“…in general people who decide to stand up to the government with a firearm usually end up as a stain,….”
Sociologist, Max Weber famously wrote about the good, the bad and the ugly facets of bureaucracies. He saw them as a necessary evil that needed to be kept in check. He feared a technocratic dictatorship of Nietzchean Last Men. Weber’s argument is described below.
Iron cage, a sociological concept introduced by Max Weber, refers to the increased rationalization inherent in social life, particularly in Western capitalist societies. The “iron cage” thus traps individuals in systems based purely on teleological efficiency, rational calculation and control. Weber also described the bureaucratization of social order as “the polar night of icy darkness”.
Caesarism describes the trend of a Democracy voluntarily resigning its freedoms in return for the promised safety of a perceived benevolent dictator. In its extreme form (Bonapartism), Caesarism involves an actual dictator assuming power over a Republic with popular support. In less severe manifestations, the public elects and encourages a legislature to appropriate greater power and restrict individual freedom in response to some concern or threat that frightens the majority of the people. This less pernicious form of Caesarism accurately describes the current trajectory of American politics and could well become the hallmark of President Obama’s second term in office.
We see this in Congressional legislation such as the successful FISA Amendments Act which renewed the right of law enforcement to continue warrantless wiretapping of phone conversations from the US to foreign countries. The less successful Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would have significantly curtailed the 1st Amendment Rights of website operators by repealing the “safe harbor” provisions of the DMCA.
Other means of individual protection from the leviathan have come under sustained recent assault. Sen Diane Feinstein has opted to sponsor a major Gun-Control Bill that her website describes in the following detail.
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Bans the sale, transfer, importation, or manufacturing of:
o 120 specifically-named firearms;
o Certain other semiautomatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one or more military characteristics; and
o Semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds.
• Strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans by:
o Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test;
o Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test; and
o Banning firearms with “thumbhole stocks” and “bullet buttons” to address attempts to “work around” prior bans.
• Bans large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds.
• Protects legitimate hunters and the rights of existing gun owners by:
o Grandfathering weapons legally possessed on the date of enactment;
o Exempting over 900 specifically-named weapons used for hunting or sporting purposes; and
o Exempting antique, manually-operated, and permanently disabled weapons.
• Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act, to include:
o Background check of owner and any transferee;
o Type and serial number of the firearm;
o Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint;
o Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that possession would not violate State or local law; and
o Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration.
Thus it only part and parcel to the current trend towards Caesarism in Amerika to read that a New York Times editorial page hack wants to give up on the US Consititution. Andew Hyman (RS Diarist) gives us an excellent purview of why Louis Michael Seidman the author of the oily smarm piece, should be abandoned long before the US Consitution. Suffice it to say that only differences between this suggestion and Senator Feinstein’s or Congressman Smith’s grim transgressions against republicanism are in honesty and scope.
It seems that much of the powerful caste overdeterming policy and thought (if any) in Washington, DC does not trust you or I to act rationally when given the power to operate with free will. This is why taxes are going up and restrictions are being placed on privacy and gun ownership. A society where citizens are deprived of speech, firearms and money is a society where individuals are not allowed to choose freely. This has increasingly become the aim of modern progressivism.
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