I’ll say one thing in defense of the men (and women) of the East German Stasi, the Soviet-era KGB, the Red Guards – and other such like throughout the history of totalitarian regimes: They had little real choice. It was either brutalize their fellow citizens – or join the ranks of the brutalized.
The United State is not quite there yet. It is merely at the late Czarist Russia – or Weimar Germany – stage.
Point being, one doesn’t have to sign up for law enforcement work as a Hail Mary way to avoid poverty, or the gulag . . . or the gas chamber.
So, what sort of person chooses to become a law enforcer – and remains one – when it is still possible to avoid such a dirty occupation? An occupation that, as a matter of routine, puts one in the position of rousting – and caging – people who’ve done nothing that can be characterized as causing harm to others (or their property)?
Who have merely run afoul of “the law”?
There seem to be four general types:
The well-intended type.
He thinks he’s going to go after Bad Guys – but finds the majority of his time is spent enforcing Bad Laws. Bad, because there’s no harm done. Well, no harm done by those he goes after. He, on the other hand, harms them. He extorts their money; he seizes their property. He throws people in cages who’ve done nothing more than cross an arbitrarily decreed distinction between one form of recreational intoxicant and another.
Etc.
He is required to do things to other adults that he’d never dream of doing on his own absent the sanction – and the overwhelming “back-up” implied by his special costume, the gun on his hip and the sanction of the state – like hector other adults about things that are none of his business.
Like whether they’re wearing a seatbelt.
It may occur to him one fine day that the majority of the people he pulls over, puts in cuffs and takes to jail didn’t deserve it – because they hadn’t done anything (except, of course, violate “the law”).
At this point, he either has a come-to-Jesus moment and quits in disgust . . . or graduates to our next “type.”
The “just doing my job” type.
This is guy is a cynic – and a nihilist. He knows, at some level, that much of what he does is ridiculous – and even, perhaps, wrong. But it’s become his living, his meal ticket. He’s got 10 years invested and knows that to quit now would mean the loss of a juicy pension after another ten – not to mention the loss of the free car to drive and all the free cups of coffee (and free meals) that flow the way of a uniformed enforcer.
He does what he is told – and expects you to do as ordered. For him, all that matter is “the law” – regardless of the law’s inanity. He may even agree with you that a given law is preposterous. But he’ll ticket – or arrest – you nonetheless.
Because, of course, it’s the law.
He does not question anything he does – and shows either boredom or annoyance when you do.
The upshot is this type of cop is basically a bureaucrat and – usually – only bad to the extent that the laws he enforces are bad. There is a limit. He usually won’t exceed the law or go beyond what he is ordered to do. That would be against procedure.
He is rigid and thoughtless, perhaps – but not usually deliberately vicious.
Which brings us to our third “type.”
The Bully.
As the system becomes increasingly (and obviously) brutal – brutal people gravitate toward the profession.
This one enjoys wielding arbitrary, unaccountable power over others. Making them feel afraid. Humiliating them in front of their spouse – or their children. His greatest satisfaction lies in forcing people to submit. It makes him feel like the tough guy he’s not. And the surest way to arouse his fury is to question his authority – or refuse to submit.
This type of cop is narcissistic and entitlement-minded. He is incapable of feeling empathy. He may be an outright sociopath.
Given the opportunity he will assault – and possibly even kill – you. He’s looking for that opportunity. Here’s a recent for-instance:
The cops in this video are the sort who would have eagerly lined people up in front of a ditch.
Or manned an oven.
And they’re becoming typical types – replacing the dwindling numbers of our final “type” . . .
The old school cop.
He is usually old – literally. Pushing 50, with the years and the perspective they give him all-too-apparent in his actions. Which harken back to a United States that was extinguished at some indeterminate point in the past.
He is a relic of the days when cops didn’t expect immediate submission – and when cops were expected to treat citizens with respect. He tries to be decent – within the boundaries of what’s possible given “the law” and current law enforcement culture. He’s close to retirement, though – and doesn’t want to make too many waves. He’s also rare.
You might get him one out of ten times these days.
Expect to see much less of him in the future, too.
The old-school cop type is being screened out, actively and otherwise. The increasingly militarized “law enforcement” agencies of the United State seek order-followers (and order-barkers) as new recruits. Luckily, there is a school for such – and a steady flow of graduates.
That school is the military of the United State – and its classrooms are located in places like Kabul and Baghdad (and soon, perhaps, Damascus). Dehumanize the recruit, destroy his individuality, turn him into an automaton – it is the object of military training – then have him dehumanize others. First, strange brown people in strange brown lands.
Then, bring him back to The Homeland.
It’s telling that American law enforcement has a military rank structure. The head enforcer is often festooned with a general’s stars or a colonel’s silver eagles. The rank and file wear menacing black BDUs, complete with flak jackets and body armor. The only difference nowadays between Fallujah and Boston is dark blue vs. cammo pattern.
Even way out here in Boonie Land.
I live in an extremely rural part of southwest Virginia – in a county that has literally one traffic light.
Yet even here, courtesy of the Heimatsicherheitsdeinst apparat that sprouted after the latter-day Reichstag fire on nahhnlevven, there is now a bulletproofed “command post” in town and all the accoutrements of a fully militarized “law enforcement” department. Shaved heads, black sunglasses; a Humvee-like armored assault vehicle.
Local people have noticed that the new crop of cop is crew cut and unforgiving. Andy Griffith need not apply. His type’s not wanted anymore.
Of course, Andy wouldn’t want any part of this mess anyhow.
Would you?
Throw it in the Woods?
PS: We have thrown Google – and Google ads – in the woods. They blacklisted us – so we dumped them. See here for the full story about that. So, we need your support to make a go of it and keep EPautos rolling. Please consider supporting this web site in whatever way you’re able. The link to our “donate” area is here. Thanks in advance!
Is it possible that there’s a fifth type of cop: one who got into the job because he figured better he have the job than the average(or terrible) cop? Who was tired of worrying about being stopped every time he saw a police car in his rearview mirror? Who realized that he would occasionally have to do objectionable things, but also knew he would be allowed discretion at times, and have the ability to “not see” things at others…and even when having to do the objectionable things could treat people like humans and not the way many other cops would? Who realized that the majority of cops are followers and could be influenced to become a bit
more Andy-like and a bit less Barneyfied? Who realized that job-related dealings with those who believe in NAP would be few-to-none?
Maybe it’s not the MOST principled position, and maybe it’s not a common or likely scenario, but is it possible?
Pork of Yore
Three Little Pigs – rendered in the vocabulary of yore.
Pork of Today
Miley Cyrus – Sister Sledge Astride a Wrecking Ball
Wrecking Ball – Elizabethan Version
But, soft! yon wrecking ball thru yonder window breaks
Pendulous from the east, and Miley is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and lick the envious moon,
Caress the gothically tattooed shining orbs
Art there any more fair more liked
more followed and more tweeted than thee?
The lunar queen she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but geeks do consider her;
And regard her dull wanings and waxings
Millions you make speaking yet saying nothing;
Verily you never meant to start a war
Save you endeavored to let him in
And instead of using mortal force
You ponder if you should’ve let him win
The genius of these chorus lyrics elude
Even the most well read dude your visage
Lithely renders his knees trembling and weak
As daylight is to a lamp; your eyes shine to heaven
O, that I were a glove upon thy tattooist’s hand,
That I too might ink and pierce that noble cheek!
I just had to cringe. Seems they’re releasing a new Robocop movie for next year. The heart sinks at the thought of it.
If cops no longer were, people would rely on themselves, on private organizations, on private justice, and on private courts.
What’s to prevent a private court from instituting filing fees so high that most people couldn’t file a claim? Nothing?
Just trying to answer a question I was asked as to how things would work without cops and state courts.
Hi Downshift,
I’m not opposed to the basic idea of having police – that is, peace officers – because I don’t think the basic idea necessarily conflicts with Libertarian principles.
The important thing is to base everything on the NAP. Thus, the only lawful actions peace officers could take would be to deal with people who violate the NAP. There could be civil and criminal courts to arbitrate and adjudicate and – where necessary – make sure the scales are balanced (so to speak).
The foregoing does not necessarily require compulsory taxes (which would violate the NAP) for its support, either. Just as in many communities, there are volunteer fore departments funded entirely by the freely given donations of those who value this service, so also I suspect could legitimate peace keeping and civil/criminal courts be maintained.
I, personally, would probably pay for such a service – and I suspect a sufficiency of others in any given community would as well. Those who could not afford to contribute – or who preferred not to (which I suspect would be few if we were talking about legitimate peace keeping based on the NAP)) would not have to. Yet they’d still enjoy the benefits, in the same way that everyone in a community with a volunteer fire department enjoys the benefit of having a fire department.
One aspect of this arrangement that I find particularly appealing is that it would almost have to be very local and small-scale. No state police. No federal “law enforcement.” That would keep things at the appropriate scale. The job of keeping the peace (what we call being a cop today) as well as that of judges, etc., could be part-time gigs -perhaps even non-compensated/rotating positions of honor shared among the members of a community.
This is the basic skeleton and by no means completely fleshed out. But, I see no reason why it could not be fleshed out – nor that such a thing conflicts with our core ideals. And, more, I incline toward the belief that the above is necessary to the preservation of a truly free society. Because – paraphrasing Madison – all men are not angels. The trick is dealing with them effectively without also dealing a death blow to our ideals.
Eric, I agree with most of your points as you compare a hypothetical “volunteer” courts and justice system with rural volunteer fire departments. I lived with the Virginia version of rural fire departments for many years. Each year they’d have a fund raiser or two, some of the wealthier folks in the community might buy them a new truck or gear periodically and it worked. But as you point out, those folks that don’t want to pay (not even contributing their “widow’s mite”) get a free ride.
Out he’ah in rural Missour-ah, we have “Membership Fire Departments.” For a small annual fee ($60 in these parts) you get a sign plate that identifies your property as being protected. If you have a fire and you are a paid up member, the volunteers respond. If your neighbor who doesn’t want to join has a fire, they also respond. But they may very well stand by to prevent the fire from spreading to members’ property and watch the non-member’s mess burn to the ground. Some of the volunteers I’ve spoken with look at it from the standpoint of if you’re not concerned enough about your property to pony up a few bucks each year for supplies and equipment, then they aren’t concerned if your place burns to the ground. Makes sense to me. Plus we don’t have to worry about some huge firefighting bureaucracy engorged on tax money springing up out of this. It’s all about neighbors helping neighbors who are willing to help themselves.
I’d say the same thing could work for local courts and sheriffs’ departments. If you want to pay for “peace keeping” and legal arbitration, great, join up. If not, you’re on your own. No more Officer 82nd Airborne. No more militarized SWAT teams or drug task forces. No more overzealous prosecuting attorneys vying for the next political step with high conviction rates, justice be damned. No more shysters bleeding people over fake felonies like substance possession and “conspiracy.” I can even see having a local sheriff and maybe a couple of deputies, but only with a minimal budget and not enough pay to make it a full time job.
If the local sheriff has a “situation” that requires more than Andy Griffith diplomacy, he needs to turn to the posse / militia / jury pool for help; one more valid reason for the citizens to be armed. Full time butchers, bakers and candlestick makers are going to be a lot less interested in spending the weekend burning ditch weed and searching the neighbor’s SUV than bored busy-body “professional” law enforcement officers. And just like volunteer firemen, when old man Frank Farkle loses it and holes up in the local deli with his M1, the locals will come out, put out the fire and go home. They won’t shoot old Frank for walking across the street with a block of whittling wood and a pocket knife. The “professionals” have proven that they will.
And if one feels the need for tighter physical security of their property, then just like insurance, they can hire a private security firm; one that competes on the free market. It always comes down to decentralization and local control. Government at all levels is dirty because humans are involved and most of them will invariably try to take advantage of others. The only answer is to keep government as small and local as possible. We will never do away with crime, official or otherwise because of human nature; all we can hope for is to minimize it. That especially goes for government corruption, so anything we can do for ourselves as individuals, families and localities, the county or municipality should not be allowed to do. Anything we can accomplish at the county and city level, the state should be prohibited from doing. And any functions we consider essential that can be performed at the state level, the federal government should never be allowed to perform. That would leave damned little for the federal government to do and that is as it should be.
Every so often a sob story appears in the media about how some home was allowed to burn because the owner didn’t pay for the fire protection service. I think that’s a bad policy. Not for the usual reason though, I think it’s a bad policy to leave a customer unserved. But he’s not a customer right? Well that’s the problem. The guy’s house is burning, the volunteer fire department has already responded to protect neighboring properties. This is where they should charge him for the cost of responding and fighting the fire plus profit. Take credit cards on spot. He didn’t pay the subscription fee so he should get charged the on the spot one time price which is much higher.
Collectivists’ answer is to force us all to pay. Which of course is abused. We should have a choice to pay as a subscription customer or on a fire by fire basis.
BrentP – Actually some of the membership fire depts. around here do allow for that. Down at Thayer for example, if the fire department responds to a large single family dwelling fire, the cost to a non-member would be about a minimum of $850. I’ve heard that around these parts, it’s about $1500 on average for the depts. that will actually fight a fire for a non-member. But if you haven’t paid your dues, they aren’t required to do anything other than stop it from spreading. I’ve heard of people standing there with a checkbook in their hand watching their place burn and the volunteers refusing to step in because the property owner should have thought about it before he decided not to support them up front.
Think about it from the unlimited right to contract perspective: I know dues from enough members are required to maintain a functioning fire department in my neck of the woods. I make a contract with some of my neighbors that’ll I’ll voluntarily pay in (the same way that I voluntarily support this website). They reciprocate in the contract by agreeing to show up if I have a fire. But let’s say Danny Deadbeat down the street says “Hey, I’ll just take my chances and not spend the money now. If I have a fire I can cut ‘em a check at the scene. If I never have a fire, I’m not out one red cent.” It won’t matter that the rest of us realize this approach won’t support having a fire department at all if enough folks follow suit; the same way that Eric might have to shut this site down, along with our forum, if we don’t pitch in.
But in a community of flag waving, state loving ‘Muricans, a group will most likely get together, go to the county board of supervisors, push for a fire dept., levy a tax and we’ll all be forced to pay or else. The FD will never have enough tax money, local power freaks will take control and you’ll have a mass of tax-feeders bellied up to the public trough, just like you do at the big city FDs. So instead we apply pressure to those who won’t step up and help out ahead of time, by the right to contract and the right to freedom of association. You don’t pay, we have no contractual obligation to help you and we can even rightfully shun you (i.e. refuse to take your check) when your stuff burns right in front of us. There’s nothing more libertarian or free market than that.
I’ve heard of people standing there with a checkbook in their hand watching their place burn and the volunteers refusing to step in because the property owner should have thought about it before he decided not to support them up front.
While I understand the advantages of a subscription based model and the freedom to refuse to do business with someone that sort of spitefulness seems well, rather like government or mafia business models. That is to make an example of someone or nobody will pay the protection/taxes.
Is technically allowable to do so, yes. They don’t have to do business. But ultimately should we have a free society, I think someone would realize there is a business opportunity to get non-subscription customers as in everything from newspapers to cell phones.
The financial problem could be solved simply by making the price for a one time use very high. This could then be used towards and endowment that would provide annual income. This very high one time cost would also encourage subscription by the same example method. People would fear the $10,000 bill and thus spend the $50 a year or whatever. Then there is also contracting with the home insurers as well.
If there were a cartel or monopoly on said services that could happen. Just look at how much the government courts and the lawyer guild have driven up costs.
However on a complete system basis there would be competition thus a wide variety of choice at many different price points.
People fear that getting government out of this or that would create a situation where the services or products were unaffordable. Yet look at what is cheap and getting cheaper? The things that become more and more affordable to even the poorest people in the country. The things government interferes with the least. What keeps going up in price? The things government interferes with the most.
As it is now there is no competition. The current state of affairs rests upon a monopoly enforced through stolen funds. What’s to stop a competing court from undercutting the rat bastards in the other? For that matter why not have competing courts from other districts compete for your “business”? If some podunk county is willing to do the work, for much less, than other high-falutin ones then all the better.
Larken Rose on u tube will tune u in after this article…ckeck his lectures out….semper fi
I just read your article regarding the current state of affairs in law enforcement and would like to state some observations as a retired officer. I went into law enforcement in the mid 80s after my stint in the marines. Both the marines and NYPD were HUGE eye openers as to both people and government stupidity/corruption. Yes government has rapidly grown that iron hand mentality but the people are allowing it. Yes I’ve seen law enforcement officers who should not be but are protected for a variety of reasons but not limited to political correctness and a government that wants their “praetorian guards” well protected. Then you have government officials who would normally be suited to sweeping streets are elected by our corrupted mass-media and purchased by special interest groups and placed into positions of power. Where am I going with this? I don’t know. I do feel the younger generation who have the power of the internet since birth are both growing up in a more “enlightened and informative” era and are the ones joining the ranks of the military and police departments. I saw this in my final years before retirement. Will change come before this country falls off the cliff to either total tyranny or 3rd world hell hole status? BTW….I’m now a libertarian. Thanks for listening.
Thank you, Joe!
And – wow – that was quick!
My husband and I were on vacation riding on our BMW R90/6, doing about 100 mph in the middle of absolutely nowhere on a two lane road in Montana or Wyoming. Riding (we were on a motorcycle and my husband was driving). We came over a rise and the road went down through and straight across a l-o-n-g valley, up the mountains at the other side, and out of sight. We could see a speck down at the bottom center of the valley. It turned out when we got there that that speck was an intersection with another two-lane highway. There was a house, a tree, and right behind that tree was a 35 mph speed limit sign and a cop with a radar gun. Someone had gone to the trouble to incorporate that intersection, buy a cop car, a cop, and a radar gun, and have him sit there all day writing expensive tickets to unfortunate motorists. He stepped out onto the road and motioned for us to pull over as we approached, realizing too late what was going on. We were third or fourth in line as I recall. The ticket was a few hundred dollars. My husband asked we could talk to the judge or magistrate and he said yes – but that the region was served by a circuit judge who would not be back around for a few weeks and we could wait in jail for his return. So my husband asked if he took travelers checks and made change, as we were traveling from out of state and lived many states away. The cop said yes and pulled open his coat to reveal one of those chrome coin changers on the front of his belt – I kid you not! He took our travelers checks and made change, said thanks, and sent us on our way. What a racket.
Since you two were on a BMW bike, why didn’t you put the hammer down and leave the Thug in your dust?
The cop had a marked cruiser, he knew the area (I suppose), we didn’t, and it appeared that the road went nowhere except straight ahead. We have outrun and evaded police speed traps in the past, but it did not appear that we had anywhere to potentially successfully run to in this instance.
One time we even had an informal police ‘escort’ across the Texas panhandle. We were on the BMW, cruising a deserted east to west two lane at about 100 mph, when a Texas cruiser appeared out of nowhere and motioned for us to follow him. We did for the next hundred miles or so, at about 100 mph. He even had his lights on (no siren), and waved goodbye when he finally turned northward. It was a beautiful sunny morning for a ride in the middle of nowhere!
maybe if her name was bonnie, & mine was clyde, & we’d just robbed the bank, killed somebody, i’d consider a 2-up evasion attempt. otherwise, that’s a 1-up gig, imo….
And NOT!!!! on a Can Am! 😉
Hi Kitty,
What a racket
Indeed.
And – what a piece of fecal matter, too. I mean, the guy who fleeced you of your hard-earned money. That cop was worse than a common street criminal – because to “resist” the cop’s brazen assault/theft is legally impermissible and would likely result in summary execution, or at least, serious “criminal” charges. I put the latter in quotes to emphasize the irony of being labeled a criminal for resisting the depredations of a criminal… who happens to be wearing a special costume.
Dear Kitty,
Several terms came to mind. Highway robbery. Highwayman. Road Agent.
Dunno why. They just popped into my head for no particular reason.
Wow, that is video camera/youtube material!
Eric,
We can all agree that cops are a-holes and that the country is in the shitter. OK, now what?
There seems to be two ways to go. The zombie apocalypse or a political solution.
The zombie apocalypse seems most likely, but that’s so messy. Plus there is really no escape for individuals when zombies rule. Look at every economic/societal collapse throughout history and you’ll find even those that thought they could run to the woods to escape the carnage merely delayed inevitable poverty and destruction. Prepper or not, you can run, but you can’t hide from total societal collapse.
So, that leaves a political solution as the best option. For a political solution, liberty minded people must some how persuade a voting majority of citizens that freedom, private property and small government (yes I know that’s a bad word) gives the best opportunity to live comfortable, peaceful lives. Now here is the problem with this article. Police and the military are generally highly regarded by the American population, while politicians are generally despised. Calling cops “evil scumbags” or soldiers “baby killers” (true or not) will not help persuade a majority citizens, that libertarian ideas are worth consideration. Fight the battle on ground that’s favorable to the cause, focus on politicians, bureaucrats and destructive economic and foreign government policies. Change the politicians and you can change the laws (and the cops).
Voting won’t change one thing in favor of freedom (if it did, it would have been long ago banned). The only thing that will persuade a majority of individuals (I absolutely HATE the word “citizen,” it’s on par with civillian and its connotation wreaks of elitism on behalf of those usually heard using them, such as military, police and scumbag bureaucrats) is a paradigm-shift moment, such as being on the receiving end of a wood shampoo or a week stay in hotel graybar for the unpardonable sin of “contempt of cop.” The rules for ballot access, primary elections and the whole rot is so entirely skewed in favor of demopublicans and republicrats that no independent individual will ever, EVER gain political office that will upset the statist-quo in any fundamental way. The way this battle will ever be won is in the minds of individuals. You must change the minds of individuals and get them to pass those ideas on to their progeny. We need to imbue as many children as possible with the seeds of liberty. THAT is where the battle must be fought in order to win this war.
Passing this turd to next generation is a “cop out”. Since violence will only empower the government thugs, the solution must be political. The political system (as flawed and corrupt as it is) requires convincing a majority of CITIZENS to support your ideas through voting. Ideas without actions are worthless.
Voting (at the national level, at least) within the context of the current system is pointless, Shocker, because there is no alternative to Team Red or Team Blue. Thus, all you’re doing is endorsing – and thus, perpetuating – the system.
I agree that voting for say a Ron Paul at the local or even congressional level (if such is on the ballot) would be worth doing.
But the underlying problem remains: So long as a majority believes its ethical to steal from others via the ballot box, or to control the personal lives of others via the same mechanism, authoritarian collectivism of one type or another will continue to dominate.
Once a sufficiency of people reject theft-by-ballot and agree that each person owns himself and thus, his life and his choices in life – so long as they cause no harm to others – are entirely and exclusively his affair as far as the law is concerned – voting will do nothing more than change the names/faces of the people who control the machinery of authoritarian collectivism.
I disagree. A majority of Americans already don’t vote (especially in local elections) and yet government interference and control accelerates in every aspect of our lives. Non-participation of eligible voters is either ignored or interpreted as approval of the status quo.
Ron Paul did not walk away from the political system. He used the system. The libertarian message of non-aggression, non-intervention, free markets and private property rights is powerful. There will be opportunities as the current government becomes discredited. Libertarian ideas can win politically and the best way to to quickly implement those ideas is through the existing political system.
Feel free to vote for the authoritarian statist of your choice, Shocker.
I will not be a party to it.
Indeed, I will do all in my power to de-legitimize the system, expose it for the con that it is.
So long as voting comes down to three wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner, count me out.
I see more and more initiatives regarding voting. To get more people to vote. I think they are worried that the illusion of consent will fail. Voting is key to the illusion of consent. It’s almost an implied consent to be ruled by those who win the vote.
No vote. No consent. They might like not facing an election but that would be worse. The people will see things for what they are.
Hi Brent,
Indeed.
It’s already very precarious. IIRC, only about half the eligible voters actually vote in most national elections; and the margin of victory is usually no more than 2-3 percent of the popular vote. Therefore – roughly – about 23 percent of the eligible voters determine who will be our Dear Leaders.
So much for “democracy.”
Dear Eric,
I agree with you, and so interestingly enough, does Ron Paul.
Paul makes clear in his “Farewell Address” that the good he did had little to do with his “within the system” actions. Rather they had to do with the unofficial public education campaign that he conducted during his years in office.
His official position did not enable him to do good “within the system.” His official position merely gave him a bully pulpit from which to address the private sector.
As Paul himself put it:
How Much Did I Accomplish?
… my off-and-on career in Congress… accomplished very little. No named legislation, no named federal buildings or highways… In spite of my efforts, the government has grown exponentially, taxes remain excessive, and the prolific increase of incomprehensible regulations continues. Wars are constant and pursued without Congressional declaration, deficits rise to the sky, poverty is rampant and dependency on the federal government is now worse than any time in our history.
We Need an Intellectual Awakening
Our job… is to be more convincing that there is a wonderful, uncomplicated, and moral system that provides the answers. We had a taste of it in our early history. We need not give up on the notion of advancing this cause.
Notice what he’s advocating:
“A different system… a wonderful, uncomplicated, and moral system that provides the answers… “
Gee, I wonder what that could be?
Eric, let me help put some bullets in your gun,
Have you ever wondered…
How did we get here? Why are we 16 trillion dollars in debt? What is it about Washington DC that turns what were once normal people into politicians who are completely incapable of doing what’s right for most Americans?
• Congress specifically the House of Representatives is a “Pay to Play” system.
• Party leadership tells congressional members how much money they need to raise to give to back to the party.
• Party leadership tells congressional members where and whom they should raise this money from.
• In turn for raising this money Party leadership “rewards” congressional members with positions of authority, which in turn allows the congressional member to promote or stall legislation.
• The reward of higher positions also increases the congressional member’s ability to raise funds and again further their congressional career.
• Party leadership “punishes” congressional members if they do not raise funds as directed by party leadership.
http://www.definingthemachine.com/
voting, politics, is violence.
as for turds, behold the sisyphus that is political man:
see also the same guy’s presentation on the angler fish. here fishy-fishy……
Dear Ozy, we all have our position on the totem pole don’t we. Thanks Dung Beetle you made my day.
gary….a totem is a caber some mystic carved his initials into. toss it. ☻
I grew up in a small midwestern city of 45,000. When I was a teenager, I thought about becoming a cop……wanting to help people, la la la and all that. Our local cop shop had a Scouting Explorer Police Post……you get to wear a snappy little “cop jr.” uniform, ride with cops on patrol, and learn all about “law enforcement”.
At first, it was really fun and cool. Like a good little “recruit”, I kept my shoes shined, my uniform pressed, and went to all the meetings/activities. It was really awesome to go on patrols, seeing all the cool equipment, guns, gadgets, and other toys that cops get to play with…….and this was back in the 1980’s, before our police were militarized. A lot of the cops actually treated us pretty decent……
I got to see a lot of things the general public did not……..and a lot of it wasn’t very pretty or nice. Then on one patrol, I had to ride with one of the bullies on the force. This guy was your typical cop asshole man-child……he relished harassing people for no reason and getting in their faces.
After seeing some not-so-nice incidents involving guys like him, I really began to question whether or not I wanted to be a cop anymore. It seemed like the “good” cops turned a blind eye to what their bad-cop “buddies” were doing.
Then one day, we were having a discussion about “the law”. We were told that, as cops, we had to “enforce the law”, no matter what. I asked a question, akin to: “Well, what if the law is wrong in some cases? What if the police are wrong?” The cop talking to us looked at me flatly and said: “Son, the law and the police are never right or wrong. They are just reality.” When I heard that response, I knew right away that working as a cop was not for me. After that, I never went back.
When I look back at those days, even now I can’t believe just how amoral we were expected to be……this idea nothing’s right, nothing’s wrong, it’s just reality…….”just the way things are”.
Which city was it C = D?
And guess who the second generation mutated Lieutenants, Captains and Police Chiefs’ are today? That is who the sheeple public really need to pick on with a vengeance.
Guaranteed the gang murder of that 107 year old man in Pine Bluff WAS carried out with supervisor approval.
What people refuse to learn is that the police do NOT want to come out and deal with any kind of confrontations. They want to sit on their asses throughout their shifts, collect their paychecks, and go home without having any trouble. Of course they cannot tell voice this desire, so they have to try to SHOW us this. That is why, a lot of times, when you call the police to come to an incident, they will beat and/or kill someone. When they do this they are attempting to demonstrate to people that they do not want you to bother them. People, please learn not to bother the police. Do not call them for any reason, unless you want to have someone kidnapped (arrested), and possibly beating and/or killed, AND you can keep from being anywhere near the police, so it is not you they do it to.
Excellent point, Charlie. I think you’re right — they just don’t want to be bothered, and they’re as likely to take out their annoyance on the victim as on the perp.
I heard a guy once who said that he never called for a doctor unless the undertaker was waiting at the door. That’s my attitude toward the police too — I only call them if I have to have a police report to go about my business (for an insurance claim, etc.). It’s sorta the reverse of the doctor analogy, though: I avoid cops, lest the undertaker be waiting in the wings.
Could we not just call in complaints about our lovely parasite leaders? Town council, mayor, alderman, cops, etc?
Might as well harass the abominations with their own kind.
Call in an meth lab now and then…
Charlie, I would tend to agree. Having to get out of a typically new, environmentally controlled, tax payer provided car, for anything other than snacks and coffee and actually help a mundane would be a real pain for Officer Taxfeeder. It’s far nicer just riding around the county the whole shift and only write enough tickets to keep the administration happy. But if the mundanes call for help and you respond by beating, tazing and occasionally shooting some of them it would tend to keep the smarter ones from bothering you again. The less aggressive cops could just do nothing at all and just let you figure it out on your own, because it does take quite a bit of effort to rough up the folks that pay your salary. It worked on me over time; I don’t call anymore.
I tried to handle several “trespassing” incidents over the years by “doing the right thing” and calling the cops. They didn’t show up, took nearly an hour to drive 11 miles in one case or most of the time just said there was nothing they could do. What I’ve found works much better is presenting the interloper with the business end of 12 gauge pump gun following up with “Git off my land, now!” In the case of a former thieving neighbor the cops wouldn’t rein in (and who ultimately turned out to be one of their own, a “confidential informant”), I just let the local dopers know where his pot was growing. The last two years I had to endure living next to this scumbag “disability” fraudster, his fall income was down by a significant margin. Prohibition worked for me in this case by setting market prices high enough to skew the risk to reward ratio heavily in favor of the locals making what comes around go around for that old boy. The local potheads did a far better job of meting out justice by stealing his weed than the local “good ol’ boy” club down at the courthouse ever could. You just have to look at this present system like a cow pasture; watch your step around cops and lawyers and try hard not to get any of that on you.
Eric, I enjoy your car articles, and this is very enlightening. Many years ago psychopaths were attracted to police work and got in, but not like this. You make a great argument for restoring liberty by returning to limited Constitutional government, which would reduce military spending to just the defensive part. Ron Paul estimated that over 20% of deployed military are on some sort of psychiatric drug…go figure!
Many years ago psychopaths were attracted to police work and got in, but not like this.
While psychos may have gotten onto police forces in the past, odds are that their “careers” would only last for so long. There was MUCH more public scrutiny of (and accountability for) cops in the past than today, and if Officer Porky Psychopath crossed a certain line, when his behavior became too violent for even his superiors to tolerate, when his acts of violence became so blatant as to be public, he was done. Public pressure made sure that he was kicked off the force, and even prosecuted (gosh, imagine THAT).
Today, of course, it’s a whole different story. No one holds ANYONE accountable anymore and the average citizen couldn’t be bothered.
The second type, the “just doing my job” type, is arrested at the same infantile stage of moral development as Adolf “I vas chust folloving orders” Eichmann.
Before conducting the experiment, Milgram polled fourteen Yale University senior-year psychology majors to predict the behavior of 100 hypothetical teachers. All of the poll respondents believed that only a very small fraction of teachers (the range was from zero to 3 out of 100, with an average of 1.2) would be prepared to inflict the maximum voltage. Milgram also informally polled his colleagues and found that they, too, believed very few subjects would progress beyond a very strong shock.[1] Milgram also polled forty psychiatrists from a medical school and they believed that by the tenth shock, when the victim demands to be free, most subjects would stop the experiment. They predicted that by the 300 volt shock, when the victim refuses to answer, only 3.73 percent of the subjects would still continue and they believed that “only a little over one-tenth of one percent of the subjects would administer the highest shock on the board.”[6]
In Milgram’s first set of experiments, 65 percent (26 of 40)[1] of experiment participants administered the experiment’s final massive 450-volt shock, though many were very uncomfortable doing so; at some point, every participant paused and questioned the experiment; some said they would refund the money they were paid for participating in the experiment. Throughout the experiment, subjects displayed varying degrees of tension and stress. Subjects were sweating, trembling, stuttering, biting their lips, groaning, digging their fingernails into their skin, and some were even having nervous laughing fits or seizures.[1]
Milgram summarized the experiment in his 1974 article, “The Perils of Obedience”, writing:
The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous importance, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ [participants’] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ [participants’] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.
Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.[7]
The original Simulated Shock Generator and Event Recorder, or shock box, is located in the Archives of the History of American Psychology.
Later, Milgram and other psychologists performed variations of the experiment throughout the world, with similar results.[8] Milgram later investigated the effect of the experiment’s locale on obedience levels by holding an experiment in an unregistered, backstreet office in a bustling city, as opposed to at Yale, a respectable university. The level of obedience, “although somewhat reduced, was not significantly lower.” What made more of a difference was the proximity of the “learner” and the experimenter. There were also variations tested involving groups.
Thomas Blass of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County performed a meta-analysis on the results of repeated performances of the experiment. He found that the percentage of participants who are prepared to inflict fatal voltages remains remarkably constant, 61–66 percent, regardless of time or place.[9][10]
There is a little-known factoid about the Milgram Experiment, reported by Philip Zimbardo: none of the participants who refused to administer the final shocks insisted that the experiment itself be terminated, nor left the room to check the health of the victim without requesting permission to leave, as per Milgram’s notes and recollections, when Zimbardo asked him about that point.[11]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
read the wiki page to see how experimental design variations altered the full compliance percentages…but, how many of the experiment subjects do you think would have said something like your post before their time in the hot seat, with their fingers on the hot button?
this is the fundamental attribute of tribalized, deindividuated mass man that the ancap tribal drummers contradictorily & ironically (well, seemingly…) ignore. einstein’s bit about “the same level of thinking” applies (or would, if enough thinking were actually involved).
bevin pictorialized a pendulum up-thread. well, suspend that pendulum from the middle of the top of the normal distribution / bell curve (what taleb calls “mediocristan”), & start it swinging. 1 sigma (standard deviation) either side of the mean covers 68% of the mass (of the blade…pretty close to milgram’s 65% upper bound of compliant torturers – which has been reproduced by other experimenters, btw…), & 2 sigma covers 95%.
pendulum whisperers (saw redford do the horse version the other night):
the not so innocuous pendulum reality:
the banality of evil, arendt’s phrase describing eichmann (but not only eichmann, not even close) is a function of the mass’ reflex/penchant for dilution of individuality. the oxbow (incident) melt pot is not incidental, it is the basic, un-evolving, human nature to which most conform, have always conformed. individuals can make every effort to compensate for this reality, protect themselves, on their own behalf, but they can’t change it, this massed nature, can’t retie the oxbow into something other than the noose knot it is. pendulum is (lynch mob) as pendulum does (swinging hanged people)…..
tilting at pendulums…pendulum prevails.
♪ ♫ ♪ ‘merika swings like a pendulum do, polizei* in apc’s two by two….
btw, did you see the lrc piece yesterday?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2408591/American-ethnicity-map-shows-melting-pot-ethnicities-make-USA-today.html#ixzz2eDmZJNiV
First words of The Pit & Pendulum – 1842 E. A. Poe
“Here an unholy mob of torturers, with an unquenchable thirst for human blood, once fed their long frenzy. Our homeland is safe now, the baneful pit destroyed, and what was once a place of savage death is now a scene of life and health.”
– Translation of Latin Quatrain composed for the gates of a market erected upon the site of the Jacobin Club House in Paris.
The Pit and the Pendulum
Edgar Allan Poe
http://www.literature.org/authors/poe-edgar-allan/pit-and-pendulum.html
Spanish Inquistion – Mel Brooks
– Hey,Torquemada, walk this way. We got a little game that you might want to play. So pull that handle, try your luck. Who knows,Torque? you might win a buck!
Rose Wilder Lane
One thing I hate about the New Deal is that it is killing what, to me, is the American pioneering spirit. I simply do not know what to tell my own boys, leaving school and confronting this new world whose ideal is Security and whose practice is dependence upon government instead of upon one’s self. All the old character-values seem simply insane from a practical point of view; the self-reliant, the independent, the courageous man is penalized from every direction.
As Government tightens its monopoly of all production and all distribution, it can not permit any economic activity that competes with it. This means that it can not permit any new use of productive energy, for the new always competes with the old and destroys it. Men who are permitted to build railroads are commanded to destroy stage coach lines.
To get butter, the government must use guns; they have nothing else to use. The pattern is as old as human life. The new rulers use more and more force, more police, more soldiers, trying to enforce more efficient control, trying to make the planned economy work by piling regulations on regulations, decree on decree. How does a man on this earth get butter? Doesn’t the government give butter? But government does not produce food from the earth; Government is guns. It is one common distinction of all civilized peoples, that they give their guns to the Government, who monopolize the necessary use of force; they are not using their energies productively; they are not milking cows. To get butter, they must use guns; they have nothing else to use.
I somehow always have this idea that as soon as I can get through this work that’s piled up ahead of me, I’ll really write a beautiful thing. But I never do. I always have the idea that someday, somehow, I’ll be living a beautiful life.
I so much like real things – the realities that come naturally from the depths of us like – what shall I say? – the way trees grow, from some inner essential principle of them, just expressing itself.
I can imagine nothing more wonderful than always wanting to keep a man…It’s this NOT wanting to keep them, and yet not quite being able to disentangle one’s self, never quite having the ruthlessness to strike at the hands on the gunwale with an oar until they let go — that’s the horrible thing.
I’m not “filled with my art”. I ain’t got no art. I’ve got only a kind of craftsman’s skill, and make stories as I make biscuits or embroider underwear or wrap packages.
Life is a thin narrowness of taken-for-granted, a plank over a canyon in a fog. There is something under our feet, a table is a table, food is food, we are we—because we don’t question these things. Science is seen as an enemy because it is a questioner. Faith is seen to saves our souls alive by giving us a universe of the taken-for-granted.
Making the best of things is a damn poor way of dealing with them. My whole life has been a series of escapes from that quicksand.
We joined long wagon trains moving south; we met hundreds of wagons going north; the roads east and west were crawling lines of families looking for work, for another foothold somewhere on the land. The country was ruined, the whole world was ruined. There was no hope, but everyone felt the courage of despair. – Recalling her family’s migration from drought-stricken South Dakota to the Missouri Ozarks in 1894; the 650-mile trip had taken them six weeks.
That way of life against which my generation rebelled had given us grim courage, fortitude, self-discipline, a sense of individual responsibility, and a capacity for relentless hard work.
The question is whether personal freedom is worth the terrible effort, the never-lifted burden and risks of self-reliance.
Since 1914 – I wait for the natural to return; for newspapers to report news with care for accuracy and grammar; for schools to teach and for pupils to study; for faces to be sane and intelligent, and even humorous; for American artists and poets and writers to be exuberant and optimistic. It has all gone with the music of Vienna and the gaiety of San Francisco. The Beatnik beard and the mini skirt and the topless waitress, they are funny, I know, but they only make me tired, I don’t laugh.
The prairies were dust. Day after day, summer after summer, the scorching winds blew the dust and the sun was brassy in a yellow sky. Crop after crop failed. Again and again the barren land must be mortgaged for taxes and food and next year’s seed. The agony of hope ended when there was not harvest and no more credit, no money to pay interest and taxes; the banker took the land. Then the bank failed.
Writing fiction is … an endless and always defeated effort to capture some quality of life without killing it.
Two deep human desires were at war – the longing for stability, for form, for permanence, which in its essence is the desire for death, and the opposing hunger for movement, change, instability and risk, which are life. Men came from the east and built these American towns because they wished to go no farther, and the towns they built were shaped by the urge to go onward.
It was not seen that woman’s place was in the home until she began to go out of it; the statement was a reply to an unspoken challenge, it was attempted resistance to irresistible change.
Even the street, the sunshine, the very air had a special Sunday quality. We walked differently on Sundays, with greater propriety and stateliness. Greetings were more formal, more subdued, voices more meticulously polite. Everything was so smooth, bland, polished. And genuinely so, because this was Sunday. In church the rustling and the stillness were alike pervaded with the knowledge that all was for the best. Propriety ruled the universe. God was in His Heaven, and we were in our Sunday clothes.
There is a city myth that country life was isolated and lonely; the truth is that farmers and their families then had a richer social life than they have now. They enjoyed a society organic, satisfying and whole, not mixed and thinned with the life of town, city and nation as it now is.
Men are alive on this earth, only because the imperative human desire is to attack the enemies of human life. -viii
This is the nature of human energy; individuals generate it, and control it. Each person is self-controlling, and therefore responsible for his acts. Every human being, by his nature, is free.
I am a contributing creator of American civilization; it does not create me. I control the stem of this civilization that is within my reach; it does not control me. It can not even make me read great literature, if I’d rather read a pulp magazine.
Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968) was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, and political theorist. Though her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, is better known, her accomplishments remain remarkable. She is considered a founding force of the American Libertarian Movement.
– – – – –
iFemnists News Feed Articles:
http://www.ifeminists.com/e107_plugins/rss_menu/rss.php?1.1.
ifeminists.com : News Feed Headlines
-No, Bradley Manning, you are not a woman
-Autistic kids not savoiurs of mankind
-Irelands first legal abortion carried out in Dublin
-NM SC rules refusing to photograph gay wedding illegal
-Planned virginity tests in school spark brouhaha
Breaking news: A SWAT team of “heroes” takes out a 107-year-old man:
http://www.thv11.com/news/article/278849/2/107-year-old-Arkansas-man-dies-in-shootout-with-SWAT
Though it’s bad enough as reported, I doubt the official version. most likely, the old man didn’t even have a gun and the brave porktards simply fired a few hundred rounds through the closed door instead of checking it out.
Somebody probably reported that the elderly fellow had a gun, or maybe he said he wished he had one. That would be enough to trigger a fussilade once Porky arrived on the scene.
Pretty soon, the news media will be making up ballads for our heroes like the one in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” :
‘And then the brave sir Porky, Bravely ran away…….’
The problem is the flawed institutional framework of law enforcement & defense. We have the institutions of a police state in place in this country, that means we have a police state in place in this country. Institutions supportive of liberty would not give the govt the power to oppress & would give the people the power to resist:
The Standing Armies of Yesterday and the Police State Today
http://www.theinternationallibertarian.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-standing-armies-of-yesterday-and.html
Matt, I’m afraid it doesn’t really matter much what you’d prefer to happen… any more than it matters what any of us would prefer. We don’t get to choose anything but our own path, and pretty much the only thing we can do about any of it is to prepare, best we are able, to react to the events as they unfold in a manner we hope will help us survive. People can certainly cooperate and work together for this, but there is no magic “we” that can be manipulated for freedom as they have been for slavery.
No person, or group of persons can truly control what happens, now or in the future. One of the pervading myths is that this “government” is so powerful, nearly omnipotent… but that is fast breaking down. It’s going to be a hell of a ride.
No guarantees… We can only do our best to live free as possible now, and hope to survive for whatever future unfolds.
Dear ML,
Yes.
After all, if one is a dyed in the wool libertarian, one is always going to be returning to the individual, to individual responsibility and individual action regardless, rather than hoping for some sort of difficult to achieve “unity.”
So why not keep that in mind as a constant?
As Gandhi put it, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world”
and
“Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.”
Anarcho-capitalism, when it manifests, will surely evince a high degree of “unity.” But that “unity” will be the result of individual wills coinciding, not a collective will superimposed.
Yep…And don’t forget the fucking indoctrinated retards that call politicians “Leaders”. We are all screwed.
Yep, Joey. That one galls my ass. They aren’t “leaders” by any stretch of the imagination. The best of them couldn’t lead a horny troop of boy scouts into a whorehouse.
“Leaders” my ass. They’re the damned hired help, is what they are. They should do their little pissant “jobs” and keep their heads down, hoping none of us manages to notice them.
Dear Joey, Ed,
I routinely translate Chinese language newspaper editorials into English for the international media.
If I think I can get away with it, I change euphemistic terms as “national leaders” into less flattering terms such as “government officials.”
I would use even less flattering terminology, but I would never get away with it.
“I would use even less flattering terminology, but I would never get away with it.”
Bevin, I just had a mental image of some of your less flattering terminology:
“Fuckin’ blood engorged tick John McCain stated that his colleague, raging inflamed hemorroid and simpering sissy Lindsay Graham is indeed right that…..”
ahaha
Dear Ed,
Well, that wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but you’re definitely on the right track!
I remember the last time I encountered a reasonable cop… it was years… err, scratch that, it was DECADES ago.
As a gift for our first wedding anniversary, my now deceased father in law gave me a wonderful project. It was a black 1946 GMC panel truck with three on the tree, no engine, no front seats, and an interior that had seen better days. The plan was to collaborate with my buddy who worked at a machine shop and get a long block overhead valve 6 cylinder engine dropped into the thing, get it running and eventually fully restored (we did over time, but that’s another story).
Now, shortly after bringing the shell of the truck home, we decided to move to a bigger house. During the move, I thought that it would be a great idea to just hitch a tow bar to the truck, load it up with as much stuff as I could, then move it all to the new place. So I stuffed as much junk as I could into the car, then piled the interior of the truck until it was full, and headed on my merry way down the road.
Everything was fine until…. about ten minutes into the trip when a cop pulled in behind me and turned on his lights. My heart sank and I cursed myself as I came to the realization that the truck was adorned with plates that had expired in 1961 (it was 1979). I pulled over and took a deep breath, mentally prepared for an expensive ticket as the cop asked me to come step behind the truck with him.
But I lucked out. The reason he asked me to step to the back of the vehicle with him was to move a mirror that I’d placed facing the rear window of the truck. It was reflecting sunlight into his (and everyone else’s) face. At his request, I opened the door and turned it around. Problem solved, no ticket, no warning, no nothing, except for about a fifteen minute conversation about what a cool truck I had. I indulged his curiosity and chatted with him for a while, making damned sure that I stood directly in front of the license plate the entire time.
Hi Dan,
Yup – the old America… I miss it a lot.
And in those long-gone days, no one talked of “The Homeland” and you could say “It’s a free country” without feeling like an ass.
Eric. Glen Take (not his real name) has a book series called 299 Days. He is a government insider who knows what is really happening in the hallowed halls of state politics, and has written a realistic fictional account of a USA collapse using his insider info. His tag line is “I MISS AMERICA”.
T-shirts etc. here. http://299days.com/get-your-i-miss-america-t-shirt-here/
What about the “got something to prove” type? Such as the Napoleon sized man with corresponding small anatomy or the angry lesbian type? Don’t they deserve a category of their own?
Good call, Graham – yes, indeed!
Mea culpa. I should have included that “type,” too!
I think they’re a subcategory of number 3.
When I was younger, I wanted to be a cop — I was definitely the rosy-eyed type-1 Dudley Do-Right who thought being a cop would be a great way to help people. I took all the tests and got the certification and even got called for an interview, but I walked out of it because everybody there was a massive asshole, and I could not see myself working with those people.
My brother, unfortunately, didn’t get out as early as I did, and he actually went through the whole shebang and became (and remains) a cop. He’s a type 2 — his whole plan from the get-go was to get this job that pays way too much money and doesn’t involve much actual work, and then retire in twenty years with a huge pension. I warned him that the pension would probably not still be there (or would be inflated into worthlessness) by the time he gets it, but this is the guy who bought two houses in 2006 because real estate “just keeps going up in value.”
As for the last time I got pulled over, it was back in 2004 (I’ve been lucky), and the cop tried *really* hard to nail me for DUI. I hadn’t had a drink in days at that point; I was on my way to work, in fact! According to him, at one point on this long, hilly, windy highway, I crossed the fog line. So he immediately pulled me over and tried to book me for DUI. He eventually gave up, but he made me ten minutes late for work.
The cops out here in rural Alaska are very few and very far between, which is quite nice. I live in an unincorporated town that doesn’t have its own police in a borough that doesn’t have its own police, so it’s only the state troopers we have to worry about — and there are like 300 of them for a rather large state. I see one of them a week or so, and only on the highways — they don’t come into town unless somebody calls them or they’re trolling for action for their TV show. You do have to be a bit careful on filming day, since they’re on the prowl!
Darien wrote, “When I was younger, I wanted to be a cop […] being a cop would be a great way to help people.”
I knew a guy in high school who was exactly like that. He seemed like a good fella, he wasn’t a bully, I hope he got out too. Before it was too late and he learned to love the golden handcuffs on himself.
Darien wrote, “You do have to be a bit careful on filming day, since they’re on the prowl!”
…Or when they’re filling quotas, or just having a bad day, …or.
Our culture has sunk So low, it’s not even funny.
We’re surrounded by Pod People who see nothing wrong with injustice or inhumanity while cheering destruction.
{Damnit! Read Only!]
Gaaawd this pisses me off. Haven’t those Arkie’s ever heard about securing a perimeter on a contained person, who can’t even shoot straight? Much less his age. I call nothing short of gang murder on this one.
Damn right, Gary. It was murder. There’s nothing else it can be called.
Hi Darien,
I’ve been to Alaska twice – more or less as a tourist (both times were “car trips” – journalist junkets; they flew us out there to drive vehicles). It’s a beautiful state – and I’ve often wondered whether it’s still a relative of oasis of liberty (being large, low population density and a fairly hard place to live).
Any thoughts on that for us in the lower 48?
It’s a strange animal, to be sure — it’s still part of the modern United States, with all that entails, so it’s not any type of anarcho-capitalist wonderland. Still saddled with the same nonsense administrative Government Law that you get everywhere (I’m from Massachusetts, so it seems much less awful to me!). The main difference is that, outside the cities, there’s nobody there enforcing the laws. It is, for example, illegal to burn trash without a permit. I know exactly nobody with a permit, and everybody burns, because nobody’s there to stop them. Speed limits are highly optional. Passing zones are highly optional.
Really what I’m getting at is that Alaska has a fully-developed regulatory diktat-manufacturing organ, but is mostly lacking an enforcement organ. So we have a lot more freedom in practice that what I’m used to back in Massachusetts, where on a typical five-minute trip to the grocery store I’d see six to eight cops.
Another nice thing Alaska has is a strong home rule mentality. More local government units are considered to overrule more distant ones. So the Mat-su Borough (where I live) has a fireworks ban, but the city of Houston unbanned fireworks inside its borders. The Municipality of Anchorage Borough told Juneau’s state police to take a hike — they’re not allowed in, and Anchorage will police itself. It’s just the ol’ principles of federalism and nullification actually being used in practice, of course, but it’s pretty nice.
Then, of course, just recently the state legislature passed — and the governor signed — a bill explicitly nullifying all federal firearms laws, the NDAA, and the Real ID act citing the ninth and tenth amendments. So that’s also a good sign. 🙂
Thanks, Darien – that’s about what I expected.
I experienced a similar on-the-ground reality here in rural Virginia. Same state (and county, to a great extent) laws as in urban/suburban Virginia – but the much lower population density meant that in practice, you were able to do as you liked to a greater extent simply because there were fewer people (and so, cops) around. Land is a freedom multiplier. Just moving onto 16 acres from 1/4 acre made a huge difference to me in terms of what I was able to do – vs. not do.
So, as a practical matter, those who desire freedom must do all that’s possible to get away from people as much as from government. Because with people comes government.
The sad fact is that for every ten people, probably eight or nine of them are authoritarian statists – Clovers – of one variety or another. Thus, if 1,000 people move into your area, you’ve got 900-plus assholes who will demand things like zoning laws, new/higher taxes to “help” edumacate their kids at your expense, preposterous speed limits – and the cops to enforce them.
It’s an axiomatic relationship. One I’ve seen play out yet again in our new home.
Ten years ago, when we moved here, the Clovers were much fewer and farther between. When I went somewhere by car or bike, it was fairly rare to roll up on a Clover Conga – three-four cars stacked up behind a slow-mover, slowing even more for gentle curves – with none of the three-four cars stacked up behind even trying to get around the lead Clover. Lately, I am dealing with that sort of thing almost every time I head out.
The county population is increasing – chiefly because Yankees have, alas, discovered this place and are now moving here – and determined to make it into what they moved away from.
Yeah – I wanted to enlist, and gave thought to being a cop – that lasted until I got the US Army regs on Eyes, and found I was disqualified. I amde the “sight” limits, but had a condition that kept me out permanently. Dis-satisfying, really, I like(d?) that sort of regimentation, knowing WTF was going on.
That was… 1990, maybe? Just before, maybe?
By 1992 or so, I was GLAD (in a sense) it was the way it was – things had changed THAT MUCH in that short a time. And not for me, either – but for what was going on inside. I don’t have anything amazingly secret – just, the roles of the services changed, the cool hardware wasn’t getting off the drawing boards, the whole thing seemed to be going into a sinkhole.
Economically, I get it now: We have a surplus of bodies, and rifles and ammo are cheap, compared to a $10,000-per-person suit of modern armor, or a few million in terms of high-tech weaponry.
I still love looking at things like the F-22, the B-2, B-1B, even the old stratofortress; I miss the Blackbird, too, but also the Concorde.
I think part of it – is the loss of optimism that occurred about the same time. 1990-1995 there was a severe change, I can’t tell what it was – but the world changed, and I started to wake up – and then I found out how far the rabbit hole went, 1995 – present. Been a learning experience.
I’m not alone, either: Matt Forney is another name for people to google, he’s no longer anonymous – used to run a site called In Mala Fide (In bad faith for the latin-challenged amongst us – like me). That, and the rest of the Manosphere, was a MAJOR growing pain…
What has been seen, cannot be unseen. I guess it was what was needed – but the scars remain, ya know?
At least we don’t have the scars of screwing unto others without cause. In a decade or two, those people will either be sociopaths, dead inside, or dead. Likely the sociopaths will remain, and those dead inside will move out through burnout and similar attrition.
Hi Eric, are talking about Floyd or Carroll County in SW VA? Been there–very creepy area. Have you seen the oversized Government building there, in Hillsville?
Jeff Hilton
Hi Jeff,
Yep, Floyd!
I’ve heard it called many thing, but never creepy!
Hillsville’s about 40 miles down the road from us. I don’t get there often, but have driven through it several times. I haven’t see the building you mention…
HEY! I (unfortunately) watched “Olympus Has Fallen” the other day too. Jeez….I laughed and groaned all the way through it. I tried to tell my kids and their friends that…gosh…it really WOULD be okay if D.C. got nuked (actually, being a NAP adherent, I don’t really want anybody to die…but you get the drift). It would give us FREEDOM for awhile (until the bastards regrouped and re-formed their fascist “gubernment” again…sigh).
That movie required the audience to suspend belief too many times.
Oh…before I forget, one of the classic lines at the end of my waste-of-time was something along the lines of “gosh…the place sure got destroyed…” and the “president” replies “that’s okay…I’m pretty sure it’s “insured””. Now good people…just think about that for a moment. Who really “insures” the government? Oh…that’s right…us slavish milk-cow taxpayers. Yeah…”insured” indeed. BLARRRRRRRRF.
Disgust.
Okay…I’m done ranting.
I liked, “Olympus has Fallen,” though I was rooting for the attack to succeed – and then VERY turned off at the progress of the movie – it made the Korean guy out to be a MAJOR p*ssy, mama’s boy, wimp. He had something to prove, when anyone who studies – even remotely – human biodiversity, KNOWS who has the bigger….
Oh, wait, we’re trying to keep this to a PG-13 rating, right? 😉
Question, though – if the C-130 was a Spooky – WHY did they come in for a suicide run?
And since the North Koreans killed the little snot’s FATHER – FORCING he and his mother to try and go south – WHY did he hold AMERICA responsible for the death of HIS MOTHER, as “the big deal”?
I mean, logically, even as a child – NK’s killed Dad, we had to run away, Mom got shot becuase she was in a RESTRICTED MILITARY ZONE and no one could tell who she was or what she was doing.
I don’t get it. Sort of killed it for me. I would’ve understood more had he just been an NK agent awakened from sleeper mode. But being a little kid throwing a temper tantrum? Make no sense!!!
I’m willing to admit that there might be a positive (for those of us who love freedom) message someone buried in a film like Olympus, and maybe those of you who’ve seen it can confirm (or deny) this. But as soon as I first saw the ads for it, my immediate thought was “oh GAWD, please … NOT another film that glorifies Rome-on-the-Potomac Ueber Alles!” I simply have NO interest in wasting my precious time or money to see such a film.
It would be nice to think of D.C. being sacked an level, a la its historical antecedent in AD 410 and again in AD 476, but not enough to motivate me to spend time and money watching a fantasy film of it.
Sorry, make that “and leveled…” in the second paragraph.
Yeah, that Olympus thing really sucked ass. I rented it at Redbox, thinking it would at least be comical. Sheesh… I couldn’t get past the opening scenes with the prez and 1st heifer looking all glamorous and going for a ride on icy roads….bullshit.
The prez actually tries to save the 1st heifer when the car is dangling over the cliff instead of pissing his pants and screeching for help as any politician would really do…. bullshit.
I ejected the disc after that overload of bullshit, so I never found out if it was comical. All that crap about the prez being such an all important asshole who must be guarded is total shit. It cut short the inevitable ejection by about 30 minutes.
gerard butler goes from defending thermopylae with 300, to defending thermonuclearoligopoly all by hisownself….sequels usually do suck ☻
Old school cop pushing 50? More like 65. I don’t think there are any left around here. The 50 year old cops are pretty bad, not as bad as the younger ones, but pretty bad. Then again maybe it’s because I am in a giant metro area vs out in the country.
IIRC, Brent, you’re in the Chicago area, right? If that’s the case, then I’d say your experiences are generally the exception to the rule, bad as cops everywhere are. NYC, Chitown, and Nawlins are three cities/metro areas that, IME, have the most satanically corrupt “police forces” in the country, worse than those of all other metro areas combined.
Since I have to go outside of the mainstream domestic propaganda organs within this twisted, fucked up country, here is a report of a 107 year old man being killed by “heroes”.
http://rt.com/usa/107-suspect-killed-swat-568/
I saw that too. It’s amazing they can’t subdue a 107 year old man any other way than to kill him.
Dom, this is when you KNOW things are so fucked up that they put down an elderly man in this way: like a mere dog. The lack of respect is so evident it’s no wonder I actually cheer on anyone who takes down a cop these days. They don’t deserve any quarter or mercy in my book. Why? Because they sure as shyte don’t give us any.
Grrrr. This one pissed me off badly. I posted this on the local TV station report of the murder. Gives us old guys a bad name.
“When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. David Koresh got 51 days at Waco before serving a warrant the hard way. And this guy was more dangerous? Moron managers & officers. G. Scott SDSD Ret.”
http://www.fox16.com/mostpopular/story/107-Year-Old-Man-Dies-in-Shootout-With-SWAT-Team/TRAXEQNAaUm_iQ4tjYcx6A.cspx
Casual violence toward the physically defenseless is – like banning/burning books – a hallmark of a society’s descent into barbarism.
Kids, females (most females) and old people… off limits. No man – in a not-sick society – would ever do something like hit one with a closed fist, or strike one with a baton. I can see – in certain extreme cases – that it might be necessary to restrain one, as via holding their arms at their sides, via a bear hug or some such. But no man ought to ever do more than that to a kid, a woman or an old person.
Just makes me sick.
I agree with this, but the modern feminism movement has jaded most men to showing proper respect to women.
I live in the south, I’m looked at like I’ve got horns growing out of my head when I hold a door open for a women anywhere else in the country.
Ender, please – PLEASE – remember that the original “feminist” movement to ensure equal rights was hijacked almost completely by the collectivist feminazis very early in the game.
The feminazis are truly responsible for much of the horror going on in the (mostly urban) government “schools,” emotionally and pharmaceutically castrating as many males as possible, and turning females into black widow spiders as well…
I invite you to visit Wyoming… where men are MEN, and women are women – both strong and opinionated as all get out. And whoever gets to the door first usually holds it for the next few… but we are always glad to see a true gentleman taking that little time for courtesy.
You just have to be prepared to see women going armed, and maybe outshooting you occasionally. 🙂 No clinging vine Southern belles here. 🙂
Ender, you could make that the historical feminist movement as well. The whole feminist shitaree came out of New England, where most of what’s wrong on this continent originated. The early feminist battle-axes were worse than the modern ones. They pushed race-based eugenics and the first War on Drugs (prohibition). At least the current crop are so dimwitted as to amount to almost nothing more than irritation.
They’ve always been a pox on the rest of us, from the very beginning. They have never been a good movement hijacked and gone bad, the movement was rotten from its inception. It’s based on hatred, bigotry and the arrogant assumption that an elite group of women knows what’s best for all humanity.
Correct. The woman’s movement was hijacked by the cabal early on. The main reason was to get as many women as possible out of the home an into the workplace. Why? 1) So they could be taxed, and 2) The State would be “required” to step in and have a bigger role in raising the nation’s children. The State considers your kids to be THEIR property, THEIR assets. Not yours. Henry Kissinger and other members of the “elite” have admitted this.
Well Bill Gates said it was OK to get rid of those resource grabbing useless eaters, and use the money for more school teacher commissars. 4 to 1 was the ratio he quoted. I am guessing he isn’t too worried about his old age.
The only nice thing I have to say about Gates is that his honesty in voicing his one-world-order totalitarianism has given me another good reason for being the Linux/Unix devotee that I am.
Thank you, Bill, you asshole. May the same thing happen to your evil digital empire that is now happening to Apple since it’s Fuehrer has made his exit to the afterlife.
Must be a budget crunch in Ark. They gave David Koresh 51 days at Waco before serving their warrant on him.
“They gave David Koresh 51 days at Waco before serving their warrant on him.”
Since you’ve repeated that line, I have to point out to you that it’s a very bad example. The Davidians were under seige after an armed assault by another FLEA which had no warrant.
I stand corrected Ed. It was just the first thought that came to my red vision after the reading the story. The whole Waco deal was a setup from the start. They could have grabbed Koresh on any Wednesday when he went to the market. Please don’t think I condone anything about that Stazi raid and the 4 eyed dyke bitch who ran the operation.
Yep, look on the bright side: even though these were locals acting like feds, at least they didn’t burn the house down, which is the FBI’s hallmark.
So far, we’re just seeing imitation of FLEA behavior by the locals. Soon enough, the locals will start outdoing the feds in their handling of “standoffs”.
You bet it was a setup. And it had less to do with David Koresh and more to do with making a statement.
Back in the early 90’s, people were beginning to question whether the ATF was really necessary…… Especially the FBI, an agency that is very protective of its “turf”, a lot of people there wanted the ATF gone.
Waco happened like it did for one reason: The ATF wanted to put on a show for the new Clinton administration to “prove” that they were a necessary agency……and that they in fact needed to be enlarged and even more funded.
This old dude remembered the old America, no doubt. Imagine his perspective, having been alive before there was an income tax. When a man could still – more or less – live his life as he pleased. This guy witnessed a country transform from mostly free – in terms of everyday life – to a red, white and blue Soviet Union.
Dear Eric,
“This guy witnessed a country transform… into a red, white and blue Soviet Union.”
That’s the bitter irony of it all. I’m younger than that guy. But even I remember when I was filled with admiration for America. I wasn’t even a citizen then.
Today conservative Republican apologists for the police state that Amerika has become, assume that libertarians are “unpatriotic” because we lament that America is no longer what it was.
Well if patriotism means blind state worship, then maybe we are “unpatriotic.” But that was hardly how the Framers, whom conservative Republicans hold up as the ultimate authorities, viewed patriotism.
(*Leave aside the minarchist/anarchist schism for the moment.)
It truly is sad. I remember wondering how Roman historians must have felt watching their beloved republic degenerate into an empire, and their empire degenerate into nothingness.
I guess now I know.
I use the phrase “Red, White, and Blue Curtain” frequently these days to describe the totalitarian cage we now live in. It has the added bonus of working Reich-wing brainstemmers into a lather.
I’ve approached moden America by removing the U.S. flag from the lapel of my suit (when I wear one) and replacing it with a Soviet flag. When asked about this, I simply reply that when we return to the America I grew up in (70’s and 80’s), I’ll replace the Soviet flag. Until then, I will wear the flag that more correctly represents the government we currently have.
Probably goes without saying that most people walk away with that “glazed over” look in their eyes.
Mike – that’s excellent! Well-done, sir!
Now, if I only I still had cause to wear a suit…
1968 Oedipus the King w/ Christopher Plummer –
Orson Welles and Donald Sutherland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAgvdfyAiJw&t=4496
o the generations of man, his life is vanity and nothingness
is there one who more than tastes of, thinks of happiness?
which in the thinking vanishes, yours the text, yours the spell
i see it in you oedipus, man’s pattern of unblessedness
you who aim so high, who hit life’s topmost prize
success, a sovereign one, supremely blessed
but king, of mighty thieves
and now what tale, what turn of fate, and what such friend,
was ever found of sorrow, the majesty, the fame of oedipus
cut down, and father, son, found sharing ample anchorage
oh fathers field, oh double tilled, how could you bare your fruit so long,
and not break out in horror?
i will gaze no more
– yes thee pork of cloven hoof struck his eyes, not once but many times,
now turned to tears this day, to ruin, to death, and shame,
no evil absenth by whatever cursed name
The comment thread has evolved a bit from the purely cop-specific content of Eric’s article. That’s great, because it really illustrates how the wheels are turning all over the place.
Anyway, if you really want to get the wheels turning, read “Antigone” by Sophocles. He tackles the issue of governing bodies over individual rights. The content is timeless and relevant. Quoting Sophocles as someone whose work you’ve recently read will certainly give you street cred, too (amongst the correct crowd, natch.)
Hi James,
Yup!
It gladdens my mean-spirited heart to find a reader referencing Sophocles. It gives me hope. Idiocracy abounds, but there are still redoubts of civilization left.
Now it’s just a matter of pushing back….
Now if we could just put a stake in the heart of MTV and make them start reading…..
No, he doesn’t. He tackles the issue of governing bodies over familial piety, family based rather than state based religion, a much more ancient institution among the Greeks. It’s important to remember that “piety” didn’t then mean being both religious and morally upright, it meant being in such actual fear of being struck by the gods for transgressing their sometimes arbitrary requirements that the pious religiously stuck to what the gods wanted without looking deeper – and what the gods wanted might be contradictory or immoral, like Laocoon not being supposed to warn the Trojans and getting smitten with his two young sons for doing so. If that sounds like the U.S.A. hitting people with drones and how that works out, that is not a coincidence. So Sophocles isn’t looking at individual rights at all, but at whether it is better to obey the gods or human rulers (either way, for fear of what they might do if angered or thwarted).
I work out of my home, and as such, I actually don’t drive that much anymore. When I do, it’s still a pleasure and not a drain due to traffic,etc,etc.
Friday, I was driving on an errand, at a red light with my windows down, radio blaring when I noticed a cop behind me. For some reason, I immediately thought of this site and kept a wary eye on the fucker.
He ran my plates for no apparent reason, saw him checking out his computer while he was behind me…. The only thing I did was have loud music going and looking like an apparent dirty unshaven hippy (I never see other people, I’m not shaving for the hell of it).
Luckily for me, I have no driving citations lately, car was in order (tail lights working, etc). It just irked me that he’d run the plates for no apparent reason.
As soon as I see a cop I turn my camera on and start videoing. If he stays behind me I never got off main roads until the scumbag is gone.
Yup.
It’s a fact that everyone feels on edge when they find a cop on their bumper – or even in their general vicinity. Even Clovers get edgy when they see a cop. Think about what this implies about cops – about the system they’re the enforcers for.
It’s the final roundup, taxing movement itself!
“The West has been destroyed by its own governments, who have told too many self-serving lies, and by its capitalist corporations, who offshored the West’s jobs and technology to China, India, Indonesia, and Brazil, depriving the Western governments of a tax base and the support of its citizens.”
edited: meant to say “movement”
My daughter is two years old and I already am teaching her that the police are not her friends and to avoid them at all costs. My father lives in the crime-ridden gun-free zone known as Chicago and in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city (near 67th Street and Ashland Avenue) and I still fear the police of my suburban Milwaukee town more than the people of my father’s neighborhood. If I don’t do anything else correctly I certainly will make damn sure any child of mine knows the truth about the blue costume-clad thugs with a government license to kill and maim.
Good for you. To the horror of my soporific State-worshipping parents-in-law, my seven-year-old daughter warns me loudly when we’re driving (once with parents-in-law present)–“Daddy look out–there’s a pig over there!”
The expression on their CNN-slack-jawed faces was priceless!
“Think about what this implies about cops – about the system they’re the enforcers for.”
Yep. Just because they ain’t out to get you doesn’t mean they won’t.
Dear dom, eric,
Some weird shit is happening.
Some comments addressed to me in the “What’s Happening” column don’t show up in the article reply section when I click the blue links.
Hey Bevin, that is a cache issue. I have some settings on the site that make that happen from time to time. If I turn them off the site crashes if we get too many hits. Happens to me as well. I’ll refresh the cache now.
There are those who agree with me in principle about cop abuses but bristle when I recount a whole train of police abuses across the nation. It seems they get to this point of cognitive dissonance and then want to shut down when the reality becomes too much to bear. The reality being that cops, and any other “law enforcer”, are fucking goons hell bent to hurt or kill anyone in their way. I so despise them it’s palpable.
Now take for example how in popular culture and so-called entertainment you have a seemingly never ending parade of these badged gun-toting fuckers. I was in Best Buy today and went down the aisle to investigate all the movies and I could hardly move a pace down the row without yet another film or TV series with cops, agents, FBI, 24, CIA, government this or that, yada yada yada…. It’s quite disqusting. Maybe it explains how when I caught the first part of Olympus has Fallen at a friends house I was actually cheering on the assaillants. Just what brought me to this point? The constant browbeating and hype over our “heroes”? Sweet Jebus!
I tell you this. If I ever discover a portal to another better world I’m taking a handful of decent people with me and blowing the god damned thing up behind me. Screw this place!
Dear MoT,
I wouldn’t be too surprised if they made a movie lionizing TSA pervs.
Wouldn’t be hard. Airport? Basically Die Hard 2.
Dear MoT,
Just looked up “Olympus has Fallen”.
The film depicts a North Korean-led guerrilla assault on the White House, and focuses on a Secret Service agent who tries to stop them.
Before he is killed, Agent Roma (Cole Hauser) alerts the Director of the Secret Service Lynne Jacobs (Angela Bassett) that “Olympus has fallen”. Terrorists lower and take down the bullet riddled American flag on the White House rooftop that night.
Olympus has fallen??? The Mountain on which the Very Gods Themselves Reside?
Give me a fucking break!!!
This is no longer implicit deification of ambitious pols. This is explicit deification of these power hungry sociopaths.
As HL Mencken said, “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
Bevin, just got back from YouTube and watching 80’s music videos before MTV turned into another stinking pile of “reality” dookie… Yeah, the implication that the White House stood for some sort of home for the gods didn’t escape my already cynical self. What the hell?! That’s exactly what went through my mind. And, there again, they paint the North Koreans as doing this. Just like that other reworked stinker Red Dawn that suspiciously arrived at about the same time. Can anyone say CIA-Hollywood nexus? Puhleeeze!
What you don’t see are your everyday Americans rebelling against their overlords and actually attacking these bastards in the very same way. That “scenario” is seemingly verboten when it’s actually closer to the truth.
Dear MoT,
I would have been surprised if you or any hardcore anacap missed that Olympus analogy.
Yeah, the North Koreans. They are of course, Really Bad Guys.
But the notion that they have plans to invade Murica or even God forbid take down mighty Olympus itself, is an infantile joke, not even worthy of the pre-adolescent Mighty Morphin Power Rangers or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shows.
The publik skool system has certainly done its work. It has turned recent generations of Muricans into Rachel Jeantels.
Bevin, It is all part of the long con. No American would pay a dime to watch these movies 25 or 30 years ago, and they would have been hounded out of the theaters with cries of “get that communist bullshit out of here”.
For a very long time Americans have been scientifically led, a step at a time, into the mental cage of communitarianism. Starting in the early 20th century our school state mandated curriculum system has been collectivized by the likes of Bertrand Russell, R.H. Tawney, most importantly John Dewey (informal advisor to Mao Zedong). Americans snored and went to their 9 to 5 thinking everything was in good hands.
The school teachers of today willingly tow the propaganda line (fully knowing or not) that they have been taught in order to get their credintial. I am not so sure they aren’t clueless how dumbed down they are about the original American values. The final nail in the socialist/ collectivist coffin for our young children is the now-being- force-implemented Federal curriculim standard called “Common Core”. A project years in the making. Nothing could be more socialist/ communitarian, all taxpayer funded, and intended to create worker bees for and to enrich the facisist multinational corporations. Period. No independent thought will be allowed once implemented. If a parent disagrees he/ she will have their children taken as abused victims, and given to the state to raise. As Hillary said “it takes a village”, and she meant it.
We are taught to accept and adpt to the third world cultures, and to cheer them as really good and green for the planet, and reject our dirty industrial wastefullness. All in the name of “It’s a small world afterall”. Why elese do we lay down, cheer, and willingly take second place to the future world dominance of the country of China? While the real power can’t work fast enough to outlaw guns in the hands of the citizen, they teach the young to want to go to war in the name of so lamo “blank” reason, which are really for the bankers.
So why shouldn’t the evil Olympus fall, and be replaced by the forever welfare state? Makes total sense to the sheep, as long as there are guns, rockets and airplanes to look at.
Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.
Now take for example how in popular culture and so-called entertainment you have a seemingly never ending parade of these badged gun-toting fuckers. I was in Best Buy today and went down the aisle to investigate all the movies and I could hardly move a pace down the row without yet another film or TV series with cops, agents, FBI, 24, CIA, government this or that, yada yada yada…. It’s quite disqusting.
I’m sure that you and everyone else here has noticed how, as cops become more and more creatures of contempt and hatred as they grow more vicious and authoritarian, Rome-on-the-Potomac’s Hollywood propaganda machine has doubled down, producing what must now be record numbers of these authoritah-worshiping cops-and-federal-agents-as-hero-savior soap operas that curse network (and to an increasingly disturbing extent, pay/cable) channels during the week.
The good news, if it can be called that, is that most of these seem to have very little longevity, some lasting as little as two episodes before negative feedback from viewers or immediate lack of interest from advertisers result in their being dropped from production. Of course, they’re soon replaced by something else just as unpalatable and unbelievable.
Methinks that this might be a not-so-subtle (or just plain clumsy, given that they have no respect for us Mere Mundanes) attempt by TPTB at subliminal indoctrination. There appears to remain a sufficient number of acerebral consumer-cattle left out there in Amerika to make such an effort worthwhile, but it also appears that these numbers are rapidly dwindling (even morons can indefinitely deny/avoid what’s in front of their own eyes and ears, especially if they have that defining “negative encounter” with it).
Some people, not all minorities, have remarked recently that the cops are just another gang. Their gang color happens to be blue, just as the Crips use red, etc.
When The Shield was a current TV show on FX, people with law enforcement experience admitted that they had types on their police force much like detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis’s character). Mackey played fast and loose with the rules, framed innocent people, stole from criminal enterprises, killed those who got in his way or simply “deserved” it, and so forth. Apparently many real cops watched Chiklis on The Shield while taking notes for future use.
It was worse than that. If you visited some of the chat threads on doubledigitiq.com (a.k.a. officer.com) back when The Shield was airing on FX as an original production series, there were chat threads on that site dedicated to the show in which the cop regulars expressed their open admiration for the character Vic Mackey and his little ganglet of cops (which, IIRC, the cast on the show referred to as “the strike team”) who made it their business to shake down gangsters and drug dealers and otherwise brutalize anyone who got in their way.
People who had been living on other planets or in Antarctica for most of their lives actually expressed surprise at this.
the net-net:
psych profile of cops, typically, is indistinguishable from that of criminals (real criminals). this has likely always been true.
tribalism (gangsterism).
mr. smith goes to washington (joins this or that predaceous tribal association), to the minimal extent that has ever happened, is rule-proving exception.
this whole line about what authoritarian muscle, the sharp end of the stick, “has become” is wrong. there have always been “niemöller’s”, & cops have always cracked those heads with impunity. only difference now is they’re coming for you.
First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
~ martin niemöller
“there can be only one” (tribe…borg…matrix). and the typical reaction to this? tribe up your own self. just like in the non-open air prisons. its the convict way. but what kind of, & “whose”, “conviction” is that?
mirror, mirror on the wall, whose collectivist of them all…which net shall i / can i be scooped into (dissolve into)?
Much like the YOOTS of Amerika who through what they believe to be rebellion to the system only go about creating another clique within it. Birds of a feather flock together. They become so “different” that before long they all look comfortably alike.
Dear oz,
“mr. smith goes to washington”
Amen to that.
How much do you wanna bet that when mainstream Demopublican “political leaders” watch Frank Capra’s populist films, they identify with Mr. Smith or John Doe. In other words, they flatter themselves.
Wanna see how they really behave?
You don’t have far to go. Just recall how the MSM and particularly the RNC treated Ron Paul in 2012.
Capra was the ultimate propagandist. To watch his films today, especially the garbage he put out during the “Greatest Generation’s” [sic] war, amounts to self-induced projectile vomiting.
If Capra were alive today, he’d probably be spending his time flooding YouTube with films showing cops as heroes, even as they continued cracking old women’s and children’s heads open and shooting people’s dogs.
If you really want to change the system the best thing you can do is try to get your local governments to pass laws to create a short term (as well as term limited) civilian oversight board that oversees all the police activities. If the police who stopped you knew they may very well appear in front of you in the near future they would think twice about being the ‘bully’
Dear Matt,
“If you really want to change the system… ”
Not if you really want to change THE SYSTEM. If you merely want to punish a particular power abuser, yes. Civilian review boards are fine. They will replace the individuals within THE SYSTEM.
But if you really want to change THE SYSTEM, you have to de-legitimize THE SYSTEM that is already in place, not reaffirm “The Government” itself as something that has one’s approval and authorization.
To really change THE SYSTEM, one has to totally withdraw one’s consent from “The Government” as such.
I constantly get people who say “Well, what would you DO to make things better”… To which I say, “I don’t want to make the system better I want it to DIE”.
Dear MoT,
Exactly.
Who wants a “kinder, gentler” Tax Farm? Who wants “Slavery Lite”?
I want genuine freedom, not the illusion of freedom. I want individual sovereignty, not “national sovereignty”. I want self ownership, not “citizenship,” i.e., glorified serfdom.
Morning, Bevin!
For me – and, I suspect, many anarcho-Libertarians – once you see the iniquity in principle behind a given tax, you resent them all for the assault on you they represent.
No man has the right to deprive another man of his property or his liberty for any reason except in recompense for harm done or in self defense (another way of saying the same thing).
Most people would not countenance punching some random other person in the nose for any reason except self defense. Yet, somehow, it’s ok to point guns at random other people and threaten to kill them if they don’t hand over their money or do as they are told when it’s done for any of a laundry list of specious reasons that all boil down to “You’ve got it – and I want it.” Or, “I don’t like what you’re doing and demand you don’t do it (or do it my way).”
Simple thuggishness cloaked with such nostrums as “the public good,” “society,” “the children,” “our schools,” “safety” – and so on.
Once seen, it’s so obvious. But sadly, only a few see.
Dear Eric,
At the risk of provoking “MEGO,” one of my biggest gripes is “Champions of Democracy” lecturing the Chinese about “freedom, human rights, and democracy.”
Ironically the only people in the West who have any right to lecture the Chinese about freedom and human rights, are free market anarchists, who detest democracy, and realize that it is the biggest enemy of freedom and human rights!
Even more ironically, they, being genuine champions of freedom and human rights, of live and let live, seldom lecture the Chinese about anything.
My new stock reply when dealing with a government-snuggler (liberal and conservative, red or blue) is to say something along the lines of: I’m just not a violent person by nature and so am not comfortable threatening to kill my neighbors, people I don;t even know and who’ve never wronged me that I’m aware of in order to force them to hand over their property for my or any other person’s benefit.
Dear Eric,
That’s good!
We should constantly refine our rhetoric to hit the x ring on the first shot.
Attention spans are short. Time is of the essence. The threat of “MEGO” “My Eyes Glaze Over” is ever present.
Dear Eric,
Also, what you did basically was what Gandhi talked about.
“Do not accept injustice in any form. Make the injustice visible.”
He was referring to street theater mainly. But uncomfortable verbal reminders are another way.
While I agree that the ideal would be dismantling the system it is not realistic to expect to move from where we are to that without other steps along the way. One of the first steps is to make the privileged classes answerable to the masses.
Once you remove the privileges they gain from the system they are less likely to be rabid defenders of that system. Since the police are the thugs who enforce the edicts of all the elites it would be wise to make that the first attack. Demoralize and decimate the elites army and you can start your march to them.
“One of the first steps is to make the privileged classes answerable to the masses.”
The “masses?” This idea seems to leave the “privileged class” in the driver’s seat – with 300+ million back seat drivers, each screaming for the guy at the wheel to steer a different way at their whim.
How about we each drive our own life and leave everyone else to do the same? 🙂
Amen to that, Mama! It just grinds my gears how people feel that we all are incapable to run our lives yet are quite capable to “elect” someone to run our lives for us. If I am smart enough to choose someone to run my life that has all of my best interests at heart, then it would stand to reason that I am able to run my OWN life since not only do I have all my best interests at heart, I don’t have to think about meeting anyone else’s demand and I know my every move and motivation.
“How about we each drive our own life and leave everyone else to do the same? ”
There is nothing more I would like to see. The problem is a lot of the people who live around us fear that outcome. We spent 100 years telling people they NEED a government from the time they are 4 till they die. You don’t undo that programming over night in one step.
Unless you, or others, are prepared to imprison, deport, or kill the majority of people around you the ideal of freedom you hold would quickly fall victim to that same majority who thinks they need a government.
I for one prefer to make change were I can that serves two purposes. The first is to push back at the government. The second is in that process to teach people they can and should control their own lives.
If that makes me less then the perfect libertarian… well so be it. I just refuse to hold my breath and wait for something to change… Two year olds quickly learn it does not work and this movement would be wise to learn the same lesson.
Hi Matt,
I see no reason why one can’t do both.
Meaning: Defend the principle (NAP, self-ownership) without compromise. But work to achieve what’s possible.
I’ve written/said I’d be ecstatic if only we could dial things back to the America that existed in the ’70s – because relative to today, it was a virtual Libertopia.
And then, having achieved that, we might make even more progress… .
But, if you want me prediction/opinion as to how this will all play out, here it is:
I think an extremely unpleasant correction – financial/political/social – is now inevitable. The question isn’t whether it can be avoided, but what will come afterward. I believe if enough people can be awakened in time, a nucleus of liberty-minded people will be able to not only survive what is coming, but will be there to pick up the pieces afterward.
Chuck Baldwin’s people (and the Free State Project) have the right idea. Gathering together like-minded people in the same physical area. The problem is that right now, this is not feasible for most people. But it will become more so after the events I suspect are coming.
And in the meanwhile, it cannot hurt to try to bring in over as many of your current neighbors as possible to our side of the fence.
Think outposts or armed forts interspersed among the savages.
We have numerous advantages over their one (numbers).
Of course, there is Marshall Zhukov’s observation that numbers (quantity) has a quality all its own.
We’ll see!
Dear Matt,
“One of the first steps is to make the privileged classes answerable to the masses.”
This kind of thinking is the root of the problem to begin with.
“Making the privileged classes answerable to the masses” implies that the “privileged classes” are still in existence.
My question to you is “Why?”
The only step necessary. and the only step that makes any difference, is ridding oneself of the false belief that there ought to be “privileged classes” to begin with.
“The Government” is not some mysterious, invincible force. It is merely a bunch of strangers who formed a gang, called its gang “The Government of [fill in the blank]” then started bossing others around and demanding money.
The only difference between this gang and other gangs, is that this gang was cunning enough to con people into believing, falsely, that they owed a moral obligation to obey them and pay them.
Rid yourself of that false belief, and it’s “Game over!” Nothing more to do. There are no “steps” to take. That’s it. Done.
Bravo Bevin. You just described the mirage of democracy.
Dear Gary,
Thanks. But really, it’s amazing how simple it is once you get it.
Then what happens is you kick yourself and wonder why it took you so long to see something that was there all the time, and so glaringly obvious!
I know that was true for me. It took me over a decade to finally jettison minarchism for anarchism. I was not an easy convert. I went kicking and screaming.
Larken Rose talks about the process in his videos. He went through the same thing himself. He says he used to be a flag waving Republican law and order type. Imagine that!
That to me is hopeful. If someone as hardcore as him could come from that background, there is hope for “the masses” [sic!] yet.
To imply admitting there is a privileged class is some kind of sanction for them to rule is creating a link were none exists.
“The only step necessary. and the only step that makes any difference, is ridding oneself of the false belief that there ought to be “privileged classes” to begin with.”
The problem with that view is that with it you will remain in the extreme minority for the long run. If you take the all or nothing approach you might be able to hold your head high while you are being gate raped but the fact is you are still being gate raped.
If our group were to take a page out of the Art of War we could make great strides in the direction we want… while it might not be a perfect solution over night it will start to make beachheads in the current system and reverse the trends we have seen over the last few decades.
History has no examples of states which go from were we are to perfect freedom without first taking the steps to show a public they do not need their overlords. Those that try to do it quickly, though war, tend to just trade one strongman for an other. The folly in the “Rid yourself of that false belief, and it’s “Game over!”” mindset is that you think our government actually operates off our consent.
Hi Matt,
Many people make the error of equating (or confusing) the notion of “privileged class,” or “elite” with meritocracy. Though sometimes there is overlap, often there is not. The “privileged” and “elite” aren’t meritorious in terms of ability or achievement; they’re simply people who have lots of money – or pull. (And those two increasingly do go together in terminal-stage America.)
You mean, the way the majority of the Irish viewed the Anglo-Irish and the British over the few centuries until the early twentieth century, so that Britain never ruled Ireland up until then? Or the way that the majority of the Chinese viewed the Manchus over the few centuries until the early twentieth century, so that the Manchu (Qing) dynasty never ruled China up until then?
There really is rather more to it than just setting the stage like that.
Sorry, Matt, but CRBs are useless. Hundreds, if not thousands of these things have been established off and on in cities all over the country over the last thirty-plus years and NEVER has a single one of them ever had any actual power or means of punishing “bad cops.”
Think about it: who has the muscle to disarm/disempower cops? Not a bunch of unarmed civilians (most of whom worship these blue-clad gangsters as “heroes”), and the cops know this. More to the point, does anyone think that TPTB are gonna let a bunch of Mere Mundanes have any say over how the Praetorian Guard conducts its business? Not a chance.
Invest in a fencing lame for Taser immunity. Have a getaway plan. Disobey.
Or have a TASER, Fight fire with fire.
If you do that, be sure to also carry a 9mm (or better yet, a 44 or 45) should Porky decide to step up the firepower once you return taserfire (and you can bet that he will).
In for a dime, in for a dollar…
One of my favorite sayings is: “You pull your taser, I’ll pull my 1911 and we’ll see who wins this pissing match”.
Yah, We all have our fantasy’s of wasting a corrupt brutal cop. You’d be on the dash cam and they’d have 10 cars on you like stink on manure. If they catch you they’d kill you either on the spot or in the jail. Even if it happened in Carbo Virginia the State boys would have your house surrounded in twenty minutes. You’d be dead shortly.
Hi Joey,
The better course, as I see it, is to de-legitimize both the unjust laws that now exist as well as those who enforce them. Take away the moral sanction and the problem will – eventually – take care of itself.
That’s why I keep hammering away in defense of the NAP and self ownership. It’s very hard to be against either of these things. The problem is, most discussions of a given topic never bring either up.
And that’s what’s got to change before anything else does.
My friend (the one who loves cops, says their actions are “perks of the job”) was driving me, we were going to the movies or something, and we got clocked going 45 in a 35. He pulled us over; he was very old… and nice. An old school cop. The car was in his parents’ name, so he wrote on the citation that we were going 40 in the 35 instead of the actual 45, so we’d avoid a point, or ticket, or something like that. I’m honestly not sure why he did this, if it was true kindness or if they’re working to get on the good side of us younger adults. Opinions?
He was definitely a firm believer in the “speed kills” mentality, since he told us we need to slow down going through there.
This encounter reaffirmed his opinion of the majority of police and gave evidence as to the contrary of mine.
It really depends on the district you are in. In Michigan we removed the peoples right to face their accuser as well as their right to appeals in all civil infractions. Since then the police mark you for whatever they ‘caught’ you doing knowing full well if you go to court it is no sweat off their backs.
Once you end up in court some little ADA shows up and you come to an agreement with them that normally results in no points and a fine. They just want the money now so the illusion of justice has been smashed.
Before that law changed though I use to tell the police that stopped me I intended to fight the ticket in court and they would then ask what ticket I would accept and pay without a hearing. Normally we would settle on impeding traffic since it was as costly as a 10 over ticket but carried no points.
Odds are the cop you got just did not want to appear in court and figured a ticket that carried no points would be paid and not fought.
I think I may have used the word “citation” incorrectly. He didn’t give us a ticket either though. But he did give us a paper that showed our 40 in a 35, and requested that my friend’s parents see the note. The traffic stop was logged in whatever database that goes into, (he noted it was his first offense). I’ve been looking up my state’s laws, and I still can’t find whether or not we have a right to face our accuser in court.
Hi Brandon,
If all you got was a warning, then the cop was all right. But if he “gave you a break” – by reducing the cite from say 45 in a 35 to 40 in a 35 – all he did was get you to feel ok about being robbed because he still took your money (or did so on behalf of his employer, the state/county).
Matt, can you cite the law? Does it disallow a bench or jury trial?
I’m in MI and was not aware of that change.
I encountered the same type of cop in Florida. I must have been pushing 95 when I blew past his trap in the panhandle. I got pulled and was written up for 79. He told me to talk to the judge and the judge would take “good care of me,” and that my record would likely be okay. My jaw dropped open. He didn’t even tell me to “slow down.” It seemed that he understood I was a competent driver and that he just needed to write a ticket for something.
He was like a grand father and probably has retired from the force. Must have been his last year. Nice guy. lol
Most cops are not like that and I avoid them like the plague. I’ve been lucky.
That reminds me of my first “ticket”, and the whole court bullshit. Did they actually take good care of you?
In PA, and there was a “construction zone” detour on the southbound exit, that funneled you into another construction zone that was illegal to drive into. Two cop cars waiting there, ticketing anyone who fell for the trap. Me and 2 other cars were waiting in line to get ticketed. When it was my turn, I was told, “Hey, my supervisor’s right over there, so I have to give you a ticket. But go to court on that date and I’ll make sure the judge gets rid of it.” So, Saturday morning at 10, me, my dad (who was with me in the car) and 40 other people were in the courthouse, all for that same construction zone. Cop never showed, and the judge told us to fuck off, the tickets would be staying.
Weeks later, the state of Pennsylvania sent us a check in the mail for the cost of the ticket. We assumed that the cop eventually did show up, and get rid of our tickets. I was very happy with the turnout.
The last time I dealt with a reasonable cop was back around 1998. I was out in a new BMW – and really hauling the mail. This was out in the middle of Nowhere, Va. – and I was literally the only car on the road. Well, except for the cop coming the other way. I was doing at least 100 – 55 zone. Today, I’d have dropped the hammer – and gone for broke – knowing my doom was certain if I stopped. But back then, things were different. So I pulled off onto the shoulder before he even got turned around – and waited for him to catch up. When he rolled up, he was all piss and vinegar. But I played it cool – and the first thing out of my mouth was:
“Officer, you may have noticed the funny plates on this car. It’s not mine. I’m a car journalist and this is BMW’s car. The new XXXX. I’m test driving it for a week; I’ve got the paperwork right here.”
Now, most cops like cars – and back then, when cops were usually not Officer 82nd Airborne types, you could use this common ground to relate to them, one human being to another.
We got to talking cars. Bullshitted about them for 15-20 minutes. I told him all about the BMW, let him check it out (he sat in the diver’s seat, looked under the hood).
After awhile, he said: “That’s a nice car. Be careful with it. Have a nice day” – and walked away.
Things like this really did happen in the America That Used To Be.
Eric your story took me back (to late 1970’s) to getting stopped on the I-5 freeway between Los Angeles and Bakersfield. I had gotten my aunts brand new rotary engine Mazda sedan and was traveling on I-5 through the Gorman Pass (between Los Angeles and Bakersfield) at 1:00AM doing about 100 MPH on a vacant freeway. That car was so bloody smooth and powerful I think it would go 150 without any vibration or noise. Just as I crest the top of the pass I see a glint off to my right in the darkness, but was not sure what it was, so I the roared on. As I came to the bottom of the mountain and flattened out onto the long straightaway in the valley I see a car in my rear view, and what looks like maybe a red diver spotlight (CHP) waaaaaaay back there. So I backed off to about 65-70. Well about 10 miles later he finally gets close enough to pull me over. I rolled down the window and could hear his big Dodge 440 banging and knocking behind me. His first statement to me was “What the hell kind of car is this?” We had a nice conversation, he looked under the hood, and I got a warning.
The last break I ever got had to be the most unexpected. It was ’99 and I was traveling back from Chicago to Detroit. I was on I-94 about 20 minutes outside of Chicago doing 75 in a 55. The cop stopped me and I was ready to be arrested since it was reckless and I had an out of state license. Surprisingly once I explained to the cop I was a day behind and just trying to get home he wrote me a warning and sent me on my way.
Since then every cop that stops me acts like I am an enemy combatant fleeing fallujah.
Dear Eric,
1998.
Three years before the watershed moment of September 11, 2001.
I remember writing editorials back in the late 90s, making dire predictions about where Imperium Americanus was heading. The logic was inescapable.
But in the 12 years since 9/11, I still can’t quite believe the swiftness of the decline I myself was issuing dire warnings about.
Sometimes no matter how hard one tries, one’s feeling levels have trouble keeping up with one’s reasoning capacity. One’s mind can see what is happening. But one’s guts can’t quite give it full credence.
Bevin, Like a coordinated attack on your freedom and money that started on that eventful day? Does to me.
Hi Bevin,
Yup.
As Don Henley put it:
Who knows how long this will last?
Or how we’ve come so far so fast?
Dear Gary,
I used to dismiss “conspiracy theories.” No more.
Conspiracy is just another word for plan. Who doesn’t plan?
Dear Eric,
Right. One consolation. The Pendulum Effect.
Or as the Chinese Daoist philosophers say,
物極必反
[wùjíbìfǎn]
When things reach an extreme, they can only move in the opposite direction
Bevin wrote:-
There is reputed to be an old saying in New York: “when you hit bottom there is only one way to go – sideways”.
Dear PM,
Sideways.
That’s good!
LOL.
I remember writing editorials back in the late 90s, making dire predictions about where Imperium Americanus was heading. The logic was inescapable.
But in the 12 years since 9/11, I still can’t quite believe the swiftness of the decline I myself was issuing dire warnings about.
Even more sickening than the fact that what you predicted (and what should have been obvious even back then to anyone with a minimally functional cerebral cortex) has come true is that too many people out there who obviously should know better still continue to deny what’s in front of their own eyes and ears.
Casting pearls before swine can really be frustrating, no?
That’s typical police behavior. It is done to make you feel better and less likely to take the case to court. Police know that if they apply the maximum penalty they’ll get a higher percentage of people fighting tickets since they have a much higher likelihood of real economic impact.
Your friend should fight the ticket. Not only will it be a good introduction to how the courts really work, he should be offered a plea bargain that might reduce or eliminate points, or reduce the fine, or both.
Here’s an interesting case where someone was logging their trip with a GPS: http://skattertech.com/2011/02/how-my-smart-phone-got-me-out-of-a-speeding-ticket-in-traffic-court/ I post it not because of the GPS, but pay attention to the questions he asked the officer:
“Taking hints from a lawyer that spoke on behalf of a defendant shortly before me, I decided to ask the officer a few questions about the day he cited me. It turned out that the officer did not recall the last time he attended radar gun training, when the device was last calibrated, or the unit’s model number.”
Keep in mind the prosecution could simply point out that the civilian GPS built into phones is not reliable, calibrated, etc and as part of the EULA process you agreed to that statement. The judge shouldn’t have permitted the GPS to be used, but again, I’m just pointing out the type of questions one should ask if you ever find yourself in front of a judge for a speeding ticket.
True, Andy wouldn’t want any part of thie current LE system. Even Barney wouldn’t want it. The old school types have taken their pensions and are gone for the most part.
The system has been expanded to include EMTs and firefighters. They also wear the BDUs and buzzcuts or whitewalls. They line up with their cop pals at every state funeral and consider themselves part of the “thin blue line” between the politicians and the rabble. To them, we’re all assholes.
Dear Eric, Ed,
It’s interesting WHY this happens.
Modern politicians seize power and justify their existence by pretending to be our servants. But the reality is politicians of all stripes have never intended to be anything but our masters.
Over time, the underlying attitude of the “master” creates cracks in the ingratiating mask of the “public servant.”
The masters know they are not really our servants. They chafe at that knowledge. They become tired of the pretense, and eager to lord over us.
The Harvey Dent character in Batman “Two Face” represents this underlying dark side of the “public servant.”
That is what is happening now, as America becomes Amerika.
Those who desire, nay “crave”, to rule over their fellow man all have an agenda. Bane had his even while speaking the truth about the varnished evil that “polite society” paints.
Dear MoT,
Mos def.
Pot, meet Kettle!
Which of course is why the SYSTEM per se must be jettisoned. The Myth of Authority must be shattered into a million pieces, once and for all.
Nobody is owes obedience or tribute to anybody else, no matter what the pretext might be. Divine Right of Kings or The Will of the People.
so troubling and so scary