The Collapse Of Public Order

     It’s here. In truth, it’s been here since the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president of these United States. Last night’s events in Charlottesville, Virginia only make it impossible to ignore.

     I’m not acquainted with Jason Kessler or Richard Spencer. I know very little about the “Alt-Right,” and would not presume to speak for that movement or any of its supporters. Here is what I know:

     Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [U.S. Constitution, Amendment I]

     As an integral part of the Constitution, the First Amendment is the supreme law of the land, quite as much as any of the Constitution’s other prescriptions or proscriptions. If there’s any point to having “law enforcement officers” paid out of the public treasury, it’s to have them enforce the law. Yet the Charlottesville Police Department (CPD) refrained from doing anything of the sort. Indeed, in one respect -- i.e., by forcing the “Unite the Right” protestors to move single-file out of Emancipation Park and into the throng of “Antifa” thugs awaiting them – the CPD seemed eager to provoke the violence that occurred last night.

     While I cannot be certain that the “Antifa” thugs who forced violence upon last night’s “Unite the Right” rally were in the pay of the far-left Charlottesville city government, I am certain that the CPD encouraged the mushrooming violence, both by forcing the groups together and by standing by passively as violence erupted. Therefore the CPD is complicit in the death and the injuries that occurred. It should be brought to account for them, but it’s clear from the aftermath that that won’t happen.

     When the supposed “forces of order” do nothing to preserve order – when their actions conduce to violence, bloodshed, and chaos — what are we to think of the “government” over us? What possible good can we rationally expect from this institution that possesses the pre-indemnified privilege to use force in upholding the law, but refrains from doing so?

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     Concerning the above matter and much else, T. L. Davis deposeth and sayeth:

     The USA is a failed state. It was charged at its founding to protect and defend the borders. Fail. It was charged with securing the rule of law. Fail. It was charged with securing the right of the people to be secure in their papers and effects. Fail. It was charged with protecting a citizen’s right to a fair trial, a thing lost in the current judicial system of trumped up charges and plea bargains. Fail. It was charged with requiring the popularly elected House of Representatives with making all legislation, that does not exist where 90% of all new legislation is considered "rules" and "regulations" and is originated and passed in committees of bureaucracies. Fail.

     There is no area in which one might look where the language and intent of the Constitution is honored. This is more than just a problem, it is indicative of a failed political state. That there are those who benefit from this dysfunction is a fact, but it is not indicative of a functioning government. It is a government evolving from its intent to the opposite of its intent. Yes, it functions, but not to its purpose, which is to say if a tire is blown, with a big hole in it, it might still be used as a child's swing, but it no longer functions to its purpose.

     He’s absolutely correct on all counts. The purpose of government in the U.S. was set out by a memorable bit of prose:

     We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

     Those purposes are in agreement at all points with what radio host Gene Burns likes to call “the birth document of the United States of America:”

     We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

     Yet today:

• There are no rights;
• There is no security;
• And there’s damned little happiness.

     T. L. Davis’s assessment of the U.S. as “a failed state” is confirmed. Moreover, it’s the governments we hoped would “effect their Safety and Happiness” that are the culprits. Worse yet, they have enlisted groups such as “Antifa” and “Black Lives Matter” in their efforts.

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     The aim of the High is to remain where they are. -- George Orwell

     It should be clear by now that the members of the political class, at whose whim the “forces of order” really move, are uninterested in anyone’s rights. Their paramount desire is to maintain and (if possible) increase their power over us.

     There can no longer be any justification for faith in the benevolence of the State. It has revealed itself all too clearly as a parasitic organism. It’s grown so large that the health of the host is now in mortal jeopardy. The elevation of a complete outsider to its highest office seems not to have dampened its lusts. Now, by assisting outright thugs and criminals in the suppression of peaceful dissent, the political class has declared war on the private citizenry.

     Do not expect what will follow last night’s evil to be confined to locales far from you. Go armed at all times. Cultivate the sharpest situational awareness possible. At all costs stay out of crowds and places where crowds are predicted. The thugs are everywhere...and the “forces of order” are aligned with them.

     Pray.