I Aim to Misbehave
Lauren Canario is an early mover of the Free State Project (FSP) and one of my personal heroes. The first official Anarchy In Your Head comic strip was about her. She’s known for non-cooperation with authority figures. She abhors violence and her acts of remaining passive in the face of aggression are meant to demonstrate to the world where violence really originates. I’ve been known to say that I’d much rather have 20 more Laurens participating in the FSP than 20,000 more political activists, keeping in mind that I do not place myself in the same category. I don’t have her courage… yet.
View the rest of this entry to see some YouTube videos starring Lauren Canario.
In the following video, Lauren remains passive and silent after simply answering that she does not have any (license and registration). A free person should not have to get permission from a government to travel, one of the most basic notions of freedom.
In this video, Lauren sits on the porch of a house stolen with imminent domain and goes limp when arrested.
August 8th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Canario = my one of my lesser heros
August 8th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
inspirational… not only don’t i have her courage, i also don’t have her *restraint* ..
August 8th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Ha ha!
If your art can get more press for anarchy, I won’t have to get arrested so often.
The last time I got out of jail the first thing I saw was a newspaper stand with the AIYH queen of hearts cartoon (http://anarchyinyourhead.com/2007/10/page/2/) featured. Keep publishin’ Dale!
August 8th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
If we had 20,000 liberty activists in NH, we wouldn’t need 20 CivDis non-activists. Lauren wouldn’t be jailed . . . misbehaving cops would be jailed. One can dream . . . . Nice tribute to a courageous woman. I wonder if Mattel Toy Company is interested in testing a prototype.
August 8th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Well said, susan28!
August 9th, 2008 at 1:51 am
August 9th, 2008 at 10:53 am
That was just weird. I get y’all’s point and all, but you need to think about the image you’re putting forth. Calling a driver’s license “government papers” may be kind of funny, but it also makes you sound kooky. Not answering a police officer’s simple questions just makes it seem like you want to cause trouble. And that bit about being threatened by police by the way they were standing just makes you sound like an annoying prick. There are a lot of well-thought out arguments under the surface, but none of them came across in that video.
As for needing permission from the government in order to travel, that’s not the case. There is no law preventing you from walking, or riding a bicycle, or riding along with someone in a car, from point A to point B. So you need to rephrase that before anyone takes you seriously.
You also need to acknowledge the rationale for government-issued driver’s licenses and car registrations. These are required in every advanced country I know (correct me if I’m wrong). A driver’s license at least prevents people unable to drive from driving. A registration helps to ensure that you drive your own car. Perhaps it’s a hassle to deal with the bureaucracy that issues those documents, but that’s a different issue.
August 9th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Are we kooks? I think I’ll make a blog entry about this. It’s worthy of more than a brief comment.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Geoff, yeah you can travel places on foot or on a bike without a license, but that’s restricted though, if you want to travel faster you’d need a car or go on a plane/train/boat, all of wich need you to have permission from the government, nor can you travel out of your country (or sometimes even state) without premission from the government (both your own and the country your travelling to), so if you really want to travel anywhere besides your own town, yes you need governement premision.
Registrating your car doesn’t really help you that much, it will hardly help when your car is stolen. So why should you register your car for the government?
August 9th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Cyberwasteland: It’s not permission to travel. It’s permission to operate vehicles, because there are issues with safety when unqualified people drive cars, boats, planes, etc. It would be perfectly legal to arrange with a private individual to give you a ride to the next town or the next state. Yes, international travel will require a passport. That’s as much about the other country you’re going to as it is the one you’re coming from, so, that’s a different subject.
What do you mean that registering your car doesn’t help if it’s stolen? I can think of plenty of ways it would help. Registering the car identifies it, so if it’s found, it prevents the thief from simply claiming that it was theirs all along. Also, the insurance companies require it. I’m not saying I enjoy registering my car and insuring it, I’m just saying that there are reasons things are the way they are which need to be acknowledged.
August 9th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
You do have to have government premission to travel with a vehicle and hitching a ride just shifts who has to have the premissions, the government should decide who’s qualified, you either can or can’t ride a vehicle.
Registering your car at an insurance company can help when it’s damaged or stolen, what I ment was that there really is no need for a government to register it or any other of your possesions at all, You could just have it insured an the car and info on it be registered there, registering it with the state alone doesn’t really help much if it isn’t insured, I personnaly would not mind not registering my car, but sadly it’s obligatorily.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Geoff-
1. What is wrong with calling government papers government papers? A spade is a spade.
2. We don’t answer police officers questions because they usually ARE the trouble makers, and saying something (even if a profession of innocence) can often be used against you. This is something we’ve learned from experience as well as empirical observation.
3. Not being issued a drivers license doesn’t magically render one incapable of driving, just like drug prohibition doesn’t magically keep me from buying marijuana, and murder laws don’t magically stop people like Jeffery Dahmer from killing other people. Drivers licenses serve absolutely NO purpose other than to keep tabs on a captive populace.
4. You’re conflating “permission” to drive with “freedom” to drive. That freedom to operate a vehicle that I OWN is mine by extension of property rights; no one has the right to invalidate my property rights unless I willfully surrender them.
August 9th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Very funny cartoon today Dale
I imagine the looks on the cops faces when they turn around and Lauren has slipped off the cuffs.
August 10th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
I’d say it requires more courage to do what she does because as a male the cops likely won’t be as gentle.
August 10th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I thought the Boogeyman was about to give a more illicit gift. Though someone would probably try to ban Lauren Canario dolls, at least in government schools.
And for geoff, what gives the government the right to decide who can drive and who can’t? They have no legitimate ownership of the roads, as they simply claimed them and use stolen money to maintain them. Their claims are backed up only by the threat of harm that police officers represent. Neither do they own Lauren nor the car she drives. Their restrictions are arbitrary, prop up wasteful bureaucracy, and are especially harmful to teens and immigrants who are perfectly capable of driving.
August 16th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Don’t forget to buy the Dave Ridley action figure!
It comes complete with removable Wookie costume, camera on tripod, and removable Glock Pistol in holster.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:46 am
I’m planning to make my own statement today in a blog entry about tactics, about softening the message to make it more acceptable and so forth, but I found this entry on another freedom blog that I think is also a good response.
He compares good assholes and bad assholes. And for the record, I consider Lauren Canario and myself to be good assholes.
http://freedomspace-matthewlee.blogspot.com/2008/07/good-assholes-vs-bad-assholes.html
August 26th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Yesterday I watched the 1982 film “Gandhi.” I liked these three things that the actor Gandhi said. I wanted to quote them here for anyone who is interested:
- “I think our resistance must be active and provacative.”
- “I wish to embarass all those who wish to treat us as slaves.”
- “I wish to change their minds, not kill them for weaknesess we all possess.”
It’s a bit small and the audio isn’t great, but you can watch the film for free here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3677437859600027297&hl=en
I recommend this court scene if you don’t want to watch the three hour film. The court scene is from 1:55:52-1:58:39.
Here’s an excerpt:
Judge: (Reads seditious material.) Do you deny writing this?
Gandhi: Not at all, and I will save the court time, my lord, by stating under oath that to this day I belive that non-cooperation with evil is a duty, and that British rule of India is evil.
Prosecutor: Prosecution rests, my lord.
Judge: I presume you are conducting your own defense, Mr. Gandhi.
Gandhi: I have no defense, my lord, I am quilty as charged, and if you truly believe in this system of law you administer in my country, you must inflict on me the severest penalty possible.
August 27th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I have been forced to produce “papers” as a passenger (in the back seat) and ticketed for not having my seat belt on! So, to say that anyone can ride as a passenger without having “government papers” is patently FALSE!
And, aside from the availed opportunity to harass and imprison violators, registration is a form of taxation. A “permission slip” if you will. There is no other reason for it, period.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:24 am
To Geoff and those who would respond similarly, I would like to say look deep within yourself and realize that maybe YOU like the “sense” of security that an “in control” government full of regulations and officers to enforce said regulations give you.
It has often been said that democracy is simply two wolves and a sheep deciding what is for dinner. The point I think is clear but might be closer to the truth if we said it is two sheepherders and a sheep deciding. The reason is, the sheep don’t fear the sheepherder but he has the same intention as the wolf… to EAT the sheep.
Lauren in this example is one of the sheep, but she doesn’t act much like a sheep, does she? When the border collie barks at her heels she stands her ground in defiance. You see, she’s smarter than most of the sheep… she knows the dog aka police officers are only helping the sheepherder eat her… to violate her right not to be eaten.
For a primer in liberty please visit isil.org and watch the Philosophy of Liberty flash video. It takes about 10 min. to watch and spells out the concept quite eloquently in a way that even a grade schooler can understand.
Then please, please put yourself in the non-conformists’ shoes for a minute, respect their right to their own person, time and labor and try not to act so reflexively next time the men in fine hats try to pass another regulation designed to make you feel more secure by stealing more time, property and labor from those who are not harming you.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
love the title. serenity referance?
September 12th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
“serenity referance?”
Exactly. Good call!
November 30th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
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