Recently by Simon Black: Solutions: Do You Have More Confidence in Yourself or Your Government?
Before leaving New York, I was enjoying a perfectly nice afternoon yesterday walking around the Upper West side. When I got to Lincoln center, roughly at the corner of Broadway and W 62nd Street, reality set in.
No fewer than ten NYPD storm troopers were ‘patrolling’ the sidewalk outside in full combat gear: Kevlar helmet, flak vest, semi-automatic 9mm sidearm, and Colt model 933 with M900 foregrip and M68 aimpoint. A few of them had M203 variety grenade launchers fitting snugly underneath the barrel.
And to what did we owe the deployment of such unnecessary firepower? An invasion of the Canadian hordes? Terrorists on the loose? No. Some visiting politician… clearly an individual who feels important enough to merit an intimidating death squad in his vicinity.
This is the nature of the system. Police are armed to the teeth… and while their official marketing slogan may be to ‘keep people safe’, their real function is to be the protectors and enforcers for the political class, all while keeping the people in check so that the know who’s boss.
On this note, we received a lot of comments this week from readers who reject the idea of considering greener pastures overseas and instead choose to “stay and fight.”
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Reader Jay K, for instance, wrote that “sooner or later you’re going to have to fight. It might as well be in your own home, city, neighborhood, and country.”
This ‘stay and fight’ mentality does seem incredibly noble. It invokes images of Paul Revere and the original patriots standing their ground in battle against the red coat British forces. Unfortunately, the world just doesn’t work that way anymore.
There is no real enemy to fight… no clearly defined opposing force conveniently dressed in a different color like the rival baseball team. The battle is one of ideas.
At its simplest, the conflict comes down between those who believe that government is the problem, and those who believe that government is the solution. Most people are brainwashed statists who unquestioningly hold the latter as their ethos.
And then there is the big faceless void of government itself… politicians, bureaucrats, low-level workers, regulatory agencies, etc. We’re not talking about a single individual here, but an entire institution.
It begs the question – for all the ‘stay and fight’ people, who exactly are you fighting? And more importantly, how?
Of all the hundreds of similar notes we’ve received from people who claim they are going to ‘stay and fight’, I am still waiting for one… just one single email… from someone telling me exactly how they plan on doing that.
