Benjamin R. Tucker's words about imaginary revolution

It is because peaceful agitation and passive resistance are, in Liberty’s hands, weapons more deadly to tyranny than any others that I uphold them, and it is because brute force strengthens tyranny that I condemn it.

War and authority are companions; peace and liberty are companions.

The methods and necessities of war involve arbitrary discipline and dictatorship. So-called “war measures” are almost always violations of rights.

Even war for liberty is sure to breed the spirit of authority, with aftereffects unforeseen and incalculable.

Benjamin R. Tucker

Liberty, Vol. IV, No. 7

July 31, 1886

I always thought war was stupid

Happenings around the world always remind me of the opening lines of my little  anti-war anarchist novel The Imaginary Revolution, which I was merrily writing along a couple of summers ago about now.

This was the first fragment I wrote on the ImagRev blog, and it never got dislodged as the book's introduction:

I always thought war was stupid.

I mean, think about it. You and your adversary disagree about something, and the solution is to send your citizens to fight each other to the death?

You’re never going to succeed in killing each and every one of your adversary’s citizens, so even if you win, there are thousands of people who still believe in whatever it was you were trying to obliterate.

You can’t kill an idea.

The book was told in the first person by the main character, Ray Kaliber, but on this point (among a few others) the author and his character are in complete agreement.

The magic of giving

One of the tenets of the philosophy my zero-aggression-principle, pacifist hero Ray Kaliber espoused in The Imaginary Revolution is “Give more than you receive.” This week I experienced an example of how that works in real life.

As I wrote the other day, my plans for my little superhero adventure stories got a boost with the arrival of my friend Wally Conger’s new project, Operation Hulk-SMASH. His ideas about smashing ahead through the temptation to procrastinate meshed with and affirmed the incentives I’ve been trying to install in my creative work habits.

I expressed my gratitude in the best way I knew, by giving him the credit he deserved and hopefully encouraging some of you to try his (ridiculously reasonably priced) product. I did this because I appreciated the kick in the psyche, no other reason.

Wally responded by giving me a remarkably generous boost in his own blog and email newsletter, and by scribing a glowing review of The Adventures of Myke Phoenix for Amazon. He gives the book five stars and even reminded me of something I may have forgotten to mention to you: These are fun stories with quite a healthy dose of humor. “I dare you to read any of the six stories in this collection without a big grin on your face," Wally says.

He gave more than he received. I daresay neither of us expected what we got in return for what we’d given.

And that’s the tricky part of giving more than you receive: You need to give out of an attitude of thankfulness, not because you want or expect to receive anything back. The recipient can sense any strings attached to a gift.

The late, great motivator Zig Ziglar famously said you can have everything you want if you just help enough other people get what they want. The key is really, sincerely wanting to help those other people without consciously thinking about your own needs and wants. That’s when the magic of giving happens.

* * * * *

P.S. The Imaginary Revolution is written in the same universe as my first novella, The Imaginary Bomb, but is not exactly a sequel. I’m thinking of writing the same story as a true sequel, from the point of view of the I-Bomb characters. Do you think I’m nuts?

I'm thinking, I'm thinking!

Thank you for checking in to see if I have anything new to say. I have been watching the passing parade with some interest. It seems now more than ever we must heed H.L. Mencken's oft-repeated caution, "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." I've seen some folks around the Internet have corrupted the quote to say "most of them imaginary," but I assure you, Mencken said all. And certainly all of the hobgoblins that have been conjured by the practical politicians of late have been imaginary. Yet still folks clamor to be led to safety. If you want to get from here to there, son, use your feet.

I have many opinions regarding what's happening in America these days, and sometimes they sneak out when I see something especially sophomoric from a Facebook Friend. Mostly I see people willing to blame the deterioration of liberty over the past 20 years on the major political party they are not affiliated with. Never mind that Obama is just expanding the policies of Bush, who expanded the policies of Clinton. It's the other side's fault that we're in this mess.

So, actually, no, I have nothing new to say, just the same old, same old: Your freedom is in your hands. No one can take it away without your permission, although they certainly will try – your mind and your actions are under your control. An adherence to the Zero Aggression Principle will always stand you in good stead (as will the Tenets of Common Wealth, come to think of it).

And so I occupy my creative time, of late, with the adventures of Myke Phoenix. Although we need heroes in this era, remember there is no hero who can lead you to safety. Myke and friends are just a pleasant diversion.

Refuse to be Afraid. Free yourself. Dream. Taking those three steps are the core of what I have to say.

In which H.L. Mencken embraces The Imaginary Revolution

Thoughts on government, “Its Inner Nature,” in which H.L. Mencken endorses the themes of my book The Imaginary Revolution, available for Kindle here and in print there.

There is seldom, if ever, any evidence that the new government proposed would be any better than the old one. On the contrary, all the historical testimony runs the other way. Political revolutions do not often accomplish anything of genuine value; their one undoubted effect is simply to throw out one gang of thieves and put in another. After a revolution, of course, the successful revolutionists always try to convince doubters that they have achieved great things, and usually they hang anyone who denies it …

The ideal government of all reflective men, from Aristotle onward, is one which lets the individual alone — one which barely escapes being no government at all. This ideal, I believe, will be realized in the world twenty or thirty centuries after I have passed from these scenes and taken up my public duties in hell.

Commencement speech

“With great power comes great responsibility.” – Uncle Ben Parker, sometime in 1962

With great ability comes the responsibility to use it, hone it, and make the world better, at least for yourself and those around you.

Toward the end of my book The Imaginary Revolution, after tyranny is overturned and folks sit around talking about what the new government should look like, my hero smiles and asks a more basic question.

Why do we even need a government?

I left the question to hang in the air, but the conversation may have gone like this.

“Because there are those who can’t fend for themselves.”

For this we need regulations that often have the net effect of hampering the ability to help the needy?

“Because the unscrupulous would prey on the weak.”

And what of the unscrupulous predators who use the government as their weapon?

“Because we need an educated populace.”

Yes, we do, and in fact my own philosophy depends on people being educated enough to know better. So, who will do the educating if not government agents? Here’s a thought: Teach kids how to learn and they will educate themselves. Live the free life and they will learn to be free.

Kids, you will succeed as long as you add something of value to the world. Make something with your hands or your mind. Restore something. Preserve something. Leave the world better or more enriched than you found it — every day.

The Imaginary Revolution is here.

On Dec. 15, 1791, the folks who were in the process of establishing a new government ratified a list of prohibitions intended to prevent that government from violating the innate rights of free individuals. It was a bold experiment.

Today, Dec. 15, 2012, in honor of that bold experiment, I formally introduce The Imaginary Revolution, a novel about individuals and governments and violence and nonviolence.

I’m not so vain as to think this little novel about an Earth colony that throws off its shackles is as important a contribution as that list of 10 statements. No, this is just my contribution to the idea that power flows from the individual to the state, not the reverse.

It is my contention that a loving individual committed to nonviolence wields more power to change a world for the good than any state, any use of force, any expression of hatred or revenge.

All 10 tenets of the Bill of Rights are under attack in 2012. All 10 are routinely ignored by the state, and in fact most efforts by the state to restrain the individual are met with cheers and applause. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to be secure in one’s person, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures – read the list and you will be able to think of circumstances where the state violates these prohibitions every day.

Are you ready for a little revolution?

It's only a matter of days before the novel The Imaginary Revolution will be published. I have prepared a sampling of chapters from the novel to whet your appetite for the real thing.

The story of how Sirius 4 threw off its shackles will be available for public consumption starting Dec. 15, 2012 – Bill of Rights Day – in both ebook form and a handsome, hardcover print edition. This is your opportunity to get a taste of it so you can decide whether to put it on your Christmas list.

The link below (click on the colorful green button with the blue whale) will lead you to a place where you can download a .zip file containing the Imaginary Revolution sampler in .pdf, .epub and .mobi forms. Enjoy! And consider coming back on Dec. 15.


Click here to download your free sampler of chapters from the novel The Imaginary Revolution, scheduled for release on Dec. 15, 2012.

Our deepest and highest impulse is to peace

Somewhere near our core is a violent impulse, and so there will always be men and women who choose force to get their way – and we must be vigilant.

The scrap of dialogue that defines the lead character of my novel in progress

“But they’ll kill you! You’ll die!”

“I’m going to die anyway, someday,” replied Raymond Douglas Kaliber. “So I may as well do the right thing until then.”

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And next, The Imaginary Revolution

Back in 1988 an image jumped into my mind, and I jumped up from whatever it was that I was doing, and I wrote it down:

It’s hard to believe that the brilliant bands of light that sweep across the night sky haven’t always been there. Great poets have written wonderful romantic songs through the years about the effect those gleaming streaks have on hearts young and old — so many songs in so many years that we must be reminded from time to time that, before the imaginary bomb, there were no rings around the Earth.

I had begun foundering around with an idea for a novel called The Imaginary Bomb, but until I wrote that paragraph I didn't know where to go with it. But now I had an ending — a destination, if you will — and all I had to do was take aim and write the novel that preceded it. Sure enough the story was essentially completed a few weeks later. (Why it then took 20 years to publish is a whole nuther story.)

I tell this anecdote because over the weekend, I wrote the end to The Imaginary Revolution, a story that has been on my mind for about four years or so and which I've started and stopped several times but foundered. I even started podcasting the early chapters of the first version in hopes it would motivate me to plow ahead. But still I foundered; I generally knew the whole story but, I now realize, I had no ending, no destination.

I did have a file in my I-Rev folder called "the last chapter," because based on that earlier experience, I suspected I needed the ending first. But I had a lot of files in my I-Rev folder, including several versions of the opening chapters. I looked through those files over the weekend.

And I realized Sunday morning how the last chapter needs to end. Wow.

It was like, err, a scream of consciousness. Now I can't wait to go back and fill in everything that happens before the end.

There's nothing that energizes any project more than having a goal, a destination. Otherwise it's just a lot of foundering about. Life being a foundering kind of exercise, it's easy to forget that simple fact.

Where do you think you're going?

Three tenets to a true revolution

The three tenets of a peaceful life:

1. Love your neighbor as yourself.

2. Interact with love, not force, not violence.

3. Give more than you receive.

For three years, on and off, I have been writing a story about freedom and revolution, built around a character who has developed the name Raymond Douglas Kaliber. The three tenets are the essentials of his philosophy.

Based on Sirius IV – and therefore a very loose sequel to my first novel, The Imaginary Bomb – the tale follows a revolt against the tyrants who have attempted to rule from Earth, some 8.6 light years away. But as a wise and ancient songwriter said, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” A government established through violent overthrow of a repressive regime can only be repressive itself, as violence begets violence.

It was an Imaginary Revolution. My story tells how Kaliber created a new kind of commonwealth, based in his tenets of a peaceful life.

I can’t wait to share it. I see so much of Sirius IV every day in the headlines, and I wish I could see Ray Kaliber out there working already.