Watching events unfold as the non-pandemic/pandemic worked its way across the fruited plain has been an eye-opening experience. For those of us who have been warning Americans that the Constitution is nothing but a paper barricade against tyranny, we are vindicated—but this is not a source of joy. Many years ago, I had a good friend who loved cigarettes and regardless of what I told him, he insisted I was wrong. He quit smoking cigarettes a few months before he died but it was no fun telling him, “I told you so!” The same is true vis-à-vis the loss of Constitutional liberty that has become the “new normal” in the United States.
What happened to the “land of the free and home of the brave?” For many years true Constitutionalists sadly recognized that the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution were null and void. As we warned, all such limitations on tyrannical government will be destroyed when Big Government deems it necessary. But why have Americans so quickly “rolled over” and allowed our liberties to be trampled upon?
It seems that Americans have fallen victim to the disease of “Expertitis.” To nullify all Constitutional restraints against tyranny, all the government has to do is parade before a frightened public one or more “experts” who will inform the gullible that it is “necessary” for public safety to forget about the Constitution. Most modern (20th and 21st century) tyrants have employed “experts” proclaiming the necessity of the moment to advance their nefarious design of trampling upon liberty. Therefore, let us look into the advice given by “experts” and the role of “necessity” in promoting tyranny.
When considering the advice of experts, one must be aware of the fact that experts are not God and they are dealing with only the facts known or presumed by them at that time—they are not endowed with unlimited or unquestionable knowledge. Around the year 77 AD, Pliny the Elder gave this advise for treating a patient bitten by a rabid dog: “When a person has been bitten by a mad dog, he may be preserved from hydrophobia by applying the ashes of a dog’s head to the wound. … or insert in the wound ashes of hairs from the tail of the dog that inflicted the bite.” Now you know where the term “Hair of the dog that bit you” came from. Pliny the Elder was one of Rome’s most respected and admired scholars, he was an expert—but experts can be wrong. When the Black Death was decimating Europe, many cures were advanced by experts. One of the most famous was the Bird-Beak mask. The mask was filled with flowers and other sweet-smelling objects in order to purify foul air which the experts said was the cause of the disease—but experts can be wrong. The mask supposedly offered protection from the deadly contagion—now where have I heard that before? During the 19th century experts advised bleeding a sick patient to rid the patient of “bad blood.” Until late in the 19th century, medical experts, embraced the theories of the well-respected Greek/Roman physician Galen, who followed the advice of Hippocrates, practiced bleeding—but experts can be wrong.
Yes, we are talking about ancient times not modern-day experts. Surely, our modern-day, science based, experts cannot be blinded to reality. Yet, during my fifty-five years in the health-care profession, I have seen a lot of “expert” advice proven wrong. In 1965 it was not uncommon for recovery room patients to be administered carbon dioxide in order to stimulate respiration. The experts noticed that when one is exposed to a high volume of carbon dioxide, they respond by increasing ventilation. Well, it was soon discovered that a patient recovering from a general anesthetic is not a candidate for carbon dioxide—the experts were wrong! Long before the system of arterial blood gas analysis became common, the experts informed the world that the way to treat a COPD patient in respiratory crisis was to administer as much oxygen as possible and a few milligrams of morphine. The struggling patient would “pink-up” (improved oxygen content in blood) and become calm; too often shortly thereafter they would die. All of this was being done per the advice of the experts—but experts can be wrong. The preceding is but a very small sample of what I have witnessed in fifty-five years as a health-care professional. The point is not that people were being willingly killed by experts but that even the most educated and up-to-date expert is not God!
With the advancement of science, new methods were discovered that added to the medical profession’s incomplete knowledge about how to treat patients. With improved knowledge, corrections were made in treatment. But no change can be made if we suffer from an unquestioning addiction to the advice of “experts” because, experts can be wrong. Remember, the experts said first that the corona virus is not a pandemic threat and then it was a pandemic threat. Experts said foreign travel should not be stopped, then they said it should. Experts said masks were not needed, now they say if you don’t wear one you are dangerous individual. Experts said that the best way to cut down on corona virus deaths was to lock-up everyone at home, now they tell us that this has caused an increase in corona cases. Experts told us that the corona virus lives for hours or days on any surface, now they tell us that is not true. Obviously, experts can be wrong!
Death due to corona virus is a sad reality for many individuals and families. Depending on whose statistics you use, the death rate from corona virus infection is less than one percent. If this is your family member or friend it is indeed sad but if we allow the “experts” to destroy the last few protections offered by the Constitution, that will be catastrophic for the current and future generations of Americans. Those who have desired the final destruction of the few liberties enjoyed by Americans have seized upon this crisis to finally gut what is left of the Constitution. As they are so wont to say, “Let no crisis go to waste.”
Here is how the final destruction works. Get an expert to pronounce a coming epic holocaust that can only be solved by immediate governmental action. Although said action will trample upon the Constitution it is proclaimed “necessary” in order to protect the people from an impending disaster. To calm the nerves of those citizens who still believe in the Constitution, the government will remind them that these most necessary orders and edicts are “temporary.” Beware of government when it tells you that it must employ “temporary” rules because they are “necessary.” John Milton, in Paradise Lost, warns about the use of “necessity” as a means of advancing devilish deeds: “So spake the fiend, and with necessity, the tyrant’s plea, excused his devilish deeds” [emphasis added].
Lincoln trampled upon the Constitution in the North because it was necessary to save the Union. Lincoln then waged barbaric war upon men, women, and childrenof the South and impoverished the South for 150 years after his death, because it was necessary to make America one nation. Today when the “powers that be” shut down free expression, arrest priests, pastors, and anyone daring to attend church services, and when they prevent once free citizens from working, it is said that it must be done because it is necessary. Where is the First Amendment? The sad reality is that the First Amendment is no more self-enforcing than the Tenth Amendment. Without REAL States’ Right there is no way to enforce any Rights of “we the people” against an all-powerful Federal Empire. But sadder still is the reality that most State governments are nothing but sycophants, toadies, or better yet, lap dogs of the Federal Empire. As General Lee pointed out, with the defeat of the South, Real States’ Rights were lost. As General Lee noted, America would become “aggressive abroad and despotic at home.” While most Southerners understand that the new post Appomattox Federal government had become aggressive abroad, they nevertheless have not fully embraced Lee’s prediction of a “despotic at home” United States government. A review of what has taken place as a result of the “necessary” measures taken by an all-powerful government should be a wake-up call to all Americans.
Since Appomattox, every Southern State is ruled by a bayonet constitution—remember this is what the native people of Hawaii called the constitution forced upon them after their legitimate government was overthrown by Yankee businessmen (see, ch. III, Yankee Empire: Aggressive Abroad and Despotic at Home, Kennedy, Shotwell Publishing). After Appomattox, the only state government and state constitution the South was allowed to have was one that paid homage and unquestioned allegiance to the indivisible Federal government. The post Appomattox state governments were not based upon the consent of the governed but upon coercion, i.e., bloody bayonets. Is it any wonder that no state has stood up to the Federal government and said: “No, you have gone too far”? The sad reality is that “government by the consent of the governed” does not exist in the United States. If Wisconsin desires to be free of the Federal government and its association with the rest of the United States, can it leave the union? The people’s consent be damned, as Lincoln pointed out it is necessary to trample upon the people’s right of government by the consent of the governed so the Union can be preserved! It should be obvious to everyone that “If you can’t leave, you are not free.”
Those of us who believe that liberty is more important for this and future generations than life itself, we have our work cut out for us. We often think that the problem is with the Federal government but as this pandemic demonstrates, the toadies of the Imperial Federal power are just as dangerous as their Big Brother handlers. To save liberty we must rethink how to go about forcing our state governments to kowtow to us rather than Big Brother in Washington. Once that has been accomplished, we must retake or replace the all-powerful indivisible Federal government. As a starter, I would suggest reading, Dixie Rising: Rules for Rebels. It’s late but not too late to save that little freedom upon which we now barely subsist before it too shall be taken from us.
There are three points being stressed herein. First, experts are not God, they have limited information and must act and react to newer information. Therefore, it is not an evil plot to question an expert and make him prove his theories. Second, be wary and cautious of politicians who declare that an otherwise detrimental act must be tolerated because of “necessity.” Third, be extremely leery of political leaders, who in combination with experts, use the necessity of the moment to cancel or otherwise nullify long-held Rights. The most fundamental rule in medicine is “First, do no harm.” The same rule must be applied and enforced upon our elected officials if freedom is to survive.
