Joe Slack of The Billy Eli Band looses his grip on sanity, lets himself be pushed over his edge, and then into his own abyss of violence against IRS.Like Slack, we all have our own edge, our own abyss, and we have a common edge, the common abyss of our species.
The difference is that most folks are able to put up a good fight against madness, even though our government is not doing that very well these daze, and has gone over the edge itself.
Way over the edge
This blog is all about resisting the toxins of power that seep into government, then come upon us through government madness, but doing it with free speech and petitions to the government.
Resisting the toxins, not giving in to them, is the way of healing.
It is our patriotic duty to say ouch when we do not like government action, to protest, to try to vote the madness out of office; thus, to try to heal the government when it gets sick, so that citizens like Joe Slack do not loose the struggle and go off into madness as a result.
Joe Slack stopped treating the infected government as if it were a disease, and in his mind began to treat it as an evil personal attack by other fellow citizens upon him personally.
That is not real.
The IRS employees he could have killed are doing their jobs, following regulations, and following statutes.
When they don't, the remedy is the court system, appeals, and complaints to government:
The right to sue and defend in the courts is the alternative of force. In an organized society it is the right conservative of all other rights, and lies at the foundation of orderly government. It is one of the highest and most essential privileges of citizenship, and must be allowed by each state to the citizens of all other states to the precise extent that it is allowed to its own citizens. Equality of treatment in this respect is not left to depend upon comity between the states, but is granted and protected by the Federal Constitution.(Chambers v. Baltimore & O. R. Co., 207 U.S. 142, 148, emphasis added). We have an obligation to heal one another with our laws and with reason; we all must be doctors and nurses in that sense.
Stay in the sense, avoid the toxins, and avoid the nonsense, as we try to fix our broken government.
By all accounts so far a pretty "normal" guy. Middle class, educated, and engaged with the world; no isolated, embittered, religious fundamentalist here. When the Joe Stack's of this world start going over the edge, it's probably time to sit up and take notice.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately as his suicide note said, "I have no doubt that it will continue to be anything but business as usual." That kind of says it all right there IMO. The machine is bigger than us all, and you can fight it all you like, but it AIN'T gonna change, at least not for the better.
He was right about that. Other than prompting the bureaucracy to spend millions of more dollars it doesn't have to enact even more stringent regulations to prevent acts that are largely unpreventable in a free society, his death will simply be old news in a week or so, and he will be simply dead and forgotten.
disaffected,
ReplyDelete"When the Joe Stack's of this world start going over the edge, it's probably time to sit up and take notice"
The black communities were driven over the edge some years back.
There are about 30 million unhappy Americans out there who have lost jobs, homes, health, and hope.
The government and the right wing are still playing with fire.
Yep, and the fundamentals for the next crash are already in place. That might increase their ranks two fold at least. There is going to be MUCH ugliness ahead. Fractured politics, a dysfunctional government, and a whole lot of hopeless people with a whole lot of time on their hands. Unfortunately for us, unlike the Soviet Union before us, Americans are not known for their stoicism. We're pretty damn demonstrative when we're pissed off, as was amply demonstrated yesterday. I think the congressional midterms are going to be TOTALLY ugly, and who knows where we're headed from there.
ReplyDeletedisaffected,
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
There is a world of experience going on, and the experience is opposite each other.
The elites like John McCain say "what economic problems" because of the wealth of their experience, but the poverty of the experience on the other side of the coin says "what jobs, what home, what health care, what hope".
That is a mix that only needs a slight spark.
The Joe Slack spark was miniscule compared to more serious hardships some are going through.
That is why I say there is a personal edge, a personal abyss each individual has.
So the government and the right wing are playing with fire when they think everyone has the same breaking point then base the election and policy on that illusion.
"It is our patriotic duty to say ouch when we do not like government action, to protest, to try to vote the madness out of office; thus, to try to heal the government when it gets sick, so that citizens like Joe Slack do not loose the struggle and go off into madness as a result."
ReplyDeleteHasn't this been our story for the last 200 + years?
At what level of violence and theft do we consider the government to be "healthy"?
"The IRS employees he could have killed are doing their jobs, following regulations, and following statutes."
Isn't this a restatement of the Nuremberg defense? "We were only following orders..."
Digger
Anonymous,
ReplyDelete"Hasn't this been our story for the last 200 + years?"
-Yes-
"At what level of violence and theft do we consider the government to be 'healthy'?"
-No wrongs by the government are healthy, but the proper reaction to individual wrongs is individual action against the employee who does the wrong.
In other words the individuals of the government who wrong us are not to be considered the whole.-
"Isn't this a restatement of the Nuremberg defense? 'We were only following orders ...'"
-The Nuremburg defense is based on war crimes and is not a valid defense. Title 26 of the U.S. Code has nothing to do with war. I get your point however.
I would say that when government reaches the point that there is no redress of grievances, then a mass boycott is a valid reaction until they comply.-
ABC news is reporting that Slack is considered a hero by an alarming number of people in this country who fancy themselves as patriots.
ReplyDeleteTheir actual allegiance is to violence, just like the military oriented government is.
Little brother follows Big Brother.
There are a lot of Joe Slack's out there. However he displayed the wrong action. It is true that he got the attention of the government and society in general, but so has the Tea Party - no violence there.
ReplyDeleteSomething has to be done. People are fed up with government, congress and Obama Spending.
Something has to be done. Something has to get the attention of the government.
Over 200 years ago - do you think King George would have been moved by talk, or government controlled court! No. It took blood and guts.
I do not condone that, but it is coming if things do not change.
No - that is not the proper solution and I do not encourage anyone to follow that pattern, but - it is an option when all other options fail.
Joe Slack was not a hero, but he was a Patriot.
Congress and our government are King George 250 years ago.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI generally take the position that government corruption is a sickness, not a moral problem, in the normal sense of the word.
An entire series dedicated to shining some light on the subject is done at the Toxins of Power blog.
We should make sure of the nature of the problem before we act.
Imagine a doctor punishing a patient because the patient is sick.
A mass boycott era would be good medicine if it is a toxin problem, but violence would strengthen the sickness if it is a toxin problem.