I’ve been listening to the republican candidates talk about how they want to “restore the country to greatness”. I believe none has a clue with regard to the fundamental actions needed to recover from our circumstances.
The candidates are largely talking about nationalism – borders, economics and military defense. I do not subscribe to the nationalist economic / safety model as justification for expansive government.
They desire a visible and quantifiable improvement in the human condition. Unfortunately they differ with regard to the desired condition, and we disagree dramatically over the means which should be employed to achieve the various outcomes.
If you listen to the conservative pundits, you get a fair understanding of our situation: corruption of rule of law, absence of equal protection, a broken “social contract”. None, however have any useful plan to address these as symptoms of an out-of-control state.
Even Glenn Beck is missing the point when he claims there is danger in personal action to confront the behavior of the state. Wednesday evening Glenn gave a history lesson about the three individuals, acting alone, who captured the courier facilitating Benedict Arnold’s treason. At the same time Glenn spoke disparagingly of the men and women who went to the Bundy ranch to stand against the armed incursion by the Bureau of Land Management; and he questioned the intentions of the Oathkeepers who are now in Ferguson. He failed to apply his history lesson to current events.
We have a limited choice of actions available to us. We can be passive victims of the state or stand together in our communities to largely ignore the legislative actions of the state and act responsibly – for ourselves and toward those who interact with our community.
We must return to basics that have been eroded over the last two or three generations. Family is the proper focus for our lives and we must be guided by an organic law that is disconnected from the legislative domains of men (the state at various levels of implementation).
Law, as prescription for ‘right-behavior’, is different from the legislative statutes, ordinances and regulations of the state. The prescriptions are derived from long-standing community practice. They are encapsulated in the tenets and actions of common-law. My case for this approach is built in prior articles on liberty and the common-law. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
People must again experience a spontaneous social order in the absence of a state, and an immediate consequence for misbehavior within their community. Natural law is that law which provides guidance on how to accomplish this. Natural law is that law, which it is proper to uphold by unorganized individual violence, whether a state is present or absent, and for which, in the absence of orderly society, it is proper to punish violators by unorganized individual violence. (credit)
How do we begin? Start with small actions. Be the crazy person who evicts the kids from outside your community who come to make mischief and litter in your cul-de-sacs. Be the crazy person who stops and challenges drivers of vehicles moving erratically on the streets in your community. Seek consensus for your actions within your community.
Then think bigger. Find a half-dozen people who are willing to become community arbiters (judges) for interactions and disputes within your community. Study together and establish a community practice (court) of common-law. Take responsibility for your community.
To the conservative skeptics and progressive detractors, I’m not asking you to share this belief. I’m asking you to respect this belief. Stand aside and do not impede our ability to act in what we perceive to be our best interest, so long as our actions do no discernible injury to others nor damage to their property.
I’m currently at the stage of small actions. I’m beginning to think bigger. You can do the same. There is some personal risk in this, but I believe it is acceptable. Your action will have a positive impact on people within and beyond the boundary of your community.
Be that crazy person who takes responsibility for establishment of spontaneous organic order within your community.
