Welcome to the Gulch, Melissa. You asked an open question. No general answer can exist. For myself, I stood up in 1965 when I read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and I never stood down. What you really are asking is another question, entirely.

We would all like to enjoy massive societal change, a radical renaissance right out of Atlas Shrugged, playing out in less than 12 years, and accelerating in our daily lives, to be climaxed with global laissez faire, a renaissance of reason, and a new industrial age of individualism.

On the one hand, don't hold your breath… On the other hand, it is happening right now. You know that as the government becomes more desperate, they increase their campaigns of lies, and no one believes them, so they lie more. It is happening right now in the headlines you read and watch. But just like Romulus Augustulus, they are going to maintain their fictions right up to the bitter end… and even so, in point of fact, if you had asked a curate of Gaul in 600 AD about the Roman Empire, he would have said, "Same as always." Reality, of course, would have been different from his perceptions.

On that same note, the so-called "Dark Ages" saw expanding trade and the extension of learning in new areas. It just was not transmitted everywhere at once, but only accreted locally in many places.

So, too, now. I live in Texas. If we were an independent nation, we would be the 15th largest economy in the world. It is not perfect, but it is interesting. I live in Austin, nominally a people's republic dominated by a progressive Democrat Party. That said, back in 2008, Brave New Books hosted the largest Ron Paul Meet-up in America. Those trends continue… The Libertarian Party is weak, but libertarianism is strong. That speaks volumes.

The question is how to do it without just lying down in front of the tank and being quietly crushed. Most people will defend their personal rights by defying laws which violate them. Also, people today have little respect for escalating laws as they are defined more and more a part of the criminal element. For me, I have very little respect for our government and its laws at this point. Its all about the chances of getting caught and the penalties.

I have been wondering that for a long time now. The Government and its agencies just keep getting stronger. Standing up against them now would be difficult. The IRS alone can destroy the average person. I think it would have to be large masses of people doing something and I just don't think enough people are paying attention.

The newly-forming Tea Party tried that by showing up in Washington D.C. right after Presidebt O'Pinocchio doubled down on Bush's RINO bail-out with a libtard crony capitalism stimulus package.
Result? Nancy Pelosi scoffed the grass roots the Tea Party claimed to represent as to be AstroTurf. Then the Tea Party politiely picked up after themselves and returned to their day jobs.
After that 100% Demorats shoved Obamacare down the throats of 60% Americans who did not want it if my memory serves me correctly.
By the way, if you are fundamentally Christian, do not even think about selling wedding cakes.

Never. We have waited too long. At least this is true of most people including many we call friends. What is the point of "NO" if it only brings your immediate destruction or spending many years in a cage?

Most people will "go along to get along" and pretend all is right with the world except for this or that group of "whiny" "extremists". They will convince themselves it is so. The number of people that really understand freedom seems to get smaller by the year. The number that can defend it with any philosophical depth is decreasing even more rapidly.

The poop is about to hit the whirling blades. In the resulting chaos I really don't think freedom is going to be what replaces the largely anti-freedom with freedom veneer of today.

I hope I am wrong but I don't think that I am.

I've concluded that the reasons humans have survived as long as 'we' have is because we're good at solving problems and challenges.

The bad news is that most 'solutions' are created only after some situation becomes threatening ENOUGH or unbearable Enough to move enough humans 'off the dime' to react and DO something to reverse the trend.

So until enough people, citizens, humans have the light go on in their heads that 'something is wrong and really NOT good for us, individually OR as a species, the shit will continue to hit the fan.

Example, currently: I'm beginning to see inklings that some Muslims are beginning to get pissed off AT ISIS/ISIL for the shit they're putting down... screwing up other groups' feelings about Muslims, so the REAL 'peaceful' ones are getting tarred with the same brush.

I believe(d) that, until that happened, little 'the rest of us' could do would make any difference.

Look at any and all 'atrocities' in history, from good old Adolph to Boko Haram... They just keep on a-truckin' until enough people get together and say "ENOUGH, ALREADY!"

And then they get put down like mad dogs.

......That's 'when.'

I've concluded that the only way to get America back on track is to start over. There's simply no way to influence enough of America to vote for change - the inertia of the looters is too great at this point. Unfortunately, I think that our country is headed for a massive economic meltdown - currently being pooh-poohed by many of the stock analysts, etc. After that happens the people will be willing to listen because those who will go first are those dependent on the state.

I'm thankful to Donald Trump for calling attention to some of the real issues, as opposed to LGBT, Confederate flag, Redskins... Ad nauseum.

Melissa, a lot of us have said enough, the last three elections proved it - it also proved we are faced with a treasonous media that supports a rogue administration, congress and judicial branch. We made the mess, it will fall to us to clean it up. It will have to be done district by district, representative by representative. They fear only the loss of power, we must use that tool. http://4thestatemedia.com/?p=438

Welcome to the Land of the No Sayers. Unfortunately, those in power don't hear the no, and those who do, don't act boldly enough to make a difference. But, we are here and we aren't going away. Hopefully, we might become an infection in the body politic which will start a trend back toward freedom.

Having been an Objectivist for over 50 years the present doesn't bother me as its self destructive structure is the consequence of bad ideas and I now am concerned only with changing those ideas. But people don't change their ideas casually, witness the christians in the Gulch. The problem is first the analytic/synthetic dichotomy which says you cannot have a moral truth from a factual statement hence all moral statements are arbitrary and Hume;s claim that if I cant see it, it is not knowable. My task is the restoration of empirical confidence in the validity of the senses as the basis of all conceptual knowledge.
Ayn Rand did this beautifully in her epistemology and I merely want to tidy up the science. The result is the glass slipper phenomena, there is only one philosophy which fits the facts of science: Objectivism. No matter how many religions or philosophies try to explain reality only one can fit, one derived from reality itself. So be of good cheer, its only another 10-15 years before the science starts driving the philosophy to rationality and then politically. So if you are younger than me, you will get the benefits. Just hope I keep skiing until my 80's.

That this question even has to be asked is
heart-breaking, not to mention embarrassing,
for America!!

Hi Melissa A. As Mike Marotta said, this is a very contextual answer for each person. But I've had a few progressive epiphanies over the past few years (and achievements) that make me extremely positive and enthusiastic to say that NOW is the best time to say "enough." Actually, it was yesterday...but that's my ambitious impatience talking.
The ability and freedom for each of us to become a capitalist and create our own "gulch" (or path to one) is more simple and accessible than ever before. For as long as this video is available on YouTube, here's my story and invitation. Watch it while you can, and proclaim your own decision to say "enough" today, before you procrastinate another day. Brett
http://buildingabrandonline.com/engin...

Welcome Melissa.

To answer your qeustion I do not know.

What it took in colonial America was for the illusion of self government to rendered asunder by the King disbanding the Burgesses (basically an elected congress that ran a state in combination with a king appointed governor) because Americans were pissed off about 15 new taxes (1% tax on 15 items). When the Burgesses were reinstated all taxes but one were removed. The one was to send a message on who was really in control it was the tax on Tea.

The equivalent today would be if the president used executive power to effectively dissolve congress and then re-established congress with a new something put in place. The nuts are not dumb and have learned from history. They will not do this so that it is obvious. It has been obfuscated out of view. It has all ready happened with president Obama but unlike colonial times people are to blind to even realize it and the reigning authority to wise to openly show or admit it.

Until the public at large realizes that we largely live in a fascist dictatorship of regulators nothing will change.

The problem with saying, "Enough", is figuring out what to do after that. To where does one go to avoid looting statists, and yet not be a total hermit?

Proposition 13, in California, in about 1977, was the result of all property owners being impacted to the point of mass response to limit, by law, property tax rates. When "we," on a mass basis, have those loss of freedoms impact us directly; when that last tax becomes the last straw; when a government (local or otherwise), initiates force by coming to the door and you have to choose to comply or respond with force; when "that is outrageous" becomes a daily mantra by the masses, then "we" might be provoked stand up for ourselves. It has been said that politics and legislation won't concern you until it impacts you directly and that is true. The reason that "gun control" is such a hot topic is because that threat impacts each and every gun owner (regardless of reason for owning a gun) directly. The Tea Party was a response to the pressure felt by individuals. Unless and until a significant majority is impacted enough for them to say "enough," things will continue down the road to doom.

According to this guy we wont. He makes a lot of good points. I see the behavior he describes in our politicians, liberal elite and media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLqHv...

Never. I'll go Galt before I stand up anymore...

I have been wondering about this since the early 90's. Even then it seemed that any critical mass that would effect major change would depend on how hungry people are.

And then it would be a chaotic knife edge affair to get a positive result to rise out of the ashes. One wonders if "A Canticle for Leibowitz" isn't absolutely visionary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canti...