Posted on 02/02/2014 8:26:55 AM PST by B4Ranch
>>this decentralized “militia” is an uncrackable nut for any invader.<<
As the anti-gun crowd is finding out. Thank God we have the world’s best gun salesman in our WH.
Our nation uses English because the majority of original settlers used that language and needed a common language to make commerce possible—also the reason that it is now used internationally. As an aside, there is no mandated language because we are not French. ;)
As long as men exist, mankind will be evil. We are not angelic children waiting for the opportunity to be perfected; we are a horde of voracious egos waiting for the opportunity to satisfy our carnal appetites. The whole anarchist movement is no more than the same old reprieve: I will be like God. No matter how many times you say it, it will not be true. This is not to promote a theological argument at all, but to recognize a fact of human nature.
Anarchy is not the order of the day among hunter-gatherers—tribalism is and tribalism is also the limiting factor. Africa is a prime example: they are still relegated to poverty, not because of a lack of anarchy, but because the relationship between tribalism and anarchy cannot be ignored. Tribalism ends in anarchy, and anarchy leads to tribalism. Unfortunately, between each transition lie a lot of dead bodies. The only redeeming quality of tribalism is that its excess is limited to its own small sphere of influence.
It is impossible for your utopian claims to survive the real world. Our founders understood the depravity of mankind and established limits on government with that express understanding. Some men are capable of restraint, but mankind is not. Individual capability notwithstanding, human nature is not consistent with reality, much less logic, and true altruism exceeds every individual.
That same lack of logic and perspective exists in every human organization, but that doesn’t mean that every organization is evil; it just means that those tendencies have to be controlled externally. Unfortunately, the larger the group, the more impossible it becomes to maintain that control. This problem is exacerbated when it comes to government, because every government tends to grow without limit or logic. We can see the result all around us.
This problem is why the majority founders were federalists. Federalism maintains a self-interested, but limited government because power resides in discrete local entities with inherently limited expression. Power resides at the local level, but no locality can gain or maintain a monopoly at the federal level. It is only because our local governments are now Federal lackeys that we have devolved to the current condition of complete dysfunction.
Federalism acknowledges both individual freedom and the reality of human evil. The struggle between federal and local governments establishes that same tension that regulates the free market. As long as the states and local governments retain the bulk of power, the leviathan is caged. When states and local governments relinquish that power, totalitarianism is inevitable.
The triumph of modern liberalism is not the establishment of our current socialist state, but the creation of the one centralized government with the consent and willing participation of an ignorant population.
The only way to fix this country is to reestablish the true system of checks and balances through federalism. Under federalism, our country once achieved the height of human liberty while guarding against both totalitarianism and anarchy.
>>Power resides at the local level, but no locality can gain or maintain a monopoly at the federal level. It is only because our local governments are now Federal lackeys that we have devolved to the current condition of complete dysfunction.<<
>>The only way to fix this country is to reestablish the true system of checks and balances through federalism. <<
You believe that the Federal government can be controlled by the Federal government? Is that what you are saying?
The federal government can be controlled by state and local governments. Federalsim is the opposite of our current Federal Goverment-local governments are the most powerful agents. This is the way America was founded.
Nope.
What you are describing is the reason nation-states formed out of the chaotic local self-defense forces of the Middle Ages.
When gunpowder came in, with artillery, the King could not only knock down any noble’s castle, the nobles could not muster sufficient resources to maintain their own effective artillery trains. Even a large coalition of nobles could no longer stand up to the King.
In an utterly decentralized (but heavily armed) US, what is to prevent the constant low-grade, frequently flaring into high-test, warfare of the Middle Ages before true nation-states formed?
Who decides who owns mineral rights? Who allocates water for irrigation where needed? What is to prevent me from building a dam and flooding your land?
It is always easier, or looks that way, to take stuff away from other people than to produce your own stuff.
Anywho, a US that is heavily armed with rifles and possibly other man-portable weapons would be no match for a modern army with armor, etc. Just as the nobles were no match for the King with his artillery.
Without an Article V convention, I don’t see a chance in hell of our state/local governments reigning in the “man with the money”, the federal government. Every state relies on the Feds to bankroll them through their annual budget. Our school system relies on the feds, our social programs are all fed authorized and approved even though they have state name tags.
It’s time for a change, if you know what I mean.
You don’t have a profile page so I hope you don’t mind if I ask you some personal questions. Have you ever served in the military, seen any combat up close and personal, rank or rating, your approx age?
So, let's set up a centralized government to run around doing all the things a King used to do.
/sarc
Who decides who owns mineral rights? Who allocates water for irrigation where needed? What is to prevent me from building a dam and flooding your land?
Back to Jefferson, your Rights end where mine begin. If you own property, you own the minerals under it. If you have mutual interest in a shared property, like water, you can't do anything that would harm your downstream neighbors property. If you want more water for your region, contract with someone else to buy. The market would be open and contracts competed for best price point/value for service rather than mandated via bureaucrat. Same for flooding. Your direct act harms my property.
Anywho, a US that is heavily armed with rifles and possibly other man-portable weapons would be no match for a modern army with armor, etc. Just as the nobles were no match for the King with his artillery.
You do know that some of us Civvies own private tanks and cannons right? That in a much more "anarchic" society, there's nothing stopping you from equipping your Cessna 152 with a pair of wing mounted M-2's or your G3 with Sidewinders... Same for your boat, truck, etc...
I’ll be glad to answer your questions privately.
In my previous post I should have mentioned that warfare is exactly why and how nation-states evolved. In the late middle ages Europe was a hodge-podge of city-states, duchies, kingdoms (most quite decentralized), etc.
As a neighboring state became better organized, each adjacent state had to organize in self-defense. Those that were not successful in forming true nation-states were eventually conquered and absorbed by their neighbors. Obvious examples include Ireland, Catalonia, Wales, Brittany, etc.
But the greatest example, and one seldom brought up by anarchists is Poland. In the early modern age Poland was one of the great powers. But it had a very weak central government, with the Golden Freedom of the nobles (the only real Poles, or real people, for that matter). Any noble at the Sejm could not only veto any measure, he could dissolve the Sejm and void all measure previously passed.
This did not result in peace and freedom. It resulted in constant warfare and eventual partition among the three neighbors who made the jump to nation-states.
Nation-states evolved by and for and really good at only one thing. War. When a nation-state runs up against any other form of human organization, the other group either forms a nation-state of its own in self-defense, or gets squashed.
Again...
Feudal warlords and Medieval Kingdoms /= non-coercive organization in a state of anarchy.
True.
But then neither do traditional Somali, Irish or Icelandic society. Or North American Indian tribes.
Thank you for you email. The first thing I need to get across is that fighting in a foreign land and defending your local home area where you hunt, fish, camp and work is the difference between night and day. Literally, it is so different that you can’t imagine it.
When I know where the fuel pipelines, the telephone communication line junction/splice boxes, cell towers, electrical transmission lines, where the local cops go to have a beer, where the mayor and police chief live, know everyone on the city council and half of their extended families live, know the local trucking routes, heavy equipment mechanics, radio repairmen are in my home area that gives me a tremendous advantage should we choose to disable any part of them or all of them.
A team of thirty men can shutdown a city of half a million people in a day or less and never kill a single resident. Knowing where the local TV stations receivers are and how they wire in to the electrical system is something the men who repair them know without looking at a blueprint. Buy a guy a few beers and he’ll brag about every repair job that was critical to the station. Give him a couple of hundred and he’ll shut them down for as long as needed.
Do you think by coming into town with a few thousand troops that you are going to control the entire town? Not a chance and bring your artillery with you. Show it off. It won’t impress anyone who has used it or been on the supply line to an artillery group. They all know what’s needs to make it functional of the quickest way to disable it. We’ll contaminate your fuel supply and your water supply in a day or so. That slows down any single purpose group.
Do you think there is an army large enough (anywhere in the world) to control the entire USA, from coast to coast and border to border. There isn’t such an army anywhere. That’s why Zero is trying so hard to get us to register our firearms. Defeating an armed population the size of the USA is impossible. Sure you can put up roadblocks but in a day or so we’ll figure out how to move on.
As Dead Corpse said, “A decentralized “militia” is an uncrackable nut for any invader”. There’s no written plans. Nothing is stored on a laptop. There’s nothing traceable about it. Just hundreds of groups of men, women and kids who all think alike and know they are fighting for their freedom.
Imagine if the cops were ordered to start confiscation of weapons in Everytown, USA. Then imagine if there was 250 teams of men and women who decided to shoot one policeman in their city/town/community each day until confiscation of weapons halted. How long do you think it would be before you wouldn’t be able to find a single solitary cop IN UNIFORM anywhere? Would you drive an official cop car on patrol if you knew someone in your town was going to use it as a target that day?
Those are the things my local cops discuss. Interesting, huh?
Apples still aren’t oranges. Nor would we necessarily devolve into those primative societal units.
Amen...
It is time for a change. I am not convinced that a convention is the answer. Unfortunately, I trust none of the current politicos. There are only a handful of people who have any understanding of the true issue.
State politicians at this point are all convinced that their only job is to obey. None of them have any guts or desire to change the status quo. Rather than face the beast, everyone is too content attacking symptoms...
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