The Longer The Lunacy Goes On…

     …the harder it gets to say anything much about it. Consider these two developments:

• Too Many People Are Speaking Freely!
• Away With All That Disturbing “Freedom” Stuff!

     The “president” and his Homeland Security thugs are appalled that millions of Americans have reached evaluations and opinions that differ from the Official Story. This must cease! Of all things under heaven, only The Narrative is sacred. Therefore freedom of expression must be curtailed. Henceforth only “responsible speech” shall be deemed acceptable – and we’ll make sure of it!

     And what’s with this “freedom of choice” stuff, says the American “Civil Liberties” Union. We can’t have that, especially not in schools! Parents could make the wrong choices. They could endanger their children and their neighbors’ children. American families must not be permitted to choose risk!

     Even though the Left’s true intentions are now plain to anyone with eyes to see, it doesn’t mean that we can sit back, confident that the restoration of freedom is drawing near. For one thing, millions of Americans – well, they call themselves that, anyway – still support the Left and its totalitarian ways. For another, as Tucker Carlson has pointed out, a regime that feels its grip slipping always doubles down. In its last throes, it resorts to undisguised force – outright violence.

     Indeed, we may already have entered that phase of the action.

     This is not a new subject for Liberty’s Torch. I’ve ranted about anarcho-tyranny several times already. Yet the subject is far from exhausted. One aspect of out current condition deserves special emphasis.

     At this time, the federal government is striving to find a way to take firearms out of the hands of law-abiding private citizens. This isn’t new; it’s been going on since 1934 at least. However, at the same time, governments across the country have been “standing down” in the face of huge outbreaks of violent crimes and crimes against property. They’ve been refusing, de facto, to enforce the laws that protect life and property. For example, in several major cities, when a retailer reports a “smash and grab” attack on his establishment, the local police shrug. “We weren’t there, so what on Earth could we do about it?” seems to be the message. But for retailers to arm themselves and their employees is regarded as beyond the pale. Why, that would suggest that the streets of San Francisco aren’t safe! The “authorities” step on it at once.

     Some time ago – I’ve misplaced the link – another commentator drew what seems to me to be an irresistible and irrefutable inference: America’s criminals are acting as arms of the State. In effect, they’ve been exempted from the laws that bind the rest of us. They’re imposing a new standard upon us – Thou shalt stand ever vulnerable and undefended — and they’re doing it with the tacit approval of the “authorities.”

     Meanwhile, whatever we might do to protect ourselves is being ever more closely restricted. Even in those circumstances where a citizen does wield force lawfully in protecting or preventing a felony, he immediately becomes a target for prosecution. This is the deadliest of all the State’s methods for inflicting punishment. Whether the accused wins through to acquittal is almost irrelevant, for he will be impoverished and his reputation destroyed; the minions of the State will make certain of it.

     I seem to recall another writer who held forth on this most memorably:

     “When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, ‘Who is destroying the world?’ You are.”

     What other way is there to read the tea leaves?

     So the Usurpers are determined that we shall not speak against their precious Narrative. Their quasi-private cat’s-paws – there are many such – are determined that we shall not choose what they disapprove. Meanwhile the very worst criminals — outside the corridors of power, that is – rampage unchecked except for occasional acts of heroism by private citizens. And it goes on.

     I’m growing weary. I can’t keep repeating the same propositions without feeling a “What’s the use?” twist of the guts. I know I’m not alone that way. But the need is as great as ever. The demonstrations of the utter necessity of mass rebellion multiply daily.

     But I will repeat myself once more:

     So also with safety, as elusive a commodity as that always is.