Anarchy -- Who is Really The Source?

by David L. Miner

Anarchy is a terrible thing if we listen to our contemporary media or our government. As a result of the powerful meanings subtly communicated by the media and our government, most of America has been deceived as to who or what is working toward anarchy. We have been deceived as to what should be done to save America from these groups. And we have been terribly deceived as to what must be done to save us from this supposedly horrible situation. We will attempt to examine the word and its emotional baggage in this article. In addition, we will take a close look at the primary cause of anarchy and see that the very government that so fears anarchy is the chief cause of it. In future articles, we will examine more closely exactly what the government is doing to stop anarchy, and what Americans should be doing to stop the government.

The first assumption about anarchy is that anarchy and rebellion are the same, or in some way connected. The dictionary tells us that anarchy is taken from the Greek word for no ruler and it means the absence of government, or a state of political unrest due to the absence of government. The media would have Americans believe that the group known as the Conservative or Right-Wing Movement hates government so much that it would bring about anarchy, and in so doing it would destroy America. Many books and articles have claimed that the Conservative or Right-Wing Movement is actively rebelling against laws and lawful authority just to bring about anarchy. The Conservative or Right-Wing Movement is regularly accused of being a “hate group” with a racial agenda, in addition to planning to resist or attack all forms of authority. No proof and almost no evidence are offered for these allegations. The media just expect Americans to accept the claims as truth and to move on from there. And most Americans do exactly that.

While these accusations may be true of some in the Conservative or Right-Wing Movement, these allegations are also true of some in every career or profession, in media leadership, in the Democratic Party, in Congress and the White House, and in your local church or synagogue. These comments are true of some in every large group or organization in history. But it is no more fair to accuse the Conservative or Right-Wing Movement of being anarchistic or bigoted than it would be fair to accuse any other large group of being anarchistic or bigoted. And when we say large group, we must point out that in a recent FBI report, the Conservative or Right-Wing Movement was estimated to be 125 million Americans strong.

First, the typical Conservative or Right-Wing does not want anarchy, nor does he/she have the power to bring anarchy about. No group inside America can bring about anarchy. The Conservative or Right-Wing Movement does not want the lack of government -- it wants a Constitutional form of government. It may be true that a Constitutional form of government is not what Congress or the current Administration wants, and that is why they fear the Conservative or Right-Wing Movement. But we do not hate government and we do not want it removed.

Second, the government itself is bringing about the very anarchy it so fears. Anarchy results from individuals deciding that disobedience of laws will result in little or no risk of punishment. Over time, this attitude results in the overall pattern of resisting all authority. With the federal government demonstrating a decided lack of enthusiasm for enforcing federal criminal laws, especially existing gun laws (unless, of course, if enforcement brings about the arrest and imprisonment of a Conservative or Right-Wing person!), then it must be stated that the federal government is at least partially responsible for the increasing state of anarchy we see all across America, and especially in some of our inner city areas. It is to be expected that individuals will disobey laws that they believe are not being enforced.

Another reason for anarchy comes when the government passes so many laws that the average law-abiding citizen cannot keep up with them, or else too many laws of the type which are perceived by the citizens to be control for the sake of control. Americans have buried deep in their historical genes the desire to be free. Even the most compliant and submissive American still longs to be free. This deep desire for freedom, when coupled with an overabundance of laws that don’t make sense but exist solely for the sake of control, can and does result in individuals simply choosing to ignore laws. This “Just Say No” attitude is becoming commonplace all through America, where normal people ignore speed limits, don’t buckle their seat belts, cheat on their income taxes, and rebel against government in hundreds of other ways, all the while believing that this is typical. The belief that “everybody does it” is a result of a wide-spread inner resistance to the increase in government laws and often petty controls that have been pouring out of our various legislative bodies government agencies at an ever-increasing rate over the past few years.

Anarchy is being more and more manifest in America, and it is not a result of the Conservative or Right-Wing Movement. Two hundred years ago when America had little in laws and had much in personal responsibility, we saw very little anarchy. People responded to social order because it was right. Now we see far too much anarchy.

Many of those who are participating in this individual resistance to government would never associate themselves with the Conservative or Right-Wing Movement. This common and general resistance, leading to increased anarchy, is a direct result of the government increasing their control over all Americans in a manner that just doesn’t feel right to most of us. We were meant for a better life than one fraught with concerns over which of many new laws is unknowingly broken today. We were meant to live free!

Yet this broad-based rebellion, which includes most Americans at least to some extent, is similar in many ways to those feelings of rebellion within the Conservative or Right-Wing Movement. The difference is the Conservative or Right-Wing Movement knows and understands where the real motivation toward anarchy comes from. We know that this anarchy comes from a government that almost totally ignores its Constitutional checks and balances, its limitations, and its lawful requirements. We know that God intended that all Americans should live free. We know that our central government has been dead set against that freedom for most of the last century. We know that when the government ignores the very Document that gives it life, that this same government is in great need of serious and perhaps severe medical services: surgery to cut away the diseased philosophies, diet to reduce its size and weight, physical therapy to help it work better in the areas it needs to function, and amputation to remove from it the agents and agencies that should never have been developed in the first place within this government.

We who call ourselves Conservative or Right-Wings do not want to eliminate our government, we just want it to be lawful, physically fit, and fully functional. And we will know our government is lawful, fit and functional, when it conforms to the only Document that defines and delegates its existence: the Constitution for the United States of America.

When one is born to better things, one tends to ignore that which is of little substance or importance or just plain wrong. Constitutional government is essential but of little day to day importance. It will be ignored by its Citizens as long as it maintains its legal limitations. But once it exceeds its limitations as established in the Constitution, then it will be ignored no longer. A bloated and out-of-control government will be changed by those Americans who care about the Constitution, and it will be resisted by those Americans who care only about their own convenience. Yet the actions of both groups will be described as anarchy by those who fear either.

"It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?" -- James Madison in Federalist Paper #62

"It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error." - U.S. Supreme Court in American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, at 442