Our Duty of Non Compliance

In the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson stated that governments are instituted among men to secure their rights and they derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. The first crucial part of this is “just” powers, not simply “powers.” Just is an important qualifier because without it the majority of the governed could give their consent to anything and there would be the tyrannical mob rule of a democracy. 

The just power of government is confined to the protection of rights, it is an extension of the individual's right to self defense. When government officials act in ways beyond this limitation, when they take from one to give to another, when they silence opposition and disarm the people, when they defraud and steal, they are no longer exercising just powers.

“Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.” Unknown

We cannot deny our natural rights, we cannot surrender them, they belong to us and no one has the right to violate them. It is illogical and immoral for us to give our consent to the exercise of unjust powers by our government. Nor can our parents or grandparents sell us into slavery by allowing usurpations of legitimate authority. Yet illegitimate and unconstitutional authority is wielded against us all the time.

Did you consent to have your hard earned money stolen to pay for worthless studies or offensive art? To pay off terrorist states like Iran or mismanaged banks? To subsidize drug use or laziness? Did you consent to be spied on, to have the government collect every shred of information it can on you? Did you consent to have your right to self protection redefined, regulated, and in too many cases, prohibited? Did you consent to laws that allow the government to seize your property without cause or conviction? Did you consent to to have your right to free association ignored? Did you consent to have the rights to free speech, assembly, or religion violated?

I didn't, I don't think you did and even so, to consent to such vile and villainous actions is to deny our essential humanity. So what? So we didn't consent. Yet every day we grant our consent, perhaps reluctantly, by complying with each and every illegal and immoral dictate that comes down to us from our masters. We may whine, we may complain, we may work to change things but ultimately, we buckle under, we bow down and lick the boots of our masters and we lose our essential humanity. We are clay in the hands of the socialist, beast of burden for the despot.

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom-go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!” Samuel Adams

There is only one way to change this and that is by withdrawing our consent. But that is not just words, it is not a simple intellectual exercise. Without action it is useless. It requires non-compliance, it demands defiance, it is a refusal to participate in an illegitimate system. Asserting our humanity in the face of tyranny is an act of courage. Men and women thought history have mustered that courage and we gaze upon them as great heroes, and so they are. The question is, will future generations look upon us the same way? How will posterity see you?

“The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It would bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation-enlightened as it is-if we should suffer it be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by designing men.” Samuel Adams