The Redemption Program: Grasping at the Strawman
by Brent Johnson
It's the latest craze, the most recent "solution" to the problem of government over-regulation of the people, the "method" by which the people can successfully "break the system" and reclaim their property from a government run wild. You would have to be spending your time on an archeological dig somewhere in Outer Mongolia in order to have missed the newest Patriot rage: called the Redemption Program or Strawman approach.
The Redemption Program is based on the presumption that when you acquired a birth certificate, an account was established under a fictitious name (your strawman, nom de guerre, etc.); that this account has been holding funds and accruing interest on those funds for almost your entire life. The process purports to give you access to this account.
I am not going to discuss here the growing number of Americans who are being thrown in jail for using this approach. I have never been one to say that being sent to jail means you are doing something wrong. Quite the contrary, I think that being put in jail today is akin to wearing a badge of courage, because most of those incarcerated are unlawfully imprisoned. No, being threatened with jail is not a reason to avoid using any lawful process.
However, I have some serious issues with the Redemption Program.
My primary concern is that the Redemption Program is designed to appeal to the love of money. The love of money is the root of evil. There is no reason to pursue the Redemption process except to get money - that is, something for nothing - and therefore the entire process is, I think, "tainted" from the start, and could be used as "bait" by those who would subvert your rights and conquer your privacy protections. Good Americans, many of whom have spent years becoming anonymous and thereby securing their privacy, are now coming out of the proverbial woodwork to use the Redemption Program to get money they never earned. This potentially exposes Americans to government scrutiny (and possible incarceration?); these Americans who could better serve the glorious object of our struggle - freedom - by remaining anonymous.
In any case, I consider any goal which is achieved through the love of money to be suspect at best, and dangerous to pursue at its worst.
Now some might say that the Redemption Program represents justice; that the government has taken so much from the American people without their consent, that anything we can get back is far too little, far too late. This makes a compelling argument to justify what is essentially a money-grab. These arguments might be acceptable to lovers of money, but they don't hold water to lovers of the Creator's Laws.
The question before you is this: have I earned this money? If the answer is no, leave it alone. For the record, I consider it very unwise to pursue this process. But the love of money is not my only reason.
The initial premise on which the Redemption Program is based is, in my opinion, untrue. The idea that an account has been established in your "strawman's" name, giving you some kind of claim to the contents of that account, seems to be in error.
In the first place, if your freedom is predicated on your not acknowledging yourself as being a government-created, fictitious entity (strawman), then you must compromise your liberty in order to claim anything under this program. In other words, you must admit that this fictitious entity (strawman) is actually you, thus accepting that the government is your creator (since the government created the fictitious entity) and therefore that you have no natural rights. As far as I'm concerned, the cost is too great.
Secondly, in order to pursue the Redemption Program, you must retain a federal social security number assignment. There is absolutely no question as to the ramifications of doing so. Keeping the SSN means that you have waived all of your unalienable rights in exchange for eligibility to receive government socialist programs (welfare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, etc.).
So the real question you need to ask yourself is this. Which is more important to you: getting money you never earned, or maintaining your freedom and natural rights to self-determination? Both have value; which is more valuable?
This has always been the only issue at hand. Oppressive regulations always have their proponents, because every choice, every direction, every option has its supporters and detractors. Examine the Freedom Factor. Ask yourself if the cost of the Redemption Program to your liberty is really worth it. Then make your choices and live with the consequences.
It's the latest craze, the most recent "solution" to the problem of government over-regulation of the people, the "method" by which the people can successfully "break the system" and reclaim their property from a government run wild. You would have to be spending your time on an archeological dig somewhere in Outer Mongolia in order to have missed the newest Patriot rage: called the Redemption Program or Strawman approach.
The Redemption Program is based on the presumption that when you acquired a birth certificate, an account was established under a fictitious name (your strawman, nom de guerre, etc.); that this account has been holding funds and accruing interest on those funds for almost your entire life. The process purports to give you access to this account.
I am not going to discuss here the growing number of Americans who are being thrown in jail for using this approach. I have never been one to say that being sent to jail means you are doing something wrong. Quite the contrary, I think that being put in jail today is akin to wearing a badge of courage, because most of those incarcerated are unlawfully imprisoned. No, being threatened with jail is not a reason to avoid using any lawful process.
However, I have some serious issues with the Redemption Program.
My primary concern is that the Redemption Program is designed to appeal to the love of money. The love of money is the root of evil. There is no reason to pursue the Redemption process except to get money - that is, something for nothing - and therefore the entire process is, I think, "tainted" from the start, and could be used as "bait" by those who would subvert your rights and conquer your privacy protections. Good Americans, many of whom have spent years becoming anonymous and thereby securing their privacy, are now coming out of the proverbial woodwork to use the Redemption Program to get money they never earned. This potentially exposes Americans to government scrutiny (and possible incarceration?); these Americans who could better serve the glorious object of our struggle - freedom - by remaining anonymous.
In any case, I consider any goal which is achieved through the love of money to be suspect at best, and dangerous to pursue at its worst.
Now some might say that the Redemption Program represents justice; that the government has taken so much from the American people without their consent, that anything we can get back is far too little, far too late. This makes a compelling argument to justify what is essentially a money-grab. These arguments might be acceptable to lovers of money, but they don't hold water to lovers of the Creator's Laws.
The question before you is this: have I earned this money? If the answer is no, leave it alone. For the record, I consider it very unwise to pursue this process. But the love of money is not my only reason.
The initial premise on which the Redemption Program is based is, in my opinion, untrue. The idea that an account has been established in your "strawman's" name, giving you some kind of claim to the contents of that account, seems to be in error.
In the first place, if your freedom is predicated on your not acknowledging yourself as being a government-created, fictitious entity (strawman), then you must compromise your liberty in order to claim anything under this program. In other words, you must admit that this fictitious entity (strawman) is actually you, thus accepting that the government is your creator (since the government created the fictitious entity) and therefore that you have no natural rights. As far as I'm concerned, the cost is too great.
Secondly, in order to pursue the Redemption Program, you must retain a federal social security number assignment. There is absolutely no question as to the ramifications of doing so. Keeping the SSN means that you have waived all of your unalienable rights in exchange for eligibility to receive government socialist programs (welfare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, etc.).
So the real question you need to ask yourself is this. Which is more important to you: getting money you never earned, or maintaining your freedom and natural rights to self-determination? Both have value; which is more valuable?
This has always been the only issue at hand. Oppressive regulations always have their proponents, because every choice, every direction, every option has its supporters and detractors. Examine the Freedom Factor. Ask yourself if the cost of the Redemption Program to your liberty is really worth it. Then make your choices and live with the consequences.
