The world did not begin on the day of your birth.
Simply being born does not entitle you to anything more than your inalienable Natural Rights.
That's it. Inalienable Natural Rights. Mister Jefferson articulated the concept as "Rightful Liberty".
In America, a group of pretty sharp guys proposed a system of governance designed - for the first time in Human history - to protect the Natural Rights of the individual, particularly against the heavy hand of Government. This happened a few hundred years ago. Other men of that time put their heads together and agreed with the proposal, and by a very large margin of support, this became the law of the land. It was ratified because people thought it was a good idea - no one had a gun to their head. The people in the states could have simply voted "No" if they didn't want it.
The system of governance, called republicanism, is supposed to be implemented through our Constitution. Our Constitution, as ratified and intended, does not provide any mechanism for "The Federal Government" to put their hands upon any Citizen, except in a very select set of circumstances for enumerated crimes. It is only through perversion of the Constitution that abuses of Natural Rights occur.
Over the years Bad People have corrupted the system, as we were warned they would do, for in every age of Man there will be those who mean to be Masters. You were never promised a rose garden, and you were never guaranteed a life in which Bad People would not try to do Bad Things to you. If you were promised a rose garden or a life free of the schemes of evil men, you need to find that person and bitchslap him. He lied to you.
I say this as kindly and gently as I am able: You are not special. You do not have any right to change the system in place at the time you popped out of mommy, simply because you were born. Get over yourself. If you have beef with the system you were born into, first slap your parents for choosing this place to be your home.
If you want to change the system of governance into which you were born, feel free to work on it. If you think there is a better way, show us. If you think you can write a document that is "self-enforcing", please, write it and put it forward for consideration. Here's the funny thing about ideas - good ones get support from many people. Bad ideas die on the vine. So, if you can do better than what we have, put it out there and see who salutes.
If you were born into a system that you think is inherently and deliberately evil, please never forget that you always have at least three options open to you: (1) You can try to change it. (2) You can leave (I hear Belize is sweeeeeeet!) Or, (3) you can eat a bullet. (If you truly believe our Constitution is inherently evil, put forth and ratified by evil men as some grand scheme to enslave you, please choose option three - and use enough gun.)
You do not have the Right to demand anything more than your Natural Rights. You do not have the Right to unilaterally interfere with the way other people voluntarily choose to live - even if those people choose to abide the words on a piece of parchment written a few hundred years ago by a group of white guys you do not respect.
To be blunt, that's your problem. To be even more blunt, you're simply not that special, no matter what mommy told you. The universe does NOT rotate around you. You are entitled to your Natural Rights - nothing more.
Once in a while Concerned American puts up a quote that I think is balls-on accurate, and I'll paraphrase: Evil prevails because good men do not kill the bad men who are doing evil.
It is that simple. Full Stop. Take out the garbage and the room will no longer stink. Think for just a few moments about how many Bad People would need to be smacked in the teeth before Team Tyrant backed the truck up.
I do not care what system is in place - if good people permit bad people to operate without penalty for their behavior, the system will not work. It doesn't matter if that system is banking, or the US Constitution, or the Holy Bible. Bad People must be corrected by Good People. And to bring Mr. Cooper into the discussion, via some really generous paraphrasing: Bad men may not be receptive to reason and debate. But they sure as hell can be sorted out by good men with rifles.
Help fix what is broken. Develop a better system. Leave. Or STFU.
That's a pretty darned reasonable set of options - and none of them violate your Rightful Liberty.
Kerodin
III
Ha...have anyone in mind? Just a few tidbits...
ReplyDelete"You do not have any right to change the system in place at the time you popped out of mommy, simply because you were born."
Really? So a commie Chinese, or Soviet or East German or whatever, didn't have the "right" to change the system? Do tell.
BTW, did the Founders have such a right?
"The system of governance, called republicanism, is supposed to be implemented through our Constitution."
Oh, "supposed to." Sounds about right. If wishes were horseshit and horseshit were cookies, we'd all have plenty to eat.
"You do not have the Right to demand anything more than your Natural Rights."
Consider them demanded...that and nothing more. Hell, I'm not even REQUESTING anything more!
So what's the problem? Why are YOU demanding more?
Why do you write this of others, and not apply it to yourself? You're saying, "I demand my Natural Rights AND I demand they be implemented a particular way." Don't you get it? That's what the commie-libs are saying too. Your way might be a zillion times more sensible, but that's hardly the point.
Read this line of yours again. Is it true for you, or not?
JK: No, it isn't directed at any single person who visits (I'd have no problem naming names) - this notion came to me during a recent conversation and I let it marinate.
ReplyDeletePlease read the entire sentence and give "all" of the words equal value: "You do not have any right to change the system in place at the time you popped out of mommy, simply because you were born.
You fixated on the first part of the sentence, and ignored the key words at the end - "...simply because you were born." If X is born into a system he doesn't like, he is one of about 7 BILLION other ants in the Human colony. He is NOT special by right of birth. If he wants to change something, ANYTHING, he is NOT entitled to his whims simply because he is 1 of 7 Billion others. He may seek change to secure his Natural Rights.
The problem we have is that too many people think they are not only the smartest guy in the room, but the smartest guy in any room, ever. I have seen little evidence of the former and ZERO evidence of the latter.
So, you demand your Natural Rights? Good! Now, go get them instead of arguing in a community filled with people who generally agree with you. Why pick nits here instead of going to HuffPo where there are actually minds to be changed that do not agree with ANYTHING you (or I) posit?
When you finally come to the understanding that Reason will not work, that voting will not work, that you have been reduced to the same few remedies all of us have before us, then we'll have something to work with together.
Regarding one of your final notes: I am not demanding that YOUR Natural Rights be implemented or secured in any manner, especially the Constitution, DoI, BoR. I am saying that I want MY Natural Rights secured through those mechanisms. You can go forth and seek any means you wish, but you (and noone else) has ANY right to kill my preferred system, a system that many of us think is the best on the table.
You and I agree on the fundamental concept of "Rightful Liberty", regardless of how we may label it. Let's quit quibbling about the "how" of it and get to work imposing our will on those flippin' idiots at HuffPo, et al. ;)
K
You do come up with great replies; I was right about that too!
ReplyDeleteArgue with commie-libs? Why? What's the saying..."Behind every socialist is a totalitarian screaming to come out," or something like that. I don't argue with thugs, NOT EVER.
I argue with thinking people who are inevitably working with false premises, and I try to correct those false premises. That's all.
Yes, it's YOUR choice to desire a Constitutional Republic. You know my position on that, cuz it's the same as with the Citadel. Go for it, and I readily acknowledge that they're admirable principles and all that. Limited government, trial by jury, inalienable rights...who wouldn't like that stuff?
The thing is, I live on THIS Earth at THIS time, and I'm sick and tired of seeing good people be snookered, falling for the same ol', same ol'. Nearly everyone's the same...they just wanna live, be with their friends and families, have a blast every so often, and enjoy life.
So I try to point out where the snookering happens, the false premises that lead good people to engage in bad acts anyway. And the root of it all, is inevitably the selfishness/altruism, individualism/collectivism scam. Almost nobody wants to be a thug, so a bunch of worthless intellectuals have convinced them--over thousands of years, no less--that there's some greater "reason" that they ought to be thugs. And what they never realized, and still don't, is that they're killing THEMSELVES over the matter, not just their supposed enemies.
That's all. I think suicide is about the most desperate, most evil act that a functional human being can engage...and I'm just trying to stop it, that's all. Or at least trying to stop it among people who don't know that they're doing it. I'm for LIFE, not death. Human life is about BUILDING, not destroying.
But you knew all that anyway. Me, I just wanna live my life the way I choose, and see everyone else do the same, however the hell they choose. Plus, I WANT customers!
Yep, the thugs gotta be stopped, but turning oneself into a collectivist thug ain't gonna do it. "You cannot rid the world of cannibals by eating them."
So anyway...what sort of Constitutional Republic do you intend on having, that will allow for those zillions of freedomistas who want no part of it? If it's just by the small community, then it's the same as the Citadel...have it any ol' way you want. But if it's from the Atlantic to the Pacific...then Houston, you've got a problem.
Excellent.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of Jefferson's Rightful Liberty will be outlined and discussed at Brock's Fall PATCON by Hans Mentha.
ReplyDelete