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From
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dieteman/dieteman102.html
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Eternal
Vigilance and The Duty to Dissent
by
David Dieteman
More
than a few conservative commentators have called for dissenting
voices to be silenced in the wake of September 11.
Although
commentators pretend to be interested in finding out the reasons
for the attacks, they are only interested in the kind of answers
they want to hear, i.e., that Muslims and Arabs are evil and must
be killed, and that the United States government has never, and
can never ever, do any wrong.
In
the face of explicit calls for dissenters to be silenced, it is
manifestly clear that the dissenters must not be silenced. Eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty. If a mere rational disagreement
can no longer be tolerated by the ruling classes, then American
freedom is truly dead and buried.
In
The
Politics of War, Walter Karp describes the oppression which comes
with war. Karp, however, describes events of oppression which are
unknown to many Americans, specifically, the oppression engineered
by Woodrow Wilson, the allegedly "great leader," during World War
One, you know, the "Great" War.
As
Karp writes, "Nothing was to be said or read in America that Wilson
himself might find disagreeable...Americans rotted in prison for
advocating heavier taxation rather than the issuance of war bonds,
for stating that conscription was unconstitutional, for saying that
sinking armed merchantmen had not been illegal, for criticizing
the Red Cross and the YMCA." (pp 325; 326)
Now
there's a role model for today's neo-conservatives: the arch-fiend,
er, progressive, Woodrow Wilson. How dare anyone have a different
opinion. And you dare to complain about how the Red Cross board
wishes to spend the money donated to the victims of September 11.
Best watch yourself, you may be heading for the slammer if the neo-
cons
get their way.
Karp
adds that a woman who wrote to the newspaper that "I am for the
people and the government is for the profiteers" received a 10-year
prison sentence. (p 326) Federal agents went so far as to seize
a motion picture, The Spirit of ‘76, because the "portrayal
of the American Revolution had cast British redcoats in an
unfavorable
light." (p 327). Like the woman who wrote to the newspaper, the
film producer received 10 years in prison. Mel Gibson may face life
in prison for The
Patriot, if the Thought Police have their way.
Without
a doubt, the pandering neo-con sycophants for the total state share
the same goals of Wilson: total and permanent victory in the war of
ideas. Karp again: "Wilson and the war party were determined
to corrupt the entire body of the American people, to root out the
old habits of freedom and to teach it new habits of obedience."
(p 329)
Wilson's
party line is the same line we hear today: "Dissent is disloyalty,
disloyalty a crime; loyalty is servility, and servility is true
patriotism."
The
effects on American political life were devastating, if one cares
at all for liberty. "The official repression drove millions of
independent-minded
Americans deep into private life and political solitude. Isolated,
they nursed in private their bitterness and contempt." (Karp, p
329) As a matter of human nature, it was the path of least
resistance
to give in to the state and to turn against former friends. And yet
Americans wonder how it is that Hitler and the Nazis came to dominate
politics in Germany.
And
so, dear conformist neo-cons, I have a message for you: free
Americans
have no obligation to conform themselves to your opinions. As Karp
notes, the logic of Wilson and the neo-cons is "the perennial logic
of every tyranny that ever was."
Not
on my watch.
Don't
tell me they left this out of your history books in grade school,
high school and college? America good, everywhere and always? I
am sorry – genuinely sorry – to report that such is not the case.
Better to know the truth than to believe in myths.
Such
horrors, of course, do not need to continue in power for another 83
years. It is high time for Wilson's undeserved reputation to
be stripped from him. Similarly, it is high time for Americans to
cease living in fear, as they did under Wilson (who, by the way,
fired all blacks in federal employment shortly after taking office;
you hadn't heard that either? It's as if history is censored, isn't
it?).
Let
me put it this way: Patrick Henry, Sam Adams, and George Washington
would not have tolerated this nonsense.
Americans
should not tolerate calls to silence. The days of political
isolation
need not outlive the Internet. If you are against the war, and
against
the imprudent and unconstitutional expansion of government power
at home, speak out. Don’t be afraid to tell your neighbors, your
family, or your friends. Write to you jelly-spined representatives
and let them know as well.
But
most importantly – most importantly – communicate your thoughts not
only with the courage of your convictions, but with tact, diplomacy,
and good manners. There is no substitute for unflagging and polite
debate in winning an intellectual battle. And we will defeat the
state-loving rats in this battle.
At
the dawn of the 21st century, America has yet to recover from the
horrible changes wrought by Woodrow Wilson. As Karp argues, "The
triumph of Wilson and the war party struck the American Republic
a blow from which it has never recovered. If the mainspring of a
republican commonwealth – its "active principle" in Jefferson's
words – is the perpetual struggle against oligarchy and privilege,
against private monopoly and arbitrary power, then that mainspring
was snapped and deliberately snapped by the victors in the civil
war over war." (p 324)
It
gets worse. Consider the details of the death of republican
liberty: those who were smothered by Wilson turned their rage not on
the professional politicians, but upon scapegoats. The 1920s saw the
rise of the Ku Klux Klan, and of populist movements. The long-term
effects of Wilson's repression remain with us today:
What
the war generation ceased to care about, its children were to
forget almost entirely. Who was left to remind them? Over the
long years since 1917 the "despotism of professional
politicians"
has suffered its own ups and downs [Karp wrote in 1979], but
it has never been menaced – as it was menaced for so long – by
free men struggling to protect their own freedom and regain
a voice in their own affairs. From the ruins of the war, the
republican cause has never revived to rally free men. It has
ceased to make a difference in our politics...who can measure
the cost of that loss, both to ourselves and to humanity, in
whose name both wars had been fought. (Karp, pp 343-44)
That
is a grim, but true, account of the fortunes of liberty in America.
Because it is a true description of the past, however, it imposes
an even greater duty on the present generation to fight the
intellectual struggles of the day without flagging. The cause of
liberty and
property must once again rally free men, before there are no more
free men. The cause of liberty and property must menace the
despotism
of professional politicians, who see our lives, liberty and
property
merely as tools at their disposal, to advance their own careers
and swell the bank accounts of their friends.
I
have said before that what makes LewRockwell.com distinctive is
exactly that feature which is despised by its enemies, namely, the
fact that it stands unrelentingly for liberty and property, without
compromise. This is one web site that is emphatically not too
cowardly to fight the real enemies.
To
repeat, as Thanksgiving is near: LewRockwell.com, real mashed
potatoes;
other conservative websites, just add water for a watered-down
philosophical
defense of liberty that is neither philosophical nor a defense.
With
a war on, the differences are clear. On the one hand, commentators
at war. On the other hand, liberty and property. Such writers as
John Derbyshire, who says "Empire, please," and Jonah Goldberg,
who wants to see American colonies around the world, are squarely
within the inheritance of Woodrow Wilson. They can have Wilson.
At
this stage in American history, it is utterly ridiculous to ask
those who value life, liberty and property to voluntarily silence
themselves. If the voices of liberty are silenced today, it may
be a very long time before they are raised again. And so they will
not be silenced. Political correctness calls on men to voluntarily
silence themselves, and most Americans understand p.c. to be
morally
bankrupt. But why is it morally bankrupt? It is bankrupt precisely
because in silencing your mouth, it achieves victory over your
views
by default.
Ask
yourself this: if those who disagree with you are so sensitive,
so concerned not to offend anyone, why don’t they shut themselves
up first, as a show of good faith? Not going to happen. Political
correctness is a one-way street which seeks only to silence its
opponents in the march toward progressivism and collectivism.
If
no one dares to speak out against racial quotas, against government
tyranny, or against any given counter-productive, immoral and idiotic
foreign or domestic policy of the government, then the forces of
evil and idiocy will win by default.
That
cannot be allowed to happen.
Let
those who value life, liberty and property fight the good fight.
If we lose, we lose. But defeat in such a fight will not come at
the expense of honor. Those who value life, liberty and property
have an affirmative duty to dissent, and to to so charmingly,
intelligently,
and unrelentingly. Need a role model to aid in your perseverence?
Forget the currently trendy dictator John Adams (it was the
Sedition
Act of Adams' Federalist Party which Woodrow Wilson resurrected
to punish dissenters). Try Patrick Henry.
November
14, 2001 Mr.
Dieteman [send him mail]
is an attorney in Erie, Pennsylvania, and a PhD candidate in
philosophy
at The Catholic University of America.
©
2001 David Dieteman
End<{{{
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