St Joseph's Day Reflections For Anti-Statists

 by Joe Siano

 

March 19 is the feast day of my namesake St. Joseph.

St. Joe is the quiet man of Scripture.  He never says a word.  Yet his story and that of his adopted son speak volumes about the dangers and failings of the State.

The Busybody State & The Road to Bethlehem (Luke 2: 1 5)

Information is power.  As always, the State demands to know everything about everybody.  Thus, Caesar declared a census that compelled Joseph and his nine-month pregnant wife, Mary, to take a harsh four day journey, at their own expense, to enroll and be counted.

Never mind that the God of the Jews forbade any government-initiated counting of his people.  The State cares little for the laws and precepts of any faith.  Its law is supreme.

An Enemy of the State – The Newborn King (Matthew 2: 1-4)

King Herod was a practicing Jew, awaiting the long-anticipated Messiah.  Yet, he was none too pleased to hear that the heir to David’s throne, the rightful King of the Jews, might arrive on his watch.  Herod plotted to terminate new King’s reign before it began.  With extreme prejudice.

Deception, Lies and Mass Murder (Matthew 2: 7 & 13-18)

Herod’s plot to crush his infant rival was to trick the Magi into identifying the baby to him “so that I too may go and worship him”.  Herod’s true agenda was “to search for the child to kill him.”  Power is a false god that demands blood sacrifice..

The Wise Men got wise to Herod’s chicanery and left town before he knew it.  Not being one to take chances, Herod killed all of Bethlehem’s baby boys.  Stalin would one day quip, "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic."

The State Creates Refugees

Joseph got out before this Slaughter of the Innocents, taking Jesus and Mary to hide in Egypt until Herod passed away.

Truth Suppression (Matthew 14: 1-11)

Skip ahead about thirty years when a new Herod is in charge.  Herod scandalized his throne by unlawfully “having” his brother’s wife.

Joseph’s nephew, John, called him on this.  For this effrontery, he was jailed and his head was chopped off.  The state was, is and will continue to be intolerant of truth tellers.

State Failure In Its Primary Mission – Protecting Citizens (Matthew 27, John 19, Luke 23 )

Classical Liberalism, going back to Locke, holds that humans in the state of nature “conditionally transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better ensure the stable, comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property.”

Jefferson echoed this sentiment in the Declaration of Independence: “That to secure these rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness) Governments are instituted among Men”.

SCOTUS feels otherwise. It determined in DeShaney vs. Winnebago and Town of Castle Rock vs. Gonzales that America’s police, nor any other government agency is obligated to protect us.  In fact they often shoot and abuse us.  After all isn’t that what ignited BLM summer in 2020?  

Beyond our shore, the America’s foreign policy adventurism generates terrorist “blowback”.  Chalmers Johnson, a former CIA consultant, described how the U.S. global hegemony invites  “retaliation for the numerous illegal operations we have carried out abroad that were kept totally secret from the American public”. 

Thus not only does the State not protect us, it actually makes life more hazardous.

When Joseph’s son, Jesus, stood trial, Pilate found Christ to be innocent declaring, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” However, pressure from the mob intensified.

Pilate sent Jesus to Herod who also found Christ guilty of no crime. Nonetheless, Jesus was brutally flogged to

placate the crowd.  When this failed satisfy their bloodlust, Pilate washed his hands of the whole affair and condemned him to crucifixion.

This was not the first time nor the last time that the State failed in its duty to protect its people.

The Great Hersey (John 19: 19)

Lost amongst the many crimes and transgressions in the Passion is the single worst heresy in Scripture:

Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.

Wrong. Dead wrong.

Related Articles:

Rothbard on Ireland and the Stateless Society - A St. Patty's Day Special

David, Absalom, Prosecutors and Cops

 

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"Half the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election.
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction." 
- Paul Simon

Follow the Science - Follow the Money

 by Joe Siano

“There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying.”
- Robert Evans, Hollywood Legend

The science of optics demonstrates that white light is comprised of all the colors of the spectrum.  My

"Whiteness” makes me a Person of All Colors.  Diverse and inclusive of all.  Just follow the science.

Genetics and paleontology suggest that all homo sapiens evolved on the African continent.  As I always believed, and as the Bible teaches, we all brothers of a common mother.  Just follow the science.

The American College of Pediatricians maintains that: 

“life begins at conception—fertilization.  At fertilization, the human being emerges as a whole, genetically distinct, individuated zygotic living human organism, a member of the species Homo sapiens, needing only the proper environment in order to grow and develop. The difference between the individual in its adult stage and in its zygotic stage is one of form, not nature. This statement focuses on the scientific evidence of when an individual human life begins.”

Just following that science.

We hear plenty form our Governing classes about “following the science”.  I advise that we follow the money

Today’s most pressing conflicts are no longer waged on battlefields by generals and soldiers.  They are contended in the halls of bureaucracy, the floors of legislatures, the towers of academia and most importantly, in the court of public opinion. Winning in the court of public opinion demands that “science” be on your side. 

Just as O.J. needed a team of slick lawyers, politicians and activists rely on “science” to win the day.

Thus we hear the ubiquitous mantra that “we follow the science.”    Caveat emptor, scientific professionals are likely to be hired truth spinners rather than truth seekers.

 Ludwig von Mises,  in discussing his particular branch of science observes:

“The early economists devoted themselves to the study of the problems of economics. In lecturing and writing books they were eager to communicate to their fellow citizens the results of their thinking. They tried to influence public opinion in order to make sound policies prevail in the conduct of civic affairs. They never conceived of economics as a profession”

The earliest economists, Adam Smith, David Riccardo, Jean Baptiste Say, etc. were seekers of truth, in league with physical scientists like Euclid, Newton, Kepler, Darwin, Mendel and the like.  They sought to enlighten our understanding of the universe and natural phenomena.

However, Mises looked askance at the burgeoning economics “profession”:

“The development of a profession of economists is an offshoot of interventionism. The professional economist is the specialist who is instrumental in designing various measures of government interference with business. 
There are thousands and thousands of such professional experts busy in the bureaus of the governments and of the various political parties and pressure groups and in the editorial offices of party newspapers and pressure-group periodicals. Others are employed as advisers by business or run independent agencies. 
But the philosophy that guides their activities narrows their horizon. By virtue of their connection with definite parties and pressure groups, eager to acquire special privileges, they become one-sided. They shut their eyes to the remoter consequences of the policies they are advocating. With them nothing counts but the short run concern of the group they are serving. The ultimate aim of their efforts is to make their clients prosper at the expense of other people”.

“Professionalism” has overtaken scientific inquiry resulting from the:

1.      Formalization of commercial Research & Development by Thomas Edison in Menlo Park, NJ

2.      Scientific investment in national defense including nuclear weapons, aero-space technology, space exploration, biological warfare and related digital technology

3.      The Food and Drug Administration which continued to erect higher and higher barriers to entry in the pharmaceutical and medical fields

No doubt, a great many, perhaps the preponderances of scientific professionals, are pure of heart, following the data to logical conclusions.  Nor I am a luddite.  I embrace the creature comforts and conveniences that science and technology have delivered to my door.

However, the overwhelming percentage of “basic” scientific research is funded directly by the the government or by universities beholden to government largess.  And this we know from  Public Choice economists  - politicians and government bureaucrats invest taxpayer dollars in those programs which directly benefit the officeholder.  

“Scientific” socialism killed millions.  The “sciences” of natural selection and eugenics underscored  racist agendas of Adolph Hitler and Margaret Sanger. 

Today's totalitarian elites of the media, government and the academy brandish “science” to control every facet of our lives.  Case in point, we know that the earth was warmer hundreds of years before the Industrial Revolution. In fact, global temperatures have fluctuated wildly over the millennia with neither help nor hinderance from humans.  Yet politicians and their scientific minions want us to turn the keys of the global economy over to them.

It has been oft observed that a good prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.   Likewise, a smooth-tongued scientist can wield selected data points, regression analyses  and subjective conclusions to support the ends of his  paymasters.

Be careful.  Follow the money, before you follow the “science” over a cliff.

 

 

 

Related Articles:

Climate Change – The Model

The NobelTruths of Climate Change

Blinded by Pseudo) Science

 

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"Half the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election.
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction." 
- Paul Simon