The Right Kind of Outlaw

The systems that seek to rule us punish thought criminals, not heel-clickers

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A surprising amount of people are highly susceptible to being manipulated and misled through propaganda.

It’s not because they’re evil and it’s not because they’re stupid.

It’s because we are wired to favor pathways of thought that require the least amount of effort and energy. And also because there is an immense amount of manipulative information being beamed at us 24/7.

This is one of the reasons that Russ Anderson and I are creating the Bootleggers Guide to Critical Thinking - A Thought Outlaw’s Handbook.

This is not a high road or a shortcut to becoming a skilled critical thinker. It’s an invitation to build the mental muscles and flexibility to develop the cognitive processes that help us discern fact from fiction.

One of the first things you must be willing to accept is that the systems that wish to rule us do not reward people who think for themselves. 

They punish them.

If you’re serious about learning to think clearly and independently–like a bootlegger–you’ll have become comfortable with being viewed as an outlaw of sorts.

For most people, the term “outlaw” brings to mind the gritty image of a cigar-chomping Clint Eastwood Western character. Or a 1% biker riding a noisy chopper through a bad part of town. 

Thanks to the negative connotation, few of us would aspire to be remembered as an outlaw. 

But the truth is that not all outlaws are bad guys.

Be warned, we’re about to venture outside the boundaries of approved opinion. Individuals who pride themselves on being perfectly obedient may wish to stop and go no further. 

On the other hand, if you can handle the discomfort of having certain assumptions challenged, feel free to read on.

If freedom is to survive in modern America, we need more of the right kind of outlaws. We don’t need more perfectly obedient heel-clickers.

What is the right kind of outlaw? 

This is a question that writer Claire Wolfe answered several years ago when she described “freedom outlaws.” 

Wolfe explained:

“A Freedom Outlaw is (loosely) somebody who cares so much about freedom that he or she will go after it regardless of any laws or regulations blocking the way. Will go after it personally. Not petition for it. Not write letters for it. Not vote for it. But GO for it.”

This is not a call to be lawless, but the law-and-order types often try to characterize it as such. 

It is simply the recognition that we are buried in so many incomprehensible laws that it is impossible for any of us to avoid being a lawbreaker, no matter how careful we are.

The thought that every single one of us is a lawbreaker in some manner is terrifying to those who think they’re perfectly compliant. It robs them of their sense of superiority to realize that they too are guilty at some level of criminality. 

This doesn’t mean that they’re bad people, it means that they too are exposed to the risk of criminality by counterfeit laws.

Counterfeit laws are those that seek to control something other than actual aggression, theft, or fraud. 

Kent McManigal puts it this way:

“Counterfeit “laws” sound like real laws.  They are written in legal language by lawyers.  They are backed by the threat of death if you disregard them.  They have no foundation in reality, but are based only upon the wishes of people who want to control your behavior.”

Far more important than what some politicians have put onto a piece of paper is to possess the personal capacity to distinguish between right and wrong.

And that requires a willingness to think outside of conventional wisdom. A willingness to be a thought-criminal, if necessary.

Our legal system distinguishes between acts that violate the rights of others and those that are mere administrative rules.

The first type of law is known as mala en se, referring to wrongs such as murder, rape, assault, or theft that result in an actual victim. 

The second type is known as mala prohibita and it is these spurious laws that seek to create criminals out of otherwise innocent men.

Historically, the greatest injustices visited upon mankind are those that were carried out in the name of the law. When the people in power write laws giving themselves permission to steal, kidnap, assault, rape, or murder us, the nature of right and wrong has not changed.

We cannot rely on those in authority to be the final arbiters of what is morally correct or not.

That’s where we must be capable of making an informed judgment of our own.

The most effective remedy to institutionalized wrongdoing is for courageous men and women to stand and resist official injustice—first by words, then by actions. 

Making this stand places such individuals outside the protection of the law. But it doesn’t mean they aren’t doing the right thing.

As Claire Wolfe points out, breaking laws intended to intimidate, silence, fleece, or control us is no cause for shame. 

Free people understand that the law is supposed to protect us and will embrace their outlaw status knowing they are standing for the right. 

They are at peace with their conscience rather than at odds with it.

The perfectly obedient, on the other hand, tend to become infuriated by the noncompliance of the right kind of outlaws.

They’ve allowed themselves to become trained not to question, much less defy, the dictates of those who rule them. 

Ask the perfectly obedient if there is such a thing as a bad law and you’re likely to get a pretty solid impression of a brook trout. 

At least we know where they stand.

As for those who choose to simply play it safe by not getting involved at all, there is no honor in remaining aloof. 

Consider the words of Desmond Tutu,

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Being the right kind of outlaw starts with being willing to think critically and independently. And that begins with the realization that truth is not something that’s handed to you by someone in authority.

You have to be willing to seek it out for yourself.

And that starts with taking responsibility for how you arrive at what you think.

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