We should have a very long memory of whom in power abuses us and who followed the order to do the abuse.
Perhaps if tyrants’ heads (and also their enablers) were still routinely mounted on sticks alongside the highway, for both a punishment and a reminder of their misdeeds, we wouldn’t have to endure such foolish people as them and the evil they set upon us.
Carl Stevenson
October 11, 2013
Comment to Park Service Milgram Failure.
[It would take a rather long and difficult research project to verify but my hypothesis is that the tyrants have mounted more heads along the roads “for both a punishment and a reminder” than the oppressed have mounted of the tyrants, their underlings, and their enablers.
Regardless of the truth or falsity of my hypothesis I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. If the tyrants mounted most of the heads then that would remind people of the hazards of letting tyrants gain power. If the victims mounted the most heads then that remind tyrants the hazards of their occupation.
I have been thinking about this sort of thing recently. The outrage of the victims that comes from extended oppression can lead to excessive killing and even genocide. Oppressors everywhere should be aware of this before they chose such a career path.
Think of the French Revolution or the genocide in Rwanda. To a certain extent “they had it coming” but I think society is better served when killing, even of evil tyrants, is done parsimoniously in a deliberate and carefully reasoned manner rather than en masse.—Joe]
“It would take a rather long and difficult research project to verify but my hypothesis is that the tyrants have mounted more heads along the roads “for both a punishment and a reminder” than the oppressed have mounted of the tyrants, their underlings, and their enablers.”
I’d tend to agree, but mostly from a ‘numerical ratio of availability’ stand point…there’s an awful lot more of the ‘commoners’ than there are of the tyrants (and their lackeys), and generally speaking the commoners heads have been mounted for quite a while already by the time they get around to turning the tables.
Your hypothesis is certainly correct. (That tyrants and their accomplices have killed more than been killed.) But avoiding the elimination of tyrants has historically been more of a problem than a solution.
Hitler disarmed the Jews and others, then murdered millions
Stalin disarmed the Russians, them murdered millions
Mao disarmed the Chinese peasants, then murdered nearly 100 million.
The Turks disarmed the Armenians, then murdered 1.5-2 million.
Pol Pot disarmed the Cambodians and murdered millions.
Rwanda disarmed its ethnic groups, then murdered millions.
The list goes on … about 262 MILLION people were murdered BY THEIR OWN GOVERNMENTS in the 20th century – AFTER they allowed those governments to disarm them. See: http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM
They ALL thought “It can’t happen here” – until they were disarmed and it started, then it was too late. Don’t make the same mistake. Don’t EVER let your government disarm you.
Imagine the difference had well armed, determined populations resisted …
Obama’s DHS Gestapo and other alphabet agencies have recently purchased over 1.8 BILLION rounds of hollow point ammo – enough to shoot every man, woman, and child in the country 5 times or more – enough for over 20 years of warfare here in the homeland at the intensity of the Iraq/Afghanistan conflict – ammo that’s illegal for military use under international law, and have recently ordered more, and an additional 7,000 FULLY AUTOMATIC “personal defense” weapons. They have also recently purchased or repurposed almost 3,000 armored fighting vehicles for use on the streets of America, in addition to the many already obtained from DoD. How does anyone with the capability of rational thought escape the conclusion that our government is preparing for a war on its own citizens?
Feinstein, Schumer, Obama, Holder, Bloomberg, Cuomo, and their whole gang are tyrant wannabes. To them, anyone who does, or might, oppose their control over every aspect of our lives, is “a criminal” because they said so.
To quote a few of their heroes, with explanatory comments in ( ):
“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” – Mao
(They revere Mao and the way he ruthlessly grabbed power in China. The fact that he murdered about 100 million Chinese to do it is, to them, a “feature,” not a “bug.”)
“If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves. … The only real power comes out of a long rifle. … Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach. … We don’t let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns? … The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” — Joseph Stalin
“The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed the subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty.” — Adolf Hitler
(The psychopathic sociopaths in our government – and THEY ARE PRECISELY THAT, never make the mistake of doubting it – believe that they are anointed to be our rulers and that we are the equivalent of Hitler’s “subject races.” And we know what happened to “them.”)
Don’t tell me, “It can’t happen here in America.”
To borrow a quote from Mike Vanderboegh,
“Anyone who tells you that ‘It Can’t Happen Here’ is whistling past the graveyard of history. There is no ‘house rule’ that bars tyranny coming to America. History is replete with republics whose people grew complacent and descended into imperial butchery and chaos.”
The Founders knew that government, if not constrained at every step, will continue to accumulate power and control until it becomes tyranny. That’s why they feared standing armies and insisted that the “right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
“A tyrannical rule cannot in any reasonable construction be accounted lawful, and therefore the disturbance of such a government cannot be esteemed seditious, much less traitorous.” – Thomas Aquinas
When Injustice becomes Law, Resistance becomes Duty – Thomas Jefferson
Once it starts, the only thing that will stop such butchery by tyrants is to take the killing to the tyrants and their accomplices. Better it happens earlier in the game before the tyrants get too far along …
We have to do the right things, for the right reasons, and if it comes to killing then so be it, but we must not become sadistic about it.
Most collectivists are dupes. Have pity on them if you have to whack them. They scarcely had the chance to live proper. More important though is to (restore and) preserve liberty as envisioned by America’s founders, and let freedom be the example for everyone, if examples we need.
I didn’t say it should be enjoyable, just that, ultimately, it needs to be done, since, in the final analysis, it’s the only way to deal with tyranny.
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” – Frederick Douglas
A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate.
Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate — and quickly.
Two quotes from Heinlein’s Time Enough For Love that are appropriate to remember.
Public hangings would more then suffice. Holding our supposed leaders terminally responsible has an excellent way focusing their attention on the Peoples business.