Freeman-on-the-land

Because contributing to society is so hard.

Money troubles? Bills piling up? Parking fines? Got the government on your back to do stuff you don't really feel like doing?

Never fear! The Freeman On The Land movement is here! 

Become a Freeman On The Land and you can suddenly decide that the government, contracts, banks and the legal process all work differently for you, and you don't owe them anything. Your debts will be cancelled! Your financial responsibilities will be nil! You can tell police officers, magistrates and government departments to shove it! All based on the erroneous and ridiculous idea that governments are corporations; that laws only apply if you consent to them; and that people are contracted to the 'powers that be' unless they send them a letter saying they're not. 

Although it's been around for decades in one form or another, I came across the Freeman On The Land movement in the last couple of months, with thanks to experienced conspiracy theorists like Leon Pittard of Fairdinkum Radio (have a listen - if you can last longer than ten minutes without your jaw dropping open, you're stronger than me) and South Australian parliamentarian Ann Bressington. 

There's an extremely good run-down of the Freeman On The Land movement over at RationalWiki - I recommend it for some well-researched detail and a few hilarious examples of Freemen in the wild - but in a nutshell, followers of the movement believe:

• The government is a corporation, and all citizens are contracted to that corporation
• Each individual consists of a 'legal person', to whom laws, acts and monetary matters apply, and a 'flesh-and-blood human being', who is free and good and lovely and created by God.
• When a birth is registered, the child is effectively an employee of the government corporation, and has agreed to be governed and abide by laws.
• If you write a special kind of letter called a 'Notice of Understanding and Claim of Right' and send it to the Prime Minister or the Queen or Someone In Charge, you can remove your consent to be governed and abide by laws; and separate your legal person from your meat person. 
• Governments and lawmakers use language designed to make people inadvertently subjugate and obligate themselves to corrupt higher powers, but knowing your way around such language can save you from accidentally agreeing to be a government/corporate slave.

I find the whole concept so deliciously and outstandingly ludicrous that I simply had to try and make it rhyme.

I am a Freeman on the land, I wander wild and free;

The laws of corporate governments do not apply to me.

They try to trick all humankind;

So they can have their pockets lined;

The circumstantial evidence is there for all to see.

I am a Freeman on the land, combating the machine;

I signed a piece of paper and I sent it to the Queen.

It details what I understand;

And all the rights that I demand

Effectively, it wipes my slate of obligation clean.

I am a Freeman on the land, I don’t give my consent;

To statutes, acts or laws, or paying tax or fines or rent.

The bastards use their legalese

To try and trip me up with these,

But I use special words to dodge, evade and circumvent.

I am a Freeman on the land, my language is my craft;

Though corporations stalk me, port and starboard, fore and aft;

I say “Sovereign” and “Natural Law”

And “Court De Jour” and “Man of Straw”

And people know I’m free (that is, the ones who haven’t laughed).

I am a Freeman on the land, my name is not my name:

My legal person’s moniker and I are not the same.

What’s on my birth certificate

Is narrow and specific. It

Does not apply to me, despite what courts and judges claim.

I am a Freeman on the land, I want an easy ride;

I wear my social irresponsibility with pride

I won’t lie down and pay my dues

But I will nonchalantly use

The water, roads and hospitals that governments provide.