In a few days,
we will all have an opportunity to peacefully inflict a major psychological
blow on the rapidly coalescing police state by the simple but powerful
act of refusing to play along with the absurd pantomime on the 4th
of July that we live in an even nominally free country — one
with the rule of law, an operative Constitution and respect for
individual rights. One that isn’t a thugocracy.
We can turn
our backs on the flag. Decline to participate when urged to cheer
and sing. No fireworks. No barbeques.
We can sit
down — and bow our heads.
We can mention
the unmentionable: That there is no longer any meaningful
limit to the power of the government over our lives. No line beyond
which it may not tread. That it lies, spies and tyrannizes.
We can admit
to ourselves the shoddy — and frightening — reality
bubbling up all around us.
By so doing,
we can shatter the illusion that this government operates with anything
remotely approximating our consent. This is absolutely essential.
The 4th of July pantomime requires that we deny the obvious —
that we instead pretend we’re free people living
in a free country; one in which the government is accountable
to the people, one in which the government is limited by
law. One in which people can’t simply be dragooned
into prisons without due process, held incommunicado, tortured.
A country with a president who doesn’t have kill
lists — or use the instruments of state power to punish and
intimidate his political opponents. One in which citizens must be
suspected of a crime before their personal correspondence
is filched through and recorded for later use against them. One
in which a traveler is free from arbitrary and random searches of
his person and effects. One in which the attorney general of the
United States isn’t able to get away with providing guns to
gangs or brazenly lie about his use of the power of his office to
go after political “enemies” rather than pursue justice.
All these things
are everyday realities. And the reality is that the America we once
celebrated on the Fourth of July is gone, replaced by something
dark and ominous.
It is painfully
obvious — so why pretend otherwise?
More to the
point, why should we celebrate this ugly transformation?
Mourning is
what’s called for.
If we decline
to play along — and we still have this option, for the moment
— we can shatter the idea that all of the foregoing loathsomeness
is done with our approval. We can redefine the relationship between
ourselves and the government in an honest way. No more pretending
we’re free. No more pretending we’re protected by the
rule of law — and not ruled over by a thug caste
— a mafia — that does literally whatever it
wants, to anyone, at any time — without any real consequences
whatsoever. None of this requires elaboration. Everyone knows it
to be true. The Constitution is no longer even payed lip service
to. It is a sick joke.
June
29, 2013
Eric Peters
[send him mail] is an
automotive columnist and author of Automotive
Atrocities and Road Hogs (2011). Visit his
website.
Copyright
© 2013 Eric Peters
Republished with permission from:: Lew Rockwell