Reactions
Several outraged reactions have been posted thus far to this piece discussing the vulnerability of government workers to political action by freedom-lovers.
Read all of the comments, but a few things need emphasis:
1) Oath-Keepers: I was an early supporter of this fine organization founded by Stewart Rhodes earlier this year, both in this space and elsewhere. Unlike many, I traveled (along with Mike Vanderboegh) to Lexington Green on April 19th, renewed my oath, and participated in the Oath-Keepers' truly inspiring event. I applaud every single Oath-Keeper's commitment to personal freedom, political liberty, and the restoration of the American Republic. I commend all Oath-Keepers for their unwavering commitment to The Ten Orders We Will Not Obey, and I will stand and fight besides the good men and women of that organization, do or die.
But remember Admiral Stockdale's Paradox?
“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
The most brutal facts of our current reality are as I posted in comment reply last night:
Re Oath Keepers:
Presumably, every Oath Keeper who is honest will acknowledge that:
a) they are paid via taxes collected through the threat of force from American citizens;
b) as such, they are, by definition, subordinate to the people that pay them, both by virtue of who is actually the productive party in the taxpayer/tax parasite relationship and by virtue of the guiding principles of the American Republic (see comment above);
c) all of the current and former oathtakers since 1916 or so have failed in their duty to defend the Constitution from domestic enemies such as Wilson, FDR, Truman, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, and the Kenyan, along with the respective Congresses from 1916 forward; and
d) they are well overdue in actually doing something (other than talking) about reversing that abysmal 93-year record of failure in actual, effective oath-keeping.
Re Anon and his point re target ID, amen. I do not truly believe that every .gov employee is my enemy.
But boys and girls, it is no-shit well past time for those men and women of good faith within government to start linking up with the Resistance and getting as much info and materiel out to the freedom team as possible. Every day that you folks sit on the sideline, the more each of you is tarred forever more with the indelible fecal smear of Comrades Soetero, Pelosi, and Reid.
Maybe I should have titled the essay "Collaborator, Quisling, or Undercover Operative? Time to Choose".
Know my rules?
1) The man or woman shooting besides me at the enemy is my friend;
2) The man or woman shooting AT me (or helping others shoot at me) is my enemy; and
3) Anyone not in groups 1 or 2 (unless they are feeding me information/materiel/other logistics support) is, at best, a high security risk.
Make sense?
Now, to be honest, in the light of day, I regret that reply.
More specifically, I regret that I left the philandering Jack Kennedy off the list of American Presidents who have successfully violated the Constitutional limits on their power, based upon his undeclared wars in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs and in a little place called Vietnam.
Everything else stands.
Note that I said nothing derogatory whatsoever about Stewart's organization.
Nothing.
What I did say is the simple and bitter truth -- that since 1916 straight through today, everyone who has taken an oath to protect and defend the United States Constitution and its express limitations on Federal power has failed completely in their oath-bound duty.
Everyone.
Myself included.
Has failed.
Completely.
Anyone who doubts that painful fact need only look to today's Leviathan, comparing the scope and scale of the combined Federal/state/local apparatus to the minimalist structure mandated by the Constitution.
If you need any additional proof, run your copy of the fundamental human rights enshrined and "guaranteed" by the Bill of Rights against the everyday and unaccountable actions of Leviathan's agents everywhere across this country.
If you have the courage and the intellectual honesty to do so, you'll weep. I know I have, on multiple occasions.
I've wept for what has been lost, and I have also wept for how few men and women in today's America are willing to do what it will take to stop the totalitarian bastards who continue, even as I write, to use all of their energy and all of their power to eradicate the country and the principles in and by which I was raised.
So what to do when you get knocked on your tail?
You get up and do whatever it takes, by any means necessary, to
- stop the enemy, including his allies, accomplices, collaborators, and Quislings;
- reverse his gains;
- destroy his fighting ability; and
- hold any surviving enemy forces fully accountable for their actions.
So, my fellow oathtakers and Oath-Keepers, let's get busy. We've got 93 years of defeats to avenge.
Forward.
2) Fundamental Principles: The next part of my comments was inspired by the late Bill Hicks, a brilliant comic who performed, flamed out, and died in the Nineties. His advice to marketers and advertisers in the following video segment is my advice to every government worker, be it at the Federal, state, local, or tribal level, who does not understand the following basic principles:
a) You live off the tax dollars stolen by force from every productive non-government worker, business owner, and saver in this country; and
b) As a government worker in the American system, you are, by definition, subordinate to your true bosses -- the taxpaying non-governmental American citizen. As long as you remain as a government worker -- from new hire, all the way up to President of the United States -- you remain, regardless of rank or job description, subordinate to every single taxpaying non-governmental American citizen.
I know that there are many (most?) government workers who understand, accept, and even celebrate these fundamental principles of the dying American Republic. For those of you in the audience who do not, I commend to you the same actions as Bill Hicks suggests for marketers and advertisers in this video clip (caution: harsh language):
Really -- I am not kidding. Do it now.
And you're welcome for the advice.
3) "Terrorist Organization": A commenter called the essay "a sure fire recipe for failure for your "freedom team" since it will be considered a terrorist org. by anyone except radical Atlas Shrugs toting anarchists."
Well, chiefie, everyone's entitled to his opinion. My opinion is that everyone who comes to this site is already pinged for special treatment as a thoughtcriminal. Rather than deal with that fact and acting accordingly, you and your ilk are wasting precious time trying to figure out how to be nice to statists so that they won't hurt you.
Guess what? Leviathan will eat you too.
So sorry.
And besides, I'll bet you haven't even read Atlas Shrugged. You should -- it might clean some of the mush from your skull.
Forward.
posted by Concerned American | 3:04 PM
13 Comments:
Stands applauding, EXCELLENT reply.
Jason
III
ATLAS SHRUGGED is a worthy read. Don't let the 4 inch thickness of the pocketbook intimidate you, get the 7x11 inch paperback with a slightly larger font and a little more space between each line. iPod-toting slackers might get the UNABRIDGED book-on-tape set of CD's for feeding into the brain. There's nothing in Atlas Shrugged too difficult for any 15 year old to comprehend.
People want stuff and services that other people do or have. To get these things, a person can steal, rob, or trade for them.
Only trade without coercion is morally correct. Make or do something the other people want and trade for what you want.
If theft/robbery/fraud is your preferred method because you are useless or you hate making an effort so much, expect resistance.
Word will get around and no one will trade with you (stolen merchandise has bad karma attached). Problem solved, and it will be a lesson to those not so far along your path.
When people get together in a mob, or a government, they believe that it is acceptable to behave in a way that they would not alone or in a group of 2 or 3. If a man came into your business and demanded to see your books and claimed the right to charge you 5% annually for the right to carry inventory, and 10% of your gross sales, and 37% of any net profits,and 28% of any wages you pay to your helpers, and required you to charge your customers 8.9% of each retail sale on top of the your price, you would tell him to get lost in a colorful way. It would be a service to the community if you shot him on the spot, but you like to get along with folks.
If you can't start with a hefty tome like A-S, at least read the tiny "Anthem" by Ms. Rand.
I wasn't referring to what the government will think of you. Screw em. As you said, they already label all of us "terrorists" merely for opposing their plans for our destruction. I was referring to what the average joe six pack will think of you if you run around applying "political action" to the old ladies down at the DMV. As I said, everyone who is not a radical anarchist will consider your action to be terrorism (as in the intentional targeting of non-combatants).
And actually I have read Atlas Shrugged, as well as Rand's non-fiction such as Capitalism, the unknown Ideal - and I agree with most of what she said (though she ironically did set up what could fairly be called the church of Ayn Rand). Really, pithy little personal attacks like saying I have a head full of "mush" do not do this subject justice.
My point is that even on a practical, military strategy level, it is a mistake to cast such a wide net that you conflate the little old lady down at city hall with jack booted thugs in ninja outfits kicking down your door. They are not equally complicit or guilty, and to treat them as if they are (which is what you seem to be doing), is not smart strategy. If that is not your position, then you may want to clarify a bit because that is how it reads.
I would add that it is morally wrong as well, to so broadly lump all government workers into the enemy category, but even as a matter of strategy, it will fail, not because of what some wanker at DHS thinks, but because of what your neighbors will think of you. Most Americans are not ready to drop all government and go the anarchist route. Whatever they think of the feds, they see local and state government, in particular, as legitimate and that will be their default. You will have to show and justify exactly how and why any particular local government worker is a fair target. Otherwise, the locals will see you as a criminal or as a terrorist. That is just a political and social reality you will have to deal with.
I hope you can set aside your present anger enough to consider that. Too wide a net, and to blanket a condemnation.
It's easy to yell "kill em all, and let God sort em out" and the have all your buddies pat you on the back for talking so tough - and I understand the temptation.
It's far tougher to fight monsters, and win, without becoming a monster yourself. Our forefathers were able to do it. Can we? I look forward to your thoughtful and measured response.
Funny video, first time I've seen him.
Re: Oathkeepers, and others that have taken the oath, they have not failed. I think you're being too hard on yourself. When I took the oath (many times) I didn't pledge to single-handedly defeat all enemies foriegn and domestic. I haven't failed, the fight is ongoing. It will never be finished. The focus of my efforts change as my abilities change (time does that). Even if I could do it all at once, all by myself, it wouldn't last long. That's not how it works.
Lighten up.
Anon:
Your mistake re the the title of 'Atlas Shrugged' led me to believe you had not read the novel. I stand corrected.
Re the spectra of actors, actions, and recipients, there is another essay in the hopper. Stand by.
Read the reply comment again; I do not see all .gov folks as enemies, at least yet. However, if the people within the machine, be they young know-it-alls or sweet little old ladies, choose to maintain the apparatus rather than help destroy it, they've made their choice, right?
The schwerpunkt in this little fracas is NOT the iron-pumpers and their gear-queer accessory packs. It's the soft-siders. The fact remains that every government soft-sider lives via money seized from their fellow citizens, and as such, need to choose who they will serve.
Most will choose to serve Leviathan.
Are you ready for all that implies?
Better get there...fast.
Please tell me what happened in 1916.
By 1916, the Progressives' (today's left wing) campaign against the Constitution of the Founders had succeeded with
- the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 (a bankers' cabal still bearing bitter fruit today)
- the 16th Amendment in 1913, creating an income tax; many shenanigans occurred re its ratifications in the states;
- the 17th Amendment in 1913, eliminating state selection of US Senators; and
- the Harrison Act, passed in 1914, which was the first Federal narcotics enforcement statute (thus commencing the War on (Some) Drugs) and which created a model for Federal law enforcement other than customs and other taxes.
By 1916, with the re-election of the progressive Wilson, the handwriting was on the wall.
If you would prefer, we can reset the oathtakers' initial failure date to 1935 with the Gold Clause Cases; see generally this Wiki entry.
CA:
"If you would prefer, we can reset the oathtakers' initial failure date to 1935 with the Gold Clause Cases"
Those are all significant blows, but I think the initial failures had to be much earlier.
If those things you mention had been proposed shortly after the War of Independence had been won, the perps would likely have ended up at the end of ropes.
In order for those things to have come about, the population had to be well conditioned for them in advance.
Who can come up with the earliest failure to adhere to the US Constitution?
"Who can come up with the earliest failure to adhere to the US Constitution?"
That's easy . . . the "Alien and Sedition Acts under Adams" . . . I fully expect these to be drug back up shortly to further muzzle our freedom of speech.
This has been a great blog posting. Thanks everyone.
Of the four Acts that made up the Alien and Sedition Acts, two expired, and one was repealed. Only the Alien Enemies Act (50USC 21-24) still exists.
Interesting parallel to today, when these were enacted, Thomas Jefferson argued they were unconstitutional based on 10th Amendment, and two states passed resolutions which called on the states to nullify the federal legislation.
Thank you for your additional replies to my request for history. Someone needs to write a book connecting those early events (and subsequent ones) with the situation we have today. We badly need another Ayn Rand cum Patrick Henry. (And that book should be followed up with a radio and TV show.)
CA, 2 points,
Re: The Harrison Act
If you've seen the History Channel series on drugs, you know the 'reasoning' behind it & also how the later Volstead Act became law using a variation of the tactic that enacted Harrison.
Re: The military's complicity in failing to stop the growth of monstrousness in govt
IMO, the template for reflexive obedience was established when MacArthur, Eisenhower, & Patton carried out Hoover's murderous order to 'disperse' the Bonus Army. The American people were also complicit in the commission of that atrocity when they didn't rise up & demand that those who ordered it & carried out the order be prosecuted w/ the zeal & finality later shown @ Nuremburg. Pogo's accusatory observation is all too frequently apt, & as such, is tough to beat when combined w/ the forces of socialization & the psychic need of the majority of humanity to group & then be included in a group. The old saying about it being tough to go against your raising is all too true as is the one about the fate of tall poppies. The point is that it's what happens AFTER one digests the message of John Lennon's I Found Out that counts, & self-flagellation for sins committed prior to one's epiphany is as stupid as accepting responsibility for the crimes committed by one's ancestors a la the grand/great grandchildren of the Hitlerite generation of Germans & 'white' Americans who had nothing whatever to do w/ the betrayal & subsequent conquest of the 'Indians' & the enslavement of Africans & their American black descendants & the rotten treatment said descedants received until quite recently. I was told to never accept blame for things I didn't do & not to feel guilty about things I couldn't have changed. So w/ that in mind, CA/similar, STOP DRINKING FROM THE LEFTIST CUP OF COLLECTIVE GUILT & remember that beating yourself up is unnecessary because there's always someone else who'll happily do it for you!
Cassandra (of Troy)
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