That star-spangled banner no longer waves over the land of the free and the home of the brave. The banner is still there, of course, but the freedom and the bravery are long gone.

What remains today is a thinly veiled police state which has, over the past century, adopted some of the worst elements of both fascism and socialism in a unique American blend which, while it still retains a few of the old formalities of a freer society, is steadily losing them, until one day you will finally wake up to find that we are once again in bondage, with no idea how you got there.

The only aspect of those failed societies not yet fully adopted in the United States is the mass killing of dissidents, though President Barack Obama placed that option on the table earlier this year. That’s right, you now live in a country where the government can kill you without so much as a show trial, if you disagree with its policies and take any action that the government thinks will threaten its stranglehold on you and your fellow Americans, not to mention the rest of its world hegemony.

It has always happened like this throughout history. It starts with something seemingly small and reasonable, like “stopping terrorists” or “economic recovery.” Like every other government program, it expands. Ultimately, anyone who voices disagreement with government policy winds up blacklisted, in prison, or dead.

Oh, it can’t happen here? You think a goddamned piece of paper is going to protect you, when the government’s own courts redefine that piece of paper to mean anything that the government thinks is convenient? The Soviet Union had free speech in its constitution, too. We all know how well that piece of paper protected Russian dissidents. What makes you think your constitution is any more bulletproof?

It has already happened here. Today the government can take your home and give it to anyone it wants to, with no restrictions, as it did to Susette Kelo and her neighbors. It can imprison or kill you for taking medicine to save your life, as it did to Steve Kubby and Angel Raich. Its “law enforcement” agents can commit murder with impunity, as they did to Sean Bell, Frank Jude, Jr., and many others.

That’s what you were celebrating by launching those fireworks? I was mourning the failure of the so-called great American experiment. Or perhaps it was a success. After all, the experience of the United States did prove that a republic is no better than a monarchy, and in some ways is worse. Either way, the experiment is over.

Today the United States government is headed for either total collapse, an even bloodier civil war, or World War III. It’s still hard to predict which will happen first, though it’s no longer possible to say that none of them will happen. If we’re going to survive, it’s time for a new experiment.

The government of the United States has proved destructive to stability, justice and order. Indeed, all governments ultimately devolve into some form of tyranny, chaos, or both. It is time to discard government as we know it entirely.

The only viable system is the one by which everyone lives their lives most of the time: by voluntary interaction, mutual exchange and explicit consent. Much has been written already about how such a system would work. See for example The Market for Liberty, Complete Liberty and Healing Our World in an Age of Aggression (free downloads available).

On June 26 at the Porcupine Freedom Festival in Lancaster, N.H., dozens of people took the first steps toward such a voluntary society by signing a Shire Society Declaration which states the nature of human rights, holds that explicit voluntary association is the only legitimate social order, and the signer’s commitment to the outlined principles. I am proud to be one of the first people to have signed it, joining the Shire Society, a voluntary association of individuals who believe in “peace, individual sovereignty and independence” and are actively working toward building that society.

The only way to save ourselves now is to recognize government for the unnecessary evil that it is and to commit to living our daily lives on a voluntary basis. Down any other path lies only oppression, chaos and utter destruction.

["ObamaNation" image by Fletcher Warren; CC BY 2.0]