit at last.<\/p>\n

Here is the problem, for the government of the United States and for any would-be governor of human behavior: There is nothing I can do to cause or prevent your purposive actions. I can threaten you or beat you or tax you or imprison you or kill you, but I cannot cause you to do anything I want you to do, nor can I prevent you from doing anything I want for you not to do. You are a moral free agent as a manifestation of your nature as a human being, and there is nothing I can do to contravene or negate or obviate your sovereign freedom.<\/p>\n

But wait. Isn’t it true, as Rousseau had it, that “man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”? Indeed Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s start with this idea: You are a sovereign soul. I have a lot more to say about the nature of the self, within this series of posts and throughout my writing, but, in a political context, this is the most important fact of your life: You cannot be governed. All of human history, ultimately, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251,4,24,212,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-big-mother","7":"category-disintermediation","8":"category-egoism-in-action","9":"category-flourishing","10":"category-group-therapy","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16228,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16228\/embracing-your-inner-anarchist-because-there-is-no-alternative\/","url_meta":{"origin":12727,"position":0},"title":"Embracing your inner anarchist — because there is no alternative.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's my quick take on the presidential election, from a video made one day prior to the event: Mitt Romney is going to win an Electoral College landslide. My state-by-state prediction is shown below, but it's not based on any sort of arcane science. I'm just betting that married people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11404,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11404\/dawn-in-america-part-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":12727,"position":1},"title":"Dawn In America- Part One","author":"Brian Brady","date":"February 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Anyone who has read this satirical piece knows that my writing turned macabre this past year.\u00a0 One weekend, one book,\u00a0 one article, and one website dramatically changed the way I look at the world and it inhabitants.\u00a0 It has been painful to watch my political party regress from Bob Taft\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10953,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10953\/its-not-enough-for-the-tea-party-movement-to-throw-the-bums-out-to-contain-the-federal-government-we-have-to-cut-its-powers\/","url_meta":{"origin":12727,"position":2},"title":"It’s not enough for the tea party movement to throw the bums out. To contain the federal government, we have to cut its powers.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"[Back to the top from January 21, 2010. --GSS]\u00a0 What a delight it is that the citizens of Massachusetts have risen up against the federal leviathan. All across the country, the tea party movement is furiously aboil, angry Americans anxiously awaiting the opportunity to pull some levers in a voting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18521,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18521\/overnight-news-the-secession-solution-turn-marxist-big-cities-into-grasshopper-reservations\/","url_meta":{"origin":12727,"position":3},"title":"Overnight News: The secession solution? Turn Marxist big cities into Grasshopper reservations.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The fate of big cities is to become Grasshopper ghettos: Working-from-home was happening anyway, but it was vastly accelerated by the virus, and soon Elon Musk will inaugurate working-from-anywhere. Meanwhile, the worst of urbanity becomes more-concentrated as the Ants withdraw. That argues that big-city demographics, going forward, will skew toward\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16011,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16011\/you-say-you-want-a-revolution-here-is-how-to-restore-freedom-in-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":12727,"position":4},"title":"You say you want a revolution? Here is how to restore freedom in America.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Will Republicans repeal Obamacare next January -- or ever? Don't hold your breath. Mainstream politicians of both parties are addicted to corporate campaign contributions -- and who knows what other kinds of bribes? -- so what we will get will be a pathetic, cosmetic \"reform\" of Rotarian Socialist medicine. Meet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14941,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14941\/seasteading-who-is-john-galt\/","url_meta":{"origin":12727,"position":5},"title":"Seasteading: Galt’s Gulch for a new century?","author":"Al Lorenz","date":"August 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"If Galt's Gulch is going to exist in this century, might it be called Seasteading? Peter Thiel has given $1.25 million to an initiative to create floating libertarian countries in international waters, according to a profile of the billionaire in Details magazine. Thiel has been a big backer of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12728,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12727\/revisions\/12728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}