Mary Lou Seymour is a long-time libertarian activist and author. She lives in South Carolina. CLICK HERE FOR RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS WHY AREN'T YOU A SPONSOR?
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Liberty Action
of the Week Those of us who are old enough to recall the "duck and cover" nuclear bomb drills in America's school houses of the 50's aren't particularly surprised by the gov't recommended "duct and cover" of the past week. Then, as now, the main purpose of these useless civilian exercises was to stir up patriotic fervor against the enemy (the commie hordes of the 50's and the Muslim hordes of today) who were allegedly intent on destroying our freedom, our country, our very way of life, etc. Duck under your desk, buy duct tape, wave old Glory, ta da. Those who saw the black humor of the 50's bomb scare and the equally black humor of the duct tape buying spree may be few and far between ... but they are usually the kind of iconoclastic rebels we want to "recruit" in our own "war" to change the culture of our world to one that questions authority, respects individualism and fights for freedom. Whenever a meme sweeps the public consciousness that gives an opportunity to poke fun at Leviathan, or otherwise question authority, that's when we liberty activists have the golden opportunity to use humor and satire to fan the flames, and find some like minded folks who may be out there in sheeple land. Not only is it fun to do, and offers a way to reach a broader spectrum of people than we usually reach, but it's also a very potent weapon. No one likes to be laughed at, not even our statist rulers. If we can get enough folks laughing at the increasingly tortured efforts of the statists to raise the temperature a degree at a time without letting us froggies know what's happening, our battle is half won. Anyone who doubts the pervasiveness of the "duct tape frenzy", take a look on EBay, as Dangerous Pat (JPFO webmaster Ken Holder's better half) did. DP reports "The results are a tribute to America's enterprising spirit, as well as consumer stupidity. Sellers are offering everything from single rolls for prices ranging from $2 - 19.95, to highly overpriced cases. [Anti-Terror Chem/Biological Warfare Duct Tape] [Disaster Duct Tape - Prepare for Osama] There are "kits" consisting of tape & plastic sheeting and over priced kits including cheap flashlights, gloves and masks at 200% markup. Also offered are the domain names "DuctTapeAndPlastic.com" and "TerrorShopping.com." And then there's the National Security Duct Tape T-Shirt ... and the CNBC interview of "The Duct Tape Guy" ... a sure sign that there are, indeed, some non humor-impaired folk out there. For this week's action, I recommend that we spread a bit of fuel on the "question authority" fire brought on by 'duct and cover'. This is an excellent opening to seed your community with anti-govt cartoons & posters, such as Kent van Cleave's posters, or Scott Bieser's or Russmo's cartoons. (For info on how to "seed your community" with posters and toons, see my "Action of the Week" column from last year for Free-Market.Net, "If I Can't Dance.") For a great 'duct and cover' specific toon, see Mark Fiore's "Color coded alerts;" and, of course, a Simon Jester card saying "Buy duct tape. Bomb Iraq" may be appropriate. While on the subject, be aware that the statists do NOT like iconoclasts who point out their stupidity and attack their sacred cows -- and there are some folks who just don't get humor and sarcasm. For example, to those of us who may have a few brain cells left working, the obvious answer to "being prepared for disaster" is guns and ammo. But the "guns are evil" meme has firm hold in many communities, as a city alderman in Charlotte found out Friday ("Official urges families to buy guns"). But take heart, iconoclasts and satirists for freedom ... the shining example of the Manhattan LP's "Guns for Tots" action has swept the nation (really!) with perhaps the most mainstream media coverage of any such action in recent memory. Of course, there were some EVEN IN the freedom movement who "just didn't get it" (see Scott Bieser's "Those Uppity Libertarians" cartoon), but the MLP's use of humor to attack the "sacred cow" of gun control (in this case, the idiotic notion by the NYC Council to ban even toy guns) coupled with the knee jerk reaction of the "racists in the hood," garnered them national media attention AND raised their "political profile" from non-existent to that of "player." The "in your face" brand of activism practiced by the MLP is a very effective outreach tool in the time honored tradition of "how to get a mule's attention: first hit him on the head with a 2x4"); a Guns for Tots action in your community may be just the 2x4 you need. If you're ready to go on this type action, contact Jim Lesczynski (lesczynski@keepandbeararms.com) at the MLP, he'll be delighted to help you spread Guns for Tots nationwide. For info about Guns for Tots "from the horse's mouth," see Jim's article ("Ernie, Bernie, and Me" in this week's Libertarian Enterprise. Speaking of spreading memes nationwide ... that infamous iconoclast Ernie Hancock of Arizona now has his own brand new radio show, "Declare your Independence," every weekday from 7-9 AM WST. Though the station's range is limited to Arizona, it's also streamed on the Net and will be archived on Ernie's site. (One of Ernie's guests the first week was the aforementioned East Coast rabble rouser, Jim L.) But before you can mount a full fledged frontal humor assault, like the MLP, you need to find some local iconoclastic rebels to help ... and that's what I suggest we do this week, while many in the nation are still chuckling about the duct tape frenzy. They're out there, fellow freedom fighters, we just gotta find em! Til next week For freedom Mary Lou PS: As I said in my "Why I'm Doing This" column Feb.1, this new Liberty Action of the week column is gonna be supported wholly by readers' donations. This is an individual effort, I'm not (and never will be) a gov't corporation. Yeah, I know, why buy the cow when you're drinking milk for free, but, if y'all want me to keep doing this, I'm gonna hafta at least pay my ISP bill. You can donate by PayPal at the link in the left column, or E-Gold. I'd also be delighted to run "ads" in the email or online version of the column, just drop me an email for details. And, the artists and organizations mentioned in this column also would appreciate a few FRNs thrown their way. See their pages for donor links. |
