 Visions And Tomorrows
Francis Porretto
I wrote some  time ago about the
terrible power of the statists' strategy of gradualism. Gradualism cannot be
made into a
weapon for freedom. It requires the surrender of all principles
of justice, after which the field
belongs to the forces of evil. Thus, we
must counter gradualism with other weapons.
Whether we've failed to find the
proper countermeasure or have failed to use it properly, the
statists have
defeated us at nearly every turn. At this time we're barely a hair short of
having
a completely unbounded federal government that exercises arbitrary
coercive power over any
and every activity known to Man.
Mark Steyn has opined that the
point of no return is government-provided health care. With
ObamaCare, we're
not far short of that. If ObamaCare's designed-in dynamic is permitted to
operate for a few years, we'll take the plunge into a Canadian-style
single-payer service, if not
a full-up British National Health Service,
whether we like it or not.
Not to put too fine a point on it,
America is on the brink.
***
Yes, the line just above the
asterisk-break was intended to get your blood pumping. It was also
intended
to get you to ask the critical questions:
- What
"brink?"
- What could push
us over?
- If we go over
the edge, what might pull us back?
- Most important
of all: What measure(s) might pull us back from the brink?
The brink is the dividing line
between two conditions of society: one that has at least some
possibility of
freeing itself by non-violent means, and one that can only reclaim its
freedom by
bloody revolution.
America will go "over the
brink" if ever the following set of conditions should come to pass:
- The right of
free expression is suspended;
- The writ of
habeas corpus is no longer honored;
- Elections are
suspended, or are rendered inherently untrustworthy;
- The
preponderance of coercive force lies with institutions wholly
subservient to the
- federal government.
All four of these nightmarish
possibilities are required to plunge us into totalitarianism. We
who have
hoped for the restoration of freedom will be left with memories, nothing
more. We
won't know just "when to stop and when to go;" we'll be
told when to do so. The shadows of
the Omnipotent State won't
"disappear;" we'll cease to see them, because they'll cease to
have
borders. But we'll have plenty of propaganda organs showering us with
"golden lights;"
what we won't have is any voices counterpoised to
them.
The older ones among us will have
memories of freedom, at least particular cases thereof.
But Mankind's
"magical vanishing memory machine" -- human mortality -- will cause
those to
dwindle and disappear. Nor will uncorrupted records of a free
America be permitted to reach
younger Americans' eyes. Indeed, that process
is already under way; if you doubt it, check
your minor children's
"social studies" textbooks.
In such a state, Rousseau's dictum
that "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains"
will have
to be revised: Man is born in chains, and is everywhere told in a voice of
thunder
that he was never free.
A reader has written
me to pose a penetrating question:
For all our disdain of politics,
for all our anger at Obama, for all our fear of encroaching
bureaucracy, what
would it take for us, personally, to rebel?
That is, what would cause us to go
on strike from work? Or what would cause us not to pay
our taxes? Or what
would cause us to sit, Gandhi-style in front of a politician's office?
I'm asking you to ask us,
"What is your line in the sand?" We talk about being prepared
with
guns and ammo or staples. But what is the thing that might happen that would
cause
us to actually stand up and say, "NO!" rather than just
prepare for chaos, uninvited and
unchallenged?
What is that turning point from
being angry to being rebellious? And what would we do?
That is the question of the hour.
It must be answered both individually and collectively.
Individually, because
even in our time a single unbowed figure, a lone man who rises up
and bellows
"Non serviam," can make a difference, especially if he backs up his
proclamation with action. Collectively, because even the most fearless and
inspiring leader
must have enough firmly committed troops at his back to
defeat his enemy.
Let's return to my four
nightmare-scenario precursors:
- The right of free
expression is suspended;
- The writ of
habeas corpus is no longer honored;
- Elections are
suspended, or are rendered inherently untrustworthy;
- The
preponderance of coercive force lies with institutions wholly
subservient to the
- federal government.
The federal
government, or major institutions that have great federal influence, has
inched
toward all four of these in recent years:
The freedom of the Internet is
under heavy attack via "net neutrality," "protection of
intellectual
property," and other gambits;
An American citizen detained under
suspicion of involvement in terrorism cannot count on
the success of a habeas
corpus petition;
Forces on the Left have labored
mightily to corrupt our elections to their advantage, and
have occasionally
succeeded;
The push for further incursions on
the right to keep and bear arms is unceasing.
Once again, the key concept is
gradualism. If the statists advance delicately enough on
these fronts, they
might just succeed in "boiling the frog before he realizes his
danger."
Our best hope lies in a sudden acceleration of their efforts,
whether from triumphal elation
or panic. That would cause their ends to
become visible to all too many Americans,
galvanizing us to draw our
"line in the sand" and plant ourselves on it.
What are the odds?
Though the central force toward an
Omnipotent State has historically been the Democratic
Party (including the
special-interest groups allied with it), the Republican Party cannot be
held
blameless. Its power-brokers have often behaved as if an unbounded federal
government is perfectly all right with them, so long as Republicans hold the
levers of power.
Thus it will be insufficient to elevate Republicans over
Democrats at the next election
(and subsequent ones). A statist can wear garb
of any colors. He can spout rhetoric as
stirring as any other man. It's not
how he looks or sounds that matters, but what he does.
What we need is a political class
with a rope around its neck: officeholders who understand
in their viscera
that any betrayal of Constitutional principles will truncate their futures --
and
not just their futures as wielders of power -- absolutely.
Reflect for a moment on the Latin
root of "state:" stare, meaning "to stand." The State is
a
means of compelling those under its yoke to "stand and deliver,"
in the old highwayman's
phrase. The State itself doesn't stand still; it
continuously increases its exactions and
oppressions. As O'Brien said to
Winston Smith, the purpose of power is power.
If government truly is necessary,
it is at best a necessary evil. Our progenitors were more
aware of this than
we who have been bought piecemeal with subsidies, subventions, and
"safety nets." If we must have government, it is government itself
that must be compelled to
stand still: to confine itself to a fixed set of
responsibilities from which it is never permitted to
diverge.
Given the sort of character that
impels some men to seek power, the only thing that will
suffice for that
purpose is an absolute guarantee of unthinkably severe punishment for any
betrayal of Americans' faith or invasion of our rights.
The creation of "a political
class with a rope around its neck" will not come to pass easily.
Indeed,
should the necessary conditions be put in place, the ambition of the
power-monger
guarantees that they will be tested. Some who rise to high
office will probe our resolve.
It will be necessary to prove that
the rope is real and the trapdoor functions smoothly. Nor will
we have the
luxury of being merciful toward "minor offenders," while waiting
for a "major
violation" to reveal our teeth. If the logic of this
escapes you, reflect on how we got to where
we are today.
They who seek
political power must be made to stand very still indeed:
"They are the
crown of creation, they are ambition fulfilled - they have nowhere more to
go....
"Soon they will
attain the stability they strive for, in the form it is granted - a place among
the fossils....
"In loyalty to their kind, they cannot
tolerate our rise; in loyalty to our kind, we cannot
tolerate their
obstruction." - John
Wyndham, Re-Birth
You may take it as written in the
stars that they see us in the very same light.
Mr. Porretto's
websites are Eternity Road and Musings of an Indie Writer.
|
You
don't have to ride on a treacherous, unlit cow path from the north-side
of Boston to Lexington as the King's Regulars attempt a surprise attack
on the Sons of Liberty.
You
don't have to board a frigate, sail for weeks across the Atlantic and
then sack a city in Tripoli to rescue your imprisoned countrymen.
You
don't have to kill a British soldier in a desperate, hand-to-hand
struggle after leaping out of a boat on the beach at York during the War
of 1812.
You
don't have to hold the line against Pickett's desperate charge at
Gettysburg as thousands of wounded men shriek bloody murder around you.
You don't have to resist a vicious attack by the Hun with fixed bayonets at Belleau Wood.
You
don't have to survive a terrifying duck-boat run onto Omaha Beach as
men around you are being chopped to bits by fortified Nazi gun
emplacements.
You
don't have to liberate the Nazi Death Camps, capping months of brutal
fighting and desperate marching through the dirt roads of Europe.
You
don't have to withstand a surprise attack by the Chinese 'People's
Volunteer Army', fighting to hold the line in 35°-below-zero
temperatures for days on end near the Chosin Reservoir.
You
don't have to defend the city of Huế from a surprise attack by Viet
Cong and PAVN regulars, fighting block-to-block as the entire country is
set afire by the Tet Offensive.
You
don't have to race across the desert, waiting for a chemical attack or a
Scud missile to hit, baking in 130° temperatures, so that you can expel
Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard from Kuwait.
You
don't have to patrol a patch of hard-scrabble earth in Aghanistan or
Iraq, waiting for the inevitable IED by the side of the road -- or signs
that you've rolled right into an ambush by heavily-armed 'insurgents'
equipped with Iranian RPGs.
