WHERE DOES THE RESPONSIBILITY LIE?
by Michael Gaddy, ©2015, blogging at The Rebel Madman
(Nov. 27, 2015) — In a discussion last evening with a reader of my work, a person who is obviously concerned with the direction in which our country is traveling said he was in basic agreement with my assessment of the problems we see in our country today but he took me to task for not offering viable solutions. I told him that I was in many cases reluctant to do so because I sense the great majority of people are unable to realistically look at solutions because they are hopefully addicted to the source of our problems and therefore will not consider the possibility of quitting “cold turkey.”
Over a decade ago I wrote an article titled “All Government is Evil” in which I pointed out issues that were totally contradictory to freedom, freely embraced and practiced by the Confederate States of America. This was especially difficult for me being a true believer in the right of the Southern states to nullify unconstitutional acts of the central government and should nullification fail, to secede. A very simple axiom is this: If you can’t say no to tyranny, you are not free.
Government is the very antithesis of freedom and liberty. Yet, most Americans find themselves hopelessly addicted to the source of tyranny somehow believing the solution to the problems created by government is: more government. Of course a large number will claim they are not addicted to government but are involved in the process of politics because they believe by their involvement somehow government will become more benign. Exactly when in history has that ever happened?
Next, consider those who vote with regularity believing they are participants in the “democratic process.” Voting provides government with the flavor of legitimacy it cannot attain through any other means. As Professor Butler Shaffer so succinctly stated,
“When we vote in an election, we are declaring, by our actions, our support for the process of some people ruling others by coercive means. Our motivations for such participation – even if they be openly expressed as a desire to bring state power to an end – do not mitigate the fact that our energies are being employed on behalf of the destructive principle that liberty and social order can best be fostered through the coercive machinery of the state.”
Most people find it impossible to come to grips with the fact their vote provides the person they voted against the power to do that with which they do not agree and thought they were voting against. Those of you who voted for the “R” candidates in 2014 believing a “conservative” congress would oppose Obamacare, illegal immigration and Planned Parenthood should have an inkling of what I state.
Now that I have slaughtered the sacred cow of voting, perhaps it is time to move on to the next subject of addiction posing as an honored tradition. Of course that would be: supporting the troops.
Simply stated, when our government seeks to enforce its will upon those in other countries who prefer to choose their own style of governance, it is highly unlikely the president, vice-president, 535 members of congress and the entire judicial system will personally “ruck up” and lead the charge. As the singing group Reckless Kelly stated in their song, American Blood:
“The brass ain’t fighting but they are sure as hell taking a stand” and “He (George W. Bush) sits at home with his feet on the desk, while the boys got theirs in the sand, a million miles away with American Blood on their hands.”
Ten years ago when my son returned from a tour of duty in Iraq, I wrote an article asking the people to please stop supporting my troop. In that article, I wrote the following:
“Only in a true Orwellian society could citizens send off poorly trained and equipped soldiers, serving in a politically correct military, led by a civilian leadership that has spent the majority of their adult lives in a revolving door between the military industrial complex and government service, and call the damn thing, “supporting the troops.”
If you support the troops as they go off to war, you, by default, support what they do in your name. Those in uniform who were pictured torturing other humans in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq had your support; the joystick operator who launched the missile from the drone that took out the wedding party in Yemen had your support; the crew of the C-130 gunship that destroyed the hospital and took the lives of 30 doctors and patients in the hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan did so in your name. You simply cannot send someone to commit a crime (undeclared, therefore unconstitutional war) and not be responsible for all those who are killed or maimed as a result.
Read the rest here.