Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
An underlying theme percolating in the gun control debate is that anyone who doesn’t trust their own government is absurd and bizarre and might even be a little unstable.
On Fox News this morning, Geraldo Rivera told Eric Bolling that the government has the right and duty to take away assault rifles from citizens and that anyone who thinks they need to defend themselves against the government is just plain paranoid. With shock and dismay, Rivera described people who are stocking up on guns as “deeply suspicious OF THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT” (his emphasis) and that this is “bitterly ironic” because these are the same people who “claim a mantle of patriotism.”
“What’s going to happen?” Rivera scoffs. “Are helicopters going to come and kick down your door. . . . I think it is bizarre that you don’t trust your own government of the United States.”
Another example comes from CNN’s Piers Morgan’s interview with Ben Shapiro, author of Bullies. The debate about gun control was heated, but the end was particularly significant. Morgan pressed Shapiro about why Americans need assault weapons, and Shapiro answered that they need them ultimately to fight tyranny, which might not happen today but it could happen in the future.
“And where do you think this will come from?” Morgan asked.
“It could come from the United States because democracies have gone tyrannical before,” Shapiro answered.
With smug indignation, Morgan replied, “Do you know how absurd you sound? . . . Do you genuinely believe your own government is going to turn on you?”
The lesson to be learned from these clips (and these aren’t the only talking heads making these comments) goes far beyond the second amendment debate. It reflects a deep confusion in this country regarding the distinction between government and the civil society and a naiveté about the power and role of government in our lives.
Is it absurd and bizarre not to trust our government? Not according to the founding fathers who fashioned our laws to protect us from tyranny. Patrick Henry wrote, “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government."
So, no, Piers Morgan, adhering to the Constitution out of distrust of government is not absurd at all. It is reasonable, and it is necessary.
The likes of Morgan and Rivera and anyone else out there accusing defenders of gun ownership (and even of semi-automatic rifles, which you would need in a real gun fight) of being bizarre and even a little unstable should heed the words of our first president, a man who knew a lot more about tyranny than any politician today: "Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
You don’t trust fire. You keep a vigilant eye on it, never turning your back, always containing it because, in a moment of inattention, a split second of blind trust, it can spread, transforming into a conflagration of ruin that will consume everything in its path.
The founding fathers are the voices Americans should be listening to, not Piers Morgan or Geraldo Rivera, or even Barack Obama. That’s because the founding fathers understood the difference between government and society. They knew that patriotism meant allegiance to a set of ideas, to the principles of freedom laid out in the Constitution. They understood that to be a patriot was to trust in those ideals, not in government. That’s because they knew what tyranny looked like, and it was “their OWN GOVERNMENT.”
One of the first steps the British government took in suppressing the colonies was to take away their arms. This is what George Mason had to say about it at the Virginia Constitution Convention: "When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually.”
And yet, many in America say the current U.S. government is not like the British crown. All our government is trying to do today by slowly eliminating which guns you can use or how many bullets you can buy is to protect people from themselves. All Obama is trying to do through gun control is protect us and our children, to keep us safe even from ourselves. His motives are pure and designed only for the betterment of society, for the greater good.
To this claim, there is no better response than another insight from Patrick Henry: "Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?"
Not trusting the government is neither absurd nor bizarre. It is wise, and the extent to which every American takes this fact to heart will be the difference between liberty and enslavement.
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Comments:
Jun '12
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." – James Madison, Federalist Paper No. 46
"The Constitution shall never be construed … to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." – Samuel Adams
"To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." – George Mason
" To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." – Richard Henry Lee 1788
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."- Thomas Jefferson 1776
Jan '11
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
Just reading the title of the post made me think: that's what we are founded upon.
Oct '10
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
Are these the same folks who feared Chimpy McBushitler and the imminent theocracy of Rick Santorum? Why, yes, yes they are.
May '10
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
Well said. I hope this post is promoted to the Main Feed so I may share it.
Dec '10
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
Look at the "history" books that are in many schools today. The US government is depicted as just a little better than Pol Pot. Who would trust that government?
Edited on January 11, 2013 at 7:47pmJun '10
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
My own mom is completely devastated that I believe we need to protect ourselves from the government. She thinks I'm a loon (not to mention for a lot of other reasons, too).
And good point, Foxman. Yeah, I wouldn't trust our Pol Pot-lite form of government as taught today. I mean, the pre-Obama government, of course.
May '11
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
The scariest thing is that Geraldo, and people like him, can't distinguish between the country (which should be the object of patriotism) and government. I love my country but I neither like nor trust my government.
Sep '11
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
Let's just throw all the liberal counter arguments out there at once.
"Think of the Children!"
"I'm sure the government knows what they are doing."
"This is rascist."
"This is sexist."
"Why does any one need "Insert thing liberals hate here" anyway?"
What did I miss?
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
"Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our POSITIVELY by united our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer... by the government... our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise." From Thomas Paines' Common Sense, which every American should read!
Nov '10
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
Great post!
It is interesting to me that Piers Morgan should somewhat come to the forefront on this. Didnt we already prove that Brits werent to be trusted some 200+ years ago?
Santayana's quote once again comes to mind...
Oct '10
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
Americans have never trusted government, whether liberal (remember Bush Derangement Syndrome?) or conservative. And, frankly, given the history of the federal government (which, I think, has managed to oppress nearly every social group in America at some point or another during the past two hundred years), distrust in the government is probably inevitable.
There's nothing new about this. It's probably even healthy.
Jan '11
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
The government already wants to force me to pay for things that I consider morally wrong (e.g., contraception and abortion). That means they already ignore my moral concerns. They think they can oblige me and force me to comply because ... they're convinced they're right.
That kind of attitude is dangerous.
And sure, no individual with a rifle could hold off a SWAT team, but if many people in the community had weapons, the SWAT team would have to think twice before trying to disarm the community.
The point is not whether the officials within government are good or bad. The point is that a defense against anything (good or bad) is more certain when it's based on a calculation of reward v. cost of the attack, not an assured guess about the moral character of the people involved.
May '10
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
I chalk it up to complacency and decadence. A dutiful citizen ought to protect our liberties, and our children's, against those who would proscribe our eternal rights for temporary fixes and political gamesmanship. I am not a gun owner but I see the right to own guns as the ultimate embodiment of that principle.
Edited on January 11, 2013 at 8:24pmJun '10
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
I don't ever expect to see the day when I take up arms against my government. I believe in the defensive concept known as deterrence. An armed populace ensures that the government will never try to impose its dictates by force. However, I find it increasingly plausible that a decadent and enfeebled populace might voluntarily elect a tyrant and invite him to rule rather than accept the duties and obligations required of self-government.
Sep '10
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
The only reason media people and their government cohorts don't see the threat from government is because they agree with the ends being sought. David Gregory's non-arrest and the threat of Obama issuing a presidential order to force actions on gun control that he could never wrest from Congress are two obvious example of inequality under the law and abuse of power. That this is clear to many but viewed as insane by many others highlights how at odds Americans are, and I distrust our public discourse (as portrayed through the media) at least as much as I distrust the government. The only thing going for us Americans is that we have so much land that total police control is very unlikely. But trust is not even close to being the same thing as civility, however much the devotees of this president and his party claim otherwise.
May '10
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
Corrupt politicians, like criminals, are emboldened by apparent weakness. The latent potential of civilian force is enough to keep them in check.
There is always a difference between power and authority. It is crucial that voters and politicians alike understand that.
When respect falters, fear is the safety net.
Mar '11
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
Geraldo has always been a shallow reporter, I expect nothing better of him.
Piers should be ignored, pro-gunners should stop going on his show. As Rush once said, he holds the mic, his producer holds the phones, Rush will win every time (Glenn Beck and others have echoed this).
As for the government, my family has had a multigenerational fear of it at some level, whether it be corrupt local OSHA inspectors, or Hubert Humphrey demanding a bribe when still just a local apparatchik of Minnesota.
The power of government always tempts those who would abuse it for their own personal ends, and those who would play God and remake society in their own image. It also corrupts many who enter it with sounder morals than mine.
It is irrational to NOT fear it and be ever vigilant of it.
Sep '10
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
A Brit lecturing Americans about how irrational it is to not trust the government when the middle class is now ranting about taxation by misrepresentation on everyone's Facebook Feed.
Piers Morgan is the Upper Class English Twit of the Year.
Sep '11
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
And longer ago: In the 1980s an academic of Dutch origin who was about 60 and had spent her entire adult life here told me she always kept her Dutch passport current because "with Reagan you never know when this will turn into a dictatorship".
Being politically naive at the time, I was stunned speechless. I thought she was nuts.
Now they think we are nuts. Difference is, we´re right. ;-)
Dec '12
Re: Are We Crazy NOT to Trust Our Government?
I could not agree more with this post. My parents lived through the Communist Revolution in Cuba. One of the first things Fidel Castro did once he seized power was to disarm the civilian population. Ironically, my father questioned this call for disarmament in front of a university class he was attending and was arrested shortly thereafter for his statements. He was released on bail and fled the island a few days later rather than stand trial. Geraldo and others like him are being very naive if they think a Government would never use force against its own citizens. Does Syria sound familiar? What about our friends in Iran? I rest my case.