Tag: gary barnett

The Appeal of Natural Law and Its Corruption

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

“The beauty, simplicity, and justice, of natural law is a thing to behold. It harms no one, and protects everyone; this the essence of freedom. Nothing else is necessary concerning man’s interactions with man, as natural law is based upon the premise of doing no harm to another, no use of force against another, and no infringement upon another or his property. Natural laws alone are the only laws necessary, as any laws prescribed and legislated by one man, or any group of men, over another, is not only immoral, it is immediately destructive of all natural law. Man’s laws are an abomination, and by design are meant to regulate, restrict, harm, or control others, which is a violent afront to the actual rights of all men. No manmade laws that stray in any way from natural law should be tolerated or followed.” — Gary Barnett

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This is about as clear and concise as it gets. It is also why most people will discard it out-of-hand because, at heart, they want to control others–either for the sake of power and all things attendant or because they are afraid and want to be made safe.

Despite all the arguments to the contrary, when everything is boiled down and condensed, these are the only two reasons government exists. We tolerate, endorse, participate in, and support evil, oppressive government because we desire power over others OR because we are fearful and want government to “protect” us.

Let me go further. Probably, we desire power over others and seek to gain it through government BECAUSE we are afraid. Probably, even the most power-hungry tyrant in the world seeks escape from his own personal fear by exercising power (or attempting to) over everyone else. This understanding immediately points out the way of escape from this dilemma and it can be expressed in three simple words: Stop Being Afraid.

“You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free.” — Jesus Christ (John 8:32)

Love of Control and the Antidote

Roger MitchellLeave a comment

This article was first posted at https://westernmt.news/voices/.

“Governments of every stripe are nothing more than gangs of terrorists. All government is organized crime, and relies on force and propaganda in order to subdue the human herd. The criminals at the top care nothing about any of you, and will always find the common man to be expendable, especially those who stand in the way of the State’s efforts to achieve totalitarian rule.” — Gary Barnett

Don’t let anyone fool you. Don’t fool yourself. Government which relies on force and violence to achieve its ends CANNOT be reformed and made into something which it is not. This is why the appeals to “conservatism”, “going back to the Constitution”, and “small(er) government”, always fail. The goal is NEVER to eliminate forceful, violent government, instead, it is about gaining control and power over everyone else at the expense of anyone–no matter who they are. Voting for a proxy government is nothing more than a way of exercising your own personal, deep-seated desire for control.

The main argument of government apologists everywhere can be reduced to one common theme, i.e., “If they disagree with me, then they need to be controlled.” Unfortunately for this attitude, those who seek to control others usually end up being controlled. Only a very few, all fabulously wealthy and extremely powerful, can escape this control in any measurable fashion, but they trade that privilege for their own peculiar set of problems, all of which have costs imposed and exacted.

“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” — Luke 6:38 (KJV)

This passage of Scripture, spoken by Jesus, especially the emphasized part, applies equally across the board. You want control? You will be controlled. The alternative, the cure for this mindset, also spoken by Jesus, is this:

“Love your neighbor as you do yourself.” — Mark 12:31

Living this way requires a complete abandonment of the Status Quo and the adoption of a new way of life. Few there be that find it.

Fear is a Harsh Mistress

Roger Mitchell2 Comments

This article was inspired by a conversation with an acquaintance and encouraged by this recent quote from Gary Barnett:

“…the truth hurts, but without acceptance of truth, what is left is a deceitful lie…”

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/08/gary-d-barnett/the-only-national-defense-needed-in-this-country-is-defense-against-the-real-enemy-the-ruling-class-and-the-u-s-government/

The title of the article is adapted from Robert Heinlein’s novel, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I have reason to believe that Heinlein would not be offended by my use of it.

There are only two reasons to believe that government is necessary, neither one of them positive nor uplifting:

1. A personal desire for power and control over other people, with the purpose of getting what one wants via the use of force, and/or,

2. A deep-seated, irrational desire for protection against imagined events which might, but are not guaranteed to, happen.

It is accurate to say that those who use government at any level from the very top to the very bottom seek control of others via the proxy known as government for personal, selfish desires, i.e., to get what someone else has OR as a bulwark against loss, i.e, to keep what they already possess. Neither of these are Christian attributes. Both are grounded in one basic emotion–fear. Both use force, either implicitly or explicitly to attain their goals. Both are a violation of the commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”

Everything which is negative in life can be boiled down to fear. Fear was the very first emotion expressed in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve ate the apple, causing them to cover themselves with fig leaves out of shame for their nakedness. Fear of being found wanting caused them to try to hide from God, resulting in their being driven away from and deprived of the right to live forever. This assumes that the Genesis account is accurate. Whether it is or not, the principle is the same.

Fear, all-encompassing, unreasoning fear, consumes us as individuals and societies. It conjures up imaginations deep within our souls which, if allowed to come to pass, might cause enormous pain, suffering, and deprivation, perhaps even death, which is usually resisted to the very end with all the strength we can muster because we are afraid of dying. Fear causes us to develop tactics and strategies to overcome these imaginations, which, being rooted in irrationality, exacerbate the fear and drive us to greater effort in devising new methods to overcome it. It is a repetitive cycle, a doom-loop, which never ends within our minds–unless it is broken completely and thoroughly discarded as a way of life.

In all of this, it is understandable why people first banded together to oppose enemies, whether they had two legs or four. When violent death via saber-toothed cats was a constant threat, they learned quickly that there was safety in numbers. When marauding Stone Age bands from different tribes appeared on the horizon, it was necessary to follow the leader to repel the threat. What evolved out of these situations was a system in which some people learned that existential threats were good for their status within the community and they began to devise ways to manufacture fear to keep their subjects in a continual panic-driven state of mind. Government became the norm as it became more and more evident that the populace could be manipulated into submission and subjection due to a perceived, existent threat. We have now progressed to the point where the threat does not have to be existent, i.e., Covid, Climate Change, or Russia!, Russia!, Russia!, but is only perceived to be. We are constantly bombarded with propaganda which serves the purpose of maintaining and consolidating the false narrative–which is designed to keep us in a perpetual state of fear.

Bad things do happen to good people. This is true. It is a fact of human life. Into every life a little rain must fall. However, this does not justify giving up our human liberty to an external government in the hope that somehow, perhaps, just maybe, the threat will not materialize or, if it does, that the government will defeat it before it strikes us, keeping us safe and our way of life secure. We do not need to live this way.

We do need to be aware of the potential dangers around us. Yellowstone might blow. Kim Jong-Un might unleash an EMP attack in the airspace above Nebraska. A respiratory disease might kill half the population, including myself and/or those close to me. Aliens might invade. A meteorite might strike the world. The economy might collapse tomorrow. And on, and on, and on…infinitum. [Note: the present economy will collapse someday and another will take its place. This much is certain. All the others mentioned are purely conjectural. Of these, there is no guarantee that they will occur.]

Yes, there are dangers and threats, but we do not have to be afraid. We can conquer the fear within our own individual lives to the point that every potential threat remains just that…only a potential threat and refuse to allow it to gain control over us. We can choose to live fearlessly, unafraid of what the future might bring.

“You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free…” (John 8:32) were the words spoken two thousand years ago and they ring true today. This brings up the question, however. What are we set free from? Obviously, wars, diseases, and earthquakes still happen. Auto accidents occur. Marital infidelities abound. Crime is rampant. Any of these, et al., might happen to us at any time. Therefore, we cannot say that the truth will automatically preserve us from these nor from any other specific negative event. What we can say, however, is that the truth sets us free from being controlled mentally and spiritually by fear. The truth sets us free from one thing and only one thing–fear. If we are free from fear, then there is nothing which can stop us from achieving our destiny in this life. If we are free from fear, we become uncontrollable by other people and are accountable only to the truth–that we are children of God, responsible only to Him, and, as such, can live freely.

As people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, we should understand that the greatest enemy we face is not an external one, but the one which resides within us. It should be our goal to overcome this enemy so completely that it is rendered perfectly impotent. We are, as the Scripture says, more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). Instead of giving in to the fear which we are all prone to, we ought to recognize that God, not a government nor any impersonal event, holds our future and that nothing, absolutely nothing, can happen to us unless He allows it.

“Without faith, it is impossible to please Him.” — Hebrews 11:6

I do not need government. I am not a threat to anyone and I am not afraid of what life might bring. I am confident in my faith in the Sovereign God Who is my provision and my protection.

Why would I have need to fear?