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08/10/2004 Archived Entry: "The morality of shooting the bastards."

I SCARED MYSELF YESTERDAY. It's a terrible thing to face the fact that you see no moral principle against shooting the bastards. But if the American Revolution was moral -- because it was fought to replace tyranny with freedom and was fought only after other remedies failed -- then its equivalent must be a moral act today.

We face all the evils the colonists did (and worse), from brutal warrantless searches to soldiers enforcing domestic law, to taxation without representation -- in our case, regulations levied by unelected bureaucrats who often act as legislator, cop, judge, and jury. Yet our ancestors didn't have to put up with Carnivore, Echelon, Total Information Awareness and TIPS (both apparently alive despite Congress having killed them), random body searches, permits to travel, the welfare state, and the drug war. The colonists did have gun confiscations. Or rather, attempted gun confiscations. In Lexington and Concord.

Hate it. Regret it. Fear it. But if the American Revolution was moral, then then only question that remains is whether its equivalent today would be practical. Right now, it wouldn't. Right now, there are other, if slower and less sweeping, pressure-relief valves for individual freedom lovers. But times change. Government thinks it's herding sheep, but it's also herding freedom lovers toward the decision between liberty and death. And at that point, whose death will become the only question.

Posted by Claire @ 10:03 AM CST
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