The Angry Exile: Australian Libertarians.

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Saturday 3 October 2009

Australian Libertarians.

There's often some thought provoking stuff to be found on Thoughts On Freedom, the blog of the Australian Libertarian Society, and now and again I like to point anyone sick of my rantings in their direction. There's plenty there worth reading but two have caught my eye over the last couple of days. First there's Not Evil, Just Wrong, which is about the climate change scare and a film showing a point of view that doesn't sit to well with the rent seeking orthodoxy. As a result, and despite some positive publicity in the media, the filmmakers seem to have had trouble getting Hollywood interested and have chosen an unconventional approach.

Because obviously Hollywood didn’t want to distribute this film, filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney have a unique and I think rather fun distribution plan. In a world first, people can order “premiere packs” which will come with a DVD, a movie poster so they can have a home cinema and a piece of red carpet so they can have their own special premiere (although they can’t press play until the right time!)

The world-wide premiere is to be held on October 18 at 8pm, and the producers are calling for screenings in Australia at either 8pm on the 18th Australian time, or alternatively simultaneously with the US premiere, which works out as being at 10am Monday the 19th AEST. To those who screen it on the Monday AEST, the opportunity exists participate afterwords in an online discussion webcast with a panel of experts straight from Washington DC afterwords, where viewers would be able to email/facebook/twitter questions to the panel for instant updates.

As the ToF folks point out, this comes at an appropriate time for Australia since there is to be a vote on what the denizens of Canberra would probably like to think is a world saving Emissions Trading Scheme, but which will almost certainly make precisely square root of fuck all measurable difference to the climate while simultaneously having a not insignificant effect on the economy. I'm not sure enough minds will be changed as a result of the film, especially among those that matter (as opposed to the poor bastards who'll be affected), and even if I can't get any of the vast number of 'believers' I know to come round mine for a screening I'll drop US$20 on a copy for me (order from www.noteviljustwrong.com - the link given at ToF 404s). They're mostly going to be preaching to the choir as far as I'm concerned but I'm interested in seeing the whole thing. Meanwhile here's a taster.

The second thing that caught my attention was a short post on the idea of Charter Cities.

Article XI, section 3(a) of the California Constitution authorizes the adoption of a city charter and provides such a charter has the force and effect of state law. Article XI, section 5(a), the “home rule” provision, affirmatively grants to charter cities supremacy over “municipal affairs.”
The above quote taken from this website. What this means in theory, if not always in practice, is that the people of a city in the US state of California can create for themselves a charter and using this they can in effect over ride state laws and operate as a near autonomous region bound by the same state consitution but not by most actual state laws. In essence a city can become a secondary state within a state. According to Wikipedia “112 of California’s 478 cities are charter cities”.

...

Of course Australia also has the equivalent of a charter city. It’s called Canberra. The equivalent of a micro state within the state of NSW. Perhaps a few other cities should also attain independance from state laws. Or perhaps we should set aside space, as we did for the national capital, where new cities can emerge. Even better if they represented zones that avoided federal laws.

A fascinating idea to try where there's the room. How do we go about it, how do we guarantee that at least one is at least broadly minarchist/libertarian, and where do I sign up? And would the authoritarian bastards running most of what for want of a more accurate term is laughably called the free world actually let it happen? That last bit is where I have most of my doubts. Still, go read the rest - not much I haven't quoted to be honest, but there's a video on the topic which will keep you busy for twenty minutes.