Letter to Mr. Obama

Gene Chapman
P. O. Box 29945
Lewsiville, Texas 75029

August 31, 2011

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

As an Economics student, I take note that you have a new chief economic advisor from Princeton.

In my studies, I am attempting to marry the econometrics of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School, the libertarian views of the Austrian School and the reverence for the community found in the Gandhian School. I am concerned that you are pulling economic advisors from a very limited world view, as both Harvard and Princeton are of the Keynesian-Marxist School.

The Keynesian-Marxist School promotes attributes of slavery (i. e. taxation of labor, taxation of property, numbering people like cattle), while both the Austrian School and the Gandhian School reject slavery as morally bankrupt. And econmetric models support freedom over slavery, as the more efficient mechanism for building an economy, I understand.

I hope you will open your pool of thinkers to include non-slavebased minds.

Most respectfully,

Gene Chapman

gkchapman82@yahoo.com

On Naming Me

Through the years, it has been suggested by some people from India that I "could be the reincarnation of Mahatma Gandhi." I agree with Gandhiji that reincarnation seems a very cruel thing to impose upon a person, and I see no rational basis for the belief in reincarnation; therefore, I reject the idea or reincarnation.

I have been called by my close friends in a joking manner, "The Mahatma Lama." This is the Andie Kaufman sense of humor that I carry only, and I do not believe myself to be anything other that an attempted photocopy of ideas that will change the world for the better, I believe.

I have been termed "The American Gandhi" by some. This is probably most near to what I seek to be, but I recognize that some will ridicule even this.

What I would like to be called is, "Gene from America; the one who seeks truth above all else."

Gene Chapman

An Anti-Government Intrusion Act

I have been taking two U. S. Government classes this semester, as I work on my Econometrics degree here in Texas. (Texas is in the USA for my following that seems to be developing in India.) As I study, I feel my concerns could be best addressed in a larger context than taxation. An "Anti-Government Intrusion Act" seems a good fit for wording. It would address "taxation of labor, taxation of property, numbering people like cattle, surveillance of uncondemned free persons (as we do on the toll roads), etc. Anything to do with intrusion by government would be covered by the Act.

Gene

On Andrew Joseph Stack III

During one of my fasts in Austin, Texas, I am very sure that a man fitting Joe Stack's description came to see me, as I sat in a lawn chair outside the Regional IRS Building, day-after-day. He squatted down on the ground next to me and asked, "Do you think non-violence will work against the IRS?" I replied, "Gandhi taught that non-violence is an option, not a command." I went on to explain the matter of how governments that seek to be perceived as moral in the world can be moved by non-violence but that Marxist governments (like the United States) do not seek moral outcomes; rather, they seek efficiency, as they alone understand it. I think this conversation moved Joe over time to a place that he chose to fly his plane into the IRS building that day last year. His violence brought a balance in the war against the IRS that we must respect, but I think we are in a non-violent place now, as I describe in the post below. The Ron Paul and Tea Party movements returned hope to a people I thought were destined to remain enslaved.

On Violence Against Marxism

Is it appropriate to use violence against a Marxist? Well, there are always caveats in any conflict. It is not for me to say that violence is always the answer in every situation of one type. Non-violence is a choice, not a command. I think the Marxist has been so discredited these days by deficit spending on a global basis that he will have a hard time regaining control of humanity in an Internet driven world, so violence has no real place in our context.

However, the violence of the Marxism of Hitler (National Socialism) was such that it could not have been contained without violence. Can you imagine Mahatma Gandhi doing a fast against Hitler in Germany? The government must seek to perceived in the world as moral in order for non-violence to be workable, according to Gandhiji.

I do like to think that I have provided some moral foundation in my letter writing the past decade to various elected and religious leaders in America to embolden Tea Party and Ron Paul types, and I think this type of activity will prevail over time in an Internet driven world. I read a book here and an article there with a snippet of my case against the IRS, for example, and feel legitimized and prompted to stay within the United States. And so violence becomes less and less a reasonable option while these libertarian groups continue to flourish.

A new direction

I was just watching a PBS special on the "Pentagon Papers," and I began to contemplate a Buffett axiom that in order to be a great investor, we must first be absolutely honest with ourselves.

In that vein, I have been troubled with my Christian background since the reading a few years ago of a book entitled, "Jesus, Interrupted," by Bart D. Ehrman. I can no longer defend the pretense that Christian Truth is equivalent to Gandhian Truth. There are real problems in Christian Truth that are quite subjective and quantifiably errant, and I will allow the above described book speak for itself. Gandhi stated, "I worship God as truth only." I do believe that there exists a spirit about the universe that is both math-centric and truth-centric. This spirit seems benign, other than to say that there are laws based in math and cause-and-effect truth. This is what drives me into the study of economics. I must conclude that I am no longer to be classified as Christian but Gandhian: "I worship God as truth only."