Hi Allan, 

I just read your response at Lew Rockwell. Great stuff! I live in ———. I have not worn a face mask yet. I was thrown out of my daughter’s soccer game, physically threatened by the athletic director and refused entrance to all others in the city and surrounding counties. I went to war with the school system over mandated masks… in empty stadiums, in open air! Their response was to send several police to games where I would be. I had a doctor friend write me a note so they harassed the doctor with multiple phone calls to his employer and then refused the note because it wasn’t printed on company letterhead. I couldn’t fix it because the doctor wouldn’t take my calls anymore. My regular doctor wouldn’t write a note. She suggested I see a psychiatrist about it! I still refused to wear the mask so I had to watch my daughter’s games from outside the fences, like a leper.

Outside in the open air!!

I did win one battle. My daughter didn’t have to wear the mask. I forced the school system to admit they couldn’t force it on her while outside. I shared this with the coaches but they were too scared to encourage others to claim their rights. My daughter was, every game, the only player to not wear a mask. She’s 15 and has more guts than 99% of the men in this country. The Sun Kings: The Une... Clark, Stuart Best Price: $7.30 Buy New $17.15 (as of 03:06 UTC - Details)

I coached club soccer for the top club in —— for almost 20 years. I got fired last August for refusing to wear a mask or follow other covid orders. That was just my fun money though. It hurt me but not financially. I am a self employed contractor. I tell clients I don’t wear a mask. I have only lost a couple clients. I have never been busier. I still go to Lowes, Home Depot, Kroger and other stores and I am usually the only one without a mask. My dentist allows me in without a mask. So does my corner liquor store (thank goodness!). I approach and thank those that I occasionally see mask-less. A few stores don’t allow me in. I go to stores that do. I will attempt to enter any store and force them to say something about a mask. If they do I tell them why they are wrong and will never get my business and I leave.

People wear masks in stores that don’t care about masks yet they still wear them!

My father bought into all the propaganda and we don’t speak now. My aunt and uncle canceled Thanksgiving. My mother first canceled a dinner because my household “doesn’t follow the data on masks and social distancing.” Then she canceled our usual family Christmas for the same and because I went to a “super spreader” event two days before. My brother and I got in a heated argument over masks and covid and he won’t bring his family around anymore either. He has a masters in public health and thinks he’s smart about covid but doesn’t know a damn thing. None of them do. I know the data like a PhD but they believe the TV and Fakebook instead.

I don’t think this ends well for us. People are so far beyond stupid, obedient, lazy and afraid. They are slaves to their cores. They won’t even stand up to a stupid mask. How can we expect such pathetic cowards to stand up to an obvious stolen election?

I’ve been at this fight since the 9/11 false flag so I’m used to going my own way. I will never wear a mask. I will never obey. But I’m tired Allan. I’m tired of the daily fight. I have a beautiful and wonderful wife and kids but most of the rest of humanity looks like toast and I fear it’s just a matter of time before they try to lead people like you and me onto the boxcars.

I do appreciate people like you who SEE the truth and are still fighting. I guess that’s why I just puked all over you. Haha.

Thank you is what I want to say. Thank you, from one freedom lover to another.

To the very end…

Mask-less in the USA 

—-

What an amazing email to receive. Thank you so much. The Cycle of Cosmic Ca... Warwick-Smith, Simon Best Price: $4.49 Buy New $15.04 (as of 09:37 UTC - Details)

Children may like a parent being brave or be uncomfortable about it. Obviously your daughter likes it.

This sentence, really warmed my heart. “She’s 15 and has more guts than 99% of the men in this country.”

How truly wonderful that you have fought the fight to keep her maskless on the field. That is a victory that she will be able to proudly speak of her whole life among the free people. Maybe that number is a big one, maybe it isn’t.

Whatever it takes, I need you not to be tired. I need you to keep being your wonderful free self. And if you’ve never read the essay “Isaiah’s Job,” (https://mises.org/library/isaiahs-job) or haven’t read it lately, I’d like to ask you to give it a read. It’s hard to know how your virtuous behavior ripples out into the world, but I have no doubt it does. You make the world around you far more free, even if no one ever acknowledges it.

As for boxcars, no one will be leading me into a boxcar, and I know nobody will be leading you into a boxcar. You are a wonderful person whose example I am inspired by.

There Are Few People Who Will Upend Their Lives Over Principle 

Freedom isn’t free, freedom isn’t cheap, freedom isn’t easy. It comes at great sacrifice and so few want to hear that.

Some people whine about how they wish they could live more free. Others just live more free.

Some people talk about one day when they are “rich” they will then really then have an impact on the world in the name of freedom, hardly exercising those muscles along the way.  Others just live more free.

Some people say that they will run for office for the next 8 years, and when they ultimately win, they will make the world more free. That’s a great idea. And in the meantime others just live more free. Nothing about that need interfere with future plans. Some even find living a more free life is a benefit to future plans.

Now is the time to live the most free life you can. There is almost no other way than that to make the world more free. You lead others to freedom by modeling leadership, but most importantly, you ensure your own freedom by living life free and asking no permission of any man to do so.

Unceasing Vigilance Is Its Cost 

Freedom always wants to know “What have you done for me lately?” Freedom always wants to know “What have you done for yourself lately?”  Freedom wants to know how you have expanded freedom in the lives of those entrusted to you “What have you done for your family and your tribe lately?” Cataclysm!: Compelling... Delair, J. B. Best Price: $6.90 Buy New $19.52 (as of 08:52 UTC - Details)

The successes of last week, last month, or last decade don’t mean much this week and haven’t earned you rest. In fact your commitment to live life as a free man is the same as a commitment to be unceasingly vigilant.

There is no need to wait for anyone else or to convince anyone else in order for you to live a more free life this very moment.

Kids Are No Excuse 

Some people say after the kids grow up they will be more free. That’s a great idea to live even more free after the kids grow up, but the kids are no excuse to not live a free life now. In the meantime others are modeling the freest possible behavior for their kids, behavior the kids can intimately see and feel the price of, behavior that can hardly be learned any other way than by being modeled by a loved one.

As a child, I intimately saw the cost of doing the right thing alongside its pain and pleasure. I was not protected from it, but allowed to experience it. Many models have existed my whole life, to this day, encouraging me to accept the pain and revel in the pleasure of doing the right thing. I can seek those models out or try to avoid them. I seek them out and to my great benefit, they sometimes seek me out. What a favor you do for your child if you let them know, from a young age, the pain and pleasure of doing the right thing and living a more free life.

If you normalize the pain and friction of freedom for your child, you will not raise a snowflake unable to withstand that normal and natural pain and friction required to make life more free. Do not hide such a thing. Do not make it look easy. Make it look normal. It can be as easy and natural as breathing or blinking, and it is often exactly that easy and natural to a man used to living a free life.

Just as the child of a successful businessman knows the pain of risk is a natural part of success. Just as the child of a successful real estate developer knows the pain of borrowing is a natural part of success. Let your child see that to a free man, the pain of defending his freedom is a natural part of success. This is the cost of doing business.

Waiting To Collect On Your Birthright Of Freedom Is The Surest Way To Lose It 

Some people say after they finally retire they will be more free. And it’s a great idea to be more free after retirement. Other people just build a more free life for themselves right now. To wait another day, to procrastinate on freedom for any reason is a certain indicator that you do not want the freedom you speak of, and it is often an indicator as well that you will not have that freedom you speak of.

Some people have an imaginary line in the sand that is always in retreat. They say once it is crossed, “That’s it!” the oppressor won’t be able to tolerate the response. They say once they cross that distant line, “They’ll be sorry,” and unsurprisingly, the tyrant reaches that line and pushes far beyond it. A new boundary by that time has been made.

Squishy, Flexible, Conflict-Hesitant, Consensus-Seeking Society Hates Your Immovable Boundaries, But Your Immovable Boundaries Are One Of Your Greatest Assets 

Killer Comet - What th... Zamora, Antonio Best Price: $11.02 Buy New $8.20 (as of 09:37 UTC - Details) The real boundary in such a person, forever in retreat, is not based on their values, but on the proximity to conflict. They always set their boundaries a safe distance away from conflict. This is how cowardice sets a boundary. It is not a person of values who behaves in such a way, but a person of preference. A person of preference prefers to avoid conflict rather than to defend their values and defend their boundaries.

It’s good to have boundaries that you won’t allow to be crossed, but never in retreat, and never a distance away. Let the boundaries be boundaries that are pertinent to this moment in time. If you have no boundaries pertinent to this moment in time, you are saying to yourself and the world “Everything is fine here. There is no oppression.”

If your boundaries are in constant retreat, you have no boundary.

Some people wait for others to join them and say once X, Y, and Z happens, we will be more free. Having grand plans is wonderful. Magnifying your influence in the world is wonderful. There is nothing to wait for.

The Dangerous Impact of Socializing and Outsourcing the “Freedom Isn’t Free” Concept 

Some people who say freedom isn’t free refuse to pay the price for their own freedom. They socialize risk and bask in the glory of that amorphous idea. Blood and treasure is sent abroad. It is seldom their blood. And the treasure comes from the common treasury, not from their pocket accompanied by an itemized receipt.

The treasury and blood suffers from the tragedy of the commons. Overgrazed pastureland gets more sympathy. Overgrazed pastureland, at the very least has environmentalists fighting for it. So few fight for the human sacrifice lost when we expose it to the tragedy of the commons — the socialism — that the big government creates when we place such a vital function as national defense in their hand. So few fight for the loss of treasure when we expose it to the tragedy of the commons — the socialism — that the big government creates when we place such a vital function as national defense in their hand.

So few fight for freedom when we engage in the moral hazard of socializing freedom as a common good. It is quickly overgrazed and abused. Like any common, people tend to take from it in substantial quantities according to their preference, and tend to give to it in miserly quantities according to their preference.

Freedom is more akin to private property. It is homesteaded. It is a resource that becomes harvestable because of your wise application of your labor.

How I dislike the use of the phrase “Freedom isn’t free” to express “Freedom isn’t free, and it’s some other guy’s job to pay for my freedom with his money and with his blood.”

So few willing to wear the face mask are any better. They expect others to do the work for them — to pass laws and policies to unmask them, as they obediently go through the day wearing the mask and normalizing its horror.

We can’t treat our individual freedom as “common property,” then be surprised that it grows dilapidated the way any common property does.

So many who understand the tragedy of the commons refuse to do anything but subject their own freedom to the same tragedy.

Prayer — Some Other Guy’s Job? 

Some people will have priests say mass for them and will have nuns pray for them. Those are beautiful traditions. They may ask friends to pray. There is power in prayer. These traditions aren’t meant to replace you getting on your knees and doing the hard and edifying work on yourself that comes through prayer.

Child Rearing — Some Other Guy’s Job? 

Some people have others raise their children for them. Some kids are in the hands of strangers from six weeks old, others from six months old. The most formative years, those first six or seven, are often spent in the care of strangers, often strangers who you would never want your child to grow up to be like.

Well, guess who your children are going to be like? The role models they are most around.

Many millennia of dictators have understood if they could get a child early enough, that child was his for life. What an awful thing you do for your child by not cherishing those early years as much as possible and sacrificing to be there. And what an awful thing you do to yourself.

Having a family changes you, improves you, provides a most valuable and unique opportunity to be edified, if you will let it. It can’t be outsourced and have the same effect, yet that is what some do. A regrettable outcome, one of many, will be the result of not building the important bonds that come from you raising your children yourself.

Marriage — Some Other Guy’s Job?

The good times and the hard times, they both build you. Done right, a bond is built. Done right, that bond lasts you through a great deal. The hard times might even build that bond better than the good times. You don’t build that bond by outsourcing your Friday 5:30 p.m. standing dinner together to someone else. You don’t build it by having someone else have the hard conversations or make the hard decisions. You don’t build it by having someone else put on your pajamas and sleep in your bed at night. Regret will come from neglecting to build the important bonds that come from committing and doing the hard work together.

Defending Freedom — Some Other Guys Job? 

When you socialize the defense of your freedom, when you make freedom a common good, when you collectivize responsibility and wait for someone else, you are doing yourself a great disservice. Others can be helpful, but the defense of your own freedom is edifying work.

You Are The Only One Responsible For You 

How affirming it is to receive emails like the one above. Many like that come in, many more than I could ever publish.

That man makes no excuses for why he will not have his freedom. The rest of the world can go work itself into a crazy tizzy if it wants. That man will be fine living a free life right alongside his family.

It would be nice if the rest of the world stopped wearing face masks. It would be nice if the rest of the world weren’t so eager about being the recipient of the experimental and dangerous Covid shot. It would be nice if the rest of the world weren’t in lockdown. It would be nice if so many pastors weren’t so cowardly. It would be nice if the rest of the world stopped living in fear.

But you know what, at the end of the day, it’s not about them.

Welcome men and women into your home to pray on a Sunday. Keep your business open. Push back when people push against you. Honesty dictates such a behavior. Reject that Covid shot. And never wear that face mask. These are all actions you can take.

We don’t live in a totalitarian state yet, because you can do all those things as long as you are willing to pay a price for your freedom. And the only way that we prevent that totalitarian state from forming in our lives is exactly that way: being willing to pay a daily price for freedom.

It’s not about face masks. It’s about having boundaries. It’s not about face masks. It’s about living life free. It’s not about face masks. It’s about building the relationships, building the muscles, building the trust among those around you — those who you want to be around and who honor you — and by doing the same, by getting rid of people who you don’t want to be around.

It’s about being honest. It’s about communicating your most important values. It’s about being clear about who you are.

Some will like that. Some won’t. And that’s okay. It never was about them. It was always about you.

Stephen Baskerville writes “He who is afraid to anger or offend is not yet a man.”

I wrote Face Masks in One Lesson (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1953847005?linkCode=ogi&psc=1&th=1&tag=lrc18-20) to provide an easy pathway for people to stop wearing face masks, but the book is about so much more, and more importantly — the face mask is about so much more.

Please vow to never wear that face mask again. Please vow to live as principled and as free of a life as you possibly can, even at great cost, especially at great cost.

It is, after all, the cost of freedom that makes it so rare.

Let us each pursue this most precious item with our most earnest efforts.

Let us not leave it to the fate of a common good.

Let us not model such moral rot for those who watch us, hungry for a leader.

You, dear reader, are that leader.

All that is needed is for you to take that next step.

The Best of Allan Stevo