 |
|
|
L. Neil Smith's THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 280, July 18, 2004 Dotting all the "e"s and crossing all the "i"s
Send Letters to mr-ed@webleyweb.com
Where America went to Ron, & Mr. Ed, Re.: "Letter from Ron Beatty"
Well, to tell you the truth, I don't believe that what you would call "America" was ever here to begin with. There was once an idea, perhaps even a concept. But the realization of either—the "fleshing out" of those? It died in the womb. America was aborted. It was aborted by the men and women who professed to say that good things would happen if only we "hung together." Now, you know? Words on a piece of paper don't mean a bloody thing, as long as those wielding the power of government are unwilling to hold themselves completely liable for any breach of faith they are responsible for. But I repeat myself: Elected officials are indeed liars to begin with. If that is so, then the whole of government is a lie in itself. We, therefore, are living the lie. The proof of that is this: How many times have any of us witnessed a government official state—entirely straight-faced— that what a passage in the Bill of Rights says, doesn't actually mean "that," but in fact means something entirely different? Or for that matter, how many times have we read about a supremely stupid judge pronouncing that a certain "right" really isn't a right, if the government of the moment doesn't want you to have it? You and I might debate endlessly, the meanings of certain passages, but in the end we would—I think—arrive at the same conclusions regarding the matter of plain English, and the thoughts conveyed regarding any particular sentence, and/or paragraph. Plain, and simple English, is just that. If a thought conveyed by that simple grammatical construction may be pronounced as meaning something else entirely—by a government agent, then it is quite safe to say that no amount of words on a piece of paper will ever be enough to stifle a liar. A simple sentence starting with the words "Congress shall make no law ..." means exactly that. Yet, how many laws have been enacted which fly into the face of those words, regarding the rest of that sentence? It took a foreign land to put a statue of an idea in New York harbor. I consider that it was actually a subtle innuendo by the French, and the Americans—being the oafs we are, took the matter entirely as it was implied, rather than as it should have been: An accusation concerning the fact that we are really a bunch hypocrites, as how could we not be such when everyplace we go, we disarm the populace, and install petty dictators? The French—bless them, are snickering behind our backs daily. The Statue of Liberty has got to be the longest running "standing joke" ever played by one nation against another. I can hear those old Frenchmen saying "You still don't get it, do you?" We call ourselves "free," yet engage in an endless train of abuses against our fellows, if only that we "don't like" what our fellows are doing—just because. I mean, why in the world would any supposedly "free" nation ever need to erect an icon to an idea, if the idea was practiced as a matter of course—daily? We might call ourselves "free," but in fact we are free to be observed by whatever government agent happens to desire a peek at us, either surreptitiously, or up close and personal. Maybe the French will come up with a statue of an emphatic erection, and place that in Washington, D.C.? That would be all the more applicable to what we—as "Americans", have become to the rest of the world, and to our fellows: A bunch of pricks. "America" never really existed; what has existed instead, is a changeling that gives every appearances of being what was intended, but really is entirely the obverse.
TLE AFFILIATE Help Support TLE by patronizing our advertisers and affiliates. We cheerfully accept donations!
|
|
|
|
