People v. State

Norm Pattis in his most recent post provides an important qualification to what I took him to say in his previous post (“When politicians seek to mobilize supporters with martial and military metaphors and symbols, they are now accused of inciting violence. This is utter silliness.”) about the shootings in Arizona:

In the case of Jared Loughner we will never know to a certainty what caused his actions. But denying that hate speech and a low-brow, knuckle-dragging political culture had anything to do with his actions seems a lot like calling cigarettes health food. Denying the relation of speech and acts is a sign of something far worse than cancer, however: The denial is a form of declaring meaningless the very concept of culture or political society.    

Take the idea that “taxation is theft,” which so happens to be an idea I believe and express. The single biggest factor that would prevent me from treating an IRS agent who comes to my door like the thief that he is is the fact that I would be massively out-gunned by the IRS. (I don’t even own a gun.) Any confrontation between us would end very badly for me. (And could also end badly for one or two IRS agents, who after all might just be well-intentioned simple-minded Christians who skipped over what Jesus had to say about unrepentant tax collectors.) It would therefore be a “senseless” act of violence on my part. It would accomplish nothing, and lead to needless death, including my own.

On the other hand, if the entirety of the IRS’s power consisted only of 100 armed men, and I had on my side 50 like-minded men armed not only with guns but with courage born of their love for liberty, we might have a real fight on our hands. A similar scenario is what distinguished the situation of our Founding Slave-Driving Treasonous Fathers. They were intelligent, courageous, greedy, and organized. They had popular support. They thought, not without reason, that they could pull it off, and it turned out they were right, although the outcome was long in doubt. Their violence wasn’t “senseless.”

Now, it’s true that in every age including our own there are a few people who, whether by reason of insanity or desperation, just don’t give a fuck. Should we who do give a fuck refrain from saying “taxation is theft” for the sake of these few, lest their insanity or desperation combine with this idea and lead them to commit a senseless act of violence? Hell no, for a couple very good reasons. First, the alternative is the equivalent of kissing the master’s feet as we meekly hand over the chains we’ve forged for our own oppression. Second, if we keep our mouths shut and heads down the day will never come when 50 like-minded patriots will face but 100 loyalists. (I predict in that day the 100 will lay down their arms without a fight.) Ideas, and the propagation of them, do have consequences.

But saying “taxation is theft” isn’t to blame for senseless acts of violence. Theft is.

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