I realize that attempting to create a free Detroit runs into many large problems. The exercise of thinking about what is involved is worthwhile, nonetheless. (The reader should understand that I have a playful imaginative streak at times.) About 1/3 to 1/2 of the people living in and around Detroit may wish to continue their relationships with existing governments, such as getting food stamps, social security, etc. The remainder may not, because their taxes, mandates and regulations will be reduced. Each group can conceivably have its choice, but Uncle Sam, not abiding any such nullification and secession, can create instant hostility between the two groups by threatening to cut off all payments to any Detroiter if a portion of them nullifies and secedes. It can also cut off the city from the payments system, as it has done to Iran.

It can do this with a state too if it tries to secede. This suggests that any seceding state has to prepare for these counter-moves by having ready a currency. It shows that unity of large numbers is also important. And if Uncle Sam decides to send in troops, cut off transportation, electricity, water or the internet, then this shows that secession can’t be accomplished without a ready militia to resist any such violent counter-moves on the part of the federal government. Or else a coalition of people across many states is required to provide enough clout to parry Uncle Sam. But if that is the case, then the route of constitutional pressure and dissolving the Union becomes more feasible.

One path to a liberty and property rescue includes continually weakening and downgrading respect for the federal government and continual strengthening of the respect and belief in decentralized living. The federal government is an unreformable monster with a federal code that is every bit as bad as Detroit’s municipal code. The people are saddled with an anachronistic throwback, a government put together 225 years ago that is now like a Godzilla, destroying everything in its path. It will die but it can do an awful lot of damage before it does. All the public conversation by statist intellectuals and media cannot see this creature’s ugliness. They pretend that this horrid creature is essential to life. They hang on every word uttered by the person who currently controls the creature’s voice box (the president).

The Best of Michael S. Rozeff