This was originally posted at the Anarchy In Your Head comic and blog website on 8/18/2008.
“If your art can get more press for anarchy, I won’t have to get arrested so often.”
– Lauren Canario
I got what I consider a very good comment on a recent comic strip- I Aim to Misbehave, that deserves a proper response. The comic focuses on a controversial activist, Lauren Canario, known for refusing to participate in driver licensing and car registrations, among other things, to the point of being arrested. It brought up some very good points about how we communicate our ideas. The videos of Lauren embedded with that entry get quite a lot of views and some of the YouTube comments responding to the videos make it clear that many people just don’t get it. Obviously she’s trying to make a powerful statement with her actions and it’s important that people get the message.
What is this hard message she’s trying to convey? At the risk of claiming to speak for Lauren, I’ll make an attempt to explain. It’s that government as we now know it is violence, through and through. The source of it’s authority is nothing more than a persistent threat of violence. A majority may consolidate power in the form of a government, but can’t ensure that it’s moral. A broad consensus, e.g. a vote, or an elaborate proclamation on a piece of paper can not create truth or morality and hence can’t create authority. Government isn’t just violent when it engages in aggressive wars. Every order it issues is backed by the threat of serious violence. Why rebel against something seemingly minor like a driver’s license to point this out? Should we pick our battles more carefully? Because it’s part of the hard truth that people aren’t ready to accept. Any order you resist, from a seizure of private land to a parking ticket, can ultimately escalate to serious violence including incarceration or even death if you continue to resist the orders or the punishments they impose on you. All punishments by government are for disobeying. The so-called little things demonstrate this particularly well. When the authority of government ultimately rests on nothing more than the threat of violence, any deviation from strict adherence cannot be tolerated or the illusion is threatened. By simply remaining passive in a seemingly small matter, Lauren causes them to show their true nature.
On the other hand, how small is the issue of issuing driver licenses? It may have been a small thing at one time, but that’s becoming increasingly questionable. The federal government is pushing for a national database of every citizen in this country tied to driver licenses commonly referred to as <a href=”http://www.realnightmare.org/”>Real I.D.</a> They’re already pushing to make this ID necessary not just to drive but to board an aircraft, and in fact this would already be the case if not for resistance by a number of states. They’re acting in numerous other ways to make this easily trackable I.D. nearly impossible to function without. How intrusive does a government need to become before resistance seems reasonable to the average Joe?
People do not casually abandon a deeply held belief. Irrational beliefs provide comfort even while causing us to engage in irrational behavior. How do you softly tell a child that Santa doesn’t really exist and prepare her for the cold reality that a mythical character is not bringing her presents Christmas morning? How do you gently convince someone their God doesn’t exist and that they won’t be going to Heaven when they die? How do you tactfully explain that the government they’ve trusted all their lives to provide their security is actually enslaving them under threat of violence? I’m not sure there’s a soft way to convey a hard truth, a cold hard truth that rocks the foundations of deeply held lifelong beliefs. Getting someone to see the truth amidst a pervasive lifetime indoctrination process takes proverbially grabbing them by the shoulders and shaking them. A message like Lauren’s is not likely to change someone’s views overnight, but in time and in the light of new experiences and new information, and when they’ve had time to get over the shock of having the foundations of their reality rocked, it may very well start to sink in.
UPDATE 8/25/2008: A video recently posted by SidewinderAnarchist compliments what I’m talking about. You can view the video in the original post. Check out his channel for more great videos about anarchy.
