By Mike Barskey

Some liberty activists want to levitate the federal courthouse in Concord via the power of their minds? What kind of nonsense is that? Of course they can’t levitate a building - that’s impossible! And even if they could do it, what would it prove? What would it do to further their cause? Would they be more free if the federal building floated away? Are they trying to scare the federal government agents into restoring their freedom? Have they the gall to think that people will actually believe they can make whole buildings disappear by merely thinking about it? Do they want the government people to see that they’re trying everything - even silly things - to get rid of the government?

Despite strong winds and a 15F wind chill on Saturday, December 12, about 15 liberty activists gathered at the federal courthouse in Concord with the goal of levitating the building. Some held signs for passersby to read: “U.S. Out of New Hampshire” and “I Don’t Need To Be Governed” and “Torture Is Never Right” and “Too Much Government!” And they waved the liberty-activist’s old friend, the Gadsden Flag* (“Don’t Tread On Me”). One was dressed in prison garb - black hood and all - to emphasize that torture is never right, even when performed by governments for “the good of the people.” Many had kazoos and were humming show tunes and camp songs and whatever came to mind. A couple threw snowballs at the building itself - not at windows or anything that could possibly break, but at the side of the building, as if to say “Shoo! We don’t want you here! You don’t scare us!”

And then there was the levitation ceremony. They paced off the size of the building and decided that it was larger than anticipated, so they would practice today by levitating a large stone blockade; they’d be back next month to levitate the whole building. They gathered in a circle around the stone, held hands, hummed through their kazoos, and raised the rock off the ground a few inches. Well, no one saw it raise, but when they looked again at the giant cube of rock, they saw a tiny weed growing out from under it. Surely it couldn’t have grown like that, and so they must have levitated the rock and lowered it back down on the weed. Success! They’ll be back again next month, indeed, and that federal courthouse will be a mile high!

Does this sound like nonsense? Does it make you angry? Do you feel sad for these activists or embarrassed by their actions? Does this kind of activism confuse you? It confuses me, and I’m one of these activists.

I think that government is aggression. You cannot have a government without some people governing at least some others against their will, and I think this is a more than a metaphor for slavery - I think this is slavery, just on a grander scale. It’s been hidden behind decades of government-run “education**” (and that’s just in our culture: government has been trying to control what people think as long as there has been government), but the truth is unavoidable if you continue to think about what freedom and government truly are.

Yet despite wanting government out of my life, I did not understand the purpose for pretending to levitate a building. And I had even heard about Abbie Hoffman’s similar stunt decades before***.

One of the names that the de-centralized group of activists called this event was “Tilting At Windmills.” Other names some of them used, like “Feds Out of New Hampshire,” made sense to me, but I had to ask about “Tilting At Windmills.” I knew it was a reference to Don Quixote, but I have never read that book nor seen any versions of it as a movie, like “Man of La Mancha,” so I did not know what it meant.
One interpretation is that Don Quixote was insane and would physically attack windmills, thinking they were giants. His task of eliminating the beasts was impossible (since they didn’t even exist), which makes it a great metaphor for liberty activists: it is an impossible task to eliminate the federal government. Then why try? Some activists think that it’s not impossible, just hugely unlikely, and that if you don’t try you can’t possibly succeed. Others think that if they merely make it known and understood why government is evil, more and more people will become active trying to find alternative, peaceful ways to get along in society. Doing what you think is right despite the odds against you, is another admirable justification.

That last sentiment rings true for me, especially because what I think is right is promoting a social system where no one has the right to hurt anyone - not even government. If I think something is good or right, then I am going to do that thing regardless of the obstacles or odds against success or lack of popularity. If it's right, it's right. Popular opinion does not change an immoral action into a moral one. Ease of accomplishment does not transform wrong into right. The impossibility of accomplishing a good goal does not make the act of trying a bad thing. If in your mind you want to save your love from giants, but in reality there are no giants, you will tilt at windmills.

Next month I will be back at the federal courthouse, humming into a kazoo or performing an exorcism or some other such nonsense. It’s fun watching government people who take themselves and their rules so seriously, not know what to do in the face of silliness. And I still have giants to slay.

* Please visit http://is.gd/5J8UE for more info about the Gadsden flag.
** Government education is essentially brain-washing. If you were in charge of education, would you teach people that you were evil? To do so, even if you knew it were true, would be to destroy your control of education, or to destroy yourself.
*** Please visit http://is.gd/5J9Tc for more info about Abbie Hoffman.