People sometimes ask me why I'm involved in the Boston Tea Party. The answer is: because of the platform.

As a fan of Murray Rothbard's button to end the state, stop the wars, and free the slaves, what I really want is no externally imposed, coercive government at any level on any issue. Therefore I am very interested in identifying the extremely few candidates who are for smaller government on all issues and at all levels. Among other things identifying such candidates does is: it illustrates how little chance there really is for reforming the tyranny by working within the system.

In 2008 I think we found about 36 candidates, more or less. (Counting up on the 2008 voter guide I get 35 including several of the various names we listed for vice president. Admittedly I might have counted wrong.)

Now, if you were serious about running for president of the United States on the Boston Tea Party ticket, as I gather Darryl Perry is going to do in 2016, you have to think about how 36 candidates in fifty states and 3,140 counties (or county-level administrative units - they call 'em parishes in Louisiana and townships in Yankee land) makes any meaningful difference to the outcome of the election. In brief, it doesn't.

Yes, it is ideally and idealistically possible to form county level organisations in, say, 2,104 (about two-thirds) of those geographical units of political enterprise. You would have to do that by, say, 2014 in order to have already elected legit vote counters (county clerks) and voter registration takers (county registrars). It wouldn't hurt to elect some county tax assessor collectors if you were serious about reducing the size and scope of government at the county level. It would be wise to elect some county sheriffs if you want to reduce the impact of bozo laws. But the reality is you aren't going to get that done. Not in 2014, not in 2016, not ever.

Which is why I don't believe there are any meaningful political solutions. The problems caused by the corrupt influences upon and the apparent excesses of too much political power are not going to be resolved by the addition of more politics.

So I follow Laozi, Anacharsis, Jesus, and Konkin, among many others in calling for a withdrawal from and avoidance of the state. I believe that "this time it will be different" in that, instead of withdrawing to our Shaolin temples, finding ourselves disarmed by imperial troops, and then attacked relentlessly so that Shaolin becomes synonymous with kung fu fighting styles, we have a meaningful opportunity to end the state by withdrawing from it, this time. The difference this time is technology, in that there is already a robust, distributed, and effective communications network - the Internet. There is already robust, distributed, and effective open source encryption and other open source software. And there is, finally, recently, open source private transaction technology.

As economic transactions become increasingly private and undetectable they won't be seen, let alone taxed, regulated, nor prohibited. And when the state is unable to tax anything it won't be able to survive. The death of the state, given its horrifying record for attacking liberty and making war on people generally, would be very welcome.

My plans are: to provide guidance for people pursuing a path of withdrawal from the state, which I call agorism, through a new distributed educational system that I call Individual Sovereign University; and then go to Mars. Yes, the planet Mars. No, I don't particularly care what you think about my plan to go to Mars, nor do I care to bring you along. I'm going for my own reasons with persons who share my drive to get there. Or to paraphrase Davy Crockett, "You can go to hell, I'm going to Mars."

In the near term you can find me in St. Louis this weekend at the LP national convention in the exhibit hall.

You can find me in Kansas City 3-6 March for the founding conference and celebration of the Individual Sovereign University. We'll be having the rEVOLution Freedom World Tour there to help with the celebration - booths for your organisations are just $100 and we expect about 2,000 people each day of the show. Speakers like Tom Knapp, Brad Spangler, Gary Chartier, Wendy McElroy, and many more. Bands like Aimee Allen, Downcount, Poker Face, and Andrew Jackson, among others we've invited. Sign up at the LP convention this weekend for just $80 or contact me at jim at vertoro dot com to book your membership. The concerts each evening are to be $20 per person - which ought to take you back quite a ways. Three bands for $20? Wow.

There's going to be a rEVOLution, and it is going to be a lot of fun. It won't be noisy or bloody, at least at first, and we'll be showing you how to get off the grid, get private, and live free. The state is over, if you want it.