Posted on 04/04/2002 12:47:08 PM PST by harpseal
It is, and really always has been, a head game.
I believe that you are saying to start from the top and go down rather than start at the bottom and go up.
I am duty-bound to suggest that anyone who thinks even halfway-seriously about the potential for armed revolution in the United States needs to read the last chapter in Jeff Snyder's powerful collection of RKBA essays, "Nation of Cowards".
This chapter is titled, "The Line in the Sand", and deals directly with the viability of such an occurrence. To quote from David Kopel's review:
"In the final chapter, "Revolution", Snyder considers whether revolution could be justified today. He answers in the negative, based on his assessment of the current American character. First, todays American character more like that of the revolutionary French than like that of America s Founding generation. Americans today are dependent on government and afraid of responsibility, and therefore unfit to make a new government.
Second, Snyder points to John Lockes observation that a revolution cannot succeed unless much of society agrees that radical change is necessary, and there is no such widespread belief in modern America."
The mention of John Locke's observation is taken from that worthy's "Second Treatise of Government", wherein he states that those who rebel with arms against a government, however tyrannical that government may in fact be, if the majority of it's citizens do not themselves feel the weight of the oppressor's boot, the rebels will be immediately and easily marginalized and defeated as mere malcontents, and will not garner the support of their fellow citizens. This sad fact cannot be overstated.
I cannot recommend this book more emphatically. You can purchase this book on the web HERE . The price is only $15 a copy and the book is a very quick and worthwhile read. Please note that I have no affiliation with the publisher or author of this book. My only motivation here is to inform and empower those of us who still know, honor, cherish and seek to protect our freedoms.
God knows, there's a terrible amount of work to be done there.
IMHO it would be almost impossible to get the entire armed forces of the USA actively involved in an action against a very large portion of the American populace. There would be divisions within the troops and leadership. Thus there would be at least two factions. Further, there would be two factions within most of law enforcement. There would be some who would dearly love being part of units like the Chicago "CAGE" unit and there would be others who would provide information to those resisting.
In short the situation should it ever come down to our needing to see what good an Ameican handgun can do against an army in America is not going to be pretty in an sense of the word. I note that such an army would perforce not be an army primarily of American citizens as they would be notoriously unreliable in killing their own families and neighbors.
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
Perhaps just as effective, in terms of psychologically crippling a civilian leadership intent on imposing a tyranny, would be a credible threat to eliminate their families. Such a credible threat could paralyze the would-be tyrants even before they took any irreversible steps toward tyranny.
It is all an economic equation - raise the cost of anything too much, and no one is interested in buying. This is, in my view, the specific reason for the existence of the Second Amendment - to let future would-be tyrants know that the liberty-loving populace would be armed.
Besides, if they threaten the families of those who would resist the impostion of a tyranny (which they clearly do), well, there's always "collateral damage" on both sides in a war.
Molon Labe! Sic Semper Tyrannis!
Back then, it was called Treason against the King.
Today, we have Kongress; Treason against The Constitution.
Well if some lunatic would take a handgun and resist the U.S. maybe they would report back, I doubt it though.
Wrong question
Correct questions:
Your quote reflects the thinking of someone far wiser and more experienced in guerilla operations. Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia, when he was a mere leader in the resistance against the Germans in WW2, was asked "How will you fight the Germans, with their new tanks?" He responded:
"We will wait for them to get out of their new tanks to take a pi$$, and then shoot them with our old rifles."
The fact is we have absolutely no means of reliably mneasuring how oppressed people feel and what the distribution of that feeling of oppression really is. Elections provide some measure of this but sadly the vote fraud that is so widespread in many urban states makes accurate measurement impossible.
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
All too true. As part of my ongoing analysis into the mindset of my fellow Americans, I use everyday conversation with friends, associates, neighbors and people I meet as a guide. Letters to the editor in newspapers also help provide some insight as well. Overall, I have to agree with the consensus that the United States has never been more internally divided on the question of "What is Freedom?" since the first Civil War.
I truly fear for the future of our blessed Republic, and for the lives and fortunes of my family and the others I love.
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