Absolutely no one can be trusted with power over others, and a tyranny which claims legitimacy via the charade of “democratic elections” is no more legitimate than any other because it still claims the “right” to inflict violence upon those who want nothing to do with it and have done nothing to harm anyone. – “No True Anarchist“
I never thought I’d be doing this blog for so long I’d start repeating myself, yet here we are; this year, instead of attempting to find a new way to say that which I’ve said countless times before in countless other essays, I’ve decided to observe each of the occasions on which I generally publish philosophical essays (Screeds? Polemics? Jeremiads?) with a selection of linked quotes from previous such occasions. On July 4th I wrote:
Empires rise, thrive, decline, and fall, to be replaced by younger ones which then decline and fall in their time. The history books are littered with their names, and even before Man learned to write there were other, elder realms (albeit of smaller size), stretching back into the mists of prehistory; there may have even been civilizations before the present Age of Apes which rose, fell, and eventually faded even from the hazy glass of mythology, leaving not a rack behind. Likewise, the future will be riddled with empires, in[cluding many]…on worlds yet unsettled circling nameless stars in constellations invisible from the Earth…
And so, as I have already done on other occasions this year (and will again on Thursday), I present a collection of statements I’ve previously made on this topic:
Posturing politicians pretend to be the sworn enemies of other politicians, only to play kissy-face with one another when they don’t realize there’s a camera around. – “The Grand Illusion”
There is not and in fact cannot be any such thing as “legitimate” authority, whether that authority is chosen by elections, lots, birth, examining goat entrails, or pulling swords out of lakes. – “Illegitimate”
Some of you may pooh-pooh the idea of people running their own lives, working together for mutual benefit without the help of “leaders” or “officials” or “organizers” or bosses or commissars or bureaucrats of any kind; some of you refuse to accept that government is at best a barely-necessary evil, and in most cases just a plain evil. – “Anarchy?”
Sometimes dead things are dragged off and devoured by creatures from elsewhere, but very often they rot where they fall and give rise to new life right there in the same soil. – “Remember, Remember”
We make government positions attractive to sociopaths by heaping accolades and privileges upon them; instead, those positions need to be made so repellent that nobody will stay in them for very long. – “Wildfire”
I’m not calling for a revolution; I’m saying that a revolution is inevitable, whether we like it or not. – “To the Ground”
The rulers, rather than admitting the systemic problems, prefer to treat government as a colossal game of hot potato, eternally passing the ball forward in the hopes that it will be in someone else’s hands when the music at last stops as it inevitably must. – “Cleansing Fire”
Western cultures in general, and the US in particular, have become so obsessed with the end of Our Way of Life, that we’re willing to discard everything good about it to avoid that end. – “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi”
The American political system has failed; the two officially-sanctioned parties are merely two wings of the same vulture, and their members are too locked in groupthink to make the radical changes which need to be made to save this country. – “Revolution”
Governments need to be reminded (at least annually if not constantly) that they only hold power by the sufferance of all the people, not merely the majority, and that the overthrow of any government by a disgruntled minority is always a possibility. – “Guy Fawkes Night“
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