Don't Do Anything "Rash"

I don't know about you, but some of my favorite Talk Show hosts, who are giving us the lowdown on the breakdown of everything we believe in, have, while exhorting us to "take our country back", have also been warning us not to do "anything rash".

This has seemed to me to be a confused message. While demonstrating beyond question that our government is totally out of control, that Obama, Congress and the Media are conspiring to destroy capitalism, shred the Constitution and create a Central STATE that rules our lives from cradle to grave, and presenting undeniable evidence that they are doing it with lies, empty promises, power grabs, false "mandates" and without citizen participation...Conservative Talkers have seeming told us not to do the one thing that may be necessary to "take our country back".

Here they were making it perfectly clear that our government no longer considers itself our servant, but our master...and that it is doing everything it can to futher strengthen its iron grip around our necks, confirming our sense that nothing we say makes the slightest difference to those in power, that despite what we want or what we demand, they will do precisely what they want, and lie to us about it to shut us up. We are to be taxed, silenced, dictated to, watched, regulated, and utterly disenfranchised.

And the Talkers are telling us not to do anything "rash". What the heck?

But I'd missed the point. I had assumed that "rash" meant "violent". But this morning I realized that violence isn't always "rash"...and "rash" isn't always violence.


"Rash" is the state of mind in which any action is taken or decision is made. It means taking an action or making a decision without applying good judgment, using logic, considering consequences. It means reacting emotionally, letting anger, frustration, fury, or rage precipitate action.

Violence can be "not rash" in one instance, and "rash" in another. And the perfect example of it is the contrast between the American Revolution and the French Revolution. The former resulted in a free Republic that won liberty, peace, prosperity because it was based on principles, reason, logic, truth and virtue. The latter resulted in a blood bath and tyranny because it was motivated by envy and rage and the very specific rejection of traditional virtues. (The Jacobins advertised that they esteemed "Reason"...but just like the Obama administration, they lied.)

American citizens are arming themselves. They are hoarding ammunition. There is a "feeling" in the nation that something wicked this way comes. And people are preparing for some very bad business. It could include violence.

The critical thing is that it not be "rash".

There is a case to be made for rebellion when the government goes rogue. But the nature of the rebellion is what's important. It must be based on principles and virtue. It must never be allowed to turn to rage and bloodlust. That's "rash". And would be the end of everything we hold dear.

So...I think I understand. Our friends and fellow Right Wingers understand, all too well, I think, because they've seen it coming longer than we have, that the situation is dire, and is getting worse every day, that there may come a time in the not too distant future when the fate of our country will depend on the people standing up...yes...with arms...and saying "no more!"

Never, even from the founding, as such a thing been "unthinkable". Thomas Jefferson warned us, not only in his famous quote, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants," but also in the very wording of one of our most sacred documents, The Declaration of Independence:

"...That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. "

Of course, violence is not necessarily required to accomplish this. But realistically, those in power rarely volunteer to relinquish their power when asked politely.

We cannot reject violence as inherently "rash". But we must never rashly engage in violence. Indeed we mustn't even consider it until every peaceful avenue of redress has been exhausted. And even then, we must be sure that we act from principle, not from rage.

We must be sure and strong in our principles, engrave them on our hearts, so that whatever comes we will do what's right, in the right way, and for the right reasons.

And never, ever do anything "rash".

The Gunslinger