On law, government and other mythologies of enslavement

The instrumental goal of any law is simple: to fulfill an agenda.  Since most everyone has at least some semblance of reasoning capability that allows them to detect an agenda, but most everyone also has the involuntary desire to "be good", the name of the game for the rulers is to incrementally redefine "good" and "evil" so that the very ruled people will voluntarily work for the service of that agenda, while simultaneously scorning dissenters.

The way this redefinition takes place is through "think tank"-devised propaganda that hits mass media.  The instrumental goal of these think tanks is to create new mythologies on top of the existing orthodoxy of mythologies, in support of the new agendas du jour.  These mythologies are slowly transitioned through the stages of "preposterous", "plausible", "believable", "generally believed", and finally "orthodoxy" (meaning, if you challenge it, everyone in the room will either laugh at you or beat you up).  Take a look for yourself:

• "Peace" is no longer good -- "war" is.

• "Sharing ideas" is no longer good -- "copyright" is.
• "Keeping your property" is no longer good -- "taxation" is.
• "Self-defense" is no longer good -- "calling the police" is.
• "Resisting police brutality" is no longer good -- "cooperation" is.
• "Capitalism" is no longer good -- "regulation" is.
• "Capital" and "savings" are no longer good -- "debt" is.
  
• "Independent learning" is no longer good -- "school" is.
• "Self-determination" is no longer good -- "patriotism" and "obedience" are.
• "Freedom" is no longer good -- "government" is.
• "Morality" is no longer good -- "the law" is.

The recipe to manufacturing a new mythology is pretty simple: repeat a lie over and over until it sticks, and present the lie liberally mixed up with universal human fears.  Some lies are subtle, like using the word "contribution" or "property" in the same sentence as "taxation" or "intellectual" (respectively) so you'll form an unconscious emotional association that becomes a cached thought.  Others are more lies of omission, where they just assume a falsehood in the narrative, thus getting you to swallow it as if it was "obvious".  Finally, the blatant ones, like the systematic manufacture of lies that led to the war in Iraq.  The lies don't even have to make sense; as long as they present them in a fear-inducing manner, your rational brain shuts down.

You can see an example in this video.  Do you see how this Rahm fellow says "potential terrorists" in one sentence, and not a minute after he eats the word "potential"?  Well, those are the little telltale signs that you're being lied to, the incongruities that inevitably appear when someone is either consciously trying to take you for a ride, or just replaying others' false orthodoxy.

And so, very slowly and persistently, your rulers break off and replace pieces of the truth with self-serving ersatzs, redefine concepts to serve their interests, pervert meanings to make discovery of reality impossible, conditionalize ethics based on the class of people, confuse your moral compass itself to turn you into an instrument of their agendas.  Former "good" is now "bad", former "bad" is now "good", the new "good" now faithfully matches what your rulers have decreed and, of course, the trump card: if we do it, it's good; if you do it, it's bad and we're punishing you.

Nevertheless, these corrupt lies are so powerful, so entrenched, that it is impossible to convince the average contemporary man that he has been lied to, despite the overwhelming availability of evidence and the salient incongruities in the orthodox mythology.  In fact, if you try to expose the orthodoxy, he is likely to click into full hostility mode, both against you and reality.  But don't take my word -- try it out some time on someone you don't much care to lose as a "friend":

• Tell him that you no longer pay taxes because you find it evil that taxation is exacted through threats of violence.
• Tell him that you fileshare TV shows and music from the Internet.
• Tell him that you will resist wrongful arrest by firing your gun at policemen.
• Heck, tell him that government itself doesn't exist -- that it has no physical manifestation, and the that word itself is just a conceptual label for a small group of charming psychopaths and control freak bureaucrats running around with guns, inventing new (seemingly) arbitrary rules to tell others what to do and how to do it, and taking people's money.

I bet you a pound of flesh that you can say goodbye to your "friend"; he will inevitably punt you for the emotional security of his mythologies, and may even attack you personally.  And, you know what?  It's only human that he would -- when you unmask the orthodoxy, what he hears is you are going to be alone for the rest of your life because he already knows he will be ostracized for disputing the orthodoxy -- and nobody wants to be alone forever.  Understandably, truth stands no chance of getting across.

Getting back to the point.

You now fear firearms, immigrants, terrorists, disease, crime, old age, sex, economic collapse, pædophilia, poverty, solitude, et cetera; worst of all, myth itself has substituted itself for reality in every sphere of thought.  So what's your natural human reaction?  You seek shelter and comfort, and your rulers seize this to proclaim themselves your indispensable saviors and start the cycle of mythology manufacture all over again.  They understand this cycle, and they use it to further cement their central mythology of control: government.  Of course, should someone question their competency, a complementary myth -- the illusion of democracy -- is invoked;  it's worth nothing here that democracy is just a contemporary fashion, really; not far back in the day the support myth of choice was the divine power of kings instead.  And since your rulers have already redefined "government" and "democracy" to be "good", being against them automatically makes you "bad" in the eyes of everybody else.

The ultimate goal of this sham, of course, is clear: to keep you in permanent fear and confusion so that you are easily deceived into voluntarily surrendering more and more to the parasites that rule you. We're the government (or friends thereof), you're not; obey or we'll put you in a rape hole, take you for everything you've got and destroy your reputation just for the funsies.  And if you resist this, we'll shoot you and call it your fault.

So what can you do about all this?  You may not want to share this with your friends for the reasons stated above.  But that doesn't mean you have to believe the lies too.  Freedom is the power to say no; it starts in your mind.  And seeking the truth is a virtuous act in itself.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will get me to brutalize my fellow man for the benefit of my rulers.

Original comment that spawned this article was bestof'd on Reddit.  I'm... I feel honored.