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John Locke: On the Dissolution of Government (II) (June 2016)
ArticleVBlog ^ | June 21st 2016 | Rodney Dodsworth

Posted on 02/06/2021 3:21:33 PM PST by Jacquerie

In view of the increasing failures of national, state, local government from San Jose, CA to Sweden to protect their citizens from thugs, both secular and religious, where do innocent people turn when the institutions designed to serve the community fail to do so, or worse, actually turn against the people?

From my last post, John Locke explained in Chapter XIX of his Second Treatise, the legislative power, or, simply the legislative, granted by society to government is the essence of republicanism. When any force, from outside or within, alters the legislative, government is dissolved. Locke writes:

“When the legislative or executive act contrary to their trusts, government ceases, and is dissolved. The people are at liberty to provide for themselves by erecting a new legislature, differing from the old by change in persons or in form, as they believe best for their safety and good. Society can never lose the native and original right to preserve itself, which can only be done by a settled legislative, and a fair and impartial execution of the laws made by it.”

Yet, in the face of continued usurpations, he notes that “the greater part of the people are more disposed to suffer, than right themselves by resistance, and are not apt to stir.” If that sounds familiar, our Founders wrote, “All experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

Locke explains, “But the state of mankind is not so miserable that they are not capable of using this remedy until it be too late.” In other words, society does not have to wait until the boot of slavery is on their necks before they take action. Compare Locke to what our Founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” Men can never be secure from tyranny when there is no means to escape it. Therefore, they have not only a right to get out of tyranny but a duty to prevent it in the first place.

So, nations are apt to accept assaults on their liberty when they should actually fight back at every insult.

But what of those who say calling for rebellion in response to every alteration of the legislative sets the stage for continuous civil war? Locke countered that when the legislative is changed or the legislators act contrary to the end for which they were constituted, those responsible, not the people, are guilty of rebellion. They take away the arbitration which everyone consented to, for a peaceable framework to decide their controversies, and prevent war. When they who remove or change the legislative, they take away a decisive power which nobody but by the consent of the people can provide. By doing so, they introduce a State of War.

In the opening paragraph I asked, “Where do innocent people turn when the institutions designed to serve the community fail to do so, or worse, actually turn against the people?”

To this Locke replies, the innocent people must turn to society to decide whether or not their trustees or deputies act well, and according to the trust reposed in them. When miscarriages of power occur, authority is forfeited to the society, and the people have a right to conduct themselves as supreme, and continue the legislative in themselves or erect a new form, or put the old form in new hands as they think good.

The legislative of the United States has not only been horribly altered too many times to count, the executive of national, state and local governments increasingly make war on the people they swore to protect and serve. Every usurpation becomes precedent for the next. The grip of tyranny tightens every day. It is our sovereign duty in society with hundreds of millions of Americans to fight back. There is little time.


TOPICS: Government; History; Reference
KEYWORDS: articlev; johnlocke; stateofwar
We the People suffer from too few rather than too many Article V State Conventions.
1 posted on 02/06/2021 3:21:33 PM PST by Jacquerie
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To: Jacquerie

Next April 15. What if nobody paid their taxes until the late Howard Jarvis says so? We’ll find out who has the power.


2 posted on 02/06/2021 3:29:29 PM PST by DIRTYSECRET (1)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

The government will continue printing money with no actual backing as it’s done for decades. The entire world works on this revolving illusion that works only if we all agree with it.


3 posted on 02/06/2021 3:50:44 PM PST by MikelTackNailer (First Rule of Fraud Club is punish any talk about Fraud Club.)
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To: Jacquerie
But I'm totally down with this:

When miscarriages of power occur, authority is forfeited to the society, and the people have a right to conduct themselves as supreme, and continue the legislative in themselves or erect a new form, or put the old form in new hands as they think good.

As this last election was stolen and the figurehead is a corrupt senile pervert tool beholden to an enemy government we should seriously consider corrective action.

4 posted on 02/06/2021 3:59:53 PM PST by MikelTackNailer (First Rule of Fraud Club is punish any talk about Fraud Club.)
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To: Jacquerie

We need to pill together and do it, before itis too late. See tagline.


5 posted on 02/06/2021 4:06:29 PM PST by Basket_of_Deplorables (Convention Of States is our only hope now!)
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To: MikelTackNailer

Why down?

Our Declaration has similar wording.

The Framers provided a peaceful route. Society is to act via Article V.


6 posted on 02/06/2021 4:07:20 PM PST by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: Basket_of_Deplorables

Yep, theft of the Presidential election was the final outrage. Article V is our only recourse.


7 posted on 02/06/2021 4:12:08 PM PST by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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To: Jacquerie

https://librivox.org/two-treatises-of-civil-government-by-john-locke/


8 posted on 02/06/2021 5:09:50 PM PST by ProgressingAmerica (Public meetings are superior to newspapers)
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To: Jacquerie

“where do innocent people turn when the institutions designed to serve the community fail to do so, or worse, actually turn against the people?”

Local government. For all the fake huffing and puffing by the Nazi press about 10-foot-tall Rambos coming to get us, reality rules.

(Remember, one of the leftist Alinsky rules is to present yourself as bigger and stronger than you are.)

For example, the baby-killing FBI gestapo has about 2,500 field agents out of a 30,000 total membership, meaning that the FBI doesn’t have the manpower to confront a country-wide insurrection. The bulk of the FBI are paper pushers - fat, low-IQ bureaucrats.

So, what to do? First, elect a pro-2nd amendment, constitutional sheriff in your county. This sheriff has the legal and armed muscle to protect your community and families.

This sheriff is accountable to the people who elected him and is NOT accountable to some leftist mayor or governor.

I’m not revealing some new plan. The Founders left us blueprint to defeat tyranny. The above is a start.


9 posted on 02/06/2021 5:11:44 PM PST by sergeantdave (Federal courts no longer have any standing in America. )
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To: Jacquerie

Amen to the whole article text you posted here! :) And change the people in charge/etc., not the Bill of Rights nor Constitution. The Bill of Rights needs to be adhered to/followed first, then the rest of the Constitution.


10 posted on 02/07/2021 4:50:31 AM PST by Bill of Rights FIRST
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To: Bill of Rights FIRST

Our Lt. Governor in NC seems to be a genuinely good person for the people, etc. That is Rare in politics, etc. He needs to/better follow the Bill of Rights first though. We the People’s individual rights are supposed to be the Most Important/Supreme than any level of government.


11 posted on 02/07/2021 4:56:35 AM PST by Bill of Rights FIRST
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