CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
 |  Subject: The Devil's Right Hand  Mon May 05, 2008 5:38 am | |
| by Larken Rose
Publisher of http://www.taxableincome.net
What does the Devil's right hand look like? I don't mean this to be particularly religious or biblical; I just want to know, whatever "evil" is, what is the main mechanism by which it is served?
Adolph Hitler? Stalin? Charles Manson? Jeffrey Dahmer? The Columbine shooters?
Nope. Not even close. Let's get out the score card.
How many people did Manson, Dahmer, and the Columbine shooters kill? A few dozen, at most. I don't mean to downplay the horrible nature of their atrocities, but on a purely statistical level, they hardly register on the big scheme of things.
"Oooo, oooo, I know! Stalin, Mao, and Hitler!"
Actually, no. How many people actually died at the hands of those individuals? Not very many (again, in the big scheme of things). "Well, maybe they didn't do the actual killing, but they orchestrated mass murder!" True. And what was their primary tool?
The true threat to humanity are not the Hitlers, the Dahmers, and the Mansons. Those who have a view of reality that twisted--those who have no regard for human life, or even delight in the suffering or death of others--are few and far between. They are outnumbered (and perhaps more importantly, out-gunned) at least a million to one.
No, as disturbing as the occasional psychotic, sadistic murderer is, that is not what society needs to worry about. Let's look at the other column on the score card. The grand total is in the hundreds of millions of human beings tortured and murdered. And who is responsible? Who accomplished atrocities way beyond what the famous mass-murders accomplished?
Average, generally decent human beings, who did the wrong thing because someone in "AUTHORITY" told them to. They are the Devil's Right Hand. Remove that blind obedience to imagined "authority"--just getting those people to use their OWN judgment instead of following someone else's--and you remove 99% of murder from the earth.
Unfortunately, that's easier said than done.
(Check out "Death by Government," by Mr. Rummel.)
It's easier for us to imagine a nasty, malicious, "insane" villain as our enemy. How many Hollywood movies spend all the movie making the top bad guy so evil that you can't wait until he dies at the end (in the most gruesome manner that special effects can buy)?
Trouble is, those are NOT the implementers of evil in the real world. Your neighbor is the implementer of evil. Yeah, that nice guy who helped you jump-start your car last week. Yeah, the one with the three kids, who is such a great dad. That's the one. That's the Devil's right hand.
What that "nice guy" would have been doing at this age, had he been born in 1910 in Germany, would be driving a truck with those canisters of gas on board. Mind you, he doesn't make the gas, or set up the gas chambers, or push the people in, or open the valve, or burn the bodies. No, he just drives the truck. That's all. He's just doing his job, and serving his country.
Well, that's what the "nice guy" WOULD have been doing, had he been born in Germany in 1910. But he wasn't. He was born in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, in 1960. He now works as a Revenue Agent for the Internal Revenue Service. Mind you, he doesn't arrest anyone, or seize anyone's property. He just does the paperwork the way his bosses tell him to. That's all. He's just doing his job, and serving his country.
Know your enemy. Your enemy is not Darth Vader, or Sauron, or Dr. Evil. Your enemy is that "nice guy" next door. If you want to see just how scary he really is, I highly recommend a book titled "Obedience to Authority," which is a detailed psychological study by Stanley Milgram (done back in the 1960's). I'll let the book give you all the gruesome details, but the punch line is this: the vast majority of your neighbors will knowingly inflict pain and suffering on you, if someone they perceive as "authority" tells them to. If that were not the case, there would be no IRS.
For any who have tried to reason with an IRS agent, tried to show them the law, tried to get "justice" out of a judge, or tried to get the IRS to not rob them, you have all the evidence you need. Yes, the IRS certainly has its share of sadistic, power-happy fruitcakes (Steward Stich in Sarasota, Florida comes to mind). But mostly the IRS is populated by average folk, who are "just following orders." They take no responsibility for their actions, they avoid original thought like the plague, and they are immune to any evidence or logic which goes against what their bosses are telling them to do. In short, they are the Devil's right hand.
It's easy to cheer for the super-villain in any movie to be subject to some horrible death. How about the 20-year-old German kid on the front lines in WW II, who doesn't know what he's doing there, is just trying to do what he is told, and thinks he is somehow nobly serving the Motherland? It's not as easy to hate him, or to wish death upon him.
Unfortunately, as revolting as it is that generally decent folk do horrible things under the direction of some perceived "authority," it gets worse. You have a choice: kill the misguided kid, and thousands like him, or let Hitler rule the world.
Reality bites, doesn't it?
In the fight to end the "income tax" deception, thankfully it has been (at least for the most part) non-violent. However, that uncomfortable choice is still there. You must either intentionally inflict stress and discomfort on that "nice guy," or let him continue to rob your friends and neighbors. There is no other choice. So which is it going to be?
Many of you have already felt the frustration and anger that comes from dealing with the faceless, responsibility-free bureaucracy called the IRS. You can't wait for Darth Vader to show up, so you can lop his head off with your light saber. But he doesn't show. Instead, you're faced with some ignorant paper-pusher whose vast knowledge of law and procedure consists of being able to read "the courts have ruled that to be frivolous" off a form letter that his bosses sent him. He, and 90,000 others like him, are what you are up against. You are not fighting arch-villains; you are fighting cowardly "obeyers."
You have a choice: hurt them or be hurt by them. Which will it be?
No, I don't mean smashing their kneecaps (though in some ways that might be nicer in the long run). I mean making their jobs absolutely miserable, in every legal way you can think of, as long as they refuse to obey their own regulations. If you won't do it, you can rest assured that they will make your friends' and neighbors' lives miserable.
If you examine history, and read "Obedience to Authority," it should be clear what your options are. To be nice, appeal to their reason and rationale once, on the off chance that they are one of the very few capable of thinking and acting on their own, contrary to what "authority" tells them to do. After that, resort to their aversion to discomfort. Train them as you would train a pit bull: "if you hurt me, I will hurt you worse." Unfortunately, as many millions have learned throughout history, there is only one other choice: submit to absolute tyranny.
--Larken Rose |
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RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| | Subject: Re: The Devil's Right Hand Mon May 05, 2008 6:26 am | |
| No, I don't mean smashing their kneecaps (though in some ways that might be nicer in the long run). I mean making their jobs absolutely miserable, in every legal way you can think of ... Train them as you would train a pit bull: "if you hurt me, I will hurt you worse."
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