I gave “The Road Ahead” and other posts a rest through the Christmas season, but now that it’s the last day of the year, it’s time to start a new thread in the series: issues that face us.Already, I feel the urge to simply drop a laundry list of issues that need cleaning up in ur society, but I’ll try to be disciplined enough to simply mention briefly one issue per post. Today’s issue: anarcho-tyranny.
What are the classic, time-honored reasons that legitimize government? What benefits do citizens rightly expect from obedience of the law and submission to a “ruler”? Hobbes put it this way,
Obedience is exchanged for protection. …It is sufficient for each citizen to know that anyone who intends to injure him has more to fear from punishment by the sovereign than he has to gain from his crime
In arguing that Christians owed respectful obedience to civil government, the Apostle Paul made this argument,
Romans 13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.
But what can we say of the legitimacy of a government that does little (or nothing) to protect its citizens from miscreants, because miscreants have no cause to fear the government, but instead that government encourages evildoers by persecuting its own citizens and at most simply handing out mild slaps on the wrist to those who do others harm? What can we say of the legitimacy of a government that goes even further and persecutes citizens for simply being prominent or for doing their duty or for being different or standing up for their God-given and supposedly constitutionally-protected rights?
Well, we can be honest and admit such a government has surrendered any legitimacy; it has become an outlaw government that simply uses its power to afflict the powerless and expand its own power.
Under anarcho-tyranny, criminals aren’t punished (which is why it’s anarchy), but the innocent are (which is why it’s tyranny).– Sam Francis
Examples of state-fostered anarcho-tyranny abound in today’s (dis)United States.
Martha Stewart. Yep, a classic case of “There’s no evidence she committed any crime so let’s just make one up out of whole cloth.” You do know that since the feds had no case against her for “insider trading” that she was tried on lying to the federal investigators about her innocence and convicted of doing so on the testimony of those investigators and one of her employees…. who the feds almost immediately indicted for perjury in his testimony against Stewart. High profile case that got the federal persecutor lots of federal ju-ju in turf-expansion. her federal persecution has brought a new civil rights rule into being: The Martha Rule, that is, do NOT say ANYTHING to law enforcement without a competent attorney present, and even then insist on making your own recording of the conversation.
Seriously.
Other high profile cases? Sure, a myriad including Ramos and Compean (the lesson to honest, ethical law enforcement? Do NOT do your duty; do NOT protect citizens; do NOT uphold the law; do NOT protect our borders), Ruby Ridge (Lon Horiuchi suffered no consequences for killing an unarmed mother holding her child–could you get away with such a crime?), Waco (go ahead, burn children alive and see if YOU get off. Well, if you’re a federal agent, sure, no problem.), and the list goes on.
More, it includes refusing to perform basic protective duties. Follow the money on international terrorism. Most is Saudi. Why, then, is Mecca not a smoking, radioactive glass parking lot and why are not the Saudi “princes'” rotting corpses swinging in the wind?
Because that would inconvenience our rulers.
But what about the everyday repression of citizens by law enforcement that simply does not do its job, allows miscreants the freedom to continue their predation and goes almost solely after the soft targets of common citizens who are the victims of crime? Or worse, singles out law-abiding citizens for harassment, simply because some petty bureaucrap gets his knickers in a twist and ham-handed bullies decide to go all SWAT on ’em? Yes, it does go on day in and day out. Try to get help from your local police. Go ahead. Try. More and more people are discovering that far from being simply an exercise in futility, it’s likely to bring about “law enforcement”/government/bureaucrappic persecution. Sure, there are some decent cops (and even a vanishingly small number of decent bureaucrats), but the occupation attracts bullies, too… and bullies are lazy bums who would rather prey on the weak than tackle the drunken bums who drive across your lawn. And heaven help the common citizen who, finding no help from the authorities, attempts to rectify the anarchy left in their wake.
Anracho-tyranny is not yet universal in our society, but it is widespread and on the rise.
What to do? Is it time for a Second American Revolution?
Not yet, folks. And, given my current span of years, likely “not yet” within my lifetime. But watch the signs, because I could (sadly) be wrong about that.
So, what to do? Begin inserting yourselvbes into the local reigns of power. Become politically involved in order to influence first local politics, then state and in a diluted manner national politics. Perhaps that means you need to give up being the kids’ chauffeur to multiple (multiple, multiple… ) activities and become involved in serious matters that will influence their lives as adults. IOW, grow up and stop living vicariously through your kids’ current chidlish activities and work for their future. Perhaps it will mean giving up some of your own frivolous entertainment activities (or couch potatoing) for involvement in the political process, in local school board supervision, in personally “lobbying” (I’d say “harassing” but then that’d give some politician *spit* an excuse to sic a bureaucrap on me… and you) politicians to do the right thing as government officials and major in accomplishing the First Principle of government (protecting its citizens from predation; protecting its citizens’ God-given rights to life, liberty and property, etc.) before messing in social engineering crap.
So, I guess I know what will be one of my own “New Year’s Resolutions”–and what I ewncourage you to choose as one of your own: Hold MYSELF accountable for everything within my power to influence in government decisions and activities.
Keep it within the law, as long as law does not violate your conscience. But be prepared to pay the price, knowing that even iullegitimate civil government still bears the sword. After all, as clear as the passage in Roman 13 I cited above is in enjoining Christians to obey civil authority, Acts 4 is just as clear and unequivocal about what civil authority cannot require of Christians, and as Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr (among others) demonstrated in the 20th Century, civil disobedience by persons of conscience who fully understand and acknowledge the power of the State to wreak havoc in their lives for such orderly civil disobedience can be a powerful tool in dealing with unjust, illegitimate governance. It just comes with a price, so be prepared to pay it… for the good of your children and grandchildren.