Compliance Is Not Freedom
Stefan Molyneux at LewRockwell.com - Mr. Molyneux responds to the people who thought he was crazy when he reminded us in The Gun in the Room that every law points a gun at your head. Every law points a gun at your head. [lew]
When the police come to arrest you, you will be severely discouraged from acting in self-defense, despite the fact that their actions are identical to a "home invasion." When the policemen break your door down, if you pull out a gun to protect yourself, you will very likely get shot. Even if you do not get shot, your prison stay will be greatly extended because you have now threatened the police in addition to not paying your taxes.
If you attempt to escape from the custody of police -- or, later, the prison guards -- you also will very likely get shot, and will certainly receive harsh punishment. If, after you are released from prison, you still refrain from paying your taxes, you will very likely spend the rest of your life in prison. (We need not go into the horrible details of what happens in prison -- let's just say that, after your first night, you may have a new appreciation for the legal victims of the "war on terror.")
The fact that months or years can pass between breaking the law and being violently punished -- combined with the reality that most people do obey the state, and thus do not incur such punishments -- often confuses people as to the true nature of the society they live in.
To take a parallel example, let's look at the institution of slavery. Most slaves did not try to run away, and neither did they aggress against their masters. If they worked hard, and obeyed the rules, they were even unlikely to be beaten or deprived of food (though rape was another matter). In other words, a slave could live most of his life without being directly aggressed against. Does that mean that slavery was not enforced through violence? Of course not! Compliance to violence only obscures it, it does not eliminate it.
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