I loved The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Haviland, even as a child. I wasn’t ready for Bogart yet, and Cary Grant’s masculine perfection escaped me.

But a man with a bow and arrow? Saving the people and getting the girl? Robbing the ill-gotten tax revenue of the Sheriff and Prince John and returning it to the people?

Now, that’s a man I could understand.

What I couldn’t understand was why he entered that stupid archery contest. It was so obviously a trap. Win, and you’re caught. Lose, and you’re not the greatest archer in England. There was no upside. None at all.

Of course, not only did Robin win the contest, he split the damn arrow from his competitor’s previous bullseye. That’s plain showing off.

Then, Robin was swiftly arrested and put into jail. If Maid Marion hadn’t put her life in danger by warning The Merry Men about Robin’s impending execution, Robin would’ve been hanged.

Well, we’re seeing this play out all over again in France. Pavel Durov, the owner of Telegram, knew a French arrest warrant was out against him, but he decided to fly to Paris with his girlfriend anyway.

Really.

Don’t Tempt Me, Frodo!

Before we get to the gist of the case, I must say I find the libertarian case for immediately releasing Durov refreshing. But like many libertarian positions, it just doesn’t correspond to reality.

In truth, I know I’d be the worst tyrant ever. I remember when Frodo offered Gandalf The One Ring in The Fellowship of the Ring. (In this case, I prefer Peter Jackson’s screenplay to JRR Tolkien’s prose.)

GANDALF

You cannot offer me this ring.

FRODO

I am giving it to you!

GANDALF

Don't tempt me, Frodo! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe.

CLOSE ON: THE RING IN FRODO’S HAND…

GANDALF (CONT’D)

Understand, Frodo ... I would use this Ring from a desire to do good ... but through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine.

I relate this to you because I love classic movies and see Macron’s point, much to my annoyance.

In a perfect world, there would be no state. We’d be happy, peaceful anarchocapitalists. There would be private law and no rulers. All trade would be voluntary. There is no coercion; only charity would exist. Taxation would not only be considered theft, it would be codified as such. We will never see that perfect world, but it’s worth aspiring to.

In our world, The State’s number one job is keeping its citizens safe. It often fails at that because it cares more for the residents who aren’t citizens than the citizens themselves. The State monopolizes violence, tax collection, and money printing.

That’s why The State is currently undefeated. It’ll take a sea change in our conscience to alter The State’s fate.

But that’s beside the point. You see, I’d be the worst dictator imaginable. That’s part of the reason I never want to be a politician or, worse, a bureaucrat. If someone offered me the equivalent of The One Ring and I took it, I would undoubtedly wield a power too great and terrible to imagine.

But consider this scenario: What if Le Petit Roi, also known as President Macron, decides not to arrest Durov and demand his app’s data? What if, as a result, someone uses the Telegram app to sneak a dirty nuke into Paris?

If that nuke goes off, the entire world wonders what the hell President Macron was doing, letting a French citizen like Durov run around Dubai with impunity. If only he had demanded Durov hand over this data, none of this would have happened! Macron fiddled as Paris burned, and so forth.

No communications app is fully secure. Signal? Oh please. It’s pretty much assumed that the Deep State built the thing itself. WhatsApp? Zuckerberg would sell his mother and your data to stay close to DARPA. FaceTime and Messages? Jobs is dead, and Cook ain’t no Jobs.

I’m not saying I like this, but I understand it. Let’s be clear: When you open your external borders, you must build internal ones.

The Cost of Porous Borders

When you have strict immigration policies, you’re not letting people in who hate you. And when they aren’t within your borders, you have no terrorist attacks. If you have no terrorist attacks, there’s no real need for government to monitor your communications. And they won’t. This is the reassurance that strict immigration policies can provide.

I was just in Wroclaw, Poland. There have been zero – count ‘em – zero terrorist attacks in Poland. Why? Because Poland’s borders are the most secure in Europe. I walked around Wroclaw with Pam and Micah, and we felt completely safe. We drank beer in the city’s central square al fresco. It was as calm and innocuous as you could imagine.

One of the West’s biggest problems is that it confuses free trade with the free movement of people. This has been an absolute disaster for us.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe wrote about this in his seminal essay, “The Case for Free Trade and Restricted Immigration.” He writes:

From the outset, it must be emphasized that not even the most restrictive immigration policy or the most exclusive form of segregationism has anything to do with a rejection of free trade and the adoption of protectionism. From the fact that one does not want to associate with or live in a neighborhood composed of Mexicans, Haitians, Chinese, Koreans, Germans, Catholics, Moslems, Hindus, etc., it does not follow that one does not want to trade with them from a distance. Moreover, even if it were the case that one’s real income would rise as a result of immigration, it does not follow that immigration must be considered “good,” for material wealth is not the only thing that counts. Rather, what constitutes “welfare” and “wealth” is subjective, and one might prefer lower material living standards and a greater distance from certain other people over higher material living standards and a smaller distance. It is precisely the absolute voluntariness of human association and separation—the absence of any form of forced integration—which makes peaceful relationships —free trade—between racially, ethnically, linguistically, religiously, or culturally distinct people possible.

But because The West adopted neoliberal policies regarding cheap labor (both to fatten profit margins and population pyramids), we’re living among immigrants who may very well want to burn the place down.

In France, the case is especially acute because of the way the French treated the Algerians when they were Algeria’s colonial masters. “Despicable” is the first word that comes to mind when thinking about this period. What’s worse, France compounded its historical error by inviting Algerians to settle in France, get French passports, and “be French.” The Algerians didn’t have to build a horse to get through the gates.

Now, imagine the 11 million illegals that traversed the Rio Grande to get into America. They’re not even Mexican, for the most part. And if you don’t think brown-skinned spymasters from the Middle East didn’t send their brown-skinned spies over that very border because they look like Mezzoamericans, I’ve got a bridge over the East River to sell you.

Weapons Grade Crumpet

And so to Durov.

Pavel Durov is a man of principle. He simply won’t let any country install a backdoor to his app, and I respect that. But for the reasons I mentioned above, I think he’s absolutely right.

But if he went to Paris to impress his girlfriend, he’s also far too human for me. Oh, she’s a hottie. Just look him up on X, and you’ll find her. But she’s not that hot. Could you imagine Elon doing something this stupid? He’d say, “Get your own private jet to take you there.”

Durov knew the French had a warrant out for his arrest. It’s an unbelievable irony that he went to France and became a French citizen because of “freedom.” He obviously didn’t read Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn’s take on the French Revolution.

It was nice of the French to translate to English all the charges against him:

Credit: @Kanthan2030

And here’s my point: if I were The State, and there are no bigger lovers of The State than The Frogs, I’d throw the damn book at him, too.

What they’ve done is made Durov responsible for everything that happens on his platform. Is Macron responsible for all the crimes that are going on in France? Of course not! Why? Because Macron is The State. Durov is not.

I fear Durov will follow in the footsteps of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, who is still in prison for building a platform.

Wrap Up

No bit of skirt is worth this. Next time you have a warrant out for your arrest, tell your girlfriend she’s on her own.

Of course, the much, much more significant issue is that The State wouldn’t have to invade our privacy if they didn’t let in every migrant crossing the border. France’s problem is the same as that of the US, the UK, and Germany.

If you open your external borders, you must build internal ones. The shame of that is that your native citizens have become the enemy. And sometimes, even your honest adopted ones.

#FreeDurov