The War Inevitable
by Jim Davidson
planetaryjim@yahoo.com

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

"Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free—if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending—if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained—we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!"
—Patrick Henry 23 March 1775

A correspondent on the Free State Wyoming Forum posed the question. How do we reconcile our Christian duty not to commit murder, combined with our commitment to the non-aggression principle, with the problem of tyranny. Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God, but if we are limited to only defensive force, aren't we in trouble when they start kicking in doors? Too little too late would not be the way to resist.

Excellent question. I believe that each individual has to answer this for himself, to his own satisfaction. It is simply not possible to answer for another.

I believe that God created us in His image. I believe that God has free will. I believe that the substance of this Scripture is that people have free will. Since we have free will, we are not only free to choose what actions to take, each one of us is necessarily responsible for his own actions.

I believe that the passage in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus tells His disciples that, although they were previously told to go out and preach the Good News without worldly possessions, now each one who had a cloak should sell it to buy arms. Now that there is a flock to defend, the good shepherd takes up arms to defend it.

I believe that each of us is free to use up to deadly force to defend life, liberty, and property as in our own judgement we see fit. Yes, I spell it judgement, to emphasize that you have to be the judge.

Is it time to just shoot the b@st@rds? Claire Wolfe said it was justifiable to do so, and she said so back in 2004. So it is well past "Claire." But, she's also pointed out that she gets lots of enthusiastic readers who write in to say that they'll follow her anywhere, and all she has to do is identify some pesky bureau-rat or politician, and they'll happily go slay that one—to which Claire is rather gob-smacked, and to which she always responds very carefully to the effect that she isn't going to do anything of the sort.

But, look, using deadly force is not the only way to deter crime. Presenting deadly force is often sufficient. For example, I was in Chicago back in 1991, to speak at the World Science Fiction convention there. I was walking down the street. A young man of athletic proportions was tasking passersby for money. I found his language and attitude to be threatening. So, when he was about fifty feet away, I looked him in the eye, stopped in my tracks, reached into a pocket in my suit jacket, and took hold of my pistol. I held it just between the lapels. He looked at me and was coming up, when I glanced down and back up. He followed my gaze, and stopped, turned, and left. It was completely clear that he saw the gun and took seriously my willingness to use it. Indeed, he shouted at several passersby, "That guy has a gun!" as if such a thing were too amazing to ignore.

Solzhenitsyn wrote in The Gulag Archipelago that if people had resisted when the thugs came around kicking in doors, if even ten percent of those thugs never came home, then there would have been none left to do the jobs. The others would have been too afraid to take up the work of bullies. I think there's truth to that, and to the obvious consequence of that point: if people in Wyoming have guns and show up wearing them all the time, those who are determined to enslave and bully others are going to think twice about it.

My point here is that there are lots of things one can do far short of using deadly force. One might make bureau-rats and politicians look foolish. One might selectively vandalize the property of the most egregious. One might ostracize and refuse to do business with socialists and thugs. One might use various technologies such as auto-dialers to create mischief. One might buy a billboard or erect one in a prominent place to provide true information of a damaging nature about some thug or twit. One might interdict the delivery of tax payments in some really creative way. Many of these things are criminal in nature, and some are "mala in se" attacks on persons or property. And I'm not advocating any of these actions—I'm simply pointing out that there are lots of things one can do which don't involve killing anyone—justifiably or not.

Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God. Why is that? In my view, God is the only authority. When a man sets himself up as a tyrant, he is usurping God's place in the natural order of things. Bowing down before a man is therefore a poor choice.

But, resistance to tyranny does not only consist of killing tyrants and their minions and agents, but also includes doing other things. Educate yourself and your neighbors. Teach your children. Recruit your friends. Be an effective defense force for your home, family, property, and neighborhood. Elect sensible people in your community to serve you rather than to rule you. Do things to avoid paying any more tax than absolutely necessary or required. Do things to make the jobs of those who enforce idiotic "mala prohibitum" laws a bit harder. Shun those who write tickets for a living. Be open about why you would do so. And consider whether the times and the circumstances actually warrant other sorts of mischief.

Remember those who do more. Commemorate the dead at Mt. Carmel from April 1993. Commemorate the dead at Lexington and Concord from 1775. Remember Carl Drega. Remember Vicky and Sammy Weaver. Watch for news of Ed and Elaine Brown. Honor those who are willing to stand up for liberty.

Yes, I believe a time is coming when the choice of freedom would mean choosing to fight. I believe that those who mean to rule us and make us serve them are going to make it impossible for decent men and women to shirk the conflict. And, I think war is inevitable because those who refuse to work very hard, who demand that others work and pay taxes so they can live easily, are going to push and push until they have decent men and women forced against a wall. Which, on the whole, is not that bad a thing as defensive postures go.

And, I say, let it come. Let the war that is coming come, and let it come in my time, that my children may know peace.

I believe that this war is coming here, to our homes, to our home towns. I believe that it is about power and control, about a world government, about the banking cartel, and about numbering the slaves. I believe that the nature of this war is that it is going to be fought in homes, on streets, in front of our children. It is not going to be on some distant battlefield we can see on television and tut-tut about at the dinner table. War is sinful, it is ugly, it is brutal, it is the flames of perdition unleashed on Earth.

At some point, "war is the only way," as the Continental Army colonel says in The Patriot. That does not mean it is the only way for everyone, though. Some won't be convinced without seeing atrocities before their own eyes. And it does not mean that war is the only way now.

Indeed, I think we currently have a number of very interesting technological and economic alternatives to war. Since war is, in my view, another form of politics, I think it is unlikely to produce very beneficial results. And, on those rare occasions when some war of liberation, such as the American Revolutionary War, has produced benefits far outweighing the costs, it has still imposed very high costs on those who fought and bled and died.

Resist tyranny. Disobey authority. Teach your family, friends, and neighbors. But be wise. Be as deadly as a snake, but appear as gentle as a dove. Be as careful and as clever as you can be. Remember that it is ignorance which puts people into slavery. It is understanding the truth which makes us free.

Jim Davidson is an author, newsletter editor, gold enthusiast, entrepreneur, and computer whiz. He's involved in business enterprises in several different countries. His favorite today is golightspeed.com.

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