The State of Exception: Tyranny's Theory
The Meme is the Message...
Politics
is that portion of Human Action [1] involved in establishing and maintaining
the State. The following from Max Weber: the "state can be defined as a
human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of
physical force within a given territory". [2]
Private Associations, such as patriot groups,
interact with politics at large and have their own internal legitimacy issues.
However, from Weber's definition, those internal activities are not
"politics" but rather the natural give-and-take of a voluntary
community. Voluntary association is the hallmark of communities of free
people. Involuntary association is the hallmark
of the monopoly State.
So what do the activities of people in institutions
of government have to do with the private expressive association activities of people in various private associations? Let's approach that issue by looking at a little
history. We could mention the Mannerbund
(the Men's Group) of Northern Tradition, or the voluntary communities
established by pioneers, such as the Amish. But a more direct example can be found
in the American Revolution.
I recently saw part of a documentary on the American
Revolution wherein the narrator mentioned "the Sons of Liberty which was
recruited from local street gangs...". I see the modern patriot groups,
such as the Proud Boys, as not-dissimilar from those Sons of Liberty (it wasn't
tea those men were drinking before the Boston Tea Party...).
In
contrast to the impending tyranny is the freedom philosophy contained, for
example, in the Proud Boys Tenets [3] which include such beliefs as
"Minimal Government / Maximum Freedom; Pro Free Speech / Pro Gun Rights;
Anti-Racism / Anti Racial Guilt; Glorify the Entrepreneur / Venerate the
Housewife...". Equally important is a willingness to fight for the Right.
These views lead to an adherence to the American
Constitution, as originally understood and intended to limit government power,
not limit the rights of individual citizens. Patriots see their role as standing
firmly for traditional values.
Such
Americans view the "State of Exception" under which we currently live
as unacceptable.
What is a "State of Exception"? It is the legal theory justifying tyranny
asserted originally by the German Jurist (and Nazi) Carl Schmitt [4] and
strongly criticized by libertarian philosopher Murray Rothbard. [5]
As originally asserted, prior to the Nazi take-over
of Germany, and later developed in his post-war Theory of the Partisan, Schmitt saw the unlimited powers of the
totalitarian state as arising from a permanent state of emergency, a
"State of Exception" which allowed ruling elites to act arbitrarily,
capriciously and without adherence to the rule of law. He asserted such a state
justified:
1. Special executive powers
2. Suspension of the Rule of Law
3. Derogation of legal and constitutional
rights
American legal theory, based upon constitutional limits on government power and
“inalienable” rights, does not permit broad emergency exceptions. A good
example of this is the constitutional restriction on suspending the Writ of Habeas
Corpus (the writ that allows Judges to question arbitrary imprisonment). Even
if the writ were to be suspended, that suspension is subject to the Bill of
Rights, which amended the original Constitution, including the original writ
provision. The Bill of Rights holds that government must always respect basic
human rights.
No
one may be deprived of life, liberty or property without "Due Process of
Law" -- the opposite of a "State of Exception".
It is undeniable that the American Deep State holds
to a theory of government more like that of the Nazis than that of the
Constitution. We have been ruled under emergency regulations since the
declaration of war against Japan. More
so since the PATRIOT Act and other emergency laws arising after the September 11th
attacks. The federal authorities currently use whole series of emergency
measures to restrict political speech, going so far as to engage in false-flag
and entrapment techniques designed to provide the very terrorist threats
against which they are supposed to protect us.
Examples can be offered: the now-exposed entrapment regarding the
supposed plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, or the dozens of federal
agents exposed as directing the January 6th "insurrection."
The
Nazi Reichstag Fire was not the only false-flag used to justify a "State
of Exception."
There have been increasing attacks against patriots
over recent months as the unelected Regime [imposed as a result of Congress being
panicked into certifying the contested 2020 election] consolidated power. Nearly a thousand have been arrested for
allegedly participating in the January 6th "insurrection" and dozens
remain in jail, under horrific conditions. The mass purge of public employees
who might object to tyranny, under the rubric of "vaccine" mandates,
resulting in the firing of thousands of soldiers, police, health care workers and
first responders, is a troubling development.
The attacks have just escalated with the
increasingly heavily armed Department of Homeland Security seeking to establish
a new censorship bureau during April 2022, called the Disinformation Governance Board. [6] The Board (ultimately temporarily abandoned) was to have been created
without Congressional approval. The head
of DGS intoned, "The goal is to bring the resources of the department
together to address this threat." [7]
What
threat? Apparently it is the "threat" that some people on social
media may disagree with Regime policies.
Specifically mentioned were questioning the
legitimacy of the stolen 2020 election, the abandoning of the southern border
or the risk of war in East Europe. The real goal is Total Information Control. It is simply totalitarianism.
This attack on the First Amendment is, of course,
justified by the "State of Exception" first created as a response to
the 9/11 attacks and continued by the government's excessive response to the
declared pandemic. It was, we are
assured, just to "protect the Homeland."
The original American political theory of
Inalienable Rights and constitutionally limited government, with the First
Amendment explicitly denying government power to restrict speech, petition and
association, has been abrogated and the ruling elite now base their power on
the same theory of government, the "State of Exception" that was the basis
of Hitler's dictatorship.
Just
as Germany was devastated by Nazi governance ("Power corrupts and absolute
power corrupts absolutely")
Americans now face similar threats from a governing elite that has
unconsciously adopted as its meme the Capitol surrounded by barbed wire, making
clear the "State of Exception" upon which its power is based.
Recent efforts to brand the January 6, 2021 mass
demonstration at the Capitol as an “insurrection” is part of a, perhaps,
cunning plan to ban patriots from holding public office based on a provision of
the 150+ year-old 14th Amendment barring those involved in
insurrection (after swearing to uphold the Constitution) from holding public
office. This was a GOP-imposed, post-Civil War enactment.
What is to be done?
Would the mass banning of the opposition mean the end of representative
government? Is the creation of a
censorship board to oppose the First Amendment the "red line"? Are
the increasingly shrill attacks on the Second Amendment? When will the Sons of Liberty arise again?
The Proud Boys and other patriot groups, especially "Active Club" 'crews' offering fellowship and martial training in dark times, seek to be ready. They heard President Trump's famous
injunction to "Stand Back and Stand By..." [8]
Many are now convinced this is the time to Stand Up and Stand Forward.
There
are no emergency exceptions to inalienable rights.
Freedom Advocate 2°
--------------------
[1]
See Mises, Human Action https://mises.org/library/human-action-0/html
- All Human Action is predicated on
dissatisfaction.
[2]
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8107736-a-state-is-a-human-community-that-successfully-claims
[3]
https://jerseyline.godaddysites.com/proud-boy-tenets
[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Schmitt
[5]
https://mises.org/library/carl-schmitt-and-murray-rothbard
[6]
https://youtu.be/e4inJSblCUY
[8]
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/did-trump-mean-told-proud-035805906.html
