(In Part 1 of this article (https://steemit.com/anarchy/@larkenrose/constitutionalists-1-1-3-part-1-of-2) we looked at a couple ways in which the mythology about “the Founders” and the U.S. Constitution are downright false, and a betrayal of the true principles of liberty. We continue here with more examples.)
3 - “A legitimate constitutional republic just protects individual rights!”
This is a lie I remember unwittingly parroting quite a bit myself, back when I was still a statist. I’m embarrassed it took me so long to see how ridiculous such a claim is.
In any other context, the lunacy would be immediately apparent to anyone. Imagine a few of your neighbors telling you, “Hey, we got together and made an organization to protect your individual liberty!” Then, when you asked exactly what this pro-freedom, “protective” organization actually does, they informed you: “Well, we take some of your money (and hurt you if you resist), and control certain aspects of your life (and again, hurt you if you resist).”
To put it in the most simple terms, if some organization has the moral right to do things that you have no right to do—in other words, if it is allowed to do things that would be wrong if you did them—then it is automatically not just a protector. Anyone claiming to have “authority” over you (as “government” always does) is claiming the right to forcibly control you. As such, they are an oppressor, not a protector. And that leads nicely into another popular lie:
4 - “A constitutional government represents and serves the people!”
The notion that any ruling class (which is what “government” always is) would or could “serve” those it forcibly extorts and controls makes as much sense as saying that a slavemaster exists to serve his slaves. And it is equally absurd to say that a group of political rulers is “representing” the very people it violently dominates. The mythology about “government” being a “servant of the people” exists for one and only one purpose: to dupe the victims of authoritarian control into putting up with being treated like cattle based on the claim that they are being dominated and exploited “for their own good.”
5 - “The Constitution is why you have the freedoms you have!”
Again, this mythology is very popular, but provably false. The people living here had far more individual freedom when this place was a bunch of colonies under King George III than they do now. In fact, the U.S. Constitution itself created the most powerful authoritarian empire the world has ever known, with the most powerful standing army (which the Constitution itself forbids), and the most intrusive extortion racket in history (thanks to the taxing clause).
The Constitution created the very institution that violates the rights of Americans more than anyone or anything else, by a huge margin. So to say that it protects us is patently absurd. Furthermore, the Bill of Rights utterly and completed failed to limit the power and abuses of the ruling class. Other than maybe the Third Amendment (look it up), every single article in the “Bill of Rights” is violated every day, in every state in the union, by federal agents.
But what about the good ideas that were being tossed around back in the Revolutionary days? Surely there were useful and righteous concepts in there too, right? Absolutely. One of the biggest was this: “all men are created equal [and] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Of course, that was a rather drastically hypocritical thing for a bunch of slave-owners to say, but it still expressed an important truth. (Keep in mind, in the earlier drafts of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson—a hypocritical slave-owner himself—wanted to include a vicious yet righteous condemnation of the practice of slavery, but had to scrap that, mostly to make southern politicians happy.)
As it happens, that important truth—equality in terms of rights, and an inherent right of every person to be free—sums up voluntaryism pretty well, while also completely ruling out the possibility of legitimate, moral “government.” Unfortunately, few if any of the “Founders” seemed to realize that. (The closest may have been Thomas Paine, who said that “government” is, at best, a “necessary evil.”)
Another important concept, which closely ties in with the concept of inherent individual rights, is the right to disobey and even resist any who attempt to infringe on such rights, even if they call those infringements “law.” The Declaration itself was about as bold an example as there could be: a bunch of treasonous scofflaw rebels (which I say as a compliment) basically telling the king, “You’re not the boss of us anymore!”
“[R]ightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within the limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’; because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.” - Thomas Jefferson
Meanwhile, those who worship the Constitution usually continue to play the game of elections and petitions, hoping that will achieve freedom. In short, they have been tricked into playing a game that was made by, and for, the politicians, instead of doing what the Declaration suggests, by ignoring, disobeying and/or resisting the thugs and thieves who call their aggression “law.” The entire notion of “working within the system” serves only to keep the people forever enslaved, helpless and frustrated.
More generally, to respect the Constitution necessarily means you have to respect the imaginary “authority” that it pretended to create, and the ruling class that wields that pretend “authority.” In short, to believe in the legitimacy of the Constitution is to be a slave, in mind and body.
So in conclusion, yes, there were important and profound philosophical principles expressed by some of “the Founders” back in the late 1700’s, but there was also a bunch of authoritarian bunk and opportunistic garbage. Even back then, all of the rational, moral principles were hijacked, twisted, mangled and shredded by opportunistic megalomaniacs. Just like they are today. And if we’re not able to look with open eyes, and sort the wheat from the chaff, even when it comes to the precious “Founders” and their precious scribbles on parchment, then we’re just being mindless adherents of one more flawed set of blind faith dogma.
But to those still determined to deify all of “the Founders” (despite their rather zealous disagreements with each other), and still unwilling to admit the glaring hypocrisy and contradictions in much of what “the Founders” said and did back then, and still unwilling to view the Constitution as anything other than some divine, infallible, sacred text, I will leave you with a quote from one of the most famous and revered “Founders,” basically telling you, “cut that crap out!”:
“Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment ... But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times.” - Thomas Jefferson
(Larken Rose is a speaker, author and activist, having advocated the principles of non-aggression, self-ownership and a stateless, voluntary society for over twenty years. Donations to help support his articles, videos and other projects can be made by PayPal to "larken@larkenrose.com" or by Bitcoin to 13xVLRidonzTHeJCUPZDaFH6dar3UTx5js.)