March 29, 1998
Saddam Hussein saw a chance and took it. He observed a morally weak President, whose hesitancy and timidity were matched with a loutish bravado and hubris that would, in Saddam Hussein's political world, be rewarded with an early grave. He played the President and his feeble-minded advisors like a virtuoso. Naturally, he won. It was so easy.
What a chump we have for a President!
The Anglo-Saxon conscience does not prevent the Anglo-Saxon from sinning: it merely prevents him from enjoying his sin.
... Salvador de Madariaga
Defoe says that there were a hundred thousand stout country-fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery, without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse.
... William Haslitt
As we reel from one scandalous revelation to the next, like a drunken man lurching from one lampost to another, the thought has occurred to nearly all of us, I suppose: How much more of this can the President take? Has he no shame? What an embarrassment to the nation, before the world! The vital business of the nation is being ignored because of his so-called "private" morals and barnyard behavior.
Well, the Constitution of the United States, written by men who were no strangers to the world's ways, anticipates this very situation. It calls for the House to sit in judgement of the President and to make formal the accusations against him, and then for the Senate to try him on those accusations, with the sole penalty upon conviction being removal from office.
Those in the opposition party brand themselves cowards if they shrink from this duty. They suggest that the impeachment might not pass for lack of Democrats to support it. So, what? Does that change their duty? As far as the Democrats are concerned, I guess I understand political loyalty. At least, silence is better than a lie. But why are the Republicans hesitating? They point out that Gore would become president, giving him the advantage of incumbency. I don't know about that: it did not work for Gerald Ford. But what kind of person puts the nation's best interests and his sworn duty behind sheer political advantage? That is nowhere near as admirable as political loyalty.
The disgrace that hovers over the White House casts a shadow down Pennsylvania Avenue. It darkens the halls of Congress, where a good many fine people have worked, now populated with the timid, the prudent, and the cautious. Is there not one who will stand up and demand, in public, that the First Miscreant be stripped of his office?
Well, of course not! Are we such fools as to think that anyone cares about whether the President's behavior holds the office up to ridicule? Or at least, anyone who counts?
And, you see, that is the point. Without pen ever being set to paper, without a shot fired, with hardly a murmur, our Constitution has been revoked and a jackass set on the throne in its place. This jackass has a name: Opinion Polls. Electronic democracy has arrived, silently and effortlessly, not with the hoopla of the Internet, nor through the re-engineering of the Constitution by a Ross Perot, but rather as a direct consequence of the incentives we ourselves have injected into the political processes in this country, with our appetite for quick answers, instant solutions, and conformity, the fast food of political and social life in our age. And its effect, naturally enough, on good government and responsible politics has been devastating.
When every move the administration makes is measured against opinion polls instead of principles, the jackass rules. When the President previews his speeches before test audiences, the jackass brays. And when Clinton mumbles his lame excuses and trots out his lawyers and fall guys, the jackass tramples our values into the dust. Every triumph of the jackass makes our future as a people bleaker.
As for Clinton's supposedly mysterious approval ratings (as though that meant he was, in fact, doing a good job), I do not find it hard to believe that 67% (or whatever) of my fellow citizens are morons. After all, it is well known that half of the people are below average. Why should we pay any attention to their opinions at all?
Claire Wolfe is a tax protester, a gun-rights advocate, a libertarian, a survivalist, and no doubt many other things. But she is also the author of a delightful, depressing, sensible, humorous, frightening book disarmingly entitled 101 Things to Do 'til the Revolution: Ideas and Resources for Self-liberation, Monkey-wrenching and Preparedness. A summation of her attitude is found in the Foreword: "America is at that awkward stage. It is too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."
Those who believe that there is still time to work within the system (like me, though the evidence for this becomes ever thinner and more threadbare) will nevertheless benefit from this manic dose of "Wolfe-thought." A few samples:
1. Don't write to your congresscritter
"You don't have a representative any more. You merely have someone who thinks he or she is your 'leader,' unfettered by either your opinions or the Constitution." 101 Things to Do 'til the Revolution, p.1.
7. Question authority
"Our educations and social training have taught us to accept authoritative statements at face value... We must reverse that." ibid., p.7.
8. Kill your TV
"McLuhan was right. With TV, the medium is the message ...and the message is that you are nothing but a passive blob, fit only for sucking up what someone else wants you to see, hear, believe, and know." ibid., p.8.
31. Take your kids out of government school
"...today's shocking rates of illiteracy, lack of historic knowledge, and sheeplike belief that people exist to serve the state aren't the result of a system that has failed. They are the result of a system that has succeeded beyond its founders' wildest dreams. The system cannot be fixed. It already works." ibid., p.47. (Wish I'd said that.)
58. Don't cooperate with the friendly census taker
"... when that census form arrives in the mail, give the feds precisely what they are entitled to, [the] number of people [who] live in your house. Don't tell them your marital status, your race, the ages of your family members, the number of telephones or TV sets or commodes you have in your house -- or anything else. It isn't their business, and they are exceeding their legal authority in asking." ibid., p.107.
Claire concludes this section with a haunting quotation from Michael Bakunin, a Russian anarchist: "The smallest and most inoffensive state is still a criminal in its dreams."
88. Never beg for your rights
"Free people never beg government for fundamental rights... Never... negotiate for your rights. Take them." ibid., p.161-2.
101 Things... has many aspects. Apart from the political-philosophical content, which is rich and full, there are resources, humor, anecdotes, micro-biographies, bibliographies, info about freedom groups, gun groups, survivalist groups, political action groups, in fact, a delicious grab-bag of information. There is something here for everyone, regardless of where he is on the road to anarchy.
Here is something for everyone, an essay on the government's powers of confiscation and condemnation:
17. Oppose property seizure with all your might
The Supreme Court, inexplicably, has approved the exercise of a broad set of powers in numerous decisions involving local, state and federal governments to seize property thought to be connected with the commission of a crime, even a crime so innocuous as the failure to register a vehicle, despite the 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments. "In the early days of the War on the Bill of Rights... er, I mean, the War on Drugs... Congress passed a law allowing cops to confiscate the assets of suspected drug dealers without criminal charges or criminal trials." ibid., p.19.
After the Justice Department began encouraging the use of civil forfeiture to raise money, "... the process escalated into a kind of government-sanctioned protection racket. What the Mafia can't do, the cops are being encouraged to do..." ibid., p.20. The courts have ruled civil forfeiture is not a criminal penalty and is therefore exempt from double jeopardy. Moreover, it does not matter who owns the property, nor whether the owner is in any way involved in the supposed crime or not. No criminal charges need be filed. Civil forfeiture has become a plague and a nightmare for honest citizens living under a corrupt racket.
Claire Wolfe's book is full of steep, slippery slopes. It is, for instance, only a small step from observing that the government has equipped itself with the instruments of tyranny to supposing that it intends to use those instruments. It is only a small step from observing the use of tyrannical force to supposing that the government intends to institute tyranny. And it is only the tiniest step from observing government officials betraying their trust in a case against one person, however unsympathetic, to supposing that you are next.
At the bottom of the slope, there are things to do. Join an organization; protest; obstruct; monkey-wrenching, which Claire provides numerous, sometimes humorous, suggestions for; most of all, get ready. Get yourself ready, get your family ready, get your property ready, get your mind ready. This is not fantasy. The government has, in its own mind, long since canceled your Constitutional rights, and it is in fact actually exercising the powers it has arrogated to itself.
This book is extremely well written. Despite her disclaimer that it is simply a collection of things to do and think about, under the guise of a how-to book she has written a tight, well-thought-out, eloquent apology for her political viewpoint and backed it up with excellent collateral and references. A government well-equipped with the tools of tyranny but not yet using it much is the vision that troubles the lovers of liberty of all persuasions. Claire Wolfe's impressive nightmare has not helped to dispel the fears.
By the way:
33. Assume all telephones are tapped!
Some quips pro quo on recent news:
Jonesboro: The very first thing to do is to find someone else to blame for the schoolyard massacre there, in this order: Southern culture, guns, violence among youth, guns, twisted upbringing, guns, etc. Next they will be blaming the school itself. How about the possibility that (a) the episode that everyone is in an uproar about is so unusual, so rare in fact, that we can regard the whole business as an aberration to be regretted, the perpetrators to be punished according to law, and (b) the perpetrators are simply murderous little criminals and not any kind of victim at all? Nope, it will never fly. There has to be a way to blame society.
Washington: Sen. Kennedy's advocacy of a bill to lower the age of eligibility for Medicare to 55 certainly illustrates the "creep" in "creeping socialism."
Washington: Sen. Moynihan, what do you mean? Privatize Social Security? Have you taken leave of your senses? When one of the principal architects of American socialism appears to abandon his position in favor of a solution that makes some kind of rational sense, it raises my suspicions. What does he have up his sleeve? Is this the onset of Alzheimer's? Actually, he is only advocating 15% privatization. But I am suprised he advocates any! Daniel, we thought we knew ye!
Somewhere in Africa: Bill Clinton: See no evil, hear no evil, speak plenty of evil. America is to blame for all of it (whatever "it" is), and the Apologist-in-Chief is there to settle accounts. Interesting. He feels guilt for things he did not do, but not for the things he did do.
Washington (again): Congressman Joe Barton and a colleague of his are touting a Constitutional amendment to require a 2/3's majority vote to increase federal taxes. Talk about closing the barn door after the cows have all escaped! The marginal tax rate in the U.S. is near 40% when it should be near 10%. Congressman Barton should be finding ways to reduce taxes and slim down government to fit, instead of diverting attention to a measure that we don't need and that is, at best, window dressing.
Claus Peter Flor -- that name is now associated in my mind with the best conducting I have witnessed firsthand. His recent appearance with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra fulfilled those expectations and some more. His program began with Richard Strauss' Tod und Verklarung (Death and Transfiguration). He led this work with a tender and loving hand, like an old friend. The depth of feeling in this music is moving and rich, and Flor has clearly mastered this important work of late german Romanticism.
The concert continued with Bela Bartok's unfinished Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, in a new edition, which did make some noticeable changes. What emerges is, though a great work of music, still flawed beyond repair, simply because the composer did not live to complete enough of his work. A great pity. I wish the editors had spent their time writing a new work for the viola and let this work remain an enigma, a great, incomplete work of art, like Winged Victory of Samothrace.
The concluding work was definitely finished: Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Maestro Flor's approach was to demonstrate the classical elegance of this masterpiece with freshness and vitality, dare I say it? like a late work of Mozart. As the charm and elegant form of the symphony look back to classical masters, the energy and depth of the work look forward to the pinnacle of the romantic era. The joy of the Finale prefigures that of Beethoven's towering 9th symphony. I have never had that driven home to me so clearly before. I cannot remember when I have heard better.
[In keeping with the spirit of her book, I have not asked her publisher for permission to publish these quotations. The copyright laws actually give me the right to publish such quotations, since they are part of a review, without asking permission. Accordingly, I do not ask. But, I think that with Claire's gentle persuasion, such approval would be readily forthcoming. In the last few months, it has been my pleasure to correspond with Claire and exchange ideas. I am mightily impressed with her work, her wit, and her wisdom. Here is a sample.]
On voting:
"If voting could change the system, it would be illegal. That's old, but wise, advice from an anarchist. In some of the world's worst dictatorships, voting is compulsory. Think about the implications of that." ibid., p.4.
On government:
"Government only exists because people think it does. If enough of us ignore government -- don't obey its laws, don't patronize its services, don't vote for its members, don't fill out its forms... and above all, don't pay the taxes that feed it -- it will eventually go away. ibid., p.40.
On the Internet:
"The Internet is the most subversive thing going today -- and living proof that free-market anarchy works." ibid., p.66.
On victims:
"The victim mentality has become endemic to our culture. Understandable. Being a certified, politically approved victim gives you more political clout than almost anything else. The whole idea of "entitlements" was built around the idea that victimhood and helplessness give thee a moral and monetary claim on me. I say, 'No way!'" ibid., p.106.
...Excerpts from 101 Things to Do 'til the Revolution, by Claire Wolfe, published by Loompanics Unlimited, Port Townsend, Washington, 1996, reproduced without permission as part of a critical essay. Loompanics Unlimited has a website at http://www.loompanics.com/. Claire Wolfe's home page is http://www.clairewolfe.com.
All contents © Copyright 1995, 1996 by Redmon Barbry ¶ 11:02 AM
