NOTE: The following story is written by Frederick Mann in the first person.
In 1962 I was "drafted" (more accurately, kidnapped) into the military. Although I hadn't learned anything about freedom as a subject or set of principles (I knew nothing about Freedom Step # 1), I instinctively said "NO!" to the system. I decided that I would obey as little as possible and cause maximum problems for the officers who tried to push me around, while enjoying myself and having fun.
In the army, after breakfast, our day started with roll-call and square bashing. After about ten days of this torture, I got the bright idea one day of simply deleting my name from the roll-call book. During lunch time I slipped into the office, found the roll-call book, deleted my name, and reduced the total number of troops by one!
For the rest of the six months I spent in that camp, I never had to suffer any more parades, roll-calls, or square bashing. I turned my "military slavery" into a vacation! I visited a nearby golf course almost every day and reduced my handicap to 9.
My "military experiences" much later gave birth to the idea of Freedom Technology. In the army I developed all kinds of ways to elude those who tried to push me around. For example, I learned that a sergeant doesn't speak to a captain - the hierarchical structure must be followed without jumping levels. So, if a sergeant asked me where I was going or had been, I simply told him Captain So-and-so had told me to do whatever - or had asked me to play golf with him! It worked like magic without exception.
After a few months it became an axiom among the troops that "Mann never gets into trouble."
In looking back it's quite extraordinary that philosophically I didn't know anything about freedom, yet I developed a whole array of techniques to literally run rings around the military tyrants.
I also became pretty good at embarrassing them in public. One day a particularly nasty sergeant said to me that he had seen me in town wearing civilian clothes. I asked him what time? He said four o'clock. I told him there must be a mistake because I had a "double" in town who looked just like me. One of the onlookers said that he had also seen my "double" in town. Someone else said that he had seen me cleaning guns at four o'clock. The sergeant felt a real idiot.
What actually happened was that immediately after the sergeant saw me in town in civilian clothes, I returned to the golf club (where I kept my civilian clothes), changed into uniform, and returned to camp. (I had also developed a way to quickly get into and out of camp without being seen by the guards at the gate.) I joined the gun-cleaning crew and made sure that others noticed my presence - to establish an alibi.
That sergeant and most of the other officers eventually became reluctant to ask me what I was doing or where I'd been because I always had an answer that left them unable to proceed and they hated losing face.
I also discovered that practically all the officers had very low self-esteem - little nobodies who needed their uniforms and the insignia of their rank to be able to pretend that they were big shots. Threaten their "authority" - in subtle, covert ways they couldn't counter - and they became scared little wimps.
So these experiences later gave birth to Freedom Technology and the ability to say "NO!" to the system without getting into much trouble.
One of the most important areas in which to say "NO!" to the system is taxes. Another is the "draft" or "conscription". It's up to each of us to choose the areas in which we say "NO!" There are areas where I don't say "NO!" because I do what works best for me. For example, I carry a government-issued driver's license. If I get pulled over by the cops, I want to be able to continue to my destination with minimum hassle.
It's imperative for each of us to find at least one area where we say "NO!" to the system. This is how we begin to experience our personal power and freedom.
How much good is it to talk freedom as a Libertarian or Patriot, but to live like a slave?
Generally the lawyers who draft legislation, deliberately leave loopholes to exploit for themselves and their clients. For example, I practiced as a computer consultant in Belgium. I operated as a British company. Because the company did no business in Britain and had no income there, it didn't have to pay any taxes in Britain. And because it was a foreign company in Belgium, with no office there, it didn't have to pay any taxes in Belgium. (My company didn't even have to charge my clients the value added tax, which was about 16% at the time. This was a significant competitive advantage.) All this was perfectly legal.
So, there may be relatively simple ways to say "NO!" to the system. You just have to look for them. In America there are probably 30 to 40 million people who successfully say "NO!" to the tax system. Here are some resources that may be useful to you.
Study the above, decide what to do, and do it! Or look for other areas in which you might want to say "NO!" to the system.
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Freedom
Step # 3
Copyright at Common Law, West El Paso Information Network, 1997