Posted on 06/20/2011 1:38:05 PM PDT by Jack Black
The New Barbarians of Secession
When secession finally occurs in the first American state, it will come first from the New Barbarians, not from the state house.
This article explores the definition of the word “Barbarian,” and how I perceive that secession will be moved forward into reality by the New Barbarians.
I am one of the New Barbarians.
From Wikipedia: “Barbarian” is a pejorative term used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage. In idiomatic or figurative usage, a “barbarian” may also be an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, warlike, insensitive person. The primary function of the word “barbarian”, and its cognates, is to differentiate members of one’s own society from people perceived as being outside of it, and to posit that one’s own culture is superior.
In history, the Barbarians were the Germanic tribes that overthrew the Roman Empire. Rome had become an empire covering most of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and the cost of their armies and wars was bankrupting the government. Rome had conquered these vast areas, and conscripted many of the tribal warriors into the Roman armies. But the barbarians never lost their identification with their tribes, and eventually the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410 AD.
The present American society’s elected ruling class is filled with “the cream” of our civilization from bottom to top. But smelling of cologne and wearing expensive suits, they pillage, sack and destroy our free enterprise system through taxation and regulation. So they operate like barbarians under the cover of respectability and the citizens’ acceptance of their roles in the American government. They are the old guard, much like Rome at its end. Bloated, corrupt and hopelessly overextended, the ruling class can see their demise just over the horizon. But they cannot wrap their brains around a solution that includes the breaking apart of the United States of America by secession.
You think that the power structure of Washington doesn’t see the end coming fast? Watch this video from Ready.gov, a division of FEMA.
Dear readers, that “world upside down” video is not just about a tornado or hurricane. It is easy to see how this Public Service Announcement is meant for the coming economic collapse. If the very government causing all of this chaos is telling you openly to prepare for disaster, perhaps you should listen? There is another Ready.gov PSA I just saw in the past few days that is not available to post quite yet. It features a husband and wife being interviewed about how much food they have in the house to survive on in an emergency. They very matter-of-factly state that they have a little rice, some beans, a few cans of tuna, and some canned tomatoes. They seemed blithely unconcerned.
Do you still believe that the ruling class in any state government will voluntarily band together and secede from the Union? Think about all of the ways that Washington taxes and spends. Now consider that most of that taxation and spending is entirely unconstitutional. Now consider that Washington taxes and then sends hundreds of billions of dollars back to the state governments annually so the money can be spent on the local level. From roads to public safety to welfare payments to mortgage guarantees to myriad other programs, your state and local governments are complicit in the crimes of Washington. They are accessories after the fact. If someone steals property and you receive it, you’re as guilty as the perpetrator.
It is impossible for Washington to do what it does without the voluntary cooperation of the 50 state governments. Do not kid yourself. What the states do is entirely voluntary. The state politicians might bitch about unfunded mandates or DC regulations or Supreme Court rulings, but states have ALL the power to resist or just simply stop the Washington madness. But the states do not stop it. What does that tell you?
The ruling class, from bottom to top, cannot fix America. Consider:
1. They cannot forsake fractional reserve banking (counterfeiting). 2. They cannot reign in spending because of entitlement programs. 3. They cannot increase interest rates to curb inflation since that would make the debt payments balloon upward. 4. They cannot stop allowing the Federal Reserve to control the money supply (more counterfeiting). 5. They cannot fund the outstanding and future pension commitments, and cannot cover the pension defaults. 6. They cannot stop selling Treasury bonds to borrow more money, and cannot prevent the inevitable default of the bond market. 7. They cannot cease military expansion and war. 8. They cannot prevent the collapse of the US Dollar as world reserve currency. 9. They reject free-market solutions for all problems, and continue to fiercely defend Keynesian economics. 10. States are so inured to Federal funds that they are unwilling to even try to control Washington.
Witness all the cities, townships, counties and states that are functionally bankrupt. They can thank their betters in Washington for a fiat money system and decades of inflation for their present situation. And they can look in the mirror to see who enabled Washington to become the most criminal government in history. Yes…even more criminal than the USSR. The Soviets did not defraud the entire population of the planet with fiat money. Washington did.
The concept of state secession will have to come from the grassroots…the ordinary people…the great unwashed…the New Barbarians. Politicians are not leaders. My opinion is that a person cannot voluntarily agree to work in a criminal enterprise without becoming a criminal. (Ron Paul, call your office.) And while we all love a story of a bad boy turned good…or of a missionary to the heathen…we cannot expect government shills to voluntarily bite the hand that feeds them and promote a philosophically opposite concept. A few solons might get religion about secession, but I believe that most will oppose it. And the ones that do convert to the church of secession should be watched very carefully, since it would appear that they are simply trying to lead a new parade by running out in front of it. If a politician wanted to convince me of his altered beliefs, let him switch to secession now…while it’s still wildly unpopular.
The New Barbarians will develop as a tribe, rising voluntarily from the citizenry, with individual liberty, property rights and sound money as the organizing and sustaining principles of the tribe. (I wrote about tribes HERE.) For the purpose of this article, the word “tribe” is defined as “a social group comprised of numerous families, clans, or generations together with dependents or adopted strangers, all having a common character, occupation, or interest.” I am not suggesting that the New Barbarians will adopt all the characteristics of tribes. But I am suggesting that the New Barbarians will forsake the old ways of the US Constitution, and begin thinking as a single nation instead of a 50-state confederation. Most of the Constitution doesn’t apply to a single sovereign nation.
Think about secession for just a moment. There is no perceivable benefit for ANY present American state to continue as a member of the United States of America. I issued a challenge long ago for any reader to prove JUST ONE benefit of statehood. I’m still waiting. Yet, ALL of the unsolvable problems created by Washington and enabled by the States EVAPORATE at the moment of secession. No US taxation, no US regulation, no US national debt, no US wars, no more interference from Washington. In one instant, that state’s hard drive is wiped clean and they get to invent THEIR OWN new operating system.
The Founding Fathers of the mid-18th Century were the New Barbarians of their time. Their numbers were small. Their cause was individual liberty and property rights, and to be thirteen sovereign nations. Only 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence. It’s commonly accepted that those in favor of throwing off the tyranny of King George numbered less than 10% of the population of the 13 colonies. The rest of the colonials waited to see who won, and supported the winner.
The archetype of the New Barbarian is Daniel Miller, president of the Texas Nationalist Movement. Miller has been working for years for Texas Independence, not as a cause célèbre, but as a holy calling. He is a businessman from Nederland, Texas, dedicated to convincing his fellow Texans that their state’s highest purpose is as a new sovereign nation, not as just another American state. He crisscrosses Texas, speaking to home meetings as well as big crowds, reminding Texans of their heritage and culture, and offering the hope that Texas could actually escape from America and its coming catastrophic collapse and become a nation once again. In my opinion, the name of Daniel Miller should be at the very top of any list of potential first Presidents of a new Texas nation. Guys like Rick Perry and Ron Paul have careers as part of the problem, not as part of the solution.
The numbers of New Barbarians will explode after the economic collapse in America. There are only a few of us that are presently ideologues promoting secession. But once America descends into chaos, those that rejected the concept of secession will still be looking for answers that work…not more of the same. And they will be desperate, not willing or able to wait for government to offer some lame-assed pseudo-solution, or another Ponzi scheme to replace the one that just collapsed. At that point, the tribe will grow very quickly. Mass migrations of people will occur, as individuals and families pack up and move to the new nations.
One of the topics that most proponents of secession will not talk about is defending a secession by militia. I’m not saying that secession has to be done by some form of physical force, but I’m also not saying that military defense won’t be required. I keep the collapse of the Soviet Union foremost in my mind. Here was a purely communist 15-republic Union that simply dissolved in 1989. The giant Red Army did nothing. The Kremlin was powerless to stop secession. I believe that Washington will likewise be powerless to stop American states from secession. But I believe that DC will only be powerless after the dollar collapses.
The push for secession will come up from the people, not down from the politicians. Political power only acknowledges superior force. If the politicians fear the People, they will carry out the will of the People. When the People fear the government, there is only tyranny.
Secession is the only hope for humanity. Who will be first?
DumpDC. Six Letters That Can Change History.
© Copyright 2011, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
A few years ago Walter Williams wrote an article suggesting a divorce, now articles such as this, or entire blog sites devoted to secesssion are more common.
Of course it's a long running strand in American politics, but that doesn't mean it's not a more lively strand now, just as it was in the 1850s.
I've mentioned to friends that, despite all the problems it caused, the dissolution of the USSR was a great victory not just for the world, but for the "member states" of the USSR. It just sort of melted away.
If the dollar dies, as some predict, perhaps we'll see a similar melting here.
Probably of interest to the list. CWII Ping.
The credible threat of succession is a good and healthy thing in a Republic.
This is my all-time favorite media belly flop of the century. When questioned about Rick Perry’s presidential run, the only anti-Perry issue the Democrats and Obama-sucking media types could come up with was he was a “secessionist”! Hahahahahaha! I absolutely loved it.
“New Barbarians” is the wrong term. That would apply more to us waking up one morning to La Raza dominating Southwestern airwaves declaring the liberation of California et al.
And there has been talk of splitting states into more than one state.
For example, Chicago feels isolated and alienated from downstate Illinois. Imagine if Chicago were its own state.
Ditto with New York City and upstate New York.
Ditto LA and SF Bay area compared to the rest of California.
In the future, you could have an entity which is the liberal states of America. It could comprise everything from the Washington, DC area north along the eastern seaboard to Maine. Another liberal nation could be the Pacific coast states.
And then the remainder of the country could be the conservative states of America.
Rather than seeing state secede on their own, it’s quite possible that liberal regions will form a country out of groups of liberal states.
Now, as of today, secession is unthinkable. If one state took the plunge, then that could open the floodgates.
Open question — if states secede, then who is responsible for the $14 trillion national debt,and untold trillions of unfunded liabilities? The remaining states only? Would states be able to write off their share of the national debt by seceding????
Thanks for the ping.
Its not really credible in the sense it was in the 1800s. Today you would need to get a large majority of the states to ditch DC all at once and there are other problems that need to be accounted for.
There aren’t clear lines. There is a lack of precious metals floating around for coinage. All of the states have soldiers stationed all over the world. There are a whole lot of things that are very different than the 1800s.
I’m sorry, but the idea of secession is idiotic.
When did the nuts take over here at FR?
We get birth certificates, Ron Paul, pit bulls and now this.
If states secede and the present federal USofA is no more, then those tens of trillions of debt are no more.
China gets it in the shorts!
The free and independent States and new American Confederacies get to start over WITHOUT the socialist baggage.
They don’t have to ditch DC, just follow the 10th amendment.
THAT is key. There is no Mason-Dixon line. There is no ethnic line. Heck, there is no substantive cultural line.
I keep wishing someone would apply the latest census data to Travis' "civil war cube". Methinks the fault line would become apparent when sufficient data is rendered properly ... at which point the meme would take hold, and the idea's time arrive.
+1
I think the biggest differences are between rural and urban areas.
True; the observation had evaded me for the moment.
I’m not sure how Swiss-cheese geography could play out in a civil war.
The historical comparison to Rome is vaild in this respect: Rome ceased to be a republic beased upon trade and production and became an empire based upon conquest and loot.
All empires so constructed eventually run out of places to loot and people to enslave.
The question is: can America find its courage once again and rise up and restore the Republic?
About half of the voting populace voted for 0b0z0. Hard to be optimistic.
True enough, but it only took 3% of the population of the original colonies to fight and defeat the British. We should be able to do better than that this time around. And we’d best be thorough.
I wonder what effect it would have to shut down all the electricity and other utilities feeding DC? Perhaps block the highways too?
If the nation crumbles it will be because of the heroic effort of Obama and his Marxist brothers who have worked diligently to destroy the economy and the Constitution. Secession begins with Obama. He has forced the ruling class into a trap of their own making. Whether by design or default Obama will bring down our corrupt government.
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