University of Virginia Library

Power To Threaten

The government cannot prove
itself legitimate. It readily
recognizes the moral and ethical
motivation of its opponents (but
only as long as those opponents
present no real possibility of
removing the government from
power) but represses them
nevertheless. It allows them to
educate but not alter (i.e. it doesn't
matter how many Congressmen
want to change the Selective
Service system, as long as Mendel
Rivers and John Stennis head those
powerful committees the question
will never come to the floor for
debate.) The government demands
the right to write all the rules,
without realizing that that right
constitutionally belongs to the
citizens.

In the final analysis the present
government has the right to rule
only because it has the power to
threaten and intimidate its
constituents (read General
Hershey's classic pamphlet
"Channeling," then come back and
tell me I'm wrong), and the
willingness to murder them. As long
as the government rules by power
(i.e. behave or I'll kill you) it
remains illegitimate, and sometime
soon we may have to resurrect the
operational definitions our
forefathers found legitimate.