Just Say No! How?

Given the level of conspiracy against us by the DCSF and its minions it looks like we seriously need to begin to consider how we will do this, Louisa has given me permission to blog her wonderful post on the subject from the UK-HOME-ED support list.

Just saying NO may sound a bit trite in the face of the forces of darkness ranged against us, but actually it is our most potent weapon, *if* we understand that it is. The problem is that for most of us, whilst we want the State to take its mucky hands off HE, we can't or won't stand fully on our own feet and tell the State to naff off and die because we still look to the State to take care of us in other areas of our lives. The State draws its authority to interfere in HE from the fact that we demand state services and provision. Ever since the Enclosure Acts we have been relentlessly disempowered for that very reason - because a helpless, dependant population that cannot provide for its own material needs will always look the State to look after them and thus is always consenting to interference.




Withdrawing consent for such interference is not simply a matter of saying No in consultations and letters, it is a matter of doing No. It is a committment to moving to self-responsibilty and self-reliance. Self-sufficiency is a state of mind, not a vegetable plot and a goat. It is not the Good Life, rather it is deeply subversive - because we will only continue to consent to the State for as long as we continue to need the State. To home educate is to be self-sufficient in education and that is why it will be stamped out. To refuse vaccinations or to arrange a private midwife for a home-birth or to self medicate with herbs or supplements is to take self-responsibilty for your own health and that of your child. That is why the freedom to do these things is under attack. The State wants passive consumers not active self-providers. It doesn't want us to assume that we have personal responsibility for the neglected child next-door, for the impending energy shortages, for the conditions in the sweatshops that make our clothes, for the homeless person making the park untidy - the State would much rather that we look to the Government to solve these problems for us and it is from this dependancy that it derives its power. It is our sense of entitlement that enslaves us. The Govt fears independant, self reliant, self responsible people. It calls them subversives, extremists and terrorists. The Govt keeps us in a state of fear to keep us connected to our sense of entitlement to safety, so that we do not stop asking and expecting Govt to keep us safe from harm.



Saying NO is a revolutionary act. Saying NO means taking personal responsibilty, it means losing one's sense of entitlement, it means withdrawing both our explict consent and the consent that is implied when we expect Govt to do things on our behalf. It doesn't mean only those with the means to go out now and be self-sufficient in food, energy, water, shelter and healthcare can say No because first of all it is about changing one's mind. It means changing one's mind about whose responsibilty it is to provide for our needs and those of our children, and it means becoming convinced that it is no-one's responsibilty but our own. Working out one's self responsibilty in terms of practical day to day living will look different for everyone and will proceed at a different pace for everyone. That is unimportant. The important thing is the acceptance of responsibilty.



I think we are hamstrung as a movement because we want to say No but we have feelings of entitlement to services that means we keep on consenting no matter how loudly we shout that we do not!



I take a great deal of heart from this

"Finally, families very much do stand a chance, and defeatist talk will do nothing to solve the problem. There are not enough aparatchicks out there to control every parent. Simple disobedience will be enough to completely derail all of the states plans, whatever they are. We need to understand the true power of the state, address it correctly and as East Germany did, the power of the state will fade away.



The state can no more control parents and families than it can control the distribution of illegal drugs. When people finally wake up and realise this, they will understand that there is in fact no one out there to control them. All they need to is ignore the state and nothing will happen. The control of the state is predicated on the obedience, consent and decency of the population. Absent of this there is no control at all."

http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/justice-and-civil-liberties/children-of-the-state-200910314373/



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Louisa