One of the most common sentiments you see at many political protests is summed up by this sign. Whether it’s Tea Party types or Occupy Wall Street types, they all believe that they represent “real people” and they express the desire to “take back our country.”
This is the heart of the problem with trying to live in a coercive state based on a majoritarian system. The vast majority live under the delusion that most people are like them, so “our country” means whatever it is that they believe it means.
So when Tea Party types talk about taking the country back for what they believe in, they’re not in the majority. Nowhere close, in fact. But when the Occupy Wall Street types talk about themselves being “the 99 percent,” they’re even worse. They’re just plain delusional.
We’re not one big happy family — and there’s no reason to keep pretending that we have anything other than civic propaganda and a bit of geographic history that keeps us together. Why don’t we let go of the illusion that we all have to live under the same rules? Why don’t we let each other go — and let groups establish their own independent cities or enclaves wherever they can legally and morally acquire the land?
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