Sparrow
Swift
#6
Sparrow
Swift Waters
PT
Pulp stories of
personal sovereignty by
Allan
R. Wallace
Individuality
is the aim of political liberty.
By leaving the citizen as much
freedom of action and of being as comports with order and the rights
of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to
pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.
James
Fenimore Cooper
Published
by Allan Wallace
on Smashwords
copyright
2011
http://cyberhug.me
License
Notes
This
book is licensed for your enjoyment. If you’re reading this book
and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use, then
please consider purchasing your own 99 cent copy. Thank you for
respecting the artistic works of this author.
~~**~~
This
is a work of fiction:
people, places, times, and events.
Chapter
1
Running Free
The
customs agent barely looks at me and my luggage as I walk past. My
passport tells him where I'm from -- it's not a trouble spot. He even
gives me a standard, unenthusiastic greeting, "Have a nice stay
in our beautiful country Mr. Jones."
The two fellows behind him, both carrying their automatic weapons at the ready, only glance at me. They seem to be expecting someone, but as Mr. Jones I'm not him. As Sparrow Swift I might be.
One of my names is Sparrow Swift, but that won't do for today. When men with guns have the upper hand, it's better to not be noticed. I'm here to continue enjoying life, not risk it. I need to be alive if I'm to do my work.
Sovereignty? Controlling a piece of mother earth recognized by others controlling their own piece of dirt. I stepped off the plane and onto a new sovereignty. All sovereignties are mortal, some last longer than a normal human life so they seem permanent.
Gangs have claimed every usable piece of the planet. If you make the unusable usable, some gang will claim sovereignty of that too. Eventually another gang will take it from them. No matter how noble the founding, with time intentions drift, injustice multiplies. Political power is a corrosive that devours moral and ethical judgment.
Sovereign Individual? Only in your own mind, if you lead the most powerful gang, or in your back yard if you pretend real hard.
Your mind is yours to control unless you give it in slavery to some political party. If you won't cross party lines, you are a disposable tool. The perverse reality is that once a party owns you they will ignore you, they will appease opponents trying to influence those they don't directly control instead.
What we can have is personal sovereignty. You life is yours to control as long as every sovereign thinks you are the property of some other sovereignty. You can do this.
No one owns Sparrow Swift because they all believe he belongs to someone else. Their belief is anchored in whatever passport he's holding. In essence by having many countries, many passports, and many names I own myself. So perhaps being a sovereign individual is not legally possible, but legalities themselves have become flexible.
It's quite a turn. Governments have used the excuse of law to usurp human rights, but by being under many laws I can reassert my personal human rights. If I'm careful that is. If I'm a sovereign of myself, I still have to deal with other sovereignties.
I figure there are three types of nations. There are the nations I own, they think of me as a tourist or resident businessman. In those nations I can spend and earn money, create wealth and jobs, and do as I please as long as I don't unduly disrupt the lives of others. The second types are over-developed nations that want to own me. They will let me create businesses, but make it difficult and expensive, and then want most of the profits. At any time they may want all my money or my life and will make up an excuse to take them. The third type of nations are Patsies. They are usually beneficially incompetent, but when leaned on by the type twos they will cave and send the wealth I'm building in their country to whichever extortionist nation demands it of them. I like to live, work, and play in the first type. I'm here in a type three to visit some of my money and a few old friends who need my help.
I catch a taxi to a large hotel by the airport, walk through it, exit and change my jacket as I walk to another hotel and take a taxi to a restaurant close to my bank. I enjoy a leisurely lunch hour and then walk to my bank. The bank has no sign. It looks like any of the nice estates around it, of course some of them may be banks too. I ring from the gate and ask for my Mr. Jagger. After I'm buzzed in, a woman that looks like someones grandmother greats me at the door and leads me into a darkly paneled library and asks me to wait. Jagger enters before I have time to read the covers of more than a few books. The books are in many languages, arranged by topic, they all have been rebound to covers of soft leather with gold lettering. The few I see are on hotel law.
Jagger himself is formally dressed in what is the local banker's uniform, expensive but unobtrusive. His voice is a bit weak with age, but his eyes are stable. We shake hands, but he likes the power position behind a big desk on a platform while I sink into an overstuffed chair facing him. I don't mind his power game, it amuses rather than intimidates me.
He is good at what he does. What he does is manage about 10% of my portfolio according to his discretion. That means his results are not correlated with my asset selection, or that of my other investment banker. I'm a crazy contrarian speculator. If I'm totally wrong or have my assets stolen, these bankers will have my living and reboot money. They are boringly consistent with Graham-Dodd investment styles. I don't trust easily, Jagger started with two percent of my portfolio and has grown it to this level. Both bankers have done me well, showing a reasonable profit with low risk over the long term.