does not use weapons to enforce his will.
Initiating force always leads to pain and suffering.
With the Liberty Way where armies once gathered,
briars and brambles now blossom.
A liberty leader exercises his leadership,
and that is all.
If he uses force, it is not to seize for himself.
He skillfully overcomes liberty's enemies,
but is not proud.
His progress might be admired,
yet he is not boastful.
His work may even win accolades,
still he does not brag.
because he knows he has no other choice.
The Liberty Way is fulfilling one's purpose without using force.
The above is a liberty interpretation of a passage from the ancient spiritual classic Tao Te Ching. As in all spiritual works which have been venerated worldwide down through the centuries a difference is recognized between (1) the use of force by ego determination for ego purposes, and (2) the use of force in defense of the freedom to act according to one's deeper inner nature.
Notice that living the Tao means not attempting to force one's will on others. Jesus Christ, in his modern revelation explaining his teachings, A Course in Miracles, states the same idea this way:
Freedom cannot be learned by tyranny of ANY kind, and the perfect equality of all cannot be recognized through the dominion of one will over another.
This is the essence of the Tao. ("Tao" is translated as "The Way." Early followers of Jesus called themselves "followers of the Way" before outsiders eventually started calling them "Christians.") And this spiritual teaching can easily be seen as also being the essence of the Liberty Way ... having no interest in one's will ruling even one other person.
While this essence of the Liberty Way can easily be seen, it is much harder to see that liberty cannot be permanently secured by intellectualism alone, intellectualism divorced from other aspects of one's true nature. Without going into a lengthy study of the dynamic between who we think we are (ego) and who we really are (a study which can be pursued in A Course in Miracles), suffice to say that the intellect is very often a tool commandeered by ego ... and we are far, far more than merely ego.
Ayn Rand understood this. She kept within reach at all times a note to herself (which she used as an ironclad daily reminder while writing) to constantly verify that her intellectualism wasn't contradicting her inner being. In another note to herself she wrote:
Concentrate on the concrete physical events-- but don't forget to keep in mind at all times how the physical proceeds from the spiritual.
Our intellect divorced from our inner being becomes a tool of ego. Allowing the intellect alone to guide one's actions without looking inside to verify that one's true nature feels no contradictions can easily lead to unimaginable pain, suffering and death (witness the history of Marxism).
Liberty does not and cannot rest on a foundation of intellectualism alone. Using one's intellect in the service of one's true innermost nature rather than in the service of one's ego, one is living the Liberty Way.
A person living in ego is easily detected as "fake" or "phony" or even "mentally unbalanced" like Karl Marx, while an individual living naturally is said to appear "real." The Liberty Way is not the way of the ego, but the way of who we really are. Because of this, the Liberty Way is extraordinarily attractive and influential.
The Tao Te Ching and other spiritual classics are worth studying. They teach us that living in ego is destructive and self-sabotaging, while the Liberty Way is the winning way.
fas-cism
noun
a socialist governmental system led by a dominant elite which seeks to control industry and commerce, and uses legislation and governmental decree to force Utopian programs on people.
free-dom
noun
one's natural state of being; a governmental system reflecting one's natural state, including voluntary funding and voluntary willingness to join and cooperate with minimal intrinsic rules, but with no programs of "good intention" forced on people "for their own good."
If you are newly waking up to your innate libertarian core and want to investigate deeper the underlying nonsense of the liberal-progressive religion of government worship, give yourself the pleasure of reading Ayn Rand's epic and masterful novel, Atlas Shrugged.
"God's laws will keep your minds at peace, because peace IS His Will, and His laws are established to uphold it. His are the laws of freedom, but yours are the laws of bondage. Since freedom and bondage are irreconcilable, their laws CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD TOGETHER. The laws of God work only for your good, and there ARE no other laws beside His. Everything else is merely lawLESS, and therefore chaotic." -Jesus Christ in A Course in Miracles
Interesting factoid: for the last election year studied (1998) some of the highest percentage of votes for Libertarian Party candidates were for candidates who had been studying free of charge the lessons of: Course in Political Miracles
For a great discussion on Christianity vs. State Socialism see: Christianity vs. State Socialism
“I did not understand what made me free, nor what my freedom is, nor where to look to find it. Father, I have searched in vain until I heard Your Voice directing me. Now I would guide myself no more. For I have neither made nor understood the way to find my freedom. But I trust in You. You Who endowed me with my freedom as Your holy Son will not be lost to me. Your Voice directs me." (Prayer from A Course in Miracles)
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