Old Man Shu on Liberty and Freedom

Lenus was known throughout the lands as a major defender of total freedom, to him governments where a total rip-off giving money to unproductive people, who defended their incompetent friends by making laws favoring their incompetent friends.  He was sitting in the garden of Shu, a man at least twenty years older than Lenus, and Shu himself was considered a great defender of liberty and freedom but a less extreme version than that of Lenus and his followers. Lenus had once been a student of Shu.

“Shu, my old friend and a man whose views I hold dear to my heart and soul. We are both defenders of freedom and liberty, we both see that it is the government in the ways of people. It has always been governments in the ways of people, governments basically want a few people, to control the great swaths of people. We both know this to be an injustice, people should be free to use their property in the manner that they see fit. They should be allowed to gather as much property as they so desire. As a matter of fact in my latest book I have gone as far as saying profit should be the highest ideal. In short when a society is looking at profits they will learn to be more efficient and will constantly look for better ways of doing things. Government is in the way of the better to make profits, why are you so reluctant to give our views your full support, get rid of the government altogether. We don’t need them Shu.”

All the time whilst Lenus was talking Shu was looking at him. When Lenus finished Shu looked away deep in thought. He stood up to pour himself another drink, and brought the whole bottle so that Lenus could pour for himself whenever he was ready. Lenus could not help that though 83, Shu had a spring in his step, his old mentor was still fanatical about looking after himself. After pondering the question from Lenus, Shu sighed heavily, like a man about to relieve a burden of himself, knowing now is the time. Lenus asked like he was trying to dig some secret out of Shu, now Lenus felt at long last he was about to receive this secret.

“We don’t need the government Lenus, we need a government Lenus. Once long ago, in my youth I met men from distant lands, Have you ever heard of Bizazoo Lenus?” Shu put forward a question to Lenus.

“It’s Bizazool my old friend, who has not heard of Bizazool. That tyrannical land, such tyranny drove all the talented people from that land. The talented, left with their talents to offer them to other lands, the rich took their gold, silver, diamonds and rubies to finance other lands. What great loads of gold and silver that Bizazool had. But why talk of this, its fall is close to a century ago. Bizazool is the classic example of why we should have no governments at all.”

Shu burst out laughing, laughing so much that tears were rolling down his eyes. Lenus was puzzled how can a man of any sense laugh at such a serious matter, though getting visibly agitated he managed to ask Shu, “ what is so funny, I do not believe I made a joke?”

Shu controlled his laughter and began to engage Lenus once more in conversation. “Lenus, some parts of my memory are weary, Bizazoo, Bizazool, what’s the difference, does it really matter my pronunciation, my spelling, okay Bizazool. You think I am timid because I say there should be a government, a government of some sort. A system where there is the right to have property, to do as one pleases with that property. To be treated equally by the law, meaning in some sense that you can use your property in the manner that anybody else can use their property. Government should be as meaningless as possible, but there should still be a government. To you that is soft. I take this stance because of Bizazool, you take your stance seemingly because of Bizazool. But we both agree that Bizazool had great wealth, as could be seen by how much flowed out of it because of tyranny.

When I was young in my twenties, my early twenties or late twenties who cares, I thought exactly like how you think now, but you are now at least in your sixties. Go and read my first writings, one of my very first articles I called for the abolition of government. Soon after that article I met an extraordinarily wealthy philosopher, he philosophized mostly on what it meant to be happy, he never became famous. They had left Bizazool when he was a teen and when I met him he must have been at least fifty. We talked a lot, he gave me my first loan to buy into some mining venture, it turned out well. Well that is how I made my fortune, but fortune was always secondary to the cause, but fortune allowed me to do more, but I would still fought to the bitter end for liberty and justice, I already was before fortune came my way, well you didn’t know that, just letting you know. Now I was already into liberty and freedom, as I had already written dozens of articles about it and spoken several times. But this man who became a friend told me the story of Bizazool, the great symbol of tyranny. That is why I laugh when you say Bizazool is the classic example of why we should have no governments. See, 300 years before the fall of Bizazool, Bizazool was a wealthy but not powerful nation. The people overthrew the aristocracy of that land in a bloody, in a very bloody revolution. The leaders of the revolution where not half baked people who envied the aristocrats, and replace the aristocrats once the revolution was over. They mean to abolish that system and put in place a system where anybody could be, if they used their talents, true freedom.

There have been revolutions, there will always be wars of freedom, but the overthrow of the aristocracy in Bizazool  was a true revolution in the sense that those who overthrew the aristocracy never wanted anything but to be free and the rest of Bizazool to be free. Understand this, they refused to replace the aristocracy they wanted a totally new system where all citizens of Bizazool where free, they got rid of all hierarchy in the justice system, everybody was equal, you could do what anybody else could do with your property. They even got rid of the government, there were no taxes. Those that led the revolution gained nothing except their freedom, some had property some did not, but they gained immortality as leaders of a great revolution. Profit was the ideal, creating better and better, been awarded, being the best at your job, expanding your mind to the limit. Profit was cherished, money was cherished. It was put as the highest ideal.

As there were no tariffs at first some industries suffered badly collapsing, but those that remained became strong and great money spinners. Agriculture became more efficient as farmers had to compete with produce from elsewhere, but farming machinery and techniques also improved greatly. Within 30 years the Bizazool experiment was envy of large parts of the world.

There was some crime taking place, not much, but some crime. A private police force was set up. Everybody had to contribute, after all, there must be no free riders. It was for a profit police force of course. Profit was the ideal. The philosophy of the land was make the most of life, the most is material. The for profit police force was set up, crime came down. If you did not contribute you could expect your property not to be looked after.

Now my friend, knowing human nature there will be some crime, a private police force set up, many to be sure competing with different services in both quantity and quality of course. You got the police service you could afford. The courts where of course privatized, becoming for profit organizations. Now you can already see the problem with this. The jails where run by for profit organizations, obviously a more wealthy transgressor got better jail conditions for committing similar crimes than the poor transgressor, jails had to balance the budget too. This in itself is a serious breach of equality before the law, or if you like equality under the law.

The courts had to make money to justify their existence. Brother, you can already imagine the problem for yourself. It is a disaster in the making. When judges and juries are for sale, there is a real problem. Can such a system breed nothing but tyrannical forces? Sure we are all free, that is such an ideal but at the end the concept of aristocracy must slowly keep creeping in. Those with means can afford courts better than those without, the concept of equality before the law is thrown out of the window, it becomes a system of who has more.

Evil creeps in slowly into what was meant to be ideal. What began as we are all free do what you like, make profit, zero governments. There was a border skirmish that occurred with a neighbor. A small skirmish. There was no army, but volunteers rushed in to defend their beloved Bizazool. Bizazool pushed back the intruders, then it was realized a defense mechanism is needed. An army would be needed to patrol the border lands, who was going to pay. There was an argument that those with properties on the borderlands should pay more as they had most to lose. But the people at the border suggested all must pay equally, or they will leave their border properties and Bizazool can shrink as they should not be made to carry more of the burden. Now imagine if those at the border retreated, in effect Bizazool would be ceding land as it would not be settled. It was agreed that it was in everybody’s interest to pay for defense.

So we have a whole lot of taxes that are not being called taxes, they paid for policing, they paid for an army, private armies of course, mercenaries so to speak. Several companies would provide such a service so that there was no monopoly. Now there is an army that is answerable to profit. There is a correctional services system that treats those with money better in order to maximize profits. As there is no government, prisoners must work for the jail so that the jail can sell products in order to be able to pay for itself. Would this be an honest prison system. They need more prisoners in order to make a profit. Now I am not against prisoners working and contributing financially to a society, but I mean, those with means can pay for good behavior, after all these are private institutions, instead of working they pay upfront, so much for equality before the law. Corruption and immorality all the way, from what started off as good intentions, just wanted to get the government out of the way of people.

When everything is for profit, what we consider crooked becomes accepted culture. Maximize your life, your material well being, you have that right, no government in the way. But slowly a form of government has to creep back in, paying for protection, that is a tax but anarchists would refuse to call it exactly what it is, it is a tax, that is what taxes are for, they are for protection.

Now armies spend all day preparing for war, sure every citizen been equal in principle had rights to arms that the armies had, but how prepared are they for combat. Going to a shooting range every other weekend is not preparation for lethal combat. In time the armies kept demanding more and more for their protection. The people got so fed up with the justice system that those with guns soon took over the justice system promising that all will be treated equally under the law no matter the amount of money they had. A weary people accepted this new government, but many had started leaving Bizazool. After three hundred years it was the symbol of corruption. The police and military corporations united in order to provide better services, promising to end the chaos, the end result is what you have heard of Tyrannical land. It was once the richest land, but soon people could no longer tolerate it, but what could they do. For profit army, well it will end up plundering its own citizens. The bankers, the big industries all compiled, knowing that they now needed the protection from the police and army.

Everybody was blamed, the bankers, the industrialists, but really, the power of bankers and industrialists was protected by the military and police.The military and police should be answerable to the general citizenry, not those who can afford to bribe the top echelons of such institutions.

No my dear Lenus, I believe in private property, I believe in equality before the law, I believe in the free market for a society. But the free market is far more than just the right to make a profit. If a judge takes a bribe, is he not maximizing his profit? Sure he is, is that moral, is that a judge. Principles are more than just profit, they have to be, we are humans. Let us minimize the role of government in a proper social code, but get rid of it, I have many doubts and I have just expressed them to you, we are a society. Bizazool, profit nation, what a laugh.” This time Shu did not laugh, he was being very serious.

Bhekuzulu Khumalo
twitter - @bhekukhumalo