Freedom Is A State Of Mind
2001 | Electronic
"Voting doesn't work, 1-2-3, it's time you know your enemy. -- I won't pledge allegiance to hypocrisy. Your democracy, is not for me"
Trivia
- Brothers, Spike and Brad Xavier were on tour in the band Humble Gods when the idea for corporate avenger formed, circa 1995.
- The 'Taxes are Stealing' EP, band appeared to consist of eight members, including Pakelika of The Kottonmouth Kings, nameless members of 20 Dead Flower Children & No Doubt.
- Suburban Noise records was a subsidiary of Koch Entertainment, an Austrian record label focusing on German folk music.
THE HOT TAKES
Luke Tatum
The Supreme Court is a part of the federal government. Their alleged power to "interpret the Constitution" is an interesting concept. Essentially, the federal government gets to determine whether or not the federal government is following the rules. We've all heard of police departments conducting "internal investigations" and "finding no wrongdoing," right? The great Tom Woods has put it this way: If you wanted a neutral third party to determine if Tom had broken the rules, why would you ask his mother? There's nothing neutral about that. Now that we've addressed that, I'd like to speak to the chorus a bit more. "Voting doesn't work. Why? When they don't like what we say, then they stop it in the courts." While the courts are corrupt and frequently make unjust rulings, that isn't why voting doesn't work. Voting doesn't "work" because it's literally impossible to have a government that represents the people. Go watch economist Robert Murphy giving a talk called "Is It Smart to Vote Immorally?" He really gets into the weeds on the topic, discussing the conditions that would have to be present for your vote to "matter," and even highlighting Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, which provides some nice mathmatical proof. So, my take? Voting doesn't work. Why? It's impossible.
Sherry Voluntary
I LOVE THIS SONG! Those synths remind me of The Who. Voting, as it exists at the moment, is the very acknowledgement that there is an authority that has a right to tell you what is and is not acceptable for you in your life regardless of your rights. That is not compatible with the reality that each individual owns themselves completely. You either are or you are not the ultimate authority in your life. Voting is the acknowledgement that someone else has that authority. Michael Malice has said, “you will never spend yourself rich, and you will never vote yourself free,” and I believe that completely. Yes, there are times you can work within the system to nullify a law, or act in self defense. But if you believe voting is the vehicle that will force the system to dismantle itself and give you freedom, I have some prime real estate in a swamp to sell you. Like the song says, we have to recognize who the real enemy is and the system that they control is not your friend.
Nicky P
I love how juxtaposing these guys are. They are an exemplary example of the left right divide within the libertarian philosophy. Maybe it's on my mind because i was doing my data collection listening to Tom Woods & Michael Malice talk about the definitions of Left & Right but it seems apt. The core of the song is centered around a very simple idea: voting doesn't work. Begging for crumbs at the altar of our leaders is never going to bring us freedom. I think these guys have a particularly rosy view of how tribal life was but maybe i'm wrong. The modern science on the topic seems to lend credence to the idea that humans are naturally tribal if we couldn't see that from the greater world around us. The longer i spend around libertarians the more words i feel like I have to tack on to the descriptor of my actual ideology. Tribal does seem to make sense. Where my Evolutionary Ancap Panarchist Leftists at?