A few weeks back I wrote an article based on the writings of Dr. Carl Jung and his insights into the way that the very nature of human psychology makes the slide of the State , no matter how minimal or minarchist, into oligarchy and autocracy inevitable. This week I continue to use Dr. Jung’s observations and insights into the human psyche in order to explain why the above described operation of the State sets it at opposition to religion, to explain why religion and the State are always enemies to one another and why the State always seeks to control, corrupt, or eliminate religion. Dr. Jung explores how the State operates as religion in the lives of the people, promising salvation in the material world in exchange for the people surrendering their individuality and liberty to the politicians who run the State. Religion provides the ability of the people to have morality outside of the power of the State to control and therefore provides a challenge to the authority of the State which it cannot allow.
Category: Police
The U.S. Constitution: A Covenant With Death, An Agreement With Hell
In American Latter-day Saint circles there is much idolatry over the issue of the U.S. Constitution. Most of it has to do with a particularly willful misunderstanding of most statements on the Constitution found in the scriptures, the purpose of government, the rights of the people in the face of oppressive government laws, and the supremacy of God’s law to man’s in all cases. American Latter-day Saints also tend to idolize the American Founding Fathers. Much is made of the Lord’s statement, “by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose,” that is for writing the Constitution. (see D&C 101:80) It is without a doubt that they were intelligent men. The writings of Thomas Jefferson are still worth studying even today. But that doesn’t justify us in not creating something better now than they could envision then; that doesn’t justify us calcifying out social, spiritual, political, and economic development because they could not imagine the next step in liberty and individual freedom. It does not justify us in idolizing the Constitution (or your respective national charter), ignoring the many ways it has been wrong, corrupt, and evil form the very start, and choosing it over that which is better now.
When We Should Break The Law
From our earliest days, when the Prophet Joseph and Patriarch Hyrum suffered in Liberty Jail and died in Carthage Jail, to the Saints spending nearly 30 years resisting Federal anti-polygamy laws, practicing civil disobedience and being willing to go to prison in order to serve God, on down to the modern day we have examples of the lives of great Saints who have repeatedly broken the laws of the land in order to do what is right and to serve God. Latter-day Saint history is full of rebels and rogues, people who would rather be exiled from the nation, who would rather be killed, than disobey the Lord. So how is it that so many of us have become so milquetoast about standing up the government tyranny? Why is it that so many of us think that the Saints should “strictly obey the laws of the government in which they live,” even when such laws aren’t just wrong or immoral, but even when said laws actively compel us either to disobey God or punish us for obeying Him? While there are numerous reasons, one of the largest is because Latter-day Saints have misinterpreted the Twelfth Article of Faith, D&C 58:21, and D&C 134:5 as giving commandments to the Saints to obey the law and to comply even with evil laws. A close examination of these scriptures though, as I attempt here, show that such interpretations are, by the large, gross nonsense.
What Is The Government And How Does It Work?
Government is one of those subjects that most people know woefully little about. And no, I don’t mean the byzantine systems of law creation or frankly mind numbing committee meetings, though those are often much more important than is typically understood. What I mean is most people have no understanding about the ideas that government is based upon and how those ideas create much of the violence and corruption we see in the world today. Here I address the ideas of government, what beliefs most modern nations are founded upon, and the alternative that would help decrease the violence in the world and create a place of greater liberty, prosperity, and equality for all peoples.
The True Nature of The Legal System
Most people never take time to think deeply about exactly what the law is or how it is enforced. They neither want to hear nor wish to acknowledge the reality that the entire system is based on the exercise of crushing violence against the populace through the police and other similar agents of law enforcement and when you try to explain the truth to them they treat you like you’re crazy. As a result, the defender of human liberty and prosperity needs evidence explaining the truth from the experts others claim to believe. This article, by Dr. Stephen L. Carter of Yale Law School, is just such evidence. His explanation of how the legal system is inherently violent and is based on the use of force to compel obedience from the public on pains of assault or even death and the way that overcriminalization puts the safety, lives, and liberty of everyone at risk would utterly shock most people who ignorantly imagine the government as a force of benevolence. With the current events going on in the world, this knowledge is more important than ever.
The Modern Moloch, Part 1: Patriotism, Nationalism, Idolatry, and Human Sacrifice
For all of human history there has been a struggle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of the world, expressed in many dualities. Here, taking an image from a modern Apostle, we explore how the system of government used throughout most of the world is comparable in its means and ends to the worship of the ancient Canaanite idol Moloch and what that means for how we, as Saints, should react to those in power. If we are to be Saints and dedicate ourselves to God and the Lamb through sacred temple covenants we have to be able to recognize the lies the government tells and the idolatry that lays at the heart of the way it manipulates and coerces us into obeying it in defiance of the commandments of God. This article is the first of a series with the goal of doing exactly that by investigating and revealing the true idolatrous nature of the governments and kingdoms of this world.
How We Win: The Complete Series on How Nonviolence Can Help Change Society
What follows below was originally released as three separate parts, but, intended from the start to be read as one whole article, but ended up being too long. Each article works singularly, but the full force of the argument is somewhat disjointed by the need to break it up for easier consumption. Here the original article is restored for those who wish to take it in as one complete work. It explores how nonviolent action would not only help the protestors in the street win allies, change hearts, and alter laws, but how nonviolence makes possible the transformation of our society from what it is into one with greater liberty, equality, and prosperity for all.
How We Win: Part 3- The Way to Tomorrow
In Part 3 of 3 of my series about how to bring about true social change through nonviolence, I explore the power of nonviolence to bring about reconciliation, transforming our enemies into our friends, and to create a better world through mercy.
How We Win Part 2: Changing the Government
Last week, I began a series of articles explaining how we triumph over the government and its willingness to use violence and brutality to terrorize people into obedience. There we explored how you use effectively use the power of protesting to win the day. Here we continue that series by exploring the ways that we create lasting, meaningful, social change for today, tomorrow, and forever.
We Have Being Saying To Defund The Police For Decades Now
Voluntaryists have been calling for the defunding of the police for decades now. This is because we understand that incentives matter. The police will do what you pay them to do. When the State uses government power to incentive the militarization of the police then that is what we will get- police who who see their cities as battlefields and everyone in them as a threat to beaten or killed. If you want to change this you have to change not only the relationship of the police to the government, you have to sever it altogether.