Killers Part 3

     When force is made the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. – Ayn Rand

     If you’ve read the previous two pieces in this little series, you’ve probably got the idea that I don’t much like governments. You’re right about that. The State, the human organization defined by its monopoly privilege of using lethal violence to gain its ends, did not originate from benevolence. Moreover, it is not beneficent in operation. (If you want the details, Franz Oppenheimer will happily provide them.) When Louis XIV of France declaimed that L’etat, c’est moi! he was arrogating unto himself that defining characteristic.

     Americans, for a long time, were inclined to trust their governments. After all, we’d been through a revolution, so we knew a good government from a bad one…or so we thought. We had a Constitution designed to protect our rights and restrain government to its “proper functions.” And of course, we have elections with which to “turn the rascals out” at need…at the bargain-basement price of inserting a new group of rascals to be endured.

     But somehow, it’s all gone wrong. Most Americans no longer trust our governments. They’ve misbehaved far too often and far too seriously. And our elections haven’t provided more than temporary, token relief from their misconduct. In fact, it’s begun to seem that we can’t “turn the rascals out” any longer. The newly elected rascals are often worse than those they replace.

     You have to expect that from killers.

***

     I’m struggling to resist a temptation here: the urge to drown my Gentle Readers in quotes. I have a large file of them, and the men who gave them to us are much better known, and can boast of much more prominent achievements, than your humble Curmudgeon Emeritus. But there’s this about quotes: the quoted parties aren’t around to be argued with. Here you have me. So apart from the quote at the top of this piece, I’ll try to keep this brief essay “quote-free.”

     The Founding Fathers of this nation were largely morally sound. Yes, a few of them owned slaves, but back then slavery was a going concern worldwide. Their efforts to design a national government for these United States were motivated by the consciousness of tyranny and what it is. They did what they could to avert it.

     But what the Founders did not possess, despite their erudition, was a sense for the dynamic of power. Their inclination was to believe that constitutionalism, buttressed by the English common law that had been developed and refined over several centuries, would suffice to constrain American governments. They were sufficiently humble to incorporate into their product a means by which it could be altered. Their hope, of course, was that any alterations would be for the better.

     I need not go into the history of our political devolution. We can sum it up by noting that a Constitution is an abstract thing. It cannot enforce itself – and successive generations of power-seekers went ever further in misreading it, reinterpreting it, and ignoring it completely. The righteous men of the Founding were succeeded by less scrupulous men. They in their turn were succeeded by even less scrupulous men.

     Today America’s governments are staffed almost exclusively by willing killers.

***

     No, the killers who reign over us don’t kill by their own hands. They have armed agents for that. Those agents have a shield called “Martinez-Barker.” It’s a U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia decision that ruled that an agent of the State who sincerely believes himself to be acting in accordance with lawful orders that originated from a legitimate authority is legally indemnified for his actions. That is, he cannot be punished for those actions.

     So the “grunt level” killers are legally protected. If you’ve ever wondered why Lon Horiuchi wasn’t punished for killing Vicki Weaver, now you know.

     But of course, these men are merely doing what they’re told. If they’re told to do something that might require them to kill, they go forth and do it. The levels above them originate the orders.

     The people at those higher levels seldom think about the possibility that bloodshed may result from the orders they issue. Yet that possibility inheres in every decision to deploy force against others. By the principles expressed in this piece, they are as guilty, morally, of the deaths their agents inflict as are those agents. Yet they seldom face even the possibility of indictment and trial.

***

     The point “should” be “obvious” by now. When some activity is put under government authority, that exposes anyone involved in that activity to the possibility of violent death at the hands of agents of the State. That such deaths aren’t an inevitable consequence of a violation of some government decree is merely because most of us aren’t willing to risk our lives in a confrontation with armed government agents. Nevertheless, the possibility is always there – and the folks in the air-conditioned, fluorescent-lighted offices who promulgate the laws, regulations, et cetera under which armed agents go forth must be assumed to be aware of it.

     We know, from many recent events, that you don’t need to be a lawbreaker to meet a violent death at the State’s hands. If some SWAT team commander with a no-knock warrant reads the address wrong, or if the address was mis-recorded in the first place, you could be sent to your reward merely for being slow to answer your door.

     The activity I initially addressed in this series was medicine. We don’t have socialized medicine yet, though other First World nations do. Do you think their citizens ever think about the reality of the thing: that is, that the medical care available to them is determined by killers: people who can decree their deaths for disobedience? Does it occur to them that that same authority can be used to suppress dissent about any subject whatsoever, whether by denying medical care to the dissenters or by compelling them to accept a “treatment” that will send them to an early grave?

     It’s a frightening thing to contemplate for most of us. We aren’t killers. But among our neighbors, friends, and acquaintances are persons who are quite all right with it. Whether or not they understand the dynamic of power, they want to force you to conduct your affairs according to their preferences. If it takes a little bloodshed to make it so, well, remember what Maximilien Robespierre said about omelets and eggs. The “greater good” must be served!

     I’m done with this. It’s your turn, Gentle Reader, to sit before an interrogator’s hot light. What activities do you want to subject to the authority of killers? Take your time.

11 comments

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    • foot in the forest on February 21, 2024 at 12:50 PM

    I am not eloquent. I am just an old guy that wants to be left alone. I will not be pushed; it is an extreme personality fault. I stayed as the trees screamed and died in the flame front; I will not be pushed. I stayed as the power failed and the storm raged on at -30; I will not be pushed. I stayed as the flowers bloomed in the meadow and the doe dropped her fawn in the bottom grass; I will not be pushed. I am one now with this land, and will be again in the future; I WILL NOT BE PUSHED

    • Steve on February 22, 2024 at 4:53 PM

    How about the justice system? Justice is a simple concept. It’s not like they could pervert that, right?

    1. War is peace.
      Freedom is slavery.
      Ignorance is strength.
      [Injustice is justice].

      I think Orwell would find this addition acceptable. (I wrote this straight-laced despite spotting subtle facetiousness in your reply.)

  1. The people at those higher levels seldom think about the possibility that bloodshed may result from the orders they issue.

    I added the emphasis because I’m inclined to think (holding back why for now) that it is very unlikely anymore to be seldom.

    I wish to learn how and why you chose that word.

    • Sean on February 23, 2024 at 10:52 AM

    Belief that some govt. would just resort to murder to get it’s way, is difficult for most in this country to wrap their heads around. There are many reasons for this. When our govt. does it, there’s a lot of smoke and propaganda to camouflage their actions, a willing press being one of them. Lulled into dreamy land, most will dream on, the latest atrocity didn’t affect them personally anyway. FedGov will have to get into the wholesale business of mass slaughter at some point, the same point that will cause the dreamers to abruptly wake up. Half asleep, they’ll be off to the gulag, gas chambers, and firing squads. Or not, depending on circumstances. Porretto, you’ve laid the thing out plain to your readers, my hope is that they GET IT, and not just move on, but start relaying to all they know, lest the alligator eats them first, middle, or last. Kudos, you are a good man.

    1. Porretto, you’ve laid the thing out plain to your readers, my hope is that they GET IT

      I think recent events such as Ruby Ridge and Waco have made it far easier to believe. Good things have arisen from the revelations about the COVID-19 vaccines, as well. Trust once sundered is not swiftly regained…if ever.

    • Bear Claw on February 23, 2024 at 11:42 AM

    I am waiting with baited breath for the news Lawn Whoreeoochee has been found

    • Stealth Spaniel on February 23, 2024 at 2:32 PM

    The US Citizens have changed. Citizens always look for the easy, fluffy, simple solution to their problems; all while stepping aside so that recent import from China, Saudi Arabia, Mozambique, or India can walk by. I have seen it-in grocery stores, in pharmacies, in everyday life. Citizens have become afraid to retake their own country. They will be thought of as racist or prejudiced or angry. And then some Karen will be a Good Citizen and call the police so that justice is served. It is frightening and at the same time infuriating. We now live in the time of Babble; all of these disparate and unequal cultures grasping for the dollar and power. I often think that only when the bullets are flying, when children are being raped screaming in horror, when someone has their throat slit for “fun” will the average Citizen understand. And it will be far too late! I do find it amusing that the gubbermint minions think that they can control this nightmare with armed guards and diverse military. Those folks will be ground finely when push comes to shove. The armed guards and diverse military have other plans-and it doesn’t include answering to Laura Weinstein or her attorneys. My best counsel to ordinary folks, is to prepare, plan, and have a Galt property to go to. Nothing else will matter.

    • Manolo on February 23, 2024 at 3:56 PM

    Elected rascals are a chain of a tagteam all vying for a seat in THE GRAVY TRAIN run by our blood, sweat and tears

    • luke2236 on February 23, 2024 at 4:03 PM

    No, the people at ‘higher levels’ do indeed think about the possibility of someone being killed; in fact, that is often / most usually their intent.

    And  owning of slaves by the founders in no way makes them immoral.

     

    Nothing but protecting borders, minting coinage and ensuring domestic tranquility is the business of the federal government. Period. They fail at all of those, in fact, work against them. Hence , federal government has NO legitimacy and is to be opposed at any and every possible opportunity. There will, eventually, be justice for victims and retribution heaped upon those ‘just doing their job’ and liking it.

    • FJB on February 23, 2024 at 9:14 PM

    Of course the loop could be shortened and the spilling of innocent American blood be wholly averted if those sitting in the air conditioned rooms suddenly felt the sting of hot lead passing through their craniums.

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