LESSONS
re...@ecn.ab.ca
Subject: What I Have Learned From The Twentieth Century
6 good lessons...
"What I Have Learned From The Twentieth Century" (With
Thanks to Schoolmasters Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito
Mussolini, Mao Tse-Tung and Pol Pot for the Teaching.)
As an amateur historian of this sad century whose time
is almost up, I would like to reflect upon six lessons I
have learned in my studies. Folks who wish to live free and
prosperous in the next century would do well to understand
the failures of the last.
Lesson No. 1: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bu-
reaucrat, comes to knock down your door and take you
someplace you don't want to go because of who you are
or what you think-- kill him. If you can, kill the
politician who sent them. You will likely die anyway,
and you will be saving someone else the same fate. For
it is a universal truth that the intended victims
always far outnumber the tyrant's executioners. Any
nation which practices this lesson will quickly run out
of executioners and tyrants, or they will run out of
liberty.
Lesson No. 2: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bu-
reaucrat, comes to knock down your door and confiscate
your firearms-- kill him. The disarmament of law-abid-
ing citizens is the required precursor to genocide.
Lesson No. 3: If a bureaucrat tells you that he must know
if you have a firearm so he can put your name on a list
for the common good, or wants to issue you an identity
card so that you may be more easily identified-- tell
him to go to hell. Registration of people and firearms
is the required precursor to the tyranny which permits
genocide. Bureaucrats cannot send soldiers to doors
that aren't on their list.
Lesson No. 4: Believe actions, not words. Tyrants are con-
summate liars. Just because a tyrant is "democratical-
ly elected" doesn't mean that he believes in democracy.
Reference Adolf Hitler, 1932. And just because a
would-be tyrant mouths words of reverence to law and
justice, or takes a solemn oath to uphold a constitu-
tion, doesn't mean he believes such concepts apply to
him. Reference Bill Clinton, among others. The lan-
guage of the lie is just another tool of killers. A
sign saying "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes You Free)
posted above an execution camp gate doesn't mean that
anybody gets out of there alive, and a room labeled
"Showers" doesn't necessarily make you clean. Bill
Clinton notwithstanding, the meaning of "is" is plain
when such perverted language gets you killed. While
all tyrants are liars, it is true that not all politi-
cal liars are would-be tyrants-- but they bear close
watching. And keep your rifle handy.
Lesson No. 5: Our constitutional republic as crafted by the
Founders is the worst form of government in the world,
except when compared to all the others. Capitalism, as
well, is a terrible way to run an economy, except when
compared to all other economic systems. Unrestrained
democracy is best expressed as two wolves and a sheep
sitting down to vote on what to have for dinner. The
horrors of collectivism in all its forms-- socialism,
communism, national socialism, fascism-- have been
demonstrated beyond dispute by considerable wasteful
trial and bloody error. Leaders such as Bill Clinton
who view the Constitution as inconvenient and ignorable
are harbingers of tyranny.
Lesson No. 6: While nations do not always get the leaders
they deserve, they always get the leaders they toler-
ate. And anyone who tells you that "It Can't Happen
Here" is whistling past the graveyard of history.
There is no "house rule" that bars tyranny coming to
America. History is replete with republics whose
people grew complacent and descended into imperial
butchery and chaos. Dictators count on the assistance
of people who are complacent, fearful, envious, lazy
and corrupt. While there is no "Collective guilt" to
the crimes of a regime (all such crimes being committed
by specific criminal individuals), there is certainly
"collective responsibility"-- especially for those who
watch the criminals at work without objecting or inter-
fering.
A French journalist of the last century wrote: "I must
speak out for I will not be an accomplice." Evil tyrants
require, indeed they depend upon, willing and unwilling
accomplices-- good people who would never think of harming a
soul themselves. Lenin called such people "useful idiots".
DeTocqueville observed that "America is great because Ameri-
ca is good. When America ceases to be good, she will cease
to be great." As related in the Old Testament, God judged
nations based upon the immorality and criminality of their
leaders. Entire peoples were scourged because of their
failure to remove corrupt leaders. As we move from the
Twentieth Century into the Twenty-First, we should take care
to remember the ancient story of Sodom and Gomorrah. If we
wish to avoid the butchery of the Twentieth Century and the
righteous judgment of the God of our antiquity, we would do
well to keep our Bibles, our Constitution and our firearms
close at hand.
--
Graham-John Bullers
moderator of alt.2600.moderated
email : re...@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca | ab...@freenet.toronto.on.ca