Without the state

A war on science?

It really seems so.

Suppression of research into gun violence

Lying cheating barstewards

It should be no surprise that those given access to power over others will tend to use it, but we seem to be getting more than our fair share of lying cheating bastard (henceforward LCB) stories lately.

Selling horsemeat for beef, the resignation of the head of the RC church in Scotland, accusations about the former CE of the Liberal Democrats, lies by Teresa May over immigration, lies by Ian Duncan Smith over free labour for big companies in the guise of support for job seekers, endless stories of sexual misconduct by RC priests, the investigation into Jimmy Saville turning up all sorts of other nastiness, phone hacking, police corruption, appalling behaviour by the companies paid our money to help people back to work, lies over the change from DLA to so-called Personal Independence Payments, lies over what Hilary Mantel is supposed to have said by newspapers and politicians alike, – these are just what springs immediately come to mind.

Is their a remedy? The State depends on the acquiescence of the people and on the support of cronies in the big corporates. Without breaking the law do everything you can to simply ignore it. Do all you can to make it an irrelevance and the big corporates superfluous. Give away as little power and information as possible. Routinely use a proxy web server, routinely encrypt e-mails, turn off wifi and Bluetooth whenever possible on your mobile phone, (you'll save battery life anyway), pay cash or barter for goods and services, reduce your dependence on centrally provided infrastructure like power and water by upgrading insulation, installing solar power or heat exchangers wherever feasible.

Building a new society inside the shell of the old one – make government and the corporate state irrelevant.