, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers, may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual state. In a single state, if the persons intrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair. The usurpers, clothed with the forms of legal authority, can too often crush the opposition in embryo.
This is why we haev a 2nd Amendment - to allow the people to protect themselves from a Government gone wrong. Rather sad that Mr. 2nd Amendment, Charlton Heston, so clearly misunderstood the 2nd Amendment.
And let us not seriously consider the words of James Madison in Federalist 46.
That the people and the States should, for a sufficient period of time, elect an uninterupted succession of men ready to betray both; that the traitors should, throughout this period, uniformly and systematically pursue some fixed plan for the extension of the military establishment; that the governments and the people of the States should silently and patiently behold the gathering storm, and continue to supply the materials, until it should be prepared to burst on their own heads, must appear to every one more like the incoherent dreams of a delirious jealousy, or the misjudged exaggerations of a counterfeit zeal, than like the sober apprehensions of genuine patriotism.
Extravagant as the supposition is, let it however be made.
Extravagant a suggestion as it is - let it be made. Outrageous though it may be - let it be said. Infuriating and Offensive it is - but let it be heard.
For only if we continue to openly speak our minds and express even our most outrageous concerns, to redress our deepest grievances with our government may we yet stave of that extravagant last ditch effort, having nothing left but our courage and dispair to save our country from itself.
Amen.
I've sometimes wondered, in all seriousness, if the tendency for some Americans to react with such shock and horror to incendiary comments which have a perfectly reasonable basis in fact might just because it hits far too close to the bone. It's like we have our own national Toxic Shame.
Toxic shame, the shame that binds you, is experienced as the all pervasive sense that I am flawed and defective as a human being. Toxic shame is no longer an emotion that signals our limits, it is a state of being, a core identity. Toxic shame gives you a sense of worthlessness, a sense of failing and falling short as a human being. Toxic shame is a rupture of the self with the self.
Toxic Shame is like a viral infection of the soul. Unlike normal, healthy shame where you understand your limits and responsibilities - Toxic Shame is a deep humiliation, one that's goes right to the core of your being and existence. It is the mistake you can not undo, the stain that can't be washed out - the permanent flaw in your creation. It's a conflict that caint be reconcilled, a wound that can't be healed unless those people come to realize that what you do, and what you ARE - are two different things.
People make mistakes, Governments make mistakes - but they themselves aren't the mistake. They react like a Patriotism-Addict, who will lash out as soon as anyone tries to pull the Flag-Juice Ripple from their lips. People that can't take criticism of America, react in irrational outburst of outrage because they are hiding their own seated deep toxic shame, shame that they've tried to drown in flag-pins and rabid gingoism, hiding even from themselves that they know deep down that the criticism is not only true - bit that, in their own warped obsessive view, it can never be fixed.
They like to pretend that America is "Perfect as it is", but in truth they think, somewhere in their subconscious, that people need to stop complaining because it can never be any different. It can never get any better.
But it can be fixed. We can heal this nation in so many, many ways. We can move forward and closer to the promise of A More Prefect Union if if we can just stand to address the issues truthfully, painful though that will be. But we can't do that yet, the last few weeks have clearly shown that America isn't ready.
Now is not the time.
But soon, soon America needs to have a frank, honest, brutal Intervention. Just like all other addicts, we need learn to accept ourselves, flaws and all. We need to have the solice and wisdom to recognize what we can't change, and the courage to change what we can.
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