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I’ll admit, the title of this post is not exactly original, coming from a great article by Tim Bryant published several years ago at The Last American Vagabond, and yet this concept had been a guiding principle in my life well before I ever stumbled across that piece. I also believe it sums up a beautiful concept that is just as important today, if not more so, for people to grasp and begin putting into practice than it was then.
We in the western world live at a time in human history when most of us have become well aware that the system is rigged agains the common man and for the elite, and yet all of the awareness in the world seems to have done little to change this paradigm and shift the balance of power in back in favor of the people. In fact it almost seems that the more aware people have become to such realities and the more they attempt to free themselves and bring about positive change, the more corrupt the system becomes and the more futile our efforts at change appear to be.
It is impossible not to see the signs of corruption that indicate the power structures of our society not only do not serve the best interests of humanity, but in fact actively work against them and those who do. It can be clearly seen by all in the severely disproportionate ever increasing wealth disparity, with some 80% of Americans working paycheck to paycheck just to make ends meet while less than 1% of the richest 1% own more wealth than the entire poorest half of Americans combined! The US government spends over half of its entire budget to fund the war machine while millions across the planet are starving, currently involved in waging no less than seven foreign wars that the vast majority of Americans oppose, or don’t even realize our military is engaged in.
It’s all just a part of the endless war abroad being waged for two straight decades and counting now, spawned in the wake of 9/11, for no purpose apart from more profit and power for Zionist Israel and the global elite.
Establishment media ratings hit an all time low in 2020, as the coronavirus scamdemic has turned the legacy media into a global laughingstock, and yet the deception and corruption these media lies fuel continues to march steadily on, almost as if the people have no influence on the corporations and governments responsible for their enslavement and all the associated insanity. But although it may look on the surface as though the people have no power in the face of what appears to be a vast and incredibly strong power structure, the exact opposite is actually the truth that is hiding in plain sight. It isn’t that the fast awakening people are powerless to effect change, it is simply that we have fallen back on the most ineffective methods of doing so.
Until now the masses of concerned and often angry citizens have taken to the streets to protest, or turned out in high numbers at the voting booths, neither of which have been the slightest bit effective. And violence, when used, only serves as justification for the government to increase state power and strip away more of the few remaining human rights that still remain to be upheld by law. Time has shown that the ‘elected’ officials who claim to represent us don’t care in the slightest what our wishes or best interests are, and thus no amount of protesting, no matter how many of us fill the streets, will do any good. The Yellow Vest protests in France is a perfect example, where people turned out in mass to protest every week for a year straight, and all they were met with was police violence and more of the same policies they were protesting against. The same goes for the corrupt, greedy corporations, which can only be persuaded by profit margins, it seems. And as far as elections go, even putting the issue of fraud aside, independent rapper Tom MacDonald summed it up wonderfully in his song, “Fake Woke”: “Politicians are for sale, and someone always makes the purchase, but you and I cannot afford it, our democracy is worthless.” Politics works great, but only for the ultra-rich oligarchs, technocrats and Corporate America; never for the working man, the planet, or humanity at large.
People are beginning to see the futility in all these typical forms of protest and attempts to effect change within the constructs of the very system they oppose, but for those of us who have lived our entire life indoctrinated into the programming of a society that teaches such methods are the only means of going about making change in our world, many are at a loss of what else can be done. And so history continues to repeat, until we realize the most basic truth of the matter, that the system cannot exist without us, that it is only through our support that the system can continue to oppress us.
Until we realize that throwing stones at a giant won’t stop it, but starving it will, we are doomed to repeat history and remain enslaved by the very beast system that feeds off of us and could not survive for one minute without us, and that we in turn continue to fuel with our attention, our energy, our money, our votes, and all other forms of support. The system is but a construct that has no power apart from the power we give it, and until we unplug it from its power source - our support - it will continue to function unhindered. In fact it prefers that we spend our time protesting and fighting amongst ourselves, on elections and voting, and on complaining about the corruption on social media, for these all serve as great distractions from the one thing that would bring it to its knees in an instant - the complete withdrawal from the system itself.
In a recent one-depth post on the same subject, I focused mainly on ways and methods of getting off grid and working towards building alternative sustainable community as the long term solution and means of unplugging from this ‘Matrix’ system, but there are a whole host of things anyone can begin doing immediately before or without totally exiting society to join or build an off-grid community.
Anyone can begin changing themselves to become the change they wish to see in the world, no matter their circumstances, and it is only in our ignorance that we think the smallest changes will not help to bring about real change in the world. There are so many simple ways to go about changing ourselves to be the change we want to see in the world, many that are so simple it is surprising more of us haven’t thought of doing them, and I’ve covered a number of simple, practical ways to go about doing so in previous posts of mine, see below for numerous examples.
@kennyskitchen has also been an inspiration to me in this regard, and I highly recommend readers check out his post on the subject that speaks of the many ways he has found to change himself as a means of changing the world - “None of us can change the whole world, but we can each change our own world, and that's how the whole world changes.”
Most Americans work for a minimum of three entire months of the year to fund the very same government that spends over half of its money on the war machine alone, through the income taxes, and therefore finding a way to stop feeding the beast with our tax money, and essentially 25-40% of our lives, is one of the most relevant direct forms of action we can take in support of peace and freedom. This was one of the very first means of direct resistance I engaged in, finding a way to stop paying income taxes early on in my life, when I began working for myself and eventually formed a small lawn care/landscaping business. Millions of other Americans have also found a way to stop paying taxes, and only a very few are ever hassled, let alone prosecuted and jailed for it.
Contrary to popular belief, not one penny of these same taxes go to either fund a single public service expected by taxpayers, nor to the general government fund, but rather 100% that is collected and not wasted goes straight to the private Federal Reserve Bank, to pay off interest on the federal debt (the true source of all US money, loaned at interest by the Federal Reserve). Therefore to refuse to pay income taxes is not to cheat one’s fellow Americans in any form whatsoever, but rather to withdraw one’s support from the bankers who are cheating us all, and from the imperial war machine these bankers are responsible for creating.
There are a number of ways to go about withdrawing tax support, including learning to live for so cheap that one can survive on an annual income below the minimum required to file (somewhere around $10,000 I believe), working for cash under the table, or running your own small business and just refusing to file and withhold taxes from any ‘employees’. Some have even managed to convinced their conventional bosses to stop withholding taxes, others have filed ‘0’ under ‘income’ on tax returns and even gotten IRS refunds on previously withheld monies, so the methods of withdrawing from the tax system are quite numerous. For myself and others, this is a matter of morals, as I cannot in good conscience fund a system responsible for so much death, destruction, and tyranny abroad and at home. Freedom activist Derrick Broze (@dbroze) is just one example of someone who has recently publicly announced his refusal to volunteer his money to the system in the form of taxes, and I believe that as resistance grows, many more of us who have already been doing this for years will go public about their choice to do so, in hopes of inspiring others to find the courage and take the necessary steps to also do so themselves.
As Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is both sinful and tyrannical,” and how much more so if our funds are being furnished to perpetuate immoral actions! No one has the duty to work entire months of the year of their lives to fund a corrupt system that not only works to enslave their own brothers and sisters at home, but also wages perpetual wars abroad which they strongly oppose.
As I have often said: If you work for peace, stop paying for war. More recently I have made a t-shirt design with this slogan, so that anyone who wishes to further spread this message can do so with a t-shirt (and support my work with a purchase at the same time).
This concept is so simple to understand, and yet so many struggle to get past the societal programming that has taught us it is a fundamental moral duty to pay taxes, and even those who do must also overcome the fears associated with failure to pay taxes, namely the possibility of harassment, prosecution and possible jail time. All fears and societal programming aside, it is the only logical and heartfelt response to a corrupt system that insists on perpetuating war, destruction and tyranny, for anyone who truly seeks peace on earth and freedom for humanity.
From my perspective, one of the easiest and most powerful steps we can take towards bringing about peace in our world, apart from finding true inner peace within ourselves, is to switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet. This is a far more simpler step to take than withdrawing our tax support, and yet so many people, even those who consider themselves to be advocates and activists for peace, still support a system of cruel violence with their diets. As I have written about previously, I am a strong believer that, as the philosopher Pythagoras and many others before me have taught, “As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.”
Refusing to subsist on a diet that necessitates and perpetuates a system of violence - a system fueled by the needless pain, cruelty, suffering and death of the innocent - is one of the most powerful statements just about absolutely anyone can take these days with very little difficulty apart from the small sacrifice of giving up meat and unethically sourced animal products derived from corporate factory farms.
Switching to a vegetarian diet was my second major step of withdrawal from this system of violence, and it was also accompanied by my decision to begin raising a few of my own chickens as a way to stop feeding the factory farming industry with egg purchases. This is one of the easier steps toward self sustainability, as a handful of hens are fairly cheap and easy to maintain, and many cities are even now beginning to allow residents to raise laying hens (most prohibit roosters, still, due to the noise), and this is also the perfect example of how one can withdraw support from factory farming and continue eating animal products at the same time, if one wishes. As a bonus, I learned all about caring for chickens and gained firsthand knowledge on a wide variety of chicken breeds, and was also able to give away dozens upon dozens of free-range eggs to friends and the local food bank when I volunteered there.
Sadly, about the only way that we can know for sure if our eggs or dairy products are truly ethically sourced in a manner we personally find humane is if we raise the animals supplying the milk or eggs ourselves. As awareness of animal cruelty inherent in factory farming grows, however, so do the number of people raising their own hens for eggs, so humanity is heading in the right direction.
One doesn’t need to completely withdraw from society and go totally off grid to begin effectively withdrawing their support from this system of darkness and re-channeling their energy into the light. One of the things I was forever grateful that I did before embarking on my off-grid camping journey was to begin volunteering at the local food bank where I was in Montana, and there are numerous other ways one can begin helping others right away in their own immediate surroundings. With one third of our food supply thrown away in this country, people have found ways to rescue good food outside of community food banks, including through dumpster diving and making arrangements with local supermarket to pick up leftover produce that would otherwise be thrown away, to give to their chickens (and maybe eat some themselves).
What many people don’t seem to realize is that every dollar we spend sends a statement, and so to be fully conscious of where and how we spend our money, and then to only spend it on the types of businesses and organizations that support our ideals is another simple way to take back our power. Buying local, organic produce is not only healthier but also send the message that we do not support Big Corporate Agriculture Giants like Monsanto/Bayer destroying the planet with toxic, cancer-causing chemicals being sprayed on the global food supply and in turn leaching into the earth and poisoning the groundwater. There are many, many other ways we can stop funding the ‘Deep State’ system as well.
The corrupt corporations fueled by greed that are largely responsible for poisoning and polluting our planet, for engaging in wholesale animal cruelty, and even for destruction and poverty in much of the developing world through their imperial business models, could not exist for another day without customers willing to buy their unethically sourced goods and workers willing to be employed by such corrupt corporate bosses. Herein lies the power of starving the beast.
When consumers make their voices heard through their pocketbooks, even the most corrupt corporations tend to listen, and begin offering the type of products the customers seek, or at least they pretend to. Even if most times deceptive labeling (such as ‘cage free chickens’ that are really not cage-free) is used to cover for the fact that the practices haven’t undergone any major changes for the better, just the fact that they must resort to such labeling to retain customers shows that the consumer has power, and that humanity as a whole is demanding a shift away from unsustainable greed-based business models towards compassionate and sustainable business models that are better for us all. If such pressure is maintained, the corporations will eventually be forced to make real shifts to providing truly ethically-sourced products, or else they will die off and be replaced by businesses who actually care about humanity, animals and the health of the planet.
Learning to live on as little money as possible is also a great method of resistance that is largely overlooked, although that is slowly begin to change in recent years. Buying used goods and learning to live a minimalist lifestyle not only withdraws support from the consumerist system and corporations profiting from child labor and the destruction of the planet, but can many times also bring about more individual happiness, as much happiness can indeed be found in simplicity. Plus, the less money one needs to survive, the quicker they can free themselves from debt or easily live a debt-free life altogether, and the less time they will need to spend working a job to survive, which will in this way alone bring about much more individual freedom in one’s life.
Gardening skills and knowledge is also vitally important, for the more of our own food we grow, the more self sufficient we become, and also better prepared for emergency situations and sustainable community living alike. Furthermore, by growing our own food organically, we can have the health benefits of organic produce for a fraction of the cost purchased at the supermarket, and homegrown food always tastes better too! Plus growing our own food also helps brings us back in touch with nature, and is a wonderful learning experience. Even apartment dwellers in the city can often grow a small garden in a little raised garden bed, or even a few plants on their windowsill. Growing our own food is by far one of the most productive ways of getting back into harmony with nature once again, too, which should also bring about a greater sense of inner peace and freedom.
Meditation can be very beneficial in helping to clear our mind of unwanted thoughts and also in getting in touch with our inner power and guidance, key to manifesting the life we desire and becoming the best that we can be to help actively bring about the better world we all dream of into reality.
Natural medicine and healing is a very important realm of knowledge to be acquainted with, and first aid is also important for anyone hoping to one day get off grid or live in a self sufficient community. I was personally drawn to colloidal silver, probably nature’s most powerful antibiotics, and built my own silver generator (very simple to make), thus giving myself the ability to make gallons of silver water for a fraction of the cost of one tiny bottle at a health food store.
3D printers and associated printing designs could be critical one day in supplying our own community needs, giving us the ability to simply print car or tractor parts, for example. In fact becoming such a 3D printer could be just the right small business for a self-starter looking to both avoid taxes and begin supplying products to those who are actively working to build independent community. 3D printing may be able to effectively replace factory production as far as sustaining a fully off-grid, entirely self sufficient community goes one day.
Even if we never hope to be a part of an independent community outside the constraints and models of modern society, We can still all start immediately to begin building community in some small way, even if it just means getting better acquainted with our neighbors or networking with like-minded folks online. The system thrives by keeping us divided amongst one another and too busy to build meaningful relationships in our life, and so one of the simplest ways to fight back is by rekindling a sense of community, even just within our local neighborhoods.
One of the only viable forms of resistance available to us within the system is jury nullification, the right of the jury to decide not only the case but also the law. What this means is that if we or our fellow neighbors are prosecuted for a nonviolent crime - whether it be growing pot, building on our property without the proper government permits, driving without insurance, not paying taxes or any of the other hundreds of ways average nonviolent Americans are made into criminals by a tyrannical system each and every day - the members of the jury during any jury trial have the right to find the defendant ‘not guilty’ even if they have clearly been proven to have broken the law, so long as the jury finds that particularly law to be unjust. Back when I still engaged in street activism, I focused heavily on handing out fliers informing people of their jury rights and the history of jury nullification as the last peaceful means of resistance to tyrannical government, as this remains about the only effective way within the system itself, to stop tyranny in its tracks.
After all, when juries are no longer willing to enforce the unjust dictates of their ‘masters’, the tyrants either lose all power to enforce their tyrannical edicts, or must be forced to eradicate trial by jury. For more information, resources, fliers, booklets and pamphlets on your rights as a juror and jury nullification as a last resort to tyrannical government, see the Montana-based Fully Informed Jury Association, and also “Juror’s Handbook - A Citizen’s Guide to Jury Duty”/“Jury Nullification - The Secret Constitutional Right” by James Joseph Duane.
We who are alive on this planet today are living in an incredible age of mass awakening and opportunity, and we have before us two main options. The first option is to continue seeking change through the demonstrably ineffective means we have relied upon until now, which will only continue getting us more of the same, more of the same corruption, deception, hypocrisy, tyranny, perpetual war, petty division amongst ourselves, and increasing insanity across the whole face of the earth. Or we can forge a new way forward that til’ now only a very few have been brave enough to walk, and we can begin taking direct action to starve the beast, and feed the light. We have all the power, and really always have, we just didn’t begin to realize it until now in the Information Age.
Our choices today will determine the destiny of this planet and all of humanity, possibly for centuries to come, if we were even to survive that long on such a destructive path. So I suggest we take the time out of our busy schedules to carefully weigh our options, and then make our choice wisely. Because even the act of not choosing is a choice, and those who don’t begin to actively starve the beast are only continuing to feed it. For me the choice really seems so simple: Just starve the beast, and feed the light.
Step out of fear and into love, begin actively creating the world we wish to see starting with ourselves, and then watch as the system collapses under its own weight; for without enough of us continuing to prop it up, it cannot exist, as it has no more power than the power that we give to it. It is time to take back our power, and there’s really only one way to go about doing so. Starve the beast and feed the light, or keep watching as the beast continues to eat humanity for lunch.