The Rise of the Predator Class

Once upon a time, and the time was different in different parts of the planet, most people survived through hunting and gathering their food. They needed to stay on the move, adapt to harsh weather, follow the herds.

And then at some point some innovative folks were tired of the hassle, the risk, and the homelessness. They just wanted to stay put. A few figured out how to plant seeds, harvest and store crops for the winter, and then save the new seeds for the next growing season.

Such was the beginning of civilization—of some time to think, to plan, to build and create.

Settlements, villages and even small cities began to emerge.

But there were others with a penchant for violence and ill-gotten gains who realized they could just band together and steal from the storehouses of the farmers. This was still dangerous but took less life-force than hunting or growing in terms of energy output. Their lives became focused on fighting, pillaging and raping.

But they still had to keep moving and risk injury or death in battle, so they had to figure a way that they too could just stay put.

And thus, was born the notion of royalty. The head of a successful band of marauders would declare himself King of a region and then demand a percentage of everyone’s resources in return for protection from robbers just like himself.

People began seeing through the myth of royalty and collusion with the priesthood
in they claimed as their “divine right to rule.”

So then the oligarchs had to up their game to keep their serfs believing that they should continue giving a large percent of their hard-earned resources to a group of nonproducing elite.

…so government was born.

Protection money was now going to be called “taxes” — the “price of civilization” — though such coercion is hardly civilized. This began the “social contract” — though the people never signed up for such a mythical contract… except at the point of a gun.

First there were the dictators, and as their absolute power became a source of resentment. Then came the presidents and premiers — democracy and republics.
But this is, at best, mob rule. America was the “shining light on the hill,” and the Declaration of Independence was a dramatically ethical and liberating document — but soon people were paying far more in taxes than those for which they had fought the Revolutionary War against England’s King George I.

By the time this historic declaration of equal rights (except for women, slaves and poor people!) became the U.S. Constitution, the elite had secured control over the people once again.

But even this was still a huge improvement in human relations leading to tremendous enhancement and prosperity. But what was all of this leading toward?

Martin Luther King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

We’ve come a long way from the pharaohs, kings and dictators. As Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for every other one that’s been tried.”

But what we haven’t tried is NO centralized authoritarian control, with no one having rights that others don’t.

We have been duped into thinking that we are already there, when we are actually just approaching true sovereignty — the individual freedom that each of us naturally seeks. We have been trained to believe since beginning in our government schools that life would be dangerous and impossible chaos without government — so we don’t even consider the final step in the march toward ultimate freedom — and that is a condition of voluntary association — with rules — but no rulers.

Rules that protect each individual’s body, person and rightfully gained property — but no rulers — no one who assumes special rights — like taking someone’s money and calling it taxation; like forcing indoctrination and calling it mandatory schooling; like kidnapping youth, calling it a “draft,” and sending them like slaves into the battles for imperialist plunder.

With all human association based on the Non-Aggression Principle, no one would have the authority to confiscate inventions, impose toxic pharmaceuticals, destroy ecosystems, suppress cures or forbid healthy food.

Our world could be a paradise on Earth of unleashed creativity, cooperation and thriving.