Home > Work > The Iron Web
21 " The master doesn’t need to whip the obedient slaves, but that doesn’t mean those slaves are free. "
― Larken Rose , The Iron Web
22 " Not people in government. Most of them are fundamentally different beings. If you plead to them for mercy, that is what they live for. What they want is to have others groveling beneath them. Rather than wanting to help, they will prolong your fear and suffering just as long as they can, because it is your helplessness, and the power they can hold over you, that gives them their jollies. "
23 " But when it comes right down to it, every government is in the business of controlling and extorting the peasants. If you work for the system and get in the way of that agenda, you won’t be there for long. "
24 " realize how different the world looks to everyone else. They’re chatting about what to have for dinner, or what happened on some stupid TV show. They’ll never know. "
25 " You glorify people such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry,” the voice on the radio continued. “But have you ever read a word they said? They were all too authoritarian for my liking, but by today’s standards they were anti-government extremist terrorists. They advocated breaking the law. They said that when a government infringes on the rights of the individual, the people have a right and a duty to do whatever it takes, even if that means bloody revolution, to get rid of that government. "
26 " Land of the free and home of the brave?” came the voice from the radio. “Hardly. You are a nation of enslaved cowards, afraid to act, afraid even to think. You keep telling yourselves that you, the American people, are independent, strong, brave, and free. You are none of the above. "
27 " Jason leaned back against the cool wall, remembering the look of sadness on the other agent’s face whenever he spoke of Waco. "
28 " We used to stay up half the night discussing the greatness of the idea, and trying to figure out why it wasn't working in the real world. But we didn't really want to know, because it felt good to be part of a radical movement, and we didn't want to let go of it. We didn't want to look too hard at what we were actually advocating, which happened to be massive authoritarian violence disguised as compassion, and happened to be almost exactly the same as the system we were protesting. "
29 " There are a whole lot of people who have learned the hard way just how little our justice system cares about justice. The system cares about one thing, and one thing only: its own power. "
30 " Even the spectacle of having to choose between John McHitler and Barack Ostalin in 2008 wasn’t enough to shake the American people out of their blind faith in the cult of democracy. "
31 " The great Emancipation Proclamation, which I assume you’ve heard of, only declared slaves free in areas not controlled by the Union. It wasn’t a great victory for freedom; it was a military tactic, one used by lots of tyrants before Lincoln, including King George: tell your enemy’s slaves that if you win, they’ll be free. It’s a fine way to cause havoc on the other side, but it has nothing to do with principles. "
32 " Trying to clear things up, when people in power are constantly trying to confuse matters, is a tough job. There are so many levels of misunderstanding in most people’s minds, that it’s hard to even know where to begin. "
33 " You feel pride at being able to say you once shook a senator’s hand, or saw the President in person. Ah, yes, the grand deity himself, His Royal Highness, the President of the United States of America. You speak the title as if you’re referring to God Almighty. "
34 " You proclaim how proud you are to be ‘law-abiding citizens,’ and express utter contempt for anyone who considers himself above your so-called ‘laws,’ laws that are nothing more than the selfish whims of tyrants and thieves. "
35 " The truth of the matter, back then and today, is that these parasites who call themselves ‘leaders’ are not superior beings, they are not great men and women, they are not honorable, they’re not even average. "
36 " The upstanding, church-going, law-abiding, tax-paying citizen who votes Democrat or Republican is far more despicable, and a bigger threat to humanity, than the most promiscuous, lazy, drug-snorting hippie. Why? Because the hippie is willing to let others be free, and the voter is not. "
37 " You have become so thoroughly indoctrinated into the cult of state-worship that you are truly shocked when the occasional sane person states the bleeding obvious: the mere fact that the political crooks wrote something down and declared their threats to be ‘law’ does not mean that any human being anywhere has the slightest moral obligation to obey. Every moment of every day, in every location and every situation, you have a moral obligation to do what you deem to be right, not what some delusional bloated windbag says is ‘legal.’ And that requires you to first determine right and wrong for yourself—a responsibility you spend much time and effort trying to dodge. "
38 " Throughout history, the perpetual suffering and injustice, occurring on an incomprehensible scale—it was all because of people just like you: the well-trained, thoroughly indoctrinated conformists, the people who do as they’re told, who proudly bow to their masters, who follow the crowd, believing what everyone else believes and thinking whatever authority tells them to think. That is you. "
39 " You proudly support the troops as they kill whomever the liars in D.C. tell them to kill, and you feel good about it. "
40 " But his nationalism and pack mentality—and most of all, his unshakable faith in authority—rendered him blind to the evil he was committing. It’s the same with every army, and every cop. Above all else, they take pride in their ability to obey without question, as if it’s a virtue instead of the most heinous sin a person can commit. "