Tag: government

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?

The True Nature of Politics

Roger Mitchell2 Comments

Hypocrisy in political life is not uncommon. In fact, most people pander to it in one form or another. Both Republican conservatives and Democrat liberals are united in one thing—their shameless inconsistency whenever pet issues are brought up and their support for “righteous” or “virtuous” government whenever it is convenient. See Jacob Hornberger or Laurence Vance for examples of this. See my own articles here and here.

Let’s look at a few issues hotly debated today—abortion, drugs, immigration, and guns. Should these be controlled and regulated by the Feds or by the various states? Sadly, both factions believe that one or the other should hold the controlling reins, depending on what is at stake and the popular political opinion on that specific issue.

For the purposes of this article, Democrats will include anyone who is generally left of center, liberal, and/or progressive. Republicans will include anyone who is generally right of center and conservative. Keep in mind that these are only generalizations on a large scale and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint(s) of any single individual.

Democrats are in favor of the federal government controlling the abortion issue. Roe v. Wade cannot be tampered with or weakened in any way. Any state law which attempts to circumvent it must immediately be stopped. The federal blessing of abortion on demand must be maintained at all costs, no matter what.

Democrats are also in favor of the federal government controlling, regulating, restricting, and/or outlawing and prohibiting guns. In fact, as time brings more mass shootings, the calls for the Feds to “do something” only grow louder. For them, this issue, like abortion, is much too important to be left to the states.

However, when it comes to drugs and immigration, Democrats are usually quite vocal about wresting these issues away from the Feds and allowing the states full control over them. Quite often, liberal-leaning states find themselves at odds with Fed policy on these.

Republicans, on the other hand, tend to favor smaller, more local government when the issue is abortion (Roe v. Wade must be overturned) or guns (the ultimate state’s rights issue), but are in a hurry to grant the Feds a huge amount of power when the conversation turns to drugs (outlaw them all, especially the harder ones like heroin, cocaine, and meth).

For Republicans, immigration also comes under the purview of Federal control, not so much because it is Constitutionally mandated to the Feds, but because the states, especially the liberal ones, simply can’t be trusted to do what is “right” about the limitless hordes pouring across “our” borders.

There are countless others which could be compared in the same way, but I think I have made my point. Both factions adamantly favor federal control over some issues, while vigorously supporting state control over others. The only difference is which side of the political divide one stands on.