Taking a Stand

My course is clear. It is to stand for, and fight for liberty. For the liberation of man from a lawless state.

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

The Quest

There is nothing in the long history of men yearning to be free that indicates the quest or even the goal is comfortable. There is everything to indicate that it is exciting and creative and, depending upon your view of man, rewarding in the only values that are meaningful, self-respect for instance.

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

Land of "Liberty"

It must be recognized that there now exists in this land of liberty virtually every institution of state power necessary to totalitarianism with the possible exception of a national police force.

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

Painful Change

There is nothing so certain as, or seemingly more painful than change.

Karl Hess (The Lawless State 1969)

Two Courses

Each man now has only to answer whether he will stand pat and be changed, willy-nilly in a world he can wistfully say he did not want and did not make — or whether he will stand up, be counted, be confronted and be committed to the change to which his conscience and his reason dedicate him. There are just those two courses.

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

Moral Values

Do you feel that man actually is incapable, as an individual, of knowing what is right or wrong: and that only the wisdom of "society" can establish such values?

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

Yes or No

Each citizen can ask himself the most grave questions in this regard. Frank self-answers should be revealing.

Do you feel that the state is more important than you are?

Do you feel that the state should enjoy freedoms that you do not?

Do you feel that the state should be able to rise above the law?

Do you feel that you could not live unless the state protected you?

Do you feel that you could not thrive unless the state nourished or subsidized you?

Do you feel that service to the state is more desirable or more noble than service to your self, your family, your neighbors, or your own ideals?

Do you feel that it actually is a privilege to pay taxes?

Do you feel that since the government, the state, is more important than any one man, that every single man should be prepared to give his all, even his life, to or for his government?

Do you feel that the state is something with a life and identity of its own, beyond the men who might hold office in it?

Do you feel that "the government" and "the country" are the same?

Do you feel that, when all is said and done, your life belongs to your government?

Do you feel that your "rights" are given to you by government?
Do you feel that, when all is said and done, if big problems are to be solved in this world that government will have to do it?

The crucial separation between men today is not anything more or anything less than the separation between those who answer yes to those questions and those who answer no. The only important gradations in the thinking that separates men today will be found along a scale of how many yes and how many no answers are given.

My own position is a resounding NO to every single one of these questions.

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

The Law

Today it is widely accepted, as a matter of fact, that Government Is The Law. Just as a "divine" king once could say, "I am the state," governments today everywhere say they are the law, even that they are the people.

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

Differences

One editor recently pointed out that in terms of sheer differences of political approach there now is more difference between factions behind the Iron Curtain than between the major political factions in the United States.

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

Liberty and Politicians

Where politicians flourish, long history has harshly taught us, people and their liberty wither.

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

Question

Do you feel that man actually is incapable, as an individual, of knowing what is right or wrong: and that only the wisdom of "society" can establish such values?

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

"divine" law

Just as a "divine" king once could say, "I am the state," governments today everywhere say they are the law

Karl Hess (The Lawless State, 1969)

They Yearn for Political Power

To repeat, conservatives yearn for a state, or "leadership," with the power to restore order and to put things — and people — back in their places. They yearn for political power. Liberals yearn for a state that will bomb the rich and balm the poor. They too yearn for political power. Libertarians yearn for a state that cannot, beyond any possibility of amendment, confer any advantage on anyone; a state that cannot compel anything, but simply prevents the use of violence, in place of other exchanges, in relations between individuals or groups.

Karl Hess (1969, The Death of Politics: originally published in Playboy)

Specific Order

The great flaw in conservatism is a deep fissure down which talk of freedom falls, to be dashed to death on the rocks of authoritarianism. Conservatives worry that the state has too much power over people. But it was conservatives who gave the state that power. It was conservatives, very similar to today's conservatives, who ceded to the state the power to produce not simply order in the community but a certain kind of order. [original emphasis]

Karl Hess (1969, The Death of Politics: originally published in Playboy)

Politics and Control

Political parties and politicians today — all parties and all politicians — question only the forms through which they will express their common belief in controlling the lives of others.

Karl Hess (1969, The Death of Politics: originally published in Playboy)

Libertarianism is

Libertarianism is the view that each man is the absolute owner of his life, to use and dispose of as he sees fit: that all man's social actions should be voluntary: and that respect for every other man's similar and equal ownership of life and, by extension, the property and fruits of that life is the ethical basis of a humane and open society. In this view, the only — repeat, only — function of law or government is to provide the sort of self-defense against violence that an individual, if he were powerful enough, would provide for himself.

Karl Hess (1969, The Death of Politics: originally published in Playboy)