Resist much, obey little

To the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little,
Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,
Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever
afterward resumes its liberty.
- Walt Whitman, from "Leaves of Grass"

Contrary to mystic scientists and peace-loving innocent doves, the race for WMD's is not the biggest threat facing humanity in the twenty-first century. Weapons are not inherently dangerous, in fact, without them a people's liberties are at peril. Americans, of all people, should know this instinctively. What is at issue is not the Gun, but the motive and the beliefs of the person holding the Gun, which is the modern incarnation of the sword, but has been poorly misused because of the lack of education, justice, and equality in current society. Self-defense is the first law of nature. But that law is buried in America, and the whole world for that matter, which now regards the State as the First and Last defender of life. Bear in mind, that those who do defend their territory, beliefs, manhood, and ideas, are being called terrorists. And those without a self to fall back on jump at these accusations and join the mindless chant.

The reason many Americans are not defending themselves against their criminal government is because they lack a self, a result of state education, media propaganda, and underlying cultural trends that are working against the individual's will. The reason many Americans are not defending themselves against their criminal government is because they lack a self, a result of state education, media propaganda, and underlying cultural trends that are working against the individual's will. The Whitmanian notion of the self is rarely taught in school, thus, trampling the rights of a person who is not conscious of his historical heritage, or his self-worth, is an easy task for any government.

Fighting back against tyranny first requires penetrating your deepest self. Some accomplish this task in prison, some by expanding their minds through books, but it will never be taught by society. If you are fortunate, drops of blood from God's hands seeped into your soul accidentally the day you were born, or you have come under the influence of intelligent teachers whose own soul has drops of God's blood.

I believe America took a turn for the worst in world affairs near the beginning of the 20th century, when its leaders decided to flex the imperial muscles beyond the North American continent. The grit in the American character had not vanished yet, James was on the lecture circuit, and new immigrants were arriving every day. After the introduction of compulsory state education, a reversal occurred, creating a national culture that breeds uniformity.

Today, acknowledging that education existed before school boards took over them somehow makes you a conservative, rich elitist who is against free education for all. Apparently, self-learning to these naive minds wasn't possible before the Department of Education; they believe there was complete illiteracy and backwardness but nothing can be further from the truth. There is a strong parallel of this type of historical thinking to Christians who believe that before Jesus appeared the world was insignificant. That Jesus's image and myth was taken from Egyptian and other cultural archetypes is dutifully crossed over by these false worshipers. And they even fail to acknowledge that Jesus's message also comes out of every other religious teacher to grace humankind. I have no words for ignorant minds, all I can say is that their greatest trait is their innocence, which I hope is used to full effect once they find about state secrets that reveal the cruel nature of the US government, and other corrupt agencies in our world.

Before proceeding further, I must say that glorifying the Gun is incredibly dangerous and does not serve the purpose of self-defense. Guns, unlike Swords, can be easily brandished by anyone who is stirred by emotions or has feelings of aggrandizement, including children, and can be used without any prior training. It can be a very lethal and dangerous weapon in uneducated hands, but its daily use is out of our hands; what we must concentrate on is the individual before he reaches for the weapon. I believe the majority of men take rational pursuits, if such opportunities exist for them in their life, like employment, education, etc. Blocking the righteous paths is what leads most men, and nations, to conflict and disorder.

In America, the Gun is usually, (and wrongly), equated with aggression and criminality rather than safety, and common people are never given the benefit of the doubt when they carry a loaded gun. Automatically the connection is made in the popular mind that the man is a psycho, who will go on a rampage, but evidence shows that psychos don't like to make themselves visible in public, and often hide indoors until they execute their awful and insane plans in society. If anything, the man with the gun standing on the corner is your friend, unless he's a cop, in which case, make eye contact as you approach him or her, or turn around and run. If Hip Hop has taught me anything, it is that the police rarely act in the service of justice and tranquility. The police forces in America are more likely to bring disorder and prejudice to the streets than any other gang in society. One example is the arrest last summer of the hip hop group, and civil organizers, Rebel Diaz.

II

The rhetoric against guns, and WMD's, is used to channel human sympathy and peaceful emotions to causes that are beside the point. In a perfect world, we are all angels and there isn't any need of protecting yourself with a gun or any other weapon, but the last time I double checked, we do not live in a perfect world. Far from it. In this world, social, political and economic grievances motivate nations to acquire nuclear missiles, who are then able to defend their national sovereignty and territory. Individuals, too, buy guns to defend themselves, not to murder others, with the exception of mentally deranged killers and acts of revenge killings falsely called gang warfare. Outlawing guns will not fix the problem of crime, especially when the definition of crime is as encompassing as America's legal code. Liberals once rallied around the cause of raising the standards of living for the poor, today, they rally behind the slogan 'guns off the streets.' In this debate, I have more respect for modern conservatives than liberals who are hypocrites in their own way.


Moreover, at the inception of the Cold War, talk about demilitarization was pushed forward as the number one strategy to achieve peace, but taking that position is wrong-headed now, as it was then. Social harmony is another law of nature, which is broken by men, and that law must be our standing ground before raising any alarms about nuclear build up. Forget Hollywood Cowboys, a fight where both men are armed is more likely to end in peace than a fight where only one man is armed. Nations don't dual with each other at sunset, hell, even individuals don't meet face to face to kill anymore. Killing human beings in Iraq or Afghanistan is done from indoors. War is no longer an outdoor affair. But according to the Propaganda Machine, killing is a small act of badness, done in the service of a greater good. That lie sinks in as long as people do not see the destruction and death with their own eyes. Hearing about car bombs and civilian strikes doesn't make an impression.

Today, the biggest threat facing humanity is and always will be; Injustice of any kind, done to any mind. "On this naked earth, " said E.B White in his essay entitled "Unity", "a nation that approaches disarmament as though it were a humanitarian ideal is either suffering from delusions or planning a deception."

Ask yourself, which scenario sounds like a more reasonable and sane world - a superpower with trillions invested in weaponry, free to ravage the world, or a combination of powers that contain the aggression of other nations? Under the first scenario we have had countless 'humanitarian wars', millions of bodies, and rumors of more catastrophic wars. And all in the span of twenty years. During that time, instead of building a health care infrastructure for the world's poor, the United Corporations of America has killed everything it has touched. It has even failed to offer an egalitarian health system to American citizens, whose money is stripped out of their paychecks without protest. Now, after a period of economic fascism spread around the world - mistakenly called globalization - the criminals operating behind a democratic artifice are implementing a 'humanitarian world government', of which they will be the principal backers.

This intergovernmental system will cement the road to feudalism already under construction, and the greatest irony is that the nation who was born in an armed struggle in the name of accountable government and liberty is bringing this beast into being. Whitman, with his seer wisdom, wrote; "The United States are destined either to surmount the gorgeous history of feudalism, or else prove the most tremendous failure of time." America's extraordinary material success, which Whitman said would come effortlessly for the States, has been channeled upwards into a small margin of unforgiving elites. Despite my harsh despair about the current situation, the failure of America's grand purpose, which is to stand as a beacon of liberty for the world, is not yet forsaken. The American Elite will regret not bridging the Internet Crack sooner, which has let out an abundance of positive energy and knowledge that was suppressed for a very long time. Political miracles, such as the incredible ascendancy of Ron Paul, made possible by the Internet Crack, are the sources of my optimism.