by Frederick Mann, 10/10/97
Introduction
In conception, 'Freedom Ship' seems to be one of the most advanced freedom projects I know of. It's a project to build a huge ship, three times as long as the Empire State Building is tall -- 4310 ft. long, 725ft. wide. It will have a superstructure, rising 25 stories above its deck. It will have space for at least 50,000 residents, 15,000 personnel, and 20,000 guests and visitors.
It will be powered by 100 diesel engines and will circle the world once every two years. About 25% of the time it will be underway at sea, and about 75% of the time it will be holding in-place in coastal waters near major cities.
Other features of 'Freedom Ship':
Check out http://www.freedomship.com/ for more details.
I don't know whether the people behind 'Freedom Ship' have their act sufficiently together to succeed. It's a lot easier to put up a sophisticated website than to build a huge ship. Nevertheless, I'm highly impressed with what I've seen so far and with my limited contact with people involved in the project.
I've heard a rumor that 'Popular Mechanics' is working on an extensive article on 'Freedom Ship,' possibly with a picture on the front cover. If this comes about, it could boost interest and reservations substantially.
The Economic Means to Freedom
This is the second in a series of articles on the Economic Means to Freedom. The first article covered three principles: (1) Opportunity Gap; (2) Three Economic Sectors -- public, private, and free-enterprise; and (3) Free-Enterprise Institutions. You can access the first article here.
The Opportunity Gap is the difference between where people are and where they could or should be. The essence of the Economic Means to Freedom is to provide people with the means to bridge the Opportunity Gap -- to advance from where they are to where they could or should be.
If 'Freedom Ship' succeeds, it will achieve this in several respects. Residents will enjoy a high quality of life with superb safety and security, while traveling the world in style and comfort. Both residents and businesses will enjoy the absence of terrocrats(coercive political agents or terrorist bureaucrats) and the benefits of free-enterprise.
'Freedom Ship' could also become an outstanding example of a Free-Enterprise Institution -- the Economic Means to Freedom in practice. It may become a model for others to emulate.
Money Can Buy Freedom
The fourth principle of the Economic Means to Freedom is that money can buy freedom. It can buy you the freedom to live where you want to and to travel when and where you want to. Money can buy a group of people the freedom to build a 'Freedom Ship' and to escape the tyranny of terrocrats.
Money can buy you freedom from having to work to earn a living. To a considerable extent, money can buy you freedom from illness and disease. Money can buy you the freedom of a longer life. Within a few decades, money may even be able to buy freedom from death.
Consider the possibility that using money in profitable ways to expand freedom -- the Economic Means to Freedom -- is by far the most powerful freedom strategy. This is because it can set a snowball effect in motion. Part of the profits can be used to increase or expand freedom-promoting activities and enterprises in profitable ways. These profits can be used in turn to expand further...
Money can probably buy freedom to a greater extent than even I have begun to imagine...
This will become more evident as we expand free-enterprise currency, banking, and barter institutions, such as those mentioned in the first article of this series.
No-Opposition Strategy
"If you can avoid it, never play on the other guy's field, by the other guy's rules, or with the other guy's ball. He didn't design his system to give you the advantage. Remember that organisms defending their own territory are twice as effective as an intruding attacker." -- L. Neil Smith
Here's the fifth main principle of the Economic Means to Freedom. When we oppose something, or try to reform it, we usually encounter opposition. Our effort elicits an almost automatic counter-effort. In practicing the Economic Means to Freedom, we don't attempt to change, oppose, reform, or overthrow any political or economic systems. We simply create our own voluntary alternatives in the free-enterprise sector.
'Freedom Ship' is an excellent example of this principle in action.
The bogus power of terrocrats depends on the support from their victims. In practicing the Economic Means to Freedom, we find practical ways to legally, elegantly, and safely withdraw our support. The power of terrocrats is tenuous -- largely based on illusion, flimsy, fragile, and of little substance.
Understanding this dynamic of human power enabled Mohandas Gandhi to play a major role in the defeat of the armed might of the British Empire without firing a shot. The East German terrocrats, backed by 300,000 Russian troops, could not keep the Berlin wall standing, once a critical mass of people just said "NO!" to the system. When the victims of the Soviet terrocrats withdrew their support, the Soviet Empire collapsed overnight.
Because of gradual currency debasement (inflation), budget deficits, property seizures, Nazi-like terrorism (like Waco and Ruby Creek), fragile schemes like "social security" and "medicare," and other criminal violations, terrocrats are in the process of destroying their own coercive power systems. They are gradually losing credibility and control.
The example of 'Freedom Ship' may set in motion a whole range of initiatives whereby many more people find practical and profitable ways to withdraw their support from terrocrats.
A basic theme of the Economic Means to Freedom is "building freedom" rather than "fighting for freedom" or "fighting against tyranny." I believe that if a critical mass of people were to focus on building freedom, corrupt political systems will eventually lose their power and influence.
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