Get ready to take a flamethrower to the official narrative and learn what the elites don't want you to know
You're listening to the Tom Woods show
Hey, everybody Tom Woods here it's episode 2745 of the Tom Woods show
I got a two-parter for you today first part is just me talking and the second part
I'm gonna bring on a guest and the first part. I want to sit and think about
What strategy has the best chance of working?
I mean here we are those of you who listen to this program or the sort of person who
You know would read my email newsletter my books or whatever
We look at the world roughly the same way and it is not the way we want it
and our country is not the way we want it and
It's not even close to the way we want it and the question is what do we do about that and I I
Have heard all kinds of suggestions that are bound to not work
And we've tried a whole bunch of strategies that don't work
So I think about this a lot and when I a few weeks ago spoke of the New Hampshire Liberty Forum
Which is sponsored by the Free State Project. I
I had opportunity to reflect on this and I started off by saying now
They're gonna post my remarks sometime soon, but I'll give you the gist of what I had to say I
reminded people of the 1902 book by Vladimir Lenin, you know the
the Bolshevik the the terrible
tyrant of
Soviet Russia
He had a book called what is to be done and in that book
He's thinking about what is to be done to advance the cause of the socialist revolution around the world
but in particular in
Backward Russia
Which is not the kind of place marks had in mind for the spreading of the revolution that it hadn't yet passed
Through the economic stages that it would need to pass through for it to be ready for the revolution
But but also he was asking what is to be done because the problem was in effect
What is to be done with these dumb workers who if you leave them to their own devices?
They're just gonna be content to form labor unions and try to agitate for slightly increased wages
But still consent to a system that more or less
Enslaves and exploits them according to Lenin and so that's not good
So how do we break them out of that way of thinking when he had a whole theory?
We need to have a
Vanguard of the proletariat we need to have an intellectual class that would go and rouse the proletariat out of its slumber and
Make sure it understands that you can't you can't compromise with
You know with a system that exploits you by you know by having labor unions or whatever you need to overthrow the whole thing
So anyway, so he was looking at strategic questions
What strategy should we follow to be successful? And I said to the people in New Hampshire. We have our own what is to be done?
because we hold a very unpopular position like the positions that you and I hold as
Let's say I mean you could say libertarian that word has almost been destroyed
But I mean I think of myself as basically a right winger who is not naive about the state
There are a lot of oh Jesus. They're right-wingers who are naive about the state
So I'm one who isn't and that's an unpopular position. How do we know that's an unpopular position because almost nobody agrees with us
We let's face it. There are a lot of people who see the world the way we do in some ways not in others
Okay, I'm happy to have friends who are not exactly like me
but in terms of the whole package we have a pretty unpopular position and
Part of the reason that we have an unpopular position is that the state's own schools are educating people by and large most people are educated
In the state schools and these schools depend on your believing the state propaganda
And so that is what they dutifully impart to you
You look up on the wall of your classroom
And it's the it's the u.s presidents looking you know with their benign visages looking upon you
from their perch up at the top of the wall
And that colors the way
The history is taught the way civics or quote social studies
Might be taught and so on and so you leave
Those institutions thinking well if it weren't for the state, where would we be we'd all be working in mines?
You know 16 hours a day for 10 cents an hour
We'd be getting our limbs blown off because our computer monitors would be dangerous without
Adequate regulation the food we eat would be poisoning us so we'd be dropping dead from that
And thank goodness. We have the state. We don't have these dumb
opponents of the state
You know who obviously hate science and they hate fresh food and they hate non-exploding monitors and all that
And so they think that every advance that we have is because of the state
In fact when I was flying into
New Hampshire, I actually flew into Boston
And at Logan airport they had this display about the space program
And of course they have to give you the propaganda about the crossover technology from the space program into civilian
Use which they they do also when they talk about the military. They say if it weren't for all the military spending
We wouldn't have all these technologies
And now there's a lot that can be said about that and I've written a little bit about that
That's neither here nor there, but for example, we were seeing that
Thanks to the space program. We have memory foam
Like we would never have developed memory foam
If it weren't for the who knows how much has been blown on the space program
But but my favorite one was de icing equipment
We have de icing equipment thanks to the space program and I thought you know
I have a funny feeling we would have figured out how to conquer ice
Even if it you know if it weren't for the space program, we'd still figure that out
I just can't imagine we'd be standing there gazing at the ice and thinking
I don't know. I don't know what to do with that. I just you know
But that's but we people absorb that because that's the way their brains have been trained
They they've been trained to to take in information like this
And assimilate it into a way of thinking that already presumes that innovations like that must have had some kind of
state involvement
Then we have the other we have several other reasons that it's hard to get our point of view across
One is once there's some government program in place
An interest group develops around it and it becomes very very difficult if not impossible to dislodge it because of the strength
Of that interest group
Then we have the fact that human nature is such that people prefer to achieve their goals
Using the least possible exertion
Now what is the way to achieve your goal with the very least possible exertion will achieve it through state power
Because instead of actually having to work for you just agitate for it politically and you get it
So naturally people like that people prefer that
And when we're against that kind of institution
Well, they don't they don't care for that and then of course that we have the military aspect of things
now the the military is is is uh
I mean
The the preparation for an execution of war has helped to grow the institution of the state all over the world
There's tremendous scholarship on that
But in the united states in particular
There's just something about the military is everywhere. It's a you know, it's at the super bowl. It's at your local restaurant where
People who are on the payroll and the military getting tax dollars get a discount at the the restaurant or at whatever it is
The military is just everywhere. You're on an airplane and there's somebody in the military on it
So at the end everybody stands up and cheers. It's absolutely everywhere
and
I think a lot of people think to themselves
Well, yes, it may be true that milk subsidies are a bad idea or obama care is a problem
But the military that's different. My uncle's in the military, you know, and my uncle's a good guy
And I think because we all have somebody in the family or a next door neighbor or a co-worker or a friend or whoever
We all have somebody we know in the military
So we become very sensitive to criticism of the military, you know, because you you feel like i'm i'm i'm, you know
criticizing
You know, uncle frank
When I criticize the military, you know, wait a minute
Careful of what you say about the military. Uncle frank is in that
So there's some of that but there's also that they've made it so that people feel like the military is them or represents them
or represents quote america
Do you support america?
Well america is the institutions and the people
Not the government, but we have been
bamboozled into thinking that so if you say
Well, this is a terrible war
it's unjust and and
The u.s. government shouldn't have launched it
People take this personally
You know, which makes no sense at all if you can see the world clearly. There's no reason that should offend you
Because i'm not criticizing you
i'm criticizing these people who run the thing
and
I promise you
They would not you know, we have all these people who will make every excuse in the world
For the war mongers of both parties they make every excuse in the world
Oh, they had to launch the war because you know, there were weapons of mass destruction or whatever
They run around looking for ways to defend their overlords
You know, they they they dig up. Oh, well, I read this article that said that saddam had such as that
Long after the overlords have themselves given up these arguments these poor souls
Ordinary americans are still trying to find ways to defend them and I I keep wanting to tell these people
If the situation were like when when you
Are accused of not paying enough of your taxes or violating some regulation
I promise you the regime is not going to return the favor looking for excuses for you
So you don't owe them this you don't owe them the unpaid labor
Of going around trying to find evidence to support their war propaganda, you know, they wouldn't do the same for you
So no need to do unpaid labor for them
But it's it's like some kind and I felt for this too when I was a you know
I was younger when I was growing up as a teenager
I thought war was entertainment. You know, there's a war on tv. That's pretty cool
I'll watch that. It's really great to see the u.s. Government vanquishing the bad guys, you know, otherwise, what do you hate america?
I mean it was that low that was it was that low iq the way I thought about it
But there are a lot of people who looking at that way that you are criticizing quote, you know, you hate quote america
No, it's precisely that I love america. I I this is a beautiful country
It's it's that I love it that I don't want it to be run by crazy people
Who make crazy decisions
That I know I know
There's propaganda that sounds persuasive if you haven't looked into it, you know
We've been at war with iran for 47 years or they've killed all these americans
Whatever then you look at it in a little depth and you say, okay. Well
Here they go again
But it's but they've got it. They've really been very successful with at least a chunk of america
that
If you criticize war or the military, it's that you hate the country now if I criticize milk subsidies
I don't hate the country for some reason. It's just if you criticize this one government program
You hate america
So it's you know, it's very hard to get through
To people like this
Especially when they've they've had example after example of these military adventures gone terribly wrong
And it's incredible. They just learned nothing from it
So we really do have a what is to be done problem. Okay, how do we persuade these people?
Not to believe lies or not to favor things that are going to make them worse off
The wars are going to make them worse off the the domestic policies. They favor
I'm going to make them worse off
And you know, sometimes the wars are favored by some people the domestic policies are favored by others
Sometimes there is people who favor both of those things
But none of them are going to make them better off
And the and the thing is a lot of what you and I believe is counterintuitive, you know, if I say
It's better not to have the economy centrally plan
Well, yeah, people kind of have heard that by now because central planning failed so badly
But there's a you can imagine people thinking but yet shouldn't it shouldn't it work?
Wouldn't it be better if we had
People planning out the economy instead of it being governed by a quote anarchy of production where everybody decides
What they're going to produce and where they're going to work and what skill they're going to cultivate
That seems like that would be quote anarchic and inefficient wouldn't be much more efficient if we had like a single mind
Overseeing the whole thing coordinating it. It's not intuitive that that actually doesn't work
That sounds right on some level doesn't it?
But as we know from the socialist calculation problem, it's not right
But even einstein couldn't get that one
Even einstein kind of felt like well, maybe it would be better to plan the economy that way
Or if you want something just pass a law you want air-conditioned workplaces
Force that into existence
now that
Is a very bad idea
And but I don't want to spend the time on that right now. You would get air-conditioned workplaces
automatically
On their own
Through market mechanisms. Now if you don't believe me, I can talk about that on another episode
But the point is it sounds though like if you want something like that, you should just pass a law and get it
But if you do that what you're actually going to do is make a lot of jobs unaffordable to businesses
You know like when a technology like air conditioning immediately, you know it first comes onto the scene
It would be enormously expensive to supply it to everyone
So if you demanded that right away, that would just mean well, that's the end of air conditioning because it
Can't be afforded and all those jobs would be wiped out
So what actually happens is air-conditioned workplaces gradually get introduced on these grounds that
People would rather work in air-conditioned comfort over at this firm
So this firm installs the the air conditioning a lot of people want to go there
If you're going to entice me to work for your firm
But you're going to pay the same wage that i'm getting or the same salary that i'm getting over this comfortable air-conditioned firm forget it
You won't be able to do it
So what eventually happens is
The firm will introduce air conditioning because then
The only the only way they could get people over to their firm is either install the air conditioning or pay people more
A compensating differential. It's called pay people more to endure the heat
But eventually as technology develops air conditioning becomes cheaper and cheaper
To the point where it would be cheaper just to install the air conditioning
Then have to pay the wage differential to the worker to get him away from the air-conditioned firm
I said I wasn't going to go into this and now I just did it. So that's the that's basically the the quick version
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So the question is this
Uh
You know, we have I think a good set of ideas that lead toward peace and prosperity
But we have a system in which we don't really have that much opportunity to convey this to the public
Now it's true. Now we have the internet
But can we really reach quite enough people?
You know in a five minute youtube video to overcome 12 plus years
Of indoctrination in the official, you know indoctrination buildings. I I don't know
and then let's also remember
That most people
Really do just conform
Most people are not independent thinkers. They oh, they say they are they say they are
But then I talked to them for five minutes and I can see they have every conventional view under the sun
I mean after all even skeptic magazine
There's a magazine called skeptic and you flip through it and yeah, it's skeptical. All right
It's skeptical of witches
It's skeptical of people who are critical of the covid vaccine
It's skeptical of people who are critical of the covid lockdowns. That's the kind of skepticism we have there
Well, that's about as much skepticism as you get from a lot of people
They really do accept what's uh, what's told to them
and
You know, here we are
Taking a position that involves believing kind of the opposite of what everyone has told them
You know from everything from money to the way the economy works to
To the world and war
We have some stuff to say that's very much the opposite of what what's people what people have been told
So what is the what is the thing to be? How do we?
Fix this problem. How do we make progress in this kind of situation?
And people used to ask me that I would give you know, I used to do a lot of public speaking
And I would speak on academic topics. I would teach people something
And then afterward they would say, you know, this knowledge is all great
But what do we actually do like what should we do to create a better more livable society?
That's more in line with our vision
And that question really did sting because I I didn't really know the answer. I don't know what the answer is
I honestly don't know I would say I'm not the strategy guy
You know, I feel like there's there's no harm in giving you this knowledge
And that is that has to be a portion of it education has to be part of it
We have to be able to defend ourselves and when you're educated into these ideas you do find them compelling
but
What do we do and that is what I find so appealing about the free state project
Which I assume people listen to me know about but just in case you don't
The strategy there is we pick a state and they chose new hampshire and a whole bunch of us move there
And this concentrated group of us will not be the majority
But we will be extremely active
And we will change the culture and politics of that state and it has indeed happened
And so that the reason I like that strategy is that that strategy does not require us to be the majority
Because as I've said that doesn't look like it's in the cards
It it runs against every instinct of human nature and plus it we're up against the educational establishment
That has custody of the minds of so many people for x hours a day for 12 years of their lives or 13 years
Uh, that's really hard. But what if we could take the minority that we are
But really concentrate ourselves
In one place and make the numbers that we do have count
And that's what the free state project
Does now let me double check here. I don't want to give you the wrong thing
So i'm going to type in something into the old the old computer here it is
Oh, that is not correct. Let me let me check. Good thing. I looked
Good thing all woods took a look at this
The website is is um
fsp.org free state project.org
So I was there because I wanted to encourage that
And because I intend to move to new hampshire in the coming years
It'll be a while but I I want to be part of that and I think also
The education is part of it. But as we've said, it's not enough
Um, I don't think we can educate enough people and even if we did educate a whole lot of people
Then we we could be just very oppressed educated people, you know, there has to be another
Dimension of this so I do like the free state
strategy, but I also think that
Yes, I know some people will be unhappy with me, but I think politics plays some role
Especially on the state and local level the federal level you may say is a lost cause
But on the state and local level you can accomplish things
You know and and yet I know there are some libertarians who think it's immoral to vote
I absolutely reject that. There's no reason that that it's immoral to vote. Why would it be immoral to cast a vote?
um
Lysander spooner used to who is a better
Uh libertarian than almost anybody listening to this right now
Said it's you can use it as a defense mechanism
You know if if somebody is pledged to do something evil to you
And you can maybe help stop it by casting a vote go ahead and do it
Like I was even in an argument online with somebody who thought it was immoral to vote against
Uh a tax increase referendum
That it was immoral to try to stop that by means of voting
So I like to say if I were in a concentration camp and the concentration camp guard said to me
Woods were all taking a vote of you concentration camp inmates
And if if a majority of you votes to be freed we're going to let you go
Could you imagine saying nope? Sorry? I can't quote consent to the system by voting
So I'm going to stay here. You'd have to be out of your mind
Okay, and so I do think there are some things in which politics can be helpful
Uh particularly on the state and local level but also remember even Murray Rothbard who is a better
Anarcho-capitalist than you probably even Murray Rothbard said there are some things that is hard to see
How a completely non-political approach could have solved them because I know there are
Cases where outside of politics great accomplishments have been made the homeschooling movement is an example
That came about just spontaneously as a social phenomenon. That wasn't like, you know, we didn't vote that into existence
That just happened and homeschoolers just presented that to society as a fate to complete
You know, what are you going to do about it? We're here. There are millions of us. What are you going to do about it?
Okay, so that can happen and I I'm all in favor of it when that happens
However, uh, how were we going to get the corn laws repealed?
you know and and uh
The corn laws are of course a British problem, but still
For 30 years basically the corn laws made food more expensive than it would have been otherwise
Which is an antisocial and evil thing
And in 1846 the corn laws were repealed now
They were not repealed because all of society
became
anti-statist philosophically and they decided to work together to undermine
The corn laws, uh, you know, you know using civil disobedience that did not happen
I would love if that happened
But as I told you most people are conformists and and they're normies and they're not going to do that
I wish they would but they're not going to do that
likewise
Andrew Jackson
Prevented the renewal of the charter of the second bank of the united states. That was great. That was a great move by him
So that didn't happen because everybody got together and said
You know the paper money put out by this institution is bad and we should stop accepting it
And instead we should create our own alternative. Again. I wish that were the way it happened
That would be great. I would be all on board for that
That's not how it happened and I don't think there's any prospect of that kind of thing happening
Um
Most people are normies
You know, I mean we can do what we can to educate them and get the word out but
At some level you got to just do what you got to do and uh, if you have an Andrew Jackson who will
Refuse to
To charter that thing again
I'll take that as the solution because at least the right thing gets done
so, uh, so
That's where I'm going to be. It's going to take me a while because I have family reasons holding me
In in god-awful, florida where I am now now. It's a lovely place politically
There are a lot of great things that have been done in florida, and I'm very grateful
For the experience we had during coven that it was pretty normal down here
But it's it's inhuman how hot it is in central florida. It's not as it is
unsuited for human habitation
so
I'm getting the heck out of here
And I am planning to go to new hampshire and what I like about it is not just that
It's a bunch of like-minded people, you know who arrive there to try to make favorable changes
But you know there is also a social aspect like we're not meant
You know despite the caricature of libertarianism. We're not meant to to be alone
And we're not they think that libertarians don't want to cooperate with other people
Yes, we do. We just don't want to do it with a gun to our heads. Of course. We want to cooperate
Uh, and there is a tremendous social aspect of the free state project. They hold events
Um, so I think they're hitting all the different aspects that are necessary that they've got politics and at
Just the right level where it's not the be all and end all but it's not nothing
You don't have to be involved with politics at all to be in the free state project
You don't want to you just work on what you want to work on you do what you want to do
You just live free
So fsp.org
I would urge you to check that out
So now I want to do something different
and bring on
My friend mark monoscalco. So let's see if I can get him on the screen
All right, and here is mark monoscalco
Hooked up with me mark is my hawaii-based friend who was at the you were at the 2000th tom would show episode. Were you not?
I was at 1000 2000. I'm looking forward to 3000 tom. Well
Yeah, we'll see
The unfortunate part about cutting down a number of episodes per week is going to take us a lot longer to get to 3000
Yeah, and I don't know if I feel like oh anyway
We'll argue this later whether I feel like doing a big deal for 3000 or what I'm going to do but
Anyway, 3000 episodes. What's the matter? What who would do that? Well? Anyway, let's get to the point
The point is mark monoscalco who has been out there fighting this battle
And uh for a long time and as a matter of fact, I recall from the 2000th episode
He was one of the contestants in our little family feud game
And when each contestant was introducing himself mark introduced himself as mark monoscalco
From the union of soviet socialist islands because he lives in he lives in Honolulu
So it's an uphill battle over there
But doggone he's been fighting it and he's just released this brand new book
Featuring a forward by a certain dr. Ron paul you may have heard of and it's called the forbidden idea
Subtitle hidden truths about individual liberty economic freedom political philosophy in history
It more or less. Well, I don't know why I'm I'm doing the telling people what the book is because it's your book
But I still feel compelled to do it
It's going to trace the idea of freedom as you see it
Developing in fits and starts over the centuries. There's a big history section in here
That goes that goes from the ancient world and then bit by bit you start to see the puzzle pieces coming together
Until you get to the end of the book where the whole puzzle is put together
But it's also it's not just history. It's also a discussion of the ideas themselves
It's a discussion of where we need to go from here because we're not exactly living up to these ideas anymore. So so that's
So that's where we are
I I can't help asking me. We do have books on libertarianism out there
What what's the motive? What's the motivation behind this first of all?
I wrote this book to help calm your inner turmoil
And when I say that to my friends everybody looks at me like there's something wrong with me because that's totally out of character
For me to say something on those lines
But actually because of you, um, I calmed my inner turmoil way back when
I was just beginning to decide I needed to know a little bit more about libertarianism
I was at
A long time just a lazy libertarian. I didn't really pay any attention
I liked the big picture stuff, you know, no taxes and all the other goodies that go with that
And that was good enough. Um, but I felt really
Uncomfortable not being able to explain myself in depth
So, uh, I don't remember how it happened, but I came across a podcast the tom wood show that, uh
On the the exit of the show
Um
Assured me that I would become a smarter libertarian in 30 minutes per day
And actually it worked. Um started reading
Uh, you know, or big enthusiastic
Uh supportive Rothbard. I had never read anything
From Rothbard and just reading this one for a new liberty is enough to
Leave you with a completely different outlook on the world. So I wanted to influence
my friends
that are
so
Disappointed with the current political situation. They're disgruntled. They're
They're angry. I mean, there's people that I can't actually have a
Conversation with a lot of them starting to yell and scream
um, it got worse
after the
The midterm elections and
22 and everybody expected the republicans have this big red wave and that didn't happen and
I don't people just felt like there was no hope
so
This book is there to explain the fundamental philosophy
Uh, where it came from the history that's behind it
And give them a little bit of hope because there's a concluding chapter
is a lot of um
Practical
Suggestions to make things better. That's why I wrote it
Everybody I got some bad news for you, but then also some good news the bad news
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So I definitely want to talk about some of those but I guess the idea would be that
These ideas that dr. Paul defended and that we all cherish
um
They had to go through and off, you know quite a long period of evolution to get to
You know their final mature form
They could have been snuffed out at any time, but they weren't and so here they are
And so, you know, they can always, you know, they're they're they're still there as a guide
As as something to aspire to
Something to learn from
so
Let's start then at the very beginning. So the very beginning you're just going to lay out exactly what this philosophy is now
this book
Has a lot of personalities that people will know and a lot of personalities they won't know but should
But it also, um, you also made a rather deliberate decision
Not to include a whole bunch of the bad guys
So because you can read you can read a book about marx, you know, but this is our book
This is our book talking about our people and our ideas
Yeah, if you if you wanted to refute all of the collectivist ideas the book would have been
You know 1500 pages long, right? So you had to stop somewhere
And we left out the we left out the collectivists. They're they're mentioned occasionally when
One of our heroes refutes them, but besides that we don't bring them up
Yeah, so it's a positive exposition of the ideas as opposed to defending it from critics
We have defenses from critics
But here's a here the idea is that the ideas sell themselves the ideas are
attractive
As soon as you encounter them and here's your opportunity
In this book here to encounter them. So
How do you describe them?
What what's the basic gist of what it is that you're defending?
So the book starts out with the basic philosophy and I wanted to lay out the basic philosophy in a simple and understandable
method
I'm certainly that trying to rewrite the
Any of Rothbard's great treatises, right? I'm not trying to rewrite
The foreign new liberty or the ethics of liberty. I'm just trying to
condense
everything that I've
Been exposed to and so I've got it in six chapters. It's only 40 pages
and
I think that covers the entire fundamental philosophy
So we start out with a definition of individual liberty, which that was an interesting exercise
I
attend
Quite a few events that attract the liberty-minded people
And for a couple years in a row at freedom fest, I would walk around in the exhibit hall and
In between
seminars and talk to folks in the in the liberty movement people that I you know
I have a lot of respect for people that have accomplished quite a bit
And I asked everybody the same question. What's your definition of individual liberty?
And they you know, there was an overarching theme that was among everybody, but for the most part everybody had a different definition
That I found
Disturbing I thought, you know, this is something that we all should agree on and it should be concise
So my research
Across all of the different
Philosophers and authors that we have in our liberty movement
Brought me to the definition that I'm going to present
And my definition of individual liberty is the absence of coercion
It's extremely short
I like it because
it's got a the negative connotation which we'll talk about in a minute, but
It reflects the negative rights that is a fundamental part of our
uh
natural rights philosophy
so, uh, we define
individual liberty and then we move on to, um
Interesting lean enough heavy did define coercion that came straight from Rothbard. There's a few others high I can't something interesting
But but Rothbard's got this really concise really precise definition
of coercion
And um, then we moved on to discuss natural law
And how natural law predates
all government
And Bastiat says it best
Man does not have life liberty and property because government has made laws
Rather
There are laws
Because man already had
life liberty and property
so our natural laws are
Inherent and above any man made
law
The natural laws also include natural rights
There's some discussion of natural rights the kinds of why don't I have why don't I have a right to a car?
you have
A right to life liberty and property that I think we can just start with three really simple ones and
The
Right to life the right to liberty the right to property does not require anybody else
To do anything. There's no services needed to be provided by someone else
There's no goods needed to be provided by someone else
You are to be left alone
No one is to kill you that's your right to life
Uh, no one is to steal
Your property
That's your right to property. No one is to enslave you that's your right to liberty. It doesn't require anybody else's
um
It doesn't require imposing
Anything on anyone else
So no
So how sorry you do not have a right to a car
Because if I were to claim one that would in order to fulfill that somebody would have to do something
They have to go build me something
They'd have to go they'd have to do it have to be forced labor for me
And we already said that that that's no can do it's not allowed
Can't do that and it's an interesting thing and this is something that
uh
The last chapter in the philosophy section is specifically about negative rights and positive rights
and what you're what you're um
suggesting is that you have a positive right to a car
which means someone has to do something to provide you with that car
but the uh
natural rights
That we have inherently are all negative rights. No one's required to do anything for those
And what that means is that those natural rights are universal
That everybody has that right
And it's simultaneous
Everyone can exercise that right at the same time
That's a concept that
When people have read the people that have read the book and we've had conversations with
That seems to be new to just about everybody
That they hadn't heard that before they they may have heard it and they just didn't realize
how
um fundamental it is
so if
If someone is making a and this is why this is important when you're listening to someone else
And they're making a claim
and people usually dress up, you know
People are eloquent dress up their claims and all sorts of
flowery language and make it sound so
so
important
but if you can
really dissect it and try to find out exactly what it is they're making a claim on
um
Almost everybody's making a claim for a positive right
And once you realize it's a positive right
Then you can just work through all of the
Other knowledge you have and you know, you can explain why that's
a violation of natural law natural rights now what you're describing is
a system in which
There's in which there's a
moral presumption against coercion
and in favor of
peaceful coexistence with other people
And uh, obviously this has very radical conclusions. I used to assign
Frederick Bastiat's book the law to my students back in my old professor days
And a lot of us read the law
It's a tiny little book and we all we thought it was persuasive and a a neat little exposition of the ideas
but
I would say
75 percent of the people in the classroom could not understand it
That had no idea what the point was
So I had to explain to them. Do you understand what the implications of these ideas are?
He's basically saying that
Virtually everything the government does is illegitimate because it involves
So-called legal plunder and involves doing things
That individuals wouldn't themselves be allowed to do
So how do they become morally allowed to do them when they combine together in a group?
And this just shocked that this is this had just flown right over their heads
um
But
Likewise, what you're talking about that there's such a thing as self ownership
From which a lot of these ideas then flow as a logical conclusion
This has very radical conclusions for what
We would consider legitimate government action
Does it not?
I think the coercion is really to focus
I'm not saying that there should be no
um
organized
group and society that
is allowed
to
Manage our affairs. I think it would be perfectly acceptable
to allow
a group that I voluntarily join
And I voluntarily support with my my money
to
provide defense for me or to provide
any other service that I
I
Decide that it's a good idea and I'm willing to voluntarily pay for it
and voluntarily leave it
If I decide I don't like the service they're providing and I get to go somewhere else
Um, that's a much different thing government government is a monopoly on violence
And it's a monopoly a territorial monopoly
um
Hans hapa has a really great quote later in my book and when we get into the history section
um talking about how
Limited government is an impossibility like squaring the circle like once you
Allow an organization to have a monopoly over a territory to uh enact laws and enforce those laws
Uh, it's impossible for that organization not to write the laws and enforce the laws in its own favor
And he said the same thing about money
if you allow a
organization to have territorial monopoly
and
Have the ability to print money. Uh, it's uh, it's uh
Unrealistic to expect that that organization isn't going to print the money to use it to their own advantage
So that I think
Is what the real
um underlying issue is
that's not
The first thing we can explain to people because that's a little bit advanced
They need to understand the fundamental principles first
I set the book up
intentionally to do that talking about the fundamentals
um making sure that there's a
base that they can work from
Working through the history and I didn't have to rearrange history history works out this way
that uh history
builds on
previous events and previous
um
knowledge
and we get um more
and more
um detailed explanations of how
a um
Society could function without
Cooperation right that wasn't something that people were talking about
at 1200
um, but it is something that became
Uh a reasonable conversation in the 20th century and now today
um thanks to
our dr. Paul and all of the other people that were uh
Caught up in that movement. We've got
many people who are
proponents
Of a society that's based on voluntary cooperation and not coercion not violence
Well, and a lot of where where it comes from, uh
Or well, let me put it this way one of the reasons that I was drawn to that
was that it seemed like everything
Short of that ultimately led to the situation we have now
So in other words if you say well, we'll just let the government do this or let it do that
but if you give it
The kinds of powers that most people are prepared to give it
They're going to use those powers to get to the stage where they are now like there's no
There's no stable equilibrium where it'll just stay at the quote limited government stage. That's a problem
There is no equilibrium that just keeps it there
And I realize that's clearly the case
And so
You know, I just don't want the thing
I don't want the thing expanding in any in any way now. Well, you and I are describing, you know, a lot of times
In my constitutionalist days, I would say, you know, we have to get back to the founding fathers
And we have to get back to the old republic and I would consider that to be a great step forward
But I also realized that if I were to describe to my fellow citizens what that old republic looked like
And what it would mean in terms of the powers of government, the vast majority of my fellow countrymen would be horrified
Um, because how do I know that? Because I look at polling data about what areas of the budget do they favor cutting
essentially none of them
But yet to get to where we want to be you'd have to cut them all
so
Does it not seem like it's it's a hopeless fight that we have this admittedly very attractive set of ideas, but
um
For a lot of people, they're just not going to be attractive
So that's where uh, I've noticed over the years you and I do have a difference of opinion. Um
I believe that it is possible
to persuade
our
Friends and neighbors. Um, I talk about building little platoons
building on the the the human
concept
and um
I I'm
Convincing my little platoons out here that the most important thing
That we can espouse is cutting spending
That's much easier to talk about cutting spending on a local and state level than it is at the federal level
But I think people need to hear that need to hear that that's the only way out of this
especially
with the skyrocketing
debt that we're facing and the amount of
money that they're printing to
monetize that debt
we're
Certainly not going to survive on this
path that we're on
And the only way off that path is cut spending and
if
You know if I was going to just buckle in and say, okay
Tom's right
We're never going to cut spending we'll never be able to do that
Then I think the real answer is you become a proper
And you buy a ranch out in Idaho and dig a bomb shelter and start filling it with canned goods, right?
You know, I live in an urban area. I live in hunt. I live on an island
You know, we're the most icily to place on earth
As soon as the supply chain breaks down, that's it. We all starve. Well, not all of us
Some of us would probably resort to cannibalism. So they they would survive but everybody else would starve, right?
so
The only way out for me I'm not
I'm just not an outdoorsy kind of guy. I wouldn't survive very well in Idaho
Especially if I had to like raise my own cattle. I would be completely out of out of place
It's the light for that for me
So my only hope is that I persuade enough people to cut spending
And they go out and persuade enough people to cut spending
And that becomes
The battle cry
right
That I think
Is the only way out of it. Well, I don't want to give away everything that's in it
But give me a few thoughts that you have about
Other than educating people about the principles of liberty. I mean, this is like
Get everybody to have a pocket constitution. I mean, let's
I'm not against that but what else you got in terms of
What are practical things people can do not to solve the whole problem
immediately
But to, you know, maybe make some noticeable
finite changes in the right direction
so
I'm gonna I'm gonna really take it
um as the first step
Is you got to continue your education and the philosophy and history of individual liberty
so if you read
the
Forbidden idea you'll get a really
condensed
but thorough
um
Education and the philosophy of individual liberty. So you'll have that
you'll get a
somewhat broad but
Still condensed
Version of the history of the individual liberty and in the history you're gonna you're gonna learn
um
The real heroes the people that have done the most right
So you'll know the philosophy. You'll know the the history if you if you if you read the book
and then
dig a little deeper. Um, I've got a
um
Curated reading list out on the web that I think is you know, of course I did it. So I think it's great, right?
but but
most of the
um information
In my book in the forbidden idea comes from the texts in a curated reading list
So there's
Curated reading lists has uh what I call the essential reading. There's 12 essays and books
That cover
I think all the different concepts that we need to have
um
Convince people to read
convince people to talk about it
So when you're trying to build your little platoons
You know just saying cut spending isn't that that's not enough to get people enthusiastic
You can you can talk about
The principle of self ownership
And for a lot of people that you know, they you know inherently they understand it, but they haven't heard it
they don't know the um
The terminology and that gives them something that they can use
To talk to other people. So it's a little bit of an it's a little off the subject, but
This is just about uh similar
To being around people that are wine geeks, right people that are wine geeks
They stick their nose in the glaze and he started talking about fruit earth and wood all this sort of thing
And you're standing there if you're not a wine snob
You don't
You don't get it. You don't feel part of it. You can't contribute
But once you take some time and you learn some of the basics, but then you learn
the terminology
Then you can interact with other people, right?
um
So yes, uh, you and I might disagree on that a little bit, but continue your education encourage other people to read it
Next
Andrew Breitbart's doctrine
Politics is downstream for culture
So
Build your little platoons, right? Your little platoons are people that you're familiar with
Of course your family
Your neighbors your friends
People that you work with
people that you socialize with people that uh, you come across uh, maybe at your church at
Wherever you remember your um
Your your baseball leagues all of those people know who you are they they trust you
And they'll listen to you and i'm not uh encouraging you to lecture anybody
I'm just encouraging you to speak honestly when the subject comes up, right?
When politics comes up
Don't be quiet
Express your opinion
When there's talk of you know discussions about economics don't be you know, don't be the door mouse
speak up right I
Most of my life I was the first guy when we were in a social setting
I would first guy to say to listen and talk about politics or religion
And uh, you know, I look at that now and it's like
That didn't make the world a better place at least for me
so
Speak up build a little platoon
encourage your little platoons
to
Do the reading encourage your little platoons to
Spread that message to other people
those little platoons
multiply
and
Our message is it's
It's elegant. It's beautiful. It's people accept
I mean very few people are going to argue with you when you tell them that about the principle of self-ownership, right?
Now some people might argue about
Private property right because they think that private property is the root of all evil and blah blah blah
But very few people are ever going to argue with you about the principle of self-ownership
Um, very few people argue about the uh, non-aggression principle, right?
You know when you explain it to them, they feel like that's
that's
Human nature that we should obviously follow this right so get your little platoon out there get them
In a position where they can persuade others make them the evangelists
Uh, and you know the the overall message that the little platoon
You know first, of course, they should understand the philosophy and the history and be able to talk about that
What the message has to be the only way out of the the situation we're in today is cut spending
and
we have
Much more control on a local level
so
you know, I
I feel awkward saying this because this is something I really hate to do but
Go to your local school board meetings go to the park district meetings go to the municipal government meetings
You got to show up
Because when you go to those things look around the room the only people that are there
Are all the ones that want more spending in bigger government?
They're the ones who show up every day to those meetings or every time one of those meetings is held
um
It's time for us
The forgotten man and woman to show up
The the ultimate
Goal
The ultimate hurdle, I guess to get over the cutting spending story
Is what do we do about the federal reserve?
Because as long as the federal reserve is on the same program that it's on today
You'll never cut spending at the federal level because they'll just create the money out of thin air
Um
Now obviously end of fed
That fixes it. Um, if that's not possible are there other ways of
Fixing the problem. Yeah, there are right if we went to a sound money, right if you went to a
I don't know gold or bitcoin or baskets of commodity
Not that you have to carry gold coins in your pocket, but you'll have some sort of token
that is a um
Is a certain value of gold that people will accept an exchange. I mean, that's what the dollar
Was right at first. There was no printed money
People really were walking around with gold coins in their pocket
and after uh
the civil war
started printing
Dollars but the dollar was
exchangeable for a certain way to go you could take the dollar into the bank and say give me x amount of gold
And that's what they would give you by law
Uh, that would be one way of putting a clamp
on federal spending and if you go all right just go back
um across the history of our
All of our federal problems
It all gets dramatically worse
In 1971 after Nixon took the u.s. After gold standard the final
leg of the gold standard
all of the charts
you know underlying inflation
debt
uh monetary debasement
I'll start going straight off
from that thing
so
we could
I guess
live with the federal reserve if we're not able to drive a wooden stake through its heart
um
We could live with it if we had a currency that couldn't be debased
So I mean I agree with all these things. I I I don't I don't know how we get to that point
But I I like
You do have some practical suggestions here that that you can yeah, you you cannot overnight
Solve the problems of the federal government. It's beyond reform. So something very very dramatic is going to have to happen
I like regardless of how many books are read. There are way too many vested interests
Something dramatic is going to have to happen to change that
But you can make changes on and your local level starting tomorrow
Because most people don't even participate in that
They don't even know what's going on. That's the way the local government likes it by the way
But that is all low hanging fruit where you can go in there and make genuine changes that make you freer
There's no doubt about it that you can start doing that, but
But it's not as fun as you know being involved in a us senate campaign that goes nowhere
But it but it should be it should be thought of as more fun because more likely
greater likelihood of success
Yeah, so I'm fortunate
to be part of a I'm on the board of directors of a
state policy think tank here in Hawaii the grassroot institute of Hawaii
and we're supported by this
nationwide umbrella organization
Which is called the state policy network
as a pn
If you're interested in really making a difference at your local level
Get involved
with one of your state policy think tanks
Every state's got at least one some have multiple
think tanks
and
you'll be you'll be impressed
and amazed
at the amount of
positive changes
that they're making
it's
it's eye-opening to look through the
The monthly newsletters and the reports that we get the things that are going on and all across the states
You know, they're not making as much progress in
in New York and California as they are
and let's say Idaho and
of
Texas but
There's progress being made everywhere. So just for one example
I don't know how many of you remember the jannis the mark jannis decision the supreme court decision
that overturned
municipal
Unions from automatically deducting dues
from the employees paychecks
but that
began
as a lawsuit filed by
The Illinois policy institute. It's a state policy
institute
in Illinois
And it went all the way up to supreme court and had no nationwide impact
Just by working its way through the system that I'm not saying that that's going to happen every time you
You get involved with the state policy network, but you could
You could easily have an impact on on little things the little things that make a difference in everybody's life every day
We're constantly listening to
complaints about the cost of housing
And you know, this is hard to believe
But it appears to be true. I've I've done
some research on my own but
What I've seen how it's presented the the research that goes with it seems to be very accurate
That approximately 50 percent
Of the cost of housing
Is due to government regulation
you know all across the board regulation of
The production of the lumber regulation of transportation, but the regulation of building the housing itself
Is extraordinarily expensive. So out here
To start a really
poorly
Maintained starter home
Is over a million dollars
So think about that $500,000 of that cost
Could be
Managed to to be reduced if government regulation or trim back that's
That's transformational for people
So anyway, that was a long story about
State policy think tanks, but they're effective and
If nothing else you'll be impressed by the people that are
Involved because they're enthusiastic
So for me, I go to freedom fest and um
You know, it's the same thing. It's it's it's a room full of angry old white men
Um, I go to the national meeting for the state policy network
And I look around and the average agent there's got to be in early 40s
And more than 50 of the people there are women
That is very uplifting
There's well that is not true of the listenership of the tom wood show mark monoscalco, but not yet
I'm not yet, so we're inching our way up there a little bit at a time. We've got we I haven't
Checked in a while. It's higher than it used to be but
anyway, well, let me uh
You have a website for the book. Is that right?
Yes, I do the forbidden idea dot com the forbidden idea dot com
Here it is right here for those of you looking at it on the screen and the website has by far
the most
Time intensive video
ever produced. I've got a 40
I don't know
45 second video
That might have taken me three weeks of my time to get that right to get it to work is like
Yeah, oh, yeah, you could do all these videos with ai. Yeah, guess what you're gonna do it
But you're gonna do it over 700 times to get it right, but
That's there. So I hope you enjoy it. Yes. Good. Good. Good. Absolutely. Yes
So the forbidden idea dot com is where to go to check out the book mark
Thanks for your great labors and um, I'm glad you uh have this accomplishment under your belt
Thanks, Tom. It's only because of you
That's very kind of you to say
made me curious
the uh
Liberty Academy gave me the background and your author academy gave me the uh
The details I needed to actually get it done. So it's a testament to your dedication. Thanks, Tom
Thank you mark very much and thank you ladies and gentlemen
Make yourself and those you love less vulnerable to the regime
Both mentally and physically get more forbidden information at tomsfreebooks.com and be sure to subscribe to the show where
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