That always works for me.
This is actually an analysis of this essay. Read them both.
And I'm delighted to see the word "culturist" being promoted. I've used it myself in the past, in the sense that some cultures are better at producing freedom, opportunity, choice and technology than others. I didn't realize there was a nascent movement to promote the concept, and will need to learn more.
[Via Peter G]
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
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16 comments:
Certainly a good read. The only thing it lacks is a link to history. And historically speaking, people that believed there were ways of getting out from under the thumb of socialism by resorting to more robust identity politics,were buried,if at all, with either Tiger or T-34 tracks on their bodies. There is absolutely no way in hell or New Jersey that the socialists will relinquish power once seized. The only thing they understand, other than the police state,corruption,and self-delusion is the sharp end of a bayonet. There was lot of talk in France, right after the Nazis were run out of the country, about avoiding the mistakes and socialism that led to defeat and dishonor in 1940. And the home grown socialists moved right on in, and began the cycle of self-destruction all over again. According to these idiots, their brand of stupidity just needs to be tried one more time, and tweaked a little. We will never be rid of them,and their cloying rubbish, as long as they are alive. And they will be rid of us by ennervating each successive generation they dumb down. Half measures and political renewal are great, if you don't mind a long tether. We have a long tether and a police state now. But we still possess the means to be rid of both. Political solutions are nothing more than a comfortable concentration camp. Action, direct and simple, are what's needed to restore the animating contest of freedom. The longer we drag around the bullshit anchor of negotiation with leftists, the less likely we'll be to regain our freedom. Should we hope for the future? Not unless we are willing to take it into our own hands and make it. And that means making a future with no socialists in it.
killing people to get your way is definitely not the way to go. It's simple enough, but it has the fatal weakness of being simple-minded.
Socialists love it when their opponents talk like that. Organize, strategize, and work under the rule of law. Otherwise, you internalize the evil of your enemy.
Communists always said that the means justified the ends. Sean seems to agree with their philosophy -- go read the history of their takeover in Russia.
There's an OODA loop here. We need to find it and use it.
There are also competent small government public servants (Bobby Jindal, to name one) who can fight the good fight -- i.e., the fight on the moral high ground.
"Kill them all" is reactive. It does not consider the end result. That's where our planning must start, in a consideration of our end goal.
As much as Obama and his pals are disgusting, murderous reactivity is even worse.
I hope you're not equating self defense with "murderous reactivity"...?
dymphna- Killing in self defense is not wrong. Revenge killing is. I know the difference, and so ( I am pretty sure) does sean.
It does liberty no favors to assure the bad guys that they will face no real danger, only "legal sanctions". Real evil actions require real self defense.
An enemy who has sworn your destruction and has no fear of real and immediate consequences has no incentive to abate the pursuit of power over others, because those others have assured him victory if they unilaterally eschew the use of force to protect themselves.
This isn't rocket science. Think of a casino. The house has all the odds on their side. Every game has been structured to place the clients at a disadvantage, so that the house will eventually win no matter how well schooled and proficient the player is. Now, imagine the house decides to never make the client pay up.
The house has just sealed its own destruction. The client now has no consequences to fear and can just keep playing until he wins, no matter how long it takes, he can even cheat if necessary because there are not consequences.
Do we really want to place the enemies of liberty at just such an advantage over us by guaranteeing no real and immediate consequences?
Not me, I don't play that! Anybody that does is either suicidal or idiotic.
Ok, Dymphna, you go your way, I'm going mine. I predict you and yours will be slaves, and me and mine won't. The thing you seem to miss, is, the socialist animals WON'T PLAY BY YOUR RULES. They'll play by theirs. And if that means your complete subjugation, it's not any problem. So go ahead."Work within the system". Nice try with the "he seems to agree with their philosophy". It's a little more like, if you're going to fight an animal, you better fight like an animal. Murderous reactivity is worse? Worse than what? After Hussein takes our earnings, stifles dissent, and takes our guns, what, exactly, do you propose doing? Using harsh language? I don't know if you've been keeping up with current events, but pragmatism and voting for the lesser of two evils got us to the place we are now. Two worthless pieces of shit, vying for the WH. Hey, I know, we could build a fire, sing a couple of songs....... Simple minded, internalizing the evils of my enemy? Oh, the PAIN! It burns! I've been skewered by the brilliance of your lazer-like intellect! Have mercy! I beg you to stop before I shrivel into nothingness! When you're up there, in the dizzying stratosphere of the moral high ground, think kindly of me, a murderous oaf, barely able to feed himself, for want of an education. Just one thing. Pray we don't meet.
and one more thing, pray for more whiskey. Whiskey never gave me hope, but it tends to calm me and make me a little more tolerant.
Sean,
I don't understand what "going your way" means in day-to-day reality. It is hard to parse this from what you say.
Skewering you was not my intent, nor did I wish to make you angry. I certainly didn't call you names, though you ascribe some mean ones to yourself...I presume they are meant to be ones I would use?
I was suggesting - or trying to - that dangerous times call for different means. IOW, head-on confrontation is not likely to produce what we both want -- which is to get the socialists out of power, and (I would presume) to get the government out of every single aspect of our lives.
For example, cutting off the hydra heads of this monster requires a drastic change in the tax laws...and that might just be possible, Obama in charge or not. Come 2010, the incumbents are going to be under great pressure to start reforming that mess in Washington. By then, the honeymoon with O-Boy is going to be long over. In D.C., the lust for incumbency trumps *everyting*.
Fortunately, Obm doesn't have the power to remove the second amendment, however much he might favor doing so. Not even packing the Supremes with radical leftist gun-haters can do that for him. It would take a vote in each and every state for that amendment to be withdrawn...neither Obama or you or I will live long enough to see that come to pass.
It's not a matter of "working within the system" -- one can't leave it and go underground without a great deal of support from those above ground. That's how it worked during the occupation of Europe in WWII. I can't see that things have changed that much in this war. It's how networks operate -- and we are building networks between here and Europe. They get a bit bigger every month.
Yeah, it's a long slog but my aim is to find a "work-around" in this situation. We can't change the mess, but there is enough creative energy among ordinary people that we should be able to tunnel through it to the other side.
When you say --
Just one thing. Pray we don't meet.
is that a threat? If it is, why? Do you think I need to be eliminated in order for you to survive? If I am already going to be a slave, what harm can I do to you or your beliefs?
America is in bad shape, but it's not in hopeless shape. There are too many good people out there for the handlers of Obama to get very far with their schemes. It is they who will learn the hard lesson of the limits of power.
Hey, maybe at that point Bill Ayers will start throwing bombs again, just in sheer frustration that he couldn't move the foundation of this country off its base after all.
Now there's a man who could use a few history lessons to replace the Utopian mish-mash that passes for his political philosophy.
In the meantime, though, he would be a good one to study, just to see how he managed to bring the Trojan Horse this far.
Whiskey is OK for taking the edge off some situations but it generally puts you at a large disadvantage if you aren't in the arms of friends with a good sober perimeter force.
I've been as drunk as a lord with a mix or Recce and Selous behind razor wire, but I wouldn't do so outside the wire.
Pardon the typo, I'm inside the wire at home with glass three of Black Bush.
Sub "of" for "or".
Presume you never heard of me. One dies of boredom, as well as anything else.
Well Tom, all I can do is recommend more self-discipline.:)
Dymphna,
It was me who sent David the link, so first off, thanks for the good article and great site.
Second, don't get into an argument. This goes for Sean as well. You work on what you can do. We'll continue to buy ammo and field gear. Why? Because we're your backup plan. You speak of the 2010 elections. We're talking about the Obamination's first 100 days with Congress firmly in his pocket. Rarely, if ever, do laws get repealed. By the time the 2010 elections roll around, there is every indication that irrevocable damage to the Republic will have been done. Making it too dangerous for the Gummint to enforce bad laws is not the best plan, but it is an effective one.
Moreover, we're not the 'spray and pray' types. We advocate accurate, aimed fire. There will be hysterical media accounts about 'survivalist gun nuts' (or something equally idiotic) but it will soon be apparent that the collateral casualties will all be found to have Government bullets in them. Why would this matter? Because I, for one, seriously doubt that some latter day Jefferson or Madison is currently slogging through High School Algebra. Tearing down the Republic and starting over would be a disaster. Nobody I know advocates that. Our aim (get it?) is to force, at gunpoint (if necessary) adherance to the already enumerated rules, the Constitution.
There's more, but I'll await your reply.
PS: I'd have posted something over at Gates of Vienna, but it required signing up for something. Can you or Baron fix that?
Peter--
Blooger allows for an "open id" -- at least that is on the comment section as a choice. We also used to have the variations listed on this blog, too, but I don't know how they disappeared. I'll have the Baron check the template again for that. Maybe when he did a blogroll update, something disappeared.
As a last ditch solution, you can always send me your comment via email and I will post it with whatever ID you choose. I've done this for Europeans who know it is too dangerous now for them to post *anything* that is traceable back to them.
OTOH, the way google is cooperating with the EU, email will probably be infiltrated too, so they'll be reduced to communication by samizdata.
The 2010 elections are only part of it. There are so many places to begin reconstructing our country. I mentioned the tax code.
Then there is networking with other people and groups who actively work toward -- pardon the word -- change. Change back, that is.
I believe in a strong second amendment. I also believe that the quickest way to get that amendment abrogated and to have our freedoms "temporarily" suspended is to settle the question by beginning with gun fire. That would seem to be the last resort to be used against this disaster advancing upon us. But that's my perspective.
What worries me is that if there is a quick reaction right out of the gate, it will play into the hands of the thugs who will be running things. They've been lusting after some form of gun control for years.
When you say:
We advocate accurate, aimed fire. There will be hysterical media accounts about 'survivalist gun nuts' (or something equally idiotic) but it will soon be apparent that the collateral casualties will all be found to have Government bullets in them....
I can only remind you how lightning fast the Imperial Congress and the Executive Office will issue edicts going after all the guns. They'll use the example of Lincoln's emergency suspension of habeus corpus as their precedent.
And, of course, the only guns which will be safe from confiscation will those that are not registered. So if casualties by gunfire are the plan, be sure to have a Plan B for life after confiscation.
Can't you see how much the Brady Bunch are hoping someone will respond with real ammuntion? You will save them so much time and energy if anyone starts shooting. Gunfire is a guaranteed way to make the whole US a "gun-free zone" (which, btw, Va Tech *still* is and is still proud of it. I was there last weekend and you can't even mention the word g.u.n. No, I'm not kidding. Wish I were).
You also say:
...I, for one, seriously doubt that some latter day Jefferson or Madison is currently slogging through High School Algebra...
Believe me, they're out there, usually in the advanced classes. They know how to write, too, just as well as Jefferson or Madison ever did. In fact, I know a few who have a better grasp of political philosophy than M or J because they've moved past the limits of Enlightenment thinking. They can synthesize the philosophy of our Founders with the ideas of people like Russell Kirk and military strategists like John Boyd.
As I said, to win this war -- to even begin to survive the first encounter with firearms intact -- we need to get inside the OODA loop of the Manchurian Canddidate's handlers. Since *their* writings and plans are laid out for everyone to see, that shouldn't be too hard.
There is a time for building, and a time for destoying. Right now, though, it is the time for a third way. We need to avoid direct confrontation (they are sooo hoping we'll go for that) and -- to use a good geek phrase -- instead begin devising a work-around, a kludge, to get past the first problems we'll encounter.
In fact, we may have to build a series of kludges as problems continue to emerge. Americans have the advantage over Europeans in that we are creative, ingenious Rube Goldbergs. The large ship of the gummint can't turn fast enough to keep up with our underground.
It is only when we confront them head on that we enter the confines of *their* OODA loop...and then there they ride, right on our tails, their gunsights trained on our canopy.
Boyd believed that decentralized groups dedicated to objective-driven rather than method-driven ideas were the ones who could take "power to the edge". They were the ones who would prevail.
In the final analysis, we have to be meticulous about keeping our objectives in mind. Methods are always secondary and subject to change as the terrain changes. If we commit to a particular method (or action) that lets our opponents see our hand, we lose that edge.
I submit that the proposition to fire upon our enemies so soon is to succumb to method-driven solutions. We will almost certainly lose our objectives and we will damn sure lose our weapons.
Dymphna,
You have a trust or faith in the system which, although I admire, I just don't have.
I would be shocked if Obama, with a supermajority in both Houses *doesn't* enact some gun control measure. And as I mentioned before, there really isn't any history of bad laws being repealed. Perhaps the Polity stops actively enforcing them, but remain on the books they do. And what ever gets signed into *law* my response is non-compliance. Period. I, along with many of my fellow citizens, won't fire the first shot. Nor will we take up pitchforks and torches and storm the Capitol. My use of armed resistance will be in response to an armed assault, not for some 'revolutionary' uprising.
As well, I do not believe that the restrictions you forsee will need any 'excuse'. I believe that they will occur anyway, and the best response before the election is to prepare. Which I and most of the readers here are already doing.
However, when and if the various so-called Law Enforcement agencies pull up in front of my house, there will be a rifle in my hand, a round in the chamber and the safety will be off. As a matter of fact there's a loaded rifle with the safety off and an empty chamber not six feet from where I'm sitting right now. There's also a pistol (double/single action automatic, round in the chamber, safety off) right next to me. I don't carry a weapon when out of the house. I have done so a couple of times to test my ability to do so without discovery, but it's not a thing that I do.
I won't start shooting without provocation. I do not believe anyone who regularly reads this blog will either. But I will not submit. I will not comply. I do not expect to survive the confrontation. The only question is how many of them I send to hell before they get me. Your job is to make sure my death isn't wasted.
peter said--
You have a trust or faith in the system which, although I admire, I just don't have.
They say communication is the act of the recipient, so if you saw what I said as having "faith in the system" then I failed to communicate.
I loathe, distrust, and avoid "the system" as much as possible. We kept our son out of the government school system and educated him ourselves. Thus he does understand the history of this country, and so do his friends. Their minds have not been shut down.
I also eat as little government food as possible, including stuff processed by Archer Daniels Midland or Tyson's. You can get uprocessed meat and milk and vegetables even if you don't hunt or have a garden (because the damn deer eat anything you plant).
I also believe it is our duty to support the underground economy as much as possible.
My hero is John Boyd, as I'm sure you've noticed. He was *in* the system, but he sure wasn't part of it. He referred to the Pentagon with contempt, calling it "The Building", though he worked there, undermining it, for years.
My faith lies in the network of individuals -- the decentralized network -- who are determined to tunnel through this rather than to submit to it or to set fire to it.
It was that system which got Bert Debie, the Flemish parliamentary leader and former police superintendent out of a sure death sentence. They were going to put him in the most violent jail in Brussels, where many of those "immigrants" who were locked up were there because of him. For the sin of "racism" (for a statement made by someone else when he wasn't even there), he has been stripped of his civil rights for a long, long time and has had to pay thousands of Euros.
But now -- under pressure from us outsiders -- Debie's been removed from prison and been put under house arrest for at least the next year. Will he be murdered there? We don't know. I hope that those nearest to the situation have planned some security because the Walloon thugs in charge of Brussels sure would like him gone.
The story is on our blog this week.
As for what's coming, inertia is inflammable, and the gummint is definitely composed of vast mounds of inert materiel. Dousing it with gasoline might work to get it moving more quickly. But the result would be a blinded lion, lurching about in all directions.
Yeah, Obie has his plans for a "civilian national security force", but it will take him several years of governmental inertia to get that in place. And when he does, it will function about as well as Homeland Security.
But that might be the ideal place (among others) for y'all to infiltrate. What an opportunity to get inside their loop.
Proposing to sit passively at home waiting for some official with guns to arrive in order to begin your executions seems so...so futile. There are few of you; there are lots of them.
What you say reminds me of Lion Heart. He has been harried and hassled by the police for supposed "racism" on his blog. Then they dropped the charges. Now they've re-instated them, moving the venue from "hate crimes" to "terrorism". He has the support of many who would shelter and support him during the interregnum in the UK between now and when things *really* fall apart.
But he doesn't want to go underground, where he could be of help. He wants martyrdom instead. He knows the Muslims in prison will kill him when he gets there, but he's determined to stay public till he's hauled away to have his throat slit.
Lion Heart sincerely sees that as being a courageous Christian. I see it as being suicidal with no good resulting in his death. I also think it is deeply unfair to his young son to abandon him like that.
I hope you do not have young children. If things go the way you plan, they will suffer for your decision. Kids live in the present and all they will understand is that they were deprived of you...
I guess we're on different sides of the fence re "what is to be done." I will sadly leave it at that. You should have the final say, if you want it.
Thanks for the discussion.
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