**UPDATE** I think Janos took this response personally as a rebuke. It was not meant as such. He's now closed his III blog. Too bad, he was smarter than the average bear.
~~
One of the down sides to blogging for any length of time with a smart audience is that conversations between people can continue for months (or longer) across dozens (or more) Posts & Threads.
Janos fell victim to that earlier regarding my position on who is and who is not a legitimate Target in a WROL or SHTF paradigm. I have written 2-3 posts in the last week or so touching on the topic of legitimate Targets. However, because we have been discussing this topic for years on this blog, and even longer at WRSA, there has been a LOT of ground already covered, positions articulated and properly nuanced so that everyone who has been part of the conversation from the beginning know when I am writing in my style of shorthand. Anyone reading only my recent posts on this topic could easily walk away aghast at my ruthless targeting matrix.
Since I am writing very little philosophically these days as I focus on the building & doing for Liberty, I did indeed write about my targeting matrix with broad brush strokes, in shorthand with a LOT of nuance between the lines that a reader would only properly understand if he'd been along for the entire ride. My targeting matrix conversation actually began with my first book, before I started writing on Kerodin.com, then on the Kerodin site, here on this blog prolifically, and at places like WRSA and TL's place.
I'm not going to take the time to drill to bedrock on this topic again, it is too complex to properly articulate in a few posts. But I can share the summary of my position. If anyone is interested in understanding how I reached my conclusions, simply use the Search feature on the right toolbar.
Upon my conception I inherited Rightful Liberty.
No man or woman is entitled to ANY of my Rightful Liberty, unless I offer it for some reason.
Any man or woman who deliberately infringes upon my Rightful Liberty immediately gets green-lighted on my Targeting Matrix. If I know a person wants to infringe, and may one day succeed, that person earns a place in my Matrix. If I know a person wants to infringe but simply will not ever be able to actually do damage, that person stays off my RADAR.
I believe that preemptive action is warranted once I satisfy my Soul that an attack is imminent, or may seriously become imminent - and because I am smaller than most men. I'm just not going to wait for him to bloody my nose or pull his handgun.
I do NOT believe in Proportional Response.
Rightful Liberty matters to me, and I do not tolerate infringements.
I do believe in mens rea. I also impose a very strict personal code upon myself and my Threat Matrix. That said - I fight to prevail, by any means necessary. And for full disclosure, I don't like getting hit.
I also believe in Constitutional and legal remedies, when they are available to me.
I don't really care how anyone else protects their Rightful Liberty, so long as it is being done in accord with the premise of Rightful Liberty as well. I don't really care if anyone else permits intrusions, or allows himself to become a slave. Not my business if you give away your Liberty, or trade it away for an FSA chit, or you permit someone to take it from you.
But when it comes to my Rightful Liberty, I am on solid moral footing by invoking self defense - even if that self-defense includes me hitting the guy in the back with a Chevy.
To Janos specifically: You explain in your comment that many of your neighbors have been known to you nearly your entire life, and that they would take a bullet for your kids.
But if they vote Blue or Establishment Red, they are voting your children into slavery, they are infringing my Rightful Liberty, which is not tolerated in most cases. A "Good Person" does not pull a lever for a Slave Master. There is no such thing as a "Good Person" who votes Blue or Establishment Red. There is no such thing as a "Good Person" who works at City Hall if that person's job facilitates, in any manner, the infringement of my Rightful Liberty.
I hope this helps you understand that I have done much, much more work on this topic over the years than simply the recent posts which do not define how & why I add certain people to the Matrix, or what threat level they earn, or the severity of my self defense, and I have it refined to a place in which I am content.
So, as say the Spartans, when anyone wants my Liberties:
Kerodin
III
Sam this really shows how a "Civil War" is anything but Civil. I don't want to have a war, but I may not be given a choice and if it is a war they want. I will give them a "belly full of war" as well as a war to the knife. You think a bunch of goat herders in Afghanistan was a problem. Hell we will make Custer's last stand look like a "Love In".
ReplyDeleteI don't want to kill anyone and I know most folks don't want to die so we are about even. If any Congress critter feels they can not support all of the BOR or the Constitution as per the oath they took please resign and fight a private citizen. Yeah like that will happen.. The ends always justify the means to those in power
ReplyDeleteYou've put yourself into a position of leadership. People are going to take you by the image you put forward.
As ye said:
“Anyone reading only my recent posts on this topic could easily walk away aghast at my ruthless targeting matrix.”
Aye, that pretty much sums it up. And that's all most folks are going to ever see, as that is the most recent image you are putting forward.
New folks to your blog, and there will be a lot of them going forward most likely, are going to judge you, rightly or wrongly, upon what they read.
They're not going to bother wondering if you have years of other posts that articulate the finer nuances of whatever it is you are writing about. They're going to take you at face value.
It is what it is.
“But if they vote Blue or Establishment Red, they are voting your children into slavery, they are infringing my Rightful Liberty, which is not tolerated in most cases. A "Good Person" does not pull a lever for a Slave Master. There is no such thing as a "Good Person" who votes Blue or Establishment Red. There is no such thing as a "Good Person" who works at City Hall if that person's job facilitates, in any manner, the infringement of my Rightful Liberty.”
In regards to neighbors: Yes, they are good people. It's possible to be a good person and still politically ignorant. People change based upon the situation. I've known many folks that haven't taken things seriously until THEIR essential liberties are directly infringed upon. Then it's a whole different story. THEN, they finally 'get it'.
But a lot of folks need that personal encounter with the jackboot stepping on THEIR face, in order to completely swallow the tyranny in progress. They are simply GOOD people that happen to be in massive DENIAL.
The difference here is malice and intent. Those who are merely ignorant can be 'converted' to the cause of Liberty. It's the folks who are the hard core Marxists hell bent on taking our Liberties that won't ever change, for the most part. Those are the folks who are going to be a problem. Not poor ol Ma and Pa American who don't see a light at the end of the tunnel, and who know that there's crap behind door #1 AND door #2 no matter who they vote for. That's not a justification, it's an explanation. I don't think the average American truly WANTS tyranny. I just think they are too ill educated on most matters (public school system, anyone...), to rightly know what they should to vote responsibly.
But think about it for a moment. All of these folks aren't doing what they are doing with venom and malice in their hearts. They aren't voting for the lesser of two evils because they actually want someone to come to your door and take your liberties. They're doing it because they have a limited frame of mind and perception, and they see no other way out. Maybe no one has taken the time to explain it to them.
I think that as things get worse, more people WILL wake up. Likely en masse. What does anyone have in place to handle that? Virtually nothing. As a movement, we've given up at reaching out to people, for the most part. I'm as guilty of that as the next.
We're preaching to the choir here, and have been for decades. We need to help cure the common man of their ignorance on all of these topics. These folks aren't stupid. By and large, they're merely ignorant.
Stupid is forever. Ignorance is curable.
Addendum: A 'black and white' viewpoint, never serves a man well. Especially not a Patriot. In order to see the world as it truly is, we must be willing to put on grayscale lenses. There's a line from the Jericho, where Hawkins' daughter Allison asks him, regarding Jake:
ReplyDelete"Daddy, Is he a good man or a bad man?" He looks at her and says: "Babygirl, there's no such thing."
I think that about pegs the truth of it. We're both, and neither. ALL of us.
Janos: Readers need not go back any further than the current front page of my blog to get a deeper understanding of my position, because Jim Klein and I discussed mens rea and the obvious application on a case-by-case basis.
DeleteI do have black and white viewpoints, and I also have views that are within the thousands of greys between. But I can't really be worried about what the first time reader to my site thinks when they read a single post. I do not care a whit about trying to win Hearts and Minds. Time is too short, the RoI is too low, and I can do more work to save more good Souls by helping those who are already Awakened.
Each person is responsible for himself in this life. If someone chooses to think me a jerk and move on, so be it. If they choose to take the time to dig a bit deeper into my thought processes, so be it. The people who have chosen to walk the same direction as me, my Tribe, are moving forward. If others want to walk with us, fine - but it is their responsibility to wake up, or become a statistic.
K