Pox wrote:arayder wrote: The sad part is that the old style freeman who lived simply off the grid, avoided the authorities and didn't break any law (common or statute) is becoming a thing of the past.
. . .Decades ago, about 5 miles away from where I lived. . . there was a battered old caravan parked in a triangular wooded area where three minor roads met. Occasionally, we would see smoke coming from the chimney. I was told, by my parents, that someone from Poland lived there (probably arrived in Cheshire somewhere during or after WW2). We never saw him and I think he was a bit of a recluse.
. . .That said, maybe those that aspire to this way of life will still want internet connection, housing benefit, old age pension, health care etc......so not really 'freeman'!
A sort of race to the bottom occurs when freemen use the very real failures of governments (e.g. unjust wars, burdensome taxation, disregard for human rights, etc.) to dismiss any expectation of good government and ultimately excuse the careless and lawless behavior of all freemen.
This hypocrisy ignores the freeman tenant to do no harm and seeks to excuse hurtful, dangerous behavior by citing what freemen see as a more dreadful acts by “the powers that be“.
Sometimes this excuse is employed by implying that a government action, related or not, somehow caused the otherwise independent freeman to act badly. We are given the childish excuse that the freeman’s scam, deceit or dangerous act is okay simply because this government, or that bank, did something bad too.
It's a race to the bottom.
Like Jessie James who justified robbing banks and trains (passengers included) because he felt he was wronged by northern railroads and banks, some freemen have cut loose committing every careless act and crime their twisted minds can think of.
Eventually, James ran up against a town in Minnesota that didn’t see his attempt to rob their banks, which held the money local farmers needed for spring planting, as anything other than a criminal act.
The men of Northfield, Minnesota were dang good shots, too.
However, most destructive of human society are the instances in which freeman attempt to make a justifiable and perfectly acceptable use of the police powers of government into an excuse for their bad deeds.
Arrests and convictions for all manners of crimes committed by freemen have become the justification by freemen for still more crimes. . . . passing bad checks, skipping out on their bills, making fake 911 calls, paper terrorism, dine and dashes, harassing calls to police stations, assaulting and even killing police officers!
But like it did with the James gang the string has run out. Freemanism is on life support.
