Communism by Ed Stoneham

A little more than a century ago a radical idea took root in a significant part of the world – communism. It was spurred by absolutist thinking, to the effect that movement toward an extreme would bring about extreme results. In this case, it did. It led to 100 million premature deaths, yielding a death rate greater than present-day deaths due to vehicle accidents and surpassed only by heart disease and cancer. However, there is a positive lesson to be learned from this – that extremist thinking can bring about radical change, whether the change be for better or for worse.

So what about extremism at the other end of the scale? Instead of extreme government control, what about the extreme opposite – maximum freedom? We now have overwhelming empirical evidence that prosperity, including general well-being, long lifetimes, and peace, as well as economic wealth, is strongly correlated with economic and social freedom. Plot any well-defined index of prosperity against any well-defined index of freedom, and you will see a monotonically increasing curve that has no peak. That is, there has not yet been found a point at which more freedom results in less prosperity! You can find a couple of these plots in the book Word from Future that was just published. This begs for extremism!

Marx defined capitalism as the ultimate evil and called for revolution to bring about total government control of the individual. That black-and-white characterization brought about change, albeit for the worse. To achieve the opposite, we must define control by government and criminals (do I repeat myself?) as the ultimate evil, and define maximum freedom as the remedy. I emphasize the word “define,” because a black-and-white characterization is essential for capturing people’s aspirations and spurring a movement that actually accomplishes its ends. But, in addition, a black-and-white characterization, carefully thought out, is in this case real!

Maximum freedom can be accurately defined. It involves the complete elimination of victimless crime laws and it involves the concept, “If you cost, you pay; and if you don’t cost, you don’t pay.” The book Word from Future explains these ideas in detail and develops word-for-word a national constitution, based on the Constitution of the United States, that codifies them. This constitution also, for the first time, provides means for the private citizenry to ENFORCE the constitutional guarantees of freedom – something now seen to be painfully lacking in the Constitution of the U.S.

I don’t want to be seen as promoting a book here. I am promoting an extremist movement that will lead to the ultimate realization of libertarianism for a large and deserving portion of the world’s population and that will lead thereby to the greatest prosperity that the world can ever see! Unfortunately, this book Word from Future is the only one out there that captures the essentials. The aims can be accomplished peacefully. The Free Private Cities movement points to a way at a small scale. The Manhattan Purchase, Louisiana Purchase, Alaska Purchase, and Hong Kong lease show ways at a larger scale. All it takes to make it happen is a massive movement based on the certainty of success.

Freedom in the U.S. and worldwide has been on the wane for a century, and with just one step of relief for every two steps of encroachment we will not see a return of freedom. The encroachment of government and criminal control sap most of the gains that technological innovation have brought. It’s time to unleash those gains! But this won’t happen in nations in which the elections are now swung by the growing rolls of government dependents. It’s time to start a new nation!

I invite those who are interested in starting this movement to make their move. The founders of this new nation must now step forward. Perhaps we can do this through submissions to lpnevada. Give it a try.

I am proud to say that I am a physicist – a student of reality. Now, however, is the time for students of human nature to take the helm and make the most of reality!