Sometimes, in the course of every relationship, someone will intentionally or otherwise stop honoring the original terms of the arrangement. Whether by laziness, or by malice, one or multiple parties will attempt to unilaterally change or wholesale dismiss their obligation to the others, and discord or dissolving of that relationship usually follows. The only remaining option, is communication and remediation.
Recently, the pro-2nd Amendment community was lit ablaze by revelations courtesy of an FBI whistleblower that the above symbols are now cause for concern. References to Boogaloo, 2A, MolonLabe, and more are all EXTREMELY commonplace in the 2nd Amendment and gun communities and beyond. I would venture a guess almost every single person that reads this blog has probably indulged in the imagery or analogy from time to time...and I would say "Who cares?" Our relationship with our government, traditionally and historically, is an exceptionally different one from the majority of the rest of the world's peoples, and either by way of willful ignorance our government and its various apparatuses appear to have forgotten that.
You see, we are a nation BORN from revolution, never ruled by monarchy or warlord, and unaccustomed to being shackled by decree. We are a nation that, historically, CONSENTS to be government by representatives and public servants of our own choosing, for limited purposes, with the bilateral understanding that WE retain that power but allow others to act on our behalf. In this relationship, if the citizenry chafes under the rule of the elected, the proper remedy is for the government to be open and receptive to communication, and to remedy the discontent to earn the trust of the electorate once again. While this may have been the intent at one time, it is hardly how the recent dictatorial and bureaucratic state behaves. Dissent must be crushed, banished, demonized, bullied, and wholly destroyed as an open threat to the authority of the powerful elites. I give you Exhibit A above.
John F Kennedy, though well before my time, displayed quite amazing insight (or brilliant employment of good speech writers) when he said "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable." I would caution and remind the people in the seat of government that are right now refusing to be open to the communication and grievances of the people, and who are responding to their loud and increasingly unhappy discontent with suspicion and threatening posturing if not outright violence (YES, I'm going to say WACO and RUBY RIDGE again) that history is an amazing teacher if you open your ears to the lesson plan. If your populace is unhappy, and you refuse to listen and make adjustments, their discontent grows. If you respond to that discontent with threats and violence, it does not go away, it just boils over. Ask King George, The Romanov Family, and France's Ancien Regime what happens....or just take my word for it that it ends poorly when your citizenry is unhappy, ignored, antagonized, and knuckled under UNTIL the only available remedy for their discontent is violent revolution.
And so, here we are today. We have strayed radically from the original framework of our Constitution and founding documents. We are a nation lorded over by a bloated bureaucracy of alphabet agencies and multiple levels of federal government that have shifted the balance of power from the people and the states quite drastically over the past couple centuries and in more recent times this usurpation of authority has ACCELERATED. And, when we dare to raise our voices and question the wisdom of this radical consolidation of power, when we express dissent, when we rally behind symbols or historical footnotes in our nation's own history.....we are put on naughty lists by the Federal Bureau of Irritation. Fine, let's do it your way.
Calling me, or us, ANY of us, Extremists is not going to quiet the dissent. It will not cause us to willingly and compliantly submit to this new relationship that we are loudly announcing our displeasure with. We did not wish to be ruled by bureaucracy or monarch in 1776, and we do not wish it today. If, like a perpetually abusive spouse you do not change your ways or allow a peaceful dissolution of this relationship....then you will leave only one recourse remaining.
Phil Rabalais
Comments