In "Hamlet" (1601) William Shakespeare sagely noted: "Lord! We know what we are, but we know not what we may be."
Nevertheless, each New Year's the world media engages in a mild form of sooth-saying entertainment by attempting to predict events for the next 365 days. Or in the alternative, various self-appointed advice-givers advise us on what life-changing resolutions we should adopt for personal salvation.
No particular predictions or resolutions from me -- except the observation that recent history dictates, sadly, that in the public sphere we will experience more of the same -- diminished freedoms, facile and false justifications for failed policies, insincere promises to change the world -- if only we will give our support to one or another of the pygmy presidential candidates.
As to New Years resolutions, I ran across an ominous official web site, http://usa.gov that boldly states: "Whatever you want or need from the U.S. government, it's here on USA.gov. You'll find a rich treasure of online information, services, and resources."
The believability of that claim immediately is called into question by usa.gov's list of "Popular New Year's Resolutions" that suggests, among other goals, we pay off debts, save money, reduce stress, and volunteers to help others -- all worthy goals that the U.S. government has utterly failed to achieve for itself at great costs to us in taxes and liberty.
Freedom in the World
Since 1978, Freedom House has published Freedom in the World, an annual assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties in 192 countries and 17 territories. Widely used by policy makers, journalists, and scholars, the survey is seen as the definitive report on freedom around the globe.
The current Freedom House report lists the U.S., U.K. and other major nations as among the "free" countries of the world. They wisely do not attempt to quantify the degree of freedom that has been lost at the hands of clumsy politicians using unreasoning fear as justification for enormous enhancements of government power.
The most recent survey notes that the percentage of countries designated as "free" has failed to increase for a decade and suggests there may be a developing "freedom stagnation." Major findings include setbacks for freedom in countries in the Asia-Pacific region, a decline in Africa, and an entrenchment of authoritarian rule in the majority of countries of the former Soviet Union, including Russia under its latest tzar, Vladimir Putin.
Freedom House says governments in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America have taken steps to diminish freedom of assembly, smother civil society, and silence critics, including Russia and Venezuela. And that may or may not include the unconstitutional depredations imposed on America by the so-called PATRIOT Act.
A Decade of Success
This new year of 2008 sees the Sovereign Society enter its tenth year of success and expansion.
Our long-time chairman, John Pugsley, has written with eloquence about our reason d'être, the "steady growth of government as the masses of voters have learned that they can manipulate government to enrich themselves at the expense of the successful and thrifty minority."
In 1998, the founders of the Sovereign Society constituted a group of some of the world's most creative thinkers on the subjects of personal and financial freedom, along with individuals motivated to achieve personal liberty and independence for themselves. The aim of the Society, then and now, is to create strategies that individuals can use to wrest control of their lives and assets away from the very real and ever-growing menace of Big Brother.
This intrusion of government has led to a rising exodus of society's most productive people as they migrate to political environments that offer greater asset protection, privacy and lower taxation. Many are moving assets offshore to countries that offer more financial privacy and low or no taxation. Some elect to move themselves and their families offshore as well.
Sovereign Individuals
As my friend and colleague, John Pugsley has said: "Those who do these things are choosing individual sovereignty over allegiance to any government. In essence, they have decided to become 'sovereign individuals.'"
Today the need -- your need -- for the Sovereign Society is greater than ever before.
Our objective is to find true freedom as well as free market alternatives to the services that governments constantly promise but fail to provide -- safe and private investments; security from crime and violence; security for ourselves and our families.
From a nucleus of fewer than a thousand members in 1998, we're now more 20,000 strong. And over 70,000 people regularly read this free Sovereign Society Offshore A-Letter. We would be pleased if you would make, as one of your first New Years resolutions, a decision to join our ranks.
We believe there is hope. Things can improve, even though, as Yogi Berra astutely observed, "The future ain't what it used to be."
From all of us at the Sovereign Society, it is our wish that you enjoy the very best of new years in 2008.
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