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Outlaw Treatise by Tom Robbins
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Don't know why I wanted to share this today. I came upon it while filing, and it just wanted to be sent out into the ether. I'm not advocating lawlessness, just celebrating the spirit of free thinkers everywhere.
The difference between a criminal and an outlaw is that while criminals are frequently victims, outlaws never are. Indeed, the first step toward becoming a true outlaw is the refusal to be victimized.
All people who live subject to other people's laws are victims. People who break laws out of greed, frustration, or vengeance are victims. People who overturn laws in order to replace them with their own laws are victims . . . We outlaws, however, live beyond the law. We don't merely live beyond the letter of the law - many businessmen, most politicians, and all cops do that - we live beyond the spirit of the law. In a sense, then, we live beyond society. Have we a common goal, that goal is to turn the tables on the nature of society. When we succeed, we raise the exhilaration content of the universe. We even raise it a little bit when we fail.
Victim? I deplored the ugliness of the Vietnam War. But what I deplored, others have deplored before me. When war turns whole populations into sleepwalkers, outlaws don't join forces with alarm clocks. Outlaws, like poets, rearrange the nightmare. It is elating work. The years of the war were the most glorious of my life. I wasn't risking my skin to protest a war. I risked my skin for fun! For beauty! . . .
Yes, and I love the trite mythos of the outlaw. I love the self-conscious romanticism of the outlaw. I love the black wardrobe of the outlaw. I love the tequila of the outlaw and the beans of the outlaw. I love the way respectable men sneer and say 'outlaw'. The outlaw boat sails against the flow, and I love it. Outlaws toilet where badgers toilet, and I love it. All outlaws are photogenic, and I love that. 'When freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will be free'; that's a graffito seen in Anacortes, and I love that. There are outlaw maps that lead to outlaw treasures, and I love those maps especially. Unwilling to wait for mankind to improve, the outlaw lives as if that day were here, and I love that most of all.
Victim? . . . outlaws are the can openers in the supermarket of life.
-Bernard Mickey Wrangle, "The Woodpecker"
from Still Life With Woodpecker
by Tom Robbins, 1980
The difference between a criminal and an outlaw is that while criminals are frequently victims, outlaws never are. Indeed, the first step toward becoming a true outlaw is the refusal to be victimized.
All people who live subject to other people's laws are victims. People who break laws out of greed, frustration, or vengeance are victims. People who overturn laws in order to replace them with their own laws are victims . . . We outlaws, however, live beyond the law. We don't merely live beyond the letter of the law - many businessmen, most politicians, and all cops do that - we live beyond the spirit of the law. In a sense, then, we live beyond society. Have we a common goal, that goal is to turn the tables on the nature of society. When we succeed, we raise the exhilaration content of the universe. We even raise it a little bit when we fail.
Victim? I deplored the ugliness of the Vietnam War. But what I deplored, others have deplored before me. When war turns whole populations into sleepwalkers, outlaws don't join forces with alarm clocks. Outlaws, like poets, rearrange the nightmare. It is elating work. The years of the war were the most glorious of my life. I wasn't risking my skin to protest a war. I risked my skin for fun! For beauty! . . .
Yes, and I love the trite mythos of the outlaw. I love the self-conscious romanticism of the outlaw. I love the black wardrobe of the outlaw. I love the tequila of the outlaw and the beans of the outlaw. I love the way respectable men sneer and say 'outlaw'. The outlaw boat sails against the flow, and I love it. Outlaws toilet where badgers toilet, and I love it. All outlaws are photogenic, and I love that. 'When freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will be free'; that's a graffito seen in Anacortes, and I love that. There are outlaw maps that lead to outlaw treasures, and I love those maps especially. Unwilling to wait for mankind to improve, the outlaw lives as if that day were here, and I love that most of all.
Victim? . . . outlaws are the can openers in the supermarket of life.
-Bernard Mickey Wrangle, "The Woodpecker"
from Still Life With Woodpecker
by Tom Robbins, 1980
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