Quotation of the Day:
“Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.”
— the Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC
The following message contains 591 words about…
- What we are NOT saying about Withdrawing Allegiance
- What we ARE saying about Withdrawing Allegiance
- The question of timing with regard to other tactics
- The four steps to take that will cause change
Let it be clearly understood…
When we advocate withdrawing allegiance from the “federal” government we are NOT saying that you should stop paying your taxes, start violating federal dictates, or resort to any kind of violence. We are NOT, NOT, NOT saying any of these things.
We ARE saying that you should change your internal emotional relationship to the federal “government,” and that you should share your feelings with others. Let it be clearly understood …
- Consent to criminality implies sanction, endorsement, and even collaboration
- When you see an institution doing criminal things you must deny your consent
- If an institution displays a consistent pattern of criminality then you should also withdraw your allegiance
In other words …
You must change how you think and speak.
- This is the STARTING POINT for ALL social change.
- All other actions are a matter of timing.
Neither passive resistance nor civil disobedience, nor electoral politics, can have much point until enough people agree with you, and agree so deeply, that they invest their energy alongside you, to make a difference. So how do you get people to agree with you? We suggest four things …
Step One:
Base your position on universal moral principles like the Zero Aggression Principle and the Golden Rule …
- No one should tread on others.
- Treat others as you want to be treated.
These are the points to stress when objecting to State criminality. Avoid debates about the supposed social benefits of the criminality. Focus on the moral transgressions.
Step Two:
Notify the criminals that you see the crime. Formally deny your consent. Do this using our Educate the Powerful System.
Give your friends the same notification using email or personal conversations. Remember to focus on the moral objections and the criminality.
Don’t get bogged down in claims about how useful the criminality is for some supposed social purpose. Assert that you will only support achieving good ends using good means. Urge your friends to do the same.
Make it part of your daily life to influence other minds in this way, applying the Zero Aggression Principle and the Golden Rule to EVERY issue of public debate.
Step Three:
If your conscience decides that the PATTERN of criminality warrants it, go beyond merely denying consent to specific crimes. Do something more — WITHDRAW YOUR ALLEGIANCE to the entire institution.
Notify Congress of this using our Withdraw Your Allegiance campaign.
Likewise notify your friends. Explain to them that you cannot sanction, endorse, or collaborate with a criminal enterprise, no matter how much that institution may claim to be a government.
Step Four:
Don’t adopt additional tactics until enough minds have been persuaded to make the new tactics effective.
All strategies for social change depend on one thing — changing minds. Do that FIRST . Do it using …
- The Zero Aggression Principle
- The Golden Rule
- Denying consent
- Withdrawing allegiance
We hope our position is clear and makes sense to you.
- We are NOT, NOT, NOT saying that you should stop paying your taxes, start violating federal dictates, or resort to ANY kind of violence.
- We ARE saying that you should change your internal emotional relationship to the federal “government,” and that you should share your feelings with others.
- We are ALSO saying that the right time to use other tactics will become clear as more minds move in a more moral direction with us.
Let your conscience decide when to deny consent, and when to move a step further, by withdrawing allegiance. Above all, try to influence other minds to move in the same moral direction.
Perry Willis & Jim Babka
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
The Zero Aggression Project