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Without Government,
Terrorism Has No Justification

By Punkerslut

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Start Date: November 25, 2009
Finish Date: November 25, 2009

"And hence it is evident that absolute monarchy, which by some men is counted for the only government in the world, is indeed inconsistent with civil society, and so can be not form of civil government at all. For the end of civil society being to avoid and remedy those inconveniences of the state of Nature which necessarily follow from every man's being judge in his own case, by setting up a known authority to which every one of that society may appeal upon any injury received, or controversy that may arise, and which every one of the society ought to obey."
          --John Locke, 1690
          "Second Treatise on Government," Chapter 7

     The entire purpose of government is the establishment of peace and order in society. It organizes itself with the principle of authority, but with the end of a healthy society. The state establishes itself as the judge of the social order. It passes laws, renders verdicts, and imprisons the guilty, in fulfilling its role as a common judge.

     Government is an entity to which all can appeal, can have their case listened to, and can be given justice -- from any other entity in society. This prevents the disaster that occurs when individuals attempt to defend their rights on their own. They either are overbearing and harsh on their victims, or too weak to overthrow a vicious victimizer. Government has established itself to fulfill this purpose.

     However, the state fails to fulfill this role regularly. It does not render verdicts in favor of justice, but in favor of some small, privileged minority. In one country, it may be a particular class, in another, it could be a specific race. In police brutality cases, we have ample incidents of a police officer commit murder without being charged. We have seen the imprisonment of members of the gay community, of civil rights leaders, of union picketers, of every oppressed and exploited class. The state, as a common judge, has not rendered justice; it has rendered injustice.

     Once a government has made its position, it is often too proud to turn back, until the masters must fear for their own lives. The victimized, who has been robbed, imprisoned, and tortured, has no appeal. They cannot ask for justice through their own means, because don't have the means. And if they attempted to just steal back their rights, they would face harsher imprisonment. All sense of justice begins and ends with the state. They have no other recourse, but to submit, to be mastered, to be brutalized by some vicious tyrant -- and now, with the will of the government, this can all be sanctioned with the governor's blessings.

"That whereas, in the ordinary state of Nature, he [the individual] has a liberty to judge of his right, according to the best of his power to maintain it; but whenever his property is invaded by the will and order of his monarch, he has not only no appeal, as those in society ought to have, but, as if he were degraded from the common state of rational creatures, is denied a liberty to judge of, or defend his right, and so is exposed to all the misery and inconveniencies that a man can fear from one, who being in the unrestrained state of Nature, is yet corrupted with flattery and armed with power."
          --John Locke, 1690
          "Second Treatise on Government," Chapter 7

     Right, not Might! That has been the rule of the representative government philosophers. But the laws are not made by the people, they are made by corporate-supported candidates. They are made by special-interest lobbying groups, funded by the few and the privileged. But instead, we have found government to be imposing only might. It does not base itself on premises of justice, equality, or happiness. It bases itself on the dollar -- on the investment of some privileged caste or minority.

     What can the victimized individual do? They have been robbed and exploited by some plunderer. This has been the position of the African American and Native American in the United States, by the common people in South American nations, by the Palestinians in the Middle East, and by the Jews all over the world. They have each been violently controlled by some powerful authority, for their own personal interest, and defended on the grounds of "Heritage, God, Country!"

     After being exploited, the courts, the legislature, and the highest leader all condone the actions. The governors all submit before the great cruelty and misery. They pass laws that give it power, take away rights from the oppressed, and provide police and military to suppress revolt.

     We have been wronged, and we have no grievance against our wrong -- and, in fact, this wrong is inflicted on us daily, or weekly. Like border checks to see our families, like narrow-minded media that perverts the truth, like prisons and prisons of dissidents. The oppressed individual has made their grievance, and they have been ignored.

"But if they who say it lays a foundation for rebellion mean that it may occasion civil wars or intestine broils to tell the people they are absolved from obedience when illegal attempts are made upon their liberties or properties, and may oppose the unlawful violence of those who were their magistrates when they invade their properties, contrary to the trust put in them, and that, therefore, this doctrine is not to be allowed, being so destructive to the peace of the world; they may as well say, upon the same ground, that honest men may not oppose robbers or pirates, because this may occasion disorder or bloodshed. If any mischief come in such cases, it is not to be charged upon him who defends his own right, but on him that invades his neighbour's. If the innocent honest man must quietly quit all he has for peace sake to him who will lay violent hands upon it, I desire it may be considered what kind of a peace there will be in the world which consists only in violence and rapine, and which is to be maintained only for the benefit of robbers and oppressors. Who would not think it an admirable peace betwixt the mighty and the mean, when the lamb, without resistance, yielded his throat to be torn by the imperious wolf?"
          --John Locke, 1690
          "Second Treatise on Government," Chapter 19

     For the majority of people, they swallow the pain, even if temporarily, but it swells and grows. It reaches throughout their body, touching their mind, exercising their heart, and putting their motion into action. They will enter and withdraw the field of resistance where it becomes beneficial for their people. In mass protests, demonstrations, riots, strikes, and even armed resistance -- it springs from human passion, but it relies on sense.

     Then there are a few, just a very few, who cannot wait for the others. They cannot wait for the masses to rise up against the oppressor. The truth burns in their heart, and their mind cannot be held back. They must strike, and they must strike hard. This is the ideology of the terrorist.

     Because all of society has submitted to one mass authority that sustains tyranny, the terrorist is justified. They cannot appeal to the government to look over their claims of exploitation -- they are ignored. They cannot write and publish their claims, because the media and the media companies are controlled by their oppressors. There is no option. There is only the option of bombs, guns, and violence. This is what the terrorist believes. It is not inherent to humanity -- it comes with government.

     The terrorist is not born from humanity; they are made by humanity's conditions. Terrorism, or the willingness to slaughter human life to advance a cause, is not a natural part of our nervous system. It is a painful subject, which the mind approaches where it is full of hate, and no release. No release, because there is not a fair listening to grievances. It has been the universal promise of all governments, and likewise, their universal failure.

     Without laws and police, without governments and militaries, the terrorist has no justification. Every human being, relying on their own methods, would at least be able to attempt to resolve their claims. But under a state of government, the individual must submit to the rule of their master. They have no option, but to be outforced. And so guerrilla warfare becomes the tactic.

     For all that is said against terrorists, and the evil they have caused, not a drop is said about the conditions that have made them. If the conditions were mentioned, then the blame would fall on those who created the conditions -- some privileged, wealthy class. The Capitalists in the West, the sheiks in the Middle East, and the upper-Caste in India. Those who forcefully make society's injustices make those who violently seek society's justice. This is the first rule of terrorism.

"The ignorant mass looks upon the man who makes a violent protest against our social and economic iniquities as upon a wild beast, a cruel, heartless monster, whose joy it is to destroy life and bathe in blood; or at best, as upon an irresponsible lunatic. Yet nothing is further from the truth. As a matter of fact, those who have studied the character and personality of these men, or who have come in close contact with them, are agreed that it is their super-sensitiveness to the wrong and injustice surrounding them which compels them to pay the toll of our social crimes. The most noted writers and poets, discussing the psychology of political offenders, have paid them the highest tribute. Could anyone assume that these men had advised violence, or even approved of the acts? Certainly not. Theirs was the attitude of the social student, of the man who knows that beyond every violent act there is a vital cause."
          --Emma Goldman, 1911
          "The Psychology of Political Violence"

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