A Note of Respect

I've recently blogged about the possibility of having to replace and/or secede from the existing government of the US. A while before that in a post on preparing for possible civil unrest I linked to a spectacular blog by the title of the Yeoman Farmer. Today I noticed a post there that I'd like to echo in regard to my positions political and societal.

The Yeoman Farmer makes note of a very good rule of thumb concerning troublesome laws: "if you don't like the rules in your state or your country, advocate for and work to change them --- but don't flaunt and break them unless you're being asked to do something immoral or unconscionable." I'd heartily agree, and as I do write from time to time about the need for a government better on levels that might be best achieved with a new Constitution I wish to add something on top of that.

Don't harm your fellow man to try to bring about more justice, freedom, or anything else good. It just doesn't work that way. On a more practical level, as noted in one of my recent posts, it is treason against the US to make war on it/them, so you lose a certain amount of your freedom to make your change if you go about it that way. On a purely moral level, it is absurd to claim you are protecting the good of man by hurting him. That's not to say that the new system's help to society must be flawless or it invalidates itself: anything better than the existing system will do in that respect; but you cannot free people by giving them a new government by force, nor make people safe by needless physical harm

I guess what I'm saying is, if I ever sound like a revolutionary, keep in mind both that I'm also a bit of a pacifist who would not approve of violent revolution unless the tyrant to be removed was directly inflicting worse violence (and directly inflicting does not mean merely implementing programs that have serious adverse consequences), and that I don't approve of disobeying the law when the law still applicably exists.