The Narrative of the 'Free Republic'

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:41:27 GMT  <== Politics ==> 

Stefan Molyneux at Strike the Root - Mr. Molyneux paints the United States' founding documents as so much political propaganda. He may be right. [root]

If Mafia Gang A attacks Mafia Gang B -- while claiming eternal hatred for Mafia Gang B's evil practice of extortion -- and then, as soon as it overthrows Mafia Gang B, immediately sets up its own more predatory extortion rackets, we can clearly understand that Mafia Gang A was motivated by jealousy of Mafia Gang B, not out of any fundamental dislike of their practices.

If we continue to believe the pious lies of statist propaganda, we will forever be drawn to drown ourselves in the mirage of a mythical past where people were "free." If we continue to believe that the "founding of the Republic" -- really the overthrow of a relatively benign foreign gang by a vastly more rapacious domestic gang -- was defined by the moral fairy tales designed to dull the scepticism of the average citizen, then we shall be forever drawn to repeat the mistakes of the past and waste our lives believing that a new criminal gang will somehow set us free.

If we believe that the Constitution was genuinely designed to limit the power of the state, then we will forever try to limit the power of the state by revising political documents or pursuing other kinds of political solutions. If we understand that political documents are in fact mere tools of hypocritical moral propaganda, we will be no more tempted to revise them than we would to fact-check back issues of "Pravda."

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