If someone came to you today, with a document to sign that said the exact same thing the US Constitution says, would you sign it?
I wouldn't.
I was told I will be forced to sign some constitution, so I'd better sign this one or I'll be signing one that's worse.
I am not signing.
I was told they don't care if I don't sign. They'll insist on governing me anyway.
So, then, why would I sign?
I was told I must have a PLAN! to deal with thugs who would insist on governing/molesting me anyway. I pointed out all plans fall apart as soon as other people are involved. What is his plan? Signing their one-sided "contract"?
The best thing to do is to have principles that you can act on.
I'm still not signing it.
I was asked what I do when armed people show up and demand I pay their "taxes". I asked if he has a plan to deal with muggers.
How would signing a constitution eliminate the thieves? Why didn't it work this time?
I'm not signing anything.
So I was told all I have are principles and ideas that can't be put into concrete action. What an odd thing to say. Especially from someone whose plan seems to involve signing documents forced on him by criminal gangs. Documents which will be interpreted and enforced by the people employed by the criminal gang.
Not gonna sign.
Then he said I was claiming persecution, simply because I pointed out that criminals will always exist, whether you call them rapists, cops, murderers, tax collectors, rapists, or whatever. If you can't live free in spite of them, then you'll never be free.
All I'm saying is that I'm not going to sign, not that I'd try to stop him from signing.
So I was told again that I "hate" the Constitution, that I "keep pretending as if the binary is between 'a perfect stateless system or the imperfect constitution' when in reality the choice is between this imperfect constitution or some other constitution that is worse." Which I never did. In fact, I pointed out several times that Utopia is not an option.
But, I wouldn't sign his constitution.
This was another of those self-proclaimed "libertarians", doing anything he could think of to force people to live under a state because he couldn't imagine any other way.
And, I still wouldn't sign his constitution.
I know you're familiar with this quote ...
ReplyDelete“But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case it is unfit to exist.”
― Lysander Spooner, No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority
I repeat it every time I'm confronted by a disciple of "The Holy Parchment".
Hans ... in the NC woods
I considered posting that in the conversation, but I already knew his response would be that I was going to be forced to sign one anyway.
DeleteThe religious reverence that some people have for this document; conceived in secrecy and promoted with empty promises, that has utterly failed to retrain the usurping power of government or protect the ‘inalienable” (sic) rights of the people, a so-called ‘supreme law’ that barely a single phrase contained within it has not been rudely ignored with contempt by those whose control and authority it was intended to limit and strictly define. The history of its impotence over the past two plus centuries has clearly taught me that law is whatever the powerful wish to impose on those they rule and that the only things that deserve my respect and allegiance are instead justice and liberty.
ReplyDeleteIt's part of the reason contempt of Congress should be the default. They are contemptible, as is the rest of the government. No constitution will rein them in. It's going to take something immediate and painful to make them leave our liberty alone.
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