June 20, 1999

To Whom It Probably Doesn't Concern,

I, James Stuart Kelley, hereby resign.

I know you don't know my name and can't recall what office I hold. For that I am grateful; I'd certainly be the target of Strenuous Investigations otherwise. Without compromising my privacy, let me clue you in.

My "office" was that of your nominal boss. You are Public Servants, and I was a member of the Public.

I am a former "citizen" of your so-called "United States Of America." I say former because I have withdrawn whatever kind of consent I may have at any time given to be governed. I have not become a citizen of another government; that would simply be switching frying pans, if not jumping into the fire. No, I have removed myself from the stove altogether.

(Understand, I am not admitting that I ever consented to be ruled by you, just that my passivity may have been construed as consent. Now I am clarifying.)

I know you are at least interested when your captives revolt - indeed, you may even be concerned, though not for any decent reason - so I wrote this letter to explain why I am leaving you. I know it won't change your behavior - nothing does - but at least you will understand what is happening as your regime slowly collapses around you.

Quite simply, I don't like you anymore. I used to; there was a time when I, like the millions of simpering simpletons who continue to play your game, cheered what I considered "good" government. I also railed mightily against "bad" government, believing that my opinion actually counted for something. I was never so naive to think you cared about right and wrong, but I figured you might be afraid of offending the masses, just in your own self interest. I was a cynic with a smile, you might say, sure of corruption but just as sure that I could use it to my advantage.

Now I know different. Once you get into office you are prettymuch assured of remaining there, if only due to name recognition. You thus do not care what anyone says unless they can contribute to your personal fortune, which is why you never listen to guys like me. Instead you serve whoever gives you the most money the most consistently. These are your "constituents," not me. I see after far too long that I don't count. I have no power to affect you. You, on the other hand, have enormous power to affect me, at least as long as I keep playing the game. It is a losing game for me, a sucker's bet, the worst kind of casino scam there is. Thus, I have wisely elected to get out of the game.

I resign.

It is hard to do, resigning from you. Your goons are everywhere. Even where I can avoid them, there are always "snitches" - what I call the dull folks who continue to believe in your game and hate me for getting out. They are sure I'm up to no good and are sure to tell your goons where to find me. They even spy on me to help your goons "punish" (terrorize) me once I'm caught. It's hard to know who's a snitch, so I have to keep to myself most of the time. It's a lonely life, but better than living with you.

Don't think I haven't regretted my decision. Oh, I have, plenty of times. Used to be all I wanted was to get a good job, a credit card, get my "driving priviledges" back (I have to pay a $300 reinstatement fee after having had my license suspended for 90 days 23 years ago) and settle down into a nice, easy, quiet life. I still want the quiet easy life, but I'm no longer interested in playing your game to get it. Indeed, I am sure I could *never* have a quiet life playing your game.

I want a credit card, I really do. Buying things would be a lot easier. I want a car too - I could probably charge it to my card. It would be really nice to be able to buy expensive things and only pay a little each month; I'd even be willing to keep it up forever, as long as I knew I'd have some money coming in. Sure. And having a car would let me get the good jobs. Even having a license would, without the car. Oh, and health insurance! What I wouldn't give to know my medical bills would be paid! I have more than one disabling condition too; I could use that for sure.

But'cha know, there are too many compromises to do all that. The price is too high.

See, I don't like anyone nosing into my life. Just the thought that they could bothers me. To get all that credit and license and insurance crap, I'd have to reveal every datum about myself to anyone who cared to look. What's really alarming is that so many of them seem to consider it their right to know everything about me, as if I'm their property. I can't stand that. Call me weak, but I just can't take it.

Then there are all the problems with being a "law-abiding citizen." I used to be okay with that, because I thought everyone should have to obey the law. Eventually I realized that, just as with everything else, the law serves you, not me. I still think everyone should be decent enough to leave other people alone, but now I realize "the Law" isn't going to do it. To even have a social mechanism for "Law Enforcement" just lets some people terrorize others - and I'm one of the others. If anything, only getting rid of the whole "Law Enforcement" structure will make people behave decently. The enforcers will be caught out without their badges, and the dummies who think they're being "protected" will finally have to protect themselves. That's appropriate, I think; nobody deserves to be safe unless they take responsibility for their own safety.

You could say that the whole reason I'm doing so is tied to responsibility. I've come to realize that your whole game is just one big con job, offering people freedom from responsibility. The little idiots are freed of the responsibility to defend themselves - and, if they accept that the Law is always Right, even the responsibility to think for themselves. Your goons are freed of the responsibility to pay for their vicious terrorist acts; that's something they could never get back when they were schoolyard bullies and hall monitors. Finally there is you, who are freed of the resposibility to leave other people alone, freed to dictate your citizens' lives to them like they're some sort of animals. That must be a real joy to a tin-pot Hitler like you.

Used to be I was into irresponsibility, at least as a concept. I liked the idea of everyone paying for something while only a few benefitted. I was generous, see, and I figured sure, why not? Let the poor mooch off the rich; the rich can afford it, and the poor need it. I was poor, too, but I never figured myself for a recipient. It just seemed the "decent" way for things to be.

Now I see it the opposite way around. Not because I'm rich; no, I'm poorer than ever. I just hate the idea of innocent people being robbed - the "rich" that is. Anyway, "rich" now means just about anyone who has a pot to piss in. Being one who has had nowhere but a bush to piss in (literally!) I can sympathize with those who want to keep what little they have. That's where poverty backfires on you. It isn't the poor who are so righteous in robbing others blind; we know how it is to be poor and wouldn't wish it on anyone. It is you jokers who have so much, who call yourselves "generous" -- yet, curiously, are only "generous" with other people's property, never your own.

I guess you could say I've become morally mature; not just mature in the sense that I'm responsible and wise, but mature in the sense of being full-grown. I've been through a lifetime of bogus simpering from you, and what seems like several lifetimes of idiotic opinions from jerks who couldn't find their moral center with both hands and a road map. I'm beyond it.

I know I said that you don't serve me, and that's why I'm leaving. True. Don't think I just mean "serve" in the physical sense however. You also fail to serve me in the moral sense. Man is the only creature who needs to know not only that his own good is being served, but that good, the moral Good, is also. You do not serve Good and never have. It is only your continued success in deluding the dupes that keeps you in power. Once a critical number of them have the same moral epiphany I did, you'll be in real trouble. For now, it is enough to act on my own to remove myself from your deceitful sham.

So, I resign.

I resign from voting: it won't help, and it may get me enslaved to a jury.

I resign from television: it's all loaded with your obedience messages anyway. Plus the writing stinks.

I resign from the news: who cares? It's all just variations on a theme I'm no longer dancing to. Boring.

I resign from banks: that one's easy. They nickel-and-dime you to death these days.

I resign from the credit racket: why should I pay money to use my money? Besides it's undisciplined, and I need to toughen up.

I resign from licenses: it's easier to deal with the punishment for being unlicensed than the life of punishment in getting one.

I resign from the Culture Of Helplessness: too dramatic and hysterical. I'd much rather be armed and dangerous.

I resign.

I know you don't really give a damn that I'm gone; I was a troublemaker while I was still in the game, and anyway there are far more simpletons still playing than will ever leave it. I don't even know why I'm writing this, except for my own gratification -- but you know, that's enough. I don't need you to read it, I just need to write it. Ultimately that's what life is all about, y'know: serving myself instead of some crooked con artist like you.

Sincerely,

James Stuart Kelley