Guest Post by Eric Peters
Can a good man spend his days doing bad things and remain a good man? What if he chooses to spend his days doing bad things and could at any time elect not to do the bad things? Could decide – I am not comfortable with this; this isn’t for me – and quit, without risking anything (other than the need to find honest work)?
The German SA man of the 1930s was a very bad man – but he did, at least, have the defense of being under duress.
In 1930s Germany, it was socially (if not legally) difficult for any man to not become a willing helper of Hitler’s in some capacity – or at least, give the appearance thereof. One joined the partei – and sieg heiled along with the crowd. To not do so invited suspicion at minimum – and the very real likelihood of much worse. God help you if you publicly criticized the national socialist state or its leaders.
An even better example of duress would be the camp guard. He had the choice of being on one side of the razor wire – or the other side. We still condemn him for being a cog in the machine of mass murder. But – at some level – his guilt is mitigated by the fact that he could not just walk away without accepting severe repercussions.
It took a brave man – a hero, to use that much over-used word – to say, “no. I won’t be a part of this” – and accept the consequences, come what may.
Very few such men stepped up.
But what are we to make of the man who could easily avoid a job that necessarily entailed tyrannizing his fellow man? Who freely and deliberately chooses to do such work?
Can any such man be a good man?
Is his guilt mitigated by the fact that some of his work is good? What is the magical proportion? And what is the tipping point, beyond which the man can no longer expect to be considered good, regardless of the rest?
That point has probably been reached as regards law enforcement in America. The change of terminology is itself a kind of tacit acknowledgement of this fact. Also revelatory are the uniforms, equipment, the “look” and – most of all – the attitude. A mix of fear (of us, the indigs) and contempt (also for us).
The latter sentiment is now felt by the indigs for them. (i.e., the law enforcers).
The indigs did not used to feel this way – perhaps because they were not regarded with fear and contempt – and treated as indigs. And perhaps because the balance of things was more inclined toward peace-keeping rather than law enforcing.
The SA man and his sort existed to enforce compliance with the edicts of the state. They were law enforcers. Never forget that what the Nazis did was entirely legal under their system of government. This was their defense after the war, at Nuremburg. A still-sane world (at that time) rejected this defense because it grokked the distinction between legal and moral – and understood that a thing could be perfectly legal and morally loathsome. And that human beings had a moral obligation not to do loathsome things, regardless of “the law.”
Unfortunately, that lesson – that distinction – has slipped our collective memory.
This may not be accidental.
Because for history to repeat, that distinction must be smudged into meaninglessness; the lesson of history forgotten.
Hence the refrain, “I’m just doing my job.”
This is what Hannah Arendt meant when she spoke of the banality of evil.
Its ordinaryness. Its stumbling bureaucratic nature. The DMV – and the “resettlement office” of Adolf Eichmann differ only in degree. This is the critical point and if not understood – and dealt with – in the very near future, while there is still time, it will inevitably, lead to a critical mass.
One senses there is not much time left.
And yet, it would be so easy to defuse the bomb before it goes off.
We descend into the abyss solely and only because we – as a society – have lost sight of the plain-spoken, one-time American notion of leaving other people alone so long as they are leaving other people alone. It is – it was- the keystone principle that, when generally accepted, made a free society possible.
Rescind (reject) this principle and a free society become impossible.
It will not happen all at once, nor overnight. But little infringements lead inexorably to bigger ones until – one day – we find there is nothing left to infringe. No line behind which we are, at last, safe. Our lives are no longer our own; no decision ours exclusively. Fear and its byproducts – anger and resentment – replace goodwill and ordinary human decency.
This already happening (see here) and will happen more and more often – unless the Gordian Knot is cut in two by our rejection of busybodyism and control freak-ism. No more “uplifting” (as H.L. Mencken nattily styled it).
And no more law enforcing.
Leave people alone, if they’re leaving you (and others) alone.
It’s what good men do.
There’s the rub. It’s hard to stand against the mob, to decide for yourself what is just or moral regardless of what is legal or popular and stand up to it. It’s easier to run away or keep your thoughts to yourself, but that is it’s own form of compliance and acceptance.
That article explains why I generally HATE copfuks …. even the “good ones”. Because if the State passes a law to arrest all tomato growers … they WILL arrest all tomato growers because they are “just doing their job”. They have families to feed also … though shit if it means shitting on fellow citizens. Let them eat cake, not tomatoes.
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You can’t even say “God Bless You” to a copfuk without being cursed at and threatened. Maybe he should have said “you’re sooo good looking” (A Seinfeld reference.)
Copfuks Eat Shit.
It also requires taking into consideration those dependent upon you, such as family members – which is why organized crime has historically been so effective at coercing others to do their bidding – Al Capone was notorious for threatening police official’s families if they didn’t “go along.”
Stuck,
Thanks for the post. Interesting demographic – white cop berates white kid. Black cop berates black kid. Must have been a set up as we now know that all cops are white and they only berate or hurt people with dark skin….
The failure of our (Western) society is at base a failure of the guiding philosophy, an embrace of naked aggression, political organization and the empowerment of the Little Dictator in every person.
This is the difference between libertarian philosophy and libertine philosophy.
This is also exactly about what de Tocqueville wrote when he coined the term, “Democratic Despotism.”
Our system now empowers innumerable little (often invisible) factions to implement their own narrow, self-serving and often totalitarian desires, so that we get millions of snide little rules that are either Mrs. Grundy telling her neighbors how to live, or are endless little criminals setting up shop and using legalities to damage their competitors.
Everyone now can get a seat at the table, robbing and ordering about their neighbors.
Democratic despotism.
And all despotisms WILL HAVE AN AGENCY OF ENFORCEMENT, staffed by WELL PAID ENFORCERS, who will (as a matter of self-interest) submerge their individuality and their common decency and simply not see the soul-staining actions they implement.
If one includes the cushy pensions promised them, cops and municipal firemen are paid a TON to work a relatively short time in their lives.
No wonder people fight tooth and nail to get those jobs, and why women (who really lack the physical capabilities for much of it) were so insistent on getting a seat at the feast.
Mark Passio’s work has entirely changed my life, in regard to how I view police, cops, military, order followers, etc. His website is What On Earth Is Happening, and he has a presentation on Natural Law on You Tube that everyone here should watch. It’s remarkable.
My wife and I have often talked of moving back to her little small hometown in rural Oklahoma, to raise our kids with their cousins, aunt & uncle, and grandma. But the question always comes up, “But what are you going to do for a living, Tim? How will you provide for your family in said small town? Limited economic growth there.”
One of the primary employers in town is the Army Depot. Their end product is bombs. Now, to many of the local denizens, a good gig in this town is to get a job on the night shift, driving a delivery truck around the base, delivering parts here and there. You can make about $75K per year, and apparently, you can sleep between loads.
At one time, I considered this as a viable option. Thanks to Mark Passio’s work, the info I glean here at TBP, and other sources of alternative media, I wouldn’t cut the fucking grass in that facility. I wouldn’t walk in there to piss if the place was on fire, and they had cold beer for free. Why? Because they make fucking bombs in there, that’s why!!
Somewhere in the history of time, there was a German machinist who made valves. He made the highest quality valves with the best material and the tightest machine tolerances that were possible at that time. He took exacting care to make sure that his product was of the highest quality, and his name was renown in the machining/manufacturing realm. One day, he gets a contract from the German Gub’mint to manufacture a gazillion valves, in all different shapes and sizes. He was so thrilled, because he was going to become a very wealthy man. Little did he know, or even care, that his valves were going to be used in the construction of the showers at Auschwitz, Treblinka, Birkenau and others.
To me, the difference in driving a delivery truck at night at the army depot and making valves for concentration camps, and actually turning the levers on the showers, is only a matter of degree. It’s all a form of order following.
This is one stand I’m willing to make. I’m not saying that I’m an entirely good man. I’m sure that my life could use more examination. But, as far as supporting TPTB, I’m willing to do less and less of it every day.
Anger is rising.
Stocks seem to be struggling to stay aloft (I still think there’s a better than even chance that the SPX will eke out a new high in coming days, but that might be IT!)
Once stocks do finally roll over (and whether it’s this week, next week, next month or next year, LOOK AT A CHART! This six year diversion into FANTASY cannot continue indefinitely) then the low-level anger now
Black-lives-matter-focused anger.
Knockout-game/black-on-white-crime-anger.
Latino-invasion-anger.
LGBT-deviants-jamming-it-down-our-throats-anger.
Lying-screw-the-middle-class-politicians-anger.
will skyrocket.
People who are subconsciously enraged are primed to violence over almost any incitement. The Internet is a fertile place to find such incitement, but so is visiting a store or even driving down the road.
I cannot begin to imagine how much violence is going to rise once the wheels officially come off the economic cart.
@dc.sunsets
— “I cannot begin to imagine how much violence is going to rise once the wheels officially come off the economic cart.”
And it will be state endorsed… because this campfire has been being built for a long time, the tinder being allowed to dry out, and a lot of people currently anti-state are going to happily jump back in bed once it pretends to care about them again.
@hardscrabble
— “There’s the rub. It’s hard to stand against the mob, to decide for yourself what is just or moral regardless of what is legal or popular and stand up to it.”
And the vast majority who do do not wind up as part of the “examples of history to admire”. They die alone, their family disrupted, and nobody remembering them.
On this plane of existence at least.
— “It’s easier to run away or keep your thoughts to yourself, but that is it’s own form of compliance and acceptance.”
I’ve argued that the entire reason Kings and Religions are not a part of the western system is because it leaves the democratic atheist with nothing higher to appeal to, and nothing to topple.
A king can be killed if they go too far… a document with a revolving series of masks making it dance can’t.
A person can appeal to God over their religious leaders if they get tired of their religious leaders. An atheist has nowhere to appeal.
Even if those things WERE delusions… the delusion itself was enough to give people something to hold onto when deciding whether it was worth it to continue running or finally take the consequences of saying no and appealing toward a higher authority for justice.
@razzle,
I consider myself a libertarian anarchist by philosophy and an agnostic wrt religion.
That said, I have realized that my core beliefs are not compatible with humanity as a heterogeneous and dynamic species.
Most people are slaves, terrified (rightly) of having to survive solely on the basis of their abilities and talents. They will ALWAYS support some sort of political collectivism, so the question is not yes or no, it’s what kind?
While I believe I have identified for myself a core set of non-negotiable moral rules, sans religious prescript, I recognize that few people can do so. Most people will, if given license long enough, revert to theft (because it’s easier.) Without an overarching set of rules from “on high,” this means people will slip into organized crime writ large, just as has developed during the last 150 years in Post-Christian Western Civilization.
This leaves me with the unhappy position of believing I don’t need any kind of political organization or religion, but that most of my fellow men cannot exist without them, and that in their absence my life would suffer greatly.
I now see that aristocracy, the political organization of a natural elite chosen for wisdom and not cunning, is probably the best mankind can hope for on the political front. Self-rule of any sort, organized above the level of the extended family, becomes nothing more than a monopoly on organized crime, a war of all against all (democratic despotism.) The other necessary element of political success is competing power loci. A polity where the common people, permanently out of power and with no hope of joining the ruling elite, can throw their support to the political subunit that treats them best provides an incentive for those political centers to battle each other not by exploiting the citizenry harder but by competing for their love. This is not the same thing as the democrats being the party of the “Gibsmedats,” it’s more like the battle between political and ecclesiastical authority in Western Europe during the Middle Ages.
If current monolithic nation-states were to break up and self-sort into much smaller, homogenous (within themselves) natural aristocracies, humans would likely benefit across the board.
As to religion, while I think the evidence points to the Abrahamic religions all being constructs of mankind rather than a single, unknowable, supreme deity, I can see benefits of following the example of a carpenter who was reportedly born in Bethlehem. Whether man or God, whether his words were accurately carried by word-of-mouth for generations, then transcribed without alteration by monks for centuries, he spoke of important principles and (if people actually embraced the self-improvement, rejection-of-political-means words translated to English) it would probably help make human society better.
I like the culture I inherited. I’d like to see its collapse averted. I’d like to see Western Civilization pull out of its flat spin before it pancakes in a fireball on impact.
Of course, what I’d like has absolutely nothing to do with it.
I sometimes wonder about Sophie Scholl, of the White Rose.
Whenever I do, it makes me somber, sad even.
No problem crapping on the Nazis, but I think a little more attention should be focused on the Communists. Real Nazis pretty much faded from the scene after 1945 and in any case they had little appeal outside of Germany a handful of other places. Communism was an international force until 1989 and its supporters – now calling the4mselves “Progressives” – are currently the greatest threat to our country, our freedom and our future. The SJW’s are not Nazis. They are leftist extremists, like most of the other busybodies in this country.
Don’t focus on the SA or SS. Focus on the Cheka, the KGB and the Committees for the Defense of Revolution in Cuba, gangs of neighborhood snoops who might feel right at home in 2015 suburban America.
@dc.sunsets
Part of my implication regarding religion is that the “God Governments” had to be replaced with “Paper Governments” because of the fundamental flaw inherent in God Governments… namely… the concept of God being above the government/religion.
So long as a person truly believes in God of some sort (a just super-human King or a supernatural entity)… it makes it much easier for them to say resist their local tax collector threatening them… because they have set their sites on appealing to someone of higher purpose. For those who were supposed to be *cowed* by the King or God… this was a flaw in the matrix that had to be fixed.
Now we in the west only have a Paper God and Paper Government where so long as the paper says the person can ruin you… there is nowhere else left to appeal… and any humans behind the paper you try to appeal to will be replaced very shortly forcing you to start over again.
As for the rest… yup. I view humanity as a whole the same as any other force of nature I can’t control… only decide how to position myself relative to. Each person is a potential wild animal… and a potential best friend. As a whole though… it’s a glacier that sometimes becomes an avalanche.
And as for Sophie… if you can… leave a paper trail. 🙂
@SouthernSage
I would not surprise me at all if the Nazis took the blame for a good chunk of the Soviet dead.
I have no evidence of that… only that it would be a perfectly doable tactic to ensure negative attention stayed on Germany after the war.
@SouthernSage,
Progressivism predated National Socialism by about 90 years (at least.)
The vast success of the Industrial Revolution emboldened large numbers of post-millennial Christian Pietists who openly embraced the Gnostic Heresy in the middle of the 19th century.
They explicitly saw the scientific management of the state (political government) as a new means to create Heaven on Earth. This was the obverse of the collectivist coin from Marxism.
Both Marxism and Progressivism sought to use the coercive machinery of the state to create “new man.”
So on the political side we had:
International socialism (Communism.)
National socialism (Nazism)
Fabian socialism (democratic socialism, otherwise known as “the third way.”)
and on the religious side we had:
Women’s Temperance movement, AKA Prohibition AKA the 18th amendment, then the Drug War.
Women’s suffrage leading to the 19th amendment which drastically increased support for the nanny state.
Support for the 16th amendment (income tax),
The 17th amendment, direct election of senators, THE WORST OF ALL, because it destroyed the states’ ability to block ANYTHING the federal government wanted.
I argue that it was Progressivism (which is really a religious belief, albeit a false one) that accounted for the vast change in the character of the USA over the last 120 years.
Progressivism is a form of political collectivism with much in common with the various kinds of socialism that spread across Europe and then the rest of the world. Immigrants flooding into the US over that 120 year period also brought with them Europe’s poisonous collection of Marxist folly, just as the recent addition of 50 million Meso-Americans promises to turn the USA more into a dysfunctional kleptocracy like Argentina.
Humanity has been erecting its own gallows for 100 years via these poisonous collectivist philosophies. When the denouement arrives it will be difficult to understand, but it will have been collectivism (treating people like insects in a hive, and the outcome-utilitarianism it engenders) that was the animating principle of the destruction.
The article touched on the heart of the problem, which is that there are more than two groups of people. There are some evil people; there are some good people; and the vast majority are ordinary people, with elements of both evil and good, swayed by circumstance and the current balance of power to tend toward one or the other.
Special note to dc sunsets: As you know, I agree with most things you have to say. I want you to know that I have recently become persuaded that the prevailing level of positive social mood will persist for another couple of years after the imminent correction we currently face, and keep the markets propped up accordingly. It remains to be seen whether any serious collapse will follow after that, or whether it will happen at all…
In a sense I feel relief at that thought, given my love for my son and my best wishes for him to have a happy, successful life. At the same time, I also have feelings similar to what a true Christian believer must feel about dying before the second coming they felt was going to happen any day now.
As you say, dc, we really don’t know for sure either way. But we sure as hell want to feel that we have figured everything out!
The only real difference between Fascists and Communists is the armbands they wear. A man without God has no morals just self interest. If not God what makes rigt and wrong?
right
An article that strikes close to home in many ways, as a Veteran and current… “handler”of our more unpleasant fellow Americans. There are many times, perhaps the majority, in which I think that it’s better to leave well enough alone, send people on their way, or maybe call a taxi. That being said I also see a particularly large quantity of truly disturbed people on a daily basis. It is who I am specifically meant to deal with and what I am paid for. I am speaking of people who are so drug addled they try to eat medical personnel, Jack off on their faces for hours, or are so mentally disturbed they try to drop kick beds and walls and potted plants. I’m not exaggerating. The point is that folks in law enforcement, as well as associated medical services, are continuously exposed to the nasty underbelly of society. On an intellectual level I can read statistical studies that these dangerous people I personally deal with, whether they are criminally, psychologically, or medically dangerous, are in the minority. But I see them every freaking day. Their numbers have increased. I know this because I am busier and run the numbers. It is difficult in such situations to avoid generalising towards the greater population, especially when you know that most of the worst ones are on legally prescribed medication, which almost half or more of the US is currently taking these mood stabilizing/destabilizing medications. I try very hard to respect people’s rights, but deciding what is legal and what is morally loathsome? Both can be difficult to discern in certain situations. This is not to say that people in such positions do not have a responsibility to make the right decisions; we do. I’m rambling a bit because I just spent 15 hours fighting multiple people, most of whom were contemptible dregs, some of whom were merely mentally damaged. The point is that as a rather obsessed libertarian, I am conflicted when presented with having to deal with multitudes of people doing whatever the hell they want, when what they want is to damage property, attack well meaning people, and cause an endless number of headaches. BTW, almost everyone I deal with is receiving government benefits, for what it’s worth. Again I’m rambling. I don’t even know if it’s relevant to the post anymore. I’ve been up for 24 hours, due to an inability to sleep before my extended shift , I’ve been pissed on, shit on and bled on, my chest is bruised from some dumb Fuck who though it was a good idea to take a pile of extasy *and* percoset… I better stop before I elaborate. Stupid freaking night.
Also he lost. Idiot.
0351 – paragraphs are your friend.
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I feel your pain 0351. Good content.
Fuck Llpoh.
Llpoh – I meant that in an endearing way :o)
taxslave – no problemo.
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@0351
— “BTW, almost everyone I deal with is receiving government benefits, for what it’s worth.”
That is why the numbers are increasing.
It’s a legitimate question to ask whether increasing their numbers is the real purpose of the programs, not compassion. If a person is of a religious bend, it might be described as ensuring there is as much “housing” for demons available on this planet as possible.
Just imagine how much of your productive energy is being spent sweeping sand off the porch in the desert.
Wow, the 2,886th article on the nazis. Southern sage is right again. The nazis are vanquished, finished, liquidated. And nationalism has been de facto outlawed since ww2. Do you like what you see as a result? Isn’t everyone happy that the communists won the war? Gee thank god the evil nazis were killed off. Think of what the world would be like if they had won, a total nightmare no doubt. Europe would be a white only continent. The horror of it.
Gee I wonder who ran the Cheka, the NKVD, the soviet gulags, etc. Who ran the Stasi? Who killed the Russian royal family? Who killed tens of millions of Russian Christians? What ethnicity are the Castro brothers in Cuba, who run a massive prison camp? You have your answer.
Tim, regarding your story about the German valve manufacturer, could you cite the source? From what I’ve read, there were 3 to 4 million holocau$t(tm) survivors. Wow, that’s some serious lack of efficiency on the part of the evil Germans, the most efficient people in all of human history. Wouldn’t it be easier to just shoot them in the head or starve them to death, instead of jamming them in gas chambers? I guess not.
In any case, please point out Hitler’s orders to liquidate European Jews. Because I haven’t found them yet. Neither has anyone else.
We have asked law enforcement officers to become tax agents of the state. The day will shortly arrive when technology will be capable of issuing traffic summons.
Sorry about that guys, I didn’t think about the paragraphs. I also may have had an after-work beer or two yesterday…. Thanks for the kind words tax-slave and T4C.
What I was really trying to get at is that there are many fields of work that distance people from the “normal” populace. In the military, you have people often living isolated from the general population, and engaging in activities that most folks don’t understand. The second part applies to law enforcement, and medical services, though in different ways. Additionally, many people in those work fields, especially the military, have family traditions of this. This can develop into people having different loyalties and identifying with a group other than the main population.
That’s why I’ve always felt it important that military, law enforcement etc. engage in as many wider-community activities as possible. Developing a separate group identify from the general population is exceedingly useful for special operations personnel in combat environments. It is dangerous though when there aren’t very specific and detailed rules on interactions between that separate group and the general population. I think this plays into why in so many situations of civil unrest, military and law enforcement personnel so easily engage in oppression and atrocities, sometimes aided and abetted by medical personnel (nazis). They have already developed partially or entirely separate group identies due to their daily work and the ongoing failure of leadership to involve them with the rest of the populace.
This is actually why I partially disagree with stressing the “sheepdog” mindset. Law enforcement and most of the military should identify as members of the wider population with extra duties, unless (like some special ops communities, the Marine Corps, etc.) they can also include a loyalty to the other group in their own identities.
I’ll stop running my suck now I swear…
Hi 0351,
Thank you for reading TBP and contributing. I hope you are able to positively influence those of your colleagues that go over the line.
@ Archie – “Tim, regarding your story about the German valve manufacturer, could you cite the source?”
It’s just a story. An example to demonstrate a point.
Hang in there, brother!
Tim, thanks, will do!