Time to make stand against tyranny
(My Clovis News Journal column for August 7, 2015)
When did chickens become big news in Clovis? When local bullies decided to use them as justification for pushing people around.
It may seem trivial to worry about whether or not the city allows chickens, but it’s a symptom of a pervasive problem: violation of self determination and property rights. The attitude which causes government employees to try to ban chickens is the same attitude behind police brutality, the War on Politically Incorrect Drugs, anti-gun laws, and other human rights violations. The underlying disorder is the belief in government supremacy.
There is one simple solution.
Once you allow anyone to develop the belief that they are entitled to run your life, there is nowhere they will stop- unless you stop them. At some point you have to put your foot down, make a line in the sand, and say "No". This should be natural for anyone who believes in individual rights.
Enforcing nonsensical rules against keeping chickens is one way to steal property. Sure, the city may not actually take the home- at least not yet- but they are trying to steal the value of the home from the home owner. If you have a camera, but are not allowed to take pictures, you might as well not own one. If you aren't allowed to drive your car, what good is it to you? If you aren't allowed to use your house as you want, you don't really have a home at all.
It doesn't endanger you to stand up for property rights in this case. If you don't stand up for what's right when it is safe and easy, how do you expect to have the courage to stand up for the right thing when it is hard? When there is personal risk? Courage is like a muscle- you need to exercise it. This is a good opportunity for developing some courage. Stand up to those who are trying to destroy the value of a person's private property. Don't back down. Demand Rightful Liberty be respected. Then, if they ignore you, civil disobedience is in order. Maybe what Clovis needs is hundreds of new chicken owners defying the "law".
With the practice people get from this act of righteous rebellion, they can expand to all the other ways the "authorities" try to violate life, liberty, and property. We could make enforcement too costly. Perhaps, we could make them regret ever taking the job.
It is in apparently trivial matters such as this where the future will be determined. Do you want your children or grandchildren to live in liberty, or under tyranny? Choose your side, and make a stand now.
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"Demand Rightful Liberty be respected. Then, if they ignore you, civil disobedience is in order."
ReplyDeleteTranslation: bring a pillow to a gun fight and ask for mercy from a stupid belligerent asshole.
"IF"? lol. ..as if...
"Maybe what Clovis needs is hundreds of new chicken owners defying the "law"."
Maybe what Clovis needs is a militia to burn down the courthouse and kill all of the cops and voters.
What law?
Sorry if I'm not willing to kill everyone.
DeleteIn order to have my columns published in the newspaper, I have to walk a very thin line. How to put it so it doesn't scare the children, without violating my principles? It's not easy. I'm not even sure it is "worth it". I do get a tiny bit of money for writing the columns. I am also introducing the idea of liberty into the minds of people who otherwise would never hear such a thing. And it is being heard- I know because people come up to me and tell me. Will it make a real difference? Probably not. I do believe it is a part of doing all I can do to promote liberty.
I'm not willing to die by picking a fight. And as long as someone isn't attacking me, I would be picking a fight to go after them first. Sorry, again, if that disappoints you. We all pick our battles- I'm not going to pick that one. I'd rather use my energy doing some things I really want to do in spite of their "laws", instead of throwing my life away because of other "laws". Each person has to pick the "laws" they choose to ignore (and everyone ignores a great many "laws").
If a militia marched to burn the courthouse and kill all the cops, I would probably look the other way. Not my circus, not my monkeys. But I wouldn't join them. And I wouldn't kill all the voters. I was once a voter, myself.
I'm curious. When you kill the "voters," will you also kill their children? If you spare them, will you just let them fend for themselves or adopt them? Or will you force them to bury their parents and then send them to work camps?
DeleteDo children vote? No.
DeleteTheir children are not my problem. My problem is defense.
If someone threatens you with a gun, and you have the opportunity to kill them in defense, are you thinking about their children's welfare? No, you're thinking about defense. If you don't want to die, if you don't want to leave your children parentless, then don't coerce people with guns. Duh.
So you will abandon them and let them fend for themselves. Thanks for exposing your true character.
DeleteHowever unpalatable it is, the reality of the world is what it is. I have very little sympathy anymore for those who wish to impose tyranny onto the rest of us.
DeleteThey care not for us and our children when they vote to impose their will, when they create and support a criminal system that kidnaps beats and kills people for victimless crimes, to leave other people's children to fend for themselves.
They care not for the welfare of anyone, so long as they get THEIR way, BY FORCE.
People such as you will argue in their favor having never considered them as organized crime, having never questioned the consequence of their actions or the responsibility they have in victimizing everyone else.
Thank you for exposing your denial.
"In order to have my columns published in the newspaper, I have to walk a very thin line. How to put it so it doesn't scare the children, without violating my principles? It's not easy. I'm not even sure it is "worth it". I do get a tiny bit of money for writing the columns. I am also introducing the idea of liberty into the minds of people who otherwise would never hear such a thing. And it is being heard- I know because people come up to me and tell me. Will it make a real difference? Probably not. I do believe it is a part of doing all I can do to promote liberty."
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, Kent. I understand your position and truly appreciate what you're doing. Don't stop writing. The intellectual side of the war on statism is crucial.
"I'm not willing to die by picking a fight. And as long as someone isn't attacking me, I would be picking a fight to go after them first. Sorry, again, if that disappoints you. We all pick our battles- I'm not going to pick that one."
The fight picked you. To argue otherwise is to deny the very principles of Libertarianism.
"I'd rather use my energy doing some things I really want to do in spite of their "laws", instead of throwing my life away because of other "laws". Each person has to pick the "laws" they choose to ignore (and everyone ignores a great many "laws")."
But you said that;
"Once you allow anyone to develop the belief that they are entitled to run your life, there is nowhere they will stop- unless you stop them. At some point you have to put your foot down, make a line in the sand, and say "No"."
Because government does everything with violence/coercion/force, stopping it means using force(in defense). Stopping it means complete destruction of government that includes everything from voters to pigs.