Are you saying that in twenty years we’ll still have a State around, just the same as it is now, despite not only the political work going on, but also the nonpolitical work people such as Dale, Menno, the Kannings, and so on, are doing?
Of course not. I think it will be much worse by then.
Freedom is one of those words that is starting to make me cringe when I hear it. Not because it's a bad concept, but because so often the way we think of it shows just how much the idea has become intertwined with the same thinking that causes us to lose our freedom. I've been trying to put my thoughts about this in order, but am still working on that, so don't expect the most coherent development yet.
what i want to show is that freedom isn't a goal that you strive for. i mean think about it. if freedom was a goal, what would you do once you achieved it? freedom just is. you are free, whether you realize it or not. so these things that enslave us are the responses of people who make free choices. bad choices, yes. and when i say "some people" i mean just about everybody. but to break out of that, to understand your freedom in any real fashion (intellectionally, emotionally, spiritually,) you have to let go of the instinctual desire to control. it isn't enough to grasp these concepts with your mind, you must convince yourself to let go of the intense instinctual desire to maintain control, and when enough people do that, we will have a moral society. by moral, i mean a society where people don't harm each other, not a puritanical society. but i don't know that there's really any coherent program for accomplishing that; i think individuals can free themselves from the damaging thoughts that create the state. i don't think society as a whole can. i think it is going to have to be an evolutionary development.
that doesn't mean that these things that people do are useless. every evolutionary development proceeds in steps. that's why i liked menno's quote that i stole. it reminded me of what Gandhi said, something along the lines that "whatever you do is insignificant, but it is crucial that you do it." I stole Menno's line, "Absolutely critical, though minor." I like the phrase, because it's how I see what I am doing.