Tragedy and Hope 101: the illusion of justice, freedom and democracy by Josef Plummer
Chapter 06
Rulers Represent Themselves
“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people [of] that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers.” -John Adams
In the Declaration of Independence, we find the primary argument for establishing government power: to secure the rights of the people. Without some type of protection mechanism in place, criminals will prey on the population without fear of consequences. They will do as they please to those who are too weak to resist them.
In the exact same document, we find the primary argument for limiting or revoking government power: to secure the rights of the people. Without some type of protection mechanism in place, criminals will gain control of government and use its power to prey on the population. They will do as they please to those who are too weak to resist them. (They will never use the power of government to prosecute and punish themselves.)
The first argument (government can protect us from crime) is still alive and well. In fact, it’s drilled relentlessly into every citizen’s head from a very early age. However, the second argument (government can actually subject us to crime) has practically disappeared from politically correct conversation. This, despite the fact that the threat posed by criminals in government far exceeds any threat posed by common criminals. If there is any doubt, consider the following: Common criminals do not have access to the media, the trust of the masses, or the air of legitimacy given to those who secure a position of authority. They cannot legally seize our money, destroy the purchasing power of our currency, or control the police and military.
Common criminals cannot legislate away our rights, or reduce our children to debt slaves. They cannot obstruct an inquiry into their crimes from inside the system. (They cannot seal documents, confiscate and “lose” evidence, or appoint their own investigators.) Common criminals cannot write laws and selectively enforce them. They cannot disarm millions of their would-be victims, round them up and put them in cages, or worse. They cannot take nations to war, profiting financially and politically from the carnage…
Suffice to say, this is why those who created the US government spoke constantly about limiting its power via the Constitution and Bill of Rights. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, too much confidence in our elected leaders’ good intentions is the “parent of despotism everywhere.” It would be a “dangerous delusion,” he warned, for us to trust those who currently hold power simply because they are “men of our choice.”
“In questions of power…let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mis-chief by the chains of the Constitution.” -Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolutions
Members of the Network have spent the past one hundred years doing everything in their power to nurture the “dangerous delusion” that Jefferson warned us about. Before they can have their way with the world, our rulers must break the “chains of the Constitution” that bind them down. They don’t want to exercise limited government power; they want to exercise the opposite."
https://steemit.com/@rogueintel
https://busy.org/@rogueintel
https://d.tube/#!/c/rogueintel
https://www.facebook.com/Rogue-intel-199510644152096
