Dear Editor,

George Vreeland Hill is not wrong, in his recent Letter, to say that it's possible to change - even improve! - government by participating in the electoral process. I have no doubt that if Ron Paul were to become President, for example, there would be a dramatic improvement to our lives.

I stopped participating in 1998 when I saw that it had let go of its primary principle, but I'm a veteran of 18 years of such political efforts as Mr Hill encourages (in the Libertarian Party) and he might agree with me that it's very hard and unrewarding work. That Party has gained zero net ground in its 37 years of life, and we have just witnessed Paul, an outstanding candidate, being deliberately frozen out by his own Party; he will not even be allowed to speak to its National Convention. Those are measures of how vicious and well-equipped are the interests opposing the slightest move towards liberty.

Before we fritter away any more of our slender resources on political activism, I recommend soberly counting that cost and making rational assessments of its likely success. I have done that, and reckon it's a loser. There is no possible way that political action can succeed. The only serious (and very incomplete) move towards liberty anywhere in my lifetime was the 1990 collapse of the Soviet Empire, and while the Polish anti-communist political Solidarity trade union movement didn't hurt, that happened primarily because its economy collapsed, thanks to the 70-year absence of a rational, market pricing mechanism. (I grant that the US-led arms race also helped bankrupt it, but at the appalling cost of seriously risking the survival of the human race.)

Pro-government people have fortified their grip on power in the political system and to play that game seems to me to fall in to the folly of battling on the enemy's home turf. He will play with us as a cat plays with a mouse, for the sake of maintaining the illusion that it's "the people" who are in charge, but will never, ever allow the loss of any serious power.

There is a far, far better way - with very low cost and very high probability of success in a relatively short time (about twenty years.) I have written of it here already, so will just recommend Mr Hill and other readers to give it serious reconsideration; the URL is http://www.newhampshirefreepress.com/NHFreePress/?q=node/61

Since that appeared, I've published a second book - to detail how government will probably unravel, in the final five years of that period. It's called "Transition to Liberty" and is, I dare say, quite a thrilling story. It can be obtained via http://bopub.bravehost.com/ttl

Jim Davies
http://www.TakeLifeBack.com

GOVERNMENT IS A DISEASE
masquerading as its own cure