William R Collier Jr

The ability of human beings to creatively engineer around problems by first imagining things that do not exist AS IF THEY DO is the fundamental means by which all human progress occurs. When people see things that are imagined and poke fun at them because it SEEMS that these things cannot ever exist they demonstrate simple small-mindedness. When people imagine things that, at present, seem quite impossible, even if they are desirable, only then can problems long held to be insurmountable be creatively engineered around.

The difference between fantasy and reality is often measured only by the degree of effort and skill applied to taking what is imaginative and creatively engineering whatever relationships, actions, structures, and ingredients are needed to make it a reality we can presently see, feel, touch, and experience. Pure fantasies are things that are actually impossible under any and all circumstances, like magic fairies or superheroes. As we learn more, however, we discover that yesterday’s fantasies can become tomorrow’s reality!

For those who are only comfortable living in “the art of the possible” (as presently defined), a journey to an imaginary place where the Freedomist vision truly prevails may be a roller coaster ride too frightening to endure.

The realistic dreamer knows, and accepts, that the achievement of even the most desirable of imagined outcomes is often limited in the here and now- they seek to ever prod others, moving them slightly beyond what exists, ever closer on the ragged edge between the “become” and the “becoming”, but always with the grand and glorious vision before them. To die without seeing that vision fulfilled is no tragedy, but to live with no greater vision than to survive is a great tragedy that is experienced by too many human beings.

The entire process of getting a vision we can imagine as a better reality and then creatively engineering around obstacles towards the fulfillment of that vision is “visioneering.” It is not enough to THINK about or imagine that vision, one must apply creative engineering right here and right now to make that vision more and more influential in reality.

While it seems admirable to defend the basic foundations of the American Constitution and to appeal to the wisdom of those who fought for a vision that defied the world-system of its day to forge something radically different, the more fundamental work of establishing, asserting, demanding, and defending what we see as our inherent liberty, security, sovereignty, and authority (our Freedom which comes from God) remains undone. It is as if we are limited to what has been said and done, instead of building upon, correcting, and going beyond 300 year-old knowledge.

Some are so crippled that they can barely say two original words without a reference to somebody else!

Freedomists do NOT base their stance for freedom on the past, although we would be fools to ignore the wisdom of previous generations.

We embrace a balance of four core ideals to guide and govern our ways and relationships, especially our shared sovereignty and authority, on the basis of a Biblical application of Unity in diversity, Popular sovereignty, Democratic equality, and the Rule of law. These ideals are not open for debate, whoever does not agree with them, that is their right, but anyone or anything that tries to suppress our ability to live by them and practice them together is harming our Freedoms and makes us an opponent or even an enemy.

We accept it as an a priori fact beyond debate that:

1. We own freedom that comes to us as an unconditional gift from God as our source and not from men or governments and corporations, many of which have made themselves the enemies of Freedom

2. We all own Liberty to pursue godliness, self-reliance, and self-governance and Security through mutual support of our rights, persons, and property

3. We may ALL own three sovereignties (Natural, Covenant, Kingdom), including that which comes from natural law or “Citizenship”, that which comes from covenant bonds and relationships or “Regency”, and that which comes from the Kingdom of God among us (“Election”)

4. We all may practice the four authorities, being the Sacred and Social, the Civic and the Market Authority, within each of the three Sovereignties that we might possess, both as individuals and in cooperation with others

We also recognize our duty to exercise or support the five gateway skills for filling or supporting freedom creating offices- the Freedom Builder, the Freedom Czar, the Freedom Guardian, the Freedomist, and the Freedom Teacher.

The Freedom Builder creates and preserves liberty and security by their actions and organizational as well as governance skills.

The Freedom Czar watches against all sources of potential harm to freedom and warns people while showing them how to protect themselves.

The Freedom Guardian guides and leads people in the fight for freedom, especially against the Progressive war on freedom and rallies people to thbe Freedomist cause.

The Freedomist simply proclaims liberty and security to all and uses all available means to push out the Freedomist message and narrative. This is why our online news publication is called “The Freedomist”, although lots of individuals are Freedomists.

The Freedom Teacher imparts the principles as well as the theories and practices of Freedom to the People, stirring them to teach others and proclaim freedom to others.

We accept these tenets without question and we are not interested in debating whether or not we can or should seek to make all of these truths and principles the basis of our actions, relationships, or even our politics and our business practices.

You, the reader, will either say “I agree”, in which case we welcome you, or “I disagree”, in which case you are free to do so PROVIDED you do not deny us the kind of freedom we choose to pursue and practice, and both proclaim and teach together.

We are proclaiming Freedom, not offering an opportunity to debate whether or not or how we can be free! We know we can be free and how we can be free, we neither need nor want anyone to give us “permission” or “sanction” to be free amongst ourselves.

And so, as we “visioneer” a future where some form of Freedomist Commonwealth is the vision that most influences the present reality, we declare our sovereignty from God to live as free people together on the face of this earth!

(Note- you do not have to JOIN or subscribe to anything to be a Freedomist and this article, with full attribution and no edits, additions, or subtractions, may be freely used by those who wish to advance freedom)

Let’s Get Off Of The Progressive Slave Plantation

William R Collier Jr

The seduction of Progressivism is as old as humanity. Some false prophet or tyrant makes baseless accusations against God and good people in general, followed with promises that are truly too good to be true, and all for the price of individual and shared freedom.

The serpent in the garden of Eden sounds like a modern day Progressive who, when confronted with the plain truth of God, replies by asking, “did God REALLY say that?” Like the foolish Eve, many fall for it and take a bite of the fruit from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” In other words, the tree of “personal liberty to DO good or evil, whatever suits you.” As the serpent said, so say the Progressives who deny the present working of God in human affairs, “then shall you be as gods.”

The entire “separation of church and state” mantra is rooted in this deception that what God said He did not mean and that we can be “as gods”, not needing ANY objective standard or truth to guide and direct our actions.

For the Progressive, there is no real evil, all of us are inherently good and evil is what happens when the external influences in our life are negative- things like poverty, dirty air and water, racism, sexism, an etc. By removing or preventing these things, so the logic goes, we can create new types of people who are inherently good and who will naturally do good.

The old canard against God is that He “allows” bad things to happen. For Progressives, man is inherently good so if God was truly loving, He would prevent evil from happening. The Progressive fails to realize that the “good” that might come from preventing all evil would require a greater evil- taking away ALL human freedom! Only by making humans robots without the ability to act freely, even wrongly, can humans have freedom.

Progressives might SAY they want freedom, as did the serpent, but the net effect of their approach is that if they truly want to prevent “bad things”, they have to exercise a restraining power over the freewill of everyone!

God tends towards punishing evil after the fact, not trying to stop it by denying EVERYONE their freedom! The Progressives ignorantly and arrogantly presume to have godlike powers to so control people before they can do wrong as to prevent the wrong from happening- in essence they replace the law of the Spirit with the hard and inflexible laws of mere mortals to acheive goals that are simply impossible to acheive.

It is important to understand that if you buy into the Progressive promises, you buy into this Progressive worldview which is the basis of those promises.

Progressives promise that they can use the power of the state to prevent the conditions that influence even inherently good people to do bad things and thereby create a virtual paradise on earth.

Freedomists see people as inherently flawed, in need of a Savior, but capable of being used by God to do impossible thing but that Freedomists also TRUST people with their own individual and shared freedom to chart their own course and succeed or fail on the basis of that choice.

Progressives see people as inherently good, but only capable of resisting the draw towards what Progressives deem as “evil” if they are fenced in by laws, regulations, and taxes to prevent them from doing bad things.

The key component of Progressivism is the notion that people will only be able to fulfill their inherent goodness if their environment is managed to remove all things that draw people towards evil. This management of the environment is not some nebulous and harmless thing, at least with regards to human freedom.

If you’ve ever heard the corporate phrase “managing for results” you have the essence of how Progressives see everything and everyone. The Progressives take a concept that has limited value in the areas of individual goal setting and corporate goal setting and they apply it broadly to areas where no real “management” is possible UNLESS you edge out individual and shared freedoms.

By applying the concept of “managing for results” to society itself, the Progressives set up a system where there are a few “managers” in the big house on the hill “managing” all the toiling masses out in the fields. In other words- the group that cries so many crocodile tears over slavery turns out to be the biggest holder of slaves in the land!

How ironic that the Democrat Party was the party of Jefferson who spoke so well about freedom while owning slaves! How ironic still that Jefferson, a Deist, used his own separation of church and state thesis and started the ball rolling towards a godless secular state- he, the champion, as claimed by Progressives, of THEIR kind of freedom, owned slaves just like Progressives, who tout their brand of freedom, always create policies that put people in bondage.

The Progressives have two types of slaves on their plantation- tax slaves and vote slaves. They do their best to keep these two types of slaves at each others throats.

The tax slaves are the producing class who earn money and produce profit. They are vilified, taxed, and, as much as possible, restrained or kept busy so that they cannot impact politics very much. The policy if- take their money, make society loath them, and keep them out of politics.

The vote slaves are given barely enough, from taxing the other class of slaves, to survive and told daily that it is the tax slaves who are to blame for all their woes and that, while things are bad, if its wasn’t for the Progressives things would be even worse! We see this countless times when Progressive policies fail to deliver on their promises- shift the blame and say “it would have been worse.”

The tax slaves stay out of politics, only occasionally asserting themselves, while the vote slaves stay out of profitable business endeavors, believing their prosperity is based on what OTHER people LET them do!

Between tax slaves and vote slaves, with the media and edutainment elites as co-conspirators, the Progressive have created the largest slave plantation in human history- nearly half of the entire US population are imprisoned there and barely any of them realize it!

These victims of the Progressive War On Freedom deserve true social justice- they deserve to not be made tax slaves in order to support the programs that lead to the imprisonment of vote slaves! Vote slaves deserve to be told that they do not need anyone to help them succeed- only God, right principles, and their own hard work are the necessary ingredients for finding “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The Progressives need to be sent packing. Anyone who espouses what, in effect, amounts to tax slavery or vote slavery does not qualify for any position where the solemn oath is to defend and uphold our Constitution, which aims at freedom for all, not “managing for results” by a few elite at the top.

Progressivism IS slavery, pure and simple. It promises the bread of human wisdom instead of the Bread of Life, it promises protection from acts that tempt God and fate, and it promises all the kingdoms of power and wealth without the cross of sacrifice. Instead of the ability to pursue godliness, self-sustainability, and self-governance as the basis of liberty, the Progressives propose godlessness, self-indulgence, and big government as the basis of “civil rights.”

While we know from history that security is the ability to mutually support one another in protecting our rights, our persons, and property from all sources of harm, Progressives redefine our rights out of existence, deny the very sanctity of human life, and see property as the possession of the state. Their version of security is a pipe-dream in which, without having the means of being secure, we are to trust others, whose interests are not ours, to keep us secure, making us dependent on people and institutions that are outside of our control and that have no accountability to us.

The simple fools who think they can live on the bread of human wisdom, the lure of self-indulgence, and big government as the grantor of benefits will never comprehend what it is that we are talking about. For these people, whether they are tax slaves or vote slaves, rights come from men and not God and can thereby be modified, human life is a commodity valued only in relation to the needs of the state, and property is first and foremost owned by the state which allows people to keep SOME for themselves.

The achievement of social justice for the victims of the Progressive War On Freedom depends, first, on making them conscious of freedom based on liberty and security. The liberty to pursue (together and alone) godliness, self-sustainability, and self-governance is the opposite of the libertine but state-centered “political correctness” of Progressives. The security of mutual support for the protection of our rights, persons, and property from all sources of harm is the polar opposite of the empty promises of security of our physical needs through policies that water down our rights, deny the sanctity of human life, and replace self-governance with big government.

When people realize what freedom is, and how Progressivism is its sworn and mortal foe, then they will not be ABLE, or willing, to sell their vote as vote slaves for a bowl of lentils or sell their economic independence as tax slaves for 30 pieces of silver.

How do we obtain social justice for the victims of the Progressive War On Freedom?

We start by showing them what freedom is and how freedom, once obtained, looks so much different than life as a vote slave or a tax slave on the Progressive Slave Plantation!

William R Collier Jr

More and more thoughtful people are talking about the social/moral, sacred/spiritual, market/fiscal, and civic/political condition of our civilization and concluding that catastrophic failure and collapse are almost inevitable. In short, they are openly talking about the decline and fall of Western Civilization.

While the average person may not articulate these thoughts in such terms, almost everyone who holds to some form of virtue or godliness coupled with personal responsibility and faith-affirming as well as life-affirming lifestyle choices agrees that “things are moving towards the wrong direction.”

Our social, sacred, civic, and market life as a civilization is not merely falling, it is collapsing in on itself in a free-fall of doom that, to informed observers, is unprecedented in its speed. This translates to corrupting of our youth, higher prices for everything, higher taxes an regulatory burdens, corruption of high officials, and general dishonesty, unfaithfulness, and indecency all around us. The terrible results of this fall are daily confronting us and the agents of this decline have an “in your face” boldness and arrogance that frustrates and infuriates normal, decent people who know that such behaviors are bad for everyone.

If you are not accustomed to think in terms of the rise and fall of civilization and how these processes can effect your daily life, for good and for ill, I want to challenge you right now that knowing how these things work can help you to deal with what is happening in your life right now.

It is true that Western Civilization is not merely “in decline” but that it is quite literally coming apart. The final calamity of destruction may be drawn out in a slow-motion train wreck that takes decades.

Yes, Western Civilization is in decline and headed for collapse. That is true. But is it ALSO true that YOU in particular are compelled by forces beyond your control to partake of the awful results of that decline?

Barring a miracle we cannot predict with certainty, it is statistically improbable that Western Civilization will produce much more than negative results for all who follow and depend upon its social, sacred, civic, and market institutions for their daily necessities. Let that sink in- if you depend on the institutions of Western Civilization for your daily necessities, you cannot expect very positive results. This basic fact of life is never going to change unless an outright miracle occurs.

While it IS true that Western Civilization is in decline and that it will drag everyone who depends upon it down with it, it is NOT true that you and I have to depend on Western Civilization’s godless institutions to meet our daily needs. We are more free to choose what kind of institutions we will depend upon to meet our daily needs than many suspect.

If institutions are regular relationships and exchanges that we habitually and normal resort to then if we change the terms, norms, standards, and philosophical basis of our relationships and exchanges then we start a process of establishing our own institutions to meet our daily needs. IF these new institutions are not built on the present civilization’s norms and standards, because we reject those godless norms and standards, then even if Western Civilization collapses those institutions and those who depend on them will not be dragged down with Western Civilization.

Western Civilization is going to crumble, but you and I do not have to let that get in the way of building a positive and hopeful future. If we decide to deliberately create relationships and conduct exchanges based on the values and beliefs of a new, God-fearing civilization then we will watch the old civilization fall without having to partake in the catastrophe ourselves.

The OLD will die, that is the nature of things with people AND civilizations, but just as the OLD die, new generations are born and life, human civilization, goes on. For those who stick with the old out of loyalty, habit, or apathy, there will be catastrophe and sorrow. For those who consciously take a different path towards the new, there is hope that they and their offspring will avoid the sorrow and misery that their neighbors might be forced to endure.

The decline and fall of an old civilization is not the real news item here- the real news that we can put our hope in is that the emergence of the NEW will help people escape from the decline of the OLD.

Creating A New Civilization

William R Collier Jr.

Civilization is the highest form of human culture, including technology, styles, social norms, social conditions, and way of life as expressed in lifestyle, beliefs, art, social arrangements, laws, policies, and organizational/institutional structures and governance. A society that follows a culture whose norms inhibit technological advances or that are contrary to obersvable natural laws of cause and effect can hardly be called a civilization.

As more and more people consciously and unconsciously adopt a secular and hedonistic way of life, as permeates a Hollywood led popular culture, human civilization around the globe is in decline, losing its capacity for virtue and other moral and creative strengths and adopting practices and behaviors that are contra-indicated by observable laws of cause and effect.

In America and Western Europe, the process of losing our civilization to the vagaries of barbarism paraded as “Progressivism” is well under way. The wholesale and illogical rejection of virtue, morality, and faith go hand in hand with the deepening of a crisis of reason and identity which is making the very fabric of civil society come apart.

Our present culture cannot even muster up the fortitude to define the identity of the sexes, confusing the sexes and even the very nature of marriage itself.

Without the arts of virtue and reason to guide them, most unthinking individuals devolve into self-serving savages with no sense of any greater purpose but to fulfill their animal lust and no deeper thoughts than how to obtain the things needed to fulfill those lusts. Promise them joy without pain, benefits without cost, and pleasure without constraint and they will give up their intellectual and spiritual freedom with gladness.

This is the civilization we find ourselves in the midst of, a civilization that is losing its right to even be referred to as a civilization- a civilization fast turning into a savage and godless culture ruled from the top by cruel masters who thrive on lies, coercion, deceptions, manipulation, and exploitation.

While most people, most of the time, cannot see any possibilities outside of their own limited experiences and what the present popular culture says is possible, we are not slaves of the present civilization. We are not condemned by any logic, laws of cause and effect, or moral/ethical judgment to slavishly adhere to and go along with the doomsday lifestyle of this decadent civilization.

We have an opportunity to decide amongst ourselves whether and how to craft the lifestyle and social norms of a higher, spiritually empowered civilization. We cannot take any other course of action if, in fact, we do not want to suffer the inevitable negative side-effects that are visited upon savage godless cultures.

Do not for one second presume that following the godless savagery of this Progressive culture will provide anything but the most awful of consequences to you or your progeny. It is easier to escape the hold of gravity’s power than it is to walk in the way of godlessness and expect to escape its ultimate consequences for your life.

How can we craft the way of life and social norms of a spiritually empowered civilization, as opposed to simply going along with the savage godless culture in which we find ourselves?

This proves to be a group effort- it is self-evident that a new civilization is NOT an individual affair. If and when a small group, we believe as few as 100-200 families and some 200-500 adults, adopts a common way of life and value system rooted in shared beliefs and a shared identity, the seeds of an alternative civilization are “germinated.”

While an individual cannot create a new civilization, it might surprise the reader to learn that as few as around 300 adults and their families can constitute amongst themselves a self-contained and self-sustaining “culture” amongst themselves.

What the individual can do, however, is start the process of finding like-minded people who eschew the moral depravity and savagery of the present “Progressive” culture and from these draw a core of pioneers who wish to intentionally live and act together according to higher beliefs and values than the culture that surrounds them.

Until now the focus of improving things for individuals has relied heavily on mass change through political power, thus the reliance on the state. This has occurred because the present culture has abdicated almost all real decisive authority from individuals and their free associations to the state, forcing anyone who wishes to make or stop a change to either get political power or face failure in their efforts.

The alternative approach is different- it relies on a path towards independency through mutual assurance and support amongst people who intentionally create norms, standards, and cooperative associations based on a higher, spiritual civilization’s values, beliefs, and shared identity. In every possible way, the new idea seeks to organize activity, behavior, and relationships on a different basis while freeing its adherents from dependence upon the existing godless institutions.

Wherever and however and to whatever degree possible, the new idea seeks out ways to find living expression and manifestation amongst people who embrace it.

In whatever spheres or areas where the individual and their free associations still have the preponderance of power, the new idea takes root, while, at the same time, working to roll back and limit the control of the state in other areas that more properly belong in the sphere of individuals and their free associations.

The initial organizing of a few people, with the intent of establishing their own dispersed community of fellow travelers, is the very first “conception” phase for a potential new civilization.

While much of what will happen and what people will do in terms of building civilization together amongst themselves will emerge and cannot be managed, there are some fairly obvious and reasonable laws of cause and effect that must be observed intentionally during all building phases before the work can even begin. Without ANY kind of roadmap there is no guarantee of ever reaching the right destination, although too much planning leads to too little creativity and participation on the part of all those involved in the enterprise.

In short, while the present culture is becoming godless and savage we can choose to craft a lifestyle, norms, standards, and way of life based on shared beliefs and a shared identity that enables us to step outside of the orbit of this culture, and thus empowering us to escape its negative effects for ourselves and our progeny.

How To Create Shared Affection
William R Collier Jr

How we see others and ourselves determines how we treat people. If we see others as valuable and worth caring for, and if we ourselves as valuable and worth being cared for, then we can and we will care for them and believe that they can share a form of identity with us.

Bringing people together around common goals, asking them to care for one another, and showing them the power of a shared identity all happen with plain old “togetherness”- getting people to spend time communicating and sharing together at the same place and time, face to face, and with regularity.

You have to have a time and space for potential (qualified) members of your community to connect in a meaningful way that they actually ENJOY. If nobody likes “meetings”, don’t use that venue, create activity times for people to DO things together and use small break periods to share a presentation that is interesting and that informs people about the goals, the need for affection, and that constantly presents the shared identity.

Of course, “meetings”, having a discussion and forming a consensus, must occur, but only for those who aspire more to leadership. For those who do not have such aspirations, “meetings” can be extremely wearisome, so don’t try to “fit” people into them if those people are not aspiring to such leadership.

The key thing is not, as you might suspect, your “awesome” ideas and concepts. The key thing is to get people who have shared goals to be in the same space at the same time to do things together, even if those things are just fun and entertainment. Entertain people with a message, give people a fun time and tell them about goals, affection, or shared identity.

Getting people to come together, encouraging them to connect to each other, and giving them things to do or participate in is the best thing to do. Telling them all about your vision and mission and all those other things important, because it adds depth to your community, but if you start with togetherness then shared identity will come and when it does it will have depth.

People cannot identify with something that has no activity and no connectivity with other people, so start with activity and connectivity and then layer in goals, vision, mission, and shared identity in an unobtrusive but persistent and obvious manner.

Activity times can include picnics, open houses, movies, debates, skits, special projects, or problem-solving sessions, among other things.

Don’t just have “teaching” or “lectures”, unless you are training people in something they want to become better at for personal or professional reasons. Of course, as with any rule of thumb, there are exceptions- a deign team that must be quickly brought up to speed must be prepared for “teachings” and “lectures” as these activities can deliver the most amount of content and information in the shortest space of time.

To get people together, call them together, on the basis of an activity that answers a felt need. Whatever the most commonly felt need is, that is the ideal need to address. Is it crime? Call people to a neighborhood watch. Is it low sales? Call people to a sales training session that will really help them. Are church members experiencing an economic downturn? Have a get-together to look for ways to save money by buying food in bulk together.

At these activities, get people to use each other’s names (name tags), encourage them multiple times to connect with each other, get them all to be on a virtual discussion list or forum, and share elements of your vision, starting with the most accessible and readily understandable elements first and building upon them.

People will naturally network, but they often need “permission” to do so- give them permission by connecting yourself and asking individuals “have you connected with at least one other person you did not know before?”

Never just put out an idea or suggestion and leave it at that- find individuals to personally encourage and ask them to do the same thing with at least two other people.

When you do your activity, always be clear that you have a bigger agenda, that the activity is only the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of what a community can be and do.

Frequency is important, weekly get-togethers create continuity and, if done right, can become a highlight to people’s weeks, something they look forward to. If people prefer to watch TV and sit around doing nothing to being at your activity, then don’t blame them, blame yourself and make changes until they prefer coming to your activity.

When people connect with each other, then they are more likely to connect to your vision, so get them in one place at the same time, and, with little guidance or “management” from you, they will grow into common affection with one another.