Larken Rose - The Long Run

From : 861-list-owner@mail-list.com
Sent : Sunday, March 4, 2007 1:50 PM
To : dkenline@hotmail.com
Subject : The Long Run

Dear Subscriber,

When combatting a current and ongoing
injustice, it's easy to get impatient. I know I do. Every day that
someone is wrongfully imprisoned, every day that the IRS is
terrorizing someone, ruining someone's life, swiping someone's bank
account, etc., is a day too many. And it was my desperation to end
that, not some day in the distant future, but NOW, which led me to
invite the government to prosecute me. And when I lost--when twelve
(presumably) randomly-selected Americans gave their blessing to the
government's vilification and intimidation tactics--when, with
their verdict, they declared that us peasants have no business
looking at the law, and that it is a mortal sin for us to ever
disbelieve a federal bureaucrat who makes an assertion (however
ignorant the bureaucrat and however bogus the assertion)--it was a
huge letdown for a lot of people. It was an opportunity lost, which
could have been a giant leap towards ending the largest financial
fraud in history. Instead, it was a leap backwards, giving the feds
another trophy for their mantle-piece; another example to point to
and say, "If you don't blindly believe us and do as you're told
(and ignore all those pesky statutes and regulations and stuff),
here's what will happen to you." (And by the way, for those who
have asked, I never expected the government or the courts to follow
the law or provide justice; I did, however, have a shred of hope
that a jury of "normal" folk might be able to see the bleeding
obvious, and do the right thing. Apparently not.)

All things
considered, it's easy (and tempting) to sit around wallowing in
discouragement, depression, frustration, anger, and so on--and I've
done my share of that in the last year. But there's some good news
as well. Let's do a flashback to something that happened 335 years
(and two days) before I was born. There was this dude who was
saying stuff that the authorities of the day couldn't refute, but
really didn't like. And so, as people with power often do, they
decided to use the time-honored "debating" method of using brute
force, locking the guy up and threatening to do nasty things to
him, if he didn't stop contradicting their official doctrine.
Eventually their thuggery paid off, and the dude wrote this (not in
English, though):

"I, Galileo, son of the late Vincenzo Galilei,
Florentine, aged seventy years, arraigned personally before this
tribunal, and kneeling before you, Most Eminent and Reverend Lord
Cardinals, Inquisitors-General against heretical depravity
throughout the entire Christian commonwealth, having before my eyes
and touching with my hands, the Holy Gospels, swear that I have
always believed, do believe, and by God's help will in the future
believe, all that is held, preached, and taught by the Holy
Catholic and Apostolic Church. But whereas -- after an injunction
had been judicially intimated to me by this Holy Office, to the
effect that I must altogether abandon the false opinion that the
sun is the center of the world and immovable, and that the earth is
not the center of the world, and moves, and that I must not hold,
defend, or teach in any way whatsoever, verbally or in writing, the
said false doctrine, and after it had been notified to me that the
said doctrine was contrary to Holy Scripture -- I wrote and printed
a book in which I discuss this new doctrine already condemned, and
adduce arguments of great cogency in its favor, without presenting
any solution of these, and for this reason I have been pronounced
by the Holy Office to be vehemently suspected of heresy, that is to
say, of having held and believed that the Sun is the center of the
world and immovable, and that the earth is not the center and
moves."

I find it particularly amusing that he "confessed" to
giving "arguments of great cogency" for the earth orbiting the sun,
without giving any compelling contrary arguments (since none
exist). Sounds familiar. Anyway, that Galileo dude went on to
declare "with sincere heart and unfeigned faith" (under threat of
punishment) that he was wrong, that he was really, really sorry,
and he swore that in the future he would never again suggest or
teach that the earth moves, and that it goes around the sun.

It's
tempting to think, based on that example, that not a whole lot has
changed with the way the world works: "authority" declares what
beliefs are acceptable, and terrorizes those who voice contrary
beliefs. (Who needs logic, evidence, and reason, when you have guns
and prisons?) That's not exactly encouraging. But here's something
else to consider: who won? Whose ideas prevailed? What became of
that dude's radical, ridiculous, heretical "theory"?

It became
the universally-accepted, undisputed truth. Despite all of the
threats, vilifications, and punishments dished out by those in
power, the truth won. It sometimes takes a long time (it only took
300 years for that particular authority to apologize to Galileo),
but the truth will ALWAYS outlast a lie in the long run. Why?
Because a lie requires an ongoing, perpetual effort to preserve it.
And once it falls, it's nearly impossible to revive. (Do you think
it will ever again be conventional wisdom that the sun goes around
the earth? Not likely.)

At my trial, the "authorities" didn't
bother to try to refute any of the evidence on which my "belief" is
based. They avoided the substance of the issue entirely, except for
a quick, provably flawed blurb which the prosecutor gave AFTER my
closing argument, knowing I would have no chance to respond.
(Incidentally, it was a blatant violation of the rules of court to
let the prosecutor advise the jury on what the law is, but the
judge let him do it anyway, while making sure I was prohibited from
doing so. As usual, I obeyed the rules, and they didn't.) The
prosecution knew they didn't have to deal with substance or logic.
They could declare "we TOLD him he was wrong," and to most people
(twelve in particular), that's good enough. The powers that be had
declared the accepted doctrine; who was I to doubt it?

But they
can't refute the evidence, and it's not going to go away. They
can't make it disappear, and they can't keep people from being
exposed to it. They can vilify people, slander people, threaten
people, rob people, imprison people--who knows, they may get around
to killing someone for this kind of heresy (Ed Brown comes to
mind). But intimidation and violence can never outlast evidence, or
keep it suppressed forever.

As long as people are being extorted,
vilified, persecuted, etc., I'm going to be impatient to see
justice happen. And I know the same is true of a lot of you. But,
if you need a little pick-me-up amongst the barrage of bad news
these days, here it is: it may not happen soon, but the truth will
always win. When it does, even if it's after I'm dead, I'll be glad
to have been on the right side. There are a lot of people in power
who now gloat, who history will remember as the lawless thugs and
tyrants they are. They cannot hold off the truth forever. As a
(fictional) radical extremist once put it, ideas are bulletproof.

Sincerely,


Larken Rose
www.larkenrose.com

(P.S. I managed to
lose the contact info for the couple who so graciously had a copy
of "V for Vendetta" sent to me. So I'll thank you in front of 6,000
people instead (right now), and hope you notice this.)
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