There is an old adage…”do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
If we were to LIVE by that simple concept, our world would be such a better place, but NO, there always has to be someone who has to decide what is better for you. Unfortunately, the double standard always seems to apply that what is good for you isn’t always good for me.
Take for instance this simple understanding of basic morality…
If there were no controlling external force, known more commonly as “government," if I, as an individual, living here on God’s green earth, did a particular act WITHOUT damaging someone else’s life, liberty or property, would my act be lawful to do? If my answer is YES, then it is OK to do the particular act, even in the face of man made governments.
In another words, MURDER is wrong as an individual and you cannot candy coat it and throw a government badge on the perpetrator and say, well now it is okay. Murder is MURDER. It is WRONG because it obviously has damaged SOMEONE ELSE….PERMANENTLY.
The exception to the rule is of course self-defense, which is not murder. If Iraq had attacked the people that lived in the United States, then we would have the right to DEFEND ourselves. The proper understanding of DEFENSE is as follows: It is the use of ENOUGH FORCE to stop the aggressor. Are the natives of Iraq DEFENDING themselves or are they “terrorists”?
If someone attacks me on the street to steal my wallet, and I react with enough force to stop him and maybe disable him, do I then have the right to kill him? NO, not if I have used enough force to stop the aggressor. Now if in the process of using the force, he is killed, I am within my rights, as long as my life or limb had been threatened by his deadly force. But if I break his leg and disarm him and he is no longer able to be an aggressor, I cannot pick his gun up and shoot him with it, or pull one out of my own and do so.
The simple test of the use of people in the GOVERNMENT to use force on our behalf has to pass the muster of whether or not we as individuals could use the same force. I cannot use force to rob my neighbor of his wages, so obviously I cannot delegate force to someone in the government to do so either. I cannot use force to steal my neighbor’s house, so I cannot delegate force to an agent of the government to do so either.
The simple commands left to Moses at Mount Sinai and apparently that to some degree are written on the hearts of those in the Christian Western nations, are somehow falling by the wayside as we begin to allow the murder of innocents in “our” name via war, abortion, Waco incidents, Ruby Ridge incidents, Donald Scott incidents, ad infinitum.
So, students think of these simple moral concepts…
Do not steal
Do not murder
Do not bear false witness
These are the three major precepts that deal with self-government between breathing human beings, and so should be respected by fictitious entities called governments, be they the “State of Arkansas” or the “United States."
Think of how ALL THREE have been violated by men and women in the government, claiming to do so in “our” name, just in the recent war against Iraq!
False witness was committed to bring the forces of the military because of alleged “weapons of mass destruction.”
In another words the innocent were deemed guilty of a pretend infraction (thought crime if you will) of having something they didn’t even have that was supposed to be a threat to “us." This makes as much sense as arresting all men, and shooting the resistors of such an arrest attempt, for RAPE because they have the capacity for rape.
It is obvious to ANYONE with a mind for justice, that dropping bombs and missiles on unarmed civilians and blowing them into little pieces is an act of MURDER.
And then of course the many BILLIONS of “dollars” stolen at gun point from each and every one of us to build the weapons and send the soldiers into this quagmire, violates DO NOT STEAL.
WHY IS THIS SO HARD TO COMPREHEND?
DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU…
September 24, 2004
