“I am a fanatic lover of liberty, considering it
the unique condition in which intelligence, dignity,
and human happiness may develop and grow;
not the purely formal liberty
conceded, measured out, and regulated by the State,
an eternal lie which in reality represents
nothing more than the privilege
of some founded on the slavery
of the rest; not the individualistic, egotistic,
shabby and fictitious liberty
extolled by the school of J. J. Rousseau and the other
schools of bourgeois liberalism,
which gives us the would-be rights of all men
as embodied by the State that limits the rights of each--
an idea which leads inevitably to the reduction

of the rights of each to zero.  No, I mean the only
kind of liberty that is worthy of the name,
liberty that consists in the full development
of all the material, intellectual, and moral
powers which lie hidden in every person; liberty
which knows no restrictions beyond those
determined by the laws
of our individual natures,
which cannot properly be regarded as restrictions
since they are not imposed,
but are immanent and inherent, forming
the very basis of our material, intellectual,
and moral being– they do not limit us, they are
the real and immediate conditions of our freedom”
-Thus, living light cast back from a burnt-out star.

– from the poem Paragraphs; Hayden Carruth (1978)

Hayden Carruth understood himself as an anarchist when it came to views on the State, which I am beginning to recognize in myself.  I used to see voting as a ‘choice’ or a ‘decision’, but now I want my vote to instead be a projection, as a broader philosophical vision towards how people should and, more importantly, should not be governed. This,  rather than focusing upon what might be momentarily happening in politics and concerning myself with the plausibility of a non-diatomic candidate actually winning.  

I used to be a Leftie, but now I turn my back to the compromise of the White House to fully see again what matters most–  decentralization of power, numerous forms of social experimentation, respectful diversity, personal reliance, self accountability, long term economic stability based upon currency with an actual standard, defense oriented military only, etc.  To take it a step further, I can’t help but consider the possibility of  the State being one of the great lies mankind blindly accepts, which subsequently limits the possibilities for an increasingly cooperative civilization. And to quote again from Carruth, “People are smart enough to govern themselves without a government”.