Benevolent Despotism

The topic du jour in the mainstream media and other media outlets is the fiscal cliff.  There’s not a single news channel or internet news site that isn’t talking incessantly about it.  In the Dysfunctional City the political kabuki theater is nearing the end of Act I.   The actors portray themselves as upstanding and righteous; defending positions due to Party politics and ideology.  Act II — the final capitulation — will come as we near the date where everyone says we’ll go over the fiscal cliff.

Hogwash.

It’s time to check your premises as Ayn Rand would say.  The premise is whether a deal can be struck to avoid the fiscal cliff.  It’s too late!  Our Wile E. Coyote moment has come and gone.  We are already over the fiscal cliff and free falling towards the canyon floor.  Our dear leaders are lying, deceiving, and evading reality.  In fact, the President is still campaigning.  Democrats are unwilling to discuss spending cuts and entitlement reform.  Democrats are fixated on tax increases.  Meanwhile, Republicans appear disorganized and confused like a deer in headlights.

What the DC’vers won’t state publicly is DC is broke and broken.  It is the quintessential Dysfunctional City.  The masses continue with their herd-like mentality and follow their leaders blindly and loyally.  It is a cult-like devotion to Party and ideology forming a human cohesion that inculcates the individual from critical and independent thinking.  If it is good for the herd it must be good for me.

This is merely propaganda and programming from the two political parties.  They must keep up appearances.  The façade must be beautiful and immaculate while life in America rots from the inside out.  The people must scurry about like mice searching for the crumbs left to them by the government while the house is crumbling around them.

The question isn’t whether the fiscal cliff can be avoided because we’ve already went SPLAT!  The DC’vers are trying to manage the collapse and disintegration of the country, the economy, and civil society.   As conditions deteriorate we should anticipate more laws and regulations, more powers usurped, and an increase in the police and surveillance state.  These increases in government power and activity will be offset with a decrease in liberty; both personal and economic.

The Union was birthed from a system of despotism. What was created was a Constitutional Republic consisting of free and independent states joining together in an Union – creating a federal government – of few and defined purposes.   Over the decades that has slowly changed to a system where the will of the majority is enacted over the rights of the minority.   I refer to this as Managed Socialism.

In my opinion, we will witness the final metamorphosis of the Union.   Act II — final state — is what I call Benevolent Despotism.  We will have a Potemkin government where the façade of legitimacy and freedom is given lip service by those in government and the sycophants in the media.  The people, knowingly or unwittingly, will clamor for more government to keep the system together.  The judiciary will continue to act as the enabler for a government that tramples upon your rights and liberty under the guise of some collective national imperative.  For all intents and purposes the Bill of Rights is a dead letter.  But, more on that later.

The benevolence part of the final state is that government will be generous and caring.  Government will continue spending money.  Government will continue borrowing money until it dries up.  Government will continue printing money.  Government will grow the debt.  Government will expand entitlements.  Government will position itself as the one and only entity that can provide for the needs of 310 million people.  This is the benevolence part.  Sounds pretty good wouldn’t you say?

The despotism part is what has started and will accelerate in the final state.  As the Potemkin government slowly exposes its inner-self the unvarnished truth will be revealed to all.  In fact, this has already started.  Since 9/11 all of this has happened.  And, both Republicans and Democrats are culpable. Note, this list comes from an article written by Professor Johnathan Turley that was published in the Washington Post in early 2012.

1)      Assassination of U.S. Citizens –  Both Bush and Obama claim they have the power to order the killing of a U.S. citizen considered a terrorist or an abettor of terrorism.

2)      Indefinite detention – Under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) anyone suspected can be detained indefinitely without due process and trial.  The government decides arbitrarily which citizens it can strip of their constitutional rights and legal protections.

3)      Arbitrary Justice – The president decides who will and will not receive a trial if they are suspected of being a terrorist.

4)      Warrantless Searches – Under the Patriot Act of 2011 warrantless searches were enacted.  Under new powers in the Patriot Act of 2011 the government can “force” organizations to provide information on citizens’ finances, communications, and associations.  The government can use “national security letters” to obtain information on citizens without probable cause and without the order being disclosed to the affected party.

5)      Secret Evidence – Government uses secret evidence to detain individuals. It is also used for dismissal of cases against the United States by simply filing declarations that the cases would result in the government revealing classified information that would harm national security.  Legal opinions under both Bush and Obama have even been classified.  This allows government to use secret legal arguments to support secret proceedings using secret evidence.  The federal judiciary – as the enablers of these crimes – routinely deny constitutional challenges.

6)      Secret Court – The government uses the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to issue secret warrants against individuals deemed to be aiding and abetting hostile foreign governments.   In 2011, these powers were expanded to include secret searches of individuals who are not part of an identifiable terrorist group.

7)      Immunity from Judicial Review – Both Bush and Obama have pushed for immunity for companies that assist in warrantless surveillance of citizens and they block the ability of citizens to challenge this in court as a violation of privacy.

8)      Continued Monitoring of Citizens – The Obama administration has defended its claims that it can use GPS devices to monitor the moves of targeted citizens without and court review.  Due to technological advances coupled with government acts the surveillance state in the U.S. has far surpassed anything that Lenin, Stalin, or Hitler ever imagined.

9)      Extraordinary Renditions – The government has the ability to transfer both citizens and noncitizens to another country under a system called extraordinary rendition.  This allows for the transfer of citizens or non-citizens to countries where they can be tortured.

These are a handful of the actions government has taken against its citizens in complete violation and contradiction to the Rule of Law, the ideal that the Constitution protects the people from arbitrary and capricious acts by the government.  In addition to the aforementioned violations and usurpations consider the following:

1)      RICO statutes.

2)      There has not been a single constitutionally declared war since WWII.  In fact, we are now in a perpetual state of war with an elusive enemy that transcends any national boundaries.

3)      Asset Forfeiture Laws.

4)      Laws against personal choice — Light bulbs.  Raw milk or cheese.  Shower heads.  Appliances.  Food.  Clothing.  Automobiles.

5)      Forced or compulsory purchases – Health Care.

6)      Unabated printing of money.

7)      Legal tender laws.

8)      Bailouts of private companies and/or industries.

9)      Subsidizing (though grants, loans, tax credits, etc) certain business and industries based on government centric preferences.

10)   Domestic use of drones.

11)   Laws forbidding assembly near elected officials.

12)   Confiscatory taxes.

13)   Unsecured borders and government assistance for those here illegally.

14)   Agenda 21.

15)   Corrupt and fraudulent elections.

The very reason the colonists separated from Britain was due to despotism.  Today we are defined only be the discretionary benevolence of autocratic rulers to take way your rights or your life under their authority.  Rights are not simply abridged, they are obliterated!  Why are people vested with the political right to choose their representatives, yet the people are not capable of making personal and economic choices in their lives.  If people are not capable of making these choices in their everyday lives it is ludicrous to believe that others are capable of making those choices on your behalf.  Just like self-governance, if man is not capable of governing himself then what makes anyone believe that man is capable of governing others?

Benevolent Despotism is the final stage.  I believe it is unavoidable at this point.  Perhaps then we can start anew as the colonists did in the 1770s.  Perhaps then we can rediscover we are all endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.  That these truths are self-evident, transcendent, immutable, and unchanging.  That the proper role of government is to secure those rights – nothing more and nothing less.  That free people in civil society are responsible for their own personal and economic liberty, and their choices are theirs alone to make and to live with the consequences.  That government is not benevolence or compassion.  Nor is government virtuous.  Government is force.  People are compassionate.  People are virtuous.  People can voluntarily do for themselves and others what government can never do.  This is the creed of a free people and a free society.  This represents the desire to live with dangerous liberty instead of peaceful slavery.