George Washington, a man much loved, was the father of our country. Frederick Nietzsche, a man much loathed, was a 19th century German philosopher who brazenly declared that “God is Dead.”
While these two men could not have been more different, their descriptions of government were oddly similar. Washington compared government to fire; “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
Nietzsche groaned: “The state is the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly it lies, too; and this lie creeps from its mouth: `I, the state, am the people.’… Everything about it is false; it bites with stolen teeth.” These observations by Nietzsche defy the romantic ideals laid forth by Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address: government of the people, by the people, for the people. Nobody ever said philosophy was easy.
While a safe and civilized society is not possible absent a properly empowered government, there is one lone fact that distinguishes government from all other human enterprises. Government is granted, by consent of the governed, the authority to utilize violence against citizens who break the law.
This singularity is shared by all forms of government; whether Democratic, Totalitarian, Feudal (rule by a noble class), or Theocratic (governed out of religious text.) Fail to pay taxes or send the children to school; and after the letters and telephone calls, eventually the authorities are going to kick the door down with guns drawn. The law is not voluntary, and it is the gun that puts the “force” in “enforcement.” Government, while wholly indispensable, is also inherently dangerous.
Arguments about the proper size and role of government aside, I think most can agree that the foremost task of government is to ensure that the citizens are not deprived of life, not deprived of liberty, and not deprived of their (justly acquired) property. Marxists are free to disagree on the last point.
Looking back over the last forty or fifty centuries, governments in general have a very poor track record of protecting human rights. The 20th century was particularly atrocious in this regard – Bolshevism and Nazism produced in excess of 100 million human corpses. Human liberty is an exception – not the norm. We Americans take our freedom for granted.
A crucial feature of the American Constitution is a principle known as the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law requires that no one is exempt from the law, not the police or government officials, not the wealthy or celebrities, not industry or unions. While the Rule of Law is far from perfect, unless strictly adhered to, what then remains is Rule of Man – government by whim of the political class.
As with many bygone nations, America finds herself slipping away from the Rule of Law, and sliding toward the Rule of Man – an American Caesarism. At whatever pace, the slightest perceptible movement toward Caesarism is reason to dispense (via ballot box) with every last elected politician in Washington D.C.
So what is American Caesarism? It is when the political class:
-Treats peaceable citizens as suspects of crime (Patriot Act, TSA, NDAA, etc.)
-Plunders the citizens’ wealth by devaluing their savings via expansion of the money supply (inflation.) Thinkers ranging from Jefferson to Lenin wrote about this form of stealth robbery. Lenin was in favor of it. This is stealing, and the net results are no different than the forcible taking of one’s valuables. Quantitative Easing makes the middle class poorer – especially seniors living off their savings.
-Repeatedly wages undeclared wars outside of our own borders, on other peoples’ lands (their property), which causes violent “blowback” (a CIA term.) In his farewell address, Dwight Eisenhower warned of the dangerous influences of the military-industrial complex. Aggressive wars make Americans materially poorer and less safe, while enriching politicians and their favored donors.
-Makes a mockery of free markets by passing and signing unreadable, incomprehensible bills that were actually written by industry lobbyists. Housing, education, and health care are now unaffordable because Congress literally lets the banking and health care industries write their own legislation.
-Allows an entrenched Robber Baron class, which is not “one percent” but actually a tenth of that, to fund both “sides” of national elections.
-Deliberately creates a Moocher class, which is nowhere near 47%, in order to secure party votes.
-Allowed the national debt to continually grow at a faster rate than GDP, and then claiming that net output is growing. The U.S. economy has not grown based on the reinvestment of real surplus capital (savings) since before 1980. It is impossible for sustainable wealth creation to occur based on the emission of unbacked credit. What happened in 2008 was an economic pre-quake.
That which cannot go on forever, won’t. History tells us that an entrenched political class will not just give up their power willingly. It is entirely possible they will turn on the citizenry, just as they did in modern democratic states like Spain, France, and Germany.
While there is much that can be done to reduce gun violence, that is the subject of another article. Peaceable American citizens must not accept any further encroachments upon their right to bear arms. To do so would be a monumental error.
This piece originally ran in the Hanover Evening Sun.
Photo credit: krazydad / jbum (Creative Commons)
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Yes the Faker is exhibiting the desire to wage a fight, wedge driving, blatant insults, societal games with churches, traditions and military, extravagant misuse of tax monies, collusion, cronyism, illegal payoffs, misuse of national security to create anxiety and chaos to force martial law and the release of illegal criminals to further all that I have stated….The game is afoot and the stakes are being raised…
The case for term limits and a national sales tax to regain our representation and remove the tools of duplicity from the left is now at the yelling stage…
Had enough of Obama’s form of government?
Tell your do-nothing elected officials that you want Obama investigated for crimes against the US Constitution and the citizens of the USA at:
http://www.petition2congress.com/9026/start-immediate-investigation-barack-obamas-use-forged-ids-ct-ssn/
“At whatever pace, the slightest perceptible movement toward Caesarism is reason to dispense (via ballot box) with every last elected politician in Washington D.C.”
The Ballot Box option has been denied us. The day may soon come when American patriots may rightfully, according to direction found in the founding documents of this great nation, “dispense” ammunition and employ their God given right to keep and bear arms to restore the Republic and destroy enemies of the American experiment in government of the people.
“What kind of sub-human numb-nut would not know we needed security in Benghazi 24/7?” <~ Ted Nugent Audio http://dancingczars.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/the-motor-city-mad-man-ted-nugent-calls-for-obamas-impeachment/ …
All gun grabbers are OUTLAWS. They hate the law, especially the US supreme law, the Constitution. If they were NOT OUTLAWS they would be proposing an outright repeal of the 2nd amendment according to constitutional process, but no, they know that won’t fly, so they are willing to incite violence against we the people, who are the lawful civil authority in our counties with our lawfully elected sheriffs.
That makes them Seditionists. The definition of sedition is “to incite violence against the lawful civil authority”. It’s a felony crime. They should be arrested and charged with sedition the instant they throw any anti 2nd amendment bill in the hopper. It is NOT possible to change, abrogate, or replace the 2nd amendment with a mere statute. There is a constitutional process to do it lawfully. Get real everyone. These people are criminals, and need to be in jail the very instant they even PROPOSE such so called “laws”, which are all null and void from their inception, and don’t give me any crap about the so called “corporate government”. It was all done with fraud, deception, threat, duress, coercion, and intimidation, which makes all their contracts UNILATERAL, making them all null and void also. NONE OF THIS WILL STAND BEFORE GOD. They are all liars, and the blind, leading the blind, and they will all fall in the pit of hell for doing this.
“They should be arrested and charged with sedition the instant they throw any anti 2nd amendment bill in the hopper.”
Who is going to do it–arrest, trial, conviction?
I agree that the People are the final word in the United States. WE are the sovereign Authority. Government(s) can ignore, override, and attempt to dismantle the Constitution through illegal statutes and/or force–if we let them, but they can’t actually get rid of it. Only the People have that power through ratification by majorities in three-fourths of the States.
The people were supposed to control government(s) by paying attention and frequently changing the guard (representation) through elections. WE have failed. We have continually re-elected career politicians who have accumulated wealth and power by placing themselves above the laws of the country so that now, they no longer believe they must listen to us. These career politicians have very gradually (until the millenium turn) pushed the Marxist agenda; the complete opposite of the Declaration of Independence,and the Constitution–the Rule of Law.
We have allowed Marxism to infiltrate our country, starting with the universities educating primarily the elite who moved into positions of influence in government and industry. Now the Marxist agenda is being taught throughout all education, even to our kindergarteners. If you talk to many of today’s young voters, they don’t care that government is controlling everything, they don’t understand they are losing, and have lost, freedom and liberty, and they have no concept of morality, believing homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and abortion are ‘normal.’
We have allowed Marxism to inflitrate and indoctrinate communications (media/journalism) and entertainment in order to control America’s microphones. Unless a person specifically looks for the truth, the Marxist agenda continually drips into the subconscience whether one is actively listening to it, or not. And, since education has already indoctrinated many to believe in Government vs. God, and Government vs. the people, why should they bother to seek the truth? Those who control the microphones are an unrelenting force against everything that was considered important by our founders; everything they fought and died for.
We ask WHY Obama, the usurper, is continually abusing the Constitution; WHYCongress won’t stop him; WHY the Courts won’t hear the plea of the individual citizens of America? The answer is because the Constitution limits the power of every one of them–and they don’t want it.
The States, too, have gained money and power by subjugating themselves, and us, to the federal government. Only a few of them have taken steps to nullify specific federal laws and actions, despite the fact that probably 95% of all federal laws are unconstitutional. Has any State government supported the sovereign Authority of the people by calling for investigations or impeachment? Even though all States were notified that Obama’s documents appear to be fraudulent, no one State pevented Obama’s name from appearing on the 2012 election ballot. Not one State called for an investigation.
The decade leading to the new millenium and the thirteen years since have seen a radical departure from the gradual chipping away at the Constitution. It signaled to those in positions of power, the final transformation from a government by ‘consent of the governed’ to a stripping away of all individual liberty; a new despotism.
So, while I agree, both with the article and with your comments, pstramer, I ask again, WHO is going to do it? And, if someone or some group took action (arrest/incarceration), where would he or they go with it? To Congress? To the Courts?
WHO will actually, physically defend America?