"If men are good, you don't need government; if men are evil or ambivalent, you don't dare have one.
" ~Robert LeFevre Robert LeFevre's life taught him that we not only do we not need government protection and services, but that it is the great enemy of humanity.
  Though the temptation is to flee to a new location to be free, we need to change our thinking instead.
We have to learn to live together without the coercive rule of government.
Merely changing locations without changing our thinking will lead to the same evil results.
Traditionally, because of our inability to get along, people believed that government was a necessary evil, but it was a necessary evil to restrain evil! In other words, government rulers are just as prone to evil as their subjects.
So, how can it protect anyone? A crime is a crime no matter who commits it or sponsors it, including those hiding behind government sanction.
LeFevre's love for America made him a crusader for the ideas found in the Declaration of Independence, ideas threatened by all governments around the world, including the American government.
While the government proclaimed freedom, it enslaved, maimed, and killed.
It stole from the people, punishing success and rewarding failure.
As much as he loved freedom, he also understood that it cannot be imposed.
Freedom must be earned.
True freedom comes from the mind and the actions taken that follow from it.
It begins with the simple principle of "live and let live.
" The foundation of freedom is individualism, therefore only individuals can set themselves free.
It does not come by the conquest of a whole society.
It is not a goal to be achieved; it is the means to other goals.
Governments are made of individuals, who are no different from those working outside of government.
Ascribing them "with the ability to achieve goals which persons outside of government could not achieve, is to ascribe mystical or divine powers to government.
" Most believe that only government can build roads, adjudicate disputes, and protect society, but these things are done by people, people who use force to rob, enslave, and kill.
This mystical or divine power is raw force and must be abandoned.
But why do people accept this? One reason is human gullibility.
People want the impossible, the perfect society, and are willing to give power to politicians to create it.
By doing this, they shift the responsibility and blame from themselves to the government.
The second problem is the assumption that to improve anything we must act together, we must be united, we must have the same goals, same beliefs, same actions.
We must act as one: ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer!...
The final point is that people want to "even the score.
" They want vengeance, retaliation, restitution, punishment.
It is "the glowing ember of hate that keeps governments alive.
" All three points, however, are impossible.
There will be no perfect society and no amount of power can create it.
People cannot loose their individuality and be made into a perfect collective unit.
Finally, perfect restitution is also impossible.
We must as Goethe said: "Let the dead past bury its dead.
" If we are not willing to do that, then wars will continue.
The desire for vengeance "is the father of terrorism and the mother of the modern state.
" Though we may feed, clothe, and protect ourselves and our families, we cannot feed, clothe, and protect society.
Neither can government.
When it tries, it does so by plundering the productive, giving some of the loot to the less productive, and keeping most of it for itself.
In the end, this hurts the poor by making them gullible, dependent, and poorer.
This will continue as long as we depend on government.
A new beginning comes from deciding to be self-sufficient without depending on politicians or bureaucrats, taking responsibility for our thoughts and actions, using only voluntary cooperation with others, and breaking off all relations with government.
This will be a gradual and slow movement toward a free society, made by individuals, freely deciding to do so on their own.
It will not be brought about from above, whether by election or revolution.
There will be no coercion, because "Freedom is self-control, not license to impose on others.
" Freedom, therefore, begins within.
" Recommended: A Way to Be Free, the Autobiography of Robert LeFevre; Volume 1; The Making of A Modern American Revolutionary by Robert Lefevre and Loy Lefevre