Sunday, August 4, 2013

Crossing the Rubicon

When Julius Caesar marched on Rome with his legions, the Senate collectively exclaimed in shock. How could this happen? No Roman general had marched on Rome before. It was unprecedented. A direct attack on the Republic and the Constitution. It was blasphemy, treason. 

Of course, history reminds us that this was not really true. Caesar was not the first appointed dictator to turn on the Republic. Only a few decades ago, Sulla had marched on Rome as well and won handily. The purge that followed saw close to 10,000 anti-Sulla Romans massacred. The curious thing, not often seen in history, is that Sulla gave up his absolute powers and retired. Caesar, the embodiment of the hunger for power, would not make that mistake. The precedent had been set, and he would not waste it. 

It is also important to remember that when the Senate tried to correct this fatal error on the Ides of March, by slicing and dicing Caesar up on the Senate floor, they ignored the most basic tenet of life on this planet. Violence begets violence. Before they could claim the Republic restored, a civil war broke out between Marc Antony and Octavian, rendering the point of the assassination moot. Out of the ashes of Caesars pyre, was born the great Roman Empire, with Octavian transforming into the divine Emperor Augustus. 

For the next 400 years, the Senate tried in vain to go back to the Republic. But the dice as Caesar famously said, had been cast. Years later, senators loyal to the republican government conspired to kill the mad Caligula, who would become the first, but not the only, emperor to be assassinated. But the Praetorian Guard would choose the 'half-wit' Claudius as their next anointed one. And so it was, the power that had been unleashed, would not be reigned back in. Not until it had completely consumed the Empire, and the quaint idea of Republicanism with it. When the Empire finally dissolved in 476 AD, freedom and liberty were dangerous ideas, not to be trifled with. The stage had been set for the onset of the Dark Ages. The Roman experiment with democracy and a people's government had led to the greatest empire the world had ever seen. 

Flash forward 2000 years, and power seems to have lost none of its potency. The American experiment  in the republic and individual liberty has once again led to the most powerful government the world has ever seen. Rule of thumb seems to be, the smaller they start, the bigger they get. Just like with Caesar and the Senate, the US Congress today seems flummoxed by the NSA revelations. How could this happen under their watch? Has the surveillance state reached the point of no return? This of course ignores the fact that the power being abused was set in motion by the Congress itself, in the form of the Patriot Act a decade ago. Americans, like their Roman pleb counterparts, seem more interested in the bread and circus routine. They seem to forget that where power exists, it will be abused. For the longest time, conservatives challenged civil libertarians in finding Patriot Act abuse. Now that the abuse has been revealed, the public seems to be hiding behind the 'i have nothing to hide, so nothing to fear' sand of self-delusion. Liberals scoff at the apprehension behind the NDAA Indefinite Detention Act, safe behind their leader's assurance that he will never use it. Of course it is only a matter of time before the power that exists, shall find hands that are willing to abuse it. 

At the height of backlash against the NSA, things stand such - Snowden has been called a traitor by the highest ranking members of the Congress on both sides of the aisle, the Amash amendment seeking to end the NSA spying on citizens has been defeated, and other agencies like the FBI and the DEA, not wanting to be left behind, are seeking their own spying infrastructure, to rival the NSA. Meanwhile, Manning faces life in prison for uploading a video of American 'soldiers' gleefully cutting to ribbons unarmed men and children through what would look like a gaming console. As if to drive home the point, the Obama administration, that paragon of transparency, has persecuted whistle blowers under the Espionage Act seven times, more than all the previous Presidents combined since 1917. 

It may seem like we are on the verge of crossing the Rubicon once again, but like in the past, that too would be a misunderstanding of events. We have already done so. The public outrage over government overreach, whether in personal lives, or economic activity, or foreign policy, is decidedly anachronistic in nature. It is out of place, out of time. The Republic is dead, the emperors behind the curtains have become adept at pulling the strings, and the dice.....it was cast long ago.

The only question that now remains, is whether we will learn anything from history at all. Will we wait, till things fall apart completely, and we are forced to resort to violence and the irrationality of it. We must remember the Senators of Rome, who for centuries tried to overthrow the Empire through assassinations, never to succeed. We must remember the French revolution, led by the goddess of Liberty herself, only to pave way for Napoleon. How about the Russian revolution of the proletariat, that led to its own empire, and its eventual bankrupt collapse. Even the contemporary violent orchestrated overthrows in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt scream the same lessons. Violence is not the answer. We must don the cape of peace, in all aspects of our lives - personal, social and political. Economic peace (no coercion through taxation, no Fed distortions through price fixing of rates, zero support for warfare/welfare state, personal responsibility, charity, liberty). Social peace (no coercion through federal laws enforced by the State, let gay-rights drug-rights abortion-rights and other divisive social issues be decided at the most atomic community level, live and let live). Personal peace (in spite of our innate violence, never to give in to it, especially with children. violence begets violence). 

These are difficult choices to make. But make them we must. Only individual responsibility towards peace can turn us from the course we are on. Only a philosophical change in our mindset to shun violence and coercion in all its forms, State and Individual, can prevent the unmooring of our social fabric. We must abandon moral relativism, and stand strong for the defense of individual life, liberty and property. Only then can we break away from this gory pattern of history, the endless cyclical lust for power, and those few who seek and use it against the majority. 

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