Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:39:04 -0400 Subject: Unalienable From: tmds-list-owner@mail-list.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 UNALIENABLE As I've explained before, a "right" is a negative concept. In short, it is something that other people shouldn't forcibly prevent you from doing. For example, the "right" to freedom of speech merely means that no one else should force you to be silent. Having laryngitis, for example, doesn't violate your rights, even though you can't speak. But what does it mean for a right to be unalienable? Obviously it does not mean that it is impossible for others to prevent you from doing something; it just means that they are always wrong to do so, no matter what any "law," any "government," or anything else says. In other words, "I have the right to do X, and no one has the right to stop me." But now comes the part that most "civilized" people don't like to talk about. If you have the right to do "X," and someone tries to stop you by force, you are morally justified in using force to preserve your rights (though it's often dangerous to do so). For example, all those people down in Louisiana who had the "right to keep and bear arms," but who were nonetheless disarmed by a bunch of jackbooted fascists, would have been justified in preserving their rights by killing those trying to deprive them of those rights. People who talk about preserving their rights by way of "the system" don't understand what a right is. By definition, a "right" is something that you don't NEED "legal" permission to do. You have the right to do it no matter WHAT any "law" says. I know it's about as politically incorrect as you can get to say this, but the proper response to "gun control" is not lobbying and petitions--which imply that its up to the damn politicians to decide whether we can be armed or not. The proper response, if one actually believes in unalienable rights, is to declare, "I have the right to be armed, and trying to violate that right will be hazardous to your health." Now it's time to get REALLY politically incorrect. Suppose Barrack "I'm-For-Unspecified-Change" Obama becomes President, and successfully introduces a bill to ban all private gun ownership, thus attempting to violate the rights of around 100,000,000 gun- owning Americans. If some thug then shows up at your door, and declares that in the name of King Obama (or King Bush, or any other tyrant) he's going to be swiping your firearms, you have the right to use any amount of force necessary to stop the thug. Of course, if you killed some cop who was trying to disarm you, your life would get really complicated really quickly. But aside from the danger involved, the concept of "rights" dictates that if a dozen more fascists show up to capture you for having forcibly defended your rights from the first fascist, you have the right to use any amount of force to stop them, too. Trouble is, authoritarians don't generally "let it slide" when you resist their tyranny. They will keep escalating things. If they can find you, they will keep sending more and more thugs after you, until you are either dead or in prison. However, if you believe in unalienable rights, you ALWAYS have the right to resist tyranny, even if it's 100,000 federal agents, or an army, trying to enforce it. In short (and here's something you won't hear every day), it is, by definition, morally justified to exterminate an entire "government" (the gang of thugs which imagines itself to have the right to rule) if that's what it takes to protect one "right." Is that an "extreme" view? Yep. But that's only because, for all their rhetoric to the contrary, hardly anyone in this country actually believes in "unalienable rights" anymore. They believe that it's always up to "government" to decide what we're allowed to do, and that anyone who violates "the law" (the made-up statutory kind) is a nasty, evil criminal. They don't believe in "rights"; they believe in begging: "Oh, kind master, will you please LET me do X?" Those who actually believe in "rights" have a slightly different message: "You're not my master, and if you try to stop me from doing X, I'll blow your damn head off." But what is perhaps the most depressing of all is that such extremist rhetoric, such a (supposedly) nasty, uncivilized, "terrorist" attitude, is treated with scorn and condemnation by the very people who live in the country which was FOUNDED upon that idea. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights... That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." [Declaration of Independence] I don't know about you, but I think Thomas Jefferson should be dug up, revived, prosecuted as a terrorist under the Patriot Act, and hung for treason. Sincerely, Larken Rose http://www.tyrantbook.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Charset: UTF8 Version: Hush 3.0 Note: This signature can be verified at https://www.hushtools.com/verify wpwEAQECAAYFAkgPO/kACgkQGmVFo/iGj32spwP/apl3aVbzfvgDwwYaxhLGiM+Y4im/ Ypa8stm538tkxIAIh9TKBYxTU56ScxS3xPmpt13lP4Q9WZa4zrPspSQEg7NYxLis0W2O XO3FUwBt7X+mEdJIQOc1ZmESSNp59bYCBfK8vakpZZVjKpDvH1fds0haaEmZpj/4cDuw iX5nYLo= =j5Z3 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe, send a blank message to tmds-on@mail-list.com To unsubscribe, send a blank message to tmds-off@mail-list.com To change your email address, send a message to tmds-change@mail-list.com with your old address in the Subject: line To contact the list owner, send your message to tmds-list-owner@mail-list.com