The Revolution Has Already Begun
I was in Myrtle Beach for the last two weeks. Worked via modem for the first week and took a vacation last week. Spent a couple of days on the beach, visited the Meher Spiritual Center, played tennis, hung around at the pool. Visited a friend in downtown Philadelphia on the way home. Traveled by car with two adults, two kids, and two dogs. 1800 miles without incident. Life is good.
Gary Paulsen - Hatchet - we listened to this book on tape on the way home from South Carolina. Intense. The story of Brian Robeson, a 13-year old boy who was flying into Southern Canada in a small plane when the pilot died from a heart attack. Brian crash lands the plane in a lake and learns to survive in the wilderness with only a hatchet and his mind and body as tools. The story is Brian's thoughts as he goes through the ordeal, alone for all but the beginning and end of the book. Fiction. A children's story that can be appreciated by at least this adult.
Thomas L. Knapp at Strike the Root - Grasping the Nettle - organizing what will replace the dying concept of the nation state. Surviving its death throes. [smith2004]
If the totalitarian state represents the extreme, the fact remains that by comparison to even the most minimal state at the dawn of the 21st century, the British monarchy was a minimalist libertarian paradise. A Cromwell or a Washington could shatter the throne knowing that, although the state itself might require rebuilding, civil society would go on in any case. Capital formation, commerce and the infinitude of daily activities that we take for granted would continue much as before. The state sat atop them; it had not yet put roots down in them.
Intended or unintended, the consequence is the same: the statist, over the course of the 20th century, has built new requirements into the revolutionist's job. The institutions of society are cocooned in red tape -- and beneath that tape, some of them are mummified remains, not living, vital creatures that can be expected to continue functioning if the tape is unwound.
