Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

"When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.   Yet if thou warn the wicked and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou has delivered thy soul. Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul."
— Ezekiel 3, 18-21

Those in power have been using their power abusively, corruptly, to commit sins, to commit evil.  The litany of their evils would take thousands of pages and generations of scribes to write down.   The general categories of their sins are: idolatry, murder, rape, theft, extortion, false testimony, adultery, war for profit, slavery for profit, false dealings in market exchanges, false weights and standards, refusal to limit their power, and destruction of innocence.  Those who do so wickedly are not going to reform, and will die in their iniquity.  Those who are righteous will receive this warning and sin not, and be redeemed.

Idolatry is the sin of making something artificial and worshipping it, and demanding that others worship it.  The state is an artificial construct, it is a set of ideas, and it is not God.  All that the state ever does is done by individual human beings.  These people have no special qualities, no special powers, but they are put into uniforms, or given job titles, and told that they have specialness.  The worship of the state is idolatry.  The worship of the flag is idolatry.  Those who commit this sin are placing the artificial works of man above the Lord our God.

The sin of murder is the killing of any individual by aggression rather than in self-defence.  Those who are in power commit this sin whenever they arrange the killing of anyone, including civilians in foreign countries, including civilians in their own country, including their political opponents, including those who are encountered by law enforcement.  Many people justify the sins of those in power, including especially those in law enforcement, who commit murder, and thereby commit the sin of murder themselvs.  Killing civilians is wrong, whether they are suspected of crimes or not, whether they seem to be reaching for their waist band, whether they are killed by police or by drone strike or by sniper fire, or by bombing, or by judicial execution.  The state is not a deity and the individuals who commit murder in the name of the state are not justified.

The sin of rape is the coercion of sexual gratification against the will of one or more participant, especially by violence.  Those in power commit rape frequently and with what they perceive as impunity.  Their rapes are not justified.

Theft is the sin of taking what is not yours by force or threat of force.  Taxation is theft.  All manner of activities and things are taxed, and every single tax is a form of theft, is sin, and is not justified.  Moreover, eminent domain is also theft.   Theft is sin and is not justified.

The sin of extortion is the sin of coercing another to give up what that person wishes to keep, whether it be sexual favours, money, land, market choices, or any other thing.  All regulation is extortion.  All extortion is used by those in power to gain specific benefits for their cronies at the expense of everyone else.   Extortion is sin and is not justified.

False testimony is the sin of lying in court, or in any deposition, or in any official matter.  Testi-lying is the consistent behaviour of all police officers, all police agencies, and all government agencies at every level.  Bearing false witness is sin, and is not justified.

Adultery is the sin of compromising the integrity of a marriage through the deliberate violation of the marriage vows.  Many in power engage in sex with other persons while married, breaking their own marriage vows.  Many in power engage in sex with persons who are married, causing them to break their marriage vows.  Adultery is sin and is not justified.

War for profit is the sin of engaging in acts of violent aggression for the purpose of making profits for those supplying the war effort with munitions and supplies, and, for those in power, gaining kickbacks, bribes, campaign contributions, or other payments and thereby sinfully benefitting from the war.  War for profit is sin and is not justified.

Slavery for profit is the use of legal systems to enslave others and then profit from their enslavement.  The prison industry is slavery for profit.  All judges, all prosecutors, all county and local governments derive a direct benefit from the simple act of communication between those arrested and their loved ones, and that is slavery for profit, is sin, and is not justified.  All aspects of the prison industry are directed toward maximising the number in prison or in jail, harming those incarcerated in numerous ways, and taking their labour and the funds provided by their loved ones in various ways.  All judicial proceedings that result in incarceration are profitable to the judges, jailers, and government agencies involved, constitute slavery for profit, fail utterly to reform those convicted of crimes, and are sinful.  Slavery for profit is sin and is not justified.

Those in power have allowed all exchange operations to be settled in cash rather than with good delivery.  It is no longer possible to require delivery of a commodity such as gold, silver, or bitcoin, on markets regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and related agencies, because good delivery does not allow their cronies in the big banks to manipulate market prices and cheat everyone.  By destroying free markets, those in power commit false dealings in market exchanges which is sin and it is not justified.

Those in power have allowed the use of false weights and standards to propagate immense levels of fraud and commercial abuse for the benefit of their cronies.  The definition of a dollar, given in the 1792 Mint Act, is a specific weight of silver, or a specific weight of gold, or a specific weight of copper.  Since 1964, these weights have not been available as dollars to the general public, and since 1971, to foreign banks and governments either.  As a result, the entire economic system worldwide has been distorted to the advantage of those in power in Washington DC, also known as Mordor on the Potomac.  The use of false weights and standards is also found in other areas of trade and commerce, always to the benefit of those with special connections to the powerful.  Using false weights and standards is sin, and is not justified.

Those in power swear an oath to a constitution which contains limits to their power.  Every single person in power then rejects the limits and seeks additional power.  While oath taking is certainly sinful, oath breaking is also sin.  Refusing to limit their own power is sin, and is not justified.

Those in power engage in actions which destroy innocence.  Many in power rape children.  By raping children they destroy their innocence.  Many in power benefit from war for profit, and these wars require the military be filled with innocent men and women who are ordered to kill others, injure others, and commit atrocities, thereby destroying their innocence.  Destruction of innocence is sin and is not justified.

There are many ways for those who remain righteous to correct their path.  Perhaps the simplest is to quit, resign, leave office, and sin no more. 

Who is a person in power?  A person in power is anyone who has a government job, a position of power over others, in any way, for any reason.  All bureau-rats, all politicians, all law enforcement officers, all judges, all clerks, all jailers, all who have power over others are in power. 

There is not much time left.  Many things will be happening to bring about consequences for those in power.  Some of these things will appear to be natural, such as volcanoes, seismic events, tsunamis.  Others will appear to be artificial such as acts of rebellion and revolution.  Some will involve changes to the nature of the economy and the establishment of widespread financial autonomy.  Many things about which I have no knowledge will occur.  Those who seek to redeem themselves and behave righteously should begin now.

 

Jim Davidson is an author, entrepreneur, and world traveller. He has written four books, thousands of essays, and hundreds of business plans. You can find him online if you turn over a few web pages. Some of his sites include indomitus.net and resilientways.net some of his videos are at resilientways.tv and his book on Amazon is "Being Sovereign."