Subject: A Civilizing Influence? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dear Subscriber, Examples of the American fascist police state are rolling in quicker than I can forward them. Here is one that I'm sure many of you have heard about already, concerning an admittedly obnoxious guy asking John Kerry questions--and getting tackled, tasered, and arrested as a result: http://tinyurl.com/3368bv (Incidentally, if they chose to, the private owners of the place where this happened had the right to tell the guy to shut up and get out, even forcibly remove him if necessary--but not the right to taser him or put him in a cage. Instead, this was the "government" police doing their power game, showing us all who's boss.) Even better, here is the story of a 70-year-old woman who was handcuffed and hauled away for--brace yourself for this heinous crime--having a brown lawn: http://tinyurl.com/ys5e86 Remember, we're supposed to think that "the law" is a civilizing force, which reduces violence and ensures justice. (Because us mere mortals would never behave ourselves without a ruler--or so we're supposed to think.) Both of the above stories make good examples of how "authority" ADDS violence to society. In both cases, the people who ended up being the victims were doing something that could be construed as at least impolite. The guy asking the questions was both obnoxious and an attention hog, and I expect that the neighbors of the elderly lady didn't like having an ugly, brown lawn in their neighborhood. The question is, what did "law" and "government" add to the equation? In a society that actually values individual rights, what would have happened? Someone may have pulled the plug on the somewhat obnoxious guy, or they could have just waited for him to finish his question/rant. (Actually, in a free society, it wouldn't have happened at all, because no one would pay any attention to people like John Kerry.) It's pretty likely, however, that no one would have felt the need to violently tackled the guy, taser him, and then drag him away and put him in a cage. * Likewise with the old lady. Her neighbors might complain at her-- heck, they might even offer to water her lawn for her (heaven forbid), if they want it to be green--but it's pretty darn unlikely that anyone OTHER than those pretending to be "authority" would put her in handcuffs and forcibly remove her from her property (bruising her and bloodying her nose in the process). "Authority" means the RIGHT to rule--the right to FORCIBLY control everyone else (even if only in certain ways or certain situations). And since it is mostly used in cases where you and I would NOT feel justified using violence ourselves, what "government" amounts to is THE ADDITION OF IMMORAL FORCE INTO SOCIETY. And the above examples-- and several million not mentioned--demonstrate that quite plainly. If you do a search for "police brutality" or similar terms on "www.YouTube.com," you can spend all day watching videos of just how much of a civilizing influence "authority" really is. (And, of course, most of the time oppression and authoritarian injustice occurs, it is not captured on tape.) Those who haven't been on the receiving end of authoritarian tactics like to cling to the baseless belief that "laws" make us more civilized. Those who have been "legally" oppressed, extorted, robbed, terrorized, assaulted, cuffed, beaten, and/or locked up know better. (I was going to add "murdered" to the list, but it's hard to say whether those people know better or not.) Almost all of would LIKE there to be some magic ingredient to make society more peaceful, more fair, more civilized, and more just. But "government" isn't it. It does the exact opposite. Sincerely, Larken Rose http://www.larkenrose.com (* Though the "taser" is praised as a great "non-lethal" tool for the fascists--I mean, "law enforcers"--dozens of deaths are thought to be related to people being "tased." In addition, though I haven't experienced it myself, I'm told it HURTS LIKE HELL! However, because it LOOKS nicer than pounding someone into submission with night sticks--though it amounts to the same thing-- the police don't seem to mind doing it fairly often.) P.S. Incidentally, what I'd love to see somebody do--and maybe somebody already has, and I just haven't heard of it--is use FOIA and the state "sunshine" laws to get the names of the fascists who do this stuff, and post them all on one web site (something like "American Fascists Hall of Fame"). I don't have time, or I'd do it myself. All my past anti-political rants can be found here: www.3rdear.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=21 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Note: This signature can be verified at https://www.hushtools.com/verify Charset: UTF8 Version: Hush 2.5 wpwEAQECAAYFAkbxqPYACgkQGmVFo/iGj30RbwQAqmXm3fcDgHi6oF9GXqwtirtJQ8bO XBG8Od589WUEJWozkuRS6rg3dP+xg1B3Gn8g1g56ZviBWIKvlL4CKVyRx+vLvBnLvYNc McGoD+cjpkQkQ1o4mTuxECgKc/jY21n01xdIWqR20F3HbOr4uq3vDYlNP1+UVWH+NXT1 XCv6kaM= =qoWS -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Click to find great rates on medical insurance, save big, shop here. http://tagline.hushmail.com/fc/Ioyw6h4d8QNVjc5yUUaDmHSsxMbZgmqZe1cDYTvnxSBvktDjE8KXrm/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe, send a blank message to tmds-on@mail-list.com To contact the list owner, send your message to tmds-list-owner@mail-list.com